Im sure Gueye would equally be grateful had he joined Norwich, Stoke or Preston. I dont think he is specifically proud to be at Rovers necessarily so I dont get the difference.

Fit the ethos, fit the style. Just nonsense management speak. Whatever happened to letting the manager decide how they want to play, regardless of delusions about how it should be played. The result of this is managers sticking to a style that doesnt suit the players at his disposal and getting the sack.

I dont know whether he should have been sacked, but I think Manning had Oxford top last season and they dropped under Buckingham. Although he did still get them up.

Bennett seemed proud to be here so seems a strange theory. I think the key is time. Bennett had been stinking the place out over an extended period and offering little more than fistpumps. If Gueye continues to miss sitters and seldom score and the results obviously arent winning every game, then it might start to grate on people.

Why do director of footballs decide the tactics these days.

I read some comments from Hull fans suggesting that they wouldnt mind selling him. He had a spell of assists at Cardiff mainly from set pieces but he seems to have underwhelmed since.

Basically every Championship owner bar the parachute clubs has to put in money each year to offset the losses Championship club makes. For example Prestons owner does the same. They put the minimum in they have to to keep the club. Seems to be a mentality of that they are doing their bit by doing that, and the people below them are the ones to target.

We havent seen much evidence of their wealth for a long while. I supppse its a question of who if anyone comes in for Eustace as that could lure him in regardless or failing that, how frustrated he becomes with a lack of backing. Since the summer of 2020, weve spent about £7-8m I think (Szmodics, Hyam and Brittain were £4m combined, Gueye was £1m then aside from that a series of nominal fees up to maybe £500k each) and in that time weve sold Szmodics, Wharton, Armstrong, Gallagher, Phillips, Kaminski and have had the Raya sell on as well as have aggressively slashed the wage budget. He has recently dropped hints about needing reinforcements so it depends how much that boils over.

I would like to think that 2 reasons will stop Prem teams from considering Eustace. Firstly, I dont think he has done anything worthy of a Prem job just yet. But football is run by director of footballs who seem to prioritise playing "the right way" driven by data etc over actual results. Eustace is quite pragmatic and focusing on clean sheets doesnt seem to be glamorous anymore.

Cantwell for Ohashi but leave JRC in, so just 1 change.

Overall I certainly wouldnt say he was lazy. I didnt really agree with the idea that he chucked it towards the end with a move in the offing, maybe it was subconsciously in his head but the team were struggling as a whole to get results.

He would be a considerable upgrade to what we have in terms of goal threat and options from wide. But we wouldnt be able to afford him if he even would join.

No one could to the same level on our budget and more importantly willing to sit and wait. Whereas up front and out wide, we need someone to potentially come into the starting 11, and in defence we are an injury away from having no real alternative. Compared to those 3, having Baker as immediate cover is considerably less of an issue.

It is, its time for the owners to finally spend a bit considering our position and recent sales proceeds. But they wont, they never do. I have no idea who we should sign and there are people that should be in a much better position to me to come up with someone, although Gestede's last effort wasnt very good.

Hes a dickhead. Arrogant, constantly smarmy and thinks he is better than he is.

Assist stats clearly arent concrete enough to base an opinion as to whether a striker has been effective overall, thats the key. Goals is a bit different because you are the one getting them, but assist is such a sliding scale of involvement, whether its putting one on a plate, merely happening to play a 5 yard pass to someone who then scores a wonder goal or an accidental touch. He has 5 assists, but I think you have to judge assists beyond just the number. His first yesterday was good play but Cozier Duberry has scored a goal by stopping, turning and then shooting and obviously the second was an embarassing miss. The one for Sigurdsson v Oxford was turned from nothing much into something by a clever turn. And the header v Burnley was well won but its a 30 yard half volley. The one against Norwich was where he slipped Hedges in on goal so a bit different. But those 5 contributions are in the main quite minor in terms of the actual goal or in one case, actually an example of terrible play, so I dont think personally that they change the narrative to his work being a pleasant surprise or being effective overall. A striker who has 1 goal with 1 game left before christmas having missed numerous sitters is not good enough. There have been some occasions of bits of good play and signs of good hold up, but im not having that he overall has been anything other than poor.

I dont get how they are taking the piss though. Theyve signed a player and dont deem him to be good enough to play. Maybe that is a mistake by the manager (we cant judge either way by stats) but either way, they shouldnt play him to pacify us just as we would be annoyed if a player we loaned played to pacify the parent club. Playing as much as he did last year was not necessarily because he was up to it. Wharton was sold, Travis fell out with JDT so like in other positions with Markanday and Telalovic, a player not up to the level played too often. It was hoped that he would be able to warrant regular football at League 1 level but it hasnt happened. Hopefully he will get a loan elsewhere and prove his worth.

Because in the main, he hasnt been. The stats show the 2nd yesterday as a positive contribution, missing a tap in but it hitting his foot slightly and a team mate cleaning up his mess.

I think Ange is more irritating than Russell Martin to be honest. Martin is a dick but not as much as Postecoglu. Going to support the champions isnt paying off this season.

Brown's knees were shot so he rarely if ever got into shooting positions. Overall he may have been worse sure, but as a finisher, never seen one as bad. Its one thing being up there before Christmas but as we have seen another one sustaining it until the end of the season. January can allow to sign players with 6 months left on their deal or bring in loans as 2 potential options. But we need more. We need more of a goal threat to push us further, we wont win every game to nil. We need some more pace which could again push us on. And we are an injury at centre back away from a really big problem.

Yesterday, he missed an absolute sitter, lets be honest. His knock down for Weimann was a good one but I was just highlighting how assisting x amount isnt as linear as that. The main stat for a striker is goals scored and he is sorely lacking there.

But you say this about every manager, so its not a case of you being ahead of the curve. You was insistent that Tomasson was right to stick to his principles, angry when he left and then when he did, you did a 180 degree turn. I dont think that the evidence was there last season to suggest what has happened this season. But we could say that this season. No point praising him, the season hasnt finished. We judge as we go, not at the end of every season only.

The 3 standouts: Beck - brilliant loan 9/10 Cantwell - a real player of quality, perhaps an 8/10 at the moment but could go higher if he starts chipping in with goals Batth - someone brought in as cover, but has been needed far more than we intended due to another Carter injury. Has been a rock - 9/10 Weimann and Ohashi are handy squad players, certainly as opposed to players that should start every week and compared to the likes of Markanday and Telalovic from last year. Ohashi has had to and has not scored for so long and often struggles to offer much, but thats a symptom of transfer failings elsewhere. Probably give Weimann a slightly higher mark, 6.5 for what we signed him for, maybe a 5 for Ohashi. Baker has only really had cameos, but filled in well at Hull. Again, last season we would have probably used Garrett. Hard to mark at this point. ACD has barely played but looked good yesterday, impossible to mark yet. Toth hasnt played a minute and I dont buy that his addition has pushed Pears to do better. McFadzean is a glorified cheerleader, good in the dressing room im sure but we needed a viable alternative and look short in that position. Gueye would be a 3, glimmers of hold up etc but woeful in front of goal. Would have been 1 or 2 prior to the last 2 games so hopefully he can push that right up.

Either way, its hardly a manipulation of stats considering the lack of wins and the lack of any real bounce from him initially (in terms of wins certainly) to suggest that results are the key difference as to why there was varying levels of skepticism (some defiantly wanted out, some perhaps more constructive but still with the jury out) back last season and why he is receiving widespread praise now. I dont think it warrants going back and calling out the fanbase as if its a case of I told you so.

There was obviously a toxic atmosphere when he arrived anyway. But people had doubts to varying degrees because results didnt improve. And obviously people comment game by game, he didnt win any of his first 9, he won 0 at home and 2 of his 3 wins only came right at the end when judgements were already being made. But prior to that, there was clear uncertainty as to whether he was capable of keeping us up. Peoples opinions naturally change on results. And he is well liked across the board now because results have been very impressive this season.