I remember the shouts of "skin him" from the Riverside, whenever he was on the ball. An exciting winger who always tried to beat his man. He would be lost in today's game, like many of the old school wingers, as that type of flair appears to be coached out of players these days. Could have been so much more, Gillespie, if it wasn't for the off field issues.

I find it amazing that he was initially a right footed player, but he then worked tirelessly on improving his left foot. So much so that his left became stronger than his right. Most neutrals seeing his goals would assume he was naturally left footed. There's hours and hours of work behind that though. Fantastic. Some excellent goals with both feet in that video. The Norwich one where he flicks a header over the defender is top class.

An assistant from a place that the king rat recently had a spell at. I could just stop there. Tell me nothing has changed, without telling me nothing has changed. A nothing appointment, in my view. I recall people similarly hyping up Broughton due to his qualifications. It's not difficult to find people better qualified than the clowns that inhabit the upper corridors at Ewood. Clubs like Newcastle, Brighton and even Man Utd might have these fancy technical directors and recruitment setups, there's a slight difference though. Those are serious football clubs with real operators who want their clubs to succeed. They are also in the business of finding quality footballers. When they sell their best players, they go out and find others. Like proper clubs do. What we have, is an absolute shitshow led by people with super agent connections. Why is it that no matter what happens, no matter how many years pass by, all roads STILL seemingly lead back to the same place? Those fancy positions mean nothing here under these owners and only act as a shield for the car salesman, the shadow man and their buddies. Yet the gullible will fall for it. We've just had Kimberly overseeing recruitment here, plus Broughton and a whole new recruitment team and what have they managed to come up with? A lot of that might not be their fault due to budget cuts and the clowns changing like the wind, but they serve as examples of these appointments being a waste of time. You have to wonder why a club, that has no ambition, no care for promotion and does not want to spend on signings, needs so many Directors. Imo, it's window dressing bullshit, to make it look like there is a plan. There is no plan. There is no project. They are winging it. The only plan this club should ever have in this Division, is how to get back into the Premier League. Funny how, the only two people at the club who spoke about Rovers becoming a Premier League club again have recently been removed. I was far from a Broughton fan, I didn't agree with his "pathways" philosophy, nor am I fussed about his departure. However, I do believe he was being genuine when he spoke about Rovers and the aim to become a sustainable Premier League club. When has that bastard Waggott ever said anything about promotion? From day one his aim has been to save the owners from having to spend. They've been so generous haven't they, Steve? We have to "give them something back" eh, Steve? Strange how a £150m jackpot for promotion doesn't seem appealing. Surely that would be the best way for us to "give something back" to these "generous" owners, Steve? A technical director coming in means little to me and changes nothing. Waggott out.

On a related theme, Vinjay, I'm finding myself becoming increasingly peed off seeing Wilcox sat amongst the United bigwigs. I didn't think it would bother me all that much, but it does. The camera panned to him looking glum during one game (before they won the Cup, think it was the Palace battering) and it just hit me. Since then, I've been hearing talkSPORT and various people online trot out their "well, they've got Wilcox there, he'll sort them out" spiel. I have to turn that crap off. I can only imagine how you feel about it! Obviously, he can work for whoever he wants. That lot though, just doesn't sit right. He could very well have been our DOF had we remained as a normal Club with decent owners.

Tugay making it look like man against boys:

Yep, that game against City. How did we end up losing this?

One of many match winning displays from Brad. Arsenal away 2002/03:

29. Keith Gillespie

28. David Thompson

27. Chris Samba

26. Joe Rothwell

25. Paul Gallagher

24. Adam Wharton

Anybody after a river...this is available.

Very disillusioned with this appointment. He has nailed his colours to the mast with the no excuse culture nonsense. This suggests that he won't ever publicly say anything about what's going on above him and that he only wants to focus on matters on the pitch. Which is exactly what that lot want. Is it a coincidence that the past week has seen an increasing number of Rovers fans suggesting that JDT was a big whinger who needed to go? I don't like how valid criticisms and issues raised by JDT are now being passed off as 'whinging' and 'excuses' by some. Those fans don't realise that they are playing right into the hands of these clowns. JDT truly felt like one of us, to me. Somebody who understood us, who was on our wavelength and who spoke up for us. That's before mentioning his ambition for the club. Him leaving is a big blow. The new man is one of them, a perfect pick for them, chosen by a bastard who was bricking it at the fact there were chants against him, and that makes him not the manager for me. At a time when the pressure was ramping up on the car salesman, he brings in a friendly face to try and quieten the unrest. Looking at the owners, transfer issues and so on is excuse making now, is it? All of this PR fluff about Gallagher too. Please. It doesn't take much to work out who might be behind this. The same as always. People may disagree and say it's too early etc and that's fine, it's all about opinions, but this is my take on it. I won't keep on repeating it so as not to annoy those who want to give him time and for those who don't want to see it posted over and over, so I will just say it the once here. I am firmly Eustace out.

I seriously can't stand most of them. Brittain is one that needs shipping out pronto. The shit that he has served up over the last few months, then he has the nerve to come out and have veiled digs at JDT. F.O! Tonight shows that all this "happy playing to our strengths" is hogwash. They quite simply aren't up to it. Eustace coming out with the "no excuse culture" shit can get stuffed as well. Convenient how the first thing he says is he won't look towards the owners, failed transfers, injuries etc as an excuse. The perfect appointment for these clowns. They've driven the best hope we had out of the club and I won't be getting behind this. Eustace Out.

An ambitious manager replaced with a yes man. These soft lads who threw the towel in because they couldn't hack JDT need to hang their heads in shame

Yep, can't argue with him. Three FA Cups, a League Cup and three top 4 finishes since Venky's bought the club. Best owners in football. Another prat who is praising them for paying the bills. I'll wait for the same praise to be dished out to the Hemmings family and others who are quietly doing similar in the Championship.

I don't think we're likely to hear from him until the summer now. If rumours are to be believed about him possibly leaving, we may not hear from him again. Looking at the last few days of the window, it feels like others might have overseen transfer matters. I could be wrong, but McFadzean and Fleck don't seem like his type of signings. The appointment of Eustace isn't in keeping with the 'project' of wanting to play a particular style to increase player value. Didn't GB say that the plan was to find another head coach to carry on with the same identity whenever JDT did leave? It looks to me as though a few down there are now bricking it about relegation, therefore the 'project' is on hold for a few months. 'Just stay in the Division' being the aim. Remember Waggott stating in the bus interview that we can't afford to go down and the aim is to avoid relegation. That's all the next few months will be about. There doesn't seem to be much urgency to act when faced with the opposite scenario, but the threat of relegation shakes them up. That's what the QPR result and being five points off the drop zone did to them, imo. I've got a feeling we won't be hearing the word 'project' again. That requires an end goal, and only two people in the building believed the end goal of the project was to become a 'sustainable Premier League club'. One of those people has gone. The other might be about to follow him too.

Seen a couple of comments saying none of Waggott, Suhail or Silvester were at the game on Saturday. I don't know how true that is, but it is possible that they all left for India after Wednesday's meeting with the fans/players.

A few banners spotted around Ewood. One reads "Steve, Suhail, Silvester, Snakes". Another says "Waggott Out". Chants of "we want Venky's out" and "Steve Waggott, get out of our club" have gone round too. Good to see the fans won't be distracted by the new appointment. On the game itself...Hedges has been superb so far.

That's exactly what he'll say. He said those very words in the summer of 2018 following promotion from L1. Then, a couple of years later during the pandemic, he talked about how generous they have been and how we need to help them out. In his last interview with Andy Bayes, late 2023, the same spiel was rolled out again about us needing to "help them out" as they "have been so generous to us". It has been his M.O from day one here. Save the owners from having to spend wherever and however he can. Which makes me question who recommended him for the job. Remember, from the very outset the Venky sister said "we will lease players". I think the person who pitched that idea is the same person who recommended this clown.

That's the issue in general with quite a few of them in the media today, not just Jordan, that they don't know the ins and outs so resort to 'but £200m though?'. The other fella who was chatting with Herbie on there the other day displayed a similar lack of knowledge, so just stuck to on field matters. Those that do know what has happened, do their level best to avoid the mention of any agent related issues. It doesn't even need a name to be mentioned for them to start sweating and jump in to steer the conversation towards another direction. I can remember a few Rovers fans naming the spiv and mentioning "problems with agents" on that very "Venky's we're coming for you!" show. White reacted exactly as described above. Fidgety, panicky, jumping at the mere mention of the word 'agent'. The truth is out there, but they would rather use '£200m' as a stick to beat the fans with instead.

Jim White: "I know Steve Kean quite well". Err, yeah. We kind of worked that out 13 years ago. I see there was no hint of "Venky's, we're coming for you!" from Jim in the above clip this time. Has he forgotten his stance upon Coyle leaving? If only Jon was a friend of the blessed agency too. I wouldn't take Simon Jordan's words to heart. Whenever a topic like this comes up on talkSPORT, where it is the fans vs owners, Jordan almost always takes the side of the owners. It isn't exclusive to Rovers. I have heard him do this numerous times with Newcastle, United, Everton, Sheff Wednesday, Chelsea and many others who have come on wanting their owners out. For example, he has called out United fans and the Glazers Out protests consistently by questioning what it is that the fans want. He often approaches this topic with lesser clubs than United with a "well, what do you realistically expect, you are x Football Club, fans have an entitlement, the owner has put in x amount, I can't see anybody else lining up to do that" tone and attitude. It's due to his own experience as a Club owner at Palace that he does not view fans wanting their owners out favourably.

Has potential but not the man for this moment. Somebody will give him a chance somewhere though, you'd think. To be honest, I personally don't want any former Rovers' players or managers from before 2010 to walk in to this mess, only to be treated like crap by these tossers. Seen Duffer mentioned along with Hughes and Benni as manager, and Wilcox as DOF too. All of those guys were a part of a clean and honest Rovers setup and provided us with fantastic memories. They do not deserve to enter this circus operated by devious bastards and end up tarnishing the good memories that we have of them. No manager can succeed under this setup, imo. It's why I want our former favourites to stay away. I didn't want Henning Berg to come here either in 2012/13 for the same reason. He came here with honest intentions and was shat upon by clowns. He deserved better. I don't think any less of him as a Rovers player, it's just a shame that these idiots got the opportunity to mess him around. For any of the hierarchy thinking appointing a former player will quieten the unrest...dream on!