13 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Words like "legend" are bandied around too easily. If Wilcox was a "legend" how you classify Shearer? Wilcox was a very good player for Rovers and nothing more.

Anyone who wants a London team to win anything must have had a strange upbringing. It's a fundamental law of northern football fandom. 

So people can’t just prefer different things to you, nah?

So, from what I’ve seen- a point tomorrow and we’re effectively safe? A win and job done officially.

48 minutes ago, Polky said:

 

Classic Rovers, either slow to respond to anything, or spineless.

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

CI never thought that I would see empathy towards Legia Warsaw and Young Boys.

I get the argument about making the strong stronger, but I think the quality of the Champions League is stronger with a few teams from the top countries. The entertainment value has been brilliant from it in recent years, and I think that it would take away from that if it was only one of the Prem/La Liga/Serie A/Bundesliga etc in every season.

If those teams played regularly in the champions league, they’d absolutely improve, playing against better teams. 
 

It just can’t be right that teams can be the literal champions, but have to qualify.

With the cost of Sky, it’s absolutely no wonder so many people are sourcing games illegally.

It definitely won’t get any cheaper either, with the new TV deal. 

My prediction (and I’d love to be wrong, of course)- we’ll sell Szmodics and won’t buy anyone anywhere near the same quality, or enough in the areas that we need.

In all fairness, that was an absolutely superb bit of defending from Connor Roberts to stop Dolan tapping it in.

1 minute ago, roverandout said:

Leeds fans look like something out of the planet of the apes

How many of them trying to get the badge in?

Whisper it quietly- we had the best chance in the first half….

7 minutes ago, dingles staying down 4ever said:

You have a point but likewise the pro JDT supporters need to look at his record prior to going. We know there were reasons.

Eustace inherited a poor squad so he has a ready made excuse.

BOTH managers records in 2024 is nothing short of abysmal.

On those records alone both managers should be binned.

Oh listen, I know his position was untenable and the form we were in was relegation form! We’ve not had any sort of real new manager bounce though.

8 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

Personally, yes.  If he was still here we would be relegated without doubt.  He lost interest and the players in December.  One win and six defeats in December and in his last four games in Jan/Feb it was two draws and two defeats in the league.  We lost away to Sheffield Wed and Huddersfield and then only drew with Rotherham and Huddersfield at home and lost to QPR at home.  Those results are really hurting us now.  For me, its those two months, when we had winnable games that have really come back to bite us. 

Not Eustace’s solitary win so far, nah?

JDT did also try to leave in the summer, the club blocked him….

Gonna get thumped again, oh dear.

Glad to see we sorted out the defence under Eustace…..

For real though, I think it’s clearer than ever that the players are softer than pillows.

One of our most winnable remaining fixtures and Hyam goes all Leroy Jenkins. What an absolute shithead.

Believe me, I hated him while he was here, absolutely stole a wage.

But in some ways, I’ve gained a bit of respect for him for admitting he’s had a problem, (You can bet he won’t be the only one!) it definitely humanised him a lot more.

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

It's just my opinion Matty. Might be right or might be wrong. 

5 games to go and let's get the points we need to stay up

I suspect it’ll be wrong tbh, given that is more than we’ve spent in the last 5 years…

7 hours ago, Upside Down said:

Two Mickey Mouse teams in a Mickey Mouse league with massive followings of Mickey Mouse plastic fans.

No amount of money will allow them to buy their way out of the cold hard truth of this.

Never had you down as such a Disney man….

If Rangers and Celtic got the TV money that PL teams got, they’d be a lot more competitive, obviously. 
They’ve both got absolutely gigantic fan bases, so they’d 100% compete with the same TV riches.

59 minutes ago, Tugayisgod said:

Notice Michalski not in goal for u21s today.

Wonder if there's a problem with Pears or Wahlstedt

There’s certainly more than one problem with both of them, tbf….

1 hour ago, Groundhog said:

Looking back on JDT I'm totally torn 50/50. 

He gave the club some much needed ambition (that ultimately was his downfall), made Rovers into media darlings with the Cup runs, he gave good "interview", his charisma lifted the club above its station for a short while. I think everyone felt a buzz during his tenure, a rare thing, something you can't just buy in.

I notice how Rovers content online doesn't seem to be so forthcoming after games as it did under JDT, I definitely felt a desire to constantly scroll for news and comment about us in between matches, not just for dirt on the owners this time but actual football talk. Rovers have never been so much in my waking thoughts for the right reasons as they were in his short spell, not since the days of Hughes etc. You just felt part of something finally, and a relief to not have to just think about our illustrious owners for a short while. Football is all about hope, and he gave us bags of it.

But I don't think anyone can call JDT a fantastic coach, sorry. I've never seen a Rovers team crumble under pressure so easily using such suicidal tactics. Does anyone think him and his team studied the opposition? That feeling going a goal down knowing you weren't coming back into the game, no thanks. His ambition and charisma went someway to papering over the cracks. The first 20mins against Sunderland this season was some of the best football I've seen us play in decades, yet it was unsustainable and that for me, is bad management. You can't play how you want with the squad you have, and it shows a lack of care in the role, possibly arrogance, to let the shit behind the scenes get in the way of results, no matter how bad it was for him, you can't just "phone it in" at this level and down tools, the players will always follow suit, the perfect storm.

He seemed to be able to get away with the Turf Moor disaster, PNE at home, Rotherham, Sheff Utd away - I doubt any other manager will get that much of a free pass. I know some fans who took those games and performances very very badly, fans who only see what is on the pitch and don't care about his media image and what was said after games.

If you want a good exercise on a quiet night in and you've got nowt better to do, do what Roverschat did a few months ago and go through all of JDT's games and note down which ones were "good", there's not as many as you think. 

I think JE has been hard done to by certain comments, maybe the "selected by Waggott" tag hasn't helped - he's inherited a total rag-tag bunch of players full of different approaches, the squad lacks so much depth and experience - I think it explains the lack of new manager bounce - turning this ship around is a tough ask. His approach is pragmatic, how it should be done given the circumstances, a "normal" approach.

I just want to see us compete, be hard to beat, and they're showing glimpses of playing better football than under JDT in my opinion, or using what they learnt under him and mixing it up. 

JDT’s last 11 games: GF: 11 GA: 27 Points: 6
JE’s last 11 games: GF: 14 GA: 11 Points: 12

That's enough for me. Millwall and Plymouth were frustrating, but it's a transition. 

If you cherry pick stats, as above- you can give a few things a different spin, to suit various arguments, though.

If you did JDT’s first 10 games against JE’s first 10 games, it would show something very different.

Or even as someone did the other day- JE’s first 10 games vs Michael Appleton’s first 10 games. 

2 minutes ago, Hasta said:

FF minutes:- SW stated that the day had been a real success, at least until the last
few minutes of the game. The reduced prices meant that the club made
a little less than it would have done with normal pricing but that was
more than offset by the opportunity to get so many more faces into the
ground, including many who had not been for some years. Another day
was being planned later in the season or the start of next season,
possibly to coincide with the other commercial activities.

Can this be expanded on @Herbie6590 as I thought the Watford game, especially the fanzone before hand, went really well. Alternatively is it on the agenda for the next Fans Forum meeting @K-Hod ?

I’ll add it to the gigantic list! 😅.

Had the Sunderland TV reaction on in the background and they were saltier than sea water. Was lovely to see.

Well, this is certainly doing our GD the world of good!