16 minutes ago, Madon said:

Oh and that Icelandic clap is utter woke nonsense but I'm absolutely here for it.

How is a clap woke?

13 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

What has Eustace done in your eyes since he's been at the Club to suggest otherwise?

And can you explain why you would rather Have Gestede, Waggott and Owen picking players than Eustace?

All of the signings that appear to have had a heavy Eustace influence have been Championship journeyman who he has had a previous relationship with. None of them have been spectacular, at best they have done a job, but I consider scouting to be a lot more than just coming up with a list of players you've previously worked with.

Waggott clearly shouldn't be involved in the scouting/signing process in any capacity other than admin or to help define budgets. I don't trust him with either of those elements, but that's the role the CEO should play. Gestede? Jury is very much out. The signings so far have been OK, but I at least understand the need for a dedicated specialist in this type of role. Adam Owen? Again, difficult to comment.

I suppose the thing you, and some others, are missing is that this isn't a pro-Gestede or Waggot piece, it is simply saying that this added layer should be beneficial to the club. It is how things are done now and there is no advantage to being some old-fashioned holdout who expects the manager to be overseeing transfer business. 

Do I think this club is stacked with people who are good at their job? No. But that doesn't mean that we should expect one person to do all of it. 

35 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Yeah thank the lord for signings like Wahlsted, Hirst, Ennis, Telalovic, O'Riordan, Fleck, O Riordan and the deadline day debacles for O Brien, the lad from Rochdale and Mcguire.

Where would we have been without them?

Do you only want to mention the bad ones? Is that how the evaluation works? Also forgot we signed O'Riordan twice. 

What about Tronstad? Hill? Hyam? Szmodics? Brittain? 

Nevermind the fairly long list of players we've brought in who didn't set the world alight here, but who were clearly very talented players and have done well since. 

5 hours ago, London blue said:

Expecting a manager to be at least competent at managing a team, devising game by game strategy, contract planning and negotiation, succession planning and other non football activities is unrealistic in the extreme nowadays.

Not even expecting them to be competent, just expecting them to have the time. 

9 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

The problem with that is we’ve signed some right shite under the new DoF model, or whatever bastardised version of it we’re operating. 

Secondly, the principles GB spouted were soon thrown out of the window as soon as JE was brought in. We’ve also sacked half the people who were responsible for implementing those principles, including the head of recruitment. We don’t have ‘principles’.

You’re completely delusional if you think the tinpot operation down at Ewood is anything like Brentford’s. 

We have, but the majority of our good signings have all come from our DoF. 

Over the last 5 years, our signings from managers have almost exclusively been mediocre players from their former clubs. I can't remember the last time it felt like a manager was part of spotting a good talent? Hughes?

And I never claimed that we were like Brentford, but you only make improvements by aiming for something and putting structure in place. We desperately need structure. 

You're also completely delusional if you think that Eustace has shown an eye for spotting talent in the transfer market. It works both ways. 

1 hour ago, Emerald Isle Rover said:

Nonsense - the individual assessment should directly involve the coach/manager to make sure their the right fit for the club

The problem with that approach is two fold. 

The first? It assumes that your coach is good at identifying talent. I don't know how good of a scout Eustace is. You don't either. Based on the signings that he's clearly played a part in so far? I don't think it's his strongest area. 

The second? It means that you build a team entirely in the vision of that individual coach. In an ideal world, you'd have certain principles in place that survive the lifespan of a coach. We currently don't have that, but it is sort of what the original idea behind Broughton was. It's how Brighton work. Or Brentford work. Why wouldn't you want to be run like the best clubs around?

I don't really care if Eustace is involved in the decision-making on signings or not.

He should consult the scouting team and DoF (or whatever we call them) and tell them what he thinks he needs and the type of player, but the individual assessment and sign-off shouldn't really involve him. He doesn't have time to go through the proper scouting or analysis and we should put knowledgeable people in place for those purposes (again, this rasies questions about Gested et al).

5 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I don’t even think that. We are the stripey shirt that you bought on holiday when you were pissed that you’ve hidden at the back of the drawer so you don’t have to look at it anymore.

I imagine it's still a bit of an interesting one-liner to throw out from time-to-time.

'Oh, we aren't just chickens and property, we also own a football club. Premier League? No, but we are a division above that team the guys in Hollywood own.'

20 minutes ago, Penwortham Blue said:

I understand what you’re saying and to some degree share the frustration that Eustace doesn’t call a spade, a spade or call them out quite as enthusiastically as JDT. However, on balance, I think he is probably going about it the right way, fighting it on the inside, whilst trying to keep morale up and hoping that things change.

We've had a few managers fight it from the inside. None of that has worked. Don't get me wrong, I know it is complicated and it is very easy to tell someone else to do something that may cost them their job and potentially hurt their reputation slightly (although I doubt that bit).

But he is now basically singing from the club's hymn sheet again. He's very on message and there are calls for signings, but mitigations and excuses thrown in with each of those requests. 

Have a bit of backbone. He's doing good job on the pitch, if he can't stick up for himself now, then he never will. This is a manager that we are supposedly worried about being poached by top half Championship clubs and Premier League options, so why not call the club out for not signing players, make it nationally known how well you're doing on the most limited resources in the league, and hope that it has some positive impact. If it doesn't? Move on. 

I think JDT will regret that he didn't get us into the playoffs in his best season. He may even regret that he didn't become more vocal sooner than he did. But I very much doubt that he regrets that he eventually lost all patience with our leadership. 

3 hours ago, Emerald Isle Rover said:

So do we want JE to do a JDT and then get cut off from press conferences then leading to his exit?

JE did know what he was coming in to

but he’s handling it very well and any criticism of him regarding all this is just an agenda or dislike of him 

I don't want him to go as far as JDT. He went too far once he actually gave up on the team. I do want our manager to be making stronger public statements about how unacceptable it is that the club is running at such a net positive on transfers and yet is failing to commit money to a transfer budget.

I don't want those statements to be coded so that only supporters understand them. I want them to be plain and simple and make it obvious to the wider public what is going on here.

Look at Amorim calling this United team that worst side in their history. Or a dozen example from Mourinho, or Pep, or Klopp, or Postecoglou. Yes, they're bigger reputation managers with less to lose, but their public statements contribute towards holding owners and administration accountable.

2 hours ago, K-Hod said:

Well yeah, because it looks like you're being a contrarian for shits and giggles, tbh.

I've been on this messageboard for a long enough time to be accused of a lot things, but a contrarian is not one of them. 

I know I'm labeled as a Eustace hater, but he deserves more criticism than he gets for being complicit in all of this.

I'll say it, once again, he knew what he was getting himself into and took a job just after the last manager had lost patience and downed tools. Not only did he take the job under those circumstances, but he's being a very good boy when it comes to sticking to the right messaging in public.

There's been the odd hint of slight frustration, but, as the window has dragged on, most of that has disappeared and we now have a manager spouting the club messaging about injuries, difficulty in replacing players, and the challenges of a Championship season.

I have absolutely no respect for any Rovers member of staff in a public-facing position at this point. 

5 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Apparently, for Kargbo, we've bid €800,000 which works out at around £600,000 ish? (I think) 

Getting a bit closer to 700,000, but it's a decent time to be buying in Euros. 

55 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Did u ever bump into mbappe 

We're best pals.

3 hours ago, DeeCee said:

If our players travel by train to matches, we are the most peasant of championship clubs. 🤦‍♂️

Why? You even see Premier League clubs travel by train at times. I've been on a TGV with the PSG players and they literally have more money than they know what to do with. 

19 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Says a lot that even spending so much money and the most you can aspire to is being a promotion contender upon inevitable relegation. The whole pyramid is fucked when you consider that most clubs are losing so much money.

The wages get higher, the ticket prices get higher, the kick offs become more and more inconvenient and the football becomes less competitive.

Plenty of clubs survive. I agree that Ipswich probably had one eye on preparing for the yoyo, but I don't think they spent particularly well. They'll be one of the promotion favs next year, but they did put together a very expensive Championship quality squad. 

Definitely one of the worst performances of the season.

49 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

What position does he play for us?

He's not a striker and he's not a fast winger.

A better version to fill Buckley's role. As an alternative to Cantwell. Out on the wing (he's better than the options we currently have). There are quite a few possibilities. 

4 hours ago, Rover down South said:

If that’s true and it’s £2.5 million, what are we waiting for?

An absolute no-brainer for a player who will at least hold his value.

We will absolutely not do it. 

1 minute ago, yeti-dog said:

Well. Didn't see that coming.

Quite a scrappy game and didn't feel like a 3-0.

Kudos who slipped the ref a few quid before the game - we got ALL the big decisions!

I'm liking this seasons version of Brittain - he was superb.

Tronstad,  solid as a rock again.

What a first touch/ tackle by Sanderson.

Good stuff!!!

We definitely can't complain about the officiating for a while.

Felt like a stonewall pen for them (possibly two) right before we went 2-0 up. Plus a host of other decisions that went our way (a soft booking aside). 

Great cross. Great header.

Gueye isn't convincing, even when doing things right, but that was at least a glimpse of what can happen when he's used properly. 

Hedges managed to make an incredible mess out of a 2 v 1 overlap. 

And there Weimann has ben incredibly lazy to not gamble on the possibility of the pullback making it to him. 

Pretty awful from Weimann.

We should clip that highlight and send it to India. It may even convince the blind that we are in need of a better goalscorer. 

6 minutes ago, TheRevAshton said:

Gueye is possibly the worst footballer i've ever seen

And, at that point, I realised that I could stop listening.