Championship 23/24

[DE.]

Imagine Ipswich had actually bought Gallagher in January. He'd potentially be a PL player now, lmao. Or more likely if he'd played he'd have missed chances that others have scored and they'd be heading into the playoffs now. 

[Rogerb]

11 hours ago, Roverthechimp said:

 

Thanks. Pretty shabby to say the least but money talks.

on the plus side - maybe some non league clubs will get an extra few attending at 3pm today 

Non league season is over

[Mercer]

Think Tony Mowbray will call it a day at Brum now.

Given his recent health scare and Brum being 180 miles or so from his beloved Teeside, I don't think he will have the stomach to endure a League One campaign with Brum.

IMO, Brum's owners got it sadly, for them, wrong, not necessarily sacking Eustace but appointing Rooney and then due to Mowbray's illness, allowing Venus to run with the ball for so long when it was clear he was floundering. 

[roversfan99]

I think they were in a very difficult situation with Mowbray, he was a good appointment but his sickness and unknown return date left them in limbo.

Obviously appointing Rooney was the main issue.

[DE.]

Thought I'd go through each of the Championship clubs's manager(s) this season and assess whether they've seen a reputation increase, decrease or no change. Appreciate playoffs are still to come. 

Birmingham City (Final Position: 22nd)

John Eustace: (slight increase) I think JE's time at Brum this season enhanced his reputation somewhat. He had them in a very respectable 6th place before being sacked in a decision that was considered by most to be farcical. Since being removed in October, Birmingham have gone on a massive downward spiral, only making the job Eustace was doing there look more impressive.

Wayne Rooney: (large decrease) Rooney was never accepted by Brum fans, who were pretty much on his back from day one, unconvinced that he deserved the job. It was generally accepted that Rooney got the job due to his connections with Birmingham CEO Garry Cook, along with the new owners' desire for a 'big name' in the dugout, as opposed to earning the position on merit. Rooney had previously done reasonably well at beleagured, financially ruined Derby in 2021/22, before going to the US and enduring a disappointing spell at DC United which ultimately saw him and the club part ways by mutual agreement on October 8th, allowing him to be appointed as Big Club manager on 11th October. This proved to be a catastrophic error on the part of Birmingham's board. Two wins from the next fifteen matches plunged Birmingham into a relegation scrap, dropping from 6th to 20th during Rooney's torrid tenure. There is little doubt that Rooney's turbulent stint in charge of Birmingham, combined with his poor performance as manager of DC United, will have significantly dented his reputation as a manager. 

Tony Mowbray: (no change): Mowbray came into the Birmingham job with a decent reputation as a solid Championship manager, and after just over a month in charge had managed 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats. However, on February 19th Mowbray was forced to take leave due to illness. I don't think there is any significant change to Mowbray's reputation during this time.

Mark Venus: (decrease) I'm not sure this one matters too much as I haven't seen anything to suggest Venus wants to be anything more than an assistant (with an eye on property, allegedly), but nonetheless he picked up the reigns from Mowbray and presided over five defeats and a draw before the Birmingham board realised a change needed to be made ASAP.

Gary Rowett: (no change) Rowett came in to a difficult situation, and picked up a respectable 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses from the 8 games he was in charge for. Ultimately Birmingham did go down, but I don't think this spell as interim manager did Rowett's reputation any damage. 

Blackburn Rovers (Final Position: 19th)

Jon Dahl Tomasson: (no change) Despite a second half of the season collapse in 22/23 which saw Rovers drop from second place in the table to being out of the playoffs by the end of the season, JDT's first season at the club was considered by most to be successful. A summer transfer window which can politely be described as a shambles followed, and actually led to JDT offering to resign due to Venky's being unable to fund any kind of worthwhile transfer budget. This resignation was not accepted, because our owners are incompetent morons, and so we went into the season with a pissed off manager who took delight in sniping at a CEO who gave a pre-season interview in which he described the club as a developmental team with no ambitions beyond staying in the league. He also made sure to point out we own a legendary bus, which it turns out was actually leased, but nonetheless. Amazingly despite this turmoil we spent the first few months doing quite okay, in and around the playoff position. Injuries then hit and, combined with the manager's growing frustrations at the club and a loss of trust between himself and a fair few of the players, our form completely collapsed. An embarrassing transfer window, which concluded with our recruitment team supposedly forgetting to hit the 'submit' button on the registration software, ultimately led to JDT finally being allowed to quit the club - lest he go scorched earth on everyone. JDT departed with the club on a run of 8 defeats in 11 games, including damaging defeats to Sheffield Wednesday (3-1), Huddersfield (3-0) and QPR (2-1). Nonetheless, JDT walked straight into ajob as Swedish national team manager and his successor only managed 3 wins from 16 matches, so, fair to say there were and are bigger problems than JDT at this club. Ultimately I think his reputation remained largely in tact despite how things ended, as most would accept he was fighting an uphill battle with a weak-minded squad, an unambitious CEO and idiotic owners. 

John Eustace: (no change) As noted above, Eustace has managed 3 wins in 16. No home victories. We've also been trounced by Bristol City (5-0) and beaten 3-1, again, by fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday. We also lost 1-0 to Eustace's former club Birmingham. Draws against Millwall, Plymouth and Coventry were disappointing results. A totally random 5-1 away win at Sunderland, combined with unexpected victories away to Leeds (1-0) and Leicester (2-0) implausably saved us from going down. Eustace ultimately did what he was brought in to do and keep us in the division, but it would be difficult to argue it was done in an impressive way. I don't think Eustace's reputation changes much either way from the last couple of months. 

Bristol City (Final Position: 11th)   

Nigel Pearson: (no change) Bristol City were 15th when Pearon was sacked on 29th October, having lost five of their last seven games. Nonetheless it did seem like a harsh decision. Pearon was at the time the second longest serving manager in the division. I don't think the club's position and performance would have done enough to hurt Pearson's reputation, and his sacking was generally considered surprising. 

Liam Manning: (slight increase) Manning was a relative unknown, having managed in Belgium and League 1 before being hired by Bristol City. At 38 he's a young manager and a bit of a gamble. In the end he led Bristol City to a respectable 11th place finish, and as this is his first season at Championship level, I'd say this was a successful season for him and enhances his reputation. He didn't pull up any trees, but nor did he drag the team into any trouble. 

Cardiff City (Final Position: 12th)

Erol Bulut: (no change) Bulut's first season at Cardiff ends with the club in a fairly solid 12th place, and his win percentage at a respectable 40%. Cardiff were at one point in and around the playoffs, but in the end weren't able to make a serious challenge. Bulut did start bemoaning squad depth around the Christmas period and was threatening to leave if he wasn't backed with signings. Evidently that was all smoothed over, for now at least. Coming from the Turkish Super Lig, I don't think Bulut's first season has done his reputation any harm, but neither would I say it's really increased. He's done okay. 

Coventry City (Final Position: 9th)

Mark Robins: (no change) Coventry were one game away from the Premier League last season, having finished 5th before losing out to Luton in the playoff final. This was considered a bit of an overachievment, though, so I think a 9th placed finish this season is still reasonable enough. They also had a fantastic FA Cup run which saw them take Man Utd to a penalty shoot out before being eliminated. The Sky Blues had a poor start to the season, a strong mid-season and then a faltering end. Robins reputation was hugely enhanced last season by Coventry's performance, and I think taking them to 9th - and an FA Cup semi final where they matched PL opposition - keeps his current rep in tact. 

Huddersfield Town (Final Position: 23rd)

Neil Warnock: (no change) Warnock had gotten the Terriers out of trouble in the 22/23 season, but for clandestine reasons left the club after only eight games of the 23/24 season, despite only signing a contract extension in the summer. Huddersfield were 16th on 8 points when he left the club.

Darren Moore: (large decrease) Moore had been let go from Sheffield Wednesday on June 19th, despite leading them back to the Championship from League 1. Huddersfield's decision to appoint from on September 19th seemed like it could be a shrewd decision, but his spell at the club was a massive disappointment. He only won 3 out of 23 games, and was sacked as manager on January 29th, with the club in 21st and three points from the relegation places. He would then be appointed manager of Port Vale in league 1, and 11 defeats from 16 games sealed their relegation. So, technically, Moore has played a big part in two clubs being relegated this season - after getting a team promoted the season before. That's some reversal of fortunes, and his reputation will surely have taken a significant hit as a result. 

André Breitenreiter (decrease) Breitenreiter had mainly managed in Germany, with a brief stint in Switzerland, before replacing Moore at Huddersfield. His appointment did not improve things, with 2 wins, 5 draws and 6 defeats in 13 games ultimately relegating Huddersfield. Breitenreiter had only managed 22 games before getting the boot at his last club, Hoffenheim, and his time with Huddersfield - after over a year out of the game - won't have repaired his reputation.

Hull City (Final Position: 7th)

Liam Rosenior: (increase) Despite narrowly missing out on the playoffs by just three points (essentially four if you factor in GD), it's been a decent season for Hull. Rosenior was appointed last season in November and stablised the club to finish in 15th place. This season has seen a big improvement to 7th position. Rosenior comes across as a well-spoken, decent bloke and his reputation as a young manager, at 39 years old, will have been bolstered by a very good season in 23/24. 

Ipswich Town (Final Position: 2nd)

Kieran McKenna (huge increase) Having lifted Ipswich out of the doldrums of a multi-year spell in League 1 in 22/23, Championship stability would have been the goal for this season. Instead, Ipswich have achieved the unthinkable and clinched automatic promotion, leaving Leeds and Southampton - teams with much larger budgets - in the dust. Despite assertions from all quarters that Ipswich would eventually fall away, after a very strong start to the season, they defied the odds and stayed the course until the very end. Even during the periods when they were struggling, they would immediatelty bounce back from a bad result or at the very least draw rather than lose. Ipswich's never-say-die attitude combined with crucial backing from their owners in January (Venky's, take note, you idiots) meant that they ended up achieving something truly unbelievable. I don't think you'd have found one sane person tipping Ipswich to go up automatically at the start of the season. It goes without saying that McKenna's reputation will have skyrocketed off the back of this season. At 37 years old he has led Ipswich to back-to-back promotions - above 90 points in both campaigns - in his first senior managerial role. 

Leeds United (Final Position: 3rd)

Daniel Farke: (slight decrease) With their budget, Leeds would have been aiming for automatic promotion, and they didn't achieve it. They didn't achieve it because they dropped points to Coventry (2-1), Rovers (1-0), QPR (4-0) and Sunderland (0-0) right when it mattered most. 90 points is nothing to sniff at, and in many seasons would admittedly have secured automatic promotion, but Farke's expensive team collapsing at the end of the season isn't a good look. If they go up in the playoffs, however, I would amend this to a 'no change'. Farke would have achieved the bare minimum expected and he's got promotion from the division before with a big budget team. As it stands though, Leeds failing to go up automatically slightly decreases Farke's reputation for me should they not get promoted via the playoffs. 

Leicester City (Final Position: 1st)

Enzo Maresca: (increase) Despite a sizable wobble towards the end, Leicester ultimately went up as champions in Maresca's first proper stint as a club manager, with only a brief four month spell at Serie B Palma in 21/22 to speak of as first-team managerial experience before this season. Taking Leicester up as champions obviously boosts his reputation, although the mighty Rovers stopped the Foxes from achieving the 100 point milestone. 

Middlesbrough (Final Position: 8th)

Michael Carrick: (increase) 8th isn't inherently a bad position for Boro to finish in, but the reason they aren't in the playoffs is because they had an appalling start to the season. They took just 2 points from their first 8 matches, not winning their first match until September 23rd. Granted, after that they went on a run of 6 wins in a row, but inconsistency followed. A strong end to the season (a 9 game unbeaten run between 6th March and 13th April in particular) saw them get into the playoff hunt, but in the end they fell short. Not a bad season for Carrick, but nothing to write home about in the end either. With that said, I think being able to revive Boro from their early season slump and nearly get them into the playoffs speaks well of Carrick as a young manager (42 years old) in his first senior position. 

Millwall (Final Position: 13th)

Gary Rowett: (no change) Rowett left Millwall by mutual consent on October 18th after fiour years in charge. The club were 15th in the table, had won 4 of their first 11 matches and were 3 points off the playoffs at the time. Seemed like a harsh sacking and was arguably quite pointless considering they only finished 13th in the end anyway. The fans had turned on Rowett but you have to wonder what they were realistically expecting? Anyway, the sacking was harsh and Rowett had done fine up until that point, so I don't think this hurt his reputation.

Joe Edwards: (decrease) 37 year old Edwards was a bit of a left-field appointment, having no senior managerial experience. He'd been tempted to the Den from an interim position as England U20's manager. Things looked bright after his first game, a 4-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday, but that was as good as it got. 4 wins from 19 games left Millwall concerned for their status in the division, and a win percentage of just 21% led to Edwards getting the chop on 21st February, roughly 3 and a half months after being appointed. Obviously not a good start to his senior management career. 

Neil Harris: (increase) Having resigned as Millwall manager in 2019, Harris returned to the club on the same day Joe Edwards was shown the door. He had been managing Cambridge in League 1. Arriving with the club in 21st and a point from the relegation places, Harris lifted Milwall to an eventual 13th place finish, 9 points clear of the relegation zone and ending the season with five straight wins. Good job.

Norwich City (Final Position: 6th)

David Wagner: (no change) David Wagner had struggled somewhat after leaving Huddersfield in 2019. A disappointing spell at Schalke in Germany ended after just over a year, and he was dismissed from Swiss side Young Boys after a year. Norwich started the season fairly well, but poor form between September and November caused them to drop down the league. A solid second half of the season, however, meant that they finished in 6th place. Should they go up in the playoffs, I'd change this to an increased reputation, but otherwise I'd say no real change for Wagner. 

Plymouth Argyle (Final Position: 21st)

Steven Schumacher: (increase) a 101 point season in L1 saw Plymouth coming up to the Championship with plenty of momentum. Despite that, many had tipped them for the drop. Strong home form kept Argyle in a decent position though, and beating Rotherham 3-2 at home lifted Plymouth to 16th place in 26 points, six clear of the relegation zone. This start to the season had clearly done enough to impress Stoke, who appointed Schumacher as their new manager on December 19th.

Ian Foster: (decrease) Remember how Millwall appointed England U20 interim manager Joe Edwards, and it didn't go so well? Plymouth hired former England U20 manager Ian Foster (who had been working as Steven Gerrard's assistant in Saudi Arabia, because money I guess?)  and... it didn't go well. 4 wins, 4 draws and 9 defeats in 17 games was enough for Argyle to pull the trigger on 1st April, less than three months later. 5 straight home defeats without scoring was pretty grim, in fairness. 

Neil Dewsnip: (no change) Led Argyle to 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats in their final five games - enough to just about save them. An interim standing in whilst Argyle look for a successor to Foster (with his usual role being DoF), his reputation won't really see any serious change from this short spell - fair play to him though, he came in and did a good job all things considered. 

Preston (Final Position: 10th)

Ryan Lowe (no change): Started well, had a terrible run of form, then inconsistent for the rest of the season. Respectable finish in the end. Don't think anything changes for Lowe as far as his reputation is concerned. 

QPR (Final Position: 18th)

Gareth Ainsworth (large decrease) What can you say? Absolutely abysmal. We got that David Brent-esque video of Ainsworth trying to build team spirit with a Haka chanting session - and I'll always be grateful for that - but what a disaster this appointment was for QPR. Rangers were beaten 10 times in their first 14 matches and won just twice. A sixth defeat on the spin was enough for the QPR board to give Gareth his marching orders, leaving the club in 23rd place with 8 points from their first 14 games, 6 points from safety. 

Martí Cifuentes (large increase) The relatively unknown Spaniard turned out to be an inspired appointment for QPR. Having managed primarily in Nordic countries, Cifuentes was a gamble which ended up paying off handsomely. 13 wins, 9 draws and 11 defeats from 33 matches was enough to comfortably keep QPR in the division. They finished 18th, six points clear of the drop, and you can only applaud the job Cifuentes has done there - as under Ainsworth they looked hopeless. 

Rotherham United (Final Position: 24th)

Matt Taylor: (decrease) 9 defeats in 16 to begin the season, with a 5-0 drubbing by Watford sealing Taylor's fate. Rotherham would have been favourites to go down this season anyway, as they are any season they're in the Championship, but they never had a chance with this start to the season. They did get some strangely respectable results during this period - a 2-1 win over Norwich, a 1-1 draw with Southampton, a 2-2 draw with Ipswich and a 2-0 victory over Coventry - but Taylor was nonetheless jettisoned with the club in 22nd. 

Leam Richardson: (decrease) Appointed after roughly a month of Rotherham searrching, Richardson started with three defeats on the bounce which wasn't ideal. Granted two of those games were against WBA and Leicester, which was also not ideal. Things didn't really improve under Richardson at all - in fact they mostly got worse. A perversely impressive streak of 10 defeats in 11 matches somehow wasn't enough to get Richardson the boot, but a triple whammy of defeats to Plymouth, WBA and Swansea was finally enough for the Rotherham board to put Leam out of his misery. A brutal win % of 8.33% over 24 games (two wins, four defeats and eighteen losses) says it all. Horrendous. 

Steve Evans: (no change) Not been there long enough to make any judgement. 

Sheffield Wednesday (Final Position: 20th)

Xisco Munoz: (decrease) After the surprise departure of promotion-winning manager Darren Moore, Spaniard Munoz was hired on July 4th. Best known on these shores as Watford manager between December 2020 and October 2021. His last job had been in Cyprus where he'd been sacked by a club called Anorthosis, which didn't really bode well. Indeed, Munoz ended up leading Sheffield Wednesday to their worst ever start to a season, picking up a measly two points from their first ten matches. He had a win percentage of 0%. Can't say his reputation suffered a huge decrease as he was managing a largely unknown Cypriot team before this job, but his stint at Wednesday won't have encouraged any other English clubs to give him a chance. 

Danny Rohl: (large increase) At 34 years old, Rohl became the youngest manager in the football league when appointed by Wednesday in October. He also had no senior managerial experience at all. A huge risk, to say the least, but one that paid off massively. Despite five defeats in his first six games, Rohl was able to galvanise the Owls from the beginning of December. Five wins from six matches between February and March, as well as four victories from their last six matches, was enough to secure unlikely survival for Wednesday at Birmingham and Huddersfield's expense. An incredible turnaround and Rohl would be my second choice behind Kieran McKenna as manager of the season. 

Southampton (Final Position: 4th)

Russell Martin: (no change) I think Martin has, similar to Farke, ultimately failed by not getting an expensive Southampton team full of talent promoted automatically. With that said, I don't think he had a great reputation to begin with outside of a certain section of football boffins who focus on things that don't have anything to do with winning matches or being successful. He hadn't done anything special at Swansea and his appointment at Southampton seems a bit strange when taking into account his lack of any real success anywhere. His implementation of an ultra possession-based style continually receives plaudits in certain quarters despite delivering nothing tangible in terms of achieving anything of note. As with the other playoff teams, if Southampton go up then this will change to increased, of course. 

Stoke City (Final Position: 17th)

Alex Neil: (decrease) Seen as a steady pair of hands, this wasn't a good season for Neil. Stoke are perennial underachievers and Neil was unable to change their fortunes. 6 wins from 20 games, leaving Stoke in 20th place and just two points from the relegation zone, proved to be the point where Stoke's board felt it necessary to relieve Neil of his duties.  

Steven Schumacher: (no change) He's kept Stoke in the division, but that's really a minimum expectation. At this point I wouldn't say there's been any significant change in SS's reputation - next season will be an interesting one for him. 

Sunderland (Final Position: 16th)

Tony Mowbray: (no change) Mowbray was only really brought in as a stopgap pair of safe hands for Sunderland. That became obvious in the summer when it was an open secret that the club were speaking to other managers. In the end, Mowbray stayed on to start the season, but it already felt like an untenable situation. Mowbray was sacked with Sunderland in 9th, which seemed pretty unreasonable even if they had only won two of their last nine matches. Mowbray had performed above expectations with the Black Cats and his sacking was considered a surprise. I think it was more of a black mark on Sunderland's board than Mowbray.

Michael Beale (decrease) A unanimously unpopular appointment from the moment he was announced, Beale's time at Sunderland was never going to end well. Mowbray was popular with the Sunderland faithful, and they would only have accepted his sacking on the basis of a genuinely better candidate being brought in. Beale didn't really fit that description in any way. One does wonder what logic was employed when the decision was made to replace Mowbray with Beale, and that question was not answered during Beale's brief tenure at the Stadium of Light. Beale was sacked within two months, having managed just 12 games. He became the shortest serving manager in Sunderland's history. 4 wins, 2 draws and 6 defeats doesn't seem like a record so bad it deserves such a swift sacking, but Beale was so intensely unpopular with the supporters that any dropped points were magnified. After his sacking, it was revealed that Beale was likely operating a Twitter/X burner account defending himself during his time as Sunderland boss, which is obviously pretty weird as well. 

Mike Dodds: (decrease) Sunderland have been pretty rubbish under Dodds, but he's an interim who has no chance of getting the job full time, so it doesn't really matter.

Swansea City (Final Position: 14th)

Michael Duff (decrease) Duff was chosen to replace Russell Martin, who had left for Southampton before the 23/24 season began. Duff had most recently managed Barnsley to a losing effort in the L1 22/23 playoff final. The season started extremely poorly, with Swansea failing to win any of their first 7 games, and only getting 3 points. After this they went on a run of 5 wins in 7, suggesting Duff was getting to grips with the job. This turned out to be a false dawn though, as Swansea went another five games without a win, and a last gasp goal from Charlie Patino to salvage a 1-1 home draw against Huddersfield on 2nd December was not enough to save Duff's job. He was dismissed on 4th December with the club in 18th, 5 points above the relegation zone.

Luke Williams (slight increase) Whilst finishing 14th isn't exactly a magnificent achievement for a club like Swansea, Williams had only managed at League 1 level before being appointed by Swansea. In that sense, I'd say his first half-season in charge at Championship level has been decent enough, especially as he came in from a club in League 2. Notts County were 5th when he left, and finished 14th, which suggests his departure had a highly negative impact on his former club. 

Watford (Final Position: 15th)

Valérien Ismaël: (decrease) Ismael's tenure at Watford was generally forgettable and underwhelming. After a poor start to the season, Watford had a fantastic spell of form between 7th October - 9th December where they only lost once in 10 matches. Their form, however, fell off a cliff from February and they proceeded to lose six out of ten matches, drawing three and only winning once against lowly Rotherham. Defeat to Coventry was the final straw for the Watford board, and Ismael was sacked with Watford 13th in the table - unlikely to be relegated but without any real chance of even getting into the playoffs after such a dismal run.

Tom Cleverley: (no change) Originally appointed as an interim, Cleverley has presided over 7 matches and only lost once against Southampton. It should be noted he's also only won once - a 1-0 victory over Birmingham. The other 5 matches have all been draws. This was seen as impressive enough by Watford's owners to give TC the job permanently, so we'll see how he does next season.

West Brom (Final Position: 5th)

Carlos Corberan (slight increase) WBA have been in 5th for what seems like 90% of the season, and I think playoffs was the expectation for them, so I'd say overall Corberan has done exactly what he was expected to do. With that said, CC had come in from being sacked by Greek giants Olympiacos having left them in 5th, so I'd say this season at WBA has restored his stock somewhat. If they get promoted then a slight increase will become a big increase. 

Edited May 4 by DE.

[Upside Down]

4 hours ago, Mercer said:

Think Tony Mowbray will call it a day at Brum now.

Given his recent health scare and Brum being 180 miles or so from his beloved Teeside, I don't think he will have the stomach to endure a League One campaign with Brum.

IMO, Brum's owners got it sadly, for them, wrong, not necessarily sacking Eustace but appointing Rooney and then due to Mowbray's illness, allowing Venus to run with the ball for so long when it was clear he was floundering. 

They got it wrong with Rooney and were very unlucky that Mowbray ended up getting crook.

I think moggasaurus will be back roaming the plains of mediocrity before we know it. He's a total addict.

Nothing against the bloke personally, I just don't think he's that good of a manager. I certainly hope he gets back, it's sad if he doesn't.

[47er]

Wow! Preston lost their last 5 games! A Play-off opportunity thrown away (I'm happy say).

[AllRoverAsia]

@DE. Just WOW!

I will have to re read to take all that info in.

Do the same for players as transfer targets and the Rovers DoF job is yours for the asking.

[Exiled_Rover]

8 hours ago, DE. said:

Imagine Ipswich had actually bought Gallagher in January. He'd potentially be a PL player now, lmao. Or more likely if he'd played he'd have missed chances that others have scored and they'd be heading into the playoffs now. 

I gather it was Gallagher or Moore. Moore scored 7 for them in the run in - they wouldn't have got promoted with Gallagher. 

[Exiled_Rover]

2 hours ago, DE. said:

John Eustace: (no change) As noted above, Eustace has managed 3 wins in 16. No home victories. We've also been trounced by Bristol City (5-0) and beaten 3-1, again, by fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday. We also lost 1-0 to Eustace's former club Birmingham. Draws against Millwall, Plymouth and Coventry were disappointing results. A totally random 5-1 away win at Sunderland, combined with unexpected victories away to Leeds (1-0) and Leicester (2-0) implausably saved us from going down. Eustace ultimately did what he was brought in to do and keep us in the division, but it would be difficult to argue it was done in an impressive way. I don't think Eustace's reputation changes much either way from the last couple of months. 

LOL talk about an agenda. 

[Exiled_Rover]

29 minutes ago, 47er said:

Wow! Preston lost their last 5 games! A Play-off opportunity thrown away (I'm happy say).

Yeah, they failed to score a goal in any of those games too (-11 goal difference). Another fun stat is that they've scored 4 goals in their last 8 matches, and they all came in the same game against Huddersfield (6 losses, 1 win, 1 draw). 

[AllRoverAsia]

4 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

LOL talk about an agenda. 

Pointing out what actually happened?

[Mattyblue]

Those three wins in that manner being the three to do it does seem random and implausible… if the wins had been, say, home games against Millwall, Plymouth and 10 man Cov, perfectly plausible.

Edited May 5 by Mattyblue

[philipl]

Think the manager ratings are fair although whoever prevails in the playoffs will deserve an upgrade and the other three a downgrade.

Playoffs are a lottery and even more so with one off semifinals.

Despite their points totals, all 4 have limped to the finishing line and cases can be made for and against.

West Brom and Norwich are facing life without parachutes so will be extremely desperate. Leeds and Southampton can be handled by Rovers under Eustace playing safety first and exploiting defensive weaknesses on the break.

Expecting negative bore fests.

[Mattyblue]

Leeds games are seldom bore fests.

[chaddyrovers]

7 hours ago, 47er said:

Wow! Preston lost their last 5 games! A Play-off opportunity thrown away (I'm happy say).

there is still alot of PNE fans not happy with Lowe as their manager and some would like a change. Seems a very much split fanbase towards Lowe. I think he has done good job there but I wouldn't say they should be making playoffs this season

[K-Hod]

My old man is a PNE fan and he’s very much Lowe out.

I did try to say, they finished 10th, that’s probably about as good as, maybe even better than their squad suggests.

(I.E, do they have the 10th best squad in the league or not?).

[wilsdenrover]

2 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Pointing out what actually happened?

I think @Exiled_Rover issue is with the ‘loaded’ words - he for example may have worded things as follows* (I’ve used the same facts as @DE.) 

John Eustace (no change) As noted above, Eustace has managed 3 wins in 16. No home victories. This run included disappointing results against our relegation rivals and a heavy defeat at Bristol City. On the flip side, we got excellent and unexpected results at Sunderland, Leeds and Leicester as well as at home to Southampton. Eustace ultimately did what he was brought in to do, nothing more nothing less. I don’t think Eustace's reputation changes much either way from the last couple of months. 

 

* I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong!)

Edited May 5 by wilsdenrover

[DE.]

It is a shame that my agenda, which actually saw Eustace with a net increase to his reputation over the season, has been so thoroughly exposed. Back to the drawing board. 

[wilsdenrover]

13 minutes ago, DE. said:

It is a shame that my agenda, which actually saw Eustace with a net increase to his reputation over the season, has been so thoroughly exposed. Back to the drawing board. 

I hope you didn’t take my post as a criticism as that was not my intention.

I was merely trying to show how the same thing can be said in different ways - I don’t consider either to be the right or wrong way of doing so.

 

Edited May 5 by wilsdenrover

[DE.]

I was just kidding around in my response. I can't take the idea that I'm pushing an agenda against Eustace in a small paragraph of a massive post in this thread seriously. That's just amusing to even suggest, especially when I'm on record as saying Eustace deserves to start next season here. With that said, if anyone thinks my wording on Eustace was too harsh then fair enough. I saw the words themselves as neutral, basically just the facts of what happened, but in theory I could have been nicer (or less nice) in the overall context of the paragraph. Since it's just a personal piece and not something I wrote for a national broadsheet or the BBC sport website, I don't think it's too much of an issue in the grand scheme of things. 

[Mattyblue]

To be fair that’s more in depth knowledge than most journos cobble together in the national press.

[Gav]

15 hours ago, Mercer said:

Think Tony Mowbray will call it a day at Brum now.

Given his recent health scare and Brum being 180 miles or so from his beloved Teeside, I don't think he will have the stomach to endure a League One campaign with Brum.

IMO, Brum's owners got it sadly, for them, wrong, not necessarily sacking Eustace but appointing Rooney and then due to Mowbray's illness, allowing Venus to run with the ball for so long when it was clear he was floundering. 

Tony Mowbray is a footballing man through and through and if his health improves sufficiently enough, which it sounds as though it will, he'll be back at Brum and pushing for promotion next season, if those bonkers owners allow it.

I was with a Brum fan on Friday, his opinion, they wouldn't have gone down had Mowbray remained in charge and they should never have sacked Eustace! 

Edited May 5 by Gav

[Mattyblue]

And that’s a fair assumption to make, take Rooney’s shocking spell out and they wouldn’t have been close.

[47er]

He's not useless. When he came we were on a disastrous run that pointed clearly to relegation. We couldn't get a win for love or money.

He did what he had to do, he made us hard to beat (with some obvious exceptions) and kept us in the Championship.

I don't see him as an inspiring type, I don't think he'll take us up but promotion is not a priority at Ewood anyway.

In any case we'll get yet another inadequate summer recruitment fiasco.

Let's remember he's at a club where the CEO said before the season started that the main objective is "to stay in the League". Bit of a different attitude at Ipswich!

There are better targets than Eustace. Till they're gone there will be no or little progress