We are going down (the pessimism thread)

[Mattyblue]

6 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

As I said when he arrived, this is a win win for Eustace. If he does anything well then he's a miracle worker, if he does shit then everyone with half a braincell knows that it's 100% down to the owners. 

 

Unfortunately a good chunk of the fanbase don’t have said half a brain cell and it will be JDT that gets the blame.

[den]

What football club would willingly sell their best players, not replace them and “plan” to just stay up?

nobody with any idea of football would think that’s possible.

[Mattyblue]

What was your signature phrase back in the day, den?

Edited March 3, 2024 by Mattyblue

[DE.]

27 minutes ago, den said:

What football club would willingly sell their best players, not replace them and “plan” to just stay up?

nobody with any idea of football would think that’s possible.

Weirdly I can remember Waggott's August interview, where he stated we're a development squad with no ambitions other than to stay in the division, being widely praised - even on here by some. I was baffled as it did nothing but raise massive red flags for me. JDT evidently felt the same as from that point onwards he needled Waggott in practically every interview for months afterwards - including the many jabs at the fabled coach he claimed we'd bought but are actually leasing.  

[Mattyblue]

To be fair most on here (maybe not the lemmings on wider social media) were aghast by his comments in his big eve of KO interview… but looking back he was merely stating the truth.

This club has no ambition outside not being in League 1 and ‘developing’ players - and it hasn’t tried very hard to even fulfil ambition 1.

To paraphrase den, ‘operate like Crewe, become Crewe’.

[DE.]

One time where I was he had been lying. 

[wilsdenrover]

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Unfortunately a good chunk of the fanbase don’t have said half a brain cell and it will be JDT that gets the blame.

Is that individually or collectively?

[Mattyblue]

Like a horde on The Walking Dead.

[Old Codger]

Was thinking about this overnight, and I remembered something someone once said to me about getting through a crisis, which went along the lines of, "if you are in a skid, you need to focus on the outcome you want (e.g. staying on the road) rather than the outcome you don't (e.g. hitting the wall or landing in a ditch). Whatever you focus on, tends to become the reality you experience".

Good advice.

I know it feels like a tail-spin with an inevitable outcome, but remember, these players more than held their own last week against a team whose collective value was well over 50 x greater. Ok, so we aren't the fastest, most defensively capable, cohesive group of players in the league, but we aren't the worst either - AND when we put our minds to it, we can compete with the resources we have.

Time for us all to focus on the outcomes we want, such as Rovers to succeed on the pitch, Venly's to F-OFF, Waggott to be gone from the club, rather than the unpalatable outcomes we definitely DON'T want.

So actually, all of the below, are POSITIVE STATEMENTS of outcomes I'd like to see:

F-OFF VENKY-DESAI-RAO wastrels

F-OFF SUHAIL PASHA-SLINKING AROUND IN THE SHADOWS

F-OFF WAGGOTT AND YOUR SELF AGRANDISING SCHEMERY

COYB! 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

50 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

To be fair most on here (maybe not the lemmings on wider social media) were aghast by his comments in his big eve of KO interview… but looking back he was merely stating the truth.

This club has no ambition outside not being in League 1 and ‘developing’ players - and it hasn’t tried very hard to even fulfil ambition 1.

To paraphrase den, ‘operate like Crewe, become Crewe’.

The minute you decide to stand still in football you are actually going backwards.

[den]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

What was your signature phrase back in the day, den?

Something like “buy second division players, get second division football “?

[Mattyblue]

‘First division’, but then I suppose the ‘first division’ meant something else then, if only we knew the further depths these owners would sink us to.

Edited March 3, 2024 by Mattyblue

[DE.]

I think our first eleven is good enough to stay in the division, albeit our squad depth is poor and players like Gallagher and JRC are extremely injury prone. The biggest problem isn't so much ability as it is mentality. The squad has a really weak menality, emphasised by the suggestion that a few scattered boos led to players being upset at half time recently, and the fact we cannot come from behind to win a match if there are any actual stakes involved. Half the time we can't even come back to draw. On Saturday as soon as Swansea scored you knew the best we could hope for was a point. I appreciate comebacks in away matches may not be that common, but it's the same at home. Other than McFadz, Szmodics and possibly Tronstad I don't think the correct mentality is there with this group. It's been the same for so many years that it is clearly a deep-rooted issue at the club and almost certainly stems from the top.  

Edited March 3, 2024 by DE.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

The simple fact this set of players are mentally too soft. How many times this season or last has it recovered from a losing position? This club has no fight so we will go down with a whimper there is no backbone. There is no one at this club you would want to be alongside you in a battle.

Everything Ive seen from Eustace just reminds me of Bryan Kidd and we all know how that happened. Just like then we have a centre forward who should be bullying opposition defenders with his physique but they cant wait to face him. Just like then we have midfielders who have no fight. 

[wilsdenrover]

6 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The minute you decide to stand still in football you are actually going backwards.

Same as on a treadmill then.

[philipl]

If we have a fair run in with recoveries and no/few new injuries we will be fine unless Eustace is totally useless.

If Szmodics and Pears get injured or suffer catastrophic loss of form and confidence, Eustace will have to be a miracle worker to keep us up.

[MarkBRFC]

Wrong thread 

Edited March 4, 2024 by MarkBRFC

[martonrover]

21 hours ago, philipl said:

If we have a fair run in with recoveries and no/few new injuries we will be fine unless Eustace is totally useless.

If Szmodics and Pears get injured or suffer catastrophic loss of form and confidence, Eustace will have to be a miracle worker to keep us up.

Two wins from the last seventeen league games doesn't really support your argument, I'm afraid.

I agree that if Szmodics gets injured it will be game over.

[G Somerset Rover]

In what many of us thought was a must win game, we barely tested their GK all night. Fucking useless.

Just end this misery.

Edited March 5, 2024 by G Somerset Rover

[Bronzed A Donis]

The games are running out, we might be a point better off than the start of the night, but I see this going to the last few games and I am not sure many teams would swap for our run in. 😬 

[Blue blood]

On 03/03/2024 at 18:02, DE. said:

I think our first eleven is good enough to stay in the division, albeit our squad depth is poor and players like Gallagher and JRC are extremely injury prone. The biggest problem isn't so much ability as it is mentality. The squad has a really weak menality, emphasised by the suggestion that a few scattered boos led to players being upset at half time recently, and the fact we cannot come from behind to win a match if there are any actual stakes involved. Half the time we can't even come back to draw. On Saturday as soon as Swansea scored you knew the best we could hope for was a point. I appreciate comebacks in away matches may not be that common, but it's the same at home. Other than McFadz, Szmodics and possibly Tronstad I don't think the correct mentality is there with this group. It's been the same for so many years that it is clearly a deep-rooted issue at the club and almost certainly stems from the top.  

First off we all know it's a squad game these days. More injuries in football than ever before, higher intensity. Our squad has shamelessly been culled to the point there is zero depth - literally no options- for the guaranteed issues of injuries, loss of form and plan B. It's appalling that no one outside the first 11 is even of championship level football. One thing that illustrates this is super Sami is the replacement for Armstrong, Bereton,  Rothwell and Dack... 

Even the first, or likely first 11 has some whopping issues you wouldn't be happy with. Gally is an OK championship striker in my book but no one would really be happy with him being the quality of your star striker/main man. No one would be happy with Pears as number 1 keeper at championship level. Too many errors by far and only wanted because the replacement is much worse. Brittain is poor, not good enough offensively to play further forward or be a semi consistent threat and weak defensively. 

And outside of the first 11 my word it's grim. A loanee who couldn't cut it in a lower French division, the invisible man, a crocked midfielder, and strikers who don't look like scoring if they played on an empty pitch. It's a grim situation. 

Mind you I do feel Stome are rotten, Sheff Weds for all their good form are still just below us, Brum have a very weird situation that won't help them and Rotherham have kindly made sure that's one relegation place sown up. So it's not over yet, although that's bugger all to do with our merit and entirely the dross of the division. 

[Upside Down]

We are down.

Next year we will be relegated.

[Tom]

Can I change the title to ‘the realism thread’?

[philipl]

2 from 11 to go down.

[RTM08]

We had to win tonight and Saturday to have even a slight chance of staying up I feel. The lack of desire or effort shown yet again shows me that this isn't going to change. 

There are maybe five people in the entire player/management/corporate structure that I would care about not being here next season. I can take being awful, I can't take being awful and not trying.