John Eustace - our head coach

[RevidgeBlue]

6 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

Agree with the overall point that results matter more, but those aren't coming either. At this point it looks like we will stay up more because of others inability rather than any talent of the manager or squad. Really worried that we've hired an utter dud. 

Understandable.

Just checked Jim Iley's record. 14th of April 1978 to the end of September 1978.

P 12

W 1 D 4 L 7.

Come on Mr. Eustace. You REALLY don't want to be inviting those sort of comparisons!

[Parsonblue]

50 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I personally wouldn't have complained at selling Rothwell or Brereton when it was clear neither were signing new contracts IF the money was used to replace them,

Unfortunately the very reason they weren't signing new contracts, why virtually nobody other than academy graduates on their first professional deals have signed extensions, is that the club has systematically and rapidly reduced the wage bill.

So I doubt they were even offered sensible terms, or if they were they were never going to sign them as they simply weren't competitive for the standard of player in question. 

And for the same reason we were never, ever, ever, going to see the money reinvested, which is why the McGuire and O'Brien stunts were little more than con jobs orchestrated by liars. Serious money was never changing hands.

I believe that deals were already in place for two players but it required Rothwell being sold.  Unfortunately, the owners opted to keep Rothwell which meant the other two deals couldn't be done.

[RevidgeBlue]

8 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

I believe that deals were already in place for two players but it required Rothwell being sold.  Unfortunately, the owners opted to keep Rothwell which meant the other two deals couldn't be done.

Odd considering Waggott was going around telling people privately the owners had granted him and Mowbray a very considerable one off war chest. Of course we'll never know if there was any truth to that but part of the alleged potential windfall was the promotion bonuses which were actually subsequently widely publicised in the LT.

[arbitro]

17 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

I believe that deals were already in place for two players but it required Rothwell being sold.  Unfortunately, the owners opted to keep Rothwell which meant the other two deals couldn't be done.

I was told similar. In fact I have a recollection of Mowbray saying so too. I suppose the bigger issue for me is who told them not to sell. I'd be amazed if they even knew who Rothwell was. My guess is Pasha.

[philipl]

Just hope Eustace is a lot better motivating and organising the players than he is communicating with the fans. JDT was a superb communicator so he will sound rubbish in comparison but beginning to conclude he is genuinely rubbish in speaking to the press.

The other worries are that players are ponderous on the ball from the middle third forward making us too easy to defend against and nobody is willing or seemingly encouraged to try this sort of shooting which went a huge way to securing QPR's future-

 

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, CambridgeRover said:

I believe that we wont win again this season but still manage to stay up by a point or two due to some draws.

I think there is something really nasty in the mentality of this squad.

I believe 100% that they downed tools to help get jdt out, brittain also got himself sent off. They will turn on Eustace in a second if they get the chance.

Get rid of them all

We won’t stay up if we don’t win another game in my opinion. We’ll need at least one win from somewhere.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

14 minutes ago, philipl said:

Just hope Eustace is a lot better motivating and organising the players than he is communicating with the fans. JDT was a superb communicator so he will sound rubbish in comparison but beginning to conclude he is genuinely rubbish in speaking to the press.

The other worries are that players are ponderous on the ball from the middle third forward making us too easy to defend against and nobody is willing or seemingly encouraged to try this sort of shooting which went a huge way to securing QPR's future-

 

 

When did we last score a goal with a shot from distance ?

[roversfan99]

4 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

You might have noticed we're short of money now - Mowbray admitted himself that it was his decision not to renew any contracts during Covid which ultimately resulted in Lenihan, Rothwell, Nyambe and Brereton walking for nothing.

So whilst not 100% his fault he bears some responsibility.

We would have got £12m for Rothwell and Brereton had the owners not interfered and turned down bids. Add that to the £15m we did get for Armstrong and there is a potential £27m on Mowbray purchases to potentially bankroll the building of a competitive team. If we had competent owners. So again, blame going to the wrong place.

 

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, Hasta said:

Letting Travis go and then letting Wharton go is they key moment this season for me. That was just stupidity.

However with all the JDT bashing going on, let's not forget JDT hardly picked Wharton till towards the end of last season. We spent most of the time in the top spots picking from a midfield of Travis, Buckley and Morton. As everyone keeps telling me Tronstadt is levels above Travis, the loss of Wharton shouldn't be an excuse for no wins in 10 (against relatively easy opposition) by Eustace. 

@aletheia has nailed it above. JDT had to go as he'd "lost" the dressing room, but he achieved far more with this group of players than Eustace currently is. People unfairly blamed Mowbray for relegation, but if we go down this season it's heavily on Eustace.

The reasons why Travis left was explained by JDT and back up by GB. 

I don't think Travis would have left if Eustace was manage at the time

 

[roversfan99]

Explained? Yes. The correct decision? No.

[M_B]

3 hours ago, aletheia said:

How did he leave us in a mess? Yes obviously, the points tally. But Eustace has everything else. Players available that weren’t available to JDT, players supposedly happier and willing to play for a new manager because they didn’t like the old one, players who are capable of a passing game because JDT coached them well. So all should be set fair and yet he can’t muster a single win.

The blame it on JDT narrative is weak and smacks of club PR to divert attention from appalling management for the Raos, SWAG anda Suhail.

I'm not blaming him alone, but nobody can exonerate him from blame when he oversaw such a bad run after being in such a good position. 

When the team has been in such a bad run of form, I wouldn't expect anyone to just be able to flick a switch and it all be OK. It was always going to be about grinding results out, and in my opinion, if he can grind out enough to keep us up he'll have done a good job. At least we look tighter defensively under Eustace, which is the main thing with only one bloke scoring. 

I suppose the difficulty of Eustace's job depends on how big a mess he inherited, to me we were definitely going down under Tomasson. 

[JHRover]

1 hour ago, Parsonblue said:

I believe that deals were already in place for two players but it required Rothwell being sold.  Unfortunately, the owners opted to keep Rothwell which meant the other two deals couldn't be done.

Presumably even if they allowed the sales to happen we'd have then suffered the very same 'admin errors' experienced in the last few transfer windows, conveniently meaning no money gets spent.

[wilsdenrover]

49 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We won’t stay up if we don’t win another game in my opinion. We’ll need at least one win from somewhere.

I think we’ll only need one win.

I worry that’s one more than we’ll get.

[wilsdenrover]

1 minute ago, JHRover said:

Presumably even if they allowed the sales to happen we'd have then suffered the very same 'admin errors' experienced in the last few transfer windows, conveniently meaning no money gets spent.

You don’t have to presume, you just have to look at how the Wharton sale went through but the McGuire purchase did not.

[RevidgeBlue]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

So again, blame going to the wrong place.

We've been over this time and time again and we will never agree on it but no, if Waggott and Mowbray had done their jobs and tied them all down when they should have done the issue would never have arisen in the first place.

We could have kept them temporarily for a promotion push AND sold them for sizeable fees after if we'd so wished.

[Mattyblue]

It’s always tough for managers going into a club mid season as by default it’s usually because the team is struggling. Certainly no easy task to turn it all round, so I do emphasise with the job he has…

However, many, many managers still get a new bounce at struggling clubs - he hasn’t and there no getting away that results have been poor thus far.

[roversfan99]

12 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

We've been over this time and time again and we will never agree on it but no, if Waggott and Mowbray had done their jobs and tied them all down when they should have done the issue would never have arisen in the first place.

We could have kept them temporarily for a promotion push AND sold them for sizeable fees after if we'd so wished.

I dont think its ever been specifically confirmed why we didnt tie them down. The owners may well have suspended funding due to covid. I dont know.

But either way. 15m player sold, 12m further bids declined by the owners. Thats a lot of money to reinvest if we were run possibly from Mowbray signings and far from a mess inherited.

[rovers11]

I'm actually a fan of Eustace and think he's a decent manager. But there's no doubt he's done a really poor job so far. In the 10 games he's been here we've had some very winnable games - most notably Millwall and Plymouth at home - but we've got nowhere near winning a game since he arrived. The performances have been abysmal too.

He's tightened up the defence and performances have been slightly better recently, but you don't get 3 points with slightly better performances and draws. We need wins!

Other results went for us yesterday which negated the Ipswich result (still 3 points clear as we were before the start of this round of games), but I struggle to see us picking up enough points to stay up.

Sunderland is a very winnable game on Monday but we all know we probably won't win it. Realistically, we then have 2 games left where we can pick up points - Sheff W and Bristol. I'd hazard a strong guess we won't win either of those either.

It really is a depressing time to be a Rovers fan. There is no glimmer of light for this club at the moment. The owners are scum.

 

[Exiled in Toronto Mk2]

2 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Understandable.

Just checked Jim Iley's record. 14th of April 1978 to the end of September 1978.

P 12

W 1 D 4 L 7.

Come on Mr. Eustace. You REALLY don't want to be inviting those sort of comparisons!

Actually Eustace reminds me of the fella who took over from Iley, John Pickering: decent bloke, fractured squad, no pot to piss in, but not good enough to impose himself on the squad and get enough points to stay up. Unfortunately we won’t be getting Howard Kendall in over the summer.

[RevidgeBlue]

20 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

Actually Eustace reminds me of the fella who took over from Iley, John Pickering: decent bloke, fractured squad, no pot to piss in, but not good enough to impose himself on the squad and get enough points to stay up. Unfortunately we won’t be getting Howard Kendall in over the summer.

I really liked John Pickering. I remember the fans going on the Ewood pitch to chant his mame after we got relegated as well!

[Athlete]

The fact is he hasnt won a game

The table isnt lying we were way clear of the drop before he came in but now we are in massive danger

It isnt about taking positives its about winning games and at this moment we dont look remotely like doing that

[simongarnerisgod]

for all our remaining games,i can only see us beating sheff wed,if you get sell or release your better players and replace them with inferior ones you will get relegated,thats not eustace fault,though i don`t think he`s much use he does deserve our support for the remainder of the season and the start of next,though he won`t get much support from the that lot upstairs

[tomphil]

He just hasn't got the bright goal capable options here that he had at Brum after tightening them up, tight games you need people to nick them or options on the bench to chuck on.

Here he has one good spell a season Dolan, one goal every blue moon and always crying off Gallagher, always trying to get fit again JRC and a bench of Telalovic and Markandy who couldn't hit a barn door.

That's the difference.

[simongarnerisgod]

massive rebuilding job next season,does eustace have the nous to build a side from scratch but  more frighteningly the gobshites in indian and the detritus upstairs in ewood are clucking useless in every department

[aletheia]

I’m not blaming him alone, but nobody can exonerate him from blame when he oversaw such a bad run after being in such a good position. 

He was the one who got us into such a good position. And yes you can blame him for the points tally in a subsequent poor run. (although we know that this was initially having players injured and and players leaving, then subsequently an entitled ‘group’ downing tools and JDT losing the will giving the dysfunction around him.)

…how big a mess he inherited…

Nothing has changed other than Wharton leaving. In fact, Eustace has several plusses that JDT didn’t have. All he has done is scrape some draws. Of course, he has exactly the same mess as JDT had in terms of the dysfunction of the owners and SWAG. Another difference is that he is SWAG’s lapdog unlike his predecessor.

The idea that the club pulled off some great move in sacking JDT is most amusing (and the sort of logic of a club PR dept.) He did his best to get out of the barmy kitchen a long time ago but the numpties in charge wouldn’t let him go. When he then has to pay to escape, the PR machine kicks into action and blames him for possibly taking us down.

I’m sure JDT would not have taken us down. He and the players would managed to grin and bear each other and scrape the same points that is currently being delivered. He would of course then left –SWAG and the Raos/Suhail couldn’t possibly have let him interfere for another season by speaking sensibly and calling out their lunacy.

Having said all this, sacking Eustace would probably achieve little. Obviously, we know it won’t happen anyway-too costly and too much on SWAGs string. And if we did, SWAG/Suhail would make sure that the next one would be a sure fire loser and yes-man.