John Eustace - our head coach

[Upside Down]

17 minutes ago, 47er said:

JDT's style was meant for a reasonable standard squad. We didn't have one this season, thanks to the owners.

He persisted anyway and we are where we are.

Another opportunity thrown away I think.

Did ok until December but injuries started to take their toll.

Nothing up front meant everything was committed to attack and that left us open at the back.

His in game management needs some improvement but he really did get the most out of the shit squad we have, as is evident by the current manager's record.

[RTM08]

Even if it turns out Eustace is a good manager (and very little of what I have seen gives me that impression) it won't matter. In the summer we'll shed a bunch of already poor high earners and replace them with freebies and children, and will go down next year instead. If he is as poor as I think he might be then we'll just look that worse doing it. 

[simongarnerisgod]

51 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

Even if it turns out Eustace is a good manager (and very little of what I have seen gives me that impression) it won't matter. In the summer we'll shed a bunch of already poor high earners and replace them with freebies and children, and will go down next year instead. If he is as poor as I think he might be then we'll just look that worse doing it. 

going to be a mass sell off in the summer,whatever division we are in

smzodics,carter,hyam,gallagher,tronstadt,brittain,jrc the players with value will get flogged and replaced with ??????? i feel sorry for eustace in that respect,he was patently sold a pup,he`ll get no support from the board,most likely struggle and then get the boot,id`e advise any potential manager to avoid this club,it`s toxic to your career and reputation

[NeilInBristol]

"I am frustrated but very proud as well, the effort of the group was outstanding," Eustace said on the performance.

"After the week we've had with injuries and some sickness in the camp as well, to have possibly four starters out of the group, I thought the players who came in and took their places, their effort was outstanding.

"We went up against a very good team and we played very, very well. We are disappointed not to get anything from the game."

 

Sounds like he is making plenty of excuses considering he said he was bringing in a zero excuse culture. 

Fraud

[roversfan99]

He has said we played really well after basically every game. I beg to differ.

[Mattyblue]

As the other thread’s been locked…

Appleton - 15 games, four wins.

So JE wins the next four on the bounce and he’s just about getting up to MA’s level.

[M_B]

Well, some were blaming Mowbray last night, so I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to throw Appleton's record in, no matter how completely irrelevant it is. 

[Mattyblue]

Why is it irrelevant? I’m comparing Rovers managers. People do that all the time, and why not? We compare good ones, we compare poor ones. Folk have been talking about how much time a bloke who can’t win a match should get, and that’s a fair question (not that he will go anywhere even if he doesn’t win a single game and we end up in the third division).

So as an *example* Appleton came in during a season with the team struggling (parallels, no?) and was pretty much deemed as being poor from day dot. Yet since coming in this guy has been much poorer, MA got 15 games.

 

Edited March 30, 2024 by Mattyblue

[RevidgeBlue]

14 minutes ago, M_B said:

Well, some were blaming Mowbray last night, so I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to throw Appleton's record in, no matter how completely irrelevant it is. 

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.

[Blue blood]

8 hours ago, NeilInBristol said:

"I am frustrated but very proud as well, the effort of the group was outstanding," Eustace said on the performance.

"After the week we've had with injuries and some sickness in the camp as well, to have possibly four starters out of the group, I thought the players who came in and took their places, their effort was outstanding.

"We went up against a very good team and we played very, very well. We are disappointed not to get anything from the game."

 

Sounds like he is making plenty of excuses considering he said he was bringing in a zero excuse culture. 

Fraud

Personally I'm glad there's this zero excuse culture. Because if that's what a zero excuse culture looks like, I can only imagine am excuse culture involves the team rolling around on the floor pincjing the grass, crying "its not fair!" Mind you I can see Brittain doing that anyway... 

[M_B]

If you think there's a relevance then that's up to you, to me it has no relevance whatsoever to what is happening today. 

Back in the present,it depends how bad a job someone thinks Tomasson did IN THE END.

I think Eustace took over a complete mess from Tomasson and if he keeps us up he'll have done well. It matters not how good the football was last year, he didn't give a damn in the end. 

[RevidgeBlue]

9 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Why is it irrelevant? I’m comparing Rovers managers. People do that all the time, and why not? We compare good ones, we compare poor ones. Folk have been talking about how much time a bloke who can’t win a match should get, and that’s a fair question (not that he will go anywhere even if he doesn’t win a single game and we end up in the third division).

So as an *example* Appleton came in during a season with the team struggling (parallels, no?) and was pretty much deemed as being poor from day dot. Yet since coming in this guy has been much poorer, MA got 15 games.

 

Going back to the late  70's I'm reminded of arguably the worst Rovers manager of my lifetime, Jim Iley who without looking it up sparked a players revolt and I think only lasted about 3 months.

Even he won at least one game I think, a 3-0 win in which a cracking player we had on loan David Gregory played a starring role. Unfortunately Gregory wouldn't sign for Iley and things went rapidly South after that.

[Parsonblue]

More than happy to give Eustace time to work with the players in the pre-season.   That's the least he deserves.  I believe he inherited a complete shambles that was left by the previous head coach and that will take time to sort out.  Even if we went down, and I still believe we won't, I would stick with him.  

 

 

[M_B]

13 minutes 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.

That isn't true, Mowbray wanted to take the £3 million for Rothwell and reinvest,the owners turned it down. 

Rovers were offered £10 million for Brereton, a £4 million profit, the owners turned it down. 

You can't rewrite history. 

[Mattyblue]

10 minutes ago, M_B said:

If you think there's a relevance then that's up to you, to me it has no relevance whatsoever to what is happening today. 

Back in the present,it depends how bad a job someone thinks Tomasson did IN THE END.

I think Eustace took over a complete mess from Tomasson and if he keeps us up he'll have done well. It matters not how good the football was last year, he didn't give a damn in the end. 

Of course it’s irrelevant to the here and now, it was 10 years ago - but it’s a fair historical comparison to make - bloke comes in during a season to take over a struggling side. 

It’s a message board, we can chew the fat over such things, if you aren’t interested then fair enough.

Edited March 30, 2024 by Mattyblue

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, M_B said:

If you think there's a relevance then that's up to you, to me it has no relevance whatsoever to what is happening today. 

Back in the present,it depends how bad a job someone thinks Tomasson did IN THE END.

I think Eustace took over a complete mess from Tomasson and if he keeps us up he'll have done well. It matters not how good the football was last year, he didn't give a damn in the end. 

JDT took over a complete mess from Mowbray as well but exceeded overall expectations in his first season despite a very poor second half.

If you can't see that the financial restrictions JDT were working under IN THE END were light and day away from the financial support Mowbray received then there's not really much point debating it.

Plus Mowbray didn't have to put up with the same various transfer deadline day shenanigans.

I do agree Eustace's job is to keep us up by hook or by crook regardless of how pretty it is.

[Gav]

3 minutes ago, M_B said:

If you think there's a relevance then that's up to you, to me it has no relevance whatsoever to what is happening today. 

Back in the present,it depends how bad a job someone thinks Tomasson did IN THE END.

I think Eustace took over a complete mess from Tomasson and if he keeps us up he'll have done well. It matters not how good the football was last year, he didn't give a damn in the end. 

You're looking in the wrong place to lay that blame, JDT was lied to and let down by the owners and CEO, its a familiar pattern. Eustace seems a good guy, the Birmingham fans loved him, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, he's not a magician. 

If we go down or stay up, it matters not one jot, the decline of the club will continue until the owners sod off, owners that judge success by selling academy players, promotion isn't even in the equation.

[Mattyblue]

He deserves nothing. It’s a results business.

Is he the best man to get us out of the third division is the only question that matters (or it would at a normal club, but he’ll be here regardless so let’s hope he is).

Edited March 30, 2024 by Mattyblue

[M_B]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

Of course it’s irrelevant to the here and now, it was 10 years ago - but it’s a fair historical comparison to make - bloke comes in during a season to take over a struggling side. 

It’s a message board, we can do such things.

We can, and it's a message board we can..... 

[M_B]

1 minute ago, Gav said:

You're looking in the wrong place to lay that blame, JDT was lied to and let down by the owners and CEO, its a familiar pattern. Eustace seems a good guy, the Birmingham fans loved him, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, he's not a magician. 

If we go down or stay up, it matters not one jot, the decline of the club will continue until the owners sod off, owners that judge success by selling academy players, promotion isn't even in the equation.

I'm not blaming him as such, but the outcome is the outcome, he left us in a mess and it's Eustace's job to try to keep us up. 

He'll do well if he does. 

[ABBEY]

On 22/03/2024 at 23:17, simongarnerisgod said:

going to be a mass sell off in the summer,whatever division we are in

smzodics,carter,hyam,gallagher,tronstadt,brittain,jrc the players with value will get flogged and replaced with ??????? i feel sorry for eustace in that respect,he was patently sold a pup,he`ll get no support from the board,most likely struggle and then get the boot,id`e advise any potential manager to avoid this club,it`s toxic to your career and reputation

Why was he sold a pup ? Surely anyone with half a footballing braincell know what a shitshow we are .

[M_B]

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

JDT took over a complete mess from Mowbray as well but exceeded overall expectations in his first season despite a very poor second half.

If you can't see that the financial restrictions JDT were working under IN THE END were light and day away from the financial support Mowbray received then there's not really much point debating it.

Plus Mowbray didn't have to put up with the same various transfer deadline day shenanigans.

I do agree Eustace's job is to keep us up by hook or by crook regardless of how pretty it is.

He didn't take over a complete mess, we'd just finished 8th and we subsequently finished 7th.We were near the top for much of the first half of this season, then and only then did the wheels come off. 

 

[ABBEY]

7 minutes ago, Gav said:

You're looking in the wrong place to lay that blame, JDT was lied to and let down by the owners and CEO, its a familiar pattern. Eustace seems a good guy, the Birmingham fans loved him, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, he's not a magician. 

If we go down or stay up, it matters not one jot, the decline of the club will continue until the owners sod off, owners that judge success by selling academy players, promotion isn't even in the equation.

But he must of known what venkyscum are all about

[RevidgeBlue]

5 minutes ago, M_B said:

That isn't true, Mowbray wanted to take the £3 million for Rothwell and reinvest,the owners turned it down. 

Rovers were offered £10 million for Brereton, a £4 million profit, the owners turned it down. 

You can't rewrite history. 

If people wanted to sell one of our star players to our main rivals for automatic promotion at the time - more fool them. The fact that our so called manager wanted to do the same tells you all need to know  about his "ambition."

Similarly Brereton. We could have sold him at a ridiculously low price but he was our top scorer wirh 14 goals the following season and we ended up missing out on the play offs by goal difference. Fine margins and hindsight is a wonderful thing.

None of these problems would have arisen in the first place had Mowbray and Waggott tied them all down when they should have. I'm not rewriting history at all.

 

[frosty]

8 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

More than happy to give Eustace time to work with the players in the pre-season.   That's the least he deserves.  I believe he inherited a complete shambles that was left by the previous head coach and that will take time to sort out.  Even if we went down, and I still believe we won't, I would stick with him.  

 

 

Did he really inherit a complete shambles? Makes it sound like what Bowyer took on twice in 12/13. Nothing like that. It had been an awful ten (only ten) games with a manager that had done a very good job but was starting to cast glances elsewhere (can’t blame him) and with some players that were disillusioned.

And if Eustace did in any way inherit a complete shambles it’s more the club overall, recruitment, and the wastes of space off the field, i.e coming in straight after it’s confirmed that a third Jan transfer in 12 months has been sabotaged, best player sold and nowt spent, Waggott, Pasha, Venky’s.