Well he signed Gestede when he was at Boro, and Rudy does like his old Boro mates, so possible.

But we know those first 3 points will not happen under Venkys and the current situation with the court case. Do you really think Venkys give a shit about John Eustace enough to suddenly start committing money again long term. They’ll just bank the compo figure and move on. He knows that as he will surely have been asking for contracts for players and quality signings since he arrived. Therefore he’s already arrived at point 4.

He knows they can’t. He’s just doing what JDT did and shining a light for us. ”Can you renew the contracts of certain players and guarantee a healthy budget” ”err, court case. matched bonds.” ”See ya”

He’s took a job based on promises the board made to him. The board clearly have broken those promises. Even Eustace probably has no idea how much of a squad he will have to work with next year due to the out of contract situation. Trying to get whoever is left competitive next August will be an absolute impossible task. He knows he could have a shortage of first team players come July, and based on this window there will only 12 month freebies and loans coming in. Another drop in quality and next season will be an absolute struggle. That’s not what he signed up for, it’s a shit situation for anny manager to work under and his reputation will take a knock. He can’t just quit because, as JDT found, they won’t let him. He has to pay his contract up. And there’s no guarantee another club will come in and take him in the summer. Suddenly he can see an ‘out’ going to Derby, who by meeting the supposed release fee . Any manager with common sense would take it.

If you are on the ‘sooner we end up in administration the better’ boat then fair enough. But otherwise, clearly we do need the money.

Do you not think we probably need the £200k to £600k we could generate for being on TV against a big club in the next round?

Personally I thought we did ok considering the number of new signing in there. It was only a 2 minute spell shooting ourselves in the foot that cost us. Up until then we were well in it and should have been infront with the Hyam header. Kagbo looks lively but is clearly going to lack end product. Still, a fast Dolan may be better than a Dolan. Toth looks a liability and JRC was awful. Ultimately , a bit like against Forest in the league cup QF a few years ago, you just saw the gulf between bottom of Prem and our level.

Defender hangs a leg out and Kagbo sees it and moves his foot into it. It’s not a penalty.

You’re correct. Instead of being fucking awful he’s just been generally poor when we are out of possession.

No he was Rudy’s mate from his time at Boro.

Cantwell shite. Toth shite. And as much as some will try and defend him, Forshaw shite.

Self inflicted.

I mean, they will have to discuss compensation and Waggot / Suhail / Venkys have to agree to it. With our internal communication and politics we know this could drag on (like Rhodes leaving). We also know the logic of "you can't keep an unhappy manager" doesn't apply as they kept JDT for 7 months after he wanted to quit. I'd be a bit sceptical of Eustace going into Derby and trying to utilise last seasons negative, defend at all costs tactics. Ultimately it was only Szmodics hitting unlikely winners at Leeds and Leicester that kept us up.

Course it would. Cos it would be a more attractive game. That would happen at most clubs. Im not going cos I have plans on Sundays, Waggot is a nobhead, the transfer window has been a joke considering the postition we are in and if the owners can’t commit to the future of the clubs playing staff then I’m not not going to commit to a game which isn’t glamour and I can watch on bbc.

No one’s boycotting. The fixture just doesn’t appeal after the shambles of the transfer window, the recent let downs and the stupid kick off time. A quarter final, one game off Wembley, would be a different situation and different appeal.

👆👆

Looking at the seat plan this will be an awful home attendance. It's the first home cup game I'll have missed in a long time, mainly because its on a Sunday lunchtime. If it was today (even at 12pm) I'd have been there.

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine It may have been broken for a while but I start typing www.brf the browser autofills it I must have it as a bookmark.

Well done everyone. I've just come across the new 404 page. Made me chuckle. Its the small things 😃

The fact we signed a player who is only 28 on a free transfer (not loan) for only 6 months tells us where we are financially with our future planning. They can't, or won't, commit to increasing the salary of our bigger earners for the next 3 or 4 years.

At Oxford where he played most of the game, he showed he had a turning circle like a truck. It was so easy to play the ball up to a midfielder who would turn him and run at out goal. This led to him eventually having to drop off his man in order to offer more protection. The problem with this is that against Coventry in the second half, him trying to stay dropped off his man meant that he allowed them too much space to advance in the midfield area onto our back line. He's basically too slow / not mobile or agile enough to handle a midfield two as we do when we play as we do with Tronstadt / Travis. Add into that I believe technical distribution is not his game I'm not sure what he brings. It's no surprise the Preston pressure all started almost as soon as this guy come on last Friday. I was sceptical based on what I was reading before he signed, and I've seen nothing so far to make me think he is a better option than Buckley or JRC, who themselves are inferior to Baker.

Dennis is obviously the headline signing and fair play on that score. Let’s hope he’s available to some degree by mid-Feb. Beck won’t be here next year so it’s surprising Ribiero isn’t on a longer deal as we will still need a left back / cover next year. By pedigree he could be better than Pickering. Kargbo is unknown from a low level abroad. He could be shrewd but I’d be surprised if he turns out anything special. Also surprised how many people think he will be a starter. Woodrow I know little of his style despite his experience. He’s clearly unwanted by a poor Luton but he’s done well at this level before so could prove some cheap added depth…….…. ……..unlike Forshaw, who is an absolute panic move and has looked awful in every appearance. If he had anything left he wouldn’t have been released by Plymouth. Sanderson made sense as CB cover. I didn’t see the Pompey game but he’s looked a bit iffy in other appearances so far. If either of Hyam or Ba’ath was injured it would still worry me greatly. The fact practically all of them are here only until summer I think tells us the club are incapable of committing to anything longer term due to the uncertainty of Venkys funding. Majorly disappointing there is no investment when once again we have a sniff of top 6 come February. From this point it’s another shit show. From the restrictions which are clearly put on the recruitment team it’s probably a very average window by them, with the inability to replace Baker the big failing.

Great result tonight for both ends of the play off picture.

Woodrow seemed underwhelming because, like Forshaw, he can't get in a struggling bottom 3 side.

Away from the Transfer rollercoaster, come on Sunderland.