Seeing Kenny there today made me wonder about an outlandish idea - bring him in as manager in name, while leaving the day-to-day to Lowe, Johnson, et al. Its been a decade or so since he was active and it didnt end well at Liverpool, but he would be a big inspiring name, and also the continuity candidate who wouldn't look to instill his prescribed style of play. With his history with us and the anniversary, it would be poetic if we then somehow win the play-offs...

I know what you mean re Eustace - I'm conflicted myself. I landed on a more negative take because I think he has acted solely for himself. As the boss, and someone who by all accounts enjoys a strong relationship with the team, how are the players to think with how he has acted? I don't think he owes anything to Maggot and Suhail, but I'm old-school in that I think he has some leadership obligation to the players to lead them through the season and see how far they can go. I would have had a very different take if he had seen the season out and left in the summer. Even with the most sympathetic reading of his comments re Derby, he was minimally trying to use it to leverage something for himself. Some part of that may be noble and justified, but I doubt that was his intent. Eustace is not stupid - he would have burnt the Derby bridge, and he must also have known that simply naming he-who-must-not-be-named Suhail in public was enough to seal his departure.

This time last year, the whole JDT incident was so depressing. This time, I'm just feeling so drained. No one comes out of this with any credit. Not Eustace. I didn't like Eustace when he took over last year. In particular, I thought his lines touting togetherness were soundbites carried over from JDT, and his stuff on the pitch wasn't exactly good either. We were lucky to stay up. As this season went on, the results came against the odds. Eustace was clearly better than useless. The football is not easy on the eye, but it worked, and you start to think he believes his stuff on togetherness. I have not commented much this year because I didn't really warm to him. He felt a little distant even during the good run, not quite as invested as season 1 JDT. It is clear now that he only saw us as an opportunity to keep himself relevant. After all that talk and actual good work building the team, he has really shat on us by leaving at this time, under these circumstances. Not Venky's. Why are they still here?? When I look at our circumstances professionally/unemotionally, I understand the difficulties and macro-challenges in running the club. The economics are not in our favour, and from that lens, one could even logically explain away some decisions on the lack of investment. I do not agree with the approach, I am not happy about it as a fan, I think more can be done to push the envelope, but I can sympathise to some extent about the challenging environment. But the neglect is unforgiveable. As owners, you need to at the very least set some direction (even if we may not agree with it), communicate with your leadership team and the fans, at least occasionally. It feels like they have simply given up or are wishing us away. But if that's the case, why hold on and reject reported enquiries about a sale? This leads us to the two goons running the club. Venky's may be the root cause, but there is no doubt in my mind that Maggot and Suhail are the cancers ruining the club. I wish someone can tell us what the relationship is between Venky's and them - are they given a set budget and told to do their best? Or are they actively advising Venky's on what to do? Whichever the case, having absentee owners mean dumb and dumber have an outsized influence on outcomes - they effectively set the club's direction and culture. If they act like a professional CEO and COO, set higher standards from the top, be more open with the manager and fans, it would go someway to alleviating this pain. But we have seen nothing from them that suggests that they are able to do so - expectations and standards are low, nothing is done creatively to maximise impact etc. Under them, the club feels like its dying a slow death. And what makes me so angry and frustrated, is that it need not be like that. The championship is so open as the last two seasons have shown - all you need is one good season, and we could be in a position to reset. I don't know how we'll do now - it's improbable but not impossible that with the right appointment, we could still have a go at the play-offs. But equally, the wrong guy could hasten our demise. It's always the hope that kills you. Just waiting for them to appoint Rudy as the interim coach now.

If he arrives...

Its finally up now

Fuming at the ref like the rest of us. Glad we continued to show steel and spine, and all credit to Eustace on instilling that in the team. If we were offered a P4 W2 D2 start at the start of August, we would have all taken it I think. With some better luck, it could even have been W3 or 4. The margins in this league are so fine that ek-ing out points like this (and at Norwich) could make the world of difference at the end of the season. Other observations: Like many others have said, shades of Warnock in Beck. Pears continues to be uninspiring - poor kick in the first half that went straight to their player, and caught in no-mans land when he came for a cross that resulted in a header at an open goal which went wide. The defence also seems to have been instructed (or they just don't have the confidence) not to pass it back to Pears - the first backpass i noticed was after 80+ minutes. Hope Toth proves to be the real deal. With Eustaces' line up today and who he left on the bench, i have some hope that he will drop Pears if Toth shows himself to be better in training, and not need to wait for Pears to get injured or drop another clanger.

This is a promising start to the season. While I was very critical about Eustace last season, credit where credit is due - he seems to have instilled some spine into the team, and instituted a pretty effective style of play so far. Over the last couple of games, you can still spot some JDT-esque passing patterns, especially in the last third, but we seem to be more able to break forward more quickly and a bit more directly than last season. Positives - Big Mak, Ohashi and Weimann are all promising. We also seem to have put together a good senior leadership team in Weimann, Baath and McFadzean, which is like a poor man's Nelsen-Savage-Mokoena combo. On Big Mak, I guess the mixed views just shows why he is playing with us, with quite obvious strengths and flaws. For me, he has been critical to our good results so far, with the key being that he has end product. He has a good touch (mostly), and good decision-making and instincts, such as knowing when and where to pass, which you can't quite teach (i.e., the timing and weight of his passes for the Hedges goal against Norwich, and yesterday's for Sigurdsson, which Dolan would not have managed). Ohashi's industry reminds me of Dickov, in a good way. He seems to have good nous, reads the game well, gets into good positions and can run all day. I thought he was more effective playing deeper or in a pair, than alone upfront though. Weimann is a very astute signing. Experienced, fuss-free, does the basics well and right. I read some comments last week that we didn't look fit - I'm a bit surprised by that, I actually thought the players looked significantly fitter than last season, and most seemed to look a tad leaner, including Dolan. Negatives - Midfield looks light. We need to keep Travis because we are so short there, but I thought he looked hesitant and didn't contribute much. Poor man's Savage, and the petulant yellows don't help his case. In a better team, he wouldn't be a starter. Yet, lose him in ours and we'll be screwed. I think one solid midfield loan/signing would make a significant difference, rather than try to fill with numbers and young loanees. Similar for attack, I would take one solid winger/forward over a couple of middling loanees. Defence and Goalkeeper - A new first choice keeper must be the most pressing need, and may even rub-off on the confidence of the defenders if they know there's someone they can trust behind them. Hyam and Carter have not stood out so far, but also has not looked as shaky as at times last season. Cover needed for full-back positions, someone who can challenge Pickering would be good. Given that most of us would have snatched bitten your hand off if offered 7 points out of 9 a few weeks ago, this has given us a solid base. As we've seen over the years, momentum is really important in the championship, and we somehow have that now. Eustace and the team have delivered on the field so far (I'm convinced we would have had at most 1 point from the last two games, last year). It is the hope that kills you (us). To build on this start, the battle is in the boardroom. I'm hoping against the odds that we deliver a couple more quality players, which could make all the difference. This is so important as it is now a 23-25 man game, rather than 11+3. But I have no trust in Waggott, Shadowman and Venky's, so am fully expecting only John Fleck and two unknown loanees to show up on the last day.

Think this is another indicator that suggests that Fleck was indeed Maggot's signing. If Fleck had any decency, he would walk away and retire or agree a very low pay-as-you-play deal. Anything else and it is more than suspicious. I'm not a fan of McFadzean and wouldn't re-sign him, but I can at least see the argument for it. Offering Fleck a new deal, and also tells us what aisle we'll be shopping in - the quick-sale and rejects row.

Just so glad we didn't choke. The immediate feeling is pure relief. Hanging at the back of my mind is still the sense that this is in all likelihood just a stay of execution, but at least we're still alive. The Championship is so tight and Ipswich has shown that you can do wonders without breaking the bank - you do this by investing in good coaching, correct signings to fit the system and running the club well. Everything we lack. Until we can sort out Maggot and Venky's, we will not have the foundations right. On to the summer of low-budget non-moves and the deadline day cock-ups. It feels like we should actually have something in the bank this summer and FFP can't be an excuse now - let's see what tale Maggot cooks up this time.

I have a bad niggling feeling that we'll go down on goal difference by a single goal, because that is just about the only outcome more painful than the 2016/17 relegation. I don't usually bet, but have also put in my heart break bets. Don't think i can bear to watch tomorrow, will probably just check the results in trepidation after its done...

Agree, can't shake the bad feeling about this one. Also the way it has turned out, we would be better off in terms of safety if we had lost to Leeds but beat Sheff Wed.

Hahaha, yea I should have written abject, dark, Kean days. The sad thing is how after the promise of last season, and the first third of this season, it has all unravelled so badly, so quickly.

Yes, couldn't have summed it better. It's the hope that kills you. I truly believed too and was the most excited I've been about our prospects since the Kean days.

It's been so depressing over the last 4-5 months that I have not been able to muster the energy to post my thoughts about our farcical season. But after watching that s-show yesterday, I feel that I need to let it out. I'm in the Eustace = useless camp. I did not like his appointment from the start, because I thought his good spell at the start of the season was a purple patch and not indicative of his normal standards. But I did not want to pre-judge him and certainly hoped that he would come good. Given our constraints, we need our head coach to be able to get the team to produce at 110% of as a collective, and I just don't think he has the tactical and coaching nous that we need to be able to do so. Eustace's initial comments about togetherness sound like an empty soundbite recycled from JDT, who in contrast, meant it when he said it. In fact, Eustace lost me on day 2 with his dramatic entrance in the second-half of the Stoke game. I thought he saw that we had a safe win, and wanted to claim credit for it, though I'm sure one could argue that he genuinely wanted to shore the team up. For me though, it was more performative than substance given that he had not had any training session with the team before that. The fact is that the Stoke game was one of the few positive games that we've had in the last six months, and Eustace did not set the team up. Since then, I've not been impressed at all with Eustace's contribution. Sure, he shored the defence up somewhat, but the team as a whole looks disjointed. For all the players' complaints about JDT and our poor results this season, we could see a plan and a method to the madness - there were indications that the players knew what to do, what patterns to play, and were well-drilled. Whether they could do it or not is a different story, but on balance, I would argue that JDT extracted more from them than they otherwise would have been able to produce. In that sense, our current situation is just a reversion to their normal standards. Going back to statements and how he presents himself, Eustace has also proven useless. No clear communication, hides in generalities, and as yesterday's comments show, does not pursue accountability and certainly does not set the right standards. These are basic leadership traits which you would expect a good coach/manager to possess. I hoped he would prove me wrong; after all, who expected Gary O'Neil to turn out so well? Unfortunately, Eustace is more in the Ince/Coyle/Appleton class. On JDT, I lament what could have been everyday. I think he's the best we've had in the last decade, and could have done something special with us. It pains me but objectively, I definitely hold JDT responsible to some extent for this season's mess too. In this regard, I think his broken relationship with the board is the key factor. There was no trust after the Lewis O Brien incident last year and no alignment of vision, and I think JDT found it difficult to be motivated in such a demotivating environment. If Maggot had been more professional, if the board had been straight with JDT, if they had set more ambitious targets despite the financial difficulties - tell JDT we need to ride it out this season, that we still want to have a good go despite the limitations, find a way to do it - we might have had a better outcome. (Remember, JDT showed that he could deploy tactics to shut the shop and play the dark-arts when he first arrived - I remember this well during our win/loss sequence in the first half of last season, when we barely conceded when we won, and it looked like we were playing some form of 90s Italian tactics.) Instead, Maggot obfuscates and publicly says that mediocrity is ok, sets no targets except to develop players - well, my assessment is that JDT decided to work to rule and gave Maggot exactly what he asked for by playing an expansive game at all costs and giving kids like Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard (too) much game time, even when it might have been better to rest them at times. In the end, JDT's departure was inevitable. That said, if we got relegated, I would still have more trust in JDT to create something with a youth squad in L1 - in fact, I would be pretty confident of a reset and our chances of winning the league by a clear margin, given how we regularly spanked lower league sides with youth-heavy teams over JDT's reign. Now with all the above said, the root cause of our woes is still Maggot and Venky's, no doubt about that. I don't know how involved or uninvolved the Venky's are on a day-to-day basis, but if we had a competent CEO who can set the agenda correctly, aim high, and maximise what he can within his remit, we may have a fighting chance. Instead, we have a chancer, more than happy to settle for the mediocre, so we get what we get. Put it this way, if we sign Coventry rejects (both in the boardroom and on the pitch), we get Coventry-standards (the terrible version from a couple of years back, not the heroic one at Wembley yesterday). Finally, our prospects this season - we're certainly doing our best to snatch relegation from the jaws of safety. I've had a foreboding feeling all season. Too many similarities to our relegation in 2016/17 - massive cost-cutting, terrible signings (Telalovic - Stokes, Moran loan - Emnes loan, Greer - McFadzean etc), the same type of FA Cup draw (good effort and near upset against a big PL team - Man Utd then in the freezing cold and Newcastle this time), freakish results in the run-in (I remember thinking that we had done enough when we beat Villa(?) was it, and Brentford on the last day), but the other relegation candidates fought hard and chalked up enough points elsewhere. I'm praying for a miracle in our last two games, but am not optimistic. If we somehow survive this, I pray that we can somehow reset in the summer. But back to the start of this post and the theme of this thread, Eustace is not the man to get us there.

There was probably a reward for a job well done