Eustace came into the club knowing what had gone on before, I have no doubt of that. I'm sure he saw Rovers as somewhere he could stay visible, and perhaps navigate the situation in a similar way to Mowbray if he played his cards right. If not, the release clause was there as a potential get-out. As it turned out he was never going to get the same opportunities as Mowbray to spend any serious cash. Once he realised this, most likely last summer, he decided it was time to move on. We know JDT offered to resign and was turned down. Paul Mani says Eustace did the same, and was also told to stay. If we believe that to be true, then he did try to do things the right way, much like JDT, but wasn't allowed to move on. At that point I'm sure he and his agent were looking for a way out via his release clause. However, until a club showed any serious interest he was going to need to continue doing what he could here. Throwing in the towel and half-arsing it would have likely caused the team to become demoralised and struggle, which would make it more difficult for him to find a club willing to pay his release clause. Yes, most likely he played the game and continued to promote togetherness, unity, etc with one foot already out the door - but football is a cut-throat business, so it is what it is. You only have to look at the likes of Mark Hughes to see how quickly things can take a downturn. He needed the team to continue playing to the best of their ability to make himself look as attractive as possible to potential suitors. He probably thought he could get better than Derby. If January hadn't been such a shitshow maybe he would have taken his chances and waited until the summer to try and move on. Maybe if our form hadn't been in serious decline he would have stayed longer. We will never know, but evidently he found the situation here so bad that he would rather chance a relegation battle than spend another few months working for Waggott and Suhail. Eustace had no loyalty to us, but unfortunately this is something we'll have to get used to. It isn't the good ol' days where we were a family run club that supported managers as best as we could. We're a club where managers are lied to, given inadequate resources and not rewarded even if there is significant overachievement. We can't expect loyalty in that situation when the manager does not have any inherent reason for it - such as being a local. We'll always be treated as a way to stay visible until something better comes along. The only way that changes is if Venky's and everyone associated with their ownership leaves and the club becomes something worth sticking around for again.

Who knows what goes on behind closed doors. The players know the club is shambolically run as well, so I can't imagine many of them begrudging Eustace getting out before things really go downhill (and this would have happened with or without him, our post-Christmas collapse is as inevitable as the sun setting). I don't think we were getting into the top six with Eustace, nor will we without him. So, at that point I can only be angry if I feel personally slighted by Eustace. I was never that attached to him to begin with - he'd only been here a year - and I loathe what the club has become under Venky's, so it's difficult for me to become emotional in any way over Eustace going. It's just more BS on top of the mountain of BS that's piled up since the day Venky's arrived. I mainly just look upon Eustace's departure with a detached resentment - entirely towards the clowns who have wrecked this club to the point where managers will be desperate to leave even if we're massively overachieving. The only part of this sorry saga that genuinely angered me was that pathetic statement the club put out.

It's a go-to line for a lot of managers who decide to leave. Mowbray said it too. It's an easy sympathy line which sounds somewhat plausible if you don't bother thinking about it beyond surface level. Same as Eustace's lines about family, togetherness, etc. It's just basic manager spiel that almost every manager comes out with. It's hardly unique to him. All I cared about was how he represented the club and the results he got on the pitch. Everything else is just fluff. On the metrics that mattered, Eustace overachieved massively, and so losing him to a team in the relegation zone is a damning indictment on the club and the club alone.

JDT and Eustace both had actual ambitions for the club and themselves. They wanted to actually achieve something. The owners clearly don't. I'm not sure why anyone would be on Venky's side when it comes to either one.

So if it's public that there are no assurances over any investment, with half our team leaving in the summer, what mug/chancer is going to take that on long-term? I could see a very short term decent-ish appointment coming in simply due to our current position in the league, but after that?

That club statement makes my blood boil. A slap in the face to Eustace, the playing squad and the entire fanbase. Significant investment! Fuck off. Just proves Eustace was right to leave.

Hughes did alright at Stoke until the end, when it fell apart quite quickly. He came to Southampton in March 2018 and kept them up, but then they struggled and he was sacked with them in 18th just before the 2019 January transfer window. To be honest it doesn't seem like enough to make him unhirable for three seasons, let alone for him to have to drop to League Two. I can't remember if in the immediate aftermath he refused to drop below the PL for a job, or if something else was going on. Either way a very sharp fall from what had been a solid position.

Indeed, it might also have been a compromise on a break clause - which it's entirely possible JE considered, factoring in how JDT left.

I mean, if a team in 22nd makes an approach when you're managing a team in 6th, and your immediate response isn't "lol no thanks" then it's obvious where things are headed.

They'll think they can just get another person in to do the job. The ambition isn't promotion and even with their shit leadership we've spent most of our time in the Championship, so, even if they are aware I doubt they're concerned.

Not a peep, as far as I can tell.

A shame because we did a lot of good things in that half. The officials changed the course of the game by disallowing a valid goal when we were in the ascension, then we conceded two soft goals and things suddenly look bleak. I would say at least we can focus on the league with some optimism, but with the club lurching into yet another crisis on the managerial front, probably not.

I don't think he's better than Leo, let alone Pears.

When it comes to Venky Rovers I expect nothing but incompetence.

1-0 up when the momentum is with us and it's a different game. The officials have properly fucked us over. Hard to expect anything from some random cheap keeper plucked from obscurity. He's just a symptom of the Venky disease.

That wasn't offside.

Impressed with Kargbo so far.

I imagine Eustace knew from the moment he signed that there was a chance he wouldn't be backed. JDT was very public about what had happened to him. I'm not sure if he attempted to get a break clause in his contract, but evidently he didn't include one and decided to take the risk. I'm sure he fancied himself to get us out of trouble, at which point he'd retain his visibility and have his stock go up. Sure enough, summer came and there was no backing. Paul Mani says he tried to resign but much like JDT this was refused unless he paid up his contract. I'm sure the feelers have been out ever since to get another job at this level, especially with his stock have risen even higher getting our threadbare squad into the top six for portions of the season thus far. If he's going to a club in 22nd then it's clear pretty much any club in this division will do. I hold no ill-will towards him as it's clear the writing is on the wall for the summer, with multiple players out of contract and seemingly not being renewed, and likely the same pittance available to rebuild the squad. A lot of parallels to Lambert's situation ten years ago, except Lambert knew he could leave whereas Eustace doesn't have that certainty. You'd imagine there would be a better job than Derby available that he could get, but it's impossible to say for sure. It seems he's desperate to jump before the ship sinks so that he has a stable place to land, no matter where that club currently sits in the division. Fact is we'll be lucky to be in this position in the future, as eventually they're going to hire a dud who will sink us. It'll be 2016/17 all over again but I don't think we'll bounce back in the same way we did back then. Our only hope is that a miracle happens and these owners finally do the right thing and sell the club. I fear for who they decide to sell to, though, considering the amount of detrimental decisions they've made since they darkened our doors.

Half of them out of contract in the summer, probably looking at the housing market in Derbyshire.

Lambert had these liars sussed out 10 years ago. Amazing how so little has changed.

Not going to be a great look for the club if we lose our manager to a club sitting in 22nd place, whilst we're 6th. Obviously for those of us following the club closely, we know Eustace likely sees the writing on the wall insofar as being able to keep us going for another season, but you'd like to think such a strange move would raise some eyebrows from those outside of the club. Of course, it won't, but it should.

I can understand him being upset if we didn't inform him ahead of time that we were planning to bring in players to fill positions and there was a good chance he wouldn't be registered for the second half of the season as a result. The cynic in me wonders if they did this on purpose so that if a transfer did fall through we could still register him. One assumes so, as otherwise you have to imagine we would have wanted him and his agent to help us in moving him on before the window shut. It doesn't benefit us anymore than him to pay his wages to do nothing for months.

Great job guys. The admin, content creators (including everyone who posts here), techies and moderators all genuinely care about both the club and BRFCS and that definitely shows in the care and attention given not just to the forum but the website as a whole. I'd agree that this is one of the best fan websites out there for any football club, having visited many different fan sites over the years. As someone who doesn't live locally, I'm incredibly grateful to have such a fantastic place to visit to both consume content and discuss all things Rovers.

The current squad has massively overachieved to get us where we are, huge credit to the manager for that. We won't finish in the top six and the deadline day signings won't be enough to change that, but I think Eustace will have us finishing higher than we have any right to under the current ownership. Eventually they'll do another Coyle, appoint a dud and their shambolic running of the club will once again be exposed for all to see. My only hope is that one day I wake up to the news they are finally selling.

Positives: We're only 1-0 down Negatives: Everything else Horrible performance so far. Eustace needs to give it the old 'Aggressive', 'Show me something else in the second half'.