For a fair few of them, the manager went to bat for them to get new deals, as well as have his own hard work rewarded. Manager told to go forth and multiply. Does so. Some loser brought in as replacement. Not hard to see why they're thinking 'fuck this', as our own fans think their job is done by waving snakes at Eustace.

Still can't get over that we're regularly playing a 33 year old who Plymouth gifted us as a starter. Even if we assume Tronstad is still getting up to speed, is JRC that bad that he can't get ahead of Forshaw?

Is this another case of us "wanting it too much" 🤣 what nonsense, unless by "it" he means the players' holidays not being interrupted by those pesky playoff games.

Love these second halves of the season when we inexplicably transform into the worst team in the division. Takes some dedication to do it year after year.

And what? Because they think they were right it means somebody else can't think it's idiotic and pointless? What are you arguing against here?

Nobody is saying they aren't entitled, they're just saying it's stupid.

"We are reaching the situation" where Venky's aren't prepared to listen to the fans? It's been like that since day one.

Well, that's true. I should have said the pressure should be on, but it won't be because as far as the hierarchy is concerned this season's mission is already achieved.

He never said they weren't entitled to their opinion, so what is the point of saying this? Just seems like an attempt to deflect and provoke an argument. There's a difference between being entitled to an opinion and doing something idiotic related to that opinion. If it is your view that standing around waving toy snakes at a former manager is an adult thing to do and a better use of energy than actually cheering, chanting for and supporting the team and current manager, own that and just say so. To many it's a pointless waste of energy than misses the point of what happened, and as you say, that's an opinion people are also entitled to. If you agree then I struggle to understand what you are doing with the above post other than trying to start an argument.

Most hated by who? I don't get the feeling there's a groundswell of hatred from the overall fanbase. Mainly just on places like here where there are older or more detail-orientated fans.

Considering how much JDT revealed in the press regarding his frustrations, how likely is it that he happened to completely leave out being forced to select a player? He picked Pears for reasons only he knows. It was a mistake.

Norwich reminded me of a Russell Martin team - lots of possession but rarely did anything threatening with it. They only had 3 shots on target the entire match so not sure how it can be concluded they were causing us major problems. Just seems like trying to rewrite history to be kinder to the new manager by suggesting they were an incredible team we did well to draw against, rather than an insipid outfit that were nothing special but who we nonetheless couldn't beat. The king is dead, long live the king... It was a home match against a team below us who are poor away from home. We needed to win, instead we scraped a draw. It's nothing to be pleased about. The Derby defeat was even worse. The pressure is on for the Stoke game.

If you don't beat us you probably are going down. A club on a poor run of form has no better chance of arresting the slide than playing us.

If we lose to both Derby and Stoke in Ismael's first three games then the outlook is going to be very bleak indeed. As other teams begin pulling away the pressure piles on, and we know how these lads deal with playoff expectations. Fully expecting another miserable defeat as the force of nature that is our second half season collapse continues on unabated. Desperately hoping I'll be eating my words at full time.

100%. The cursed second half of the season was already happening before Eustace left. It's just something that happens now, like the tides or the sun rising each morning. An unstoppable force. We could be 20 points clear at the top at the end of December and we'd still end up finishing 8th.

The "players aren't playing for him" idea might have slightly more weight if we didn't regularly lose to teams in dire straits. At this point teams on a poor run of form likely mark Rovers on the fixture calender as a target to get back to winning ways.

We haven't paid off a manager since Coyle over 8 years ago, and we're currently spending as little money as possible, so I think this is unlikely to be honest. It may be possible if Ismael has us in relegation trouble - but just like Coyle, Venky's will pull the trigger too late and we'll be sunk anyway.

They were better than usual then.

Nah that £10,000 fine they get will definitely scare them straight.

We can't keep bringing in cheap, out of work managers and expecting miracles. It was always going to end in disaster and I imagine there's a good chance next season it will do. This season the hierarchy's aim is already achieved - safety with less money spent.

I didn't realise how far ahead Liverpool are at the top. Even if Arsenal win both of their games in hand on Liverpool they will still be 10 points behind. If Nottingham Forest won their game in hand they'd still be 16 points behind! What an embarrassment for a lot of big clubs who have spent a lot of money to be incredibly average. Hard to see the bottom three getting out of it now either. They're all well below standard, and it's likely to be the second season in a row all three promoted clubs go back down. Must be disappointing for Sky, lol. No title race to hype up and the relegation battle looking more like relegation acceptance. I guess they'll have to focus on the best of the rest with the battle for 4th.

Having someone who can do the basics and not cost us at least one goal per match would also be OK.

For this season, we needed someone to come in, hit the ground running and have an instant impact. Not easy, but that was the requirement (from the fans, not from the higher ups, they couldn't care less). We haven't seen that at all, so it's already looking like this is a failure of an appointment. We needed to see an immediate reaction and it isn't there. However, he obviously isn't being sacked after two games and nor should he. I think suggestions of this are just people venting and quite rightly angry over how the club is being repeatedly screwed over by the people in charge. Predicting how he'll fare next season is tough. If we exclude the Stoke game, Eustace didn't get his first win until his 10th match in charge - which is insane really, even taking into account that we'd been struggling before he came in. Can't imagine many of us genuinely believed Eustace would get us into playoff contention this season. Eventually Venky's luck will run out though, insofar as hiring out of work managers and having them perform minor miracles. JDT had an aura about him. Eustace had done well with Birmingham before being booted for Rooney. Ismael... lasted less than a year at Watford before being sacked after one win in ten games. Fair to say this may be the one that doesn't work out.

Ismael may have found out some things about players today, but then he's going to look at the squad and realise there's very little he can do about it. He's going to receive a paltry budget in the summer and realise there's very little he can do about it. JDT & Eustace saw the writing on the wall very quickly and got out however they could. In JDT's case going off on Suhail and Venky's until they let him go, and in Eustace's case applying for any and all jobs until he found someone - anyone - willing to pay his release clause. Ismael will find out soon enough exactly why his predecessors were so desperate to escape. The only question is whether he can stomach working in these conditions or not. Three years is a long time, especially in football.

Kind of, but what happened during that time is still a bit mysterious. Our budget was slashed and it was confirmed the club was having to take out emergency loans for the basic running of things around 2015 - but to my knowledge we never found out why. Then we had two auditing companies come in to assess the books - from memory, again, we never found out why two companies were needed - and it all culminated with hiring a terrible, cheap manager who doomed us. This time around at least there's some transparency around the budget cuts (in the sense we know about the court case, anyway), and so far at least they've steered clear of trouble for longer than back then - but it still feels like a matter of time until it all implodes. Ismael isn't Coyle-level bad in terms of an appointment, but he may find himself in big trouble next season all the same.