JHRover

This 150th game is the regime's opportunity to paint an image of normality to the world. They'll be expecting a bumper crowd of people to turn up for the 'special' occasion, probably stick some Rovers 'legends' on the pitch before the game, wear a special shirt. This will all make them look and feel legitimate. I agree the best, probably only way, for supporters to send a message to them and the watching people on Sky, is to not turn up for it. I also appreciate that is everyone's own choice and might not be acceptable to some. So ultimately we will get a half-way house. We won't get a total boycott of the game or a ridiculously low crowd, but the ground will be more than half empty, which tells a story in itself for what should be a significant occasion in our history. Personally even ignoring the 150th stuff the ignominy and humiliation of sitting there as our former manager, captain and half our side turn up for Derby, and imbeciles around me in the stands booing/blaming them for our demise, is enough to ensure I stay well away from Ewood, as I genuinely would not be able to go and sit there without either falling out with someone or walking out in disgust.

Ah so it wasn't to save 30 minutes on his commute then? Almost as though that was another lie made up by the regime and their defenders.

Qualified people want paying. I imagine Rhodes, like Gestede, will be willing to work for very little or even nothing to get a post-playing career off the ground at a Championship club. Rovers get a 'fan favourite' to roll out for little-no cost.

Is there another Championship football club, or even any other professional football club, where this guy would have waltzed his way straight into a senior management role, one that seemingly gives him free reign to upend the entire football operation and squad? Just when you think things couldn't get any more ridiculous under these owners up pops Gestede. They just love to appoint these people - grateful for a job, wouldn't get a comparable position elsewhere, compliant. Absolutely zero experience of doing anything other than playing football at a myriad of random clubs across France, England, Australia, Iran and Greece, yet within 2 years of retiring as a player is parading around Ewood Park in his fancy suit. It would be beyond comprehension at most clubs yet here it is just the sort of thing that we've become accustomed to. Knows the right people, says the right things, you're in for as long as you want to be. If he thinks he can occupy such a role and oversee the changes he has and not face criticisms or pressure then he hasn't done his homework. He's going to get it big time this season as the consequences of his decision making unfold and his mate in the shadows hides away. Good. It has been plain sailing in his 12 months so far, mainly because of Eustace's good work and the efforts of players bundled out of the back door. Now it is Rudy's project he gets to own it and face the realities of it.

This is the bit where the Facebook/Twitter/Venkygraph bots line up to applaud the club for 'honesty' and 'transparency' for this stage managed stunt to quell anger following another humiliating and disgraceful transfer window. Doesn't matter whether they talk any sense or indeed the truth or not. The questions will be vetted in advance, Jackson and Chaddy along with hundreds of others can praise the communication and 'honesty' of the trio (Suhail hides away of course) and on we go. They're able to tick a box on transparency and communication and there we have it, it really doesn't take much for the Venky stooges to manipulate the narrative.

Will they be advising the owners to immediately take steps to sell the club? That's the only question I'd like to hear them answer. Even then it ultimately makes no difference.

Venkys 'got away' with it before because people focused their energy / attention on subordinates - Kean, Singh, Shaw, Waggott, Coyle, now its Gestede and Suhail. Whilst I fully accept that those subordinates are a symptom of the problem and need addressing urgently as they should be nowhere near running a Championship football club - we must not lose sight of the ultimate control here. One thing that concerns me is that when, eventually, Gestede is moved aside and made into the fall guy for the latest disaster, that people think everything will get sorted out and that there is a future with Venkys once they employ someone better to run the show at Ewood. Isn't happening folks. Our problems will remain for as long as they do. This is all happening on their watch.

If anyone needed confirmation then the Hyam sale provided it - results, points, league position are not the priority here and haven't been throughout any of this summer. Those that were concerned with results - JDT and Eustace - moved on because wanting to be successful and get results was incompatible with the agenda being pursued by the owners and their stooges. Their desire to get Hyam out, his wages gone and their hands on a couple of million of cash overrides everything else, even Championship status. Remember that in May when they start pretending that relegation was unexpected.

I'm not blaming 'the fans' for our situation, but I do hold those (Increasingly few) who publicly defend the regime in contempt

How is the regime going to paint Hyam as the villain of this sordid affair? They pulled it off to perfection with Travis.....but pushing their luck expecting people to believe that sort of thing twice in a couple of weeks

Probably just realised that what his 'sources' at the club say and what actually happens are often the opposite and that he's been played for a fool just like everyone else involved with this operation.

They got taken over last season by one of those imaginary consortia that wouldn't ever buy a debt ridden struggling 2nd division club.....

Even Waggott could see the writing on the wall - announcing to the public in 2023, before a ball had been kicked, that his target was survival (despite finishing 7th and an FA Cup quarter final the season before). Two years on and they've worked damn hard to get us here. That squad was far too good to deliver relegation and the annoying interventions of JDT and Eustace derailed the operation. Fortunately both were forced out of here so that staff more receptive to the plan could be brought in. What we are now seeing is the culmination of a 2-3 year plan, orchestrated by the owners and delivered by their underling(s). Time and time again we are swimming against the tide with these owners dragging the club backwards every way it can. Still some can't see it. They deserve Venkys and what is coming next.

It's conscious, deliberate and planned. Venkys and their henchmen would rather rule over the wreckage of a League One or Two club costing them what they are prepared to spend than admit defeat, step aside and hand the club to someone prepared to fund and invest in a Championship club. Nice people? Selfish lowlife such that their own egos come before the status and survival of the club.

We won't be hiring him, we'll just be giving him work experience to keep him busy and try to get a job done on the cheap. Meanwhile almost 4 months on and still no replacement CEO for Waggott. Who is picking up 'the slack' that he was covering last year? The work that required a £400k a year salary seems to have just fallen into the cracks between those that remain. Interesting.

If Hyam wasn't keen to get out of here asap, especially if a club with ambition is sniffing, then I'd be questioning his sanity. If he has a choice between sticking here for 6-12 months until his contract expires trying to lead a collection of foreign signings to enough points to survive, or heading off somewhere to collect a pay rise and get a 3-4 year contract at a club that actually wants to get somewhere and do something, it is a no brainer.

Count yourself lucky that he's still here and the regime haven't seen him off. He will be the 'project' for January, expect Jackson to release stories about him being homesick and refusing to sign a new deal during November / December. I suspect the only real ambition at the start of the summer was to ensure that Dolan, Brittain, Hyam, Travis, Tronstad were all out of the door for as much money as possible. A normal functioning club would have moved heaven and earth to keep as many of them as possible after last season's efforts, but no, at Venky Rovers the only aim is to get them out asap. Deliberately and consciously breaking up the core and spine of the side that finished 7th last season. I've seen some classics on the delusion scale in my time following this club but the suggestion from some that the club are getting shut of all that lot because they failed to get us into the top 6 and we are trying to improve on 7th has to be the best one yet. Laughable. This is deliberate managed decline. It has been for the last 2 years and will continue for as long as the two stooges can get away with it. The chickens will be home to roost soon though.

Don't you just know it. £2-3 million cash guaranteed from Wrexham, a top earner out the door. In his place a loan and miniscule contribution to his wage with an 'option' to buy. Job is a good one indeed. Couldn't have designed it any better. Meanwhile the regime defenders will point to Hyam's (self inflicted) contract situation, and 'versatility' of the incomer and continue to try and argue it is a job well done.

Deliberately. I hope people remember this when we are struggling to retain Championship status. Or will it just be shoulder shrugs and excuses?

At least there's no worry hanging over us about potential last minute departures. With the exceptions of Hyam and Tronstad I can't imagine anyone having any interest in any of our players and there's not much noise about either leaving this window. We've already quite efficiently got rid of the assets.

Why do you have to? You can increase the budget if you want. I can guarantee Derby have significantly increased their wage bill this summer judging by their recruitment and desire to progress as a club. Wrexham another. Birmingham. Charlton. All budgets that will have shot up. We didn't even need to increase or break our wage bill. Could have simply maintained what we had but that would have required the owners to maintain their financial input. They clearly don't want to. Their choice, we have to live with the consequences of those choices. Constantly looking for cuts and reductions and hiding behind 'wage structure' is just a race to the bottom.

Right. So that February 2024. At the time Gregg Broughton was Director of Football and it was another 3 months before he left. Around that time Rudy Gestede, fresh off the back of a playing career, was 'shadowing' Waggott by following him to meetings etc. allegedly with a view to him pursuing a future role in football senior management. Broughton, a bloke employed to run the football operation and presumably the 'knowledge' at the club (to be fair he quickly got us JDT in his first act at the club which in my opinion is the best managerial decision made at this club since 2004) is ignored/sidelined by Waggott, and then within 3 months of appointing Eustace we have Gestede taking up the role of 'Head of'. You think all this is normal, logical, conducive to anything other than total chaos at the club?

Mowbray said the owners are nice caring people. All the evidence shows they are the opposite of that. What people say and impressions people get often don't correspond to actions and what happens.

I'm not sure he would, certainly the installation of Gestede (no track record or experience) by persons unknown happened 2-3 months after Eustace arrived. When Eustace got the job officially Broughton was still Director of Football yet appears to have been a lame duck from January 2024 onwards and by most accounts Waggott was the one who gave Eustace the job. It's little wonder we are the shambles we are when you look at the number of different people and jobs there have been making decisions. Even in the last 18 months we've had Waggott, Pasha, Gestede, Broughton, JDT, Eustace and Ismael all applying their own thoughts and plans, and probably others in the background we don't get to know about. I don't think it is much of a stretch to imagine Eustace was told one thing when he joined in February 2024 and by the summer with Gestede in the driving seat something completely different was being pursued. Agree he will have known before he took the job what a shambles the club was and the ferocious appetite it had for cost cutting.

Ah right so everything is fine at Rovers' end, it's just the 'model' that Eustace didn't like?