JHRover

That would all be relevant if the people making decisions were interested in anything other than getting their hands on transfer money and cutting the wage bill But there are no considerations beyond this so things like damage to the team, morale, upsetting fans, potentially ruining the season, all irrelevant.

So we're now so desperate to sell our home grown long standing captain that we are going to have to pay up 2 years of Mafoumbi's contract to get rid of him so that we can open up a slot to allow us to spend more money signing another foreign lad to replace the captain, who may well not be good enough anyway. What a joke of a club. I'm not going to forget the fact that a little over 12 months ago Gestede was doing work experience shadowing Waggott, apparently with a view to a future career as a CEO, and now he's responsible for all recruitment to the club. They've thrown our fate into the hands of a novice.

I can't remember the exact wording but something along the lines of "When are you signing a new contract?" "When I get offered one" I don't know whether Ismael was honest or straight to the point. How do you know? It's your opinion. Yes club employees will be told a version of events by Venky stooge in charge. Give it time and he will learn the hard way that what Venky stooges say and the reality are often some way apart.

Fundamentally this comes down to whether you believe the club has made a serious effort to keep any of these players. I don't. The reason for my original post was concern that people are starting to fall for a narrative that they have been made appropriate offers but have declined them. I don't believe for one second that they have and the club is 100% to blame for this situation in my opinion, not any of the players. I get angry and concerned when I see people suggesting that the players are somehow the issue in this situation. How many times must it happen for people to realise the club is the problem?

I don't understand either of your questions but think I've said enough on the subject. If you want to believe the narrative being spread by club employees despite plenty of reasons to believe otherwise then go ahead, there's no evidence either way but we all know how this ends.

Who has evidence of anything? Ismael says one thing. Travis, Brittain and Tronstad said another. They refused to even entertain the prospect of new contracts in February, to the point of forcing Eustace out rather than keep him, yet by May/June have done it? Nah I think it is foolish to assume the bloke new to the club and being given his information by Pasha/Gestede is the correct version.

Doesn't really matter - either way not a serious attempt to keep him and end result is the same

There were people who posted on here that they had heard him say it / asked him about it outside the ground You're doing exactly what the owners and their stooges want - believing every word that they instruct/give Ismael to spread. This is part of the problem - fans blindly trusting everything that gets said without sitting back for a few minutes and thinking about the implausibility of it. That doesn't make Ismael a liar, just that he will be getting told a version of events by people he is working for.

So you seriously believe that between March and early July, most of which time the club was effectively in lockdown and all the players and staff were off on holiday, and the Venky stooge was in India getting his instructions, that he's initiated contract talks and then actually made a serious offer? Have you been following events at the club recently? Ismael will be getting strung along like the rest of us - told a tale by those above him to keep him quiet/happy/blaming the previous regime. He's new to all this and probably thinks he's working for a genuine honest group of people. He will learn by January.

Their actions over the last 4-5 years. Haven't you noticed a pattern yet?

Quotes from people who spoke to him outside the ground before/after the Accy Stanley match Chances of the club suddenly offering him a deal during the dormant summer months whilst the player is away on holiday? Slim I'd wager.

Not according to the player he hasn't. Which would tally with the woeful record we have had on all renewals, and also what Brittain and Tronstad also said recently. Why would the club make him an offer if they want his wages off the books and a cheaper alternative in?

And Travis has said on more than one occasion he hasn't. Who to believe?

He hasn't been offered a new contract.

Ah so just a bid to try and flog a few more season tickets (at the higher price) by using Shearer/PL glory references again. Yawn.

JDT is a clever bloke and he quickly worked out the unorthodox and bonkers way this club actually works behind the scenes is a far cry from the 'normality' that you might expect when arriving or looking at it from the outside. From the outside looking in - billionaire owners delegating responsibility to a board of directors, '£20 million a year' going in, huge losses over the last 15 years, talk a good game about wanting success. This is pretty much all that many fans, media and third parties see. It's only those with experience of it or us fans who spend our time looking into things in more detail who see the reality of it. It quickly becomes apparent that the club is just a total joke, Initially JDT was happy to put the pressure on Broughton as he probably misunderstood the situation and thought that the Director of Football was actually in control of the football side of the club. After a while he realised that Broughton was the latest in a long line of people led up the garden path and so he first turned the focus onto Waggott, which you would as he was the highest ranking individual at the Club, and then eventually the spotlight was turned onto the Venky stooge. He was gone within days of doing that.

I did a google search and that was all that came up I'm assuming he's somebody else!

Championship 2025-26 season preview: Club-by-club guide to the new campaign - BBC Sport The 'experts' (lol) Jobi McAnuff and Aaron Paul (who?) reckon us, Sheff Wed and Hull as the bottom 3. I can't really argue with that - an easy prediction to make really based on chaos and mismanagement.

Mowbray and Venus had too much power because Tony bypassed him in the summer of 2017 and went straight to the power in India. Not daft Tony - he knew where the power and money is in this hierarchy and the way to get what you need is to get to Pune and around a table with them. Venky Stooge Pasha doesn't want this - he got shut of Bowyer who had that personal connection to India, then the appointments he has overseen have all been kept at arms length from India and unable to repeat the trick of getting a direct link to the owners. I remember in JDT's first full summer after a positive first season there was a plan or desire for him and Broughton to get to India. That never happened, I wonder why. So yeah, Mowbray was in many ways the perfect man for these owners and by extension the Venky stooge. Oh how I bet he wishes Mowbray was still here to send to the Fans Forum meetings! Some jovial stuff about favourite biscuits and how he used to love watching Boro as a boy would go down a treat. But by getting rid of Mowbray and severing a link to India there the Venky stooge consolidated his own position as unrivalled dictator.

Eustace was desperate to get the core key players tied down to new contracts. They and their agents were probably asking him regularly whilst they were loving life sat in the top 6 playing under him. He couldn't tell them anything because he was working for shysters, liars and bullshitters. And eventually, after another fiasco of a January transfer window, he gave it up as a bad job because it was impossible to sustain what he had on and off the pitch without clarity and some backing, neither of which anyone is ever getting here - see the Fans Forum page if you want to know what I mean by a lack of clarity - if a simple Forum meeting ends up such a fiasco just imagine what it must be like dealing with them on a daily basis and trying to get answers and commitment out of them. Or if you believe in fairies it was all because he wanted to save a 30 minute commute whilst risking a year in League One.

His first foray without Slippery Steve there to navigate the choppy waters and it looks like the Venky stooge has well and truly made a hash of things. Suspect he will be on the blower to Pune to get that human shield / fake CEO / snake oil salesman in pronto on a short term consultancy deal just to take the heat out of things and so he can take a step back and hand over the smooth talking to someone well trained in the arts. Where's Mowbray and his tales of 70s Teesside and the humble people in Pune when you need him?

Or maybe Eustace was very happy with the team and group he had last year and recognised that it had - or was close to having - the ability and spirit needed to get into the play-offs, but was so unhappy with the conduct of the owners and their henchmen, failures in January and lack of backing that he still had to walk away from it all because he was being made a fool of and lied to (like everyone else involved here). So the next best thing is to go to a proper club and then take advantage of our owner induced chaos, strife and negligence by getting hold of some of those players that were doing such a fabulous job for him last season. So rather than a case of him storming out because he didn't think the players were good enough rather he did think they were good enough but didn't get the support or assurances he needed to go to the next stage. That desire to progress, build and get to the promised land doesn't fit with the agenda these owners have which is running the club into the ground to save them money (but will actually cost them more in the long run). Whereas Derby and just about any other limited but remotely ambitious rival will be all over it. Seen a few questioning how Derby can afford to do the business they are. It's called ambition and backing your manager. We could do it if the owners wanted to.

Still sticking to the £20 million a year lie. "Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it"

Conveniently he's now the one they are going to blame for the Brittain/Travis/Tronstad contract debacles. Nothing at all to do with the owners or the bloke that they've had skulking in the shadows for the last decade.

By no means the most alarming item that came up but just to get into the David Lowe topic Nixon/Jackson/media report his departure No announcement from the club Pre season underway and no sign of him in training or at games, apparently not returned to Brockhall since the end of last season Ismael confirms in post-match interview he's gone No announcement from the club As of tonight Lowe still listed on club website as 'first team coach' Most senior employee attending Forum meetings telling people 'as far as he is aware' he hasn't left No announcement from the club Wow. Absolutely crazy this organisation.