But he gets airtime, and some folk will believe what he says. It all adds to the skewed narrative that Venkys aren't the problem.

As a slight aside, I heard Clinton Morrison on the radio last night say, "but when a club like Derby County come along, it's hard to say no." I mean, wtf??? I'm old enough to remember the playoffs when it was us v Derby, and also Jack Walker v Lionel Pickering. Who, I hear many say? Exactly. He was their version of Jack at the time, but Jack swotted him away & he was barely heard of outside of Derby again. Now they're poaching our manager. That's what Venky's have reduced us to & I will never, ever forgive or forget how they've trashed Jack's legacy.

He'll probably lose more than that in his pay off from Leicester.

That may be true, but the whole point is that up until January 1st we had been deeply ensconced in the top 6 most of the season, with a reasonable gap to 7th & below &/or with very winnable fixtures to come, only for the club to the fail to support Eustace with proper fresh investment (both in terms of cost & timing) in January to enable him to properly rest & rotate those who were ailing from having played too much football due to the squad depth being shallower than the sea at Southport. All whilst we've had >£35m added to the coffers, during a period when there's "no impediment to the owners continuing to fund the club". Most commentators in football feel JE has worked wonders in the circumstances, and I think most people who know the game properly and who understand the background at this club, think it's all stinky bollocks. Because it is.

That's 3 things.... but I agree with your overall point!!

Boro's storming window resulted in two own goals last night from newbies....

Well subject to all necessary papers being submitted & approved, my take on the window is that the club have done the bare minimum to support JE and the players. There's plenty of Championship experience in the signings made, some PL experience too, as well as some complete unknowns. Who knows by June which signings will be successes & which will be failures? I suspect there will be some considerable variance on this board between expectations & reality. Certainly the squad is stronger if only because there are more experienced bodies for JE to select from. Whether or not our 1st choice 11 is improved is definitely debatable, especially with Gueye's recent upturn in form, but then that 1st 11 proved itself to be good enough for top 6 anyway under JE's management, which is more than most expected it to be. And is that what January lends itself to anyway or is it as much, if not more, a chance for clubs to plug holes from injuries & suspensions as a long season unfolds? Of course the real issue here isn't anything other than the problem at the top. It's not Forshaw's fault he's not better than Travis, or Sanderson's that he's not as solid as Baath, or Kargbo's that he's not played atvthis level before. It's not them towards whom any dissatisfaction on here ought to be levelled at; nor the recruitment team; nor indeed other fans who try to see the upside of the business we've done. It's the owners & those who advise them. It's them who've sanctioned a massive £800k outlay on new players against >£35m generated in player sales; it's them who find themselves in court unable / unwilling to support the club; it's Waggott who says there's no impediment to the owners paying more when there clearly is (be it imposed on them or self-imposed). I'm not going to rate the individual players on a 1-10 basis now, I'll do that at the end of the season. But so long as they try their best and give 100% to the cause I'll support them, even if they fall short, because they're just symptoms of the real, deeper lying problem.

Well, no... "The deal is subject to approval from the relevant football authorities." We all know what happens now...

That's Bad.

Good Freudian slip there.

Yeah but we do sadly, so the rest ofvtge club have to make do & mend as a consequence, hence to comments of Paul Mani & OOJW... We all wish it were not so.

I don't think Eustace is one to "pander to the squad"! He makes his own choices for his own reasons, but also doesn't seem scared to accept if something isn't working, & change it. He's made a big thing this season about subs making telling, positive impacts. All 3 goals had key parts fir the subs to play (1 goal, 1 assist & 1 chsnce-creating dummy).

So sell. Simple. Good business people know when to get out & cut their losses.

Well we've signed 2 players in these 14 days haven't we? Didn't we sign someone really early on last Jan too?? I'm sure we've had targets in mind for a long time, but think about it. In that time our needs have changed & other teams' needs have changed; players in mind will have hit form & gone above budget or no longer be obtainable, or will have lost form & not be such good value, or have gotten injured. Rovers don't exist in a vacuum where we can click our fingers to make things happen when we want them to. Unless we're not rolling in cash to splurge & in prime position to start off a domino effect of transfers - & under these owners we never will be - then unfortunately we often have to play a waiting game for the players we want to become available within whatever budget is allocated. Nearly every team in the division will be looking for a pacey winger & a freescoring number 9...

That's all well & good but this block of games didn't include the first of them a month ago; plus, back then, we didn't know anything about injuries to Travis, Pickering or Ohashi, or the recall of Baker, which have had to be bumped up the agenda. Add this to the general uncertainty of when players come available for loan or transfer, especially at the end of a crazy amount of games in a shirt space of time & with cup games on the horizon when managers play fringe players & rotate their squads more, it means we can't just dictate what happens from our own scouting booth; there's a lot of moving parts that we have little control over.