He's definitely feeling the love in this photo!!

If it happens, you just have!!

Re Hyam - silly boy really, looking at replays. Needs a talking to, whether or not it gets retrospective assessment (can it be? Not sure if ref blew up or not). Dennis - first challenge directly in front of me; was late & painful, but low & clearly an attempt to get the ball. Yellow fair enough imo. His 2nd yellow was too far for ne to see clearly, but both players went in high in an honest attempt at the ball. Arguably unlucky, but can see why it was given. Not covering himself in glory so far isn't Dennis, tbf, but could still be an asset. Yuki - looked v close to being a pen, but I guess those go either way. Goal - again looked close, angle not good for me to know for sure & replays I've seen inconclusive. Felt like a winner though! Nunez - could easily have had 2 yellows himself for 2 hefty challenges in succession; didn't even get 1!! Overall - take the point & move on. Keeps Norwich at arms length. We've got 3 massive games to vome before the break 6 points or more is imperative imo.

Without wanting to join the ITK club(!), one massive issue with Gueye is his confidence having grown & it's abundantly clear how settling in has helped that happen. I used to work with the fella who has been hired by the club in the last few months to teach Gueye & Yuki to speak & understand English. He says both of them are lovely fellas & that their enthusiasm is genuine and that both their grins are infectious, but also that they are keen & quick learners. I sent him the video of Gueye's recent interview & he was well chuffed with how Gueye comes across in that. We can only hope that the more he learns the language, & he and his family get settled in to England, the more improved & consistent performer in him will continue to emerge.

Let Boro have Boateng, he's one of their ex players!!

It was a really solid, professional performance yesterday against an in-form side with their tails up. We didn't panic (aside from the Forshaw backpass at 0-0 & a Pearsism at 1-0), kept our shape & widened the pitch more, mixed up short & long balls, & were able to up the tempo 2nd half which Plymouth couldn't cope with. I thought Forshaw & Travis worked well together. In fact, I think me & Travis would play well together, which is a mark of how good Travis has become because tronstad, Buckley & Forshaw all look better next to him. Ribeiro looks great, a proper swashbuckling up n downer, love him already. Samderson looked decent but wasn't really pressured. Kargbo looks a real live wire & has pace to burn. Gueye was quiet but still had influence, Dolan was electric 2nd half & unlucky not to get MoM. Everyone else was solid 7s bar ACD, who had some good moments but looks a little lost at this level generally. Hats off to David Lowe in particular. He's clearly respected by his fellow coaches & the players & now I think the wider fanbase can see why. His under-the-radar persona led many to wonder what purpose he serves, which in turn fed into unfounded criticism. The same applies to Benson in many ways. I'm really pleased for Lowe that his stock amongst the fans has sky rocketed & I hope it leads his detractors to think twice about casting unfounded aspersions & his, & others' value behind the scenes.

I don't think we should be looking at just a short term appointment, but getting a longer term successor will be harder of course. I get the rationale given where we are in the table at this time of the season, and agree we don't want someone coming in & changing things drastically. But having a short term vision is what's put the club in the disastrous shambles behind the scenes as it is. If this shitshow has done anything positive (besides hopefully galvanise the players in adversity), it's shone a light back onto how badly run the club is in the eyes of the outside world, with most comments this last week being along the lines of how crap must it have been for Eustace to do his job here day to day to cause him to jump ship like he has, a move which is pretty much unheard of. I'd hope (maybe forlornly) that makes one of SW or SP to sit up & take notice, realise that for the benefit of their boss's reputation (and therefore their own comfy existence) they need to up their game in terms of day to day ops, structure, financing etc. order to attract the best candidate for the short, medium & long term & to actually follow through by not treating the next incumbent like shite, marginalising them in terms of recruitment & moving the goalposts. It's the hope that kills. So far as candidates are concerned, I'd be happy (or at least content) with either Carsley, Allardyce, Cooper or O'Neill. Gerrard would be a big gamble, as would Challinor & Wicky. Absolutely no to Rob Edwards (flash in the pan), Wellens (poor in all but one job), Rooney (obvs) or Boateng (no experience). I'm almost certain it'll end up being none of the above!!!

Lowe clearly making a point re poor recruitment in support of Eustace by not picking any of the new signings apart from Ribiero, & that only cos Beck is injured.

Bit in bold sounds familiar... save for it was the lack of VAR that did for us on Sunday!

But if he did that, he'd just get labelled a "yes man", or a "Venkys stooge / sympathiser", & "willing to put up with their nonsense in order just to feather his own nest" a la Mowbray

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.