And in true Rovers style we conducted that exact severance negotiation. But we didn’t do it in the summer when we had time to spare. We did it in early February after we had plunged ourselves into crisis and carnage.

Rarely in football does a manager purely resign from a club with no form of severance package or agreement in place. Just look a few miles west of Rovers. I doubt Lowe walked away with nothing. In fact, Ridsdale said he had to discuss it for several hours with him. If he wanted to just f*ck off it could have taken 5 minutes. That’s now how it works for any manager.

By the way what is the state of fitness of the new signings? I presume Toth it fit. Baker too. Duberry on the bench against the Dingles but not utilised. Has Cantwell had a minute of football in pre - season?

Last seasons disaster is completely on the club. To blame it solely on JDT ‘downing tools’ is total bunkum. JDT was consistently undermined and worked against by those above him despite almost masterminding a play off finish miracle the season before. He even offered to leave for free in Summer 2023 when the budget was abruptly changed as he saw that the club might need a more pragmatic manager to get results. 3 deadline day deals not completed and banned by Maggott from speaking to the media the day before a vital game. He told those in power some uncomfortable home truths and they’ll never forgive him for it.

It’s not a worn out cliche that every game in this league is tricky. It’s just a fact. It was actually part of our undoing last season - that our points haul at home against those teams in and around us was simply not up to scratch.

Early predictions: Dyche the first manager to be sacked - replaced by Moyes. Ten Hag does not last the season. Ipswich most likely to stay up out of the promoted clubs. City to win it by Easter again.

It strikes me as almost unbelievable that some people on here think Pears played well yesterday. Not dropping a complete clanger resulting in a goal being conceded is not good - it’s the bare minimum requirement. If I was being harsh I could even say that in the first half he came out for one ball and was all at sea. Similarly an instance in the second half when he should have come out to sweep up the danger and he retreats into his shell. Dreadful. It’s a matter of when not if a calamity is going to happen with him between the sticks.

I didn’t intend for my post to reopen old wounds. If you thought that was the intention I apologise. I agree that overall their ownership has been a dismal failure, it couldn’t be judged as anything else. I think they’d attend a game like that because they love basking in the glory of the huge occasions, when we’re playing one of the big six, cup final etc. I think you would accept that the several different positions amongst the fan base cannot be reconciled. I just think this current truce is relatively painless compared to the toxicity of several years ago.

That Birmingham home game under Bowyer still gives me nightmares. 3 nil down in what felt like 20 mins. Could’ve equalised in injury time too, Scott Dann fresh aired a shot in the box.

Half the support base want to throw a snowball on sight if they see them, the other portion want more visibility and communication. That gap can’t be bridged, so they’re better off staying away. I still think that if we hypothetically got to a playoff final it would be a shame if they didn’t feel able or willing to come over to Wembley and watch the game.

Worse than Jake Kean, Simon Eastwood? I think we’ve airbrushed some of the players from the past 10 years from memory (for good reason).

Sacha Petshi and Fode Koita

Every player in the current squad who is aged 26 or lower, so loads of them.

Sad to say that I fancy Burnley to make at least the top 6, maybe even the top 2. Lots of players through the door, but most look to have real quality for this league. Talking about rivalries, I find the extras around our derby to be very unsavoury. It’s just ridiculous that away fans aren’t able to make their way to the respective stadiums. My best mate from all the way back at school is a big Burnley fan, and the banter still goes back and forth to this day. I suppose that’s inevitable when half the school is Rovers and the other Burnley.

Except that none have actually arrived yet, just the arrivals board predicts a cluster soon.

Is Hyam contingent on Diaz going what you’ve heard? That quote from Nixon makes no sense.

I don’t even know where to start with that claptrap from Nixon but here goes: 1. If Hyam deal is contingent on a Diaz sale, why did we bid with money that we don’t yet have? Why did Mark Robins say he’d gone to Rovers just yesterday? 2. If Diaz was so close to going on Thursday as he claims, why did JDT say in his presser on Friday that nothing was close and why did he play yesterday? Total tripe on so many fronts I think.

I’ve tried very hard to be as patient as possible throughout to the summer. But if this Van Hecke story is true, then it’s a complete and utter shambles.

After the dreadful performance at Reading (the worst since the Fulham 7-0 imo) my confidence is on the floor, so who knows what the players are currently thinking. One thing is for sure though, another performance like that and we could be on the end of a proper spanking here. It’s a bogey ground and they have a squad packed full of talent and assembled with big money. One of the promotion favourites and for good reason. My XI: Kaminski, Britain, Ayala, Philips, Pickering, Travis, Buckley, Hedges, Dack, Gallagher, Diaz Nobody could complain about being left out after Reading. I can’t see anything other than a 2 - 1 defeat unfortunately. Dack for Rovers and Khadra and the big lad from Malmo for the blades. Surely we can’t be as bad as we were on Wednesday?

To heed my own advice from just a few minutes ago, I’m lead to believe the Sepp Van den Berg deal is completely done bar confirmation. The snag is the current injury problems at Liverpool, which is always the downside of relying on loan recruitment at this stage.

He’s referring to Van Hecke. Doesn’t make the attention seeking any more necessary though. I can’t understand people posting hints on this forum without providing the info they claim to have. The phrase “put up or shut up” comes to mind.

I agree with some of the comments above that loaning Phillips back would be a total insult to the club and should not be entertained under any circumstances. Downgrading of the squad, such as replacing a permanent player with a loan one, should not be tolerated.

If Diaz is to leave, Everton certainly seems like a good option for both him and us. Close to home for him, PL football and a decent wage offer no doubt. Everton also tend to pay plenty for targets so we would be in line to receive a very decent fee. As I said yesterday, the key thing is what we do if/when Diaz leaves. The clubs transfer budget doesn’t seem to shift regardless of player sales, the annual budget is set at the beginning of summer in India.

The notion that we have a wage structure akin to league 1 clubs is extremely misleading, maybe deliberately so. Rovers aren’t even close to the bottom of Championship wage bills. There is plenty to criticise the club for but that is total nonsense. As for the Diaz contract situation, if the club had offered him a new 4 year 20k plus a week contract last summer this forum would have gone into meltdown. You know that and I know that @JHRover.

And as I said in the very first sentence of that post, I agree with you.