Bethnal

Figured this out a while ago and didn’t want to believe it. Have a look at the visible Rovers supporter personalities that refused to back a boycott early on in the Coalition campaign, for example. “I won’t let Venkys take my enjoyment away from me.” You have to submit to a higher purpose to achieve something like ousting your ownership and you have to do it in numbers. Too many would rather moan about it on Twitter or podcasts than actually take action. They’ve also all got an opinion on the actions of others trying to make a difference. Anyone trying to do so for this club is on a hiding to nothing.

Just a brief reminder that the manager signed a 3.5-year deal and is absolutely not getting sacked by Rudy “we are not a sacking club” Gestede or Suhail “spending money does not guarantee success” Pasha. Rao family will be updated on tonight’s scoreline and “bad luck” at breakfast in a few hours, before moving onto more pressing matters.

Minutes 45+2 - 45+17 (spent in the dressing room) made us weaker. Came out with less intensity and lower concentration.

You can’t play well for 45 minutes and hope your opponents give up. You can’t buy height and not do any work on set pieces. You can’t turnover most of your squad and gamble on wholesale unproven players from abroad. You can’t rip out the overwhelming majority of your home-grown/academy-developed players in one transfer window and expect a positive outcome. You can’t employ interns to oversee your most important department. You can’t hire a manager with a track record for upturning the morale apple cart at the first opportunity and expect him to get a tune out of a thrown-together squad. You can’t run a football club properly from 5000 miles away. When you do any of these, you make survival in one of the most competitive leagues in the world very difficult. When you do all of them, you make it borderline impossible.

Some committed performances for the first 50-odd minutes, credit to the manager for actually trying to set us up with the opposition in mind, but that’s about as far as credit can go. Lot of players in the squad are missing the ‘x’ factor required to play at this level or higher and we don’t have the required intangible attribute at the club to compensate for that (ironically enough, it’s stuff like “togetherness” or toughness, that does it). Some sympathy for being thrown together as a group with a lot of turnover, but results don’t often lie. You can’t have an effective plan B when your plan B players don’t get minutes, which is why Gueye, Kargbo et al struggle to get into the games when they come on. Disappointing for them when so many others have offered nothing and get a starting berth. Quite how Gudjohnsen commanded a fee is beyond me, but you have a feeling his surname is doing a lot of heavy lifting. To outline where we are - we don’t have much of a budget, we have a divided fanbase, absentee owners, an anti-man-management manager, over-promoted orange juice salesman cosplaying as a CEO/COO dynamo, an intern running the entire football department and a squad of game-albeit-not up to it footballers, with one player visibly more capable than his teammates but with a patchy availability. We’re aiming for 21st position as a best-case, but some of you might be fortunate to compulsively purchase your season tickets next year for the promotional price of £151, to mark spending our 151st year in the third division, so there’s that to look forward to. Turn up to the 150th anniversary game, it could be a watershed moment.

I've dropped you a DM to get further into this. We're on a relatively tight turnaround, but can make quick progress, hopefully.

Genuinely very embarrassing that we’ve given the #8 shirt to Tavares. Do not want to be hammering on about it as much as I am, but he’s lacking in absolutely every department.

Plumbs new depths with every touch.

De Neve isn’t at the level, looks lost whenever he’s on the pitch.

Yeah, Morishita has quality, he’s an intelligent footballer. Poor cross, but his decision making is good and he plays the right way.

Tavares is pony

I fully expect no feathers ruffled but to paraphrase: ”I look at the squad today and I think it’s strong, even with Sean suspended… there’s been a lot of noise about the Championship experience in the squad, but all those players with championship experience that left, at one time they didn’t have any championship experience.” Why spin a very obvious lie? Only thing I can think of is that Venky’s (or one of their underlings) watch the games via a Rovers TV feed and this is some kind of cynical targeted propaganda system. Bit tinfoil hat, I’ll admit, but he’s such a dickhead otherwise, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Opposite Day: Ismael in the Vicarage Rd away dugout, Watford won’t sack the manager after a loss.

Warren Lucy is such an apologist for his paymasters, it’s embarrassing

No urgency, idle threat throughout. Most look like they’re still in 2nd gear. Miller has early indications of a good signing, it other than that, this is a poor side we’ve got and will struggle.