smiller14

My point is Wilder has a more recent record of promotion, so think his point remains valid. Not sure I would be overly enamoured with either. Wilder knows the club and only left 10 minutes ago but it's pretty uninspiring and suggests a club with no strategy or plan.

I still have nightmares of Swansea away vs 10 men where Buckley played as a false 9 by himself as Giles whipped in crosses to nobody.

South coast derby on. This might be the kiss of death but Pompey are taking the game to Southampton and look the better side. Not much to fear in the league this season!

By that logic Hughes should be getting poached by a team chasing Europe due to doing it with us.

Not sure but you'd assume it would come from the home side if not ITV

Is this based on anything specific or just a hunch? No obligation to answer. I know the much discussed BRFC Privy is almost certainly a club employee but they tend to post only when things are done and the person discussed above departed before BRFC Privy's rise to Twitter prominence (I think!).

It won't let me give a thumbs up but I agree. I am not nailing my colours to the mast by any means, there's a good dollop of devil's advocate and wishful thinking in my post. The high turnover is concerning; on one hand you can point fingers and wonder how we let it get to a position where so many key players are out of contract shortly. On the flipside, at least we got some money for them; our failure to do so has been a key bone of contention in the past. Even taking money out of it, do players nearing the end of their contract who are certain they're moving on push themselves as much as others? Dolan would suggest they do, but perhaps different when playing to impress potential suitors (Dolan) vs trying not to get injured before joining a club that had been in the pipeline for months before (as may have happened with Brittain/Trav). The latter don't seem the type to down tools, of course, but subconsciously it can affect performance. As for non-playing staff, again does it suggest a poor working environment or is it a case of trying to hire staff less wedded to the 'old guard' and have a fresh, joined up approach (which could of course be construed as trying to flood the club with 'yes men')? It's difficult without knowing what has gone on behind the scenes. I'm sure NDAs have been signed and we'll never know, which adds a sense of annoyance to the cryptic 'glad we are out' posts that seem petty and immature but could easily be another mark against Suhail and co's names. I hope none of this comes across as casting aspersions against any former staff members - I genuinely don't know and the way our club has operated, coupled with said posts, creates a vacuum of potential misinformation and conjecture. If the powers that be decided said staff members couldn't work with the new players/manager and were too wedded to previous players/managers, then they had a decision to make. More cynically, the club might just have easily have treated her and others like crap and might be fully deserving of her ire. As for VI, the ruthlessness can go either way but for me a happy medium is preferrable. It depends as well what he's like behind closed doors. Again, I'm conscious I've said a lot without really saying anything, which shows I haven't really made my own mind up on a lot of the above!

Of course you're right. That being said, even when it was working or we appeared close, it always felt like it was miles away. The one constant in all of that is of course our Pune overlords, but some of our players also bear a lot of war wounds amongst all the near misses and 'what ifs'. A good point. I sometimes forget that we finished 7th last year; it feels a lifetime ago now. Even by Championship standards our overhaul has been considerable. It felt inevitable there would be some turnover, especially when the first domino (Dolan) fell. I cannot blame you and fully expect me to disavow the majority of my post within the next 6 months or so....

You're probably right. Although a lot has undeniably changed this summer (whether for better or worse) - will the end result change? Likely not, but persevering with what had gone on before wasn't working either.

There's a lot of chatter about non-playing staff leaving, and my initial reaction was one of sympathy - 20 odd years of service and edged out of the door (not that we know the circumstances). However, with the constant cryptic digs, her being so glad to be gone, my thinking has changed somewhat. Is there a toxic environment? Potentially. Or was there a clique of sorts before with bad attitudes and an obstruction to change (whether we agree with it or not) that needed addressing? It's clear Lesley was extremely close to Travis and also a few others, all of which have given us good service over the years but also presided over much of the underachievement and been key components of a side that many people have questioned with regards to mentality. This is pure conjecture, but does being overly close personally (remember, this is a job) to certain players undermine the role as player liaison officer with the wider group? And is this relationship impacting the day to day role and work with other players, especially at a time when the close relationships appear to be with players who want to leave the club? Again, I'm being hypothetical, but that's what cryptic posts do - they leave questions for people to draw half baked conclusions, and posts like that make me question who is at fault. My gut instinct was always the club, but what's clear is that we need everyone pulling in the same direction, from the manager to the support staff. As always, more questions than answers. A few posts have suggested this and I'm coming around to the conclusion that a refresh of sorts isn't a bad thing. The motives may lie in cost cutting, but I've sulked on many away trips about our squad's lack of fortitude and bottle, with the same scenarios playing out time and time again. Yes, Venkys transfer woes have undoubtedly contributed, but when they cross that white line the onus is with the players, and many of the long serving players leaving now have been consistent parts of a squad that hasn't got it done when it matters. Will the new lads be different? I genuinely don't know, but I'm happy to find out. Would I sign Travis for £3m? No I wouldn't. Would I have renewed his deal if he asked for fair terms? Probably. But I'm not privy to that information. My conclusion is that a change suits both parties and I genuinely wish him well; he seems a top bloke. I think Rovers has been an easy team to play for for too long. Flatter to deceive, gallant losers. This isn't a vindication of what we've done, but something had to change. This rant doesn't have any sort of logical conclusion or end, and might be awash with contradictions as it's just me thinking aloud, but I think our legacy with Venkys rightly causes suspicion, doubt and negativity. Finally we are doing something 'different' - we may fall flat on our face, but I for one am cautiously excited about what comes next. If that's League One, then I will accept that I've just written paragraphs of absolute bollocks and apologise profusely.

Dolan is frustrating but has more goals and assists comfortably.

Wow. What is there to say? The players look lost. We can blame the manager (and I will in a second) as well as the owners (contract uncertainty can't help) but they looked totally disinterested for 90% of the game. Even our captain - he might be pissed off but he was petulant and offered nothing. No fight in them, but we largely knew that. The tactics were mind boggling. The set up was always a risk but if implemented well who knows, but the players didn't know their roles. We somehow had a scenario where we sat weirdly deep but with still with huge gaps between players. We never looked like scoring or applying any sort of telling pressure. Some players deserve a special mention. Cantwell put in an absolutely disgraceful shift tonight. Dribbling? Crap. Passing? Flash but often to a Stoke man. Throw in spitting his dummy out and showing absolutely no fight or desire and you can see why Rangers fans chased him out of Glasgow. Forshaw miles off the standard. Travis as I mentioned above crap. Dolan had the odd good moment but couldn't keep the ball - I might actually let him off as I don't think he had a clue what position he was in. At times I saw a glimpse of a player in Dennis but it was masked by constant poor decisions and being bone idle. Ohashi was absolutely crap when he came on. Hyam reminded me of some of those performances he put in under JDT - gave the ball away and then decided to play the fella onside by retreating to his six yard box. We know the issues lie upstairs and it's undoubtedly time to apply pressure (which will fall on deaf ears). However, you can't excuse inept tactics and players who have totally chucked it. Crap. In 5 days we've seen 2 inept performances. Just utterly sickening.

Useless aren't they? Won't shut up about Jack Wilshere ffs!

We had a really poor first 20 minutes but think we've looked okay since then. Grown into the game a bit.

I hope not, although I think if players are willing to down tools over a manager who doesn't have the worst (or the best) track record potentially taking over then we are in big trouble and they need a kick up the arse. For me, the Swansea game was the end of the post-Eustace siege mentality period and levels dropping as a result of there being no manager in place.