In fairness, Eustace also seemed like a downgrade at the time of his appointment, but didn't turn out to be.

I thought these days the pressers were mandatory?

No more bookies have given odds? It still only shows Bet Victor.

I dunno if you've noticed, but teams haven't needed to be all that to beat us lately. In fact we have lost to some right dross. And now the manager has fecked off leaving a demoralised dressing room, the club feels like it's in crisis again, and we are away. I don't wanna be a Mercer here, but any gambling man would put money on us to lose, if they could bring themselves to do it. Besides, Wilsden said he was suddenly more confident, and gave no explanation why. So I think the joke was appropriate, it didn't need any further analysis.

Just done a line of coke?

That's got to be the clumsiest pair of goals I've ever seen.

I'd prioritise loaning the ones who have genuine promise, and the ones who are old enough that we know they won't make it, so they need a chance to earn deals elsewhere by getting senior games under their belt, plus clearing a path for younger players to play and develop. I'd say we have loaned out at least twice as many, maybe three times as many players as we should have, and the approach has been hugely scattergun.

I've given up on Gilsenan ever making it into our first team squad, as in establishing himself properly. Nearly every youth player with this level of injury trouble by his age has never made it and been released. The only exception is JRC, who tbf I'd written off too. But even he is constantly getting more knocks and almost never fully fit, that one patch aside where he was excellent. I think Gilsenan's best case scenario is being a JRC (who may have been released if he wasn't capable of playing several positions). But more likely he's a Butterworth or Whitehall I think. The next year will decide his fate.

Sounds most likely the Wikipedia is out of date, and it used to be like that, than the competition's own page giving the rules would be out of date. Especially if the club also think we're through (I know, I know!).

It occurred to me today...Mowbray left because we wouldn't offer him a new contract. JDT left because we wouldn't back him in the transfer market when we had a real chance of promotion. Venkys have excelled themselves this time, and made a manager leave for both reasons at the same time. The chicken chokers are absolutely immune to learning lessons. If they run us for another 20 years, it will all still be the same in 20 years.

According to AI (Copilot): For the recent managerial vacancy at Stoke City, the bookies' favorites included: Steven Schumacher - He was the top favorite to replace Alex Neil. John Eustace - Initially mentioned as the odds-on favorite. Mark Robins - Became the favorite after parting ways with Coventry City. (I also saw from clicking one of the links it gave me, that Paul Heckingbottom and JDT were in the top 4 favourites at one point, at 8/1 and 10/1 - Schumacher was the heavy favourite at 1/2) For the recent managerial vacancy at Coventry City, the bookies' favorites included: Frank Lampard: The former Chelsea and Everton manager was a top contender for the role. Ruud van Nistelrooy: The former Manchester United striker and PSV Eindhoven manager was also in the running. For the recent managerial vacancy at Derby County, the bookies' favorites included: Lee Carsley: The England U21 manager was the top favorite to replace Paul Warne. John Eustace: The former Birmingham City manager was also considered a strong candidate. Ryan Lowe: The Plymouth Argyle manager was another contender for the role.

Christ on a bike do I not want Rooney! Awful manager.

Sorry lads, no offence to anyone, but I find it embarassing that every time we have a managerial vacancy people throw up an ex-player of ours as someone they want, and they almost always have very little managerial pedigree at an appreciable level. Having played for us doesn't make you more suitable for managing us. Having been a great player doesn't make you a great manager. This simply isn't how it works. Sentimentality does not win matches.

I'm sure there are managers who have done similar feats in non-league. Or heck, even Sunday pub teams or 5 a side leagues. Not saying the Irish league is as low as all of those, the point is the quality of the league does absolutely matter. He can only manage in the league he's in, and I'm happy for him, but this achievement doesn't qualify him to manage here. We are Blackburn Rovers, not Accrington Stanley. I repeat, if he hadn't been a world class player and played for us, he wouldn't be in the conversation.

Sorry but Duff wouldn't be in the conversation if he hadn't played for us and been a world class player. None of which has any bearing on his ability to manage. I'm aware of his record in the farmers league but this is Blackburn Rovers. It's not like it couldn't turn out well, any manager could, but it's a firm no from me.

This might be considered one way to gauge the reaction of the fanbase more than comments, as it's a fairly large sample. In response to the FB post giving the club statement about John Eustace, there are currently: 380 Angry reacts 298 Likes 232 Sad reacts 113 Laugh reacts 44 Wow reacts 8 Heart Reacts 4 Care reacts I'd say a Sad react can be ambiguous, people could be sad at the state of the club, sad he's leaving, or sad because they believe the club statement fully and think it's unfair he is leaving this shitstorm. The angry and laugh reacts are pretty clear condemnation, the likes are pretty clear support for the club's (Waggot's, Rudy's, Pasha's and Venkys, that is) stance. The hearts are probably support too. Fuck knows what the care reacts are meant to be. The wows could be astonishment at the club, or at Eustace leaving, so also ambiguous. So out of 1,079 reactions, that's Negative: 493 (45.69%) Positive: 306 (28.35%) Ambiguous: 280 (25.94%) So on the whole people seem to be more pissed off than not, maybe the tide is turning finally. Depends what that ambiguous lot are really about though, the majority of who reacted with a teary sad face. My guess is they're mostly just upset, without the heart to get mad about it in any direction. Mournful resignation.

It's hardly a massive release clause.

Well said. Loads of muppets falling for it on FB though. You can bet your sphincter that the 'one insider' who said 'There is a lot of relief around here' was Steve Waggott, who is probably Nixon's source for all of this, and the relief is that he, Rudy and Pasha won't have to deal with awkward questions like 'why are we letting all our players run down their contracts' and 'why have we spent fuck all out of 40 million in fees and most of the signings are loans?' anymore. The 'one of his big allies in the end' comment of course is likely bollocks, and there to exonerate and deflect from Swag's complicity in events and this article. What's in it for him...he may have been directly paid for his help, doubt he charges much for that, or he may have just been promised lots of access for his gossip stories going forward, so long as he mostly tows the club line.

Joe Boggan, 89th minute winner, 1-0.

Tyjon is starting to look injury prone. 8 appearances all season, including his 1 minute cameo for the first team. 16 year olds don't usually spend all that much time injured, and the ones who do seem to me to spend a lot of their later career getting more injuries.

Thank you, Chaddy, for being honest about the situation and how unacceptable it is. I'm feeling gaslit by some of the fans on FB, it's reassuring that even you, with your constant positivity flag, can see and admit this is a right mess.

Given how happy he is to lie to himself, I think the answer is yes.

He'd literally have to get us promoted first time of asking, only way I could stand to look at that face with all the shit going on at the club. He wouldn't come anyway, after his comments during the O'Brien debacle.

A fucking tribunal decision isn't the same as what someone wants to pay, jesus. He is a 23 year old with something like 170 Championship appearances. We aren't getting under a million in compo.

I'll point it out yet again, if Dolan goes to Derby it won't be for free. Signing for any English club will trigger compensation for us, set by tribunal. Which I'd guess will be in the region of 1-2 million. But this really isn't the priority right now.