Must be the thousandth time I've seen someone here say 'couldn't be any worse than X'. Most of the time, they do turn out to be worse.

No, not really. Plenty of footballers are as thick as mince. Quite a few who don't demonstrate much understanding of the game even. Even if they understand the game, that's entirely different to understanding the backroom side of the game, negotiating deals, contracts, highlighting targets and getting your point across etc. Broughton had at least worked in the backroom part of the game and had some dealings with recruitment and development of players. Hell let's just put Scott Wharton in the role eh? Footballer, loves the club...that's all some people are interested in when it comes to high level appointments.

Don't be so sure. Some of the shit that vast swathes of the fanbase have been willing to swallow has been truly astounding. We already have a seasoned supporter saying he'd be 'more than happy' with it for some baffling reason.

Why in the ungodly fuck would you be 'more than happy' with us appointing a DoF who not only doesn't have experience in that role, but as far as I can see doesn't have any experience in any role beyond 'footballer'? Just because he used to be a good player for us? Come on! That's just a ridiculous position to have. I'm almost as qualified as he is!

It's not really a trick. It's absolutely fair enough, because regardless of their abilities, both of them were undermined at every turn.

He's certainly very clever when it comes to self preservation. It's a shame that precisely none of his intelligence is geared towards the competent operation of a football club. In fact it just might all be in the self preservation arena. Makes me think of a roleplaying video game, where someone might put all their points into one attribute. His overloaded attribute being: snakelike self-preservation chicanery.

The notion that we've undergone all this change and come close to the playoffs after we finally got shut of Mowbray, just to end up with another Mowbray-like manager, kills my soul. And tbh, currently I don't even think he'll be as good as Mowbray was.

Aye I figured that's what's meant when I read Tyrone''s post about it and realised I've heard it before. Think I was thrown by the context, especially mentioning opposition defenders doing them.

He's the one that chose to keep him on for the second half when he had been abysmal though, with predictable results.

What are pull-backs? Apart from another addition to the ever-expanding football lexicon.

I've never heard of a cap clause specifying it had to be in a 'competitive' game.

We lost 40k on that deal according to who? We sold him for a few hundred k after 6 months, so without knowing his wage, agent fee, signing on fee, surely it's not possible to know whether we made a small profit or a small loss? Assuming you meant Ennis with that part.

His early roles were in Lancashire and Preston, and he went to uni in Bolton. I suspect he might be from the area, which could be a factor. I also noted he left his post at Brighton in April, which may be due to having already agreed to start with us in May, but it could also be he was let go from there for some reason. Or it may just be he wanted a couple of weeks to move back to the area. You could also be right about seeing more progression potential here.

Which will mean it wasn't a problem how he looked in the U21s. Just saying.

If it's your first time on linkedin on your browser, you should be able to scroll down and see all that. When I tried to open it again in the same browser it forced me to log in to see anything and I had to switch browser. But he was Club Secretary at Brighton for 3 years 11 months. Also at Sunderland before that for 6 years 4 months, where he was Assistant Club Secretary, then Club Secretary, then Head of Football Administration, which is his role here. Before that, Deputy Head of Administration at Birmingham for 4 years 7 months, and a Player Administration Assistant at the EFL for 8 years. So he's been in these sorts of roles in football for about 23 years. Honestly I'm a bit surprised to see us hire someone who actually has a decent amount of relevant experience.

Silvester out, Baker in...my first thought was it sounds like we're swapping Time Lords! (I wish we did have a Time Lord helping run the club...first mission, go back and sabotage Venkys' purchase of the club by any means necessary)

Pretty certain the injuries had at least a bit to do with it...

So if Gent gets his debut in the first team, will that mean he stood out at youth level?

It mattered, it doesn't matter now. Btw don't Batty and Gent play the same position? So I assume if Batty was playing well at the time, Gent wasn't playing much. I remember it being said that Hanley was once considered a better player than Jones. Their career trajectories soon went very different directions and nobody questions that Jones was better at senior football (injuries notwithstanding), or said it was a problem that he wasn't as good as Hanley at youth level. Gent seems to have progressed and Batty has regressed, that's what matters at the moment.

I don't see how that's a problem with Gent. It doesn't matter what he looked like in the U23s. It matters what he can do now, in senior football. Like you say, he may have (and appears to have) improved.

It would be very Venkys/Waggott. Restructure the operating model by bringing in a DoF...but, make him an inexperienced one, then undermine and underfund his transfer activity, bin him off and write that model off as a failure. Reminds me a bit of what the government have done with the NHS.

I don't think he's been 100% fit for several weeks, and kept expecting him to break down and our season be over. So whilst I was dreading it turning to be a bad decision to keep him on the pitch at all times (bizarrely even at 4-0 up when he had clearly taken a knock, and at 5-0 down), his application, selflessness and persistence are unlike anything I've seen here since probably Dickov. The man loves playing football, and I hope he loves it as much at his next club. He deserves his move, and as long as he doesn't force us into accepting a lowball offer (probably won't be any forcing needed for this lot with their track record though), he'll leave with the blessing of all Rovers fans. Which isn't all that common.

You know correlation isn't causation, right?

They're not really our paying customers though. They're there to support the team we're trying to beat. To use an analogy, it's a bit like if you run a pub, and there's a few customers who always start shit whenever they come. Maybe smear their excrement in the cubicles, start fights, break the pool cues over someone's head. Would you tun away those paying customers? Of course you would. I know opposition fans aren't (usually) doing those things specifically, but if they contribute to us losing points (which is exactly what they show up hoping to do), it's an enormous false economy to say put as many of them in there as possible. Football comes down to small margins a lot, and players are always saying they need the support of the fans, that they're a 12th man etc. It might be a cliche, but why would they say it if they don't thrive on that support? If those small margins cost you a promotion or a relegation (remember, we missed out by GD last year and stayed up by one win this year, small margins can change those), how on earth can it be justifiable to earn an extra 50k or so but lose out on millions?

Wow, bizarre take IMO. Conway was quality for us. Best winger we've had since relegation, hands down. Delivery was excellent.