RevidgeBlue

Eustace had an extremely positive recent record when he joined us. He looked to be a young manager on the up. And eventually carried that on with us. Ismael is exactly the opposite. He looks to be a manager very much on the downgrade. And unlike Eustace he inherited a team in decent shape but has still managed to start in similar fashion Nothing to do with the degree of comfort in front of the cameras.

Cant believe the number of people lining up to defend Ismael. Yes we know about the owners and the deeper issues affecting the Club. Yes we know the January window was a disaster as always. However, Eustace had this squad in and around the play offs all season and even Lowe managed 2 wins out of 3 in very trying circumstances. A new permanent manager should have had the team ready to run through a brick wall given the promising position we were in. Instead we've conceded goals inside the first 20 minutes in the last three games and in 360 minutes of football we've not been ahead once! It's just not good enough and needs to change pronto. Frankly if Ismael couldnt motivate them when we were in the play off mix with 12 games to go I dread to think how he'll do it at the start of a new season but we'll have to live in hope I suppose.

I think it's fair to say in general our form had been dropping off since Luton at home in mid December. It hadnt been dropping off to the extent it has under Ismael though and we werent conceding goals after 3 or 4 minutes of games. Needs stressing again I think, the opening gal conceded inside the opening 20 mins of the last 3 games. That has to stop or his tenure will be a particularly unhappy one.

This argument has been done many times before. We paid very good money for Hyam and Brittain. For me Hyam has been generally really poor and has a poor character. Brittain was generally awful until this season when he's finally started showing us the player we thought we were signing. I dont think either have been particular successes for the money paid. Tronstad fair enough, I dont particularly rate him but I know most do. I also forgot Cantwell from last summer who's been really poor imo. I really dont know what more you expect from Ohashi and Gueye for £250k and £1m though. Both turned out decent value imo.

When the players probably knew Ismael waa coming in. In the time honoured tradition on here of unfairly claiming or denying victories or attributing or not attributing defeats to managers Im tempted to mark that one down to VI as well.

Good luck to him. Not helpful to be spreading false rumours about players not being paid though.

Batth excellent, Beck even better, Ohashi great value for £250 k , Gueye turned out good value for £1m, Baker excellent squad cover. ACD looked a good signing in theory but hasnt come off. One real dud in Toth. Much better than Broughton who only managed one excellent signing in Szmodics who was allegedly on our radar previously anyway. String of duds including Wahlsted, 3 strikers who didnt score a single goal for the Club (Hirst, Ennis, Telalovic) Sigurdsson paid off and O Riordan. This January the recruitment has gone back to being dire again. You have to assume the guy who made the difference waa Park.

Was assuming it'd be a different demographic. Does he have a general entertainment site of some other sort which is popular?

Tbf the recruitment in summer was a lot better than under Broughton. Since then it seems to have gone rapidly downhill and reverted to type though.

I heard the first couple of minutes of one of the clips and there was a total acceptance from him that any Coach who does well for us will be off to "a bigger project". Not "We'll make sure we hang onto him" etc. Shameful.

Unbelievable if true. Should have used half of Andy Cole's Newcastle signing on fee, not Club money.

I cant bear to listen to it. What did he claim is "the future plan" under VI?

How has that Roverseas dude got such a large social media following? He never made a post worth reading on here.

Great first post. Welcome to the Forum. I think that over here a lot more pressure needs to be exerted on Waggott and Pasha and the best way to hurt Venky's is to embarrass them back home in India. How best that is done Ive no idea but maybe others will have some decent suggestions. On the Rovers/Newcastle aspect, I share your pain. My two daughters live in or near Newcastle and are both married to red hot Newcastle fans. I have two very young grand sons and used to buy them Rovers Baby grows (which their Dads wouldnt even let them try on) and joke about getting them full blown Rovers kits. I havent even got the heart to crack the joke any more. I wouldnt want to embarass the poor little mites with the state the Club is in. .

As much as some might like this to be true I cant see there being anything in it. If there was an issue why would only certain players not be paid and not all of them? Unless there was a glitch in the system or someone mistakenly missed them off the payroll.

Agree, to disagree, if games only lasted 20 mins we'd still have lost 3 out of 4 under him!

It's completely irrelevant. As others have pointed out Eustace inherited a team in free fall which had been conceding 2-3 goals per match. Ismael inherited a spirited outfit which had been in or around the play off positions all season thanks to the ethos Eustace created.

If my Aunty had had balls etc etc........ That sort of talk goes back to the Mowbray era. "If we win the next 3 we'll be in the play off picture." We never did then and we're not going to now. What are your thoughts on Ismael currently, given you were very seemingly very happy with his appointment?

It's a good point though. Neither Eustace nor the players could get any clarity or encouragement regarding new deals for themselves. Then this guy (who has a poor recent record) swans in out of nowhere on a 3.5 year deal. It's little wonder the players have downed tools.

No, but the dissension needs to be on the record and hopefully reported.

Everyone not from this part of the world probably thinks the same about us as well. Apart from maybe the 1992-1995 years.

The one silver lining from our latest implosion is likely to be that they cant just just sweep the Eustace debacle under the carpet on the back of the appointment of a new Head Coach. Im stating the bleeding obvious to an extent here but depite the various postponements of the meeting the same considerations apply as to when Eustace was on the point of leaving plus additional concerns about the appointment of Ismael. 1) Need Waggott and Pasha both there. 2) As 2 promising managers have walked out on them in 12 months, needs to be put to them "Is it not incumbent on you both to resign?" 3) Need to ask them to specify exactly what it was that made them think Ismael was the outstanding candidate for the job after two recent managerial failures. 4) Need to ask them to explain their logic in refusing to extend the contract of a manager who had done well for them beyond the end of next season but being willing to grant a guy who's an unknown quantity for us a three and a half year deal. You normally get very prickly and defensive whenever the role of the forum is questioned but this is getting crucial now. I know that for the Club the Forum is basically a box ticking exercise and that in happier times all the Forum should have to worry about is what flavour pies are on sale in the concourse. However, rightly or wrongly you're the only supporters' group that has a chance to sit down with the Club. You have to make it count. Recently the Forum has gained some additional traction for the first time after cut and paste merchant Jackson started reproducing what was in the minutes. The Forum has to ask the difficult questions, push back hard on any nonsense they come out with in response and make sure the push back is fully recorded in the minutes. Good luck.

To get back to Ismael, when Nixon claimed him and Wagner were down to the final two, I said the appointment of either would leave me feeling "flat as a pancake". That remains the case but I dont think anyone could have predicted quite how much of a disaster his appointment would have been. In the last 3 games we've conceded the opening goal after three minutes, nineteen minutes and four minutes! We've gone from being in and around the play off positions all season to being completely uncompetitive within games. Say what you like but for me that's the sign of a team that's clocked off mentally, the players just arent having this fella at all. We probably thought we'd seen it all after the O Brien then the Mcguire debacles. However as a deliberate act of sabotage, refusing to compromise with the popular Eustace over his own contract and player extensions, and then giving this guy who had no obvious qualities to make him a suitable candidate a three and a half year deal, well that will sure take some beating.

"Unfashionable" might not be unfair, To call them "two absolute non- entities" definitely is.

That's very unfair. I watched Spurs v Bournemouth last week and they were absolutely brillant, played Spurs off the pitch and could have won by 5 or 6. It doesnt matter what your "size" or background is if you have a good manager and a good set up behind the scenes. Bournmouth seem to have happened on two successive wealthy owners who have been extremely good for them. Listened to an excerpt from an interview with Bournemouth's current American owner last week and he sounded incredibly enthusiastic about their future with massive plans for their infrastructure. What a difference from our owners who appear to have lost any limited interest they once had and management desperately trying to screw every last penny out of it before the gravy train is finally involved in a fatal crash.