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Quote from: \"Exiled in Wiltshire\" post=142468OK, let's get the negatives out of the way. We were soundly beaten and 3-0 is as good as we could have expected.That's it, that's all I'm saying that's negative.What do you expect. We had 11 players on the pitch, the combination of which had never played a competitive match together before. Of that starting 11 only Sulli and Oster would probably make the 11 with a full squad, possibly Friend or Mills. And we seemed to be up against a full strength Swansea who could bring players like Pratley off the bench. The loan players we brought in are available for loan because they're not playing...so they're not fully match sharp.We're so unlucky, we even lost Copps in the warm up, leaving us with a bench of 3 centre backs and a goalkeeper! With that, we couldn't even mix things up.So I, for one, am proud of the lads today. Thought Friend and Hird played well. Keegan broke things up best he could. Euell and Moussa came into it more as the game wore on. Oster tried but the quality wasn't around him to feed off him and vice versa, making his passes often look like they had gone astray - they had, but the lack of all round quality was the main cause in my view.As for the fans - TOTALLY AND UTTERLY AWESOME! That was some unbelievable support from beginning to end. Absolutely shamed the Swansea fans who only started to sing once the sun shone on them...what were they, solar powered fans or something??!?!We never had a shot. We never really threatened to score. But our expectations were matched and the lads gave their all.We lost but we weren't beaten and I, for one, am proud to be a Rover!So...apart from Hird, Friend, Oster, Keegan, Euell, Moussa, and I guess you can't count Sullivan, you're left with 4 bad outfield players by your reckoning, and 2 of them were centre backs....so 2 other midfield/forward players were not up to much??? I don't believe that I can argue with you, but I think our problems were probably down to more than having 2 bad midfielder or forwards!There is something seriously wrong behind the scenes in my opinion. Take into consideration the \"injuries\" - which I don't believe are all real, the terrible tactics, the lack of committment by most players and the weird way in which SOD is appearing to attack the board in the press, allbeit in his own subtle manner. I just refuse to believe that the same team as last year has suddenly turned this pants. It now feels like a transition period for real. I think the sharp signing was a mistake, in that no-one else was bought in of any worth apart from Mills, and possibly Keegan (jury still out on that one?). We are going to lose sharp in the summer, of that I'm certain, and possibly one or two others - I'm predicting Coppinger, Stock, at least.With football becoming a much more expensive game to fund and with a board who, although on paper worth nearly a billion pounds, are apperently reluctant to spend the money it takes at this level to do anything worthwhile; I think we could be in for either a shot down to league one. The alternative is for the crowd to magically double, or the board to spend more than we make by a long way. I feel the choice of where this club ends up in the next two years is out of the managers hands and very much firmly in the hands of the Rovers board. DO they want to speculate to accumulate, or do they want to play it safe and maintain a half decent league one side? Only they knwo the answers, but to pretend that SOD can make a premiership outfit from £2 and a box of stolen copper, is ludicrous. I'll probably still go to watch even if we're relegated (I managed to keep watching throughout the bad years), but it'll be with a bit less sympathy than in those dark times considering the wealth of the people at the helm of the club.Speculate to accumulate. If anyone cares to work out the money involved in a trip for a season to the premier league but in my reckoning its -10 x \"facility games\" shown on tv at a cost of £500,000 each£800,000 per place finished from the bottom.\"equal share\" payment C£15,000,000overseas licencing rights per club £10,000,000And thats all without gate receipts/spopnsorship and the corporate stuff, so with my crude maths a year up there would net (if we finished bottom) if no-one ever came to watch us and we had no sponsors - £30,800,000!!!!!Now, thats without a parachute payment or anything else. Monstorous money isn't it??! Worth a punt?
OK, let's get the negatives out of the way. We were soundly beaten and 3-0 is as good as we could have expected.That's it, that's all I'm saying that's negative.What do you expect. We had 11 players on the pitch, the combination of which had never played a competitive match together before. Of that starting 11 only Sulli and Oster would probably make the 11 with a full squad, possibly Friend or Mills. And we seemed to be up against a full strength Swansea who could bring players like Pratley off the bench. The loan players we brought in are available for loan because they're not playing...so they're not fully match sharp.We're so unlucky, we even lost Copps in the warm up, leaving us with a bench of 3 centre backs and a goalkeeper! With that, we couldn't even mix things up.So I, for one, am proud of the lads today. Thought Friend and Hird played well. Keegan broke things up best he could. Euell and Moussa came into it more as the game wore on. Oster tried but the quality wasn't around him to feed off him and vice versa, making his passes often look like they had gone astray - they had, but the lack of all round quality was the main cause in my view.As for the fans - TOTALLY AND UTTERLY AWESOME! That was some unbelievable support from beginning to end. Absolutely shamed the Swansea fans who only started to sing once the sun shone on them...what were they, solar powered fans or something??!?!We never had a shot. We never really threatened to score. But our expectations were matched and the lads gave their all.We lost but we weren't beaten and I, for one, am proud to be a Rover!
The defence has in turn undermined and eroded confidence throughout the rest of the team to the point where I think that some of our 'star' players have had enough and are probably quite happy to be injured. Footballers are a fickle lot and most tend to go missing at times of crisis.You can call it an injury curse, you can call it bad luck but this is now a real test of SOD/ROK's management skills.
Oh Hoola...If we're not allowed to have our thoughts provoked, our ideas broadened, our holy cows challenged, then just what the f**k is any communication about? To all think the same? To all be led by others? To allow untruths to masquerade as fact? That's b*llocks Hoola. I said I like Billy making me think. He does. I do. BobG
Everyone on here is equally intelligent, but some people are more equally intelligent than others.
Lets go back to pre season when JR bought Billy and also said we had two premiership loanees, we had already failed to get Jason Shackell. The money used to get Billy was coming out of the directors pocket but really his wages were not. So we did not have the money to get quality centre half. Since then the manager has had to watch his purse strings with short term deals and signing our existing players. So although JR said he had a large budget in realism it was not big enough to get quality in any other position than centre forward. The manager has been fire fighting all season. Unfit players from the start cobbling together different teams weekly. He did not have the money to get the likes of JET and Mutch back. We could not even replace any of our three quality midfield players with the same quality. So now we find our selves in free fall with a team that has never played together and very low on confidence. The strategy that JR and the board adopted this season to get to premiership was none existence and relied on signing Billy and then hoping the rest would be good enough. They like any of us could not expect 13/14 injuries but it has happened. It hides the inadequacies of this seasons strategy and if we go down, and without some of our influential players back, that is a strong possibility. There fore the manager and assistance are trying to develop players to the Championship standard without the underlying quality in the team. At the moment we are the worse team in the division and I hope we can stop the rot,but quality loanees will not come now even if we could afford them.