TWO JO(H)NS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT (2023-24 SEASON REVIEW) - PODCAST EPISODE #42 | Rovers Chat
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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Mark Hitchen: / markhitch
Daniel Ainsworth: / ainsworthd99
Mike Beaty: / bigfellabeaty
It's time for the 42nd episode of the 'Rovers Chat Podcast' as Dan, Mark and Mike sit down to discuss all the latest news and to test their knowledge in our quiz.
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Mike summed it up. This is our therapy session. I'm too scared to talk to a real therapist about Rovers in case they lock me up in a psycho ward.
We’re free as well, therapists cost lots!
😂😂😂
Szmodocs interview said a lot
Eustace came in and said we’re fighters, not victims.
Under JDT, it was always were young kids, were playing a premier league side.
Genuine looking forward to next season under Eustace
Great stuff as always fellers. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and excellent content. Really appreciate it. So hard to muster any hope for next season at the mo but I always get a burst of irrational optimism around late July. It just feels like we need a fresh start and to draw a line under this Venkys period in our history. How this can come about I do not know ? Feel like crying. Up the Rovers !
JDT - right manager wrong time. Wasn’t backed properly. But his heart wasn’t in it after the summer and the maguire situation topped it off. Right time to go
Eustace - did the job in the end but wasn’t pretty. Now is the time to judge him with a few of his signings. I don’t expect much change from the football but next season he can be judged properly.
Club - shambolic this season. Just a mess. Didn’t back JDT and using his words changed the project. You knew the writing was on the wall for Gregg Broughton when he didn’t lead the search for JDT’s successor. Who knows if the Venkys situation is really behind us because if there’s has been a disagreement between GB and SW about direction and finances then that tells me we’re not going to invest much this season even if we are meeting with Maguire we won’t sign him we’ll make it look like we made an attempt. Waggott OUT
Thanks for the therapy sessions!
It's been an awful season but the players would have learned a lot from it. Yes, we need to improve the quality of the squad and I'm sure we will We've had some awful injuries this year, our younger players have had another season under their belt and we've got some good players coming through.
If we can keep the squad together and bring in 3-4 quality players we should have a decent season next year.
It was a shame that JDT left. He was a quality manager. SS said as much.
the team needs investment ,but Venkys can't or won't invest SELL THE CLUB to someone with Rovers at heart !!
It genuinely feels like we’ve had three seasons in one. The first third of the season was very positive - we were playing some of the best football in the entire division (to the point where numerous pundits were waxing lyrical about us). Although we had a few frustrating losses, we were still picking up enough wins to keep in touching distance of the play-offs. And it looked like we might have a chance of being up there again for the third season on the trot.
For me, the turning point was a specific three-game run in December. We had started to get injuries to some key / senior players which was always going to leave us vulnerable from a squad depth perspective over a hectic Christmas schedule.
Southampton were so good when we played away at St. Mary’s - they basically passed us to death. It was the kind of game where you realised very quickly that we weren’t going to get anything out of it, so the mentality switched to hoping we at least kept the scoreline sensible.
We weren’t doing a bad job of this. But then Brittain gets a silly red card early in the second half, leaving us having to play almost half a game against a team that were just passing it around us for fun.
Even then we still managed to keep the score down to 2-0 until the 96th minute. But then we completely collapsed and conceded another two late goals. What was going to be a respectable 2-0 defeat away from home with ten men transformed into a thumping in the blink of an eye. I believe this game significantly took its toll on the players both physically and mentally.
Despite this, the players picked themselves up the following week and played well against Watford. In truth we should have been out of sight in that game. But as we entered the last 10/15 minutes with a slender lead, you could literally see the players’ legs go. The Southampton game caught up with them and we end up losing. And I think this is the moment where the shoulders really drop.
When we went into the following game against Huddersfield, you could tell the confidence was shot to pieces. It just felt like the players were waving the white flag from the first whistle. And I think this signalled the beginning of the death spiral really.
The middle third of the season was a complete disaster - the team basically transitioned from being confident play-off chasers into ‘oh my god is that the bloody relegation zone coming into view?!’
And then of course, the McGuire debacle. I think Mark summed up my views on this perfectly. It wasn’t that McGuire was necessarily going to come in and score lots of goals immediately. He might have been a slow burner. But cocking-up his transfer in the manner that we did just symbolises the chaos going on behind the scenes at the club. And for the best part of a month the club just became a laughing stock.
I know players will always claim that they’re only focused on what their job is on the pitch, but the reality is that players do read the news and they do go on social media. If the club has had a nightmare with a failed transfer, the players will know about it. And suddenly the Rovers shirt becomes just that little bit heavier to wear.
I do think some of our players need to be given the benefit of the doubt to some extent after this season. Yes, there have been some individual games where they just haven’t performed. The Bristol City away game being a classic example. That wasn’t anything to do with tactics, it was just a poor performance from the team. And I’m sure the players would be happy to hold their hands up and accept responsibility for instances like this.
However, it will have been hard for some players to realise their full potential this season with the amount of chaos going on at the club behind the scenes. Having to use two managers this season with completely different playing styles being a key issue. And the McGuire debacle being a completely unnecessary distraction. So yes, the players have to shoulder some responsibility for individual games, but overall I think the club have let both the players and the fans down this season predominantly.
I’m on the verge of going off on a tirade about Steve Waggott, given what’s happened this season alongside some of the recent developments. But I’m actually going to leave it for another day (spoiler alert - I doubt I’ll be on his Christmas card list).
The final third of the season saw the arrival of Captain Safety First. As John Eustace cycled into work on his first day, riding a tricycle (with additional stabilisers) and donning a crash helmet, elbow and knee pads (because you can never to be too careful), I think we all knew that rock n’ roll football was being parked for the foreseeable future. ‘Don’t worry lads, I’ll play seven at the back against Millwall. Everything will be fine!’ - his cheeky grin seemed to say.
And that’s basically what defined this last part of our season. We got down on all fours, and army crawled our way to safety. In the process, Millwall, Stoke and QPR came hurtling past us. You could almost sense them glancing at us as they went past, looking at us quizzically ; ‘Are you guys actually trying to get relegated?’
Anyway, we got there in the end thanks to two brilliant away performances against Leeds and Leicester. Credit due where credit’s due - we got our tactics spot on in both these games and the players all put in a shift. But let’s not get ourselves into that kind of scrape again, please.
I’m scraping the barrel slightly here, but if there’s one positive we can take away from this season, it’s that we now have a relatively young team who - in the last few years - have experienced what it’s like to both chase the play-offs and become embroiled in a relegation dogfight. Surely that range of experience can only be useful going forward. They’ve pretty much been there, done that, got the t-shirt. We now must be one of the most experienced young teams in the league. And when Travis returns to us this summer he can tell everyone what it feels like to actually get promoted.
Love this!
i agree with mark. the pod and all you guys do at rovers chat has helped massively through a difficult season. im starting to swing towards optimism for 24\25 season. come what may it wouldnt be rovers otherwise. coyb
The more damaging game for me was Sheffield wednesday, no fight for the win against a team that could've sent us down. We have shown this season that we can compete with the better teams but can't seem to compete with struggling teams and just roll over for them. Whereas JDTs football was the polar opposite.
Felt like we were getting sucked into a vacuum with jdt -patchy form at best , still not entirely sure Eustace has the dressing room.
I had a job interview today if it comes good I'm getting a season ticket with my 1st wage🤮🤮 1st time since 2010
Biggest problem was making 3 transfer mistakes…JDT was undermined