Review of the season

Yes, a pretty accurate summary of the season. The sting of course is in the tail.

I don’t need to add to it although I’ve thought since MT was appointed that he comes across as a decent human being who thinks before he talks, always a wise move imo. But of course like any manager he will remain in post or be removed according to his results irrespective of his personality. And I was beginning to wonder if he’d survive. The last two matches should remove that question.

As someone on the other place (no idea if true) said when asked after another defeat Mr. Al Saeed replied ‘just wait to next season’. Whether that was a throwaway comment or a serious reply hinting that MT will be supported to get his team together I don’t know. I’d suggest he will be supported, he will allowed to recruit his team and the owners will be looking for value for money at the same time. Whether this will mean recruiting youngsters or not I don’t know. Or whether it means looking at the best proven talent in the lower leagues. No idea. But whatever approach is taken I hope we buy players who can play 40 games a season. I know injuries can’t be avoided but we do seem to have recruited players with questionable injury records over the years.

And though not perfect, these owners do at least appear to have some kind of plan regarding the Mem, albeit one that won’t please everyone. Their biggest problem as it was with the AQs is managing the expectation of fans who have an expectation of Championship football soon. Not sure that will happen and I think it was a mistake of the ASs to talk about Premiership football, just as it was when WAQ said all those years ago ‘finance for the UWE a stadium would not be a problem.’ The ASs immediately raised expectations. And until we have owners whose financial clout can match the expectations of our fans I don’t think Championship football (or at least Championship sustainable football) will happen too soon.

Just to give some context: Down here following Pompeys promotion Kieron Maguire has said that wages at Pompey will have to quadruple for them to survive in the Championship. Just nuts isn’t it?

UTG!

Does quadrupling the wages guarantee enough points for safety then?

Pretty sure the vast majority of us thought we could get top half and could well challenge for the playoffs.

Conc therefore is the season has been a failure.

Jury out on Taylor but at least we have made some ground improvements.

I keep hearing this 'ten games in'. I think it's too early. I say December. Managerial tenure should be measured in years, not months. Sackman Al Qadi's three-manager season took us down (although it was Barton who took us into the relegation zone and to rock bottom). I'd like to say the end of next season, actually, so long as we're not looking relegated. By then I hope we're winning more than losing under Taylor.

I was going to say weren't we told at the start of the season we had a "Top 8 budget"... and then read Hussain AlSaeed's interview yesterday, which mentions it:

www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/reasonable-league-hussain-alsaeed-outlines-9237357


When we signed Jevani Brown, people were saying how good our attacking options were. And now at the end of the season people are saying quite the reverse.
The excitement about Brown joining meant that the top 2 League 1 players for goals and assists, in the previous year, would be in our ranks.
But I was a bit sceptical: Collins goals had dried up the end of last season, and looking at Brown's record he hadn't been anywhere near as prolific in years prior to at his stats at Exeter last season.


Another cause for fans to be bullish was the owner of a rival club in our division (I think it was Peterborough) said that we were a team to watch because of our recruitment (bear in mind that Brown didn't cost a penny).


All this resulted in many on the forums to start posting we'd assembled our: "Best squad ever."

Throughout the season, Rovers scored seven last-minute goals to gain seven extra points and conceded six which cost four points. By the close of the season, it was clear that the side’s home record would need some work, Rovers having played 133 League matches at The Mem in six years, winning 48 and losing 54, despite gaining promotion during that period, and scoring just 162 League goals at home.

During the 2023-24 campaign, Rovers were never higher in League One than ninth place (after successive Christmas victories) and never lower than the seventeenth place they occupied after Ryan Woods had been sent off at Burton.

The highest attendance was 26,623 at Derby and the highest at home 9,937 for the visit of Derby County, with an average home League attendance of 8,190 which was 717 down from the previous season despite the boost of the new South Stand.

Stats provided by Stephen Byrne Bristol Rovers History Group.

Thought I'd replied to this... I'm not knocking your positivity. But I guess you have to take a dose of reality every now and again. 
Are you still in full Pollyanna mode "I'm so glad, glad, glad to be here"? Or are you starting to become a little concerned about the future (on and off the pitch)?