Supporter group We Are The Rovers have issued a statement in response to John Eustace’s imminent move to Derby County.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed on Monday that Eustace had said his goodbyes after agreeing to become the new head coach at Pride Park.

The club then confirmed he had been reluctantly granted permission to speak with another Championship club following the activation of a clause in his contract.

Rovers outlined their disappointment with the situation after providing “significant investment” during the January transfer window.

In response, a strong statement from We Are The Rovers said: “While the club managed to bring in six signings, five of them are contracted only until the end of this season, and the short term nature of them does nothing to allay our long term concerns for the wellbeing of our club.

“Evidently, John Eustace is of a similar opinion. To lose a manager who has done so much good work to restore some pride and hope to our club is heartbreaking. To lose him from a play-off position to a team currently in the relegation zone is a damning indictment of everything that is wrong with our club.

“There is a massive amount of completely justified anger from our fanbase at present, and fan unrest has been a near constant for the entirety of Venky’s ownership. This is hardly surprising considering the catalogue of disasters we have experienced over the last 14 years.

“It’s irrelevant who is employed as a director of the club: Karen Silk, Derek Shaw, Alan Myers, Simon Hunt, Paul Hunt, Mahesh Gupta, Vineeth Errabelly, Mike Cheston, Rohan Bhagwat, Paul Agnew, Ian Silvester, have all come and gone since Venky’s took over, and none of their departures brought about change.

“What M Sreenivasa Rao and Gandhi Babu do is anyone’s guess. It is apparent that Steve Waggott is expected to run elements of the club without the required autonomy or backing to do so.

“The one constant throughout the Venky’s tenure has been Suhail Pasha. While his title has changed in that time, his role as advisor/conduit/owners representative has remained broadly the same. With the Rao family remaining absent for over a decade, he appears to hold a lot of power despite having no prior experience in football.

“We feel that the only acceptable advice for Suhail to pass on to the Rao family is to finally do the right thing and sell the club. New owners who care for the club and will treat Rovers and its supporters with the respect we deserve are long overdue.”