Sounds very switched on, but obviously working at a lower standard than Rovers. I interesting quote in there "the project that really excited me was Bodø/Glimt. The joined-up thinking, strategy and journey they were on made me think we could do something really special." Surprised if he's coming based on a similar feeling at Rovers.

There's no way it's Dyche. JDT seems possible though.

Personally I'd take the Nations League every time over a friendly. Obviously nothing compared to the Euros or WC but at least competitive. We or Belgium, Spain etc might think it's a sideshow, but I am sure Hungary etc would love to win it. It's the League Cup of international football. Quite looking forward to Germany tonight. Hopefully go in with more energy and focus than Saturday night.

Yes - for someone like Ainsworth that he will get paid more is a huge advantage for us. But for our first choice managers they can get similar money elsewhere. So the nutters thing will be / has been decisive.

Spot on, it's clear any decision with any significance to the bottom line need to be signed off from India, and the people to do the signing off aren't that interested. Recipe for inertia.

This is the club all over and why we will struggle to make progress. You'd be better off with less resources but the capability to move quickly and decisively. It the lack of vision, clarity, confidence which is killing us.

Yeah, we need a decent second choice. Pears isn't it

It's two sided imo. Good managers look for a chairman / owner with vision as much as the other way around.

If it's quick, professionally conducted and as much about the owners selling themselves and the club to the preferred candidate as validating the candidate then great. But.... Will it be like that? My money's on slow to happen and revealing of a lack of plan and vision by the owners, and even a clear idea who the candidate is. Just my gut feel.

Wonder what Carlos thinks about having to probably be interviewed again by India.... https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20170448.blackburn-rovers-managerial-latest-talks-held-carlos-carvalhal/

He's looked absolutely awful imo. But then I suppose so did Ben Brereton. Maybe we should send Magloire to Chile?

If we announce a decent manager in the next week I'll hold my hands up and stand corrected. Would show there has been a bit more engagement with the club from the owners. I was fully expecting not to get anywhere near a manager appointment till July. Also I doubt Carvalhal - if he comes - would be doing so without very good investment promised. He was given a big budget at Sheff Wed and so I am sure he would expect the same at Rovers. That said still feels likely to me that he will get a better offer than Rovers. Edit - on that last point if he is taking a week to mull it over, it could be that he is awaiting confirmation of what sort of budget he would have available from Venkys.

Yes Cavalho probably will have three or four offers on the table so I defo wouldn't count any chickens.

Think you're being a bit harsh, but agree the basic point is that the centre backs (and GKs) are not world class. We've got world class quality in other areas but not those two. If we did we'd have CBs and GKs playing in the Champions League which (apart from Stones when others are injured) but we don't. The one who does seem promising is Tomori. I'm really surprised he's had such limited England call ups.

We do seem to have a lot of really promising young players coming through. Whoever is leading the strategy at the academy is doing a very good job. Who ultimately leads that over the long term as the U23 and U19 coaches come and go? Edit - just realised Damian Johnson has been in role since 2015 (didn't think it was that long) so it must really be him I suppose?

Yeah not sure why people think this could be a good thing, it reeks of amateur hour madness. We might get lucky and the kid is a smart level headed guy with maturity beyond his years who turns the administration of the club around. But I would say that's going to be a lot less likely than either a) his inexperience leading to him making a lot of rash not thought through decisions, or b) his inexperience being exploited by the more senior members of the staff to neutralise any changes he tries to make. Nothing personal against him, just few multi million pound businesses appoint people in their early 20s as directors. There's a reason for that

Dyche isn't going to need to take a Championship job. He'll get a prem job soon enough when the sack race starts around November. He can take a few months out with the family till then.

Yeah, the "he's sixteen" thing is weird. Jude Bellingham started for Birmingham very close to his sixteenth birthday. He ended up playing 41 games that season. If he's really good he'll get some subs, if he looks good in those he will start.

Do decent players sign for clubs when there's no manager? I can't think of many

My impression is they just communicated less and less with everybody rather than targeting Mowbray specifically.... but maybe I could be wrong?

Cavalho has just got Braga into Europe and won the Portuguese cup.... wouldn't he be aiming a bit higher than Rovers current predicament? Seems a bit optimistic to me to get him. That said I suppose he's also got the biggest amount of clubs managed on his CV that I've ever seen, and probably only two real "big" clubs - Sporting and Beskitas. Has am incredibly long list of small clubs to his names, 19 clubs in 22 years, and that's with a 3 year break from 2012 to 2015. Definitely an odd one. Maybe would suit the odd setup at our club?

Mowbray was a reasonable manager tbh. Did okay in a club run by absolute numpties. Some good signings, some bad. Good runs, bad runs. If he was pitching up at another club and a fan asked me what theyre in for I would say youve got a solid manager who will do his best and build a competitive mid table side. But he isn't going to revolutionise your team's fortunes. Though I suspect under good invested ownership with a plan he might do a bit better than at Rovers (as any manager would) but we will see. Anyway, think he did his best, enjoyable periods, seem like a good guy, brought through a lot of youth. All the best for the future Tony. He should use his time off to figure out how to address his side's awful habit of death spirals.

All just suggestions though. The club heirachy need to be empowered to interview candidates and offer the job. That's the main hurdle. I can see it being very unclear internally how the process will work. Does anyone know how Mowbray was selected and signed off? Might make it a bit clearer how it will work this time. Was he final interviewed by Venkys?

It's mental that we have this huge extra burden of managing the owners that the club has to take on. Championship is ultra competitive and comes down to fine margins. The lack of clarity and lack of decision making that comes from the owners is a huge handicap we have. If we do manage to get to the point where we interview the likes of Farke I will be very surprised if the good candidates want to take that on? Why risk your career on an obviously dysfunctional club when you can find another with engaged leadership and clear practical processes?

My general feeling is we promote young players too late to first team rather than too early. I wouldn't be against him getting some game time. But realistically he's not going to go in as a starter under any manager. We'll need new experienced players to replace Rothwell and Johnson imo.