I suppose the problem with trying to attract an investor is competition. I'm sure the vast majority of clubs in the 1st division (sorry - The Championship) have had similar thread to this. Anyone with a stupidly large amount of bucks and no loyalty to any club is always going to look for a glamour side such as Abramovic at Chelsea and the Far-Eastern interest in Liverpool. Unfortunately for us anyone with just 'big money' will probably look more towards teams like Derby, Sheff Wednesday or Forest which are 'perceived' as bigger clubs than us. I fear the only way we can attract investments is by a local or fan such as Jack Walker or by John Williams showing powers of attraction and persuasion beyond what we can hope. In my view, and I hope to god I'm wrong, we should enjoy Premier League football while we can. On our attendances it is only a matter of time before we do fall through the trap door back into the football league and without Jack there is no reason why we should have any better chance of bouncing back than others that have fell before us.

What did you expect. They had Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur as their main game to concentrate their whole program on.

Strachan is in the studio on MOTD2 tonight.

The way McLeish is shaping at Rangers (7 pts behind Celtic after 5 games) Levein will probably end up there in in a few weeks.

Has Craig Levein ever had any involvement with English football either as player or coach/assistant anywhere. Not that he neccessarily needs it. Just curious?

JOE ROYLE MANAGERIAL RECORD Oldham____P608__W225_D165_L218 Everton____P118__W47__D36__L35 Man City____P171_W74__D47__L50 Ipswich____P97___W47__D21__L29 Wheres since 1989 Alan Ball has lost more games than he's won at every club he's been at (4 in total) apart from Southampton (W22 L21). I had this argument about Royle at work already this week in that statistically his record is not that bad. It's certainly not as you put it 'shocking' unless your refering to something else with reputation. Not that I want him though!

Hi Palace fan, good to hear your views. I'd imagine that the backroom staff are paid far far less than the manager. Therefore the compensation might not be that big an issue. I think I'm right in saying that although there's been not much national comment on Dowie our local paper, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, has put his name forward and as they're quite close to the club they usually don't involve in idle gossip. I'm sure Dowie is in Rovers' minds but no-one knows whose number 1 choice and whose available. I guess we'll all have to watch with interest but for different reasons.

It's fair to say that despite what JW has said after yesterdays performance we are desperate to get the new man in ASAP. Hughes seems to want to jobshare with the Wales job which we (BRFC) don't seem to agree with. Dowie might not want the job and also may be under contract at Palace. No-one has confirmed if Strachan is even interested. It's common knowledge Advocat wants the job and has applied. Also the LET think he may be on the shortlist. Oh Dear BTW, Dowie is now my No.1 choice.

Nope , he bottled it. (Unless of course Dowie told him he wouldn't answer questions on his future before the camera's rolled! )

I'm sitting through the pompey - Palace game just to hear Dowie's interview. Hope the interviewer asks the question.

And that just about sums up the Welsh team.

No I think he went straight to Valencia after Chelsea.

I feel it's time to put Mark hughes Wales record into perspective. Mark Hughes was thrust into the Welsh seat in 1999 at a time when noone expected Wales to qualify for anything. Apart from a flirtation with qualifying for USA94 Welsh football had been oblivious during the 90's. After hughes appointment things started looking up. Yes there were better players but results seemed to be at an even better level. Now consider their squad:- Coyne (Burnley), Crossley (Fulham), P Jones (Wolves), Ward (Norwich), Collins (Cardiff), Delaney (Aston Villa), Edwards (Wolves), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Melville (Fulham), Page (Cardiff), Roberts (Tranmere), Thatcher (Man City), Davies (Tottenham), Fletcher (Bournemouth), Johnson, Koumas (both West Brom), Oster (Sunderland), Parry (Cardiff), Pembridge (Fulham), Robinson (Sunderland), Savage (Birmingham), Speed (Bolton), Bellamy (Newcastle), Blake (Leicester), Earnshaw (Cardiff), Hartson (Celtic), Taylor (Nottm For), Giggs (Man Utd). For an international side that has no depth whatsoever. Like the majority of Welsh sides they have decent players going forward. However their defence is shocking. Not one defender would have a sniff of the England side. Unless they are exceptional, no side can carry a defence like that and not expect the odd poor result thrown in. Anyway, prior to the start of qulification for Euro 2004 Wales produced a series of excellent friendly results:- 13/02/2002 (H) Argentina 1-1 27/03/2002 (H) Czech Rep 0-0 14/05/2002 (H) Germany 1-0 21/08/2002 (A) Croatia 1-1 The Euro 2004 qualification campaign reads as follows:- 16/10/2002 (H) Italy WON 2-1 9/03/2003 (H) Azerbaijan WON 4-0 10/09/2003 (H) Finland DRAW 1-1 11/10/2003 (H) Serbia & Montenegro LOST 2-3 7/09/2002 (A) Finland WON 2-0 20/11/2002 (A) Azerbaijan WON 2-0 06/09/2003 (A) Italy LOST 0-4 20/08/2003 (A) Serbia & Montenegro LOST 1-0 Wales finished 2nd in their group, into a playoff with the results:- 15/11/2003 (A) Russia DREW0-0 19/11/2003 (H) Russia LOST 0-1 Whit a squad as thin as the one they possess and a defence as poor it's hardly a poor qualification campaign is it?

Indeed just cause such a manager is favourite it can count for nothing at the end of the day That is true. however if you look at the first post by Brownie on the Souness Going To Newcastle thread he said he was susipcious because Souness had been backed in to favourite. This was apparantly before Souey had even told our players he was leaving or the press had been informed. Similar thing has happened with Advocat. He was in from about 33/1 to 9/2 and nobody had even mentioned him. 24 hours later it turns out that he had contacted a player and then put in for the job. It certainly doesnt mean anything for definate but if theres a large amount of money being staked theres sometimes a slightly stronger reason behind it than speculation.

Brownie, I expected hughes' price to have drifted back out a bit on BF. He's solidly traded at between 2.6 to 3.0 for 2 days now. Almost a quarter of a million pounds on him.

Martin - At Man U Fergie was close to the sack. It just shows that all managers should be given time though (but thats for another day!). I'd still like Dowie though. Or Hughes. John - I may have missed something but how do we know that neither Hughes nor Dowie have applied for the job? Hughes was very cryptic and hasnt said he hasn't applied and as far as i know Dowie hasnt commented. Bearing in mind that there has been hardly any paper speculation on Dowie something has caused £34,000 to be put on him on Betfair (£21,000 more than Strachan) and his odds almost everywhere to tumble to 7/2.

Alex Ferguson achieved not a lot as a player. Whether he was initally respected or not at Aberdeen he proved to be a damn good manager. If we had over-inflated ego superstars then it might have been a problem but we have no really 'top' players. As far as managerial experience goes Dowie has achieved more than Hughes or Strachan in winning a promotion. And as Scotty said, if any player does take that attitude then he knows where the M65 is.

I was just about to say - you stealing my posts Scotty.

Rubbish. When Moyes went to Everton the players responded to him yet he hadn't achieved what Dowie has in neither his playing or managerial career. Nor was Steve McLaren a big name apart from his Man U connection when he went to Boro. O'Leary took Leeds to the champions league semi-finals in his first managerial role. Jean Tigana bought in a load of players but they still responded to Chris Colema nd when he took over he had the added problem of having to boss his former friends and teammates. If Ferguson or any other player for that matter carries that attitude then he is living up to the overpaid primadonna hype that surrounds premierleague football these days and is as bad as the likes of Dyer. Besides it's not like the new manager has a team full of world stars like Kluiverts, Ronaldo's and Henrys is it. People like Ferguson and Amorouso have achieved very little in game hence Barrys decision to leave Rangers and 'give it a go' down here. What right would our players have to believe that the new manager was not 'big enough' for them?

Just looking at betfair it beggars belief that someone has put £20 on Howard Kendall, even at 400/1! What do they think we are ?

Don Mackay was last seen at Airdrie in 2001. The busty lass in our canteen at work has heard that Don believes it's time he made a return to management. I Wonder? Seriously I'm quite happy at the mo because the do-not wants of mine were Glenda and Houllier and they seem to be moving further out of the running. Id be happy with Hughes, Dowie and would accept Advocat. Think of all the speculation and attention on BRFC over the last few days. To think only last Sunday night we were expecting a quiet international week!

Iain Dowie Managerial record as follows. P W D L QPR 2 1 0 1 OLDHAM 82 31 28 23 PALACE 30 16 4 10 If anyone knows an easier way of laying out a table like the one above please let me know!

T4E , it's no wonder you've no money by the time the Cheltenham festival arrives!

Has he not started a new thread yet? 'Oh No Its Peter Andre'

Ian Dowie has come in for some sustained support on betfair to the shortest price he's ever been. He's currently only available at 5/1