I'd be more likely to believe this if he had an ounce of ability or footballing sense. As he possesses neither the chance of showing us what we're missing is slim. Sneaky suspicion he'll be at Blackpool as Bowyer loves him and shoehorned him into every side.

Because it shows that Venkys are happy to sell people and not invest money. How much did their replacements cost? Pesky thing this evidence lark.

Or he could keep the 3 at the back or go 4-4-2 which works in this division. Even 4-4-1-1 can be attacking with the right guy in the hole. My opinion is that the personnel will determine how attacking we are just as much as the formation. Also to play ANY formation well we need in a lot more players...

Lol. Thanks for the paraphrase. I was trying to say he'd make a big impact - either positively or negatively - it won't be a signing that is simply ok/mediocre.

Think he's either going to be a Danny Murphy type flop or like Lee Carsley when we dropped a division who then became very competent at that level and our captain, a very influential player (before asking to leave). Appreciate that's a bit of fence sitting, but what I'm trying to get at is my gut feel is that this won't be a mediocre signing. He'll either do very well for us, as he pulls the strings in midfield, or will be too old and past it and it'll go horribly wrong. Since I've thought Cardiff were awful the last few seasons I've seen them, I'm slightly towards the latter, but hopefully being a division down will compensate for that.

Who doesn't? And I bet they have less injuries...

keep TM I'd feel more optimistic. A decent if not great manager feasibly could do something with us given time. Mid table Imo a rookie like Dunn and we're doomed. Relegation certs.

Fair play, although lets say Bowyer did get into play offs, played a full strength team in a meaningless game and we lost Gestede and Rhodes to injury/suspension I'd imagine moat would be disappointed we hadn't rested players. Mind you I will say if there is no weakened team/rested players next week that does look a little dodge. But the principle of squad rotation in this situation is ok Imo. Likewise before a big cup game I can see why a manager would want to rest a few players.

Think how we'd feel if we were the ones already in the playoffs. Am sure most would be happy with it then.

Not a problem Thing is I don't think the nancies can cope with any pressure. I've said it numerous times but for me if there was just one on-field issue I could solve it would be we're so mentally soft. As soon as there is any expectation or a game really being able to have a meaningful impact, then they go to pieces. Obviously, the game does matter a lot to us, as does staying up/going down but for the team given it's not in our hands and we look pretty doomed, in a sense the pressure is off, and that may help. Should they feel some of the weight of responsibility for us being in that situation. Too right, and I hope the fans give it to them for it. They've tried to sink to the unprofessional standards of the ownership, and many have succeeded. Can't think of many who've given their all, much less played to the best of their ability, and they should have that as a burden. Given their wage packets, and most won't be here next year, however, I doubt that they will be that bothered though.

To be fair to TM, who probably isn't the greatest manager ever, other than sitting tight and nicking one, when have we actually won. When games are open we often don't win - how many 3-2 scorelines have we been on the end of? I can't think of many teams we've outgunned in an attacking sense, but I can think of a number of times we've scraped the odd win by keeping it tight(ish) like the Barcodes and Forest games. Mind you, I don't think we're that good at the keeping it tight strategy either. More of a least worse case situation imo.

Sorry if not that clear. No pressure as in, we're not expecting to perform well/to do much. And given what fans are thinking, the league table etc. I think it's fair to say we don't expect much from the team. It seems in these situations, they play a bit better than usual. Should they feel some responsibility and have they let the club down - absolutely!

Despite our recent capitulations I feel that we're going to get a positive result against Villa; certainly better than Brum's result. My thinking is as follows: ARA makes a great point that the Hudds team will be all wanting to impress to stake a claim in the play off. Added to which they're a pretty decent team - hence why they're near the top of the table. Plus Brum are bobbins. Villa on the beach (not literally, although it would help, but still wouldn't make it a certainty) combined with their fans preferring us to win, could well be enough to tip things in our favour. Anyone remember the last few minutes vs. Wolves the season Kean botched it and kept us up? Last few minutes were utterly pedestrian and I wonder if that may happen again to some extent, especially if Brum aren't winning and the fans are urging us on. We aren't under pressure. Everyone has us, quite rightly, as favour for the drop. And given we've performed pretty well when the pressure is off, I feel that form may continue and we grab a result. It looks an obvious Villa win and relegation, and the pressure off - like vs. Manure, the Barcodes and others have shown in such situations we are capable of playing some decent stuff Of course I could be totally wrong, but I still think the great escape is on. Admittedly mainly by our relegation rivals incompetence rather than any of our own abilities BUT without trying to do a Mercer, I'm still thinking we've a decent chance of doing it...

The gutting one is Gallacher who looked a good player under Coyle. (And his only good signing.) As for the rest none have looked that good at all and have either been crap, crocked or both so it's hard to tell if they're sulking or just at their own low standards. Not that I disbelieve you just they're that poor it's hard to tell.. Think it's unfair to put Evans in there - he's always crocked apart from when Northern Ireland play. Wouldn't make a difference who was manager no one would get more than a dozen games a season out of him Imo. Also interesting to note how quickly Mulgrew got back under TM...

Good for you. Brownie points for being there. Given we're in the relegation zone perhaps there's some merit to the comments that he's not a good manager? (For the record I think he is ok, but that's not good enough for us.)

Factor in the needing a win and not getting it against Wolves, Bristol City or Barnsley then it does get pretty embarrassing. Heck, even not giving Reading a hard time - who've had a few dodge results of late - shows an innate lack of desire as well as ability. Blimey we're not struggling for wins against Chelsea, Barcelona and Juve is it? We've been against some very mediocre sides with not much to show for it. Still have a sneaky feeling Brum will save us. But we're really supping in last chance saloon now.

Personally I think it's because he is so scared of how appalling our defence is and thinks this is the only way of limiting the opposition to a number of goals which we can realistically score more from. And he may be right. After all how many 3-2s did we lose under Coyle. How many late goals have we conceded under both. Look at the results we got vs Barcodes and Huddersfield in that almost decent (small) patch under Coyle. Both times it was because the opposition didn't score many rather than us matching them say, 3-3. Problem is given the only quality in the squad is the strikers such an approach doesn't make best use of our very limited assets. Dammed if he does or doesn't imo.

TM - disappointed when appointed, but slowly coming round to liking the guy even though he's probably at best an ok manager. His Coventry experience as others have said is probably his most like for like experience and how that ended probably was warning enough for us. Compare how Warnock did with Rotherham - and just look at how they have done without him, albeit with a few squad changes - suggests that we needed a top class manager like Warnock rather than an ok one like TM. Mind you I like the guy a lot for his straight talking. Yet I never had time for Bowyer for being a nice guy (until the end when he lost it) but limited manager. Perhaps this is a sign Vs are wearing me down. Could just imagine how things would go in my work, if I appointed nice but not good enough people, and yet now at Rovers at the current time I feel it's the best I can hope for. In the cold light of day despite the appalling hand TM has been given, he should have done better - especially with the quality of strikers we have. But Vs and senior management (senior, Chesterton etc.) should shoulder even more of the blame of making it as hard as possible for him, and leaving us in a position where only a top class manager would be good enough.

Once again I'm swinging - this time towards optimism. 4"points isn't ideal but is a decent return. Bristol and Burton are safe Imo and have the look of teams surviving. But Forest and Brum seem in worse positions to me. Don't rate Redknapp and although they may get new managers bounce given they didn't under Zola it could well not happen again. Forest also don't look likely to pick up points either having thrown away a couple of games they should have got something from. Of course we could still implode and get no points but I still think we have just enough in our locker to scrape the points needed to survive.

I don't know. It doesn't say much for TM that he can't get at least some of them organised. Also I hear he's using the word hope a lot. That doesn't fill me with much confidence - I'd like to think a manager had more of a plan than hopefully it'll come together. Nowhere near the levels of ineptitude of Clueless, but it's worrying when the manager is seemingly throwing in the towel.

To be fair the Burton game (which was a draw) he'd only just got in and assessed how bad it was. However the others mentioned, including Norwich, were right clangers. The next two games are probably last chance saloon and will tell us a lot about his ability, even accounting for an appalling team.

Clutching at straws now as am shocked by the implosion under TM in the last few weeks. Thought with a bit of organisation we could stay up but we've really not helped ourselves of late. Reading were vulnerable, Barnsley had nothing to play for, and even a couple of draws would have kept us well in the race. As it is it's no longer in our hands which is even more frightening. The only faint positives I can see is that IF we can beat Bristol City then we're back in it, which with some other winnable games coming up is not out of the question at all. Problem is that we've fluffed one very winnable game, and injuries are mounting up. Add in most players won't be here next season and you feel motivation is somewhat lacking. It's still doable Imo but one more bad set of results against us and that would probably change.

Why people aren't worried by this or play it down after the amount of times the club have been screwed over is beyond me. Why the owners get the benefit of the doubt and the future looks positive after all the farce of the last 6 years is also beyond me. Good info btw Dunnfc, cheers.

No problems with you saying that /having that view, it was the better comment that surprised me (especially in light of your viewpoint.) Steele needs to improve a lot more than better to get anywhere near adequate. Not sure it's worth getting defensive about - wasn't trying to question your football knowlege.

True but there are better than Steele about even with those restrictions.