Firstly I'm not sure others dithering about really is the bar we should be aiming for. Bit of a straw man argument that others are doing equally badly. Also Burnley in particular is a different kettle of fish. Not knowing what league they would be in till significantly later than is may factor into the delay, as am sure the candidates available and the attractiveness of the position changes depending on this. It's also worth saying this isn't our first rodeo when we have had some... issues appointing a manager. It's not a one off struggle. The last 2 appointments have seen some very left field and limited candidates which again makes me a tad reluctant to give them the benefit of the doubt. Finally managerial search aside, when you consider income, results, the training ground saga, the ground the picture it paints looks pretty grim across the board. Hardly cause for optimism.

I find the highlighted statement incredible. There's plenty of evidence of the shambles at Ewood. Dealing in facts: Fact is we have terrible season ticket sales and sales in general. It's much lower than the Big Sam years. It's lower than the Bowyer years. Goodness it's not tapped in to a fraction of the 30k who came to see us celebrate promotion. Then there's the advertising boards, so many were blank last time I went to Ewood. Just two fact based pieces of evidence that demonstrate we aren't pulling up any trees in this area. The ground - unless you walk around with your head in the clouds you can't help but see the disrepair. Maybe I'm imagining the rust and weeds. Managerial search = we've known TM's contract is up for months and months now. Even if waiting to see wat league we ended up in we could have done a bit of contingency planning/preparation. Blimey I run a small charity, and we are always contingency planning and planning for various scenarios to try not being caught on the hop. So the lengthy delay is indicative that we haven't planned this very well at all. Especially given this was expected. The biggie for me that there's bugger all improvements is our non response to results on the pitch. Crap run after crap run, and TM goes on regardless. That doesn't seem like progress to me. In fact it suggests they don't care at all. Others have argued it far better but to say there is no evidence is living in an alternate reality.

For the life of me I'm struggling to see where the club is improving stuff is coming from. From what I can see the manager has crash landed the last 3 seasons without censure or removal, going on several runs that would have seen him booted anywhere else. This to me suggests no one gives the proverbial flying about our results, which in my humble, out of the know, uneducated opinion are kind of a big deal.

What grates me is how many good candidates we have missed out on over the years. Neil looks to be doing well at Sunderland - broke their 4 year struggles and got them back up. But really given he matched us with PNE on a much lower budget we should have been all over that when he left there. Same with Rowett at Millwall. Matching us with much less resources. Thought that his credentials were proved by how well he did with Brum and how badly they did afterwards. Not sure who currently fits that bill but surely there is someon overlooked who's doing/done a good job with limited resources.

Bit too far of a drive on an evening mate! Especially being exiled on the wrong side of the country.

Cheers. I'm not that familiar (gone are the days of trips to Morecambe of an evening. I miss those) but saw his name bandied about a fair bit. Given how bare we are up top it seemed a bit of an odd one. However if we have better options than that's fair enough.

And the race for 4th which with the CL what it is is more desirable than trophies for many teams. Lots to play for tomorrow - 6 games I think which have something at stake.

Couple of questions on this. Wasn't McBride doing quite well for the reserves? Given we have a lack of strikers - which will get worse when Bereton inevitably goes - it seems a tad odd we are letting him go. Also on Davenport. Not sure I saw enough to make an informed opinion but at times he looked promising. Never got a consistent run with TM in charge - look at the difference in Buckley when he had a run of games in a position . But I did think there I saw a few sparks of talent in there that suggested he was worth a run in the team and investigating whether he was worth keeping. Have a feeling we may end up regretting letting him go.

I hope you are right. That said Coyle was being suggested for the Blackpool job (possibly in league 2 maybe league 1) and even then he was an outsider for that. And who was it who had turned down TM (Northampton?) Neither were really appropriate yet they ended up here.

Look guys. We all know it will be a HSH guy. The last 4 have been when there have been much more obvious candidates, so why would anything be different this time?

Grayson wouldn't be the worst. In fact 5 years ago this would have been a great appointment. Successful in his time but worried that his time has pretty much passed on. I mean anyone who buys Steele has to be a tad suspect. That said 4 promotions is more than most or the people who have been appointed by Venkys so it could be much worse.

All we need is the right manager for us - a good fit for us. Grayson has a much better CV than TM but he's really tailed off over the last few years. Would have been a strong choice of mine a few years ago. Now less so. That said his record is still better than TMs. Is Adkins record better than TM too? Am struggling to recall but think he has a number of promotions on his CV. Again though I feel his time has passed. Really it goes to show TM wasn't that good at all. Big achievement was getting out of League 1 - not all big budget teams manage it first time (Sunderland, Sheff Weds, Sheff Utd) - but outside of that he has been very ordinary if not limited.

You do know I was being sarcastic right? Living in Leeds has lowered my tolerance of them.

But, but Leeds can't go down. They are a massive club with a huge fan base who play football "the right way". Surely that's enough to secure their place in the top flight?

Me too! Pressure off Rovers perform.

You mean like 5 years with no questioning of results, rediculously limited forced sales, a decent budget, an academy churning out championship standard players, state of the art training facilities and a one and a half year assess the squad free hit? Poor old Tony having it so tough here.

Some really good points here. Interestingly in past times Coyle.and Grayson may have fitted the bill from this criteria (Coyle got Burnley promoted on a shoe string, Grayson worked under batnuts owners at Blackpool and got promoted on a budget.) Not suggesting either - although at one point I though Grayson was the way to go - but rather to illustrate the right fit is possible even in our challenging circumstances. As to uniting the fans I don't think that's an issue. Venkys don't care about owner popularity or anything else it seems and so won't not appoint or quickly sack just because the fans don't like him.

Annoyingly we don't even need a good manager, just the right fit for this club. Don't get me wrong I would prefer a good manager but every manager it seems has a club where it clicks. Hasslebank at Burton is the prime example of this. Goodness even Coyle who was useless (and am not advocating a reappointment) worked well at the Dingles for a few years. And contraversially I'd say Souness and us - never rated him prior to Rovers, but he excelled with us. That we haven't appointed a good candidate or the right fit in so many appointments is dodgy as hell. Surely we should have got one right by now, even by chance, if there weren't untoward happenings.

If your entire season is based on one player not being unavailable and performing at levels way above anything they have performed at in their career, it could be argued you haven't planned very well... Also what about every other capitulation? The common denominator of a poor manager perhaps?

Gav never think you are having a go whether you agree or disagree with me. That said if we are talking about reality aren't most of these stone cold facts? The only one which is more opinion based is the squad quality which I will come on too. All the others are in the record book in black and white - a grim reality indeed. He's an upgrade on Coyle but surely that can't be the standard? Better than utterly useless? I would agree that I don't hold too much blame for getting relegated as we were dire under Coyle and has several years of having the squad decimated when TM took over. But its not much of an endorsement, better than Coyle. Continuing on Coyle here's the rub. Firstly Dack alone cost twice, thrice what Coyle got to spend on fees. You can't say where are Coyle's 10 million assets when he has had zero to spend compared to TM. That's hardly a fair comparison. TM did hit the jackpot with a few players but when the cheap ones costs significantly more that Coyle's budget it really can't be considered a fair comparison whatsoever and of course you would expect improvements. Again though better than Coyle - even of it were a fair comparison - isn't enough. I doubt we would get 60 million for them. Partly because of mismanaging contracts - owners and manager to blame for that- and partly because that's highly unrealistic. Armstrong went for £15 m and he had shown form over a longer period than Diaz. Dack won't go for a big fee after 2 injuries and Kaminski probably isn't going to fetch that much either. (And I think we should steer clear of Keepers here, given we sold Raya for pittance.) Also it's disingenuous to put Dolan in that bracket as he's nowhere near that level at present. In terms of squad better than arrived. I'd say marginally at best. Which for 5 years work is appalling. We have holes all over the place and if the new manager can't invest the Diaz money, he will inherit a squad that's pretty toothless in attack with a ton of gaps everywhere. No right back. One good centre back. Short in midfield and out wide. And Gally is the best of our attackers. It's hard to say that's there's massive improvement for 5 years. We have some promising youngsters, although TM inherited some of those as well. So there's much of a muchness imo. I'd say marginally better as we do have Travis, a solid keeper (which is huge) Warton and I think Buckley will go far in the game when he has stopped being shunted about. But outside of these 4, the squad looks threadbare or poor. If that's the sum total of 5 years journey you wonder what the heck has been done. Also that's 5 years with no enforced sales save Armstrong. 5 years without having to worry about results. Contrast that with previous managers continually having to sell our best players and get results it's a pretty good gig. Should have left much more in that time. (for the purpose of this I am assuming Diaz will be off, but then equally Coyle had Hanley and Duffy leave which totally sunk the defence. Given the writing was on the wall for this in all 3 cases I think that is a fair comparison.) It could have. And getting out of league 1 was key and a good achievement. But could be worse doesn't mean he's done a good job whatsoever. I mean if that's our standard, crap, as oppose to scraping the bottom of the barrel couldn't be any worse crap, then we may as well pack it in. Being not quite as bad is not a ringing endorsement. Agree on this. It's why we keep getting them.

Personally I am highly impressed with TM. I'm impressed that after 5 years he leaves us in scarcely any better place than when he arrived. I'm impressed so many people think he is honourable despite having told enough whoppers to feel at home in the government and having slated the fans repeatedly. I'm impressed we have had so many death spirals. I didn't think it was possible to implode after Christmas year in year out. Im impressed we somehow missed playoffs despite our strong position and our rivals all slipping up plenty. I'm impressed that he has played players in positions even a 4 year old would balk to play them. Well done Tony, it's a belting job you have done. Surprised me left right and centre.

Not a good manager - agree. Honest decent fellow? Hardly. Bar Kean has maligned the fans more. He's not a decent fellow. that said it's shambolic from the owners as well. Good to see we are still an all round basket case.

I don't think they will but aren't Millwall on the same points as us and in with a shout too? Very unlikely but they have a good manager and with Luton up there I don't feel they can totally be ignored. Classic Rovers would be for Boro and Sheff to drop points but Millwall outscore us to take 6th...

Am delighted with the result and performance, but I'm also pretty sure what the difference is. The pressure is off as it's not in our hands. Sheff Utd and Boro needs to both throw it away for us to get in - unlikely both will. Once the pressure is off we perform, just like in previous seasons.

Top post. Isn't this gaslighting? How can he not be challenged on these. He's not as bad as Kean overall by a long shot but his comments are just as bad. No doubt about it.