DE.

IMV it just shows, sadly, that even the people at Ewood (who a lot of this speculation probably came from) have absolutely no clue what is really going on. I doubt there was ever any intention to remove Mowbray last week or any time recently. It was just people at the club putting 2 and 2 together, whilst seemingly forgetting we are run by people who have no idea what they are doing.

I don't see why Arma would go along with a new deal if PL clubs are genuinely interested (or even Championship clubs who actually have a chance of getting promoted). Worst case scenario he's out of contract next summer, leaves on a free and gets a hefty signing on bonus and probably higher wages too as clubs no longer have to concern themselves with a transfer fee.

His Dark Side of the Ring episode is definitely worth a watch.

Spending was halted for Bowyer in summer 2015 - wasn't sacked until October. Turning off the taps alone is far from a good indicator of the manager leaving imminently.

If Mowbray is staying, as appears to be the case, then I fully expect Bennett to end up clinging on as well. I hope not but I have zero faith in this manager or our owners to make any decision that benefits the club at this point. The lot of them seem to be actively attempting to regress us as quickly as possible.

So next season will probably be the second season Bennett has been relegated with us, then. What a legacy. At least one of Lowe's relegations was from the PL.

I bought the original Death of WCW book something like 15 years ago, then got the updated version on kindle somewhat recently. It's definitely a great read and very funny. If you've ever listened to Bryan Alvarez on Observer radio, the writing style is very familiar. I actually think he narrates the audiobook, if I remember correctly. There's a more factual book about WCW called "NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW" by Guy Evans which is also really, really good. Goes into depth interviewing various people involved with WCW at the time, including Turner execs and television people. As for the nWo, still popular to this day actually. I went to LA in 2013 and wore an nWo shirt to a theme park there... fair to say a lot of people still have fond memories of those times! I was kind of shocked by the amount of attention the shirt got.

Well, it wouldn't be Venky's if the manager was removed at a suitable time. Even with Mowbray, Coyle was sacked towards the end of February when the transfer window was long closed and there were only a couple of months of the season left.

The tagline to "The Venky Years - A Rovers Retrospective".

Judging by his general comments over the past year or so, very possibly.

Got a very Bowyer's-last-season feeling about it. There were rumours all that summer that he was leaving and communications between he and India had stopped. The Sun also printed a story in August that he'd been sacked, with that story having presumably leaked from Ewood. It took until October for the axe to actually fall. Would not surprise me in the slightest if history ends up repeating itself here.

The way Coyle arrived, usurping a good manager in Neil Warnock, combined with the "SEM who?" lie will always grate. Obviously the team also performed poorly under him - but he was a shit manager with a below average team. It is what it is. When it was obvious things were not working out he was sacked - too late, as always, but at lightning speed by Venky standards. That's what separates the likes of Mowbray and Kean from all of our other managers - they've worked themselves into positions of absolute power where football results no longer seem to matter. Even Bowyer wasn't immune to that. That's why these comparisons between Kean and Mowbray are made. I don't think anybody will deny Kean was far worse (and anybody that does has forgotten how bad it was between 2011-2012, imo) but Mowbray has somehow gotten himself into the same bulletproof position. The Brockhall debacle just makes it even worse and propels him way ahead of Coyle on my list.

For me the Brockhall scandal will forever taint TM's time here. I can't believe he knew nothing about it. Not after they tried to pull the same stunt at Coventry. For me that's worse than anything Coyle did, although Kean still retains the worst manager spot by some distance.

Good news. Evans and Bennett next, please.

Tbf Accy are only 5 points and three places below Portsmouth, so it wasn't an easy game. Gutting to miss out on the last day after being beaten at home by a team with nothing to play for, though.

I'd say Bournemouth were the opposite, getting a top six place because of their squad as opposed to the manager(s). Not too dissimilar to Fulham last season.

Honestly this season ended up being much worse than I expected. I didn't think we'd get top six with the current manager in situ, but I expected we'd finish somewhere in the top half. 15th is an abject failure and should be grounds for the manager's dismissal considering how well Mowbray has been backed. That run of 2 wins out of 17 is something no other manager in the professional leagues would have survived, and showed how little our owners care about the club.

I'm sure there are plenty who would, that's the beauty of opinions!

Assuming Warne sticks around I'm sure they'll be back. They have getting promoted from League 1 down to a science at this point! Just need to have a serious review next time they get promoted to ensure the mistakes of the last three relegations are learned from. As for Mowbray, I just want him gone. I don't know if I can stomach another season of failure with him at the helm.

The threads should hopefully now be merged!

Damn, rumbled! I agree with you there, I actually think now that Wycombe have adapted a bit to the Championship they are better than Derby. Unfortunately their poor start doomed them. Thanks for the love, I'll try to overlook your affection for Rotherham but can't promise anything 🧐

The compacted fixture list at the end wasn't ideal for them, sure, but I still think it's more about their team just not being Championship standard - as it wasn't the last two times they came up and went straight back down (assume they had more normal run ins then but can't remember). They were in the relegation zone for most of January, February and March (granted 3/4 games behind everyone else, but still, even with 3/4 losses at that point in the season we wouldn't have been there) so I don't think it's the run in that is the primary cause of their relegation, unless you count the entire last half of the season as the run in. I am fairly comfortable with that opinion having browsed their forum for reaction, but I can assure you I have no vendetta against Rotherham and think they're in a good position to bounce back again along with Wycombe.

Well, I decided to check the Rotherham forums to see if they were of the same opinion, but most of them seem to be of the same opinion that they just haven't been good enough. "Our season summed up in that one game. Chances galore to get the job done and in the end we've paid a heavy price for missing them." "Poor finishing all season, League One quality players not being quite good enough." " Same old, same old.................. Why didn't we keep stopping the game with subs and not wait until it was too late...............if's and but's It's a sorry end, i've had enough of false dawns and silly promises, after watching since 1962, i've done now being a regular season ticket.....just pick and choose..........................................." "Basically what everyone else has said is spot on. Summed up our season, just not quite good enough. It can be a cruel game at times and today is a fine example. Given the respective budgets we can hold our heads high, to compete and fall just short is gutting but yeah." "Warny's lack of tactical knowledge let us down again I'm afraid to say 15 mins left we had to put fresh bodies on up top to give them something to think about but instead he let Cardiff push on ..... I do not understand what more warny has to do to show his followers on here just how poor he is tactically." "What is the point of rotherham ever being in the championship if we don't invest to try at least for top half of the table,having league 1 and 2 players hasn't worked before but yet that's what we always do. We lack the quality and it shows down to bad recruitment/management" I mean I could go on, but honestly I don't think my opinion is that offensive and seems in line with a lot of Millers fans. I certainly don't think it's enough to accuse me of having a vendetta, anyway.

They ultimately played the same 23 teams x2 as everybody else. Excuses about run-ins are just that, imo, masking the fact the team hasn't performed well over the course of a season. I'm sure they'll be back again for the 2022/23 season. Whether we'll still be in the Championship is another question.

I have more sympathy for them than the likes of Rotherham or Sheffield Wednesday. They improved as the season went on and started adapting to the division. If they manage to keep Ainsworth and their squad together there's no reason they can't bounce back at the first attempt.