DE.

You could argue 3/4 of our last managers have been decent choices. Bowyer underachieved somewhat but had us finishing higher than anybody else. Lambert was only here a few months but a choice almost everyone was happy with. Coyle obviously a total disaster that pretty much doomed us to relegation, but Warnock was in the pipeline so we were looking in the right direction even if certain influences ended up ruining that. Mowbray couldn't keep us up but did get us promoted again and relatively stable in the division. Bowyer had very little money to spend, Lambert was brought in when we were under embargo and Mowbray hasn't had much to spend until recently either. So I don't think it's cut and dry to assume it's highly likely the next appointment will be any worse than Mowbray. Obviously there's the risk it could be another Coyle but most clubs hire a total dud at some point so we shouldn't necessarily live in fear of that mistake.

60 isn't that old for a manager so I'd be surprised if he's seriously thinking about retirement at this point. He's obviously looking for the 'right' job which would probably rule us out - but you don't know unless you try. In the event Mowbray did leave and Hughton was still available I'd at the very least want the club to put out feelers - even if he ultimately wasn't interested or too expensive for us.

Theoretically we have Bennett as well but with Nyambe's injury problems that would then leave us short at RB (not that Bennett is particularly good there anyway).

The manager has always been very clear in stating that signings are his decision - particularly with Brereton - so I think in the absence of any other credible evidence we have to take that at face value. The only other take on his comments is that he's a liar and covering up for the continued shady goings on at the club, and that doesn't paint him in a great light either. I'd rather believe he was being truthful and had just fucked up as it would really be shit if he turned out to be another Venky puppet.

It's just a weird extension of the 'cult of personality' thing Mowbray has going on where he is the messiah and cannot be questioned. All for coming second in League 1. Bowyer got it all wrong. He should have let us get relegated when he first got the job, then assuming he would also have been allowed to keep all of our best players and be given a budget far exceeding all other L1 teams, just gotten us re-promoted. Then he would have had the flag. Would probably still be here now.

And now the manager is saying we can't buy anyone due to financial restrictions. We could literally not have spent a penny on either Gallagher or Brereton and we'd be no worse off. There's no positive spin to it.

Incredible job Gerhard Struber has been doing at Barnsley. Just a point off safety now.

How many genuinely creative midfielders do we have? Downing and Rothwell? One has 4 assists and the other has none. Holtby has a couple of assists but struggles with his fitness. Our full backs/wing backs are no good at crossing and we often play strikers on the wings so can't expect too much there either. Haven't seen any evidence of Gallagher being creative and Armstrong is better as a goalscorer than a creator. Not sure we have anybody particularly good on dead balls to rack up the assists either. Even Mulgrew had no assists last season despite scoring ten goals mostly from dead-ball situations. In fairness to our players, though, I don't think the way we play is very conductive to creating good chances. It's so sludgy and slow.

You saved me a post, so thanks! This always happens though. Evans has a few decent games and his average at best history here is rewritten like he's been some kind of maestro who we've been lucky to have all these years. There's a reason he's the only one of Bowyer's babes left here. Purple patches of form interspersed with multiple injuries and many, many games of nothingness obviously wasn't enough to ever catch anybody else's interest. Being one of our better players this season is frankly a low bar. Evans is far from our biggest problem but symbolic of our mediocrity and how that has been embraced and celebrated by many of our supporters.

He'll be here until he retires. Am pretty much resigned to it at this point.

Get him out on loan somewhere. Even if the other club are barely paying any of his wages it's better than him wasting away here.

I think the teams below us are bad enough that we won't have to worry about relegation this season, but 3 points out of 15 is equivilent to WLLLL so certainly relegation form even if we're unlikely to end up there.

So predictable. We aren't going to win again until March.

One of the differences between a good and an average/poor manager is the ability to handle multiple different personalities. Mowbray seems to be unable to tolerate players who ask questions and demand more, so rather than work on that area of his management skillset he restricts himself to only bringing in players who he knows will get their head down, do as they are told and never make waves. No "mavericks".

A bit harsh putting Lowe and Bennett in the same bracket imo. Bennett was a decent player for us and other clubs, but has declined significantly over the past couple of years - particularly since Mowbray started playing him at right back repeatedly, where he clearly isn't suited. Lowe meanwhile has always been extremely limited and extremely fortunate to grow up during a dire period for the England youth setup and Blackburn Rovers. Answer to part 1: His good friend and 'coincidentally' his boss Steve Waggott. Answer to part 2: Venky's couldn't care less about us unless we're causing them bad publicity. We're a blip on their radar and I imagine the only words they hear from Mowbray are whatever he says at the annual summer transfer budget meetings. I bet if asked right now they wouldn't even be able to tell you where we are in the league, let alone what Mowbray has been saying in the press.

Exactly what happens when you sign soft, passive players. The team is a reflection of the manager's philosophy and ethos.

He should stop talking about them because the way they operate (including pinching Raya off us for relative peanuts) reflects very badly on how our club is run.

By "character" he basically means "nice lad who won't rock the boat". Good for squad harmony, bad for genuine ambition.

I think we all know what's coming then.

Completely agree!

No.

It's strange because Cody's 'inner circle' so to speak are referred to as the Nightmare Family (assumedly including Brandi) and Brandi's group is the Nightmare Collective. You would assume from the name conventions alone that they were somehow connected. The fact they are actually on completely opposite ends of the spectrum makes it even more bizarre. Tony Khan seems to pride himself on listening to the fans so I hope he reads the criticism this angle is getting and either tweaks or drops it entirely. I'm okay with Brandi being on the show, but not as a knockoff version of Stephanie McMahon, all the way down to playing heel on TV but doing loads of good stuff outside of TV. Moxley/Jericho is the best thing on Dynamite by far. If they can start creating more storylines on that level then we'll be getting somewhere. Also Sammy Guevara is really growing on me. He's such an obnoxious little twerp that you can't help but love when he gets beaten up.

I lurked from about 2003 and joined in 2004 I believe, and I can tell you that Souness and Allardyce definitely got it worse than Mowbray ever has, despite us being in a significantly better position at the time!

Ratings - AEW 947,000, NXT 721,000. A good rating for AEW despite their problems, whilst it's a decent enough audience number for NXT but their primary demo collapsed to a 0.19 (AEW got 0.36). NXT dropped out of the top 50 which is a really bad sign. Prior to this their lowest cable rank had been number 32. AEW by comparison was 6th this week. Sucks for NXT as they are putting on good shows, hopefully just an aberration.

After bouncing back with a decent edition of Dynamite last week, I feel like AEW was back in the doldrums this week. So frustrating. The Nightmare Collective stuff is just total shit. It isn't over at all. Brandi was just annoying and awkward on commentary, and the introduction of Luther was just baffling. Excaliber briefly mentioned that he's a "Japanese deathmatch legend" but I'm pretty sure 95% of the audience had absolutely no idea who he was. "Mel" meanwhile is just a bad Serena knockoff who we know absolutely nothing about. She was introduced as a fan who hopped the guardrail to join the Nightmare Collective for... reasons. Now she's a competitor. Why? They need to abandon this crap ASAP and stop wasting airtime with it. It makes no sense for Cody to be the company's top babyface and his wife a cult-leader heel - especially with their relationship established and acknowledged. It's not like they even gave a reason for Brandi's sudden turn. She was a babyface and then suddenly became a heel for no clear reason. She's like a budget version of Stephanie McMahon and it's just not working. Daniels/Guevara was okay but the Dark Order post-match nonsense was pointless. It just made the Dark Order look weak when Daniels rejected them and they got their asses kicked. They're basically just a group of jobbers that nobody really takes seriously. AEW seem to think the reveal of the "exalted one" will boost the group to legitimatacy, but I don't see it. AEW also has too many "recruitment" storylines going on at the moment. The Nightmare Collective, Dark Order, Jericho/Moxley... even JR made a comment about it. I've said it before but they really need to make an effort to streamline their storylines. Cody/Dustin Vs Pentagon/Fenix was alright, but Cody's post-match interview was a bust. He's supposed to be this super babyface, but rather than accept MJF's challenge he lets Arn Anderson not only talk for him but also refuse to give an answer. It didn't even make sense considering the previous week Cody was literally begging MJF for a match and said he'd give him anything to make it happen. Now this week he has to think about it? It wasn't a great look for Cody and the crowd booed what seemed to be a cowardly response. Arn Anderson is a legend but I'm not sure why he's been put with Cody. Cody is one of the best talkers on the roster, he doesn't need Arn Anderson speaking for him. Cody is one of the best wrestlers on the roster (in kayfabe at least), he doesn't need Arn Anderson managing him. Basically, he doesn't need Arn Anderson. Not sure what the point of the Lanny Poffo promo was. It cut out pretty abruptly and he looked confused. Speaking of Cody looking bad, the MJF segment took it to another level. He makes Cody look like a wimp for not coming out to confront him, then DDP comes out as the next old timer to talk for Cody. He then gets beaten up and Cody is still nowhere to be seen. I wouldn't mind if the commentators had given some kind of plausible reason for Cody's non-appearance, but nope. QT fucking Marshall came out to help! MJF was a great promo as usual but this did nothing for Cody at all, it just buried him. As for DDP, I love the guy but this is a lot of promo time for somebody who is a non-competitor. I'm sure that there are other wrestlers on the roster who could have done with the screen time. Darby Allin? The Bucks? Omega? Even Dustin Rhodes would have been better as at least he's an active competitor. There's so much wrong with how they're booking this. They're making Cody look like a chump and Butcher and Blade didn't look a whole lot better getting destroyed by a 60 year old. It's possible DDP is coming back for a match but again, don't they have enough actual wrestlers that need ring time without having a retired wrestler taking such a huge amout of the spotlight? Jurassic Express Vs Best friends was fine. Good match. Orange Cassidy isn't everyone's cup of tea but I think he's fine in small doses, and he's clearly over with the live audience. The final segment between the Inner Circle and Moxley was really good. Easily the best part of the show, but it involved Jericho so that's pretty much a given at this point. Jericho giving a shout out to Wrestle Kingdom was another sign that the AEW/NJPW relationship is getting better. The twist of Moxley turning on the Inner Circle straight away after pretending to join them was obvious, but still well done. They could have dragged it out a little longer but they've got plenty of mileage to work with in this storyline so I'm okay with them getting straight to it, especially as everybody would have expected Moxley to turn on the Inner Circle at some point anyway. I dread to think where AEW would be without Jericho. They're lucky to have him as the rest of the show is really struggling to click. I simply can't understand why Omega isn't being pushed as one of the focal points of this company. Another week where he barely appears. They're building to an Omega/Hangman feud by the looks of it, but I can see Hangman going over as he needs the credibllity boost, and Omega is essentially reduced to the "veteran helping the younger talent get over" role which is not where he belongs at this stage in his career. He should be at the top of the card but he's stuck in mid-card with very little character development. I don't get it at all.