DE.

I'm still on FM18 at the moment. I usually buy a new FM in 3/4 year cycles so will probably pick up next year's, or maybe the one after that.

I think Allardyce definitely put his foot down as far as being forced to sign Kentaro players, perhaps knowing he'd get the boot as a result, but he was still going to make sure he got a payoff. Can't blame him for that but the fact remains Lambert has been the only manager to walk away under Venky's tenure. Technically Kean falls into that category as well, however his court case (and subsequent £1.2m payout) amounted to him suggesting he was forced out (effectively sacked) rather than resigning of his own volition. There is also that interesting article from way back then in which Andy Cole says he was told Kean would replace Allardyce months before it actually happened... (the article is still online but I can't get it to show up - https://www.thenational.ae/steve-kean-can-do-job-at-blackburn-1.560386) Nonetheless a direct quote from that article: "a trusted little bird told me two months ago what was going to happen. He said that the club would be taken over by an Indian company and that Sam would be pushed aside, to be replaced by the coach Steve Kean. If Keano does well then he keeps the job. If I knew that, then Sam did and he is probably right to think that he is been stabbed in the back." If Cole had heard that then you have to think that Allardyce must have gotten wind of it at some point as well, as Andy says...

Good post but worth noting Allardyce was sacked, he didn't walk. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/dec/13/sam-allardyce-sacked-blackburn-rovers-manager' Lambert is the only manager who has voluntarily left, although he obviously came into the job with severe reservations, hence the end of season break-clause. Seems to confirm how bad Venky's reputation was at the time, and I don't think it's changed much since then.

The only thing they've learned, as far as I can tell, is that it's better to stay silent and avoid coming anywhere near Blackburn. Otherwise they're still making the same mistakes they were making in the beginning. 9 years and the closest we've come to a genuine manager is Paul Lambert, who saw what was going on here and decided after six months he'd rather be unemployed. The day they employ a genuine, experienced manager and back him with funds is the day I'll believe they might be learning something about running a football club. As long as they keep employing cheap cast-offs who can't or won't get us performing on the pitch I'm of the opinion they have learnt absolutely nothing and moreover after nearly a decade you have to assume they aren't interested in becoming better owners. For whatever reason they just want us to keep ticking along as a loss-making enterprise bouncing between the second and third divisions of English football.

So Jim Cornette managed to come out with some blatantly racist shit on NWA Power and has now resigned. Considering Power is a taped show it's kind of hard to fathom how his comment even made it through the original editing process in the first place, but there you go. I used to find Cornette quite refreshing but nowadays he's become really bitter and comes across as incredibly dumb and out of touch. Looks like he's even blocked Brian Zane now

No matter who came in I'm sure our owners would find a way to screw it up.

A shame nobody followed up Waggott's answer with "why did we sell Raya before being sure we could bring in a decent replacement?"

The way he worded it is just strange to me, like that is a decision solely within Mowbray's control and nothing to do with anybody else. I can understand the manager having a preference and making a request to the relevant department, but to be in charge of something like that just seems odd to me.

This is a bit confusing to me. Why would the first team manager need to be involved in this kind of decision? Seems like something that doesn't need to be in his remit.

Orton loves stirring up stuff on social media to be fair. It's pretty entertaining.

I'm clearly not thinking enough like Tony. Good shout. Didn't he also get sent off? It was against Cardiff if I recall correctly. An absolute disgrace.

Will be told he'll have to earn his way past Armstrong and Downing first, then will go elsewhere.

Seems more likely it was to bring in Cunningham as a one in/one out kind of thing.

Cardiff have appointed Neil Harris as manager. Will be interesting to see how he does there.

There's a lot of great, innovative things they could have done with the Fiend character. Unfortunately they are so desperate for wrestlers that move the needle or are just over with the live crowd that they've hotshotted him to the title and overexposed him. In six months Wyatt will be back to being just another guy. This week's viewership - AEW 957,000, NXT 750,000. A nice increase for AEW on the back of the Full Gear PPV (and back in the top 5 for cable), but a slightly surprising decline for NXT. It wouldn't surprise me if that number increases again if WWE advertise some more main roster talent to appear on Wednesdays, and they may even surpass AEW one of these weeks, but I think once Survivor Series is done NXT is likely to settle back in the 650-750k range. AEW meanwhile will be hoping to hold on to their post-PPV bump going forward. They put on another good show this week so hopefully that will count for something.

Despite what he says I'd argue his views are more in line with the majority. The views I see on here are not echoed by many on facebook or twitter, or by the sounds of it in the ground either.

I suppose he's right in the sense we probably deserved to lose by more.

The mythical Gandhi Babu, perhaps?

It was obvious this was going to happen as soon as Bray lost creative control of the character. Giving The Fiend the strap now is a totally dumb decision imo. He doesn't need it and I'd argue it doesn't even make much sense for his character to want it at present. The Fiend as a character should have been built up all the way to WrestleMania, but instead WWE are blowing their load all at once now because he's one of the only characters on the show that the audience genuinely cares about.

I would argue it's more the outside social media sphere that perpetuates that myth than this site. Most of us sussed out Mowbray some time ago. He's the same as virtually every other football manager across the land - self-preservation first, everything else a distant second.

Wouldn't surprise me. He was reluctant to stay on this season and it's obviously not going well. Still doing better than us mind, but we don't exactly have high expectations.

Warnock sacked by Cardiff. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50380702

Bloody ref intercepting all of our passes.

Aren't injuries what the manager and three-quarters of our fans are blaming our woes on? Maybe they should try and get a word with Johnson and find out what the secret to his success is. Couldn't be anything as simple as having decent backup players and a solid, consistent style that the entire squad is comfortable with. If Venky's had anything about them they would be hauling Waggott and Mowbray to India during the international break and grilling them on what the hell is going on. Of course you and I both know they don't care enough about the club to probably even know where we are in the table, let alone be worried about results, but being so far behind the likes of Preston is embarrassing to say the least.

Same nonsense he's been speaking for a while now. Very much the kind of gibberish you start to hear from managers when they know their time is up and are desperately trying to cling on.