Pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Can't defend to save our lives, but able to score enough goals for it not to be a major issue yet.

Suhail is ex-SEM & ex-Kentaro, though, isn't he? And has pretty much been orchestrating events in some form or another since the beginning or close to? Hard to feel much relief when such shady elements still exist at such a high level within the club's structure. I think the only time I'll feel the club is safe again is when it is no longer in Venky's hands. Unfortunately there's no obvious sign of this happening any time in the near future though.

Didn't Glen Mullan cover all of this in those blogs he wrote?

I've never been a huge fan of Raya, but he's good enough for a strong League 1 team and a mid to lower-mid table Championship team. I don't think he'll improve much beyond that level though, so if we have serious ambitions of going up in the next couple of seasons then we need to find a better goalkeeper. I'd like to keep Raya as backup/competition, but if he's not willing to accept that role then it might be best for all parties for him to move on. That's only if we can find better though. I'm still sceptical on that. Our record with goalkeepers has been pretty horrendous since Robinson left - Jake Kean, Eastwood, Steele, Leutwiler... Raya has been the best of the bunch but that isn't saying much. That said I do think the potential is there, and, ultimately I would prefer to keep Raya either as competition for the no1 spot or loan him out and see how he develops elsewhere. I'm not particularly comfortable with selling him completely, but I wouldn't see it as a total disaster either.

Mowbray is just a naturally overcautious manager, he'd rather play it safe than potentially leave the team in a vulnerable position by exposing gaps for the opposition to exploit. It's a commendable attitude in some respects, but there are two major issues I have with his approach. Firstly, he seems to wait far too long to change things. We went on an embarrassingly long run of terrible form from the beginning of February before he finally made some serious changes which brought instant results. At that point he had little choice but to continue on with it, and since we were safe at that point and had no realistic chance of reaching the playoffs there was no real pressure if we got a couple of really bad results along the way. Secondly, he is far too cautious against teams which are inferior to us - particularly at home. Because of his overthinking we rarely start off on the front foot against teams we should be beating. I have no issue with taking caution away from home (although our away form this season was pretty poor anyway) or at home against the better teams in the division, but I don't understand it when we're playing teams like Rotherham, Ipswich, Millwall, etc. Those are situations where he needs to be more courageous if he has serious ambitions of getting promoted. I'm still hopeful that the tail end of the season will have opened the manager's eyes a bit, and with a decent summer we may have a good 19/20 season. A poor summer window and no lessons learned from last season could see us in some serious trouble though. At this point I really feel like it could go either way.

Being brutally honest I don't think Hanley really fits into that bracket. In both Newcastle and Norwich's promotion seasons he played less than a quarter of the full league schedule. The only times he's been a regular at Championship level is mid table with us and mid table with Norwich last season. That's probably his level, so if we want to be in the promotion mix we'd at best be bringing Hanley on as a back up option rather than a starting CB.

Steve Kean was saying the exact same things when we went to play Pune FC all those years ago. Anybody with any common sense knows that India is not some untapped market teeming with budding megastars.

Anyone who seriously thinks the manager has ultimate say on anything has been paying no attention for the last 8 years. If Venky's or their advisors decide it's worth selling Raya will be gone, and Mowbray will be told to deal with it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48302526 You don't say. Almost like it's been purposefully designed that way bit late to be worrying about that, anyway, it's already happened.

It's a pretty crucial match, as I think both are potentially due to incur FFP sanctions should they remain in the Championship next season.

At least Leeds can console themselves with breaking two brand new records. First Championship team to be top at Christmas and not go up. Also the first Championship team to lose a playoff semi final having won the first leg away. Ho ho ho.

Alright lads, time to unban CP Company?

Leeds/Villa final by the looks of it.

Agreed. We're a football club, not a charity. As I said in the retained thread, there's no reason Gladwin couldn't keep using our facilities to rehabilitate whilst looking for a new club. I don't think anybody would have a problem with that. I don't understand why he needs to be offered a six months deal when Mowbray's comments make it pretty clear Gladwin will be of no use to us in those six months.

We could still let him use our facilities for recovery without offering him a new deal, short term or not. That's how these things normally work. We've already done right by paying him to not play for two years. It seems obvious that he realistically has little to no chance of a long term future with us, so why even bother with the short term deal? It just doesn't add up to me, unless Tony genuinely thinks in six months Gladwin is going to recover and be such a beast in training that he'll have no choice but to tie him down to a longer deal.

We've been here before. Lowe, Evans, Williamson, Steele, Henley, Feeney... if you aren't good enough then you aren't good enough. Loyalty and a good attitude only go so far, at some point you need to add talent in order to progress. Signing and extending the contracts of mediocre players does nothing but promote stagnation. Players on the bench should be able and ready to step in and stake a place for the first team. Let's be serious, the likes of Leutwiler, Hart, Conway, Smallwood, Evans and Gladwin will never be first teamers at an ambitious Championship club. They just aren't good enough. Yet all have been given or are about to be given new contracts despite Mowbray's supposed aim being promotion out of this league. At least the likes of Rothwell, Brereton and Chapman have the potential to step up and contribute in a big way, even if that potential isn't ultimately fulfilled. Those are the types of players that should be pushing for first team spots, not average players who are just there to make up the numbers and "do a job" when called upon.

Gladwin and Leutwiler shouldn't even have been under consideration for renewal, let alone one actually happening and the other being proposed. It's ridiculous. Conway I'm ambivalent about. It's not a huge problem if he stays on a reduced deal, conversely it's not a big deal if he goes either. Downing, whatever. Not good enough for a promotion/playoff chasing team so fine IF we replace him properly, but that's a big if. Tony seemed to think Rodwell was up to the task in January and look how that ended up. His judgement on centre-backs is questionable at best, which is ironic considering that was his position.

I don't necessarily mind Downing being released if Williams takes his place as 4th choice CB, nor would I be hugely opposed to Conway staying on significantly reduced terms with a potential route into becoming a coach, but seriously... in discussions with Gladwin and retaining Leutwiler? Why on both counts? Gladwin has been paid for two years to contribute absolutely nothing, whilst Leutwiler very clearly showed in his brief appearances at the end of the season that he isn't good enough to be a Championship keeper, even at backup. Very worrying signs. Unsure on Rodwell, not opposed to keeping him if wages are sensible but only as a midfielder and not as a centre-back. Not a great start to the summer and hopefully not a sign of things to come, although I'm well prepared for another summer of disappointment under our clueless owners.

Me too, from 1996 - 1998 I loved watching Nitro on Friday nights. Then we switched to Sky Digital around September 1998 and lost TNT my grandparents were still on analogue Sky though, so they'd tape it for me every Friday I asked them to stop around mid-99 as I lost interest in WCW, it was pretty bad by that point. It was all about WWF by then. It was so huge back then, even my parents would watch Raw on Fridays and Smackdown on Saturdays. They'd order the UK PPV's on Sky Box Office as well, so that was great for me! WCW eventually came back on Bravo, I think, but I didn't bother watching it by that point. Anyway, it's really cool to see TNT back in the game with AEW. The industry desperately needs some real competition for WWE, which is dire nowadays, so fingers crossed AEW is successful.

AEW officially announced as airing on TNT, just over 18 years after the network cancelled WCW and stopped airing wrestling. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxe5mi7HvYk/

Even Derby have that awful Frank Lampard FC bullshit that's been so irritating this year. The media will never stop going on about it if "Lamps" gets Derby promoted in his first season as a manager. Would be almost as bad as Liverpool winning the PL.

Villa v Leeds is the nightmare playoff final for me. Two teams I despise, one of whom has grossly overspent to the point of total financial meltdown and yet may be rewarded for it with promotion. Still, I suppose that if Leeds go up at least the Championship will stop being Leeds Utd TV for a season.

Business as usual for Rovers then.

WBA got absolutely battered after Brunt got himself stupidly sent off so they can't have any complaints.

Am sure our Lowey was on the verge of being on the streets after the paltry wages he received here. What was it, a measly £20k a week or so? Where's his Asda vouchers?