DE.

Armstrong started off very strong but for whatever reason faded away just as quickly after his initial nine goal surge. Payne never really impressed and it doesn't sound like the manager rates him much either. Would be an underwhelming signing even as back up imo.

Fulham were very good in the first leg too, they just couldn't score. Certainly didn't deserve to lose and I was fairly sure they'd do enough in the second to get through. I expect Villa to make it past Boro tonight, but I think it'll be a close one.

The one obvious change was the transfer embargo coming into effect. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Venky's were caught off-guard by the whole thing - and as a result, as you say, lost trust in Bowyer and others at the club, sending over Pasha to try and work out what was going on. Pasha was obviously unimpressed with GB and got rid of him as soon as possible. Either way you're right, it's completely possible they'll start meddling again if Mowbray isn't living up to expectations next season. As far as I'm aware Pasha is still lurking in the shadows, so if he sours on Mowbray at some point it'll be time to buckle up and prepare for the next round of Venky Russian Roulette. We just have to hope Waggott & TM keep the ship steady and maintain reasonable expectations.

I can only assume that Venky's somehow blamed Bowyer for the transfer embargo, hence selling players behind his back and providing minimal support, forcing us to bring in the likes of Fode Koita and Nathan Delfouneso. There was that strange report from The Sun that Bowyer had been sacked at the end of August, which must have come from somebody at the club. It all added to the instability and chaos, combined with poor results, which ultimately made Bowyer's sacking appear perfectly justified. It appears that there was a serious breakdown between the owners and GB that season which was only going to have one ending. We then had the rise of Suhail Pasha, Paul Lambert being appointed out of nowhere, Shaw and Myers leaving, the sale of Jordan Rhodes, Lambert leaving after allegedly being lied to about next season's budget, the whole Warnock/Coyle fiasco and the arrival of Paul Senior. Little surprise it all ended in relegation.

For a neutral our tenure under Venky's would probably be very interesting and entertaining. Obviously for us it's mostly just depressing and infuriating. What's confusing to me is that if the club is being funded properly by the owners, why in the world were we - according to Cheston himself - using emergency loans to cover shortfalls? Did the owners need two bloody accountancy firms to remind them to pay the bills in a timely manner? The whole period of Lambert/Coyle is completely baffling both from an on and off field perspective. It's like after years of stability we suddenly plunged straight back into the era of madness that had preceded it, then after appointing Mowbray went back to calmer waters. I'd love to know what the root cause of that chaos was.

No thanks. If we want to stay in the division we don't want to start picking up aging, injury prone players. McGoldrick is a good player on his day but consistent injuries have taken their toll - hamstring problems have taken away a lot of the pace he used to have. His scoring record in the Championship also isn't that good Personally I would avoid.

Reading between the lines Mowbray is basically saying that Payne will only become a proper player if he goes somewhere else and has the chance to play regularly. Not sure why we'd want to sign a player with the mentality of "I'm happy to be back up". Successful clubs don't have many of those players.

Better to take a punt on an up and comer than somebody like McClaren imo. No way Schteve could work with Ipswich's budget. Ross will find it hard as well, mind. What happened to Sol 'managerial genius' Campbell?

Fair enough, although in fairness England haven't had it much better! My only real memory of England from the 2010 world cup is wanting to put my fist through the TV as the commentator said "Emile Heskey is going to play on the right wing".

At the very least the Rovers/Ipswich matches should be more entertaining this time around. Watching Gary Bowyer's Rovers play Mick McCarthy's Ipswich made me question whether I really did like football.

Tan was your typical clueless foreign owner who thought he could come in, change a few things and be taking on the big boys. Seems like he's learned some hard lessons and got it right eventually. Venky's first few years had a much more sinister and complex edge to them, as evidenced by the leaked files re: Kentaro, as well as those Shebby Singh emails. After that they fall into the clueless foreign owner category but didn't seem to learn much, if the Owen Coyle debacle is anything to go by. It remains to be seen whether they back TM or whether they go back to their self-destructive default position.

Comparing Tan with Venky's is pretty disingenuous imo. At what point did Tan hand over control of the club to an agency? Who was his Steve Kean, or indeed his Owen Coyle? Who on Cardiff's staff asked for transfer targets on Facebook? Which board members there staged a public power struggle? Which random TV pundit was brought to Cardiff as a 400k pa global advisor? Granted they had the issue with the kit colour changing but Tan ultimately listened to the fans and changed it back. What's happened here is far more insidious than anything that's happened at Cardiff.

I'm still not convinced Nyambe has what it takes to be first choice next season, but at the very least he's earned a chance to prove that he does. I expect he'll be given the opportunity so I hope he grasps it with both hands as I'd rather Bennett was an option in CM as opposed to RB.

Pretty galling that our final total last season would have had us finish 18th this season, 10 points clear of relegation.

We sure dodged a bullet picking "the outstanding candidate" over a veteran manager like Warnock...

I was against Conway staying initially but if he was willing to accept a reasonable wage as a backup player I wouldn't mind him staying on for another twelve months. Sounds like he's a good influence off the field and has shown he can still have an impact if brought on in the right circumstance.

If Hart can't get game time at Rochdale then it's fair to say he's not going to be of any use to us next season.

At the very least a league above what all three were ready for. Samuelsen did end up back on loan at a Championship club this January, but it was Burton where the likes of Lee Williamson and No Hope also ended up, so... yeah. After us Hendrie ended up at Southend and Motherwell, whilst Byrne is at Oldham. Bad, bad use of the loan market that season. Not to mention signing Stokes to a three year deal, Feeney on a two year deal, and a just about still functioning Wes Brown on who knows what kind of deal

Where's Freddy Adu these days?

I'd agree as far as trying to sell Evans is concerned. Very unlikely any other club will match the wage we're giving him, and at least we can count on a few good performances around the time NI are due to play.

The problem is that Williams and Evans have shown in the past they can't really cut it at Championship level. I'd say both have been at the correct level this season and even then there have been a lot of questionable performances. I'd keep Williams as backup, but I'd get Evans out the door at the first opportunity. Let's be honest, the only players still at the club from the Bowyer era are the ones nobody else wanted. We sold everybody remotely decent (note I'm talking about Bowyer's signings & mainstays, Cairney, Rhodes, King, Gestede, Hanley, Duffy... hell, even Jason Lowe found a Championship team willing to take a punt). I'd also have Samuel out ASAP as he's shown nothing to suggest he will even be worthwhile as backup in the Championship. We might have to make do with loaning him out though as I'm not sure there will be many interested parties as far as a permanent transfer goes.

The majority of Mowbray's permanent signings haven't been great imo, although our best overall signing and the reason we got promoted was a permanent in Dack, so... OK. His loan signings have generally been decent, which is good as I get the feeling he'll be relying on a few more loans next season.

A very interesting last day of the Championship ahead. Just a point between Cardiff & Fulham in 2nd & 3rd respectively. Cardiff have Reading at home and Fulham have Birmingham away. You'd expect them both to pick up wins from those fixtures but BIG club and Reading are both fighting to stay in the division so it won't be easy. Meanwhile Preston could pip Derby to 6th if they beat Burton at home and Derby lose to Barnsley at home. Again, two teams fighting to stay in the division so no easy points there. The relegation battle is between Reading, Birmingham, Barnsley, Burton and Bolton. Last fixtures are: Cardiff Vs Reading Massive Club Vs Fulham Derby Vs Barnsley Preston Vs Burton Bolton Vs Forest Bolton are the only club playing a team with nothing to play for in Forest. They and Burton must win if they want a chance of surviving. Taking GD into account Huge Club and Reading only really need draws. A win will guarantee Barnsley safety, anything less and it depends on what Burton & Bolton do. A fascinating last day of the season!

I'd be wary of looking at too many League 1 players for next season. I think it was Den who used to say something like "buy Championship players, get Championship football", and if we buy too many L1 players we'll end up back there for the 19/20 season. There are definitely some gems in the lower leagues, but if they're older than 24/25 there's going to be a reason they're playing there. I suppose a lot depends on our budget, but I'll be uneasy if too many L1 players are on our radar.

Looking worrying for Bolton at the moment. Fair play to Nigel Clough for getting Burton back in the mix, they looked dead and buried a few weeks ago. Puts Sunderland's capitulation to shame.