JHRover

He seems like an intelligent bloke and I noted in that interview that he expressed some concern about going into clubs as a firefighter and the demands and draining nature of constantly battling against the odds. Not sure that would fit with the Venky stooges' plans of cut, cut, cut, sell, sell, sell whilst trying to keep heads above water. Think he lives Derbyshire way and probably still has mates involved at Derby so will do his homework via Eustace on what he can expect here. Don't think he will like what he hears. So suspect it will go one of two ways if he's offered the job. Either it's a short term arrangement with him jumping ship once he's mucked around in the transfer market or its a 'no thanks' now especially when they try to force him to work with all the existing staff or for a pittance. Never a good sign if you aren't even prepared to give the new guy free reign on his coaching staff.

Birmingham - took over when they were bottom 3, no money to spend and by the time he was sacked by their new owners they were in the top 6 Derby - play-offs in his only season Stoke - sacked after 6 months - but nobody has done well there Millwall - kept them up and had them top half / play-off chasing for 2-3 years Birmingham - took over with 8 games remaining, won 3 but they went down Oxford - took over with them struggling near the bottom, kept them up with a weak side, sacked this season with them struggling Personally I think he's ideal for us both in our current situation and as someone who could build us up again on a limited budget. But under Rudy and Suhail I suspect it won't work out because he won't be given the opportunity to do the job, just like Eustace wasn't.

Indeed, but probably our best chance as a club is to get someone like him in and back him / let him run the show, as it was with Eustace. Because people like Eustace and Rowett will have forgotten more about Championship football than the likes of Suhail and Rudy will ever know.

If Rowett is top of our list then I may have to re-evaluate my assessment of the people running the club in that maybe they aren't totally clueless as to what we need, because I think even if he doesn't enthuse you his CV is probably the most suited to our predicament of all the options out there and it would be unusually sensible for our lot to put that first. I suppose the next question would be whether he would come then. Is he going to sit and be told what he can and can't do by Rudy Gestede? Would he take it until the summer like he did at Birmingham and then see how the land lies? There seems to be an assumption that he would take it, which you would certainly hope he would given his last 2-3 clubs and the manner in which he left Oxford, but he can't really afford to get this next move wrong and I worry he'd tell Rudy and Suhail to 'do one'

Been strongly linked with the Celtic job in the summer if/when O'Neill finishes.

Chris Coleman? Carlos Carvalhal? Carlos Corberan?

There will always be some who moan with a particular appointment yes, so in that respect you are right, but the better calibre of manager you get the less and less would moan. Same at any club anywhere. You're never going to win everyone over at the appointment stage, but you do your best to minimise disappointment and maximise confidence in your process and appointment. So for example a Rowett - I am sure there would be a lot who would be 'meh' about him, but deep down those people would hopefully at least recognise it as a logical, sensible, 'safe' appointment, even if you don't like him or even if it doesn't get pulses racing. But appointing someone like Coleman, or Richardson, or Ainsworth, would be a worthy way to earn themselves maximum grievance from the fanbase, because such an appointment would not be based on logic, or sense, or playing it safe, but on other factors, like who they are mates with or being 'from the academy' which are utterly irrelevant.

Wonder if the Chief Executive will be attending the next meeting? Doubt it!!! What is it now, 9 months since Waggott packed his bags? How's the 'notice period' going? Sums this lot up - if they can get away without doing something they will - if they can save on a wage by divvying up Waggott's job elsewhere they will - all about saving themselves cost and effort, not helping the club.

If Johnson gets the job it wouldn't be for the right reasons. It appears he has no pressing desire to be a manager, which begs the question of why we would ask him to do it a minute longer than necessary, but beyond that they wouldn't be doing it for the good of the club/team. They'd be doing it because they can't be arsed or don't want the cost/hassle of finding an established manager and paying what it takes.

Would be logical and sensible. No nonsense, track record. No need for compensation. Too sensible I fear.

It just doesn't fit does it? I'm never keen on a dingle, but could accept one where the case is overwhelming. An example being Dyche after his work there, clearly a good manager for a Championship club. But Alexander? Is the case overwhelming? No - his record is decent, but there are 3-4 others in League One and Two with similar or better records of results - Challinor one, I like Nigel Clough who has done brilliantly at Mansfield and doesn't come with the 'baggage' of legendary status at PNE/Burnley.

I really don't get the Alexander links. On paper he has a reasonable CV albeit that includes spells in Scotland and relatively well endowed clubs for the levels they were at - Bradford giants of League Two, MK Dons and Salford financially strong for their league, even Scunthorpe and Fleetwood were both throwing money at it when he was there. I don't understand why on earth he would walk away from a safe, secure job at Bradford, where he has a chance of promotion to the Championship this season, to come here and risk relegation. Maybe a pay rise but that's not much good if he's gone within 12 months or we go down. It is just random and bizarre. No connection, if anything the opposite with his PNE and dingle background. I'm struggling to see it. Presumably Bradford would want a hefty compensation package for him and his assistant, why pay that when there are alternatives with better records or no compensation required? Dean Smith I've never understood the fuss about either. Walsall - average - Brentford - mid table and they got promoted when he left and Thomas Frank took over. Villa he got promoted but with an incredible squad at his disposal. Probably far and away better than what we will ultimately end up with but he isn't a name that would generate any excitement or encouragement to me.

Lee Bowyer. In in the last 5 years he's managed 73 games at Birmingham and Montserrat and won 21 of them. Not managed a club side in 3.5 years. Sounds about right then.

And is failing at Gillingham with a relatively big budget.

A few years ago we were a PL/Championship side and Stockport were a National League North side. Right now I reckon we'd struggle to persuade Challinor to leave them to come here. They're spending money, are well run and have a chance at promotion this season. They could be in a higher league next season. That's before we analyse working for the buffoons and shysters at Rovers.

It makes absolutely zero sense for us to take an interest in Richardson. He was unemployed for over 18 months after he was sacked after a short failed spell at Rotherham, and has been at Reading for 15 games. We would now have to pay them compensation. There are far better, safer and more interesting options who are unemployed and we could use the compensation money to pay them a bonus or higher wage. He isn't good enough and certainly not good enough to warrant paying a good chunk of compensation for. His Championship record at Wigan and Rotherham is dismal, infact other than 1 League One season at Wigan after they were relegated and a few games at Reading in League One he's never done it. The links to Blackburn are stretching it big time - time in our academy going on 30 years ago should be irrelevant.

Yeah he's definitely a better option than some of the dross appearing on the list. He would actually be a logical appointment for a Championship club to make unlike names like Coleman and Richardson, but if it was down to me I'd avoid.

I'll never forget the role Wagner played in our relegation in 2017 when his Huddersfield team rolled over and got beat. I also don't think he has the appetite for it. He's spent most of the last 4 years out of work barring that 18 months with Norwich. He was pretty unpopular at Norwich, I remember when JDT took us there and we wiped the floor with them and their fans were in uproar at him.

Not a no but it would be very unusual for an official club interview to directly address the rumours and then him actually leave afterwards. Can't see it happening. It's going to be someone none of us have even thought of from overseas I expect. That's the only way of finding someone willing to work under this 'structure' who hasn't already heard all the horror stories of this regime.

I think a 70% win record across 2 clubs in only 2 seasons as a manager, albeit in the National League and below, is more reason to be encouraged than say a Coleman or Richardson, who have failed to impress in numerous jobs, or perhaps a Duff whose only track record is in the Irish league. I agree it is a risk and by no means ideal but some people walk straight into League jobs as their first opportunities others aren't so fortunate and have to work their way up People like Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard went straight into decent sized clubs at a high level and nobody batted an eyelid because of their 'big names', I don't think a couple of seasons in the non-leagues should be held against Savage, if anything it is a good grounding before taking a step up. Whether he wants to gamble his reputation on this sorry excuse of a football club is another matter, it would certainly be tempting to the Forest Green manager,

I'm amazed Johnson isn't close to the top of that list. It is becoming quite clear, if ever we needed it to, that there was nobody lined up to come in and no succession plan despite having had weeks/months to prepare for this I think the obvious and natural outcome is going to be to hand it to Johnson until the end of the season when they realise what competent managers want in terms of wages and assurances.

Savage - yes Coleman - absolutely not Bilic - yes, but it wouldn't last long Wagner - no Challinor - yes Mowbray - yes (only until the end of the season) Rowett - yes Karanka - no Duff - no Rooney - god help us

I couldn't agree more. And there was a 'conveyor belt' to it. Think back to 2018 time when Travis was coming out of the academy and into the first XI. He learned from people like Mulgrew, Conway, Graham, Bennett, Johnson, Dack - characters and lads who had been around the block but were perfectly placed to pass on their knowledge to a younger group. Dolan, Buckley, JRC others who had been here for years, grown up around the place and together, knew each other well on and off the pitch. When the League One team was broken up and retired/moved on these guys especially Travis but a few others emerged as the new leadership group . For the next 3-4 years they stepped forward having grown up with it and led the show, then in came other great characters Szmodics, Brittain, Tronstad and it resulted in a great blend. In the last season Weimann and Batth. You only have to look at how they hit it off with Eustace and how he has rapidly spent his budget on taking several of them to Derby and how they are succeeding. So, so important, so valuable and something that no amount of clicking through screens on a laptop and talking shite in interviews can ever give you. What carried us under Mowbray, JDT and Eustace wasn't having an expensive squad or 11 top drawer players, it was a really good blend of some quality mixed with great spirit, hard workers and camaraderie. You felt these guys genuinely enjoyed playing for each other and the club. So to see that ruthlessly and deliberately dismantled in a matter of a few transfer windows - for no real good reason - let's remember it wasn't an expensive squad, it wasn't unsustainable or unaffordable - it was built on a Championship budget doing the exact thing they still claim to want to do - using our academy - is really tough to take, and unforgivable. Many of us knew where it would lead and we are on track to do just that. I suppose the only question is why. Why hand Gestede and the other stooge free reign to do all this. Is it really all to shave down the wage bill? Or is there more to it - agency business - wanting preferred clients in the building, asserting authority and wanting to remove threats to that power block by getting rid of established, vocal players willing to speak out and stick up for themselves and their team-mates. By doing this Gestede is now 'dominant' or will be once Tronstad and Cantwell are disposed of in the summer. It will then be 'his' squad and 'his' head coach and not the legacy of uncle Tony and the past regime. I'm not ashamed to admit I look at Derby with envy, because in 12 months we have swapped places and for no real good reason. They aren't bigger, better, richer (or shouldn't be). They are fresh out of league one but have an owner who is engaged and wants them to succeed and will back a good manager.

Just thinking then about when Robbie Savage left Big Club to come here and the rage/bewilderment among Big Club fans and the porn brothers/Steve Bruce who were totally baffled/fuming that he had jumped at the chance to come to Rovers, not falling for the guff about what a massive club they aren't. But then a name came to me that ticks a lot of the required boxes - Steve Bruce - available, relatively local, probably desperate to get back in, managed Gestede at Villa (albeit got rid of him to Middlesbrough). Would they?

It's 2026 and links to the National League's Forest Green Rovers manager are being downplayed because our owners ambitions probably won't match his. That's the Venky effect.