On what basis would Eustace be 'exciting' or 'forward looking' I'm just genuinely unclear what it is that he possesses that has led you to conclude this. It appears to me to be the fact that he hasn't managed many teams or for very long. He might be a good un I'm just not clear how he has earned such a solid 'exciting' reputation from 1 season battling the drop at Birmingham

They were actually 5th, two points above 11th having played an extra game than everyone else by virtue of a Friday night fixture.

Agreed. Its all pointless but its the oldest trick in the book to divert attention away from upstairs failings and distract the masses with a new manager Then let me guess come the summer it will be about 'new structure' and 'learning lessons' from past mistakes and a change of strategy. All a load of shite, designed purely to keep people quiet and distracted.

Amazing how perceptions are in the game isn't it. Neil: Championship promotion with Norwich, a season managing in the PL 3 top half / play-off pushes with PNE Promotion from League One with Sunderland Mid-table/mediocre with Stoke (where everyone struggles) Eustace: 1 season, 17th with Birmingham, much fanfare I'm struggling to see why some would be happy / content with Eustace but not Neil.

Me too, got a decent to reasonable record at 3-4 Championship clubs, not that I'll be happy with either.

He did nothing that Lee Bowyer, Aitor Karanka, Pep Clotet and Garry Monk didn't also do there - bottom half survival. He might be more well liked by their fans, suspect that's more to do with the unfairness of his sacking whilst they were sat in a good position and replacement with a clown. Anyhow, I'm not buying it, not accepting it and not falling for it.

Precisely, it wipes the slate clean for them upstairs. Forget about the January debacle, forget about £25 million banked and nothing spent, forget about it all and focus on the dugout. It's all JDTs fault and look we are sorting it out by making a change. Get behind the new bloke FFS! I'm not buying it for a second and hope nobody else does, but sadly a lot will because they'll start getting carried away by a new bloke in the dugout. Eustace or whichever other desperado takes over will have to firefight until the summer and then the next round of fun begins. More cutbacks ordered, no money to spend, projects to polish up for a profit, nonsense with India. Nothing can or will change. I really wonder if I'm missing something with Eustace. I'm baffled as to why he carries this reputation as a highly sought after desirable manager. His only proper stint as a manager (other than at non-league Kidderminster) was a little over 12 months at Birmingham where they finished 17th, 10 places below us. Anyone who claims they played 'good football' clearly needs to check their sources because they didn't. Not that this is essential as we need some organisation but I do think these 'reputations' in the game are exacerbated by media reputations when in actual fact there's very little on the cv to be impressed with. They had a good start to this season with some late wins but we were just outside the top 6 in December under JDT - so what?

McCall is Paul Heckingbottom's right hand man. I suspect if we did go external he'd be high on that list. Head coach, academy background, localish, available. What a sorry state of affairs.

I'm also convinced that secretly both Waggott and Pasha will want JDT gone and will have been expecting / hoping for his resignation for quite some time. I bet he quickly saw through both of them after his arrival and realised what was going on here and after the cushy number with Mowbray his ambition and drive wasn't in keeping with their plans to plod, keep India happy and collect their wages. JDT was obviously a Broughton man and not at all what the other two had in mind when they were looking at Mowbray's replacement. I think Waggott will now move into 'damage limitation' mode of trying to deflect all our ills and issues away and onto JDT. And I think there will be all sorts of dirty tricks to that end, to sway public opinion against the outgoing JDT and portray him as the problem, today's meeting being the first step. I'm just wondering how they'll try and spin it next. Probably Damian Johnson and as you were with the staff and costs, dressed up as 'popular ex player making the step up' 'Get behind Damo FFS'

Mowbray was competent. But because of that and him succeeding Kean, Berg, Appleton, Bowyer and Coyle he is of course seen as a massive success. Fundamentally his highest finish in 5 years was 8th. He had time and he had backing and that was the best he could do. Compare and contrast to what others have done in a fraction of the time elsewhere. A big +ve in the Mowbray analysis is the players he brought in and developed. Of course the Armstrongs, Rothwells, Diaz's all good. But I'm sure if the owners and board had actually applied pressure and demands on league position and results rather than just leave him be for 5 years we might have had less player projects and perhaps some higher finishes. The cynic in me suggests he knew his route to longevity here was to convince the owners he was protecting and developing their 'investments' and once he was out of the way it was 'cashing in' time leading to today's mess. That some people still pine for him 18 months on after his frankly disgraceful public comments and admissions sums up for me the depths and low standards the Indians have dragged this club to. Anywhere else and he'd just be consigned to the drawers of mediocrity.

Players not happy with numbers at Ewood or reaction of fans. Certain fans invited to secret meeting and sworn to secrecy afterwards. This sort of stuff is music to the ears of the morons out there who blame 'shit fans' for our problems, and it fans suspicion, division and confrontation amongst the fanbase. Slippery Steve knows his audience

The airwaves alive with talk of JDT, senior players, the atmosphere/attendances at Ewood and what might have gone on at this hastily arranged secret meeting. That, my friends, is how easy it is and precisely what Venkys, shadow man and Waggott want to happen.

Like a worm on a hook Waggott wriggles to try and get himself out of the spotlight. Now bringing select fans and players into it but not others. Divide and conquer tactics. He's not as daft as he looks but when you've a cushy £300k per year to keep hold of I suppose he'll try anything

Yep, all part of making out that our failings are the responsibility of JDT and that we are a normal club acting to address that. It's a con job orchestrated by those upstairs to keep the focus downstairs

I hope he releases a statement via the LMA containing all the sordid details of what has gone on here. And I hope he's considering a claim for constructive dismissal and takes them to the cleaners.

That would be sensible in our position. Stop conceding soft goals. So won't happen.

We're at such a stage I'd rely on the account of a Daily Mail reporter more than I would Radio Lancashire/ Telegraph It is inevitable. Yet the club will even drag this out to maximise uncertainty and confusion further damaging our already shredded reputation and hindering what is becoming a survival mission.

No money Scum owners Sham board Cost cuts galore Glorified academy team Unsackable coaching staff It's Damian Johnson's to lose.

The League can't do anything, they can moan and groan and give points deductions but if the owner isn't selling they can't force him to. They're only making noises about Reading because their fans have kicked off big time and the League want to be seen to be doing something about it. We need the Indian authorities / courts to rescue us and need to forget about English based intervention.

Because he was mates with Mowbray and he convinced the owners of the need for a 'CEO' after 8 years without one. Despite this he's a CEO in name only so they struck lucky finding someone happy to act as a human shield and not actually be CEO, just pretend to be.

Bullshit machine in overdrive. Saturday's anger won't have gone unnoticed by Waggott and the invisible man, they know people are getting fed up and seeing through their rubbish. It's taken them a few days but they've now managed to create another ridiculous scenario whereby some anonymous staff member has allegedly forgotten to click 'submit' and unfortunately this has cost us the transfer. Remarkable. Never mind, they've got various 'sources' on twitter running with it so they can brainwash angry supporters into believing it really was just a simple admin error. Of course it was. Wake up people, this is typical Venky Rovers smoke and mirrors. Divert attention away from India and to nameless people working in the club offices. End result, as it so often is, Venkys avoid spending extra money. How convenient.

What is abundantly clear is that the Venky stooges and employees at Ewood and Brockhall will go to great lengths to cover up the shenanigans of their bosses and to shield them from any criticism or responsibility. What we never, ever get is a story that our failings and ineptitude are a direct result of ownership decisions, incompetence, delay, cost cuts. They want us to believe that poor Venkys are blameless. They really care and try their very best but are let down by issues down the chain. Inept employees, bad advice, nasty authorities, Football League, you name it they've played the lot over the last decade. Sadly swathes of the fanbase have lapped up those excuses and stories, accepted them and convinced themselves that they are correct, and even insisted to others that they are and accused those who doubt the party line (me being one of them) of being negative, conspiracy theorists etc. They are desperate down there to avoid the spotlight being shone on Pune. They will blame anyone and anything but the people in control. One reason I believe is that Venkys in their obnoxious arrogance think they are great and faultless and beyond criticism, and also assume that because they pay the bills this entitles them to do as they please without question. But they also want people to think they are wonderful and if the truth got out - that they can't cough up the cash because they aren't spending or that rather than being great, wonderful businessmen they are actually a group of idiots who happened to get lucky with their daddy's fortune, this might tarnish the image they have of themselves. They'll have parasites like Pasha, Waggott, Kean brown nosing them telling them how great they are to stay on the gravy train. In return these cretins will come up with all sorts to keep the heat off the Indians and keep them happy.

Why are we expected to pay top end prices to watch an amateur unprofessional club

Just wonder how many others of these deals there might have been over the years, ones that haven't been common public knowledge I very much doubt we've conducted ourselves properly every window bar the last two January's. I bet there are dozens of similar horror stories that we don't know about.

This is hilarious. Almost a word for word copy and paste of the shit they were coming out with last February after the O'Brien fiasco. It would be bad enough if this had never happened before, but twice in a year in identical circumstances? A disgrace, embarrassment and utterly tragic. I don't know how they dare even release this statement after last year.