I imagine Rovers will have accepted a reduced allocation and won't now be able to get the full 3100 even if they wanted it. See Leeds 'sell out' which was a sell out of the reduced allocation ignoring the fact that they could have had an extra 1500+ in the lower tier but declined. Suspect it will be a similar affair at Derby - boasting about a 'sell out' but won't get the maximum allocation.

The only +ve that I have for Ismael is that he had an immediate positive impact at both Barnsley and West Brom taking over tough situations. At Barnsley they were struggling and he ended up getting them into the play-offs and at West Brom they had just been relegated yet for the first few months at least he had them up at the top of the league. So perhaps there is some reason to think he might be able to come in and see us through to the end of the season. There's no reason based on his CV to think he would be suitable beyond that. He's had a vast number of clubs and jobs and never lasted more than about a year. I can guarantee most of them will have been more stable and professional than Rovers. Perhaps this is the new model - a Watfordesque turnover in head coaches who come in and 'do a job' for 6-12 months before their contracts expire, they resign and we get some compo and then we repeat it again. Suppose it stops any repeats of the JDT and Eustace debacles.

Mentioned by someone on here way back at the very start and has been in the back of my mind as a typical Venky appointment. Another who may be ok until the summer but I'd be very concerned if he was getting any longer than that. A dismal record at West Brom and Watford.

Two years ago we were battling for the play-offs in JDTs first season having put some solid building blocks in place the previous summer and were 7 months into the Broughton/Head Coach/Continental setup. Since then we've drastically cut the budgets, alienated and forced out the head coach, got rid of Broughton, ditched that approach, adopted some sort of half way house approach by employing Gestede in that role, appointed a more traditional manager, forced him out to relegation threatened Derby County, had 3-4 pathetic transfer windows, sold most of our assets, spent nothing, still aren't getting funding from India after over 2 years, haven't renewed a contract in almost 18 months, failed to offer the last manager any assurances on medium to long term plan or investment...... And you think they are going into this appointment with an eye on the long term or 2 years from now? I bet the people speaking to the head coach don't know with any confidence whether there'll still be a football club here in 2 years given the way this lot are operating.

Oh well that must be true then, when have they ever got anything wrong or been influenced by people working for Rovers with an agenda?

How do you know Waggott selected him? Sounds to me like him trying to gain free credit after Broughton the man employed to appoint managers, had left

There is no medium to long term. That's the issue. Only the short term i.e. the next 13 games. I'd be saying that even if we were a fantastically well run club. And we certainly aren't that. The summer and beyond is going to be a total disaster and unless there are cast iron promises on budgets and investment no manager worth his salt is going to get involved with this lot after the last two fiascos. The only thing that avoids that disaster is promotion and the only thing the club should be concerned about right now is ensuring the best man for that task is in place asap. Not drifting around sifting through 100+ CVs working out who looks alright. You headhunt the best candidate for the job whether he has applied or not. That's if you know who and what you are looking for. If you don't have a clue you sit back, wait for applications to come in then work through them until someone ticks your boxes.

He engineered his own departure and it had been months in the making. Same as Eustace, only difference being that Derby's approach may have taken the club by more of a surprise this time. It was abundantly obvious to anyone that both managers were keen to get out of here and jumped at the chance when it came. I suspect we are going to be somewhat disappointed by the outcome of this search because I don't think Waggott, Venkys or Suhail could pick their nose let alone a good new manager. Mowbray came in during Paul Senior's spell as Director of Football, JDT and Eustace during Broughton's time. Outside of that we had a bungled search for Mowbray's replacement when it dragged on for weeks jeopardising pre-season before Broughton quickly sorted it out after his arrival. Not that it really matters either way because whoever they give it to will not be given the opportunity or resources to succeed.

Who says JDT was sacked?

Why did they not run a similar process when searching for JDT's successor and instead got Eustace sorted out very quickly? Did they not have 100+ applicants back then? I suspect the answer to that is that Broughton was involved in getting JDT and Eustace in and both happened quickly and professionally, whereas prior to Broughton arriving and now we see a totally different approach, quite shambolic. In their efforts to make this managerial 'search' appear thorough and professional by referring to interviews and CVs coming in all they are doing is digging a deeper hole for themselves when they end up leaving Lowe in charge or hand it to another friendly face/linked agency client.

The website makes no reference to being a season ticket holder or member as a requirement to qualify, only that you need at least 290 loyalty points, so if I were you I'd ring the ticket office up and ask what the problem is. Ticket news: Derby County v Rovers | rovers.co.uk

Going to look a bit ridiculous if Swansea have a new man in charge in time for Saturday whilst we are still conducting interviews having had 10 days+ more time to get things in place.

O'Neil would at least be a logical appointment based on past performance. Granted he hasn't managed at this level or with lunatic owners and management but he's clearly an intelligent well thought of manager, you don't get two cracks in two years at PL clubs if you don't have something about you. Not my first choice and I'm not convinced he will be better than JDT or Eustace (and that's the only thing we should be aiming for if we are a serious club) but he's head and shoulders above the likes of Boateng, Boa Morte, Wellens, even some of the others like Carsley, Duff, Lowe and Karanka in the betting odds list. I'm not even particularly confident he'd take it, it will be a massive come down financially and structurally to what he has been used to and I'm sure after his difficulties at Wolves and being ruthlessly sacked at Bournemouth he might fancy waiting for a serious job to come up with long term prospects, which nobody will be getting at Ewood. If he's in the running it really wouldn't surprise me to see a summer termination clause, I'd be amazed if any manager would commit to 2-3 years of this without some serious assurances on future plans. If I was him or anyone else with any decent pedigree I'd be looking at the JDT and Eustace debacles and planning accordingly.

Luke Williams anyone? Not a serious suggestion but now available after getting the Swansea sack

Questions as to whether Rovers could 'tempt' O'Neil or Edwards into the Ewood Park dugout? Good god. What a reminder of what levels this regime has dragged us to. Edwards has set Luton on course for League One 'or if Rovers would like to tempt him to do so' - tempt him? He'd be fortunate to say the least to get a top 6 Championship job so soon after that mess. O'Neil would be a major coup and it remains to be seen whether he could be tempted? Deary me. Of the names I've seen linked he is one of the better ones but good grief, a major coup? Could he be tempted? What small minded nonsense.

I don't think he does 'know' the club. He knows the training ground and area from before but he certainly won't recognise the disgraceful shambles of an organisation behind the scenes compared to what he might remember from over 20 years ago. I'm not really sure 'knowing' the club actually means very much, especially not in our position.

No Championship club and especially not one in the top 6 with less than a third of the season remaining would hand the job to someone managing in Ireland (Duff), Guinea-Bissau (Boa Morte) or recently axed as an assistant at Coventry (Boateng). The fact that all three appear high in the betting list is highly alarming.

There is a potential link between Hughton and Boateng - Ghana. Boateng was born there despite playing a few games for the Netherlands and Hughton was recently involved with the Ghana national team first as an advisor and then as manager. So I've heard less crazy suggestions. My theory is that they'd love to give it to Boateng and that there will have been a 'plan' to do so for some time since he got the job at Brockhall working with the kids. There's been a similar plan for some time to get Gestede into the hierarchy and I suspect eventually he will replace Waggott as the main man down there. This is how these people operate - they love to give jobs out to the cheap and desperate who will accept any conditions in return for a route into management. Probably nice people too just to help them along. But I also think they will recognise that directly appointing Boateng would cause furore especially in our current position. So perhaps their little scheme is to bring someone like Hughton in alongside/above him temporarily just to make it appear more reasonable and then he steps aside and they hand it to Boateng after that.

A club in our position with a PL slot up for grabs within the next 3-4 months and having had a clearly unhappy / disgruntled manager since the start of the season should have a clear plan and idea of what to do next. We're now 10 days on from Eustace speaking to Derby and still doing 'interviews' and if Nixon's list is remotely accurate it seems there is very little method to it other than a ragtag collection of desperate names and friendly faces of Waggott/Gestede. A shambles. They're determined to fritter away the opportunity Eustace has left us with.

There's a difference of course between actively and deliberately taking steps to stop us getting promoted, and just being so utterly indifferent and disinterested that missing out on promotion becomes inevitable after repeatedly failing in January. The outcome is the same either way, so it doesn't really matter, their actions (or lack of) holding the club back and will forever more.

I also think that it was only heading into his final season that Mowbray took the handbrake off and 'went for it' knowing that his contract was running out and that it was all silent with regards to a renewal. He probably felt that a promotion push would make the Indians sit up and take notice and offer him a new long term deal. Then he realised that not even that was enough to re-engage the Indians or secure additional January backing and it petered out to nothing. I think he was making a point to them to try and get them to offer him a new deal and when they didn't he felt insulted/betrayed. I think if he had been offered a new 2-3 year deal in summer 2021 ahead of that final season we'd have just plodded along again to a 12th placed finish.

Venkys, Waggott, Suhail and Gestede do. Their budgets make it almost a certainty, see our approach to transfers - short term, cheap, hit and hope rather than any sort of grand or ambitious plan.

Wolves news: Gary O'Neil signs new four-year deal - BBC Sport O'Neil signed a new improved 4 year Wolves deal in August that ran until 2028. Now unless something drastic is happening with that I suspect he will be due a sizeable chunk of money from Wolves and would forfeit some of it if he took a job at Venky Rovers. I imagine his wage at Wolves will have also been way beyond what we are willing to pay here.

We need someone in this week ahead of the Swansea game. I appreciate the job done by Lowe and Johnson and inevitably they will remain closely involved behind the scenes whatever happens next. If we had 3-4 games remaining I'd be tempted to just keep them on and see what happens now but with 14 games remaining there is just too much ahead of us - games, points, work - to leave it to chance. We've got ourselves into a position now where anything beneath 6th has to be considered a massive disappointment. With the exception of Coventry's good run nobody behind us is accelerating and teams we expected to be pushing - Middlesbrough and West Brom are dropping points. It is there for the taking. It needs someone who can command the respect of the players and fans and who knows how to handle the pressure and get over the line. Suggestions of Boa Morte and Boateng are so ridiculous my only conclusion if true is that it would be a deliberate attempt to take us away from the top 6.

If we did want Wellens, which I hope we don't, why would paying £250k compensation be a stumbling block when we've just collected reportedly 2-3 times that from Derby for Eustace? Where has that money gone so quickly? It really doesn't bode well for the future if we are baulking at appointing a League One manager (Not that I'd want him) based on his compensation figure