JHRover

If FFP and money is such an issue you'd think they'd want to sell as many as possible.

The club should already know who or what it wants and have lined people up. If you know what you want and have the determination to get it then you don't need to interview various random names. Those linked with the job so far suggest a scattergun approach as they are all very different in style, background, track record. We already know what managers offer before the interview. Anyone who bothers to come to one wants a job so will tell us what we want to hear. Of course any manager is going to agree to use our academy, so this developer-of-young-players thing will only be tested in time and if the players are good enough and not to the detriment of results. Any decent manager should be interviewing us. Not the other way around. He needs to know if we can be trusted and deliver what he needs to succeed.

I agree. Ainsworth has done very well with Wycombe. My point was that in doing so there is nothing in the stats that points to the football or style you seem to crave or require from a candidate for the Rovers job. His side are the oldest and bottom for things like possession and passes. You appear quite happy to ignore that and appoint him regardless in the hope he does a u turn and adopts a completely different approach here (or you aren't actually that bothered about style in the first place) Either way it seems quite pointless discussing the styles of certain managers when you are then willing to disregard it anyway and appoint someone at odds with that style.

A bit of join the dots here. Carvalhal was plucked from relative obscurity to join Sheffield Wednesday after Chansiri took over and started throwing big money around to try and get promoted. Did a decent job - in two full seasons got into the play-offs both times including the final one year. Also involved at Sheffield Wednesday around that time was Paul Senior, who as we all know had a short spell here at the time Mowbray arrived. One of Carvalhal's signings at Sheff Wed was Lucas Joao, who joined us on loan whilst Senior was here (our only January signing despite staring relegation in the face) Joao has since joined Reading, another club with strange goings on including remote foreign owners and odd transfer business and seemingly up to their eyeballs in FFP issues after heavy spending. Reading are on the look out for a new manager and Carvalhal was 'linked' to them. Now he's 'linked' to us. Seems to me that us, Sheff Wed and Reading have quite a lot in common. All recently taken over by foreign owners who appear to be clueless and completely out of sync with what the clubs need and want. All have had similar issues financially and with FFP. Similar names and faces turn up at each.

It's Sunday so that means another round of Nixon gossip. Looks like whoever is representing Carvalhal is doing their best to get him a move to England. Been 'linked' with us, Dingles and Reading recently. Think he's a good manager and would happily take him here but would prefer Farke. Carvalhal also spent big at Wednesday so would be surprised if that happened.

Ah right, so you're factoring in budgets now then? So when I suggested Mick McCarthy based on his record at Ipswich on a shoestring you rejected that based on his style of play. Yet you would now happily take a manager with a similar style and excuse that because he's had a limited budget. Makes sense. A decent manager will adapt his style and approach to best fit the players and conditions of the job. I'm getting tired of people being categorised like this. I'm only interested in results and accomplishments.

Yet you have seen the stats on Wycombe and the players in their squad after 10 years under Ainsworth and think his style is suitable?

Mark Robins seems to have managed alright under SISU

To be completely honest if we go back to 2017 I would happily have taken Warburton, Pearson, Rowett, Davies, Hasselbaink over Mowbray, and possibly also Adkins, Freedman and McLeish. All of them were in a better place cv wise than Mowbray who had just left Coventry in ruins and had been in the running for 4th division Chesterfield job (and missed out on it for Gary Caldwell) That is the benefit Mowbray has had from us. There's nothing to say any of those other names couldnt' have done just what he has given 5 years, the squad he inherited and healthy backing. Of course over the passage of time most of that lot have taken jobs and failed at them or have been out of work meaning their CVs have taken a hammering, whilst Mowbray's has been rehabilitated because he's signed up for and put up with Venkys.

I think Mowbray is playing the Venky game here. Quite obvious he and others have been kept in the dark by India for some time. Quite obvious what happens if he doesn't renew his contract very soon. Goes without saying that unless they do something at their end he's not going to be here. All the rest of the talk is just pointless. The assumption would be that they are fed up with him, planning on a change and have held talks with alternatives, because that is what responsible club owners would do. But here it is more likely, on balance, that India don't have any such plan, that they aren't remotely interested in Mowbray's contract situation and will only deal with such things at a time that suits them. So I imagine the latest performance from Mowbray is just a public reminder to the owners that unless they move to get this sorted then inevitably he will be off and they will have to find someone else to do it. If I was betting on this I'd expect a couple of weeks of silence after the Birmingham game with Mowbray going on holiday and then at some stage after that, once they've blown any window of opportunity to get a decent new manager in, that Mowbray is announced signing a new deal to stay on, some sort of 'statement' from the owners and maybe even a half decent transfer kitty in an effort to persuade him to stay.

One thing the 'local' media are good at doing is putting the dampener on expectations and hopes of ambition. Why? Well that's the easy part - poo poo suggestions and possibilities, particularly those that are likely to be bold, ambitious, expensive ones, but at the same time leave it open ended with 'not currently' 'expected' etc. to allow for backtracking or to cover if by some chance it does happen. Hardly need a textbook on Rovers' recent history to predict that a decent manager won't come here because they usually don't. Quite an accomplishment here to smash expectations to smithereens so much that an unemployed bloke recently sacked after a horror run at Norwich is seen as unattainable. Reality is if we got our act together and sorted ourselves out this is probably the best club and level he is going to get. Of course the local media won't come with any actual news or information because they don't have any and actually putting something out there is the hard part.

Our problem isn't and has never been whether decent managers would come here. Our problem is the owners and management who can quite easily cock up any situation and I expect will do so again here. Decent options will be ignored or overlooked due to incompetence and corner cutting. As for that article on Farke it tells us absolutely nothing. No sources, no quotes, 'understood', 'impossible to rule out'. Meaningless stuff but at least it gets clicks and subscribers.

Personally I wouldn't go near Hughes unless he brought with him Bowen and Neidzwicki who are now at Wimbledon. He'd be better than many of the names linked but I think his best days are behind him.

No, but I'd draw the line at having the p1ss taken out of me whilst expecting me to pay top end prices for the privilege. I think we can safely say that is the case here and there's much more to this than merely picking a manager that might not be everyone's choice

Yep. I don't see certainty or clarity. I see a bloke who deep down would want to stay but there has clearly been some sort of break down in communications or relations and together with his contract situation he has no choice. I'm bracing myself for a new contract. I think after his relative tantrum announcing he's off that word will have got back to India and they'll offer him cash to stay. There are only two potential positives to this. One is if it avoids Woodgate, Adkins, Johnson or Venus then its better the devil you know. The other is it might force them to cough up a reasonable budget to help him rebuild the squad. Shame I won't be there to see it.

Surprising efficiency here for a club that is usually last minute on these things. Decent looking fixture nonetheless

Suppose we'll just have to wait until Sunday for the latest 'update' from Nixon. Sunday = Rovers rumour day. Coincidentally that is the day his stuff appears in The Sun and we all need to click on their website or buy a copy to see what he has to say. Nothing happens between Monday and Saturday but then we all need to queue up and buy The Sun to read his latest theories.

I am fascinated by Rich Sharpe's references to Woodgate in his article. I find it bizarre that he would go out of his way to make specific reference to Woodgate, dedicating far more space in his article to him than others of far greater calibre such as Farke. He admits that he is at long odds and that he doesnt even know if Woodgate would be interested, but that he looks better value than those at shorter odds. Why? Where has this come from? Someone must have dropped his name in as a contender for Sharpe to publish this. Sharpe does not do this unless someone has primed him for it.

Maybe the meeting was Mowbray telling Waggott what needs to go in his interview and long awaited press release, asking him what he is and isn't allowed to say ahead of his eventual sit down with Rich Sharpe. Maybe Waggott is waiting for direction and instructions from the lowly manager to tell him what needs to happen next.

I'd rather keep Mowbray or have the return of Bowyer or Lambert than Woodgate or similar. At least the above have shown they can keep our heads above water as a minimum which Woodgate wouldn't do.

I'll believe it when I see pen to paper and an announcement. Until then I'll take these stories with a large pinch of salt, as it wouldn't surprise me if this is just a bone thrown to the supporters who want to know what the hell is happening and it is season ticket renewal time.

Since the only people running the club for the last 5 years were Middlesbrough based Mowbray and his mates and a clueless biscuit salesman who thought Owen Coyle was a better option than Neil Warnock.

Rich Sharpe won't nail his colours to a mast or give the nod to a name unless it is one he has heard or has been primed for. The fact that there are the Boro connections to go with it screams a Venky appointment.

Woodgate is one that would tick several boxes. The usual ones being available, cheap, keen to get back into it and would be grateful for a chance at the job. There will also be some baseless assumption that he would 'work with' 'young' players which they seem obsessed with. Then there's the Teesside Middlesbrough connection - would lead me to conclude Mowbray had recommended him or pushed for him. Would work with those already here including Venus no doubt. Presumably Middlesbrough fan Honeyman is also a big fan of his? No matter that he's as dull as dishwater and failed miserably at Middlesbrough before Warnock came in and did a rescue act. Who cares about little things like that?

A while ago I suggested that the reason Lenihan, Rothwell and Nyambe were leaving was because the Club and owners had done nothing to keep them. That the situation had been allowed to drift by silent owners and that whatever offers were put to them, if any, were derisory. I was shot down for that suggestion, accused of creating conspiracy theories and that because Mowbray and Waggott had said that 'improved' offers had been made to these players that we should believe them and that it was actually money motivated players and their agents that were the only issues here. And now we see our manager publicly admitting that he has had absolutely no communication from the owners or their representative on his future, his contract and that he hasn't spoken properly to the owners for a long time, save for a 'best of luck' message from Balaji recently. I'm afraid Mowbray's comments this week, and the continuing silence from the Club, only support my 'conspiracy theory' that the owners have turned the phone and taps off and have left the club to drift over the last couple of seasons. That is the reason key players are out of contract and our manager seems to be off, not because they've told him this or they want to make a change, but because it is just silence.