JHRover

Looking at the odds and it seems there has been barely any change to the names in the top 10 'favourites' or their order for about a week now since Farke dropped down the list and Carvalhal found his way to the top of it. Usually you might expect a new name or two to drop in the odds or someone to rule themselves in or out. Suggests to me either that very little is happening or if it is it is being kept under very close wraps.

How do you get to 'already have 3 vacancies'? Mowbray gone so need a manager/head coach Sounds like Venus going yet in typical Rovers fashion we don't yet know for sure. So there's 2. I'm on about coaching staff so we've still got Lowe, Benson and Johnson in place. I hope I am wrong and I hope you are right that we are going to be interviewing Farke and Carvalhal. But I suspect once these people realise what clowns we have running this club they will run a mile. Shame because I think both could be good for this club and both would want the job with the right structure. But being told there's no money and scope only to bring in an assistant whilst keeping the rest of the gang on won't go down well I don't think. Relatively big hitters like Carvalhal and Farke might as well just wait for a vacancy elsewhere where they will be allowed to bring in their own staff.

Probably as good as the people fulfilling the role right now (whoever they are). You don't need to be a CEO to work out that you appoint down the order of seniority. You don't appoint lower staff and then bring in a boss who might not want them. You appoint the boss and hand him the power to appoint those he is going to be directing. Pretty basic stuff really.

Micky mouse appointment it is then. Let me get this right in my head. Someone, somewhere has decided we are adopting the sporting director / head coach model. We are seemingly looking for both at the same time with a view to them then working together, at least for the next couple of years. Yet the expectation is that we will appoint the head coach first, with the sporting director to follow later. The expectation is also that the 'majority' of the existing staff will stay on (no surprises there) yet we haven't yet spoken to candidates for sporting director or head coach, neither of whom might want the existing staff. What is the aim here? To turn the established recruitment process completely on its head? The way it should be done is a) Appoint Sporting Director b) Work with Sporting Director to appoint Head Coach c) Sporting Director and Head Coach decide who is going to be on the coaching staff.

I didn't call theirs a good deal. They are expensive just as we are. Just pointing out that at least for their relatively high prices they get more bang for their buck so to speak in that they have facilities that are looked after, don't have to slash costs under the guise of FFP every few years etc, can bring in a good manager when things aren't going too well. And yes, Wilder is a top manager for this level.

So Middlesbrough finished above us, spent more than us, have a top manager who outperformed Mowbray after taking over when they were going nowhere in November.

Yes that's right. The prices I have put up are the cheapest available at each club including their renewals/early birds. So whilst our standard non renewal price is £429 most of those other figures will be higher for other clubs new customers.

Any decent sought after manager will demand or expect to bring with him trusted staff. Be that Mourinho, Carvalhal, Lambert, Hughes take your pick - all of them will at the very least bring a trusted sidekick and most will want to assemble their own teams who they know, trust and who are up to their way of thinking/working. It is clear that things have gone stale here over the last couple of years under Mowbray. Part of that will be down to the coaching staff. So I can only imagine how underwhelming it will be to the players to be turning up at pre-season only to see the same faces on the training ground repeating the same routine as years past. This isn't hatred or personal dislike of these individuals. Just an acceptance that there are cycles in football that come and go and at times change is needed. Fergie recognised this which is why he worked his way through all sorts of assistants and coaches to keep things fresh and up to date. If you are going to recruit on the basis you are determined to keep the existing staff in jobs then your managerial search is going to fail. No decent manager will have staff imposed on him No ambitious club would baulk at making changes to the coaching staff No serious club would keep staff in place because they are nice people or work hard. If a manager comes along who is a strong option and then he of his own accord prefers to keep one or more of the staff then that's fine - his decision and he will be judged on his results. I remember when Paul Lambert left and we had the shambolic recruitment process of 2016. It was mentioned numerous times that the club was looking for a manager to work with Irvine, Kelly and the other bloke whose name i forget. We had Warnock lined up who was set to bring in Jepson and Blackwell. Then Coyle sneaked in and got the job and initially they claimed he was working with Irvine. Then over the course of the summer Irvine and Kelly left to go elsewhere conveniently creating spaces for Coyle to bring in Stewart and the other two mates, so in the end he got what he wanted only on a gradual process.

Only at a club as comical as Rovers could you narrowly miss the play-offs, change manager, have decent people interested in coming to work here and then squander the opportunity to get one by insisting that the new manager has to work with the likes of Lowe and Benson.

Absolutely. And if we look at those more expensive than us you could say only Middlesbrough are comparable when it comes to stadium, empty seats and economics. Difference is that they have a 50 mile radius to share with Hartlepool whilst we have 17 other League clubs in that area almost all offering cheaper tickets. Norwich a relatively affluent area with no billionaire owners and know they will get 20,000 turning up come what may expecting a promotion push Watford expecting to be up there challenging Luton having the best season in living memory and a ground that can only accommodate about 8000 home fans. Its absolutely ridiculous yet I could accept it if the product or effort was there that you might not get elsewhere. If you got solid investment or a top manager like Middlesbrough have, or a nice stadium and facilities Instead it is just excuse after excuse.

About time for an update on season tickets. We now know most of the teams who will be in the Championship next season or are in with a chance of being. So lets look at their cheapest adult season ticket prices, in descending order Norwich - £534 Middlesbrough - £450 Luton - £430 Watford - £402 Rovers - £399 Nottingham Forest - £385 - could be promoted Rotherham - £380 Bristol City - £365 Sheff Utd - £357 Millwall - £350 P'boro - £349 - since relegated Coventry - £345 Stoke - £344 Wigan - £329 West Brom - £329 Swansea - £322 Blackpool - £309 Reading - £299 Huddersfield - £299 - could be promoted Barnsley - £285 - since relegated Preston - £280 Cardiff - £249 Birmingham - £225 QPR, Hull and Derby still to announce prices. Derby are in the midst of a takeover, Hull have a strange membership system and QPR are fitting rail seating at Loftus Road which will impact their ticketing policy. So as it stands we are the 5th highest starting price in the Championship. Two of those higher have just come down from the PL. Luton have extreme limits on their tickets which means they can charge more. Pay top end I expect to see a top end managerial appointment and staff. Cheap and cheerful just won't cut it in this economic climate at these prices.

Sharpe may well be correct there haven't been interviews. There doesn't even need to be interviews. If the club knows who it wants and has already had discussions with him then no point wasting time talking to others. Plus I very much doubt he knows whether talks have been taking place remotely.

I think they are just doing the usual pitch replacement - not the all singing all dancing job Waggott alluded to last year I've heard that we aren't having any home friendlies this year, so I would expect another couple of midweek friendlies away from home to take the total to 6 (or at least 5 and then use the Carabao Cup effectively as a pre-season game).

Well this was posted today. So assuming it was filmed today it suggests we weren't having manager interviews at the academy.

Good news on Carrick.

No surprises some would rather play it steady and keep things close to home. If you are a European manager particularly Spanish, Portuguese or Italian you change jobs with regularity. That's just how it goes. Doesn't make you good, bad or indifferent. I'd welcome a manager that doesn't need to be here and isn't grateful to just collect his cheque and plod on. Someone with clout will want to get to the PL and will go elsewhere if that isn't going to happen. I couldn't stand another 5 years going nowhere listening to excuse after excuse under a manager just grateful to be here treading water. Sometimes the foreign route is the way to success. Its not done Huddersfield any harm.

Quite a lot of talk about Carvalhal being on Flamengo's radar. If he is interested in coming here I suspect we will blow it through ineptitude or delay and he'll end up elsewhere.

Well Reading have appointed Ince on a permanent basis. So that's good news. One less rival to compete with in the manager market and a side I'll be betting on going down next season.

The biggest shame from all this is that I believe good managers would come here and are interested. In the case of Carvalhal, it is clear that someone at his end is pushing his name with a view to returning to England. Yet the impression I get is that Rovers are once again on the back foot and will basically squander any prospect of landing one of these decent managers. People like Farke and Carvalhal there for the taking and basically inviting interest. Then we've Waggott and Suhail opening envelopes and applications on their desk and wondering what to do. I suspect Carvalhal will end up at a club in the Middle East on Big money having grown tired of waiting for us to get our act together. We'll be scraping the barrel pretty soon, which is where the friendly agents come in.

Well it must have been quick - they sacked him after 7 games I wouldn't be deterred by his role with Ghana. I'm sure he'd give that up if it meant he got a good management job and if not he could probably do it anyway during the World Cup break.

I don't see the harm in going for Carvalhal, if he's interested in coming here. For sure his CV is stronger than most linked or would be interested, and he comes with a track record in this division working for a similar club with similar ownership situation. Hand him a 2 year deal with a big bonus for promotion, back him as far as we can and see how it goes. If it works fantastic, if it doesn't we review at the end of his contract. At least we've tried something different from the usual names. I'd personally prefer Farke as I think with the right structure he would be better at building something that lasts, but other than him Carvalhal has probably the best credentials and would enthuse me the most.

Bielsa is just not going to happen. The bloke is 67 and it was mentioned whilst at Leeds that he had an eye on retirement and going back to South America. At Leeds he was on astronomical money and brought loads of staff along with him. These are two things that would ensure that it didn't happen. I doubt he'd be interested even if we offered the money.

Yes I think the only thing keeping me optimistic that it won't be is that HSH don't have any remotely acceptable options at this time. That list that people have helpfully put on here recently only has 1-2 names that would be even associated with a Championship job. So they've got their work cut out there in orchestrating that one.

St Tony was a miserable failure at Coventry in League One yet that wasn't a barrier to him getting the job here nor did it prevent him doing a good job. So I'm not sure why a short spell at Forest should rule Hughton out. Especially if he wants to prove a point after that debacle. Not interested in his age either. The two of the biggest balls up in this club's history were sacking Allardyce and turning Warnock down when Allardyce was mid 50s and Warnock late 60s whilst dreadful appointments of Kean (early 40s), Berg (40s) and Appleton (30s) show age is immaterial to this search.

Yes correct, I did think Mowbray was staying and I remain of the view that the Club itself had no plan for his departure and that the late meetings and discussions were to try and to see if he would agree to carry on. For one reason or another he had made up his mind by then and nailed his colours to the mast so instead they made it sound like a mutual agreement and are now scrambling around with no clear strategy. I agree with you we should go down the Sporting Director route if we want to avoid high turnover and radical changes every time a manager departs. But to do it we need a qualified Sporting Director and that person needs the power to direct. If we get someone unqualified or they don't have the power to sign players etc. then its a waste of time.