JHRover

Yes, I remain convinced that the owners will summon him to India at the end of the season, probably expecting him to make the journey anyway, and will be amazed if he declines. I think Mowbray wants to stay and has come with this now because he can't brush the questions off at this late stage. He can't say he is staying because he hasn't been offered the chance to.....yet. So the alternative is that he is going to leave.....as it stands. I don't think these owners have the interest, stomach or desire to bring in a new management team. To be honest I don't see there being any point unless they are going down a new road and spending more or getting a big hitter in. If they just want to continue with the slow 'development' stuff that Mowbray goes on about they might as well give him a new deal, just like they might as well have kept Gary Bowyer than gone through Lambert, Coyle and Mowbray.

Not long ago I was seeing tweets and comments about how Venkys had learned and how there was now a structure at the Club and normality. Then we see the frankly scandalous situation with Mowbray and know that this was all just wishful thinking. I'm far from a fan of Mowbray. I don't particularly like the bloke, admittedly I don't know him but I don't really like his comments or his excuses, and I don't think he's a particularly good manager. Steady, solid, safe but little more. But the events of the last few weeks in particular since the Preston game show these owners and this club up for what they really are - classless, clueless, incompetent, rudderless and a disgrace. To allow a seemingly departing manager to have to answer these questions on his own future, with no comment at all from our owners, CEO or anyone in any position of power is appalling. A quick look at QPR shows how it can be done properly. A simple press release on the Club website, gracious, professional and unambiguous. Presumably such a task is beyond our CEO. Even if we were in the market for a half decent manager it won't go unnoticed that this is a club that goes about its business in a shoddy and unprofessional way. Mowbray needs a change as does the Club but I'm disgusted by the way this has been handled. Anyone there - owners or so-called executives on the payroll should be ashamed of themselves. They can't even get their house in order and deal with a departure with a shred of decency what hope do we have of recruiting a decent replacement?

Bolton, Wigan, Blackpool Three local clubs with similar or less going for them than Rovers. In the last 5 years each hit dire straits after owners left or ran out of money. They were held up as examples of what would happen to us if Venkys left and a reason why we should be grateful to Venkys A few short years later and Blackpool are close behind us in the Championship with bigger gates and upward momentum. Wigan are back in the Championship spending more than we are and Bolton aiming to get out of League One with sensible management and 13,000 season ticket holders. There is life after these idiots.

I've said it before but Liam Manning at MK is having a very impressive season. Looks like they might miss out on automatic by a whisker but finishing above Sunderland and Sheff Wed impressive. Also plays nice football for those who require that when employing a manager.

So 2nd in February to play offs gone with 2 games to play. Some achievement that.

Don't think Warburton has the right connections to be a contender here. Nor do I think he would throw himself at a move to the North West. Grayson would jump at the job and has local connections being based at Brockhall, an ex player and being quite prominent locally through managing Blackpool, Preston and Fleetwood. Also chums with Dunny and had him as assistant manager at Blackpool and Fleetwood. In times gone by I would have embraced Grayson as a Rovers manager but not sure now. His last 2-3 jobs have been short and unsuccessful and I wonder if that coincides with him losing Glyn Snodin as his assistant who was with him in the earlier days. Perhaps a concern a bit like Mark Hughes who is no longer with Bowen and Niedzwicki and has it all to do at Bradford. IF Mowbray goes, and I'm not convinced he will, then I think we can add Grayson to the list with Venus, Johnson, Adkins.

A few issues I have with the theory that Mowbray was to be replaced last summer and that this plan is going to be carried out now: Why go to the trouble of speaking to and identifying options last year, knowing there's a strong chance Mowbray would at least get wind of this on the grapevine, but then stop short of sacking Mowbray, then allow him a whole extra year on top of that? To save money on compensation, reallly? They've just allowed him to pay money for Hedges who was coming for nothing in the summer, they've allowed Lenihan, Rothwell and Nyambe to leave for nothing and rejected cash for Rothwell. So if money was the motive behind their decisions I find it odd that they would persist with a manager for a whole extra year effectively accepting our lot and putting their grand plan on ice for that time just to avoid paying off his final year. I'd like nothing more than to see a well thought out plan come to fruition but don't expect so. I think Venkys are so warped in their ways that they probably don't even know about Mowbrays contract situation and probably don't think it is important anyway. They are likely so arrogant that they expect him to come crawling for a new deal at his inconvenience at a time that suits them. Maybe Mowbray has had enough of waiting now and is going to stick two fingers up at them for messing him around, so they might be surprised to find that for only the 2nd time in 12 years they have a manager who makes his own decision to walk away rather than gratefully accept whatever nonsense they have in mind.

Ainsworth is 49 next week, and has 10 years under his belt at Wycombe. Paul Warne is 49 next week, and has nearly 6 years under his belt at Rotherham. Both have got 100% relegation records in the Championship - Ainsworth 1 season 1 relegation and Warne 3 seasons 3 relegations. So I'm not sure how either can be classed as 'young' or 'up and coming' and neither has done anything to inspire confidence in delivering at Championship level or above. If they did then you might expect bigger or richer clubs to have snapped them up by now.

Capacities are 8000 each in DE and BBE, 11,000 in JW and 4,500 in Riverside Still think we will fall short of 20,000

Already we are behind in the queue, unless we've actually already got someone lined up which I think is very unlikely. QPR have now made a decision and an announcement and it seems likely they will now be scouring the market, interviewing people and testing the water. Options like Farke will be getting spoken to and be coming off the market. All good for the 'who will manage us' brigade who will presumably use Venky ineptitude as a reason why we should continue as we are.

In theory of course we should be in a brilliant position this summer, even if we miss out - Stable ownership situation with people who pick up the tab every year of 8 figure losses - Wage bill slashed right back last summer with more to come this - FFP compliant having sold assets - Established the Championship, look like narrowly missing the play-offs - 'Billionaire' owners who are keen to invest, prevented from doing so only be the FFP cycle which apparently re-sets - Brilliant squad of young players that Mowbray has waxed lyrical about this season - Productive academy. Not many clubs in this league who has all the above and doesn't have to cut costs, sell players, wait for things to happen, adjust to a new division, deadwood to get rid of etc. The be all and end all of our summer should be to recruit a better management team and then give them backing in the transfer market. Even that should be straightforward having been aware of Mowbray's contract situation for months and having had plenty of time to line things up if he's leaving. Then I woke up.

So hopefully a crowd that beats Burnley's highest of the season. Another one for my notebook.

All good suggestions although I know very little of Knutsen. Carvalhal is being linked with Reading and is said to be keen on returning to England, which if true we should be all over. Farke, Bilic, Jokanovic and Dyche would be expensive but attainable if the deal was right.

The rumours about WBA and Stoke are likely to be baseless, but even if they are true the situation doesn't change. Sooner or later, whether it be now, Xmas or next summer, Mowbray will leave this club for one reason or another. As it stands it looks like that is going to be because our loony owners are in hibernation mode and aren't doing anything about their Club, so off he goes. But it could just as easily be that Mowbray opts to retire or that some other club offers him a better deal and then we are in the same position - we still need Venkys or one of the other incompetents at Ewood to select a new manager. Got to cross that bridge sooner or later, lets just hope that the start of the summer is the best time rather than mid-season.

This changes nothing on my prediction. I still think they will let him stay if he wants to, the question will be how long it takes Venkys to awaken from their hibernation and do anything.

Again I read Mowbray's interview and it is all about him and his family life/balance, talking about hardly seeing his son for the last 5 years etc. This is where I get annoyed with him. I'd have some sympathy if he just left it at admitting there had been no discussions and as such he was being let go, but instead he seems to project a belief that he's been here doing us a favour for the last 5 years or that managing our club has been a chore that he really doesn't need. If it is such an issue for him he could have walked away at any stage with his held held high. Facts of the matter are he's had a good run at it, rebuilt his managerial reputation and been very well paid. Interesting he mentions a 5 year plan coming to an end. Not sure who else aside maybe Guardiola, Klopp or Ten Hag would be handed such a long term 'project' and be left to get on with it.

Oh I agree, if this was being handled properly then there would be an official announcement this week and a cheery send off on Saturday. But who, outside of India, is willing and able to communicate with fans on an issue as significant as the manager's future? Does anyone have the authority to say anything even if they wanted to?

What management team? There's only 'Mr Waggott' and he's as much in the dark as Mowbray, and I expect won't be too happy if Mowbray is leaving.

We don't know whether there is a problem or not. It might all be about nothing, or there may be something to it. I'd have thought in a multi-million pound competition with so much resting on it the authorities would want to remove any chance of an issue, and at least try to appear to want to maintain some integrity. Its not as though he's the only qualified option to do the job, is it? What's harder, simply dropping him or moving him to an unrelated fixture, or having to face extreme pressure/scrutiny and risk accusations of dodgy business undermining the competition?

It is the responsibility of the footballing authorities to at least try to maintain an image of fairness and integrity for the sake of the competition, even if Keith Stroud isn't at all influenced by his Bournemouth connections or alleged Luton support in games, the fact that there are those connections means there can be allegations of it and this can undermine confidence. The fact that they have allocated him this fixture at such a pivotal stage of the season suggests they either don't care even about appearing to be fair or they don't even look at such things when determining who is reffing which games. There are many. many, many referees in England who could do this fixture none of whom would attract the allegations and concern Stroud will. So why run the risk by giving it to him?

I think Lenihan will end up at somewhere like Middlesbrough, Sheff United or West Brom Wilder is an admirer and tried to sign him for Sheff United previously. He also tends to focus on British/Irish players so expect Lenihan on a free to feature highly on his list. Sheff United will need freshening up with some slightly younger players and will be able to offer him a wage rise. Likewise Bruce will be rebuilding WBA on a limited budget so ideal for them. I would be surprised if Bournemouth were still interested in Rothwell if they are promoted. If not then expect him to go there, assuming Parker is still manager, but if they go up I would expect them to have bigger fish to fry.

I think we will do well if we get to 20,000. The BBE lower might sell out - so there's 5,000 At present a few hundred at most in the lower DE 1900 Bournemouth if they sell their remaining tickets. Riverside looks about half full at the moment, so say 2,500 at a push That's about 9,500. Meaning the JW would have to sell out completely to get past 20000. Looking at the planner still plenty available in the upper tier.

I'm very disappointed that the Club decided to play the u23 match vs Palace on Monday night at Ewood despite a direct clash with the first team at Preston. I would have hoped the Club wanted as many Rovers fans as possible to attend and support the u23s which is unlikely to happen when we are playing in a local derby just up the road at the same time. As a consolation I hoped that the Club would have filmed the match or at least a decent package of highlights to enable people to watch afterwards but it seems even that is beyond our capabilities.

I can't be bothered but imagine if you tot up the number of Championship appearances under the belts of our key players and compare to appearances at this level of players starring for Luton and Huddersfield there will be a different picture.

Forest's average age over the season is about a year more than ours. If anyone tries to suggest that 1 year more on average age is the reason they are above us and going for automatic whilst we've probably blown even the play-offs since February I'll laugh at them. The reason they are above us is because they are better managed and invested in key positions at a key time.