Anyone who applies any analysis to Mowbray's career will see a theme of winning and losing streaks. Its why he's got a reasonable win percentage as a manager even now, and has often had his clubs in good positions, only to collapse and not achieve anything in the end. With this in mind he has always had that streak up ahead to turn it around here and bounce back up the division and 'answer' the critics just as the heat starts to turn up. For the same reason he will probably get off to a decent start again next season. The loons will probably see that as evidence that sticking by him was the right thing to do. Those with any memory or sense will know it won't last.

I dont think it is loyalty any more than negligence. Loyalty would be based on a belief or delusion that he is the best man for the job, based on their experience, or that whilst they understand results and performances are dire they would much rather not fire him because they like him but instead will try and move on and better the club by encouraging him out or even sideways. None of that here. They just don't care so won't do anything. Same old really. It was only ever their underlings who got rid of managers. They've been happy to stick with all of them.

Oh well. There goes the season tickets. Just need to decide where to book the extra holiday to instead.

I know we won the January transfer window with the loans of Harwood - Bellis, Branthwaite and the Crewe LB but that lad Dike at Barnsley has done alright. Another winning goal takes him to something like 10 or 11 since joining in January. Proper season changing transfer business, rather than going cap in hand to City and Everton and asking to borrow someone on the cheap to fill a gap for 5 months.

This season has been littered with bad stats but I think there are a few honours still up for grabs yet. We need a minimum of 2 points from our remaining 3 games to surpass the 51 points we went down with in 2017. A failure to surpass that figure will take some explaining from the pilot of our journey. We have now lost the same number of games, 19, as during our entire relegation season, so a defeat in any of our remaining fixtures will mean we have lost more than that Coyle coached relegation side - abysmal. We are just about to be overtaken by Coventry, fresh out of League One and skint. This is particularly relevant not just because it makes a complete mockery of Mowbray's journey talk, as after 3 years at this level we are behind clubs in their first season, but also because he was the one who set Coventry on their way to League Two before getting the job here. Coventry have now come full circle under his successor and have overtaken us. Bravo Mowbray. Take your pick but the above 3 stats are inexcusable and should be put to the manager immediately, along with his p45.

Because its Wycombe and they're bottom of the league? Gary Johnson did a good job and got Yeovil to the Championship. Anyone want him? This is Blackburn Rovers and we need to get to the PL. The reason we are in this mess is because we cut corners and go cheap/easy on appointments and go for people who are just grateful to be here. I dont get this obsession with looking down the leagues and trying to be clever and find someone different or new. Why not just target someone established. Remove lots of risk and pay them the going rate.

We are losing £20 million a year. only 3 ways of stopping or significantly reducing that 1 - get promoted 2 - slash costs and likely go and stay in League One 3 - unearth gems to sell each and every year whilst surviving in the Championship Option 3 isn't going to happen, because you need to be very astute with your recruitment and contracts and very few clubs are so savvy. Barnsley and Brentford the two obvious ones. These owners aren't up to it and we are going to be forced into selling Armstrong at an undervalue due to his contract status. Option 2 should be off the table So it needs to be Option 1. Why when able to sustain £200 million losses you'd cut corners on the coaching staff i do not know. This is a huge decision, not one that should be influenced by emotion, place of birth or convenience You get a manager with the track record to do the job. That might mean you have to pay more, or agree to his demands. Just because a manager might require persuasion rather than crawl over glass for the job doesn't mean we shouldn't get him Wilder. And a big bonus if he succeeds.

He's got a worse record than Lambert so far. Having said that we just need to hope they start going daft and fire Cook then approach Mowbray and Venus. Leave Cook in charge through the summer and he'll have them thereabouts next season when he sorts their squad out.

If Coventry beat Stoke tonight and/or there's a winner between Forest and Birmingham then we'll drop another couple of places to 18th. Good job the league tables don't matter.

Some ambition would be nice. Just something people can believe in. Not sure replacing Mowbray with Wycombe's manager shows that, but I suspect they'll make such a mess of this from here that he'll end up looking like a great appointment compared to the more likely alternative of keeping Mowbray.

More outrageous comments from Mowbray. After the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral was arranged for 3pm Saturday we, quite sensibly IMO, took the option to bring the Derby game forward to the Friday evening. I rather naively assumed there was some method in that decision in view of tonight's game - e.g. doing it to give ourselves an extra 24 hours rest/recovery between the games, including over Sheff Wed who played on Saturday afternoon. Then we turn up tonight with wholesale changes throwing in some players who have barely featured recently - and 7 of the starting 11 are out of loan or contract in a few weeks. What's that all about then? You take advantage of the fixture rescheduling to buy yourself an extra day head start on your second-bottom opponents, you then turn up and make 5 changes to your side that finally won a do on Friday, many of whom have no right to be here next season (journey my ar*e) and then after a disgraceful performance mention they seemed jaded. He's desperate to be sacked and has been for months. But not desperate enough to hand his notice in. Please just do us a favour. Someone. Somewhere. Soon.

Oh good, it's nearly full time. Stewy Downing has driving duties tonight so I can have a kip on the back seat and a free lift home from Sheffield to Teesside.

Over 4 years in the job No interference, off the pitch trouble, left to get on with it with trusted staff. No legacy of FFP issues or crippling wage bill. No forced sales or major departures. Net transfer fee spend pushing £20 million and enviable wage budget. Productive academy and class training facilities. Anyone else other than Mowbray had the above?

Extreme end of the scale but how about the government take steps to nationalise these clubs or expropriate a majority shareholding from their existing ownership on the basis that it is in the public interest to do so?

The man is a buffoon but he's also a crafty sod who is very consciously painting an image of continuity and "as you were folks" into the minds of supporters. A few more weeks of this and a couple more wins in the dead rubbers and it won't need much for him and his acolytes behind the scenes to cart on into another season, claiming that there is a process underway, continuity is needed, development is in progress. Not long ago it was a case of getting through the games and then reviewing things in the summer when a parting of the ways would suit all concerned. Prepare yourselves for a shift away from that with a series of interviews like this one to implant reluctance to seek change and convince people that no other manager could match Mowbray's performance and journey. It would be almost funny if those behind the scenes didn't actually believe it. By end May there will be no question about the manager's future and the only question will be whether we fans are prepared to tolerate another year of it or cough up another £450 to have the p*ss taken out of us again.

Expulsion from Premier League, Serie A and La Liga is the solution. If it becomes a club v country row then the clubs will win. Players aren't going to turn down millions a year at their clubs to be able to play half a dozen tournament fixtures every 2 years. See how they get on with no domestic league and no local support on a weekend. That will break it.

The thing that is making a mockery of his identity and slow build drivel is the fact that most of his squad are out of contract in a few weeks. So there is no build or identity. Its a hand to mouth existence of recycling players and assembling a squad on the cheap. Whatever identity he desires will have to be rebuilt over the summer in recruitment and coaching. Presumably this will take months or years to take effect and we will need Mowbray to lead us on that journey. No thanks. He knows he can't point to progress on the squad or the usual claim of we are a couple of defenders or key signings short of being the finished article- we need more than half a squad- so instead he is trying to play down the scale of the impending exodus. Like a worm on a hook and I pity anyone who still has genuine belief in where this is going. They're more bothered about protecting St Tony and his staff than what is best for this football club.

Got to laugh at the faux outrage from the ex players, pundits and journalists. Presumably they will boycott any coverage of this competition and refuse work for it. Of course not. Half this lot will be straight on the plane to Milan and Madrid, 5 star Hotel and all expenses paid.

Super League indeed Arsenal - no European Cup and no league title in 16 years. Now a mid table side Chelsea - minimal success prior to 2005 Man City - minimal success prior to 2011, no European cup Liverpool- 1 league title in 31 years Spurs - no league title in over 60 years, no European cup Man Utd - no league title in 8 years At Madrid - 1 league title in about 15 years and no European cup AC Milan - 1 league title in about 15 years

I'm not saying he couldn't. I'm saying it is a big risk that appears to be based more on his origins in Blackburn than on anything else. I've already named half a dozen other managers who have also taken unfashionable, low budget clubs to the Championship in the last 10 years. I haven't seen any of those people linked to the job and can only assume the reason for that is because they weren't born in Blackburn. Infact I'm sure if Gary Johnson, Darren Ferguson or Steve Evans were the names being put forward there would be uproar, yet I fail to see what Ainsworth has done that the others haven't. I've already explained why we shouldn't appoint an 'up and coming' manager e.g. one from the lower divisions - it is a compete gamble and unnecessary risk when the club cannot afford another gamble. Wilder has just left Sheffield United en route to relegation and previously managed Northampton, Oxford and Halifax. Can we attract him to the job? Good god, we've got problems if not. I agree on Neil and Rowett because both have proven over many years that they have what it takes to haul clubs from the bottom end of this league into the top 6 or contention on limited budgets.

This will be a non-starter as long as FIFA, UEFA and the FA hold firm. It can't succeed without them allowing it, because there would just be too much to do. I always thought that football clubs operating in England had to be affiliated to the FA for starters, so without that, which the FA could refuse, then those clubs wouldn't even be allowed to participate in association football matches in England. Then there's many other ways of making it difficult or impossible for them to get it off the ground. IF they hold firm. Of course when the money starts changing hands these things have a tendancy to happen. The FA have already betrayed the national game once in the last 30 years by allowing the Premier League to break away and hoover up all the cash in the game, so I've no doubt that once a briefcase full of cash lands on their desks it will find a way to pass. I can see where people are coming from but for me this wouldn't sort anything out. All that would happen is the current 'big six' would eventually be replaced by a second 'big six' - probably Everton, Villa, Leeds, West Ham, Wolves, Leicester - who would get bigger crowds, more money and finish near the top every year. It doesn't solve anything, it just creates space for another batch of clubs to move in and take over.

All correct. But why are we looking at managers needing and hoping they will make the 'step up'? Why not just aim for one already at the step we are and take out any risk of not being able to take the step up? A decent CV at a small club shouldn't be enough to land the job of managing Blackburn Rovers with serious aspirations of promotion to the Prem. People like McCarthy and Warnock fit the criteria of 'dinosaurs' both being vastly experienced and have been around the block. I'd love either here and both would be a much lesser gamble than Ainsworth.

Who he supports isn't a negative per se. I just think it is a lazy way of dealing with a managerial appointment. As a club we need to be clever to get where we want to be. Bringing emotion and sentiment into this sort of decision is very risky. This is a club losing £20 million a year and needs to be getting promoted quickly. I'd hope the people responsible for such a major appointment wouldn't be hung up on a candidates emotions or place of birth. Let's face it. The reason Ainsworth is a hot topic is because he comes from Blackburn. Yes he's done very well with Wycombe. I'll ask again. Why does that put him ahead of Paul Warne, or John Coleman?

John Coleman has got 4 promotions at Accy who are a smaller club than Wycombe. Haven't seen him mentioned. Yes Ainsworth has done well. If you want a list of others who have done well on shoestring budgets in the lower leagues it will stretch to a long list. Again he might be a top manager one day. Just think there's too much being attached to his background. There really needs to be a lot more going into this appointment than plumping for the most obvious name because he comes from Blackburn. Lazy.

Paul Warne, Darren Ferguson, Nigel Clough, Kenny Jackett, Chris Powell, Simon Grayson, Gary Johnson All done well and got small clubs to the Championship and failed to keep them there/took them back down. Why does Ainsworth warrant special attention?