No we don't. We need a manager/head coach who can get us promoted. It matters because every season we don't go up the club is another £15 million in the red and closer to oblivion. We haven't got time to gamble on experiments and youth and play youngsters to increase their values. If they are good enough then a manager will play them. Just like Mccarthy, for example, did many times at Ipswich. Why does Johnson offer a better chance of youth progression? Surely the key is a manager who knows how best to phase them in. Our 'situation with FFP' is a myth. No other club has appointed their reserve team manager as a solution to combat it. I would say Mccarthy and Pulis would do better with this squad, yes. Their records at this level suggest that is likely because they've been there and done it elsewhere.

Any recent Championship division coach to manager examples? Qualifications mean very little in football management which is a world unto itself.

So you think in 2020 with these owners that we are capable of replicating what Liverpool did 40 years ago? It doesn't work, it won't work. Its so predictable. Appointments through convenience and emotion. I want to get to the Premier League as quickly as possible not gamble our status on experiments.

Sounds like there's a chance that the Hong Kong bloke who recently passed the EFL fit and proper test to take over Wigan might not even exist! Would really hammer home just what a disgrace the EFL are if they have allowed a takeover by a fictitious person.

Perhaps now Barton will finally be put on trial. Outrageous that the 'incident' took place well over a year ago and nothing has happened about it. If I misbehave at a match I get a banning order in a matter of days.

Yes. My question was when was the last time a coach was promoted to manager and it succeeded at this level? Heckingbottom was the division below. Frank had already been a manager just a couple of years earlier. There aren't any others that I can think of. Sometimes I wonder.

Frank had already been a manager in his own right in Denmark. As before, probably not a good idea us trying to copy Brentford when we are a million miles away from their structure. Heckingbottom took over when Johnson had already set them on the way to promotion from League One and finished the job. His record in the Championship at Barnsley and Leeds is abysmal. Totally overrated.

When was the last time a coach was promoted to the managers chair in the Championship and it worked?

https://www.irishfa.com/news/2020/july/damien-johnson-joins-ian-baraclough-s-coaching-staff Isn't clear if he's leaving Rovers or doing both jobs.

I agree with you. His tenure was by no means as bad as some like to make out. Some like to revise history because they didn't like the bloke or the fact he walked out. It might not have been riveting to watch but I could see clear evidence of a way of playing, improved fitness and defensive improvements. Clearly once word got out that he was on his way and we were safe from relegation the end of the season was going through the motions time. As usual though personalities rub off. Seems the order of the day with the owners and down at Ewood/Brockhall is to have someone who is a nice bloke. Such a body on reception likes him because he makes her a brew and has a natter on a Monday morning and the owners like him because he goes to India and tells them how fantastic they are. No matter if results are crap. Give me a win at all costs bloke any day.

Hopefully Hummel or Macron as they put effort in. Umbro and Nike very dull.

Think it was the same sort of story as Eddie Davies at Bolton. Getting on in life, glory days behind him, looking to a future beyond death where his family would need to be provided for and probably they weren't interested in bankrolling Wigan forever. Probably also know that the costs of funding football clubs getting very high even for people like Whelan and Davies who aren't billionaires. Can't imagine he really wants to get involved with it all again at his age. Suspect he might bail them out if they need it but won't want to own and fund them moving forward

Shudder.

I think he inserted the get out clause as he was doubtful from the start that Venkys would come up with the goods and so needed an insurance policy. By the time he'd sold Rhodes, had no money in January and it was becoming clear they weren't going to back him in the summer either he realised what he was up against and got out whilst his reputation was still relatively intact. And it worked for him because a few months later he got the Wolves job. I agree his stock has fallen massively and he's going to be finished if he doesn't get Ipswich back up quickly but I'll never believe he was to blame over Venkys. Not when we look at the rest of the shenanigans that have gone on here. Lambert had a decent reputation to protect and had the sense to ensure he could get out quickly if they didn't deliver. And like with pretty much everything else in their time here they didn't deliver. All talk, no action. Only difference is that all the other managers they've had have been grateful to be in the job and wouldn't have got any other Championship position, so they put up with being mucked around.

We'd have an even lower wage bill if Mowbray hadn't clogged it up with signings that he barely ever calls upon e.g. Davenport and Chapman. Pulis got Stoke up in about 2008 - then established them in the PL, reached the FA Cup final, got them into Europe, did an amazing job keeping Palace up from near certain relegation, turned West Brom around and kept them up and then got Middlesbrough into the play-offs. Not brilliant but a hell of a lot more impressive than Mowbray's last 12 years. McCarthy worked wonders at Ipswich with absolutely no money to spend. Oh for what he could do with the millions we have squandered on project signings. He knows the importance of a mean defence that gives nothing away and doesn't get distracted with airy fairy principles of how the game should be played. All about the results and doing the necessary to get them. Took Ipswich to the top 6 in his first full season and also to 7th the season after on no money at all. Both better than anything we've done in the last 10 years. We also had a chance to appoint Wilder before then e.g. when we brought Lambert in under false pretenses. At that point Wilder would have jumped at the chance to join us. Just needed some foresight and nous.

Well I will be going at 2pm for a couple of pints. Then watching Rovers from 3pm until 4:45pm and then if I fancy a celebratory few to go with the 3 points I might decide to do so.

How on earth is that one going to be enforced then? Are pubs going to start stopwatches when people arrive and force them out on 2 hours even if the place is empty? They won't make any money if so.

You get what you pay for. Leeds were mucking about with Christiansen and Heckingbottom not long ago. Then their owner quickly learned that the road out of this division is to get the right manager and back him. Bielsa brought with him an array of his coaching staff who cost an arm and a leg but the results have followed. Lesson to be learned = don't try to do things on the cheap. Don't appoint a loser like Coyle over a winner like Warnock just because he costs less. Don't force the manager to work with staff already at the club who might not be up to the job.

Huge result there for Hull. Crazy at the bottom. Everyone picking up points. Almost feel sorry for the bottom two who have had some great results yet can't climb out of it. Could well end up with it being 50+ to survive Thank god we won't be embroiled in it but it is more exciting than the Premier League

I've no problem with cherishing promotions which don't happen often. But using this as a reason to keep a manager in place more than 2 years after it happened no.

But unavoidable if the owners insist on investing only in attacking players and insist on 'leasing' the defensive positions. But of course that's just a conspiracy theory. In reality every manager we've had has just not taken the defence seriously.....

I think it is coming to the point where we need to stop harking back to the League One season. It was a good novelty season which saw us move in the right direction on and off the pitch for once. It was a good job done by Mowbray to get us straight back up albeit with all the tools needed to do so. Of course others have failed to do it - Sunderland, Ipswich - but many others of a similar stature did do it - Bolton, Wolves, Leicester, Norwich, Southampton. Either way I don't think that success 2 years ago should entitle Mowbray to endless time and goodwill. I think people are concerned because the squad is a complete mess. That is a result of flawed business over previous windows. We do have a good XI when everyone is fit but they never all are, Mowbray loves to chop and change and several are on their way through loans or contract expiry. Add to that the spectre of Venkys cashing in again on a prized asset or two and rather than a few additions we could be facing a revolution. The fact remains that 3 years into his tenure we are still reliant on players Mowbray inherited at the club - Williams, Mulgrew, Lenihan, Nyambe, Bennett, Travis, Evans, Graham. Other than Dack, Armstrong and Tosin the rest of those signed by Mowbray aren't really up to scratch. So really we have to ask if it is going to take us much further enduring another long transfer window to end up with more long term projects and non contributors.

Big win for Huddersfield last night just as they had slipped into it again. Stoke must be feeling very nervous right now. I still think it will be Luton, Barnsley and Hull that go.

That cannot be allowed to succeed. If it does then there will be many other clubs thinking of doing the same thing. We might as well do it too if there's no points deduction. Reality is that if Wigan aren't deducted points then a Luton or Barnsley who have managed to pay their bills so far will be relegated at their expense.

Think there's something in this. Add Stockport into the mix too. It seems to have followed the direction that those towns have followed. Once proud, independent Lancashire towns in many ways consumed and virtually reduced to suburbs of Manchester over the last 20-30 years. With behemoths of United and City hoovering up all the talent and young fans subsidising tickets and a few tram stops away who grows up supporting Oldham or Bury now? 100 years ago it was a no brainer. Support your town team. Now not so. Jump on the bus to the Etihad and watch Champions League football for similar to League Two.