Barnsley likely to be under new management by Saturday with Gerhard Struber expected to be appointed.

The old Venky paradox. Enough cash to splash 7 million on project signings and contracts to players who don't contribute yet the Ewood operation is starved of investment and can't even manage basic upkeep. Investment in the facilities and pitch has been pitiful for a club of this size. It's now starting to show.

I'd say any high level meeting between the owners and manager/assistant manager should be attended by the Chief Executive. At the very least he needs to understand what is said and what the outcome of those meetings was. The fact his presence wasn't required tells me that the show rolls on without him whilst he sits in his office and deals with the bureaucracy. Imagine John William's not being involved in meetings between the owners and Hughes/Allardyce. Well that's what happened when Venkys arrived and started meeting Kean without his involvement. He quickly resigned because a CEO should be involved.

The fact that the most recent trip to India was made by Mowbray and Venus without Waggott tells me all I need to know about Waggott's position in the pyramid of control. He'll fill in the paperwork when told what is happening. Forget him sacking anyone.

Those aren't 'long term' structures they are fundamental basic structures that any club at this level should have. The fact these owners delivered a situation where a club of this size and stature had no recruitment department which has supposedly required more than 2 years of rebuilding is an absolute disgrace and another example of them not being fit to own a football club. Mowbray seems to have made efforts to get us to be where everyone else has been throughout although it is entirely manager led, dependent upon Mowbrays working relationship with Venkys and characterised by nepotism e.g. his mates appointed as CEO and Head of Football/Assistant Manager.

The response by Rovers to the unexpected arrival of at least 50 Hertha fans last night sums up where we are at. I saw absolutely no trouble from any of them except one bloke who lit a cigarette. They appeared to be good natured fans there for the experience who wanted to stand and sing watching their side play. We should be welcoming these people to Ewood and projecting a good image of Rovers to fans from overseas yet the opposite seems to have happened. Seems the staff were all set for an easy night at the office with the regular 300 or so home fans causing no problems. Probably no anticipation at all that they would actually travel to watch their team all the way from Germany (note the non footballing mentality - they can't comprehend that fans would want to travel over land and sea to watch an u23 game. Then the arrival of the Hertha contingent sent them into a tailspin. If standing was such a problem why not just open a differnet area of the ground and put them there? Then a police escort away from the ground - why? Suppose it gives the cops something to do. Just embarrassing but I get the impression that Rovers never really wanted the extra hassle of this competition anyway.

Doubt there will be any spending. It will be a loan or two to plug gaps. January is a 'tough time' to do business especially when you've no money and are behind everyone else.

Decent ale, no aggro, cheap prices. Not rocket science is it.

If we are getting beat and need a goal get him on for the last 20 minutes. I'd be more confident of him lashing in a free kick in injury time than any of our other lot scoring an equaliser the way we play.

No other club - not one - would have agreed to loan Mulgrew out on deadline day to a rival. Even if we were blessed with an array of quality defenders we would have kept him until January as backup and mainly for his set piece ability and goals. To send him to Wigan when we did no doubt partly subsidised by ourselves was the latest in a long line of bizarre decisions made. Enough money to splash £7 million on Brereton but not enough to assemble a competent defence and ending up trying to save money by sending players out on deadline day. Something rotten in the state of Denmark.

Is Waggott still 'looking into' coaches from surrounding areas on matchday? How much longer does this 'looking into' take before we start doing what PNE are and making it easy for supporters outside the town to get to the ground? We've done all we can.

Poor recruitment in summer 2018 was overcome by still being able to rely on the Mulgrew, Graham and Dacks who were on form and banging in goals, usually from set pieces or the good Dack and Graham partnership rather than good team play. In getting shut of one, trying to phase out another leaving Dack isolated he's brought problems on himself which are exacerbated by his terrible transfer business.

I wasnt around in those days but understand that the reason for that kick off was as @Mashed Potatoes says and ultimately reasons beyond the clubs control. Sadly any match against Burnley will be treated as a problem and an irritation by those paid to run things. Maybe if they embraced such games and actually promoted them people might get the bug and go to more games. Advertising kids tickets and discounts to Junior members for a match the club has ensured no child could attend unless truant is either just another oversight or a mick take.

Sadly that's exactly the reason the game is at 1pm. Jobsworths happy to take home a wage from football but don't want fans there watching. Quite an insult that we are offering u18 tickets and admission for Junior Rovers members (under 12s). How many people in those age groups could attend this game even if they were desperate to go? It's been moved to the middle of a school day which pretty much rules out everyone under 16/18 unless we are encouraging truancy now.

Let's be honest even if we'd have signed him he'd have spent months sat on the bench with odd 20 minute appearances when losing or played in a position that he isnt used to doing. Peterborough have that knack of developing quality players particularly attackers and selling them on for big money. Apparently what we try to do here but with successful results.

We knew from Chapman's loan spell in League One 2 things: 1) Mowbray had no intention of starting Chapman in games, even at that level never mind in the Championship 2) Chapman was an is made of glass which will always restrict his contribution on the pitch. So it comes as absolutely no surprise to see what has happened. Staggering that Mowbray would hand him a multi year deal if he didn't think he was up to it.

Not brilliant but decent given it is only mid November and they only went on sale last week. Suspect it is more than we will sell in total when we eventually get around to putting them on sale.

Agree, but if there was such a thing as natural level then by any measure we are below it at the moment. Sadly it is a common feature that people both inside and outside the club will embrace the opportunity to put the club and town down, diminish its size, stature, standing, achievements. Our manager is guilty of it. Stoke and Middlesbrough are 'huge clubs' etc. but it extends to a large portion of our fanbase who are quick to tell everyone that we are a small club destined to struggle for evermore.

Natural level based on historical League occupation - top flight Natural level based on trophies- top flight Natural level based on where we were before Jack Walker came along - top end of 2nd tier. Re-writing the record books in an effort to dumb down and reduce expectations is a familiar trait of this regime.

The buying club has to make the player feel really wanted. Make that player a good offer, sell him the club, convince him that you are going places and work from there. As I've said before when you are a professional footballer with a short career especially in Reed's position (hitting mid 20s and not getting a shot at Southampton) then you can't be fussy about what part of the country you live in. It's part of the job. Think he'd turn down a move to Liverpool because his bird didn't fancy living on Merseyside? Not a chance. It would clearly be a bigger task persuading a player to come here than Liverpool but the principle is the same - make a good offer, make the player see you mean business and give him a decision to make. In typical Venky Rovers fashion it seems we did very little for Reed other than tried another loan deal with heavily subsidised wages and sat back hoping nobody else came in with a better offer. That was how we got him in the first place but we didn't get so lucky second time round when Fulham offered what was needed. He was probably naffed off anyway at being left on the bench or played out wide most weeks behind the likes of Smallwood, Evan's and Bennett.

Whereas Sam Gallagher's girlfriend was blown away whilst viewing houses in Audley Range.

Preston sold more than 300 half season tickets. And Rovers?

Rather than spending £12 million on development projects we would have been better off signing Reed for £5 million and stumping up for his wages. An excellent player, coming into his prime, versatile. Showing now at Fulham how good he is. He should have made CM his own and build around him. Use the remaining cash to get a couple of CBs and a CF and we'd have been far better off. Sadly when the priority is about developing players for profits and other such things we see the real gems move on whilst being saddled with non contributors

Here we get down to the nitty gritty of things. At that time Cheston was the most senior and arguably only active director at the club. Assuming you don't count Bob Coar or Ian Silvester as active directors. If this account is true, that Cheston went off on his summer holidays in the middle of a crucial managerial appointment process and whilst he was away individuals unknown parachuted Coyle into position then it sets alarm bells off. Who were these people who were able to strike whilst Cheston's back was turned? Why did Cheston go on holiday before the appointment was concluded? Who are these people who have enough influence with the owners to be able to get in behind directors backs and sway the owners to make a catastrophic decision against or without the advice of their paid directors? I don't think Balaji Rao's mobile number is in the phone book so who was able to get in touch with one of the owners so quickly and effectively when the same owners have been almost impossible to contact by employees at the club even managers at times? What safeguards are in place to prevent another recurrence of this again in future? Is Waggott any different now or do they just wait till he goes on holiday before making decisions behind his back? I'm afraid absolving Cheston of responsibility is only half of the story. As it happens I don't believe he was responsible for Coyle and was likely forced into those statements in the absence of anyone else to do it. I actually sympathise with the bloke who was last man standing and expected to do way more than he should. But there remain very serious questions here of how this mob operate.

I know it doesn't help anything to keep going on about it but that decision wasnt just a poor one made between two candidates. It was possibly one of the most shameful decisions made in recent memory. Warnock was available and eager to work. A unique set of circumstances where all he wanted was a last opportunity to get that 8th promotion. He didn't demand vast amounts of cash or long term contracts like many managers with his record might want. He didn't demand a ready made squad of quality players. It will be a long time before a manager with that pedigree is available and keen on the job here and not cost an arm and a leg. Yet we messed it up for reasons still unknown and Cardiff got promotion the season after. It is claimed Venkys are keen for promotion yet you look at that decision which was straightforward and rather than get promotion we got relegation and wonder.