I'm not so sure. I reckon Mowbray is more secure than anyone other than the snake Kean. The difference might be that Mowbray doesn't know it and probably fears the sack without realising that he's as safe as houses, whereas Kean knew full well he was bulletproof. Crucially Mowbray has that link.to India and was there only a week or so ago. The other managers they sacked didn't. Bowyer did but then they refused to meet him which suggested something was amiss. If we look at how Lambert walked and it took them months to get rid of Coyle I just don't think for one minute Mowbray's position is even under any sort of scrutiny.

I'm not even confident of that right now. I look around trying to find 3 sides who I would be relaxed and confident of finishing comfortably above. I can't.

Interesting selections there. Pearson - no nonsense, excellent record in this League with Leicester, ticks numerous boxes, available. However - an odd bloke who seems to fall out with people, poor/strange spells recently in Belgium and at Derby. Just cannot see him working with Venkys. Would at best 'do a Lambert' and walk. O'Neill - once upon a time I would have loved him at Rovers and a top manager in his day but now late 60s and no longer with his trusted team of Robertson and Walford. Hasn't really done it at club level for 7-8 years. Coleman - never rated him - very poor record in club management with reputation enhanced by a good tournament with Wales fired on by Bale and Ramsey. I'd avoid completely. Di Matteo - very good at West Brom in this League but struggled at Villa. Still an impressive CV and worth a shot with a vast network of contacts but would cost heavily. Hughton - ticks every box and the ideal option but is too clever to come and work for us. Will have his pick of clubs so why bother coming here. Moyes and Hughes in similar bracket to each other - vast experience and quality managers in their day however both now finished in the top flight and so will likely need to drop to the Championship to rebuild their careers. Doubt Hughes' ego could handle that and certainly not back at Rovers. He's also lost his two best mates at Reading so that tells me Hughes isnt looking for a job. Never managed at this level so a bit of an unknown. Moyes has but many years ago. Perhaps a gamble worth taking but would cost. I'd rather we looked at people like McCarthy or Michael O'Neill or went abroad. Big thing for me is it needs a new management team not just manager. Expecting a new manager to work with existing staff just to avoid making changes is only going to end one way.

Bowyer's recruitment was miles better than Mowbray's. It's not a competition but the reality is recruitment is important and for a club like ours perhaps more so than elsewhere The signings Bowyer made on a small budget raised expectations of a promotion push. The signings Mowbray has made with one or two exceptions have been a waste of big money. Bowyer's results in the Championship were better than Mowbray's too. I enjoyed watching us more under Bowyer than I do now. Bowyer was better than Mowbray, IMO

Give it Tony Pulis to the end of the season. He would put discipline and organisation into a haphazard squad. Give him a good wage to take it. He would at least guarantee survival which is the best we can aim for now. Relegation would be a disaster and is not worth gambling with to save a few quid and experiment. Spend the next couple of months thinking it through and talking to people about starting in the summer and a fresh clean sweep of staff. My choice would be agreeing a contract with Mick McCarthy who is stepping down from Ireland next summer. Failing that then Carvalhal, Karanka, Garcia - plenty to go at. Mowbray wont be going anywhere until it is too late. Venkys will not sack him even if we get relegated.

I doubt it but that was what someone usually reliable said. I suppose 'pushing 4000' could actually mean just over 3000.

If we'd survived at Brentford I'd wager Paul Senior wouldn't have quit as Director of Football. He would have been involved in recruitment and possibly got his feet under the table with the owners whilst Mowbray's power would have been shared or restricted. Bizarrely relegation spelled the end for Senior and the short lived Director of Football and saw Mowbray concentrate all power in his hands. Not healthy for a professional club.

I was told last night pushing 4000 and then later 4500 but was surprised at that.

I remember us playing at Birmingham towards the very end of Bowyer's tenure (it might even have been his last game). We drew 0-0 or 1-1. It was a poor game and it was clear we were struggling but no worse than what we've been getting recently.

Gestede, Cairney, Conway, and yes Duffy, Marshall and Evans were among our best permanent signings since Venkys took over. Only really Dack can compare. Bowyer never had more than £1 million to spend on a player albeit possibly a bigger wage bill. He wins hands down on recruitment and to be honest I don't recall performances under him ever being as consistently poor as they are now.

The fact that Bowyer had that squad without anywhere near what Mowbray has had to spend in itself shows how well Bowyer did. Mowbray miles behind him in terms of recruitment.

A team devoid of ideas and a set of players that looked disinterested, disillusioned and as though they weren't playing for the manager or at least had no idea how they were meant to be playing. Truly awful. The second half was a marginal improvement. We managed to make a few tackles and had a couple of attempts that nearly hit the target. Hooray. Mowbray's body language appalling. Wandering around the technical area with his arms folded and reacting to errors by placing his head in hands. I want to see the manager encouraging or berating the players not aimlessly wandering around with head in hands. Then the second half he makes a point of sitting down for the duration whilst Venus got to play manager and he was suddenly the one barking at the players whilst Mowbray nowhere to be seen.

I haven't watched much of his teams so cant claim to be an expert on his coaching style but I've always seen his sides as being organised and disciplined and hard to break down. Countless times at Brighton they would win games keeping clean sheets and being hard to beat. I'm not altogether interested in perceptions, styles or talk about principles or identity. Give me a McCarthy, Bruce, Allardyce, Warnock or Hughton any day of the week - managers with proven track records who know where to start - the defence - and go from there. Those managers that talk drivel about principles and style and have good reputations for being true to their beliefs tend to go nowhere and end up making up the numbers unless armed with massive budgets or squads miles better than others. I don't see what relevance Johnson's record with the u23s has to do with anything nor what style of play he might or.might not have had. Quite a difference doing it with a group of young lads in the reserves to the boiling pot of the Championship. We all know how.this is going to unfold though. Johnson has the job if he wants it after Mowbray and that is just how Venkys like it. Cheap, easy, internal promotion.

That was a crazy day. Think we were 4-0 up after about 30 minutes, 4-1 at half time. Only time I've seen us win there. Edit: actually we were 4-0 at half time and 3-0 after 30 minutes.

Standing still? Hughton had 2.5 seasons in this league with Brighton. First 6 months he kept them up, first full season got them to the play-offs and second full season automatic promotion. One season at Birmingham - play offs and Europa League One season at Newcastle - record breaking Championship win. That's before his Premier League record. Over the last 10 years his record in this league is better than anyone's including Warnock and Bruce. Staggering that anyone would overlook him to throw the club into the hands of another rookie with no management experience. Seems Hughton is holding out for something as he's rumoured to have rejected Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke already so probably a non starter but someone will get him and reap the rewards. Sadly the ambitious and obvious choice is the last thing our mob will look at. They prefer their managers to be pliable and grateful.

I'm in two minds on this personally. I find Mowbray's football dull, boring, predictable and annoying. I can count on one hand the number of excellent performances that we've had under his management. Obviously if we win nobody cares but the vast majority of our wins have been narrow, hard fought marginal affairs that could easily have gone the other way. I believe that is down to his management. His recruitment has been abysmal. There is no evidence of any positive progress this season. The defence continues to struggle and is under staffed. He appears further away from knowing his best team and system than ever. His efforts at progressing things by replacing Graham, Conway and Mulgrew havent reaped dividends. The football is weary and ineffective. We're inconsistent in approach, performances and lineup. I think we are more likely to go down than up which is a tragedy given the money paid out. In an ideal world with proper owners and a proper board of directors there would be serious concern about the situation and at least back up plans in place. Plenty of decent managers out there who would likely come here if the club put the money up and structure in place. Off the top of.my head - Karanka, Oscar Garcia, Gus Poyet, Carlos Carvajal, Nigel Pearson, Mick McCarthy - all there for the taking for an ambitious club. Sadly we know where we are at. The thought of changing manager, rather than an opportunity to progress is seen as a big decision which Venkys and their minions nearly always get badly wrong. We wont want to pay for a decent manager and will be motivated by convenience and cost to look in house or pick up a desperate option. Zero intention of paying big money for a management team or foreign manager with support staff. It will be cheap and cheerful happy to work with Lowey and keep the existing staff on. That fills me with dread.

No team succeeds when changing a third of the team every week often unforced either to keep people happy or because the manager thinks he is cleverer than he is.

Rowett a decent appointment for Millwall. Knows the League, did a good job on a limited budget at Birmingham. First and foremost he knows how to organise teams defensively and stops them leaking goals. Might not be pretty to watch but is the foundation to success.

The fact that RFS can be removed all of a sudden mid season after having been there all season to date tells me they were probably getting free advertising and haven't paid for those signs this season.

We sold Tom Cairney to bottom half Fulham for £3 million. He's now the best player in the league. When the sales start it's a case of take whatever gets offered as long as the deal is done quickly. Forget £15 million Premier League bids for Dack. This lot will sell him to Stoke or Bristol City for £5 million.

Went to Accy Stanley at lunchtime today. Made a late decision to go on as they were playing top of the league Ipswich and I fancied the game. Kick off at 12 noon. Made a decision at 11:15am to go, quick change, set off at 11:30, parked up across from the ground for free at 11:45, bought a ticket for cash by the turnstiles, sat where I wanted. Decent home crowd on of more than 2,000 which is over double what Stanley were getting a couple of years ago. The whole ground has been improved drastically over the last couple of years. New stand on one side, everything smartened up, investment into the pitch, loads of local companies sponsoring them. Good win, Good atmosphere, home 15 minutes after the full time whistle. If I'd have wanted I could have gone in the bar and enjoyed beer for £1 a pint and had a natter with their fans and staff in a friendly environment. No price hikes for making a late decision. No membership needed. No £30 tickets. No car parking charges or parking wardens out trying to catch people. No £8 beer and pie 'deals'. Bowland real ale,Herefordshire cider on rather than overpriced rubbish. Once again from a cost, convenience and overall relaxed enjoyable few hours out perpective Stanley are beating us hands down. Why? They've an owner who cares and wants them to grow and prosper. We've owners who couldn't care less, have neglected the club and their employees have other 'targets' to deliver on.

Of course it should. This is a poor quality and wide open division where clubs without major funding are able to succeed. Most of the division have the ability to at least sneak a play off position. The difference between survival (50 points) and play offs (70 points) can be bridged over a 46 match season. If you are managing in this league and aren't personally gunning for the play-offs each season (and by that promotion) then you're in the wrong business because it is there for the taking. If PNE and QPR can be up there fighting then anyone in this league can. Likewise if Burnley and Bournemouth can be established in the top division then anyone in the Championship can (with proper management). With Mowbray I think he is now going to backtrack and wriggle out of his own proclaimed ambitions. In the summer of 2018 all his talk was of needing 3-4 windows to build a squad capable. Well he's had summer 18, January 19, summer 19 since promotion so at most he's got January to complete his jigsaw. He's said numerous times last season and before this that the aim was play-offs but only last week after his India trip and his comments following that there were suggestions he was moving away from that, trying to downplay expectations this season and turn attention towards more long term issues which include shuffling staff around and bleating on about growing and building again. Personally from what I've seen during our time back in the Championship I've set my expectations quite low and said in August I would shake hands on 21st and survival. Why? Because I genuinely believe we are at serious risk of sliding into a relegation scrap with a disorganised team and manager who doesn't know what to do with it. Am I happy with that? Certainly not but it seems some others are.

The evidence is mounting that we can't defend well regardless of the personnel. In my view it is management and coaching deficiencies. Mowbray has made scapegoats of Raya and Mulgrew yet both are now playing regularly at rival clubs with better defences than us. I believe both were offloaded for financial reasons and were replaced with low cost loans rather than permanent signings to build around On that basis I'm struggling to take the club's claims of promotion aims seriously.

Just an extra one on Mulgrew that Meadows made me aware of on Twitter. Mulgrew has made 99 league appearances at Rovers. What odds on 100 meaning a bonus, wage rise or contract extension, hence the rapid exit before that milestone was reached?

At a club with serious ambitions and a determination to achieve those ambitions the first choice is on the structure. Traditional manager or 'head coach' with a director of football above him. Either way can work, but a decision needs to be made and then every effort to make that structure work needs to made. In our position with clueless owners on the other side of the world I firmly believe our best and probably only chance of putting in place a winning structure is with a director of football with a track record of expertise in that position elsewhere leading the operation, acting as the link between owners and team. That person would be given a target, run with a budget, request extra funds, hire and fire coaches, sanction transfers in conjunction with his chosen head coach. The old school manager running everything can still work - Dyche at Burnley - but it is becoming less common - and even he works with a Sporting Director to delegate work out. They also have owners and a board in the local area who know a bit about football. One thing is for sure you do not 'advertise' the position of manager. At any given time the powers that be should have a rough list of individuals in mind to approach in the event a replacement is needed. The minute a decision is made to make a change those people are contacted and things go from there. Sitting around waiting for applicants and then working out which to offer interviews for is amateurish stuff but seemingly not far off what we were doing after Lambert quit and Cheston was talking to the likes of Russell Slade and Warren Joyce. There is no room for sentiment in this game. We've had good out of Mowbray in bouncing us straight back and stabilising us last season. He's had a good salary, 2.5 years of employment and has rebuilt his reputation at a time when he was finished at this level before we gave him a chance. So the events of 2017-18 and even 2018-19 really shouldn't count for much other than concerning league form going back to November/December last year. I think it is quite clear now that the decision to release Mulgrew was a last minute attempt to free up funds on wages so we could bring in a couple on deadline day. The move clearly wasn't on the horizon even as we kicked off v Charlton and Mulgrew was captain. In the end we got Cunningham on loan who is now out for the season whilst Mulgrew has just kept a clean sheet for Wigan - i think time will show this to be another poor decision in a long line of poor decisions made here. Correct. Chapman has in the main been poor in the u23s. I'm not going to speculate on potential reasons why. In the end it doesn't matter. Fact is it is another signing made by this manager that hasn't yet worked out and hasn't seen any meaningful contribution to the team. Another waste.