Just now, Parsonblue said:

Barnsley have just given Heckingbottom a new deal - within the last few days - so Leeds are going to have to pay.  Leeds are the classic example of a club that continually changes managers and achieves nothing as a result - other than large compensation packages that they have to pay out to managers and coaching staff.

Apparently he might have a release clause in his new deal which enables him to leave for a smaller amount of compensation. Not sure what all the fuss is about with Heckingbottom as he was heavily linked to Sunderland and Forest earlier this season despite Barnsley struggling. I suppose he's done well to keep them up considering their relatively limited resources but he's hardly set the world alight. Leeds fans don't seem particularly happy at the prospect but then again they probably expect a world class manager turning up.

Leeds want Paul Heckingbottom to be their new manager and are hoping to reach a deal later today according to their local paper. Barnsley on a shocking run so a bit of a surprise.

52 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

He is definitely going to get another booking before the end of March, hopefully it doesn't mean he is suspended against a couple of tricky teams.. A strategic booking might not be the worst idea 

Different ways of looking at that. A deliberate booking in the last minute at Fleetwood would have seen him suspended for home games vs Northampton and Walsall. With due respect we should be more than capable of beating those sides with or without Smallwood and he would then be back fresh and clean slate for the Plymouth game which ought to be more difficult.

The other is that until we get Evans, Whittingham or Lenihan back we're on thin ice in central midfield and so it makes sense for him to 'hold off' until at least one of those are back to full fitness.

Times like these when the numerous bookings he has picked up this season need some scrutiny. Disgusting in my opinion the number of cheap immediate bookings he has collected on his first foul in games whilst others get away with murder.

The furore today has been so great that the Leeds MD has promised to go away and do some more 'consultation' which suggests they realise what a joke it is. Whatever consultation they did I doubt it involved any self respecting supporter. 

These owners think they can just employ a designer to sit on a computer and throw together some fancy designs along with some flanel about what has gone into it. This isn't the US. Club badges are something that evolve over time, incorporate traditions and identities and fans are proud and protective of.

As someone else said, fans eat pies and drink beer at matches, you wouldn't put those on the club badge.

If Rovers ditched the red rose and Arte et Labore and came up with a shield with Rover the Dog in the middle there'd be outrage.

Awful. Really does make you wonder what goes through the minds of the people designing and approving these things. Probably chucked together by some bloke in an office in London who has never even been to Leeds never mind knows anything about football.

I often wonder about Rovers changing their badge but if this is the sort of stuff on offer then no thanks.

Some clubs have done well with their changes though. Sheffield Wednesdays is smart. This Leeds one is just shocking.

Petition now launched to prevent it being brought in.

16 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

Ben Marshall another player reaping what he sowed

 

He's always had issues in his head. Think that was why Leicester got shut. But I'm reluctant to blame any player for what went on between 2015 and 2016 given the way Rovers were going about their business. He might have fancied a move away but that came after we had sold everyone else of quality and made our 'ambition' quite clear. I also don't believe for one minute that we made him a reasonable offer of a new contract despite claiming we did. Why would we have offered him improved terms whilst selling everyone else?

Carlos Carvalhal sacked at Sheffield Wednesday.

To be honest its been largely the same picture for the last 5 years. The only time financial performance has really looked remotely sustainable has been when they sold the crown jewels and didn't reinvest the proceeds into new players and the result of that was a place in the 3rd division.

Its the same old stuff over again in the accounts. Venkys don't seem in any sort of hurry to rectify it by leaving or selling the club.

The wage bill is the real killer. I suspect there are a lot of Championship clubs spending less on wages than we are in League One. Even the likes of Cardiff and Bristol City going for automatic promotion I would be surprised if they were spending even close to what we are on salaries.

I wonder how many of our League One rivals possess wage bills of £22 million per year.....

Game tonight vs Wolves at Telford. A win would put us top of the table at Xmas.

Good to see big club Birmingham propping the table up. They got away with it last year, hopefully not this.

Tonights game at Leyland called off

Big thing for me yesterday was how we dealt with falling behind. We fell behind at Southend and lost, fell behind at Shrewsbury and got a point and obviously in the last minute at Oldham got beat. Yesterday was the first time we came from behind to win away from home. Recent wins at Blackpool, Bury and Oxford we took control of the game in the first half and put ourselves in control whereas yesterday at half time we had work to do. It was impressive how we came out in the 2nd half and blew Peterborough away in 15 minutes and turned the game on its head. 

45 minutes ago, nathan_rovers1 said:

am I right in hearing that it is nearly sold out? 

 

There were only about 400 left on Monday and the club has said there will be no sales on the day which usually suggests a sell out or very close to being to avoid people travelling for disappointment.

Conway's good for an hour at most even when fully fit, so whichever way he decides to play it we're going to need an alternative for the next few games.

Peterborough something of an odd side. Started the season like a house on fire but since mid-September have been on a fairly dreadful run slipping from the automatic spots to mid-table. 

They've had home wins over Shrewsbury and Wigan and went very close to winning at Charlton last week but have also gone down at home to the likes of Blackpool, Gillingham and Oxford this season. 

A mixed bag team but they've only won 2 of 11 in the league since overcoming Wigan in September. 

Hopefully we'll get the last few hundred tickets shifted this week for another great sell-out away following. 

Only been to Peterborough once before but enjoyed the place and the ground. Real old fashioned main stand, walking distance to the town centre, some great pubs around.

Adkins, Lambert, Megson and Pulis the favourites for Hull.

41 minutes ago, den said:

We all have to remember they could get worse owners. Stability is what they need.

If Oyston was really vindictive he could follow the Walker Trust route and flog them on the cheap to the first dodgy folk who show the money....

Tinge of jealousy for me. Pleased for the genuine Blackpool fans who may have a future for their club so long as the sale process is successful but also envy that their living nightmare could soon be at an end whereas ours continues with much less prospect of forcing the Indians out. They can look forward to an Oyston-less future whereas we're stuck with the Indian liars for the foreseeable.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/223057/article/ekathimerini/sports/marinakis-to-face-criminal-charge-in-court-and-give-away-olympiakos

Forest owner facing charge of criminal match fixing in Greece. Well done 'EFL' another one through the doors.

4 minutes ago, lraC said:

Yeah that comment by Warnock, was one club, don't know what they are doing and he was definitely referring to Rovers. The story put out by Nick Harris, conforms exactly what you are saying about the Warnock/Coyle fiasco. When it comes to being accountable, Cheston has tried to make out that this has already been dealt with, yet, we as fans, still don't know who exactly appointed Coyle, why and what the consequences of this decision was. So how this has been dealt with is perplexing.

Cheston was clearly instructed to make no further comment on the subject at the recent fans meeting. It was (rightly or wrongly) included on the agenda, the club approved that agenda so knew it was coming, yet immediately Cheston said he wasn't prepared to comment on it and that it had been dealt with. As far as post mortems go it hasn't been dealt with as the last meeting was in March prior to relegation when the focus was on survival. If I didn't know better I'd say that Cheston's bosses had told him to keep his mouth shut on the Coyle subject and to divulge nothing.

3 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

I was told the exact same story. Warnock alluded to it in an interview not so long after by saying "one particular club don't even know what they want" or something along them lines.

Why any club in the championship would turn their nose up at Neil Warnock is beyond me. What infuriates me the most is that nobody has been held accountable: either by publicly apologising or at least answering questions we have to as HOW they came to the decision Coyle was the better choice.

If it was a genuine honest decision then fine, it happens in football, and when it does the person who got it so horrifically wrong is sacked or sidelined from decision making. That person or persons have relegation on their hands, and so should pay for their massive error of judgment.

However as it stands we are all still speculating as to who exactly was responsible for that decision. The club have done a very good job indeed at consigning that episode to the history books whilst concealing the true nature of that decision making process. Its quite clear that Cheston was involved up to a point, but not as far as making a final decision. Its safe to say whoever did make the decision whether it be Venkys, Pasha or other shadowy individuals that none of them were qualified to be doing so, none of them are directors of the club or are fit to be making such decisions, yet it seems all remain in place to this day.

4 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Warnock was lined up to take the job. That's a fact.

The story I got told was that when Warnock first met the people from Rovers he wanted to remain based in Devon/Cornwall with Blackwell and Jepson essentially working at Brockhall during the week and Warnock would travel up on a Thursday-Saturday basis to prepare for the game and then go home for a few days. This was what he had done whilst managing Rotherham the previous season and it had worked very well for them. Rovers weren't overly keen on this arrangement so eventually Warnock, who was keen on the job, agreed to relocate up North so he could be at the club every day in a full time capacity.

Following this they even got as far as to discuss budgets and Warnock was very happy with what he was going to be getting financially to build a side and verbally agreed to take the job. His coaching staff were ready and waiting to come in. Then at the 11th hour he was informed that the deal was off as Rovers were going elsewhere.

The rest is history as Cardiff battle it out for a place in the Premier League and their average attendances have gone up massively this season whilst we languish in mid-table League One struggling to maintain a push for the play-offs with one of the biggest wage bill and monthly losses in League One history.

Whichever way you chose to interpret the Coyle appointment it cannot be forgiven or forgotten, no matter how many times they plonk another temporary distraction infront of the cameras to make people think things are different.

As people have said, it amounts to one of two things, or a mixture of the two.

1) The appointment of Coyle was a result of immense incompetence and ineptitude on a scale up there with the worst decisions ever made at this club.

2) The appointment of Coyle was through his agency connections and people pulling the right strings at the right time.

Either way, the club is knackered. If they really had innocent motives and opted for Coyle over Warnock or any one of dozens of alternatives then that suggests they aren't fit to run the club. Even if you completely overlook his Burnley history his performance as a football manager was a succession of disasters at Bolton, Wigan and Houston and nobody would touch him with a bargepole. I could bring myself to accept that if the person who had decision making ability in that process revealed himself, admitted making a massive error, stepped down from decision making and ideally away from the club altogether and apologise for the direct impact it had on us being relegated.

If it comes down to the old agency stuff and Coyle getting catapulted to the front of the queue despite a weary CV due to his agent friends then it shows nothing has changed and probably never will whilst they are here.

The worst thing the club could do is just pretend it never happened and leave the same culprits in place for another opportunity to present itself in a year or two time. Yet over in Ewood towers it seems its all gone into the 'history' tray to be forgotten for all time. I'm afraid I can't just pretend it never happened when it resulted in relegation and we're looking unlikely to bounce back from it.

The resident clowns at the 'EFL' will be worried about this development. Not because of the shadow it casts on the English game but because it might mean they have to actually do something about the ongoing ownership issues at numerous clubs when until now their preference has been to shrug their shoulders, put their fingers in their ears and pretend nothing is wrong whilst prostituting the Football League around the world to the highest bidders.

Quite happy to pander to Pep Guardiola and issue pointless media statements when he moans about the type of ball used in the cup but very quiet about dodgy owners at Blackpool, Rovers, Coventry and Charlton dragging them towards rack and ruin.

Quite happy to make a mockery of the League Cup by renaming it, selling it to a Far East energy drink and making a laughing stock out of the draws, not so cocky when one of their member clubs owners end up in the High Court.