Mowbray has his failings that's for sure. When we were languishing in league 1 in October, having just gone down and bought some tosh players I reckon he should have gone then. That said they stuck with him, oversaw a promotion and now we sit mid table. He's done a fantastic job in a year and even brought talk of promotion about. There's no way he should be sacked. Give him another season. It's the least he deserves.

Get rid of both left backs; buy 2 new centre halves and a right back for competition. Mulgrew has 1, maybe 2, seasons left in him, Lenihan needs competition and I'm adamant our midfield would be better with Rodwell playing in it, despite his protestations he is a centre half naturally.

Ah my bad. Two fa cups in a row. And fuck, I didn’t mean sacked. When Fergie left then. It’s not that I disregard them. My point was that sustained success happened with two clubs under managers with long careers; whether that success be the state of the club or trophies. United probably don’t call the years since fergie a success despite them trophies. They’ve worsened in terms of quality and have barely challenged for a league title since. I alsodon’t believe any manager would have been successful with the level of investment arsenal got during their transition to the emirates, especially with the other clubs around them really beginning to splash the cash. In terms of Premier League challenges Utd haven’t mounted a serious one since they started chopping managers regularly. Although it’s true that in later years neither did Wengers Arsenal. I suppose there’s merit in the argument he should have been sacked sooner but it cannot he argued that he left the club in a far better state than when he got it, after all a lot of Arsenal’s success as a club is based around his own vision. Could you have got that with 10 different managers in that spell?

Just another case of two people seeing the game very differently I suppose. Brentford had 5 play off places in a decade before reaching the Championship. After that the only real change around was after Warburton - he was sporting directory when Rosler was there so it wasn't exactly a huge shift in managerial staff. I wouldn't say they are over performing and, if anything, suffered after the sacking of Warburton and suffered after Dean Smith went. Let's not pretend like Wolves' agent links haven't helped them be where they are now. All of their players are represented by the same guy and there's not a chance Ruben Neves would have gone to the Championship otherwise! Santo is a success but booking Jorge Mendes is the bigger success. I don't disagree with sacking a manager by the way I just don't think it's the right thing to do if chasing success, regardless of behind-the-scenes board structure. There are definitely more cases of clubs suffering through a change than succeeding, save relegation battles - which they end up in the next season anyway. Then they won 3 FA Cups on the bounce. It was a difficult transition for them at the time and Arsene Wenger brought them through with lots of cash in the bank and a platform to build. If you chop + change managers in that period you'd have found you'd have invested lots of money for similar return.

Of course you need to have a good manager in order to see the benefits of long term management. I'm not trying to say that any manager, given enough time, will go on to achieve great things at a club. Just that history suggests if you have the right manager then firing them in the hope of a new manager bounce often proves unsuccessful. I'm not talking about Lambert or any manager in particular really. Likewise there's an obvious difference between sacking a manager that has your team in bottom place than sacking a manager that is sitting mid table. Or, as you put it, stagnating. I was just arguing the point that board structure doesn't really have much to do with it save an owner with deep pockets. Clubs that go through a big turnover of staff invariably under perform compared to clubs that retain a good manager with a vision. Chelsea got rid of Conte after a season of not winning anything (SAVE A FUCKING FA CUP); Tottenham stick by Poch despite being "close" a few years. Who is in the better position now? Yet despite that it is entirely possible that Chelsea sack Sarri and bring in a huge managerial name next season. The success won't be down to the manager change, it will be down to the fact they will more than likely spend £100+ million on players the new superstar manager has brought in. Meanwhile Championship clubs will inevitably get rid of their managers having failed to achieve promotion and, due to being unable to spend approx 50m on players, will reset their progress by 2 years as the new manager looks to change the philosophy of the club. All of the above is of course from my own non-expert thoughts. My discussion has nowt to do with firing/retaining Lambert but more the sentence JH said that "you can chop and change managers regularly" - I don't think that's the case.

He looks bereft of any confidence if you ask me. Whether that's because he is being asked to play as a winger or what we don't know. It certainly won't help. Yet, despite myself trying to find any excuse for him I can't help but feel as if there is a distinct lack of effort. Sounds petty but him taking 4 minutes to tie his shoelace vs Sheffield United won't leave my head either. It might if good form prevails but silly moments like that stick in somebodies head when the rest of his game has been so poor. On the other hand, clever bits of play that won us the penalty that time don't so much stick in my head - I can't even remember who it was against. I think that line of thinking is leading people to the probably premature judgement of Brereton. Until his form improves all of the negatives will stick out like a sore thumb whilst any positive will sink into oblivion.

He should be a better prospect than Nuttall. We got Nuttall for free from the Scottish Leagues and Brereton cost us £7m from one of the most competitive leagues in Europe. His contribution so far is indefensible really, despite all the new buzzwords like "project signing" and so on. I look forward to the time he starts banging in the goals, until then his displays in a Rovers shirt average about 2 out of 10 - he's been shite.

Watford aside how many of them clubs are on a positive trajectory? Brentford and Derby have wallowed in their respective places for quite a few seasons, Southampton have gone hugely downhill, Swansea have been relegated and Chelsea are in their worst position since Mourinho. Chelsea's success lies more in the fact they can spend circa £60m on a striker any transfer window they please as opposed to regular changes in managers. Wolves, again, have benefited from lots of money (plus the advise of super agents...) as opposed to a policy of chopping and changing managers. Two clubs have had continued success throughout my entire lifetime (26 years) and they are Man Utd and Arsenal. Both clubs had one thing in common in that they were stable in the manager department. Since the sacking of Fergie Utd haven't won a thing despite having a great board - we are yet to see whether Arsenal's fortunes benefit from a change in manager. I think you'll find that any club (again save Watford) that have high manager turnover + high success are usually always clubs that can splash huge sums of money on replacing players as and when they please. Clubs like us, for example, couldn't fund a change in philosophy every 12 months and so would suffer - and did suffer - with a high turnover of managers/coaches

Leonard it is more than possible that finances weren't right on the deal. More than anyone I'd have loved Assombalonga here (or similar) but if it meant giving him 50k p/w then no thankyou. There's a clear wage structure in place to prevent a financial situation that we have seen before. We can't go breaking that structure on the possible chance of a play off place. The summer is the time to buy. In truth we failed to invest in a realistic push back then. By failing to land a central defender we all but limited our chances of promotion to out-scoring everyone. You can't do that in this league, clearly. You are right though - this approach, whilst cautious and "safe", also leaves us open to losing our better players and scrambling around to replace him. Dack may go in the summer and that would leave us needing defenders, midfielders and a talisman. It's a tricky balance - I don't want Mowbray's job that's for certain

Ouch. He tore League 1 up last time he was in it too. Would have been a saving grace for Ipswich in their season down there. To be truthful though I saw Paul Lambert's Villa week in week out when I was in the Midlands and they were tragic. An extremely poor side that played some mind numbing football. It's a fine line between whether he did a good job or whether he put them in that position. There is only so long you can blame owners for your poor performance as manager. He has brought players in everywhere he went, whether they cost or not is irrelevant, and most of the time they have been poor(er) players. As a rounding up excercise I guarantee you that Paul Lambert has left more clubs in a worse state than when he took over than he has improved them. To me that is the sign of a poor manager.

Perfectly summarised Tom Stinny. Clear, concise and correct. Just what we like around here.

Have I woke up in May? The amount of people saying our season is over must mean it is. There's 15 games left for Christ sake

Is project signing a thing now?

Who gives a flying monkeys about Ipswich

I have said this for years. Single tier dome stadium with a "kop end" of sorts with the away fans in a corner. It would be the first time I'd assume a club would rebuild a stadium smaller but it's definitely required.

See Crimpshine above. If I felt like the club had some connection with me again then I'd watch us down the leagues certainly. Right now I am happy because of the manager + playing staff however in one transfer window that could all change again. The only constant is the owners and my popular opinion on them is that they are shitehawks.

Not as such in that I do recognise their financial clout. In order to maintain our current status in football we obviously 'need' them(their money). However, and this may come under an unpopular opinion, if they did clear off and we did have to "do a Portsmouth" I wouldn't be overly concerned either. In fact, I'd be pretty damn content.

And so it begins...

The 3 clean sheets might have tricked people into thinking our defensive woes are lessening but Saturday showed that the problem is still there. It's no shameful thing to lose to Brentford but the manner of our second half performance was abysmal. As soon as that first goal went in against us I knew we'd lose; there isn't a man at the back I would say will take control of the line and whip both the defenders and midfielders into shape. We are the only team in the "play off contention" pack on a minus goal difference. Only Villa have conceded more and I'm pretty sure up until January they had 1 out & out centre half on the books in James Chester. Therein lies your problem. When you look at the other teams around us all have centre halves that would walk into our squad. Hell, Sheffield United have one of the best in the league and he's one of our own! This squad is a work in progress and this season I can forgive the occasional tanking. If the problem isn't addressed next year though you have to start questioning whether the manager sees it as a problem or not. We were tentatively linked with 3 strikers this month but not one defender...why when scoring goals doesn't seem to be our problem?

Jack Byrne springs to mind there. In an era of highlights and training drills you can flatter to deceive quite easily. So often you see a player dribble with speed past 6 cones and knock it into a cut out top corner on an artificial surface. Fast forward to Saturday: 6 players in front of you, keeper to beat and worn surface and the pressure shows.

These type of results come down to one thing at the end of the day: a weak back 4. This needed to be addressed in the summer but it's with blatantly obvious that it needs a radical overhaul. A left back, right back and centre back is required. Preferably the centre half will be experienced and cost £££. Mulgrew, Rodwell or Lenihan are not the answers; neither of them have been a centre half through and through. Bring back Samba. Some blood and guts man. Next time I see a ball bounce in the box I'll be tempted to run on and head it myself.

Load of maggots them lot, from top to bottom. Poisonous club. Couldn't think of anything worse than Netflix filming us during our dark days. Thankfully not even our owners were that desperate for personal exposure! I feel sorry for their fans.

I hope they paint the lines on properly this time. Poor old Jason Lowe couldn't make out where the pitch ended last time. Shambles of a club. 7-0.

Why didn't you just get your bloke in the bushes to forge the signature? Set of absolute wrong uns.

Yeah but with respect there's no need to be throwing away money unnecessarily. Is Assombalonga worth 50k p/w? Is Austin worth £10m? Is Gallagher even that good? Is Brereton worth £7m.......oh. I hope he's had his fingers burnt regarding Brereton and is now much more considerate about the money that is there to spend.