A good point - I'd say there's a potential difference in that Carvahal had options (including staying in Portugal). Perhaps Farke just hated the idea of being out of work, even if his reputation could've got him a better job. Certainly might explain why he's interested in the Rovers job!

And we should've been the first! (along with Man United). I love Pedersen, but I'm still not over that.

You can distinguish between them though. One involves still wanting (albeit at a much lower priority) to win the game using players that were signed because they thought they could do well for the club. The other scenario is deliberately losing to undermine the fairness of the competition. Teams get relegated all the time because their competitors are playing teams that are already on the beach.

The last ones that comes to mind were Blackpool/Swansea and latterly Huddersfield, but all of these were via the play offs, which proves your point really.

Mowbray had his own issues which prevented this from happening, but if we had a top-six place wrapped up going into the last day of the season I'd have no issue whatsoever with us doing the same. I think managers have to make calls like that entirely with the fortunes of their own club in mind. We had 46 games of our own to make sure that we didn't find ourselves at the mercy of another team doing us a favour. I'm not sure if we have the squad for a Wagner type manager, but his ability to do well with us in the future would be the sole consideration for me.

I don't think it's that small necessarily - it's just that we're dealing with uncertainty. Wagner, Dyche, Farke, none of these had particularly high stock before taking over their clubs, but then they showed their quality. Not saying that I would advocate bringing in Ferguson either by the way! But sometimes managers just need the opportunity. There are always good options out there for a club with the right imagination.

To be honest, whilst I'd be very pleased with Carvahal, I'd still be concerned until I see what the rest of our summer business looks like. I was so encouraged when Lambert took over, especially with Irvine and Rob Kelly coming with him. We all know what followed though, so until we know that whoever gets the gig is going to be backed, I'm going to be a bit worried.

I believe one of the reasons that he went to City was our inability to push the boat out to get a couple of players. Kompany, Zabaleta & Lassana Diarra all come to mind, but others might know more about that.

Not seen enough of Tomori and Gheui to really have a proper sense of how good they are, but off reputation it's good that our pool is looking a bit deeper than last summer. Mings is a perfectly decent player, but I didn't like the fact that as soon as Stones or Maguire were unavailable, he was the obvious pick as a replacement. Still a long way from having being potentially to draw upon Ferdinand, Terry, Campbell, Carragher, King or Woodgate at any one time! But certainly an improvement on what has been a pretty noticeable weak spot for a few years.

Being slightly flippant, even K**n started off with a couple of decent results before it became obvious that he was about 1,000 leagues of his depth. I won't pretend that there's not a lot of schadenfreude with their current situation, but you're 100% right that it's a scandal. The worst thing about their (relative) success was that you had to grudgingly tip your hat off to how they were going about their business. Massively upsetting the odds, whilst investing in the club's infrastructure and future-proofing their finances for when they would eventually get relegated. That seems to have gone up in a puff of smoke now, and whilst I'm certainly not going to be crying about it, it's so worrying that years of progress can be so precarious. Not that we need telling that, I suppose.

Turns 23 in September too. I'm not totally against extending his deal for a year because he does definitely have talent, but he's really got to take his chance if it comes his way. Potentially a career defining season for him.

Agree with almost all of this - I do think you're being a little harsh on some of the other contenders though. Chris Hughton's record is very very good at this level with the exception of the last months at Forest. It lowers his stock, but still an intriguing prospect for me. Ainsworth too would be a very big risk, but has done a stunning job at a club like Wycombe. I really think a lot of fans (generally, not just Rovers) don't properly appreciate how small they are, so what he's done there is beyond impressive. Some of the other names though are really not good, so I accept the broader point.

On the midfield, I accept that if they can stay fit and are still hungry then Cork/Westwood still have the talent to be good players at this level. I shouldn't have said dire, because I was more doubting their ability to stay fit and compete for 46 games. It might've been an unlucky season on the injury front, and next might be a lucky one, but as an outsider I'm looking at a decent number of players who are looking less and less able to cope with the physical demands of the game, which isn't a good omen at all going into such a tough league. I had assumed Vydra would've been on his way given his injury, but he'll cause problems if you can get him up to speed (although another gamble given the age/injury worries you have elsewhere). I think you definitely have some decent assets to work with, especially at the back, but I think the squad is crying out for freshening up in my opinion so some very shrewd recruitment will be needed to bounce straight back, I suspect. Out of curiosity, what do you make of McNeil? I know it can be hard to shine when the team is struggling, but I was really shocked by his poor numbers. Always struck me as a talented player.

I'm not sure how catastrophic their financial problems are going to be in terms of their recruitment, but on the face of it they'll still have a strong defence if they can avoid a fire sale. A back five of Hennessey, Roberts, Collins, Mee and Taylor (assuming Pope & Tarkowski go, but they keep the rest) is probably better than anyone else in the Championship. Certainly a step above most. Elsewhere though, they've got a lot of work to do. Their midfield looks dire, Brownhill aside. McNeil looks the part but he went all of last season with a grand total of 0 goals and 1 assist, despite having played every game. Perhaps he'll kick on if he plays at a lower level, but that's an appalling record. Elsewhere you've got Cornet who obviously good but struggles to stay fit even when he only plays one game a week - and is probably off anyway - and a small group of sicknotes in their 30s. Definitely not enough. Age and fitness would be big worries for their strikers too, although Weghorst could potentially score a bagful if he stays. A lot of understandable talk on here about the size of our rebuild this summer, but it looks as though Burnley's looks equally challenging in its own way, potentially even more so if the finances are as bad as some are making out.

Lancs Telegraph saying that Ainsworth isn't on our shortlist.

Hope so. Carter appears to have absolutely smashed it there in both of his spells there so if Phillips is so highly rated. then hopefully he would get a club taking a chance on him too. Then again, I think Carter was also more than three years older than what Phillips is now, and had played a couple of Championship games too. Just a shame that he plays in a position where managers (understandably) tend to be so cautious in playing young players - if he was a winger then we'd have nothing to worry about!

Wasn't that more to do with just being able to get him in the team when we also had Samba and Nelsen? His first games against Chelsea & Burnley at Turf Moor were definitely at centre back, I think the midfield thing only came about once it became obvious that he simply had to be in the team. On Phillips, I will bow to others' views about whether he is at Jones' levels around the same age. All I'd say is that whilst 17 is VERY young for a centre back, if he's the best in the country for his age then there's probably only so much more he can learn playing academy football. If it's too soon for him to get games at Rovers, then let him go on loan to a L2 side and see if he can develop more quickly that way.

All the more annoying seeing that we should've been playing in the bloody curtain raiser!

Hope they manage it, would be a huge shot in the arm for Scottish football, which ultimately I think is good for British football.

Don't know him from adam, but interesting that it seems like he's available for a transfer rather than a loan. As much as I hope Nyambe will end up signing on, if we play three at the back again next year we'll need someone who can offer an attacking threat more than Ryan has been able to do.

You're right to recognise the progress. The below graph is from the British Social Attitudes of a few years ago, basically shows that as recently as our title win in 1995, only around 1 in 5 people were willing to say that same-sex relationships weren't a bad thing. Amazing progress in the 20 years which followed. There's another graph from a study a few years earlier which shows this trend is similar for people born in different decades, which means that it is people genuinely changing their minds on this, rather than just more liberal-minded young people replacing the older groups who might have different attitues. This obviously isn't to say that Jake Daniels isn't going to get some pretty nasty stuff aimed his way. But hopefully this is a sign that he'll get much less of that, and far more support, than an equivalent player would have even 10-15 years ago.

Don't like the fee being that low one bit. In his interviews he seems desperate to be playing games now (fair enough at his age) so he might push for it if our intentions were to keep him as a squad player to begin with. He's obviously still going to be a step down on Van Hecke, but I still like Carter. If he is to go, I hope we put an eye-watering sell on clause in there as I can see him developing into a good Championship level player pretty quickly.

Good player Rogic, although I expect he'll have to do plenty more dirty work than he's used to if he joined a Championship outfit.

Very surprised by that stat, but then maybe I shouldn't be. It's more evidence (not that Rovers fans were ever in danger of thinking this) that Dyche is more than just a throwback who gets success through playing ultra direct football. It's never been easier to get a red card, especially with VAR. That they've only had two in five seasons tells you all you need to know about their manager who obviously takes care of the details.

That's what I thought when someone mentioned getting Sparky back. Whilst I wouldn't advocate getting Bowen in as manager, I'd almost prefer that if we were getting one of the two. By all accounts he was responsible for us becoming the fittest team in the Prem, which was a massive part of success at that point.