Admiral Nelsen

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.

Don't get me wrong, his work in the transfer market (when we still had a bit of money to spend too) was exceptional in the early seasons. In fact it was so good that we definitely should have finished in the play offs with the squad he assembled. His transfers when under the embargo were not of the same standard, sadly, although I don't really blame him for that. It was more not getting the most of the squad available before the embargo. Two strikers who scored over 20 goals, two centre backs who have gone on to play more than their fare share of premierleague football, Cairney who drove Fulham to their first promotion. Josh King who despite barely featuring went on to have a very good prem career. A massively missed opportunity, with a better team than we've had this year in my view.

I think that's fair - Bowyer was literally a youth coach before getting the top job. Well down the pecking order. But when you get the top job you need to be held to the same standard. Bowyer can be proud of what he managed with the lack of any real experience, but the eventual underperformance under him after he steadied the ship is still hurting us now.

Having a player sent off every game won't help! For all that their fans believe their own hype, it should be a tasty atmosphere there at the weekend for such a massive game. They'll find out what their players are made of. I expect Leeds to crumble if I'm being honest, but if they get the first goal it could be one of those strange end of season games when one team clearly needs it more than the other.

Was a serial L1 promotion winner, and you could say that was reasonably unfortunate to lose one or two of his previous jobs after establishing clubs in the Championship. But yes, looking at his record at this level from where we are now, we simply cannot be looking at him as an option to take us forward. Worse than keeping Mowbray on, not even much better than a Coyle-level appointment.

The one thing you'd be clinging onto as a Leeds fan would be that their final two games are against teams with nothing to play for, although you can say that about Burnley too, at least for a couple of their games. If they can somehow get three points against Brighton at Elland Rd, and Burnley lose at Tottenham, then suddenly the Dingles look right up against it.

If today's news is to be believed, Dyche won't be going to Watford at least.

Track records of failure at this level, whereas Carrick may have the sorts of links with United that Lampard was able to exploit with Chelsea when he took over Derby. Don't get me wrong, I'd also have plenty in front of him, but I wouldn't place him in the totally unacceptable bracket either.

I don't watch the U23s, so I'll bow to your view on whether he's ready, but that's a big punt indeed for such an important area of the pitch.

I went for Farke (voted before the multiple options became available!) but there are lots on there that I'd have as acceptable. Certainly makes for better reading than the early betting markets did, and on the off chance Nixon's list of Farke, Ainsworth, Hughton & Carvahal is right, I'd be pretty happy with any of those (maybe the most reservations about Carvahal). If Farke wants the job, I really don't see the point of going for a more left field option to be honest, but some (such as Carrick) would be intriguing, albeit a big risk. I think most of the really unacceptable names aren't on that list, but I hope the likes of Woodgate, Lennon and Cocu don't get a look in.

Very technically gifted player is Bannan, but really not what we need in my view. Bearing in mind that our midfield next year is already going to be including Buckley and possibly Dack, we need someone with the physicality to get about the pitch better than Bannan at this stage in his career.

Had a top CV at this level before the Forest job. Repeated success at multiple clubs. Wouldn't be at the top of my list if we could get Farke, but a bad 6 months doesn't make him a bad manager.