Argh, come on mate…think. When JDT was sacked it was the clubs decision and they were about to be relegated. Therefore, they wouldn’t have 100 applicants, and they could speak to managers for weeks in the lead up. Honestly, if they had a shortlist and added 100+ applicants, then the timeframe is not abnormal and they 100% need to get this right. An announcement in the next week seems perfectly fine to me.

Nope 🤣🤣🤣✊🏼💦

I’ve / my companies have hired over 10k people across varying roles and industries from Admin assistants, to CEO’s with salaries from £20k p/a to $1m p/a - Never a football manager (yet), but yeah, I’m probably not a million miles off 👍🏼

With respect, how many high profile roles have you hired for? I only ask because the certainty of your statement suggests you have, but the content does not… Here's the scenario - You have an incumbent manager in place and a contingency plan in case they leave. That contingency list is populated with a dozen managers who meet the criteria you set. The current incumbent had already offered his resignation in the summer and you know that he wanted more money spending in the Jan window, but is he REALLY going to leave us for a team in the relegation places?? Either way, you’re monitoring the ‘contingency list’ and highlighting your top 3-5 candidates. Then, BOOM! He conspires to get his release clause triggered and he’s going. The key here is HE (JE) initiates the exit. You go back to the contingency list and begin engaging the primary candidates. However, due to the incredible form of the team, the managers job is now arguably the best job outside of the PL right now and you get a number of applications you a) could not have expected, and b) are flattered by. From an admin perspective, trawling 100’s cv’s is not easy either, but you’d be crazy (and negligent) not to consider them. Right? So, after roughly a week, you’ve boiled the contingency list down to 3, begun the interview process, and you’ve got another 3 candidates to speak to from the ‘other’ applicants. You want to speak with them all to get the right one. That, is kinda how it actually works. 👍🏼

Fwiw - I do think there was a contingency plan around JE, but in 5th position, he wasn’t going to get the sack, and deep down, I don’t think they expected him to push his way out bearing in mind the teams position, and his supposed affinity to the lads… Added to this, the fact that a lot of managers will fancy this job now, the goalposts have moved and the caretaker manager has 2/2 wins! All takes the pressure off an immediate hire…though I think it will be done this week. So - the list contained managers A, B and C. But because of the above we now have X, Y and Z who have applied and we want to speak with them as well as the others before we make a decision. That’s the likely scenario. Imo.

Yes, we’ve stayed in touch, sporadically. He’s a really nice guy doing a job, he reckons Suhail is too…but there’s zero feeling or love or drive, and ultimately they’re paid to work in their employers best interest. The problem with Suhail is, we’ve been involved in a playoff race, 3 of the last 4 seasons, whilst Suhail has been reducing the budget and asking his employers for less additional funding. As long as his scouting team can keep finding him Trondstadt’s, Ohashi’s, Kargbo’s and Gueye’s for a million quid, then supplementing with academy grads, along with frees and loans like Weimann, Batth, Beck, Ribeiro and Dennis. Then on paper, he’s doing a bloody brilliant job! You can imagine how great the quarterly reports look! 🙈

Pears Brittain Sanderson Hyam. Ribeiro Travis. Forshaw Dolan. Cantwell. Kargbo Drogba Subs - Toth, JRC, Carter, Beck, Buckley, ACD, Weimann, Hedges, Dennis. Assuming Batth isn’t fit, Carter makes the bench. Away from home, keep the solid base. Excellent performances by Ribeiro and Forshaw mean they keep their places. Cantwell just about keeps his place, vs Weimann but I wouldn’t be adverse to the latter. Kargbo has to start for me. Note - picking the bench was tough, once you add Sonny, Ohashi and Carter to the team, it becomes likely that JRC, Sanderson, Hedges, ACD, and Woodrow could miss out completely!? Injuries and suspensions will dictate otherwise, of course. Great position to be in though.

I attended Gitex in Dubai in October last year as I work with a number of tech companies looking to raise capital and and grow their business. I met an Indian company, who had an advisor with them. On introduction he said his name and that he was ‘independent’ as he worked for a High net worth Indian family called “The Venkys…you may know them from England as they own some football team…errrm…Blackburn”. Anyway, we spent and hour or so chatting about Rovers and Venkys as a well as investment. Without going into details, he wasn’t disrespectful about us but the overriding feeling is that Rovers is no more important than 20 other businesses within their portfolio. Venkys have 10+ leaders who move around their portfolio and report directly into them. Suhail and this guy are two of that group.

Sound, feel free to keep your eyes peeled for external validation, over the next few weeks and months. Like everything else.. 👍🏼

Who says they are? The Sun? 🤷🏽‍♂️

Mate, honestly…they haven’t a clue what’s going on. Completely unaware and ambivalent. I met one of their advisors in Dubai last year, at the same level as Suhail. They have around 10x of them globally and he was open about it…”it’s just another business line, another line on the P&L…nothing more or less.”

Agreed mate. The new manager will have to think, Ribeiro or Beck? Batth or Carter? Sonny and Trav are first choice in midfield, but does Buckley now come in sooner if we need to open teams up? Try picking 4 forwards out of, Cantwell, Dolan, Kargbo, Dennis, Weimann, Gueye, and Ohashi? That’s completely discounting Hedges, ACD and Woodrow. We’ve got 10 players for 4 positions. New manager is getting some job here…

I agree, the recruitment in the circumstances has been exceptional and it appears with 13 games left and key players coming back, that we might be about to peak. 🤞🏽

Bloody brilliant!! Standouts, Ribeiro, Trav and Dolan with a goal and an assist. Special mentions also for Gueye and Forshaw who I thought had very good games. The bench is strong and is set to get stronger with Ohashi and Sonny due back soon. Kargbo came on for a cameo and is super exciting. He’s slick, direct and FAST! He’s going to cause huge problems for opposing defences. All in all - we Never had to get out of 2nd gear….we didn’t bother bringing our £20m striker off the bench either. David Lowes blue and white army!

Agreed. So, the Mirror article with Murphy touting his mate, Gerrard on needs a few people to believe it, bet on it, and suddenly Gerrard gets backed in to be the favourite. My point was, that ‘info’ is unlikely to be accurate, and emanating from the club. More likely, it came from a convo between Gerrard and Murphy and the intention is to keep Gerrard being talked about and linked to jobs. FWIW - I reckon Gerrard might fancy it. He’s spent a lot of time away. At Rovers, he gets a crack at the playoffs, and a chance at the Premier League. You won’t get sacked unless you’re about to get relegated. It’s a good hunting ground for managers to rebuild their careers.

Fwiw, I don’t think the current betting is aligned with who Rovers want, more agents touting their client for work, or to get a pay increase, “because manager X, has now been of interest to Blackburn, Hull, Leeds” etc In line with Nixon’s ramblings, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear (and I predicted) that we’d have a boat load of applicants. Aside from the obvious negatives, the Rovers job is a pretty safe one, and interestingly, we’ve been involved in a top 6 pursuit for 3 of the last 4 years, in spite of our diminishing budget. All three past incumbents have gone onto bigger contracts too (Money matters)…. The news will only break on the side of the prospective managers and I’d expect a new guy in next week.

Piss funny….Nyambe with a shite throw leading to QPR going 1 up against Derby. Stunning.

Danny Rohl, Pep is ruled out because he’s never done it on a Tuesday night at Stoke! 🤣🤣🤣

Danny Rohl?

This could age badly….

Troy knows! 😉

🤣🤣🤣 Drogba!!! 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

He actually was Drogba vs West Brom! 😍🤣💪🏽

I’m not a fan of Gerrard, but I think it’s easy to judge him in with those footballing greats who were terrible managers. He definitely got that Villa job too soon, and and the Saudi experiment is catching a lot of players and managers out. But he did a great job at Rangers, My warmth on the Gerrard idea, is that with 14 games to go, the players need to stay motivated. They don’t really need coaching or a change of philosophy. If Gerrard came in, it would bring a huge spotlight on us. One which footballers love, plus you can imagine they would all want to impress him!? The script would be written…right? Anyway, let’s see who we get 🙏🏽

Recent History tells us that they’re not too bad at picking managers and they don’t drag their feet. But this appointment is probably the most challenging due to timing, our current (positive) league position, manager availability and fan unrest. I feel like they’re probably mulling over a LOT of inbound CV’s. There’s not too many times when you’re appointing a manager to steer a team into the playoffs, in 5th position with 14 games to go! I would personally go for a short term ‘specialist’ like Warnock to motivate them until the end of the season. Doesn’t need anyone to overthink it or over coach them. Just get the lads on side and fire up this seige mentality. I’d certainly not be putting too much precedence on the betting at the moment, it looks like a bookies dream. It wouldn’t surprise me if they went for a foreign manager and I’d expect the deal will be done next week. Gerrard to the end of the season is blockbuster too. Hmmmm, maybe.