Mashed Potatoes

Well, Venkys have made 7 managerial appointments, 4 complete disasters in Kean,Berg, Appleton and Coyle, and 3 of broadly similar middling results in Bowyer,Lambert and Mowbray. The chance of improvement strikes me as minimal - why should they get it right the 8th time ? I'd rather stick with what we have and hope he can get it better - I don't think we'll go down with Mowbray at the wheel

Whilst I think it is already clear that a challenge for the play-offs is highly unlikely I don't think anyone on here would be happy with a relegation scrap so I don't know why you say what you do. The problem at the club is the owners rather than the manager. Anyone who is a really good manager is going to be in demand from more than one club and I cannot see that manager choosing to work for Venkys rather than more knowledgeable owners. I think I am right in saying that Paul Lambert was warned in advance about Venkys and hence negotiated a get out clause in his contract which he exercised after he couldn't stand it anymore. Unfortunately when it comes to managers I think we are only going to appeal to the needy and the greedy and hence personally I reluctantly would say stick with Mowbray at least until the end of the season - I don't think we will be relegated with him.

What ? The same Byram on the bench for the worst defence in the Premier League ?

Head of football operations sounds very much like past nonsensical appointments like "Global Advisor " and "Sporting Director" in that the owners don't know what they should do but want to be seen doing something

He's now at Aberdeen on loan from a Dutch club

Thanks , I hadn't seen that. I notice that he says we need the 16k to break even "each game" - maybe he is assuming a basic level of funding each year guaranteed from the owners with any excess having to be requested ? Don't know.

Stuart, I think the club needs a lot more than 16,000 seats to break even. According to published accounts the club seems to be operating on a loss before transfers of approx £8m per year. If we assume on average each attendee at a home game brings in approx £20 profit with ticket/food/ programme sales then over 23 home games a season we need to increase gates by 17000 to 18000 - ie we need to be around capacity of 31000 to 32000 with our current average attendance of 14000.

I think you are wrong about season tickets where the pricing rewards loyal supporters and they provide the convenience of only having to make one purchase as well as securing a seat in a particular spot. Is there any club which has abandoned the idea ?

The England job is way different from the Championship or club football generally - Owen Coyle got Burnley promoted so you would prefer him to manage England to Southgate ?

Only one England manager has ever won things with England - and a lot of men who came to the job with good credentials have come up very short - in contrast Southgate has already got England as far in a World Cup as we have ever got abroad and that was at his first attempt . I think it is crazy to be doubting the guy. You refer to Dyche and Howe both of whom have been excellent at their clubs but neither have yet won anything either and they do have the luxury of working in jobs with low levels of expectation - which is very different from the England job.

Can you name this "proper coach" who would want to take the job ? Southgate took over a team of serial under achievers and took them to the semi finals of the World Cup which to my way of thinking shows him to be the right man for the job.

Actually Stuart I stand corrected because the 13 points from 13 games was his overall record and included the next season. He got 6 points from 3 or 4 games that season depending on when he took over (which wasn't completely clear)

Good analysis - screaming abuse at Mowbray and baying for his head is pointless

Redknapp inherited a better situation at Birmingham(not QPR). He got 13 points from 13 games overall so his return per game was way inferior to Mowbray

I don't really understand your question . 22 points from 15 games was a return which would put you in the top half of the table over the course of a full season

Yes I do -I'm not interested in scoring points. I think the job of keeping us up depended both on us improving and other teams not. The latter was out of our hands.

Twaddle - we were relegated because of where we were starting from. I will continue to quote stats because facts are the basis on which sensible opinions are formed.

He had 15 games - from which he got 22 points. He inherited a situation where we had 29 points from 31 games. So on a points per game basis he improved us by a factor of approx 50%. In any walk of life management which achieved a 50% improvement immediately with the same resources would be regarded as doing an excellent job

Decent post. Johnson, Adkins and Pearson are the three most realistic names.

Get real. Wagner is at Schalke, Jokanovic has a no doubt highly paid job in Qatar- Hughton will be waiting for something better

Nathan Jones was a "young,hungry manager" and look at what has happened with him at Stoke. I think it is facile to suggest that that profile of manager will automatically lead to top 6. If someone new did come in, they have to have a personality that means they can work with the conditions imposed by the owners - Paul Lambert clearly could not put up with it.

I live down South so you have probably been to a lot more games than me. Like you I have doubts about TM but per my post above think we should stick

Agreed that the club was a 1000% better run then; the problem I have with some of the criticism of Mowbray is that implicit is that his successor will be a better manager. There is no evidence in the last 9 years to suggest that that is likely. I also think that the "best" manager for the club is the one who works best with the current owners and I cannot think of who that would be - hence I prefer to support Mowbray despite some legitimate concerns

Attended my first game in October 1965. Don't disagree with you about the owners who are clueless. I was trying to introduce some sense of proportion - it is part of the modern football culture that people over react to what has happened in the last few days. Had similar people been around when Kenny was going through that terrible run, who knows what nonsense would have been spouted ?

Can't see the relevance of "Jack". The point is that even the best managers have bad runs