I'm 95% confident that we will not win this game... a late Derby winner wouldn't be surprising in the slightest. Genuinely dreading this one.

Updated "race to 70 points" table; Side note, i'm also absolutely sick of Coventry with their annual mid-season playoff charge, after being shite for the first half of the season. Anyway, the next 4 games are vital; Derby (a) - 24th Stoke (a) - 19th Cardiff (h) - 20th Portsmouth (a) - 17th You look at that, and think that a team aiming for playoffs should be getting 12 points from those games... I think Sunderland and Coventry would. However, we have a team capable of getting bummed 3-0 by a horribly out of form Swansea. This is the difference, I can see us getting maybe 6 points, if we're being generous. Hopefully the return of Tronstad and Ohashi, plus the addition of our new Gaffer, can make up the difference. In an ideal world, we win all 4 of those... this would put us on 64 points, needing only 6 points from our remaining 7 matches (0.86 PPG) to hit 70 points. Playoffs would be very much on the cards. Come on lads, please!

After that "performance" against Swansea, this just seems like a nailed-on loss to me... Would be very happy to be proven wrong, however.

Looks like BetVictor aren't taking bets on it anymore, they've been removed from here: https://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/blackburn/next-permanent-manager Could it suggest that it's wrapped up at this point? Probably not, but I really hope so! Personally i'm ready for this chapter to end - get the new gaffer down Brockhall with the lads pronto, big game this weekend.

Aware that i'm in the minority here, but i'll be happy with Valerian Ismael. Wouldn't have been my first choice... but then again, Eustace wouldn't have been at the time we hired him either. Ismael will no doubt be eager to prove himself. I can see him having a brilliant impact on the mentality of the group, and expect the more physical players to thrive under him - he's a good fit for the Club at this stage. At this level - it's incredibly common for both managers and players to have some negatives on their CV, if they didn't then they'd quite simply be operating at a higher level.

Every time I regain a little bit of hope, this lot remind me just how shit they can be. Sorry but a team capable of a ‘performance’ like that, does not make the playoffs. Not a chance.

I called it, unfortunately. Could be more than 3 at this rate.

Ah! Apologies for the assumption there, no disrespect intended 🙏

Not your type pal?

Could be an advantage if we make the playoffs... maybe he can convince opposing managers to throw the game, by threatening to nail their wives if they don't?

Definitely a shagger, hopefully he fancies a bit of Lancashire's finest!

Nixon says 6 will be interviewed for the job, i'd guess that'll be the likes of... - Gary O'Neil - Richie Wellens - Valerian Ismael - Raphael Wicky - Rob Edwards - Aitor Karanka I'm not a betting man, but would stick a cheeky few quid on one of those becoming our new head coach... whichever is the cheapest, probably!

Would be very happy with Valerian Ismael. Had a fantastic managerial record before his season at Watford. He also favours the formation we currently play, but a bit more attacking... perfect! Regarding his stint at Watford, it wasn't great, sure... but there are others who've done even worse there and over a shorter period of time - such as Chris Wilder and Rob Edwards. All experienced gaffers at this level will have blips on their records - if they didn't, they'd be managing at a higher level. Ismael has excelled way more than he has failed as a manager, bring him in.

We have a chance to do some serious damage up until the start of April, we don't play a single team who are near or above us, closest being Norwich who we're 7 points clear of. Fixtures until April, and their current positions at the time of writing... Swansea City (a) - 17th Norwich City (h) - 12th Derby County (a) - 22nd Stoke City (a) - 19th Cardiff City (h) - 20th Portsmouth (a) - 18th There's the argument that a bunch of those sides are in a relegation scrap and will be busting their guts for results etc... but the reality is that these teams are down there for a reason, they're not very good - and we should be beating them. We have an opportunity to go on a brilliant run here, and should be targeting at least 4 wins from those games - it gets harder after that!

Let's say that 70 points is actually what will get you playoffs this season... I've copied the league table, and added the amount of points and PPG each team would require from their remaining matches, to reach 70 points; Barring some sort of record low playoff threshold, i'd say that those teams needing at least 2.00 PPG could be out of the playoff race already. 2.00 PPG is automatic promotion form, very unlikely unless you're one of the current top 4. One could even go as far as saying that those needing at least 1.9 PPG could be out of the race... A place in the playoffs is ours to lose at this point, hope the lads can keep it up!

Absolutely wouldn't say no to either of Priske or Terzic, but unfortunately they'd fall under the "unrealistic" category for sure, despite being out of work. Those guys are UCL level managers, doubt they'd take anything lower than a lower-mid PL Club.

My number one choice would be Steve Cooper, but by many accounts he'd be way too expensive for us (if he even fancied the job in the first place, that is). So of the realistic options... A list for me would be Gary O'Neil, Rob Edwards or Steven Gerrard - in that order. B list for me would be Valerian Ismael, Raphael Wicky or Damien Duff - again, in that order. As a whole i'd be pleased with any of these, to some degree.

Latest LT article on the manager search; Blackburn Rovers are expected to ramp up their search for a new head coach this week with interviews taking place. David Lowe has performed a fantastic job of steadying the ship after John Eustace's sudden exit last week. The first-team coach has overseen back-to-back wins which has even led to some calls for him to take the post until the end of the season. That would be a left-field move by Rovers and feels unlikely, at the time of writing. Lowe did not rule himself out of the running, when asked by The Lancashire Telegraph last week, but equally insisted his focus is on the short-term. Rovers would have ideally liked to have made an appointment before the team travel to Swansea City this weekend. However, the six points and successive clean sheets has bought everyone some breathing space. Interviews are set to take place this week with a number of candidates from different backgrounds. Rovers will then whittle down their applicants and try to strike terms with their preferred target. Gary O'Neil has been a name that has been hot off the lips of Blackburn Rovers fans. He is expected to speak to the club this week and it will be interesting to see whether he could be tempted to Ewood Park, The Lancashire Telegraph understands. O'Neil was harshly sacked by Bournemouth after keeping them in the Premier League and had positive spells at Wolves before the downgrading of the team led to poor results. Whilst he wasn't blameless in that process, it would be a major coup to bring him in. Rob Edwards' name has featured more in headlines than in conversations from those leading the process at Ewood Park. It's unclear, at this stage, how keen he is to return to work. Or if Rovers indeed would like to tempt him to do so. Lee Carlsey is another name that has been spoken about. It's understood there was interest from Blackburn Rovers' side but club management is not part of the England Under-21 boss' plans at this moment. He has links to the club and knows Steve Waggott from his time at Coventry City. Steven Gerrard's name gained plenty of traction last week after comments from Danny Murphy. Aside from the Match of the Day pundit's suggestion that the Liverpool legend would be interested, there hasn't been any credible information to suggest that's likely. Luis Boa Morte and George Boateng are represented by the same agency. Whilst they hope for the pair to be considered for an interview by Blackburn Rovers, it's unlikely that they are serious candidates for the head coach role. A backroom position is not out of the question but again, nothing firm.

Fair shout! Even better if it's 71, very achievable if we can keep it up. Remember it was 69 the year the year we missed out on GD to Sunderland - christ what an opportunity that was!

I'd say 74 points gets you playoffs this season. To achieve that, in our final 13 games we'll need 23 points from a possible 39 - 1.77 points per game. 7 wins and 2 draws does it. If we can maintain what we've seen in the last couple of games, I think it can be done... will have to do a lot of damage before April though, as that's when the tougher games start coming; Feb Swansea (a) March Norwich (h) Derby (a) Stoke (a) Cardiff (h) Portsmouth (a) April Middlesbrough (h) Sheff Weds (h) Luton (a) Millwall (h) Sunderland (a) Watford (h) May Sheff Utd (a) For me, there's; 5 probable wins, 6 could go either way, 2 probable losses.

How on gods green tits has George Boateng ended up being the favourite on the betting odds? Wasn't he only being touted as a number 2? Goes to show how easy it can be to sway the betting odds, at a stage like this they're not based on anything factual or likely.

We're playing very well at the moment, clearly the favourites for this one! As mentioned by someone previously, Swansea's record in their last 10 matches reads 1W - 1D - 8L. In those 10 games they've conceded 24 goals, and scored only 5. Comparing our form with theirs, i'm certain of 3 p... hold on a minute. Sorry, but i've seen this one too many times. - Rovers playing great, high in the table. ✅ - Opposition badly out of form. ✅ - Opposition struggling to score, leaking goals very heavily. ✅ - Long away journey. ✅ 3-0 Swansea.

If we end up with Boa Morte or Boateng, after receiving over 150 applications, then I give up! Gerrard would be decent as a whole, though I can also see an interesting scenario on the back of such an appointment; Gerrard is obviously a big household name… and as we all know, the Venky’s aren’t dissimilar to your average 10 year old, largely uninterested, casual fan - when it comes to football. If he comes in it’s possible that they’ll show a slight interest again, imagine they’d invite him over to meet them or even offer a little backing… some might consider that a good thing, most (including myself) would see it as a bad thing in the long run, as we need these muppets gone.