Vale is nearly 22, he'll never be ready for the first team at this level.

That's not really an issue, is it. I look at our bench every week and think "bloody hell that's weak".

So we're just completely ignoring two games against a Championship club (playing their first XI) in the FA Cup? Sure, I guess.

That makes a lot of sense.

Maybe the Norwich fans are tired of getting spanked every other year?

Our form has been fine - won 2, drawn 3 and lost 1 in 2023. If we could score goals that'd be dramatically different, but alas...

Quite a few Leonard fluff pieces knocking about this week - is he in line for a debut?

I've no idea how good he is as I've literally never seen him play - but I did note that he was the only one that warmed up properly at half time in the Birmingham FA Cup game.

4-2-3-1 is popular the world over. It's not inferior to 4-3-3 in any way. It's not the system, it's the players. In a 4-3-3 you have nowhere to play Dack (unless you want a False 9) - that's not going to go down well.

He walked into a better squad than the shambles he left behind at Ewood. Delighted the bastard is out of the FA Cup.

I think JRC has A shirt to lose, not THE shirt. I'd slot Brittain back in at RB immediately if he's fit. You find a place for JRC elsewhere in the starting XI.

He shouldn't be. He's a decent Championship footballer, but if you're relying on him to be a difference maker then you're not a Playoff team. A very nice option to start a few games and bring on (pretty much anywhere) upfront for 20 minutes, if you have a good team.

Any chance we could have the Burnley fans quarantined in their own thread?

Do you need a legal team to spell an agent's name correctly or confirm that a player has filled out the correct boxes on his transfer documents? As a Director of Football you'd assume your colleagues would have that basic level of competence. That's the responsibility he's accepted - he won't assume again.

That's a very simplistic way of looking at the situation.

Why is the Director of Football being asked to resign because the Club Secretary can't complete a form correctly?

I don't think that's been a problem - tonight was the 7th game for the U21s since the start of January. Plenty of game time to go around.

Not really, https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-burnley/transfers/verein/1132 Those loans wouldn't have been free either - and I've not even discussed wages. I don't care where the money has come from, Kompany has been handed an obscene amount of money for this division - I'd expect most Managers to do well with that kind of war chest.

Not really a project when you've spent £40m.

The First Team coaching staff and Broughton being there makes sense because it was basically our Second XI tonight. No idea why Waggot and his mate are there though.

Which supporters are voting with their feet? You're down to the bare bones at Ewood. If this lot leave (and I'm not sure why they would after sitting through 5 years of Mowbray) then you simply don't have a club. We created enough chances to win the game yesterday. We were completely untroubled by Wigan (sans their player hitting Pears with a forearm to the face). Unfortunately we have Vale / Gallagher as our #9, a massively out of form Brereton-Diaz and a fading Dack - there just aren't any goals in the team.

Hedges has been one of our players of the season - JDT was shoehorning him in as an inverted RWB at times because he's one of the few players we have who can receive the ball in tight spaces and not lose it. He literally didn't play under Mowbray. Dolan has been more direct under JDT. He overplayed it under Mowbray, which then killed the attack. At best he's a 20 minute impact sub anyway. Buckley is Buckley. Sometimes he's picks out a defence splitting pass, or plays on the half turn and opens up acres of space to run into. Sometimes he's half asleep and gets his pocket picked on the edge of his own area. He is what he is as a player at this point, unfortunately.

No he doesn't - they love it when he overplays it. He often beats a man with the first trick, then goes back to beat them again, allowing the defender / defence to recover. If he was quicker he could probably get away with that style in this league - as it is the advice from JDT and his team is correct.

I'm probably going to give it a miss, to be honest. Supporting Rovers for the past 12 years has been self-flagellation at the best of times. I don't need to watch 6k gleeful Burnley fans at Ewood Park.

I mean Everton spent £35m on a CM in the summer - £78m in total just this season. They don't quite have the same talent issues we do.