Neither are easily replaceable, they're two of our key players and clearly top half Championship players. Meanwhile we have no money and a bunch of other players we also need to replace. And still no manager to begin organising it all.

Wow, that makes it even more ridiculous that he left the manager's job for that.

I don't think Glen has posted since Tuesday? I've not seen him comment since the day when Carvalhal got a job and Farke was reported to be deep in talks with a Bundesliga side. Might just be busy but I'm assuming he is trying to clarify what's going on before commenting again.

Right back.

Hmm, dunno. That prompted me to have a google, and I see an article from just a week ago describing McAllister as 'Aston Villa assistant coach' and 'Gerrard's assistant'. An article from today (same website, Skysports) describes Beale as departing to QPR from Villa 'where he served as assistant manager to Steven Gerrard' and later as 'assistant head coach' and that he was appointed to the role in November. Critchley is described as replacing him. My best guess is there is a distinction between 'assistant head coach' and 'assistant coach' at Villa. Assistant coach just probably being a first team coach, or maybe a no.3 role. Either that or they have two no.2s, which would be very odd. And I can't find anything about McAllister leaving.

Although, if Gerrard gets potted it's usually the assistant manager who gets the caretaker role. Which I guess is a chance to impress, albeit briefly, in the Prem.

That tells me you have insider information that Mowbray is coming back.

Most likely to vanish from being an actual manager now, not the easiest bridge to cross again. Maybe that's what he wanted, might not like the limelight and pressure.

Which is blatantly horrendous. I can only conclude you were indeed joking after all.

Insanity. 50 isn't that young, especially for his lack of management experience. Wasn't his caretaker record, in 5 games which is hardly anything to pass a verdict on anyway, something like 1 win, 3 draws and a defeat? That's not great, it's bog standard. He was listed alongside two managers with much much better resumes, and you pick him? Jesus. I think it's got a lot more to do with your title than any rational thinking, but like I said to someone else (or maybe it was you) a few days back, if you want him then you deserve him. But the rest of us deserve better. We deserve a manager who has managed and has a track record worth getting excited about. Not someone with minimal experience and loads of aggression.

Sarcasm?

Tbf I've implied myself a disservice there. I'm a tosser, but I'm not that old.

We all are, but it doesn't bode well does it? If previous record was irrelevant we could just hire any old tosser. In fact by that reasoning I'd be a suitable candidate.

Oh good, all our operating costs and player wages have vanished? That's good then, yeh it'll be a nice healthy transfer budget then. We had TV money and a payment from Southampton last year. Result? We spent about 500k and had to sell the training ground for 8 figures to avoid FFP.

Maybe they don't want to change things and freshen them up. They should, of course, but it still appears possible Mowbray didn't leave because they didn't want him, but rather because they were inept and lethargic in communicating their wishes to him. If that's the case, they might still want the uninspiring backroom we currently have to preserve the status quo. Although I suspect they're just doing everything on a small budget again this year.

I should think an agent would be happy to get the compensation payoff and another fee for finding them a new job. It's more likely just the club being cheap. If that's what happened - Unleaded didn't actually say we had insisted on retaining those staff. He just said CC wouldn't want to. Sounded like the actual issue was a delay in getting back to him to confirm the job offer. Oh and probably that 3.5 mill for a year's work he has been offered. We know our offer will be 1 mill per year at the absolute max, and probably a lot less.

Nah, it was definitely a dig.

Hopefully not.

Wouldn't really 'back it up'. Those details can be fabricated with the same ease as you allude that the reports that have come out may have been. Anybody could make up those details. Either you trust what the reporters are saying, or you don't. There's not much point asking them to back it up.

It can only be considered as overdue. Best win ratio we've had in the Championship. Got the fans really animated. Who needs Carvalhal with the Portuguese connections Kean had?

What could they provide to back it up? CCTV footage?

Is it a mess, or do we just not know whether the DoF has greater power? If he doesn't, then appointing him first would be putting the cart before the horse. There's also the possibility we will shelve the DoF thing if a sufficiently good manager who doesn't want to work with one becomes available.

If we appointed a DoF first, we risk the manager we choose not wanting to work with them. Then we either lose our main man or have an embittered duo. The manager is more important, and we can then pick a DoF who suits their vision.

I'm presuming the reason the head coach is being appointed first is that he will have some degree of say in who the DoF will be. Which is arguably less than ideal long-term but short term works better for getting the manager we want.

Who gives a shit.