Yes, yes it is. ‘ Journalists are not cheerleaders or mouthpieces. Instead, our job is to hold people of power to account. Politicians, organisations, companies’. Jennifer Williams, FT (formerly Manchester Evening News).

Then you aren’t a real fan according to unsall, despite your decades of Rovers support (and many more for your dad). But your post outlines perfectly how there are 8,000 ST holders, and there are also 8,000 sets of individual circumstances with all manner of things going into peoples’ decision each summer.

And that’s all fine, I’m just like you. However, unlike you, I also appreciate that fanbases are made up of many different types of fans, not everyone is a hardcore supporter, some have a much more transactional, ‘take it or leave it’ approach to fandom - and that’s why the club needs exciting appointments, reasonable pricing, to be a club giving the impression of having the slightest clue of what it’s doing if you want to attract as many supporters through the gate as possible. We need said excitement and proactive stewardship as we won’t be a Championship club much longer if it’s just me, you, Birdy and Chaddy rattling around Ewood. I’ll bring up my party piece again; John Williams was told on his first day by the board, in the halcyon days of the 90s no less, with booming crowds - ‘we have 8,000 fans’. He knew a small core will always come, you have to fight bloody hard for the rest… he did, this lot haven’t ever bothered to start, and look at the result.

Fair play to any of you able to stomach a listen.

Why would a DoF worth his salt come either when he’d also have no control?

He’s working in the best interests of Duncan Ferguson, just like (Alex) Fergie was with Brian Kidd. You have to take any such recommendations with a huge pinch of salt, fair enough that they want to look after their former coaches, but it’s all part and parcel of a jobs for the boys industry, so it is up to the hierarchy of the appointing club to be canny enough to see through the noise and appoint purely on merit and not be star struck and make rash, highly risky appointments.

‘Did everything we could’.

We were often at that sub 10k level pre the charge up the table last season. Midweek games were scraping just over 9k. I certainly can’t see us selling more than last summer, so we’ll see it again, whereas the likes of Bolton and PNE will be packing their gaffs. Still, ‘things are much improved’.

Wouldn’t it be a deal breaker for some? Why risk it? If he wants to keep them, fine, if he doesn’t, out they go. If a top manager couldn’t bring in his own goalkeeping or first team coach, a new broom, and had to make do with those already in situ at a club that has been perennially drifting then he’d be right to question said club’s ambition. I’d say if they are ‘worth their salt’ they would be far more likely to walk away from such a situation than some desperado who would just be delighted to nab a second division job in the first place…

Which clubs around here are obviously cognisant of, and have priced accordingly… well most have.

Don’t want to be doing that, might upset it…

I’ve no opinion either way on their abilities, I’m not close enough to the sessions. However, in the grand scheme of things they are minor employees in the club hierarchy, presumably with salaries to match said minor status, so it would be a very strange state of affairs to insist any incoming manager keeps them on, why hobble a potentially transformative appointment for a couple of lower ranked coaches… well, I suppose it would only be strange at a normal club.

Comparing him to JK! 😁 Kallis had an absolute textbook technique as a batsman. I’m not sure you know what people mean by ‘technique’.

The schedules are insane, even someone as good as Williamson is going to struggle flying in from months of 20/20 and expected to face a high class seam attack on a cloudy day in England with a Duke’s ball. Bairstow hasn’t played a single red ball innings for months and thrown straight in against the world number 1 Test team. It’s ultimately cheating the fans and the game, and I’m not sure how much longer cricket can keep up with the charade.

More fool them then if they go down the Man Utd romantic route.

Liverpool aren’t the romantic ‘boot room’ club of old, but a highly efficient organisation with ruthless US owners. They’ll have their pick of world managers, so why would Fenway Sports Group of Boston choose a bang average one in SG?

What a bizarre thing to do, main man at a club and doing a decent job in the Championship to being second in command at club that’s just finished 14th in the PL. Money talks, obviously.

That’s page one of his interview PowerPoint…

We’ll we’ve had managers in this reign of terror with win rates in the 20s (and below) previously, so that won’t put them off…

Great job? Five games, one win. Think you’ve been adopted as one of them too long!

Should’ve put England in…

It’s absolutely non sensical, just a cheap, ten a penny bib and cone man. Why hold back the future development and potential financial transformation of the club over such a low level employee? A very strange football club.

Bit like when the CEO (and whole club) went in to radio silence for months after March 2020. Fair enough for those furloughed, but not a peep out of the supposed senior executive down there? (Well until he emerged from his bunker with plans to flatten Brockhall).

Critchley is under contract to 2026, so considering they were never going to sack TM as they weren’t for paying him any compo, and they won’t even remove bloody Lowe and Benson, they will now sort out a four year compo payment to another club? Highly doubtful!

Why do they need to? There are many ways to serve your country in wartime. Maybe they are also doing their country a service by lifting the spirits of their fellow Ukrainians and giving the world a positive view of Ukraine, an independent, sovereign nation, doing sovereign nation things . Maybe the Eurovision winners shouldn’t have bothered either and should’ve just picked up a rifle in Kharkiv instead. ‘Lovely tune that Vera, it is really rallying the nation, but don’t you know there’s a war on, get your arse to Burma’.