He’s 28 and never played outside the lower leagues, he can’t even get on the 10 man bench of the worst Ireland side of the past 40 years. He’s the quintessential second division steady Eddie centre half. All that being said… we still won’t ‘replace’ him with a player as good, which speaks volumes of modern BRFC. So we ‘move on’ ever downwards.

‘How was your first day?’ ’Captain walked out’.

So Blackburn Rovers can’t even pay their top players a wage that can even get close to Middlesbrough squad fillers? A nice way to sum up the past decade of withering on the vine…

In what way are they anything like a basket case like Birmingham?

Now this is an area of the club that desperately needs a new broom. Years of neglect to turn around, so good luck!

That’s the point, I wasn’t aware Deila and Broughton did have any history? Yes Broughton was an employee of a Norwegian club and Deila is Norwegian, but all a bit tenuous. But who knows maybe they hit it off at a Norwegian FA conference or something, fine by me as I’d be happy enough with RD.

I know it isn’t, I’m just trying to work out why Mani thinks Broughton would be a ‘dream ticket’ with Knutsen or Deila just because they are both Norwegian.

Surely Knutsen would be the ‘dream ticket’ in that context as he’s actually had success with Broughton, Delia just happens to be from the same country as Knutsen, go and get OGS in if that’s the barometer.

Of course it will be if he’s appointed. ’AYE!’

Hoping that a player we can sell will emerge every now and then isn’t ‘a plan’ for a sustainable club. It’s a bonus, but you don’t build on a club on it.

Who we selling after BBD? Hoping to keep your head above water by finding a £15 million plus player to sell every summer seems a tad optimistic for a middling second division club…

Indeed, same for those hanging off every word (and even paying for!) of Alan bloody Nixon.

The fact he never signed for another club after that contract and played his last game at just 32 says all you need to know about how disgustingly lucrative being Ke*n’s shop steward was…

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.