Andy

Dack has quality that almost all (if not all) of the other players lack, so he’ll be involved. How fit he gets and how much impact his injuries have had will dictate the rest, but there’s no way JDT won’t want to utilise who was, arguably, the best player in the league before he got injured. I think we’ll see a big season from Dack this season.

What a good first impression they’ve all made, kudos all round. Having genuine reason to be optimistic as a Rovers fan in recent years is a odd feeling, but one I can quickly get used to.

Joining in with the optimism - feels like a good appointment, along with his staff and the new DofF. It might take a period of time for his methods to sink in - and the previous bad habits to disappear - but, from what I’ve read and seen, the signs are very positive.

To echo what most have said, probably better than what a lot of us had feared (Pardew/Woodgate/etc), so that’s a positive. Be interesting to see how he fares. Exciting to have a different approach, that’s for sure.

It's sounding like JDT then - but have we had anything firmer than 'a bloke on Twitter said it'? Looking at the odds, there's money to be made if anyone has an unofficial (reliable!) word?

No, he took over after Ince had guided us firmly into the relegation positions.

Absolute facts 👏

I’m astonished that our Head of Commercial was some random Sales Exec for Hull just a couple of years ago. And his comments on the club speak for themselves. Didn’t know this until today, but it makes sense of a lot of commercial issues, errors and mistakes over the last year or two.

I’d still be surprised if Dyche hasn’t been interviewed. But the chances of Venky’s paying his level of wage makes it nigh on impossible…

We might as well get our money's worth and have him take pre season training until the end of the month 😁

Other than how well he handled the whole situation at Derby - his team ended up being Academy kids and some well-past-it free transfers - I think the ‘name’ factor shouldn’t be underestimated. Players will want to sign for Rooney. Can the same be said for the likes of Warne and Ainsworth? Shearer never hid the fact that a big factor in him signing for us is Kenny being manager - getting to play under his hero.

At this stage, Rooney is about as good as we can hope for. Based on his brief experience with Derby, I’d be ok with this…

By the same token, we finished 2nd, based on the first half of the season?

Not a chance Pardew could have turned the club around from where we were, when TM took over. Not just on the pitch, but the whole club. We didn't even have scouts and the whole place was in turmoil - we were heading for MUCH worse than League 1.

Keeping on the existing coaching setup smells of panic, with the players due back in next week and no manager in sight. Their options were to let them leave at the end of their contracts and hope a new manager is in place before pre-season starts, or keep these lot on and have the safety of some coaches being present when the players turn up. I doubt there's some weird conspiracy to keep the likes of a young goalkeeping coach on the payroll.

Hugely disappointed. Crap, arrogant and well past his best, which is why he’s been managing obscure teams abroad. He’s horrible and I don’t think I could bring myself to go to matches with this human fart in charge.

I don't know too much about Deila, to be perfectly honest, but his managerial career to date holds up (minus a couple of years at Valerenga). Apparently plays high tempo attacking football, ideally for more than half a season...

I’m amazed that anyone still reads the shit he puts out. He blocked me on Twatter last year for proving why he was wrong on a number of his ‘stories’. Clearly doesn’t appreciate the truth. The truth doesn’t sell red top rags.

Couldn’t agree more - he’s an obnoxious little shit. He can’t stand still; he’s either got some mental issues or he’s doing half a kilo of Columbia’s finest, pre-game. I’d be ok with Ainsworth at this point. Different voice to TM, has lots of experience and is the kind of optimistic, positive personality that I think some of the young lads we have need. The fact he’s a local boy and would get us up for the derbies is a nice bonus. Should we do better? Absolutely. But could we do worse? I think we all know the answer to that one.

Big Sam would be an excellent choice given the situation we’re in and would get the best out of the squad we have - clearly it won’t happen. Ref coaching, it’s odd that we’re tying the existing coaching setup down before appointing a new manager, but find the attitudes towards Benson in particular odd. I know a couple of people who’ve worked closely with him and they only have very positive things to say about his methods and sessions (working with the GKs), so not sure why he gets such a bad rap on here? And as a final point, I find it slightly worrying how much seems to be leaking from Waggott’s direction. Even the most recent one, a call with Ancelotti. Given only him and Carlo know the content of the call - and it’s fair to suggest that Ancelotti doesn’t have much to gain from leaking a call with Blackburn Rovers - is Waggott directly giving the red top gossip mongers direct information? And should we be expecting a bit more discretion and class from our CEO if this is indeed the case…?

To be fair, he may not have wanted to relocate his family to another country. The commute to East Lancs is considerably less grief than Madrid. One thing I do like the idea of Ferguson for is the touchline battle with Kompany when we beat the Dingles a couple of times this coming season...

That is somewhat encouraging - Ancelotti has forgotten more about football than any of us on here will ever learn. If he's willing to send a couple of Madrid kids / squad players on loan to us as well, I could warm to the idea...

Agreed. Especially in light of absolute horror shows like Pardew and inexperienced names like Ferguson/Carrick. Imagine Ainsworth when we’re coming up against the Dingles…

I’m genuinely gobsmacked why any Rovers fan would consider Pardew as anything other than a Kean-level disaster. Horrible man, horrendous manager.

Not just that, he's Kean-level arrogant and there's a reason why he's been fishing around random European leagues and not being employed in the UK (because he's shit). Newcastle fans despised him and couldn't wait to get shut of his Cockney wide-boy ways. He's just not a Rovers manager and I can't see anything but disaster if he lands here. If Farke is definitely off the table, which if the staffing position is anything to go by, he most likely is, I'd much rather go for younger and 'on the up' candidates like Ainsworth.