Don't be pedantic on Tomasson's title, you know what I mean. The risk is that the manager doesn't decide on the players himself and is therefore lumbered with players that he didnt fancy or want. Self-explanatory potential risk/drawback of a DOF/head coach model.

Presumably those journalists don't have the appalling 0% track record that you do! I don't think 51% would be accurate but either way, I certainly appreciated the football personally. Beating Arsenal and drawing with Chelsea and I think United at home, beating Burnley home and away, getting to a semi final, a top half finish, I don't recall being bored. My point was that we massively improved last season on the season before despite selling our key asset, seeing loans return and not reinvesting. Surely the point of sacking Mowbray is to progress beyond that 8th which has been the ceiling for him. The initial posted suggested merit in a potential 15th place finish factoring in "attractive" football. I am not convinced at this stage that we will finish above 15th but I would consider it a big disappointment if we did finish there. We don't know for sure how much of the Brereton proceeds that we will see, I suspect not much if any but I suppose it can barely be any less!

No chance unfortunately, especially for such a modest fee.

I wonder if Tomasson will have much say in recruitment, with this setup there is always a big risk of players being picked above the managers head and subsequently the manager not fancying them.

Turning off the taps wasnt in any way justified, if they had lost faith in Mowbray's recruitment then surely you sack him rather than keeping him but giving him even less favourable conditions to work in! For what its worth I certainly would not consider Mowbray's recruitment to be below par, of course there was a mix but this is the second summer in which we will turn a huge profit on an asset, before you consider the other successes. The 5 players he brought in included the most expensive at 500k who got injured unfortunately, a 200k signing who was genuinely under used, a couple of loanees for depth and a player from the Irish league for the under 23s. Success or failure on such a small budget does not justify not giving him more.

Define what you mean by generational talent, surely that means a talent so good you get one every generation in which Mbappe for example is perhaps one. I hope you are right but I dont see how anyone can possibly say that about a player who has not yet played senior football.

No chance unfortunately. Would likely cost a fee not far off the Brereton likely amount, plus I doubt he would be interested in such a move. I suspect our incoming business will be further delayed waiting for a fee for Brereton.

Which he will get, regardless of the emerging narrative suggesting otherwise.

There seems to be a running narrative moreso on social media than here that people aren't willing to give the new manager a chance, which is totally baseless and frustrating to see our fans so desperate to call out something that isnt happening. We lost Armstrong, Elliott, Holtby, Downing, Harwood-Bellis etc going into last season and improved with no money spent. I don't think it was a "majority."

Generational talent?! Surely its premature to declare a 16/17 year old kid who has never a kick a ball at professional level to be a "generational talent!" How do you know?

I certainly would not be happy with 15th off the back of an 8th placed finish, surely the target (whether it happens, I am not convinced) is improvement? What happened to Ferguson? To be filed with every other "ITK" shout you've had?

I do think that it is potentially setting yourselves up for disapointment if too much focus is given to one half of a 46 game season and that an 8th place finish is seen as a lower than average season due to having a "poor" manager. At this present moment factoring everything into account including a lot of assumptions and accepting how early it is, I would be very (pleasantly) surprised if we finish higher than 8th.

Will he even be in charge of transfers in this new "structure?" One of the big risks of such a system is that a manager gets players he doesn't particularly want.

Have people been calling for world class managers and demanding European football that I have missed? Or is it just people having differing opinions on the potential appointment of a manager with not much experience in management which is mixed between 3 differing experiences.

If your attitude is to "wait and see what happens" then why would you visit the transfer thread on a forum before anything has happened?! Still valid to hold an opinion on what we think should/needs to happen beforehand.

You have been made tweet worthy with this post, seemingly critiquing a manager and stating that you aren't going to give a lot of money and free time this season to watch Rovers yet confirming that you will support Tomasson (if appointed) regardless is enough to highlight your post as an example of the terrible Rovers fan base! Out of interest, you mentioned that Venkys had not as of yet fulfilled what had been said in the cryptic meetings but a lot depended on the managerial appointment. With Waggott remaining in situ, how would you feel towards Venkys and how much faith would you keep in them if the chosen man is Jon Dahl Tomasson?

Your Buckley/Travis argument is totally illogical; ultimately there are examples of players sent on loan who came back and did well, examples of players who went out loan and struggled and fizzled out, and equally examples of players who were kept at the club and broke though yet also ones who struggled on the fringes and then didnt make their mark. Take Carter who you now have confidence in as third choice, he has gone out on loan after shaky first steps in our team and has matured, similar to Wharton. I never said that you had described Phillips as a direct replacement for Lenihan but he has been assumed as capable in the first team in preference to a replacement for both Lenihan and Van Hecke. Although you did include a new signing so presumably he would be 5th choice? "CB's :- Wharton, Carter, Ayala, Phillips, new signing," As has been touched on, it is totally illogical to EXPECT a number of kids to ALL break through INSTEAD of signing new players rather than in addition to.

100%. This idea of filling numerous gaps at once left by senior departees all with totally untested kids is particularly unrealistic when you factor in how unlikely it is that all the kids in question all break through at all, never mind in one summer! You take Phillips, he is 16/17 and seemingly suffering fairly regularly injuries as he grows into his body. To expect him to help to fill the void left by our captain of many years and our player of the season, to the point whereby we sign one less defender to give him that "pathway" would be a crazy risk. With Carter you could understand allowing him to fill a gap, he has always seemed shaky at Championship level but he has had a second successful loan spell in League 1 so it would be a more calculated risk. Likewise Vale, he may have done well against kids in defence but he struggled in non league last season on loan and barely scored. He may come through this season, he might come through in 2 or 3 seasons or equally he may never come through at Championship level. If he does this season it should be a bonus, not something we pre-plan to the point of assuming he will and refraining from signing a player. Garrett again may well be a talent but he has never played senior football, and we have lost Rothwell, Johnson and Davenport from a position that I already saw us as a bit light of quality in. We need 2 or 3 in, if Garrett breaks through as well, bonus.

Preston seemingly on the brink of signing Freddie Woodman, Cyrus Christie and Andre Gray, 3 players who will improve them a lot. Proactive.

Buckley's best position is attacking midfield, where Dack plays, who is better. Nyambe would be a first teamer but I can't see him staying. I think you could say this about most if not all of those listed but Dolan certainly isn't a regular for a top 6 side, nor is Gallagher. Both have their uses but I would have them as squad players. If these kids are good enough then they will get game time regardless of signings, but we cannot sign fewer players and just hope they are all good enough. I would send Vale to League 1 or 2 and hopefully he will get goals there, I would also consider loans for the other 2.

You keep staying stuff like this to people in a patronising manner without ever going into specifics of how they are wrong.

If merely appointing a director of football means that we have "a proper footballing strategy in place now" in your opinion then fair enough, my point was that we don't know if there is a genuine plan and more importantly one that will actually work. We need much more than what you have outlined there, your outlined squad has assumed that ALL of those promoted from the kids team will be successful and is still rather threadbare, bare in mind that we can now name 9 subs too. I would personally suggest that we need an experienced number 2 keeper, either Nyambe to stay or a new first choice right back, further competition for both full back positions, (Edun is poor but he is less poor in midfield, and I wouldn't consider Brown or Rankin Costello to be proven to be good enough at this stage, I would loan at least the former out) probably 2 centre backs/3 if Ayala goes, 2 or 3 central midfielders and at least a left winger and a striker going forward. Only Kaminski, Wharton, Pickering, Travis, Dack and one of Hedges/Markanday I would suggest could be first teamers, and Ayala, (if he stays and even if he does, he isn't reliable enough) Hedges/Markanday, Gallagher, Dolan, Buckley, presumably Carter and at a push Edun (id look to move him on personally) are good to have around the squad. If any of the kids break through, bonus.

As ever, you are being particularly difficult to ensure that your view mirrors that of the club. Of course there can be merit in employing a manager with minimal experience and I have not suggested that it definitely will be a bad idea or a failure by any means. My point was that you like myself seemingly wanted someone with a proven track record a month or 2 ago, so I was merely asking whether you still stood by that assertion. All you have done is characteristically wriggled out of giving a direct answer. My personal opinion is that I stand by wanting that sort of manager and I would be underwhelmed if we went for more of a novice.

You could say that we had "a strategy" in place when Coyle and Senior were here, merely appointing people does not indicate a successful strategy. Not that it has much relevance to my point about budgets. On the budget, of course nobody knows what it is. I think with 99% certainty we won't spend £10m this summer. I would personally be surprised if we spent half of that, pleasantly of course as we need some investment to boost a threadbare squad.

I am not convinced that they will. You have previously quoted £10m of the fee as an expectation, there is no chance of that! I was not recommending Parrott, I haven't seen him enough, I just mentioned him after seeing him score today and presuming that Spurs would like to loan him to a Championship side.