Ideally we will go for a manager of the calibre that you mention, but as I said I don't have faith that we will, we just have to look back over 12 years to see why.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20138428.remaining-decisions-rovers-blackburn-finalise-retained-list/ Hints that Davenport and Butterworth might be kept on which would be the wrong decision both financially and from a footballing perspective. Davenport has been here for 4 years presumably on not insignificant wages having been at City and has spent much of that time injured. When he has played he hasn't really impressed and has never kept a place in the team, just let him go. Butterworth is terrible, he can't run for longer than 5 minutes and he comes across as lazy, I remember that Boro game when we had to carry him even though he had come on supposedly to give us fresh legs when we were short of forward options. He didn't do anything at Fleetwood, let him find a club lower down.

"Throw £20m at as every year" is not a reasonable summary of what happens. Taking the actual amount as gospel, it implies that the money is injected as a means of ambition, when in fact it is common place across the Championship that teams make losses and have to offset them via debt or more likely issues of share capital. I dont get why so many naturally assume that the sole limiting factor is FFP, as if Venkys deserve the benefit of the doubt to assume that otherwise they would be investing more. Take the example of the pitch, they chose not to invest 2m to re-lay it but that was exempt of FFP. Why would they come here? Luton finished 6th, its not even as if we offer more money anymore. It isnt just confidence, he has clearly developed technically and physically. He uses his body which has naturally filled out much better, he wins fouls, he holds it up, he does so much more. But I really dont like this idea that the fans expected the finished product. They didnt but what was on show was a player who for 2 years looked so out of place, the fans were remarkably patient in my opinion.

Imagine that indeed, dream rather than reality I suspect.

I actually think that his finishing has gone from being wild to being very clinical and technically good. I think back to his second at home to Peterborough, his goal at Peterborough, his first v Cardiff and his goal at Bristol City all come to mind. Mind you, he has got his fair share of penalties and tap ins to get the numbers up as any goalscorer needs. I can't see any transfer links at the moment being right considering we have no manager. But Pearson will have already been on a decent wage at Bournemouth prior to a hike following promotion, I can't see how that deal could ever happen.

Transfer recruitment was an example of the sort of task that a head coach wouldn't be responsible for, not a sole job description. Carrick was an example of a rookie manager, my point was that it might be easier to justify employing a rookie or a no mark as a head coach under the proviso that he has less responsibility anyway under that particular structure. The 6 man shortlist was an easy headline that was very premature but is ultimately not far off being impossible to disprove, in order to get people to read his nonsense. The general consensus is that we are still taking in applications and haven't narrowed everything down yet, although that doesn't stop people from harassing journalists for hourly updates and micro-analysing the betting odds. I have no confidence that either of these job roles will be filled by competent people or indeed with any speed or efficiency. Lets hope I am proved wrong against all historical examples.

If I had to bet on a Burnley side fighting for their lives at home to a Newcastle side who have nothing to play for with a couple of ex dingles thrown into the bargain, I know where my money would go.

My point not specific to those 2 individuals regarding a novice is that they theoretically would be seen more suitable to a head coach role whereby a director of football (your favourite role) is taking some of the responsibilities (eg transfers) away from him considering he would have had no experience of dealing with any of them in the past. I don't want a novice based on his playing reputation but the assumption that everyone has taken from the story that we want a director of football/sporting director is that Farke or Carvahal are coming rather than a novice or a waste of time, especially considering Venkys track record. Regarding Nixon, I don't follow him, although it is difficult to ignore his tweets on here whereby you have shared his mythical story about a shortlist, (which doesn't exist considering we are so early in the process and even then, he didn't know all of the names anyway!) his opinions both on video via Radio Lancashire and on twitter regarding his views on the situation, his advice on not paying attention to betting odds and a regular commentary of cryptic nonsense and opinions from him! I just find it funny that people tweet him so often when they will only receive cryptic answers and as if he does know who will be our new manager and would reply if someone directly asked him, otherwise he would keep such a story quiet when he is a bloody journalist!

Nixon is seemingly absolutely thriving in the pack of gossip hungry Rovers fans asking him every hour for another cryptic update.

I think Burnley will (unfortunately) beat a Newcastle side that will be on the beach.

Owners should not be interfering with decisions regarding transfers, the autonomy should be given to the manager on such decisions. That is the main worry going forward, that they did that in the first place. I would have struggled to see 2 players being finalised in a couple of days.

"Interest in the job has been strong, with applications from managers all over the world, though no shortlist has yet been drawn up as Rovers take an open mind to their search." Worth highlighting ahead of people coming to premature conclusions regarding whispers and betting odds. Miles away from an appointment.

Having a Sporting Director or similar may be more likely to attract a total novice like Carrick or Ferguson in that their role will have less responsibilities, although we all hope for a Farke or a Carvalhal. I do fear that not only will this lengthen the gap before any appointment but it also creates a second key position which with Venkys track record may well lead to a poor appointment. You look at previous appointments under Venkys in a similar position, the last one was Senior who was here for a very short period, we signed a player from his agency and he slid off without trace as soon as we went down. It may increase the influence of agents etc.

Just regarding the sentence in bold, is that true? Mowbray spent all last summer seeming frustrated that none of the money was being allowed to be reinvested even before Armstrong had actually been sold, and kept saying how we could only sign kids on loan from the Premier League but that it would be close to the end of the window before that happened because we could not offer much financially and had to "sell ourselves" as a club that would allow these players a platform to play regularly etc. He has repeatedly said that he doesn't like relying on the loan market and mentioned needing experience last summer but didn't have the budget to do that. He had Josh Maja in the building but even then that was a loan deal and it was only a medical issue that prevented the deal from going through.

He seems to have developed with age and maybe with confidence so it doesnt seem logical for him to revert back to what he was like a couple of years ago, his third season was a major improvement on his first 2 without being remarkable so its not been a sudden zero to hero type transformation. Contracts and finance all put to one side, compared to the season just gone we clearly will be a massively weaker team without him, and that was shown when he was injured and we couldnt score goals in his absence.

He scored 37% of our goals despite missing 3 months of the season in which we couldn't score throughout that absence. He scored 22 goals, Gallagher got 9 League goals, Dolan and Khadra got 4 and Buckley only 3. How you could possibly conclude that he would be anything other than a massive loss is beyond me. Agree that it makes sense to sell him before his contract expires, and also I would agree with your implication that there is a chance (for me a very, very high one) that little if any of that money is reinvested.

Many clubs have been predicted to go into admin following relegation and only the smallest of minorities do. I appreciate that they have issues surrounding loan conditions but I am sure that they wont go into admin. They also have a series of assets that they would likely sell on and raise a significant amount, selling Pope, McNeil, Cornet, Taylor, Weghorst etc would raise quite a lot. I don't see them going down anyway, Leeds will.

One thing we can be sure of is that whether we get Carvalhal or not, there is 0% chance of us having the full Brereton proceeds plus £10m! I can't see any chance of us having £10m OF the Brereton money or even close, never mind on top of. This is as big a signal as any as to how Venkys have run us over the last 12 years, but if Burnley and us were interested, there is only one place where he would end up and it isnt here. Big if at the moment, no indication that we have got close to an interview stage so any talk of favourites is surely premature. Talk in the LT today of Lenihan and Nyambe's futures being dependant on the manager. So there could be big collateral damage from any typical Venkys delays.

https://theathletic.com/news/ghana-to-keep-hughton-as-technical-advisor-for-2022-world-cup/tY24nnH7yDeC/ Hughton is to carry on as technical advisor for Ghana.

Doesn't make sense that he was expecting to go and we went as far as interviewing 2 other managers whilst he was still employed before then allowing him to carry on for 14 more months. Where is this from?

This next few weeks will be a nightmare with pointless fake rumours, people hounding journalists every time someone's betting odds changes or a supposed ITK says something, lets hope (unlikely) that an appointment is swift!

He would never say on an official Rovers site video that he plans to leave, I am sure by the end of the window he will be gone, question is how much is made available to reinvest, based on last summer I guess not much if any.

Seasons are over 46 games, not specific parts of a season added together and extrapolated to suit an agenda. Conversely if you added the points from each of the last 2 first half of the seasons I guess we would be comfortably in the play offs. What does a Rovers supporter want that is any different from fans of any other team? To see our team win games. Absolutely no chance with these idiots.

He would never come especially on a Venkys budget but he took a side that had been saddled in Championship mediocrity (and below for years) and got so much more out of it, previously run of the mill journeymen like Ayling, Dallas, Klich, Bamford etc became star men at Championship level and for a bit very capable Premier League players. Even if they did go down this season which itself wouldn't be entirely his fault with an injury crisis (accept links to his notoriously regimented training drills etc) and of course being sacked part way through with this new American not improving them, he did a brilliant job there.

Lots of drawbacks too. Key players leaving on free transfers, our sole goal threat about to be sold due to his contract with very little guarantee of any money to put back in, a precedent of 8th which will be very difficult to match without any money, owners who are absent yet still want to sign things off causing massive delays, a yearly summoning to India. All that being said, as a mid table Championship side for 4 years I am sure we will get some decent interest parties. One thing Venkys don't do well is actually appointing any of them. I'd rather ask for Mowbray back than take Ferguson.