They are in great form so its hard to suggest that the decision is wrong.

My point like many others is that there was seemingly no succession plan to Eustace leaving. Youve seemingly reverted from last week going mad at the issues at the club to assuming that everything is running at maximum efficiency. I dont believe the club had any idea as to what was next after Eustace and they are just hoping to wing it. Short term its a good opportunity. There are never any medium or long term plans at this football club.

You keep saying things like whats the rush, why panic, whats the issue with having an interview process. No one has said any of those things. The situations arent as different as you suggest. Tomasson was let go by mutual consent but like with Eustace, he was the one who in a different way made his position untenable. He wasnt sacked because of relegation worries. And it all blew up as a result of another manager not being backed in January. Both were similar in that they had repeatedly and publically aired their frustrations building up to them going. The alledged 100+ applicants thing wont be some unique process quashing eventuality. I bet a large % of them could have been discarded within an hour.

Clearly was no succession plan and you would think a number of these supposed applicants would be immediately discarded as not suitable.

The thing is, those points per game tallies needed would be really difficult to sustain over a season but over 13 games, surely at least a couple will put together 3/4 wins at some stage and all of a sudden those points per games tallies become achievable.

I never said rush.

I dont understand why hiring the right manager and doing the process in a timely manner are mutually exclusive.

He cant this season. And even if he can. Why would he be desperate to go to a manager who (understandably) didnt seem to fancy him even when fit and one who he will see as at least involved in the decision not to register him?

I wouldnt be overly keen on O'Neil. His sides regularly had issues defending set pieces and holding on to leads. We also saw regular discipline breaches at Wolves. At Bournemouth, they obviously replaced him with an incredibly talented manager so the improvement since is more a reflection on how good Iraola is. But at Wolves, considering the talk of player sales etc, his replacement managed to exceed O'Neil's point tally this season in half the number of games. Its not just me being negative. I have actually aired my views on him in the Premier League thread in the past when he was at Wolves. Of course, with the likes of Boateng and Boa Morte mentioned, it very nicely makes it seem like a pleasant upgrade in comparison. Saying that, it is very much speculation and the market is so volatile to change so I dont know if he is actually likely to come.

Yes. Yes. Really. Its a shoddy way to treat someone. It was an excuse you was using as to why we werent signing players earlier in the window, which is when I raised the point. The difference is when we had the discussion, it was with time left before the window. Had we told Sigurdsson prior to the window closing that he wasnt going to be registered, or indeed anyone, that would be different as it would allow that player to either seek an exit, agree a termination of his contract prior to the window closing so at least he could move anywhere, or even if it he wanted to sit on his contract. Im not complaining about paying anyone off. I am saying that to not tell a player in advance of the window closing that he wont be registered. But instead only deciding and communicating after the window has closed leaving him somewhat in limbo is really poor. But our January signature move as a club is to fuck someone over, its the third winter running, so no surprise.

There is still a way of doing things and again ours wasnt the right way. Although, im not sure Woodrow needed to be signed.

An absolute mess to see a player unregisterer because we had too many players and had to be paid off. But hes been crap for us. Made of glass, slow, soft and a huge disappointment.

Obviously our league position but their squad. I dont rate Carrick as a manager, hes a media darling who they forsee getting the United job one day so he gets hyped way beyond his limited capability. My point was, it seems hypocritical to defend our transfer business in terms of spending/ambition when weve reinvested a fraction of what they have. I would agree that selling Latte Lath is clearly a blow.

What have our 2 new strikers done? Point being, if their transfer business in terms of sales and how much theyve reinvested is "backwards." Then what is going on here? But you have reverted back to thinking everything is rosy. The transfer business is good, the structure of the club is good and you cant fathom that the current interviewing process will be running at anything other than maximum efficiency. They have invested some money back into the team this season as they always tend to. Whittaker, Conway, Morris, Burgzorg etc for decent fees. League placing an another attempt at trying to paint me as "negative" is totally irrelevant to the point being made. Middlesborough have again reinvested far more of sales proceeds back into the squad and have a far healthier squad full of assets. Carrick however is not anywhere near as good a manager as Eustace is.

Of course he would be interested. It would be a monumental upgrade even allowing for the dreadful running of the club considering hes working in Ireland. But he wouldnt even be mentioned if he wasnt a player here.

Also, that scenario relies on the assumption that the club has been swamped by big name applications that they couldnt have expected. IF the likes of Boateng and Boa Morte are being interviewed, and thats obviously a big if. Then they arent extras that we couldnt have possibly forseen applying for.

If we are interviewing as many as has been reported, theres certainly no contingency plan.

You criticise Boro for selling their striker mid season. The thing is, they have at least spent big money on the likes of Morgan Whittaker, Tommy Conway and Aidan Morris this season. Theyve also spent on fees for Burgzorg, Edmondson, Borges and Hamilton (which admittedly hasnt really worked). And the loans theyve signed notably Iling Junior and Ihehancho will be really expensive loans. Compare that to us. We have brought in over 30m in fees and have spent about 2 or 3 million. Yet Boro in your mind get constant criticism and you defend our business.

What makes you so sure that Gestede and Owen are solely in charge of our next appointment?

I think Ozoh is only on loan.

If we are even interviewing the likes of Boateng and Boa Morte then we are just wasting crucial time. We shouldnt be interviewing loads of people. We should have had a succession plan or at least an idea of what we want. If we had say 3 we were deciding between then fine, interview and decide away, but more than that suggests we havent got a clue and are just interviewing loads hoping to stumble across someone. Im guessing a foreign name is more likely because theyll be less likely to know much about the shit show that is a Venkys run football club and it will likely be someone of a calibre that means that less/no teams at our level would even consider such a name.

He hasnt justified us signing him or proven to be a good signing. And again, it wasnt questions of him as a player as id never heard of him. It was about the nature of our business. I have liked what I have seen from his very limited game time so far though.

I never said there is a problem interviewing candidates. I dont know why you keep saying that. Obviously you interview potential head coaches. I am saying there is a problem with not seemingly having a succession plan and reportedly (only reports) interviewing so many people as it suggests that you dont have a clue what you want. And chaddy, my point had nothing to do with having faith, writing us off, being negative. It was purely that the probability of us being 2 of 8 or 9 teams to finish 4th or 6th multiplied by then being the best of 4 teams in the play offs is very small. Nothing to do with opinions or writing anyone off. We are considerably more likely to be a Championship side next year compared to a Premier League side. You cant argue with that.

The chances of promotion are very slim, regardless of optimism/pessimism. The % chance of us getting in the play offs multiplied by the % chance of us being the best of those 4 teams is low. So the likelihood is the mess of lots of players leaving, key players with a year left, a minimal budget etc are all there, without the incentive of being 5th with 13 games left. We are almost certainly a better proposition now than we will be in the summer. Lowe deserves lots of credit but equally its an unusual situation where the players have a sense of injustice and an added motivation of the immediate departure of the manager.

Absolutely. Managers in the summer will be getting a squad where half of it has left and all of the key players are going into their last year. There will be a pitiful budget and a refusal to renew contracts. But being 5th with a 4 point buffer on 7th, thats the incentive.