No, he left. We do know, nonsense aside, that Mowbray (sadly) will be managing the team tomorrow.

What is depressing is that Venkys have made it so that it would be nigh on impossible to attract the manager of Barnsley. Barnsley are building a good young, balanced team and are right in play off contention. The thing is that Barnsley and numerous teams found these talented managers, we should be able to cut out the middle man. Hughes is purely a nostalgic suggestion based on 15 years ago, in a different league under different owners. Has many stains on his CV since too.

Still 80% that he isnt manager by 3pm tomorrow?

Even if we lose, do you think he will be gone? I dont.

With the attitude that the manager isnt going to be sacked, I may as well give up? Dont be so petulant. There is no indication that they care or are seriously considering dismissing the manager so there is no point getting your hopes up. They have not even attending a game in years and years. When can we expect Alex Neil's appointment?

He probably thinks he is capable of turning it around, if he has any self belief. And even if he doesnt, none of us would just give up a contract like that. The owners have the responsibility of sacking him and sadly they wont. I wouldnt get your hopes up, there is more chance of us winning the league this season than of Mowbray being sacked today. The owners wont know what score it was last night.

Presumably Alex Neil will be announced tomorrow.

What about the defeats to Preston, Barnsley and QPR?

Absolutely awful again. These 2 kids at centre back are equally dire and the Dack out wide scenario is the latest experiment that makes absolutely no sense. Mowbray out!

For them, even if they are well managed and especially at that age to be doing so well at that level yet so far away from the first team, would that not indicate that the very set up of under 23 football currently is not suitable to prime players for first team football? You mention Pike as one of the three stand outs, he wasnt even considered when all 3 of whom Mowbray considers to be first team right backs were unavailable, is that unnecessary reluctance on Mowbrays part or would he genuinely do worse than presumably Bennett tonight or Douglas at right back? Vale is another example but he cant get onto Rochdale's bench at the moment. This isnt in any way a criticism of Rovers, who obviously in recent years have churned many first team players out, I just cant get my head around why there is such a big gap between a mid table first team Championship squad, or even the first team of Rochdale in Vale's case and one or two other loanees at lower levels, and the under 23s, even when our group seems to be so dominant at that level? Again looking in from the outside, I have noticed quite a few times that senior players have played for us, Dack has, Ayala has, Evans has, Bennett has, Chapman has many times, probably one or two others, does that give a false league position or would that be unfair?

You would get any enjoyment out of random Man United fans taking an interest purely because we had Roy Keane as manager? Things like that shouldnt be of any consideration, just like with someone like Gareth Ainsworth shouldnt be appointed or prioritised solely for being a Rovers fan. Although he would have more merit in general solely on the job he has done at Wycombe, whereas after Keane's initial success at Sunderland, it went downhill both there and his job at Ipswich was underwhelming. I am unsure if he has the ability to man manage modern day players personally. And you dont need to offer an alternative, my point consistently is that it doesnt have to be someone from the same small pool of names, especially with the main experienced options being in employment at other clubs, and you dont need to necessarily have a suggestion of exactly who the potential new manager is, hence my examples of Ismael, Paunovic, Xisco, Farke and Frank as 5 names who nobody would have really heard of prior to their appointment, or indeed Cooper in the England youth setups.

Some of the conspiracy theories seem baseless at this point, but equally, like anyone, of course he is "bothered" about money, everyone is.

Why would getting support from Man U fans and Irish fans make a difference when choosing our next manager?! Or a couple of extra games on Sky? Or ore interesting press conferences? These arent determining factors in appointing a manager! We want Mowbray out because he cant take us forward, not purely out of boredom! We dont need a short term shock factor, we need someone who can push us on, maybe a more imaginative appointment of a lesser or unknown (to us) manager from Europe like many of the promotion favourites have gone down the route of, especially with the main experienced options (McCarthy Hughton, Warnock and Pearson) all taken elsewhere, then so be it.

Not sure anyone said to drop Armstrong for McBride? Although I think it is a big ask to chuck him straight in. One thing I mentioned yesterday, do you not find it concerning that despite the fact that we are top(?) of the under 23 league, that none of that team seem anything close to pushing the first team?

As a keen observer of the under 23s, do you have any concern that despite our relative success at that level, there dont seem to be any players coming particularly close to getting into an underperforming first team, even upon injuries? I appreciate the correlation between on field success and off field stability but I still think its incredibly unfair to put together an inability to get promoted under Mowbray as a direct cause of selling the training ground. These are decisions made by and thus are the responsibility of the owners, as you even say. I of course would agree that players should be sold first, obviously, but that isnt the managers doing. If we do sell part of the training ground, then the owners are to blame, 100%.

He compromised on a formation, he realised that the style he wanted to play in League 1 didnt work and was by recent standards, untypically pragmatic. He showed tactical consistently, proactivity and a clear plan that is desperately lacking in recent times where he seems to have run out of ideas and confused himself, based on what I think are flawed principles of how football "should" be played. Regarding the rest, I am aware of how our current way of working like many in this league is not sustainable, but I do not think that Venkys have to be restrained from putting more money in. Nor do I believe that Mowbray is behind the sale of training facilities. I think he is a decent manager who has done a good job up until a point, and is now stagnating up to the point of potential regression. I do not think he is a sinister crook trying to fleece the club for his own personal gain.

Your analysis of the League 1 season couldnt be any more biased, I have been his biggest critic for what I deemed to be not treating a potential title with the respect I felt it merited, I was at Southend in which we were poor, and indeed at all of those 4 losses in which things looked bleak. Overall though, that season was an undeniable success, I expected promotion and he delivered promotion. I also agree that he failed his first, admittedly very difficult task of survival I feel that as we stand here today, we are in a better position than when he came in. I do not feel (and havent for a bit now) that he is the man to take us forward, to progress us on to the next level, or even that he has done a remarkable/brilliant job against the odds, but a good job I would argue is fair, and one in risk of stagnating if it continues for too long. I also think that managers in general are reluctant to train on artificial indoors. Do I think that as you imply, it is a smokescreen for something far more sinister whereby he is playing a key role in the decision to sell off training facilities? Not at all. Do I genuinely think that there is an unlimited pot of transfer money ready and waiting for him to take that he repeatedly declines? No. I have been quite critical of Mowbray over the last year, his team selections, his tactics, his mixed transfer record (mixed, not shocking) and a lack of on field direction. That can be reason enough to want a manager sacked without analysing his demeanour on the touchline, nit picking through his every word after games or indeed suggesting conspiracy theories about him being a protagonist in the downscaling of the club. I think that if you said when he came, would you expect to be in the Premier League within 4 years, I would have almost certainly said no, but I certainly would not have said that should he fail to do so, then he threatens the very existence of our club. Going off on a tangent there. I dont want Mowbray or Waggott to remain in their jobs but I stop short of blaming him for things he isnt responsible for. You are saying that Mowbray is directly, personally responsible for us having no choice but to sell half of the current training facilities for not having achieved promotion in his first 4 years? Probably not, this is Venkys. He should have already been sacked but I wont be holding my breath and I wont be cheering on Watford tomorrow night.

The club haemorrhaging money is not Mowbrays responsibility, even if money he has spent on transfer fees under him may have not helped that, the manager is given funds by the owners to whom are responsible for the financial side of things. It is not reasonable to suggest that Mowbray can be directly blamed for any collateral damage caused even based on an assumption that the club had to achieve promotion within his first 4 years to avoid having to start selling off the training ground to compensate. If that is the case, which is a huge assumption, then that falls on the owners, not Mowbray. I would also question how likely it should have been deemed to necessarily get promoted in that time frame anyway. My problem with the manager is that although I feel that he has done a good job, he cannot further us and his tactics/subs/transfers etc are not pushing us forward any more, and I feel that we are starting to go backwards slightly. I want Mowbray gone because I dont think he can convert us into promotion challengers, not because he has failed to get us into the Premier League by now. That isnt his responsibility though, people including me are understandably frustrated by the on field situation and are just blaming him for everything, but that falls on the owners. Do we think Mowbray spoke to the owners and suggested selling off half of the training facilities to build houses? If it came out prior that if we lose then he goes, then maybe I could sort of understand, even though it would go against my instinct, I would be able to empathise. As it is, it seems certain that he will remain regardless, so we may as well hope for the team to win.

I never said that he is thick, I just am content with criticising him for what I perceive to be an on field stagnation, confusing tactics, poor transfers etc, rather than getting too worked up with how he acts on the touchline, what he says in his interviews or indeed in your case, based on conspiracy theories dreamt up about what set of events may have played out prior to the owners selling part of the training ground.

I want a change of manager and have for a bit. But will hoping to get battered guarantee or even make that likely? No. But as with calling Owen Coyle "Coyley" and suggesting bets on us beating every team by 3 or 4 goals, your comments are done purely to provoke and court controversy. To pin the blame on Mowbray for indirectly prompting the owners to downgrade the training facilities is a stretch even for you.

That may be true, but a couple of losses wont lead to that, so hoping to get "smashed a few times" is pointlessly counter productive. There is no evidence that Mowbray is behind the downgrade of Brockhall.

Nothing can be gained from us losing, it will not accelerate the managers departure and if it means Mowbray saying "how good we are" afterwards then so be it.

No, I have seen more than enough of him prior to being out of the game for over a year well into his 30s with serious injury though and merely being available doesnt mean that he is competent anymore. For a bit of perspective, they have conceded 11 goals in 7. Branthwaite has also started 7 games, we have conceded 7 in them, scoring 4. I dont think he would be a name mentioned if he wasnt Irish.

Bell is just as bad to be fair. Rankin Costello is back from injury, and although he himself isnt a convincing full back, if fit I would probably play him. Failing that, I have asked a few times why considering our under 23s win so often, why none of the team is near the first time. We know Bennett isnt capable, so as you mention, id give Pike a go there.