They've had, what, two or three seasons now where their campaign has collapsed down the home straight? Something is not right there. It's probably not going to get any better on a lesser budget but who knows? If they bring in a solid manager who knows how to work within a budget and build a strong mentality throughout the squad then they could still get somewhere. Not many of those about these days though.

Big test for Rowett now. He was never going to get anywhere on Birmingham's budget and there's obviously a lingering mentality issue at Derby which probably requires a fairly large clearout of existing players to fix. On cut budgets that would have been a difficult one to take forward. Stoke should be going up in the top two next season.

Probably just means Tony didn't come back with his knees caved in.

Tbf Sunderland are a much bigger club with far greater potential than Ipswich. If they have a season like we did in L1 they will be back into the Championship with renewed energy and momentum. Ipswich have been slowly sinking for the past few seasons, have no real transfer or wage budget and a fanbase who blames the manager as opposed to the owner for the poor quality of players on the pitch. I'd probably choose Sunderland.

Derby are about to slash budgets across the club so it makes sense that he'd want to jump to Stoke, who will likely have far more spending power. Rowett did very well at Birmingham and had a great start to his career at Derby, but they've badly stalled in the last few months. I think he was linked to the Stoke job before Lambert got it in January, so it sounds like he's already been on Stoke's radar for a while.

I thought Sanches was a hell of a coup for Swansea. In retrospect there's probably a reason he ended up there.

If Stoke do get Rowett then I could see Mick McCarthy ending up at Derby. Might be the type of manager they need after the last few failed promotion attempts.

Just saw that. Alright for some indeed. Not sure why the BBC have it on the rugby union section of their website, mind.

If Bowyer genuinely thought Lowe was good enough to play in every possible game for us, sometimes shunting around or dropping other players to fit him in, I don't know why he wouldn't be interested.

No, the truth is that Venky's have built up a debt of £250m over the last 7 years and helped relegate us to a league we hadn't been in since 1980. We're now at a point where the manager has to go with a begging bowl to India every summer, hoping to get a budget to compete with bottom end Championship clubs. They took us over as a stable, mid-table PL club with only £20m debt. We had an experienced, respected manager and board room. The squad needed a little work but there wasn't that much to do. To suggest we should in any way be grateful to Venky's for paying for this mess they themselves have caused is frankly insulting, although coming from a Burnley fan it doesn't really mean that much. Unfortunately there are Rovers fans with your abhorrent viewpoint too, and that hurts more.

At this rate we might as well sign every Scottish free agent available. There's no doubt Mulgrew would be great for us in CM, for about 2 games before he gets injured and doesn't play until some time after Christmas.

Who cares? He's overweight now and not able to get ahead of Nyambe and Bennett at RB. That's all that matters. Get rid and move on.

Pretty telling that we're all almost entirely talking about players on free transfers or loans. We're a long way from the days of Ronaldinho and Raul. Probably more likely to pick either up now than we were 7 years ago tbf. Those distant pipe dreams aside, we will hopefully be able to attract a few decent PL youngsters on loan. We can't do much worse than we did during the 16/17 season - although Joao, Emnes and Gallagher all had their moments.

Caddis wasn't even good enough to be right back backup for us in League 1 - Mowbray used Bennett instead - so why would he be anywhere near good enough in the Championship? We were stupid in giving him a two year deal (or arguably any deal), so we may have no choice but to keep him on for another year, but realistically he isn't good enough. The likes of Travis should really be going out on loan to get first team experience in the leagues below, not waiting around as back up here.

I'd sooner have Vince Grella on the middle of the pitch laying on a stretcher. Think he's out of contract next month so will be a free agent once again. I'm sure he was only given a one year deal.

Unfortunately he was only on a one year contract, and I don't think he's been offered new terms yet. Probably won't be either but one can hope.

Looks like Burton have offered Hopeless a new contract, so fingers crossed he accepts that and we avoid any rumours of a possible return. Just need Birmingham to retain J-Lowe now.

Correct. Fulham have been smart, identified Cairney's strengths and incorporated them into the way their team play. They got him for an absolute pittance as well. He may not step up in every game but I bet he's influenced more of their matches than he ever did ours. Not sure how he manages without "the lynchpin" backing him up, mind, but all credit to him for being able to do so.

I agree on them needing to play in their best positions to be most effective. Armstrong's impressive start here showed that there's a player there, so I wouldn't be averse to him returning to play a more central position as either a partner to DG or a different option if the target man plan isn't working. I'm just not sure about Payne, and Mowbray's comments on him last week made me think another season in L1 would probably be best for the lad. If TM doesn't see him as a regular starter in L1 then is he even good enough as backup in the Championship? Seems like it'd be a risk and there may be better options out there (depending on our budget, obviously).

Armstrong started off very strong but for whatever reason faded away just as quickly after his initial nine goal surge. Payne never really impressed and it doesn't sound like the manager rates him much either. Would be an underwhelming signing even as back up imo.

Fulham were very good in the first leg too, they just couldn't score. Certainly didn't deserve to lose and I was fairly sure they'd do enough in the second to get through. I expect Villa to make it past Boro tonight, but I think it'll be a close one.

The one obvious change was the transfer embargo coming into effect. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Venky's were caught off-guard by the whole thing - and as a result, as you say, lost trust in Bowyer and others at the club, sending over Pasha to try and work out what was going on. Pasha was obviously unimpressed with GB and got rid of him as soon as possible. Either way you're right, it's completely possible they'll start meddling again if Mowbray isn't living up to expectations next season. As far as I'm aware Pasha is still lurking in the shadows, so if he sours on Mowbray at some point it'll be time to buckle up and prepare for the next round of Venky Russian Roulette. We just have to hope Waggott & TM keep the ship steady and maintain reasonable expectations.

I can only assume that Venky's somehow blamed Bowyer for the transfer embargo, hence selling players behind his back and providing minimal support, forcing us to bring in the likes of Fode Koita and Nathan Delfouneso. There was that strange report from The Sun that Bowyer had been sacked at the end of August, which must have come from somebody at the club. It all added to the instability and chaos, combined with poor results, which ultimately made Bowyer's sacking appear perfectly justified. It appears that there was a serious breakdown between the owners and GB that season which was only going to have one ending. We then had the rise of Suhail Pasha, Paul Lambert being appointed out of nowhere, Shaw and Myers leaving, the sale of Jordan Rhodes, Lambert leaving after allegedly being lied to about next season's budget, the whole Warnock/Coyle fiasco and the arrival of Paul Senior. Little surprise it all ended in relegation.

For a neutral our tenure under Venky's would probably be very interesting and entertaining. Obviously for us it's mostly just depressing and infuriating. What's confusing to me is that if the club is being funded properly by the owners, why in the world were we - according to Cheston himself - using emergency loans to cover shortfalls? Did the owners need two bloody accountancy firms to remind them to pay the bills in a timely manner? The whole period of Lambert/Coyle is completely baffling both from an on and off field perspective. It's like after years of stability we suddenly plunged straight back into the era of madness that had preceded it, then after appointing Mowbray went back to calmer waters. I'd love to know what the root cause of that chaos was.

No thanks. If we want to stay in the division we don't want to start picking up aging, injury prone players. McGoldrick is a good player on his day but consistent injuries have taken their toll - hamstring problems have taken away a lot of the pace he used to have. His scoring record in the Championship also isn't that good Personally I would avoid.