Imagine not being able to attract a half decent manager to this club in this league position despite bringing in a 6 figure compensation sum for the last manager and having a real shot at promotion. Just further evidence that they don't want promotion and they will happily waste the opportunity if it means saving a few quid. The biggest selling point of this job right now is a good shot at the play-offs and they're struggling to attract candidates due to the wages on offer. It is just totally pathetic. I know, let's waste the opportunity, wait until the summer to find someone by which time the job will be far less attractive with half the squad out the door and everyone starting again on 0 points.

Nobody is getting sacked as manager here. That would need the Club to make a decision and pay people off. They'd rather we got relegated. Only one sacking since 2013 and that was months too late which condemned us to League One.

They'll need to sabotage our chances in the 6 pointer v Norwich next weekend. A new manager bounce and proper appointment would give us a good chance of bouncing back from today to make it 9 from 12. That's no good to them, so expect they'll drag it out to Thursday or Friday minimum ensuring the new bloke can have minimal input in time for the next game. Once we are playing catch up to all the other sides it will be a much tougher sell and job.

His entire career has been about 'exclusives' revealed in the Sunday morning columns. Everything he does is geared around that. There might not be any news or developments but he makes his living keeping people hanging until Sunday then clicking on his page or buying his newspaper to find out what 'news' he has to reveal. Inevitably this usually consists of transfer gossip but he'll be rubbing his hands with an unexpected and now drawn out managerial search to keep people asking him questions on.

There have been plenty of reports that Waggott spends all or much of his non-matchday time down at his pad in Kent. I've no idea what the curtain twitcher does all week but would be surprised if he spends much of it near Ewood. It's easier to get out to India from Heathrow so perhaps he likes to spend time down there at Venky or Rovers expense ready to fly back and forth. Then there's the 'administrator' or whatever he is called who by many accounts is based in Brighton and never comes to Blackburn. All very convenient for a get together in some fancy London hotels/restaurants....

None of us know for sure on that but I do think patterns are appearing here. Between Broughton's appointment as D of F on 8th June 2022 and JDT's appointment as manager there was a period of 6 days. That is impressive. He came into a new club, took charge of the recruitment process and in less than a week had spoke to JDT, agreed terms with him and his team and got him into the building. Eustace's appointment occurred within a few days at most of the club knowing JDT was leaving. Both were professional appointments, clarity as to what we needed, sorted out rapidly. Let's look either side of that. Waggott was lucky to walk into the Mowbray era where there was nothing to do on the football side and it was easy to leave it all to Mowbray and Venus. From Mowbray's departure being confirmed on 11th May there was a wait of almost a month and talk of all sorts of worrying names (Duncan Ferguson). And now from Eustace's departure we are 2 weeks into knowing Derby were speaking to him and are still conducting interviews. An interesting pattern.

There was a video before the Stoke home game showing Eustace arriving at Ewood and walking along the pitchside and down the tunnel. Broughton was the one who welcomed him and was walking with him. No sign of Waggott. Other than that though yeah, very little information on who was doing what but obviously bridges had been burned and Broughton was on his way out by that point.

I haven't seen anything other than claims online that Waggott had anything to do with Eustace's appointment. It seems to be another one of those rumours that has been repeated so many times that it has become fact, something I imagine suits Waggott down to the ground for people to believe that he was the mastermind behind Eustace's appointment whereas big bad Broughton was the problem and things got better once he was taken out of the equation. Might be right and might not but I repeat the question of why Rovers were paying Broughton to run the football operation and why Broughton was filmed escorting and welcoming Eustace to Ewood ahead of that Stoke game if he had no involvement in his appointment. I personally don't think it is a coincidence that the two managerial appointments that occurred during Broughton's time were both quick, decisive and successful appointments - almost as though he had ideas and a shortlist in place and was prepared - whereas either side of that we've taken weeks to 'interview' and sift through largely dross CVs and not got anywhere with Waggott and the curtain twitcher running the show. Almost as though the introduction of someone with half an idea on what was needed worked and either side of that we've been a shambles.

Says who? And if correct, why was Waggott picking managers ahead of someone paid to be Director of Football? Maybe the same will be happening again with Gestede?

Didn't Gregg Broughton appoint the last two managers that worked out well? He was certainly director of football when we did so it would be a fair assumption that he was at least heavily involved. If he wasn't then what was he being paid for?

Even if you ignore Karanka's dismal recent record including at better resourced Championship clubs than he will find here, and look at the bloke's track record, as others have correctly identified he has a reputation of being a difficult character to deal with. I'll always remember the fall out at Middlesbrough when he walked out mid-season as they were pushing for promotion and they went to Charlton I think without a manager whilst he sulked somewhere, then he came back and they got over the line in the end. This was a Middlesbrough chaired by a bloke many consider to be the best chairman in English football, a stable well run club and one that backs their managers with players and cash. Heaven knows how he would cope working for this shower. I've always seen him as a 'mini Mourinho' having worked under him at Real Madrid and admitted that he draws his managerial inspiration from him. Obviously that's not necessarily a bad thing but Mourinho has a certain reputation for being an abrasive personality and if Karanka copies that it is not hard to see a problem developing. The very last thing this group need now is an external figure coming in who rubs people up the wrong way or upsets the team spirit. It needs more of the same or a galvanising 'us against the world' figure (yes him again, a Warnock type). I worry that introducing a Karanka (or indeed some of the other names on this list) into our dressing room would upset the apple cart. I also am increasingly of the view that if they go for this that is what the people making this decision want - derailment of the season before it is too late and we get into the top 6.

He wanted out because he wanted not just his own choice of players in but also because he wanted assurances and clarity regarding budgets and contracts (nearly everyone out of contract in a little over a year need I remind you). He didn't get what he wanted which is precisely the reason why he took the unprecedented step of swapping a promotion push for a relegation dogfight with 14 games to play. Good luck to him? Why would you wish good luck to a rival team's manager?

Karanka has a 26% win record in his last two Championship jobs at Forest and Birmingham. Maybe they are hoping he brings that form here so that it drops us out of the top 6 before May.

Lijnders is an interesting one, obviously a stellar CV working as assistant to Klopp, and you don't get jobs managing in the Red Bull group if you don't have a strong background, but a short unsuccessful spell with Salzburg is concerning. I think if he was coming straight from being Liverpool assistant manager there would be plenty of people cock a hoop about it, but that 4-5 months at Salzburg has trashed his reputation.

I still think Plymouth have half a chance on their home form alone. They're capable of beating anyone at their place and I wouldn't be surprised if they had promotion level home form to keep them in the mix. Luton in all sorts of trouble, their away record has been horrific this season and now their home record appears to be getting worse. Absolutely no new manager bounce there. Bloomfield yet to get a win. Hull and Stoke should have enough. Portsmouth pulling clear on home form. Cardiff in bother but seem to be able to pull the odd win out when they need it.