Suppose it depends on whether Venkys left him to it or made it hard work for him. Apparently they've trusted Mowbray with a budget and left him to get on with it so surely could have done the same with Warnock. He's also managed to strike up a working relationship with Vincent Tan who doesn't quite fall into Venky level but isn't far off. I bet he and Cardiff fans can't quite believe we turned him down to appoint Coyle. Painful to even think about it really.

McClaren's the obvious one. He's desperate to get back into work, available and wouldn't make excessive demands. Very much doubt Bilic would be interested.

Fans want promotion and McCarthy's record is behind only Warnock and Bruce at getting teams into promotion contention. I don't recall Megson's West Brom or Pulis' Stoke playing like Barcelona when getting promoted last time.

When they got rid of Jewell they had the sense to get the right manager in who would work to a tight budget and it paid off for them. Doubt they'll be daft enough to go down the route we did of firstly appointing a manager that demanded millions to spend before walking when it didn't materialise and then appointing a charlatan like Coyle who had previously managed most hated rivals.

Go on Ipswich's main forum and there's a lot who are keen on the idea of Mowbray. Seems to fit the bill for them - they like going for British managers with experience of the division, Mowbray would be popular as an ex-player and has a reputation for playing good football which is their biggest gripe with McCarthy. Also on the outside Mowbray has gone a long way to rebuilding his reputation by nearly keeping us up and then having us in promotion contention. They do seem to be realistic that it would be difficult to lure Mowbray away from here if he gets us promoted, especially as they have no money and won't want to pay compensation, and I think Mowbray has said previously that he wants to be in the north near his kids and that was a problem for him at Coventry. McCarthy has worked wonders at Ipswich. Firstly to keep them up and then finishing 6th and 7th in his first two seasons on their budget. Last couple of seasons they've been mid-table but never in any relegation danger. Seems the fans have had enough of him and he's had enough of fans moaning. Crowds have plummeted. Someone like Sheffield Wednesday would be sensible appointing him if they want to go up instead of the succession of foreign coaches. West Brom or Stoke if they come down.

https://www.itfc.co.uk/news/2018/march/mick-mccarthy-to-depart-ipswich-town-at-the-end-of-his-contract/ Mick McCarthy on his way from Ipswich at the end of the season. Uneasy relationship between him and supporters. Good manager coming on the market there. Expect Ipswich to struggle next season. On the subject of this there's a fair few Ipswich fans who want Mowbray as their next manager - ex player, popular down there, Venus was there also, plays 'better football' than McCarthy.

Losing money is a fact of life in the Championship. To begin with we need to get rid of the notion that its only Rovers or the less well supported clubs that lose money hand over fist. Every club does it, even the supposedly 'well run' ones, its part of life at that level and whilst it might make some people uncomfortable it isn't likely to change any time soon. Some clubs have it at a 'manageable' level of a few million a year, whereas others are up in the tens of millions a year. Ultimately it depends on the resources of the owner as to whether that is sustainable. There's a multitude of reasons for it all but the primary driving force is unsustainable wage levels which non-Premier League clubs cannot afford without major external funding. Owners of clubs know what the game is all about and know if they own a club at Championship level then it is going to cost them a lot of money. Some owners deserve to lose money more than others. For example Venkys are responsible for not having a Premier League income having cost us that through their decision making, have then brought the majority of their losses upon themselves through incompetence and negligence. Some want to credit them with still paying the bills every month but as I've suggested previously they don't have much choice. The alternative to carrying it on is to cut and run but then their 'asset' is either liquidated or picked up by someone else at a knockdown price and their £100 million of debt needs to be stacked against another part of their portfolio. Other owners have sustained heavy losses chasing the dream of promotion with good intentions and doing everything by the book but falling short. All part of the gamble. The Walker Trust somehow managed to saddle us with £20 million+ of bank debt despite years of access to the Premier League riches, so who knows how far into the red we'd be by now if they were still here and we'd been relegated (highly likely with no investment). If Venkys start to run the club properly and continue to pay the bills then I would applaud any serious efforts to rebuild the club. However I'm not convinced we're at that stage yet and I still remain of the view that a lot of their losses are brought about or enhanced by continued poor management. One example - we still don't have a commercial director at the club - so its no use pleading poverty if you don't even make the effort to employ someone to run the commercial arm of the club.

How much have Cardiff spent to be on the cusp of the Premier League? How much have PNE spent to be on the cusp of the play-offs? How much have Millwall spent to rocket up the league and be in with a chance of the play-offs? How much have Sunderland spent on their squad to be going straight through to League One? The clubs that are stable (ownership, executive, playing staff) that make sensible, thought out decisions, signings and appointments, will survive or thrive on limited funding. That doesn't mean spending millions for the sake of it, it doesn't even mean you need to keep hold of your best players every year, it doesn't mean you have to keep a manager in place for the sake of 'stability'. It means that people at the club know what the aim is, know where they stand, know what is happening and are able to get on with it to try and do the best they can. The clubs that are clueless, badly managed, throw money down the drain and have a revolving door of personnel will fail. For the first group see Cardiff, PNE, Bolton, Millwall, Brentford and previously Dingles. For the second club see ourselves, Sunderland, Birmingham, Hull and to a less disastrous extent Leeds and Forest. Can we made the transition across that divide? Possibly, but I think it is too early to say that. Winning games is a nice, unusual feeling but does have the effect of papering over cracks and putting other issues and concerns onto the backburner. It can be done and hopefully the appointment of Waggott is a step towards that but its a long way off being sustained.

The club's annual accounts came out this last couple of weeks. More of the same stuff as usual but they said that the overdraft facility with the Bank of India expired around February/March but that they were confident of it being renewed and even if it wasn't they would be able to fund the club. I don't know what 'arrangement' they have with the Bank but it seems to keep on rolling on every year with no end in sight. Although the £30 million in player sales and slashed wage bill might have helped win round the Bankers. With business seemingly booming back home I doubt they're losing much sleep over it Venky's India: Shares of this company soared 28 per cent in the past week. The company is expecting strong operational performance till May or June. "When you are adding new products and expanding your core business and seeing the realisation improving, the shareholders should be more confident about the quality and services," the company told ET Now in a recent interview. Read more at: //economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/63146289.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2018/march/club-statement?utm_source=Direct Jaap Stam sacked at Reading. Complete collapse for them following their penalty defeat to Huddersfield in the play-offs last season. If Birmingham and Barnsley pick up then Reading are in deep trouble. Stam has also been linked to Oxford - the new owner at Oxford was involved at Reading when they appointed Stam - and has been waiting a long time to make an appointment - perhaps waiting for Stam to get sacked.

Makes you realise that Rovers fans pleas to the authorities for help with Venkys and Kentaro were never, ever going to get anywhere. The authorities today won't do anything even when there's evidence of rule breaking and Courts of law making findings against club owners, so hopes they would go digging into dodgy deals with agents and 3rd parties were far fetched. The way of business is to brush under the carpet, pretend nothing is wrong and cover themselves when the trouble starts. They're completely unfit for purpose. We had no chance.

I did wonder about this and the potential for Belokon to claim damages from the league. It has been found in court that the Oystons stripped the club of the Premier League money. If there's evidence that the league's rules prohibited Owen Oyston from owning/running it and yet despite this allowed him to carry on running it and stripping it of millions of pounds, which Belokon was entitled to a share of having invested to get them promoted, then are they potentially at least partly responsible for this stripping of the club. If they had enforced their own rules at the start then surely Owen Oyston wouldn't have been able to siphon off the money to the exclusion of Belokon? Nothing to worry about though, because Belokon isn't 'fit and proper' whereas Owen Oyston is.

All because the FA can't or won't get a grip on it. They allowed the beast of the Premier League to take control of English football and will now sit back and allow this to happen. Everything is well with the world because the ££££s keep on flowing in.

I'd sooner be in Wigan's position than ours right now, yes. In a few weeks that 'might' change if we continue to win our games and they start to drop points directly as a result of having too many games to play. As it stands they've reached the QFs of the FA Cup knocking out multiple Premier League sides on the way, whilst keeping their promotion destiny in their own hands with room to spare. That might change, or it might not, but to date they've managed to keep us at arms length whilst also performing very well in the cup, and its only through missing games and bad weather that we've climbed above them.

https://www.lcfc.com/news/625538/lcfc--efl-settle-ffp-dispute/press-release According to this QPRs challenge is still ongoing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43336700 So now the Football League are going to re-visit the more than suspicious goings on at Wolves after numerous clubs have reported concerns and applied pressure. Goes to show they will only do anything if sufficient 3rd party pressure is applied otherwise they do nothing. I expect by the time they 'report back' to the board in 'due course' Wolves will have wrapped up promotion and will no longer be bound by the regulations of this league. This should have been thoroughly investigated by an independent panel months ago. 'The club has confirmed that the undertakings given at the time remain in place and are being complied with' - irrelevant - it is for the authorities to determine that not just take the clubs word for it and assume all as above board. This is all because the 'bigger' clubs like Villa and Leeds are kicking up a fuss, the league are being pressured into appearing to do something. Those clubs unhappy that they're potentially going to miss out on promotion. Nothing will come of it but they have to be seen to be taking the issue seriously. If it was a Blackpool or 3rd/4th division club nothing would happen.

The expectation or rule is that those clubs in the bottom 2 divisions are to play a full side in the competition, whereas those in the top 2 divisions are able to play their reserve teams.

I'd put him at the better end of the scale, but wouldn't want to give the impression that I thought he played well. I wouldn't even class it as a performance. I'm not going to come on and lambaste the players for that as I expect they were specifically instructed to treat the game as a fitness concern rather than to win the game, reach the final or play a 'proper' game. I was surprised with the strength of the side picked last night with a big game on Saturday which several of those will feature in or at least be on the bench for. With that in mind nobody on the pitch last night was going to exert themselves too much or attempt any sort of play that might risk harm or setback for those on their way back from injury. As I said earlier, with Antonsson, Conway and Whittingham I could understand it as they haven't played for a while and have been out injured for substantial spells. I was a bit more surprised to see the likes of Bell, Samuel and Downing in the squad. Lets remember that any sort of suspension, illness or injury to our defence or attack and one of those 3 is going to be first in line for the first team. We can see therefore why none of those were really going to be going to take last night seriously.

Clear that the priority last night from both sides was to get minutes under players belts without sustaining any injuries or strains. A fitness exercise nothing more nothing less. The result was effectively a practice match. Few senior players with hopes of getting back into the first XI are going to risk anything playing in this competition against Bury. I doubt Mowbray will be too bothered by the performance or attitudes. Despite a woeful experience last night I doubt anyone has either harmed or bettered their chances of playing in the league. He'll be more interested in the players fitness and physical condition for Saturday. Antonsson, Caddis and Whittingham got their first starts in a long time. Like with the Checkatrade Trophy which he used to give players minutes and experiment and which he clearly wasn't interested in winning. I

Operation Brush under the Carpet will be discussed as to how best overlook/ignore this irritating problem until such time as they are no longer expected to do anything about it. The moment Wolves get promoted to the Premier League it ceases to be a Football League problem and they can stick the file in a drawer for a few years until it comes round again. If they ever find Wolves guilty of anything a quick couple of million fine, paid by their billionaire owners, will send the problem away. I can understand why they were brought in but already within a few years we've had numerous clubs escaping punishment despite obvious breaches of the rules. My gripe isn't so much with the rules but with the fact that they couldn't wait to come round and put us under a transfer embargo which Rovers meekly accepted despite obvious attempts to comply and yet bigger rule breakers who buy their way to promotion and spend much more than we did escape unscathed. QPR are still managing to avoid punishment years after cheating to get promoted. Leicester have recently accepted a fine of a couple of million quid which is nothing short of a joke considering the money they've pocketed from being in the Premier League and splurged on players. Wolves will be similar. Its ridiculous that the Premier League and Football League operate on such different systems. How clubs can be subject to one lot of rules and one governing body then get promoted/relegated and face a different set is stupidity. It should be one body, setting one list of rules, enforcing those equally between all clubs regardless of what league they are in. As it is it will be bye bye to Wolves and probably Villa after splurging massive amounts on players and no punishment ever appears.

If you attend all or nearly all the games then it is good value to have a season ticket, certainly when compared to the cost of buying individual tickets on a match by match basis. However, when compared to rival clubs in the Championship and League One the price of adult season tickets or individual adult match tickets are around average for this level and the level above. There are plenty of clubs who offer cheaper deals, but also plenty who charge more than we do. Clearly investing in a season ticket is by far and away the best value for your money if you intend on going to most of the games, however that applies at most clubs. I accept that the current pricing structure at Rovers should not be a problem to the vast majority of people who want a season ticket and Rovers are not unreasonable to charge the prices they do.

But they aren't. If I made a late decision to buy a new season ticket at the back end of the summer I would have had to pay a minimum of £319 to sit in the Riverside and watch 3rd tier football. Alternatively I could have bought a season ticket at Birmingham, Barnsley, Bolton, Burton, Cardiff, Derby, Fulham, Hull, Reading, Sheff Utd or Wolves in the Championship and had change left over from that. For a small amount more I could also have got one at Aston Villa, Bristol City, Millwall, Forest or Sunderland. Our prices are reasonable, and competitive, but not sure if they fall into 'one of the cheapest' or 'best value' around anymore (certainly not when you consider the rubbish served up by the club in recent years)

The cheapest adult season ticket at Rovers this season is £279 in the Riverside (EARLY Bird price). This is more or less the average season ticket price in League One. Wimbledon, Blackpool, Bradford, Bristol Rovers, Bury, Charlton, Fleetwood, Northampton, Rochdale, Walsall and Wigan all offered cheaper adult season tickets. After the early bird period expired the cheapest was £319. Only Gillingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Rotherham and Southend had higher minimum prices for non-early bird season ticket buyers. If we apply that price to the Championship this season then for those who got early bird tickets at £279 then Barnsley, Birmingham, Burton, Fulham and Hull were offering cheaper than that. Apply the non-early bird lowest adult price of £319 and add Wolves, Sheff Utd, Reading, Derby, Cardiff and Bolton to that list of clubs. I'm not complaining about our prices, I'm not criticising the club, I feel they are reasonable and competitive, but I also think there is a lingering myth from the Premier League days that we're still basically giving away tickets at low prices and that they are much cheaper than most other clubs. They aren't. Some clubs are more expensive, but most are similar or cheaper.

Even if Rotherham win their 2 in hand, they will still be 5 points behind us with an inferior goal difference going into the last 10 games. That would still mean they would need to pick up 6 points more than we do from the final 30 available, i.e. 20% extra from the same number of games. I'd suggest that would require either us to drop below the points target of 2 per game, or for them to continue to relentlessly win over their final 12 games. That's either going to take an unprecedented run of results for Rotherham or a downturn on our part. If we maintain our course Rotherham shouldn't be a threat. If they manage to catch us or overtake us then we won't be going up automatically.

Big test of Monk's abilities. At Leeds it took him a while to get going and they were struggling at first, and at Middlesbrough they never really hit their potential under him. Strange circumstances behind his departure from both of those clubs despite leaving them in decent positions. He's not going to have time at Birmingham and is inheriting a side that doesn't score goals.