Surprised they've decided to sandwich it between two important home league games. Would have thought they would have preferred to leave it until the league game v Blackpool was out of the way and there was a 2 week break to let the pitch recover.

Rovers said the game is going ahead but fans will be upstairs rather than downstairs.

The attendance last night for Reading v Sheffield United was 6,769. I had to look that up again because I was sure it was a mistake but numerous reports have that as the actual declared attendance. looking at the photos there must have easily been 1500+ from Sheffield United. Fair enough the weather was awful but there were still 4000+ on Wimbledon. I'm amazed Reading would declare that as the attendance. They, like most clubs, usually lie and count every issued ticket rather than bums on seats so I don't know what has gone on there.

Although nothing riding on it I thought Rovers did very well to get a draw out of it given the number of people missing from the usual squad.

Under 23s due to play Southampton at Leyland tonight. I'd expect this one to fall victim to the weather. Watch this space.

Its always worth remembering that Anderson was heavily involved with the Shinawatra regime at Man City for the short time it lasted whilst Eriksson was there. They signed a huge amount of foreign players for a lot of money and some people will have done very well indeed out of those deals (they once signed about 8 in the space of a few days). The difference at City was that many of those players they brought in were actually half decent, and had them on course to challenge for Europe until the wheels started to come off due to the Thai authorities closing in. For some reason at Rovers the focus was never really on assembling a quality squad that could push on and improve on mid-table finishes, and it appears the aim instead was to dish out favours and deals to friendly parties. That started with the manager - rather than appointing a big name who could work with the influential people like Eriksson (in many ways doing the back scratching routine whilst still delivering results) we ended up with a chancer who was incompetent and wrecked the club through his scheming, along with being lumbered with a squad of dross on huge wages. Presumably Venkys had a part to play in that as the budget they came into this with was never anywhere near the level of money Shinawatra was throwing around, and I expect Shinawatra was a bit more hands on with his investment than Venkys. Into the void they left crawled all sorts of chancers.

https://www.lcfc.com/news/625538/lcfc--efl-settle-ffp-dispute/press-release Champagne at the ready at EFL house as Leicester agree to hand over more than £3 million as a settlement for breaking the rules. The League acknowledges that Leicester did not make any deliberate attempt to break the rules and did so due to differing interpretations of the rules. Yet they're still being punished and are paying the league off. So which one is it? We've found you guilty of breaking the rules but that did so accidentally due to differing interpretations, you didn't do it deliberately yet assembled a promotion winning squad but we're still going to fine you £3 million. Eh? Meanwhile the QPR saga rumbles on, and on, and on. How many years is it now?

By the sounds of things given the way that appointment unfolded Jose Mourinho could have had an interview and they would still have overlooked him and appointed the man with the right 'connections'.

Chinese owners appoint Portuguese head coach. Might be trying to emulate their compatriots at Wolves where it has worked well or possibly something more sinister as the 'network' grows in English football.

https://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/2018/february/jose-morais/ Barnsley appoint Jose Morais as manager.

Sounds like Ainsworth, Jack Ross and Karl Robinson have all rejected the opportunity at Barnsley. That's quite a grim looking list for a side struggling in the Championship but with supposed rich new foreign owners. Think they have to be favourites for relegation unless they pull a rabbit out of the hat with the appointment.

Swansea and Southampton are slightly less extreme variations on Watford. All 3 have the ability to change 'head coach' frequently and yet manage to survive on it. Its not a model I'd like us to follow with a revolving door of foreigners but can't really criticise them too much as it pays off. I don't think its good for the game in the long term but it has and done the job for them. Chelsea another lot who manage to carry on being successful under frequent managerial changes. Leeds and Forest have been two of the worst in the Championship at working their way through a range of managers in succession, seemingly confusing themselves with it all, yet the reality is that they've managed to stay in the Championship through it whereas our chopping and changing and then sticking with a wrong un in Coyle for too long ultimately consigned us to the 3rd division. If we'd have been a bit more trigger happy last season and given Coyle the boot when it was obviously not working then we might have survived, instead we left it until late February when any manager would struggle against such limited time to keep any club up.

Apparently he might have a release clause in his new deal which enables him to leave for a smaller amount of compensation. Not sure what all the fuss is about with Heckingbottom as he was heavily linked to Sunderland and Forest earlier this season despite Barnsley struggling. I suppose he's done well to keep them up considering their relatively limited resources but he's hardly set the world alight. Leeds fans don't seem particularly happy at the prospect but then again they probably expect a world class manager turning up.

Leeds want Paul Heckingbottom to be their new manager and are hoping to reach a deal later today according to their local paper. Barnsley on a shocking run so a bit of a surprise.

Different ways of looking at that. A deliberate booking in the last minute at Fleetwood would have seen him suspended for home games vs Northampton and Walsall. With due respect we should be more than capable of beating those sides with or without Smallwood and he would then be back fresh and clean slate for the Plymouth game which ought to be more difficult. The other is that until we get Evans, Whittingham or Lenihan back we're on thin ice in central midfield and so it makes sense for him to 'hold off' until at least one of those are back to full fitness. Times like these when the numerous bookings he has picked up this season need some scrutiny. Disgusting in my opinion the number of cheap immediate bookings he has collected on his first foul in games whilst others get away with murder.

The furore today has been so great that the Leeds MD has promised to go away and do some more 'consultation' which suggests they realise what a joke it is. Whatever consultation they did I doubt it involved any self respecting supporter. These owners think they can just employ a designer to sit on a computer and throw together some fancy designs along with some flanel about what has gone into it. This isn't the US. Club badges are something that evolve over time, incorporate traditions and identities and fans are proud and protective of. As someone else said, fans eat pies and drink beer at matches, you wouldn't put those on the club badge. If Rovers ditched the red rose and Arte et Labore and came up with a shield with Rover the Dog in the middle there'd be outrage.

Awful. Really does make you wonder what goes through the minds of the people designing and approving these things. Probably chucked together by some bloke in an office in London who has never even been to Leeds never mind knows anything about football. I often wonder about Rovers changing their badge but if this is the sort of stuff on offer then no thanks. Some clubs have done well with their changes though. Sheffield Wednesdays is smart. This Leeds one is just shocking. Petition now launched to prevent it being brought in.

He's always had issues in his head. Think that was why Leicester got shut. But I'm reluctant to blame any player for what went on between 2015 and 2016 given the way Rovers were going about their business. He might have fancied a move away but that came after we had sold everyone else of quality and made our 'ambition' quite clear. I also don't believe for one minute that we made him a reasonable offer of a new contract despite claiming we did. Why would we have offered him improved terms whilst selling everyone else?

Carlos Carvalhal sacked at Sheffield Wednesday.

To be honest its been largely the same picture for the last 5 years. The only time financial performance has really looked remotely sustainable has been when they sold the crown jewels and didn't reinvest the proceeds into new players and the result of that was a place in the 3rd division. Its the same old stuff over again in the accounts. Venkys don't seem in any sort of hurry to rectify it by leaving or selling the club. The wage bill is the real killer. I suspect there are a lot of Championship clubs spending less on wages than we are in League One. Even the likes of Cardiff and Bristol City going for automatic promotion I would be surprised if they were spending even close to what we are on salaries.

I wonder how many of our League One rivals possess wage bills of £22 million per year.....

Game tonight vs Wolves at Telford. A win would put us top of the table at Xmas.

Good to see big club Birmingham propping the table up. They got away with it last year, hopefully not this.

Tonights game at Leyland called off

Big thing for me yesterday was how we dealt with falling behind. We fell behind at Southend and lost, fell behind at Shrewsbury and got a point and obviously in the last minute at Oldham got beat. Yesterday was the first time we came from behind to win away from home. Recent wins at Blackpool, Bury and Oxford we took control of the game in the first half and put ourselves in control whereas yesterday at half time we had work to do. It was impressive how we came out in the 2nd half and blew Peterborough away in 15 minutes and turned the game on its head.