He reminds me of Rothwell in some aspects. His technical ability is obviously far greater than his current output. We had the same frustrations with Rothwell and he played a bit-part role because of it, until eventually it clicked and he managed to find some consistency in his game. Unfortunately, we'd let his contract run down by this point! As long as Cantwell isn't on huge wages, he's worth keeping as an impact sub (or regular starter when he's in form) because if it does click at some point, there's a very good footballer there.

Rice is probably the most complete midfielder in the Premier League right now. I don't disagree with the ceiling bit, but they are not on the same level at the moment.

Nobody (except maybe Pep and a couple of other elite clubs) plays that style anymore, that's a 20-year-old tactic that has been defeated by high-pressing, high-intensity football. Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton etc. are the best examples of where modern tactics are at. It's actually been called a 'chaos' strategy because it is almost the opposite of that tica-taca you mentioned.

Is that fair on Gestede? Recruitment is one thing we're doing quite well. It used to be that we'd just sign mates of managers but Gueye, Ohashi, Kargbo etc have been plucked from relative obscurity and seem very good value. I don't know Gestede's role in these though, I could be giving him credit for something he didn't do here.

Hedges and Weimann are too similar, one of them needs replacing. Do we have the option to make Sanderson permanent? He looks decent.

It doesn't even need to be this restricted. It could be an 18 month contract with an agreed break clause with an expiration of, say 30th June, whereby they are free to leave if they want, whilst giving us time to find a replacement. Offer a big play-off bonus and a huge promotion bonus on top of that. Someone would take it, surely? Nothing to lose, potential for something more long-term if they decide they like the job anyway, can leave if they don't.

It's possible. But they also stretched whatever tiny budget we have on short-term loans in January. Hopefully they'll see this is a rare (possibly last for a while) chance to make the play offs. It'll be hard to justify the cost of those signings if they don't get a manager to back it up.

Fair enough! I just put him in as an afterthought because he was high up on the betting list. I did mean it to read like he's not the man for appointing now, but in other circumstances, I wouldn't be against it. To be honest, I don't know much about him other than he got Southampton promoted and his style of play. I was a big fan of JDT and I am a fan of managers that play in that style in general, hence a relatively positive appraisal!

I think Gary O'Neil will have a good management career. He's not Prem ready yet, but not many young managers are. He's bright, tells it like it is and did good things with Wolves last year. He tried to change things this year (after having some key players sold) but it didn't work. Hopefully he's learned from that. I'd be happy with him. Rob Edwards might suit our players, I think his style would suit Gueye because he had similar forwards at Luton. He could hit the ground running, which is what we need for this season. Question marks over his long-term suitability though. Similar with Cooper really. The Forest squad that he got promoted was made up of loans and short-term signings that he galvanised into a team, so again he'd be in familiar territory with us. Carsley feels like a huge risk. Under 21 football has no bearing on this level and his style is very modern, similar to JDT's. I am not sure our squad are up to it and it's too late in the season to overhaul our playing style. Asking him to make a big step up and play a completely different style to what has made him successful so far feels like we'd be writing this season off. If he's seen as the long-term answer, agreeing on something for the summer and getting a Warnock/Allardyce figure in for the remainder of this one feels like a safer option. Russell Martin would be a good long-term choice, but again, not suited to this current squad and would involve writing off this season for a longer term project.

I think I'm in the minority here, but I'm not bothered about Eustace going. You can split his reign into three parts; Feb-May 23/24 season: Poor. Didn't manage to improve the team at all, and the playing style was awful to watch. Without having the league top-scorer on the last day, he would have relegated us. Aug-Dec 24/25 season: Excellent results but most games we were won with a low-block and keeping games tight and hoping to nick one. Fair enough with our squad, I guess, but these tight games usually average out over a season. As we started to see... Dec-Feb 24/25 season: Average/poor. 11 points from 36, didn't see many signs of turning it around and dropping down the table seemed inevitable. We were still in the play-offs but only 2/3 games from being mid-table with how tight it was. So one good period of four months out of a year in charge. Interesting that Derby thinks he can turn them around immediately when the evidence shows he probably needs time and possibly a full summer to do that. Even then, I think his style of football lends itself to a mid-table finish because it's incredibly difficult to win more tight games than you lose. Good luck to him. He's got a 3 1/2 year deal at a club near where he wants to live. I don't think he's irreplaceable.