Put it this way, I’m not concerned about boro poaching Ismael from under our noses if Carrick gets sacked. I’m sure if we offered cooper, Edwards or O’Neil a bumper salary with assurances about funding and contracts we would be an attractive job given our league position. Remember we do have Billionaire owners and an excellent FFP position. If only we had ambition.

The reality is that most managers (Eustace included) would not tolerate a situation where there are no assurances re future spending or player contracts. I suspect that rules out all the managers you listed. Given the above constraints I reckon Ismael is about as good as we can hope for. I think with proper support a team in the Playoffs with only a handful of matches left could attract the people you mentioned.

My guess is David Lowe.

Maybe the Karanka link was planted to make us feel happier with Ismael? In which case maybe Ismael is a fabricated link to make us content with Wagner? We are so gaslit right now that anything is possible.

Would prefer Wagner I think. Neither option is exciting or devastating though. Just meh.

I’d love a journalist to ask Waggot what the plan is re contract renewals. It’s an incredibly pressing matter that renders the new manager discussion pretty irrelevant as we are currently on course to not have any senior players in 2 to 3 years. I’d be interested to hear Swag’s take on it. Even his beloved coach is only a loan signing.

You’d think if they had the slightest bit of interest in what’s going on, now might be the time to throw an extra couple of hundred K at the promotion push. They are billionaires after all and they choose to own a football club.

Nixon’s article is a non-story. It basically suggests he doesn’t have the inside line on what’s going on at Ewood. He clearly doesn’t know who the intended manager is and needed something to generate a few column inches and Patreon hits.

Lowe, Pears and Hedges are scapegoats but they are all good professionals. They’re just not quite good enough for this level. Pears is a decent back up keeper who became first choice due to us selling a very good keeper and twice buying an inferior replacement. Not signing De Lange was another big mistake. Lowe has never wanted to be a head coach/manager and is probably not even been paid extra his efforts. He’s in this position because they have failed to support his 2 decent predecessors and both have done all they can to leave. Always frustrating to lose, but the scapegoats don’t deserve our wrath. That should be fully focused on our penny pinching billionaire owners and their stooges at Ewood park!

I know they rarely pay any attention to what the fans want, but there has been a resoundingly negative response to the prospect of Karanka as manager and I would hope this would impact their decision making. I think it would be an incredibly underwhelming appointment given our league position and there would be very little sympathy from the fanbase if results went south. I'd much sooner we keep Lowe if this is the best replacement they can muster.

Maybe Wicky is detached enough from English football to not fully appreciate what a basket case we are? I don’t know much about Swiss football, but on the surface it appears Young Boys have faltered this season without Wicky.

If there cannot be reassurances about contract renewals then what’s the point in this whole process!? We will basically have no squad in 3 years. The lingering hope is that this means they intent to sell if we don’t get promoted, but no manager of any credibility is going to want that job.

Trav was immense today. He has improved so much this season and is becoming the complete midfielder. It was a comfortable win against a really poor Plymouth side, however before the goal we didn’t really create much despite having 70+% possession. Glad we scored when we did as it could have become a frustrating afternoon. Effort and desire were first rate today as always. The new manager needs to maintain this excellent team spirit. We don’t need a controversial character to upset the applecart.

Well you certainly can’t question the effort and spirit of the players! It’s been the same all season and it’s the main reason we are sitting in 5th. A huge priority for the new manager is to maintain the team spirit!

Isn’t it that time of year again where Steve meets with senior players and supporters for a cuppa and a chinwag?