Yeah, understood - though I'm sure he's gone on record in recent years (his own podcast, I think) in saying that he'd return to us. Though whether the people who make the decisions on Venky's behalf would come to the same thought...

I said earlier in the thread - Big Sam, along with Warnock or Dyche would be the best case scenario for us. Not sure Warnock fancies it anymore and Dyche would command wages we'd likely not pay. So Big Sam would be my choice. Listen to the opinion of any player who's worked with him; they love him and would walk through fire for him. Also massively underrated as a tactician, gets the best out of his players and has them playing as a team.

'I have literally no idea, but if JE leaves, I'm sure I can rustle up some bullshit to keep anyone gullible enough to pay for my Patreon'.

Michalski is highly rated and came through the Academy - I'd genuinely be fine blooding him in games like this. If he shows that he has the ability, it's an easy decision to replace both first choice calamity 'keepers that we currently have.

Hyam's goal was well onside, shocking decision. Surprised to see a few 'Forshaw is shite' comments - today he's been decent, so far. I'm a Cantwell fan, but he has to take responsibility for that first goal; loses the ball softly in a bad area. GK needs to do better, of course. Takes some doing to look a worse choice than Pears, but Toth is managing that quite well at the moment. Pleasantly surprised with Kargbo, seems to be what we wanted ACD to be.

I saw somebody mention Big Sam earlier; this would be a best case scenario for me. Showed an interest last time around and was even prepared to take the Bolton job when that came up, so he's itching to jump back in. I couldn't give the slightest shit about how attractive our play is, it's all about results. I'd be confident of the top 6 if Big Sam came back.

Derby County. Derby. County. Not a bigger team with a greater history or fuller trophy cabinet; not one higher in the league/divisions than us. You'd like to think it'll make people sit up and realise how bad things are here, but in reality, nobody outside of East Lancashire gives the slightest shit. And even within East Lancashire, seemingly half of the supporter base are essentially those lemmings from that 90's PC game, all blindly queuing up to fall off a cliff face without questioning what's around them. The world will keep turning, we'll appoint a whopper and we can look forward to League 1 in 18 months.

I've said this before, but JE's agent is putting some effort in - and has been for a number of months now. Linked with every single vacancy in the Championship, details such as quoted compensation fee being leaked. And they won't be doing this without being given the instruction by JE. Seemingly very clear that he's looking to jump at the first opportunity. The players aren't stupid either, they'll know this - and I'd suggest that it's no coincidence that results have taken a turn as a result (also see Dahl Tomasson, J).

I've heard the conspiracy theories on this, but I'm not too sure. Who had heard the brand 'Venky's' before they bought Rovers? Literally nobody outside of India. Now, they're a household name, certainly in the UK (albeit for all the wrong reasons, but 'any publicity is good publicity' and all that).

That's definitely preferable to Hedges and probably holds up against Dolan, Cantwell, Weimann, ACD. Keeping him fit is the main issue. But hopefully a move can be sorted out, so he's not sat around picking up a wage for doing the square root of bugger all.

100% agree with this and I'm trying not to focus on it too much recently, or it'll sound like I've got an agenda against Pears. I don't; he's just nowhere near good enough and actively costs us games. It blows my mind a little bit how it's not blatantly obvious to everyone.

Kargbo looked decent in his cameo. I thought Buckley was pretty decent tonight, too. Maybe I have low expectations for him and I'm pleasantly surprised by an average performance. Thought both goals were avoidable, which seems to be the recurring theme for us.

Ignore the Bamford thing - he was on about Dennis (being a good signing, if he stays fit), I presumed he was on about Bamford, being a Leeds fan. Sorry!

He sent me a message saying 'fantastic signing if you can keep him fit' (in reference to Bamford). Don't know if it's based on something from the Leeds end or not.

Leeds fan mate just told me that Bamford has been confirmed.