Kid in the Riot

A little birdie. One of those anonymous ones. The same that told me Ashton was going to Ipswich before Steve Lansdown knew.

Particularly if it was detailed info, it's unlikely to have come from Tinnion, who can only manage four of five words at a time.

Either way, it's surely completely obvious that Manning does have 8 games to save his job?

Unsurprisingly I do remember it, yes. Whilst it's true they interviewed a bunch of candidates Ashton wasn't particularly impressed with like Cook and Hughton, ultimately it was SL that decided DH should be given a chance. Both Ashton and JL looked like a couple of hostages in that DH announcement presser on the pitch.

We seem to have gone from Ian Gay makes everything up and chats shit, to hanging on the bloke's every word. I'd wager he knows nothing more than the rest of us regards Manning's future. It's not exactly difficult to work out Manning needs results, and fast.

Utter nonsense. Holden was an SL appointment all day long. Next you'll be telling us Ashton wanted to appoint LJ too.

Originally from Hampshire and a Pompey fan. But has lived in Bristol for many years. Football journalist...

Absolutely. Sadly there is unlikely to be any improvement on that front in the near future though.

Largely agree with you. Though I'd wager Manning was on more Championship clubs potential shortlists for head coach than Tinnion was for DoF or Jon Lansdown as Chairman.

Yeah, he's bound to have more of a neutral view. In fairness, he did call out the clubs porkies on why Nige was sacked, which could land him in some hot water. So fair play to him.

Think it's quite telling Gary and the presenter have opined they're very sure that Manning will be here next season, whereas James hasn't made any such commitment, and instead has talked about things "spiralling" and the situation being "overwhelming". I think if we don't get anything from Leicester and Plymouth then Manning is gone.

Interesting debate on now...

Paragraph of the year!

I guess it depends what kind of supporter you are as well. As someone that did lots of England away games and counts those days as some of the best of my life, I find the idea that a lifetime of Middlesbrough and Rotherham away being comparable to regular European trips to Camp Nou and Westfalenstadion, absolutely absurd.

Arsenal?! That's a ballsy shout. Sure things went stale in the latter Wenger years, but christ I bet their fans have had some amazing times over the past 30 years.

Bruno Fernandes is absolutely pathetic. Talented footballer, but not hard to see why this Man U side lack so many of the basics like effort and fight with him as captain.

Rovers

But that's part of the point, isn't it? How many of those 15 seasons can be described as exciting? We've progressed, very slowly. And there hasn't been much to shout about, and certainly no period of sustained success.

Rotherham have won promotion five times since 2013.

The joke is both were in the fourth tier more recently than us too. Swansea as late as 2005.

This is our 40th season spent consecutively in tiers 2 and 3. 21 seasons in tier 2 and 19 in tier 3.

Tinnion. But the man that really should be going is the one that cannot be sacked - Steve Lansdown. If he was in any way accountable he'd have been sacked years ago.

Worse. If you look at Ipswich's wage bill and transfer spend in McCarthy's last couple of years, it was bottom 3. He was doing a good job keeping them midtable each season. To prove my point Adam Webster was on £4.5pw there and we near enough trebled his wages.

No, not in the modern game with how club's are set up now. Nige couldn't do it and there aren't many old school "manager" types like him around, in any case. Tinnion won't be appointing that type anyway. It'll be another young un that they can exercise control over. One that will be used to working in a professional environment, not "owner's son & friends" amateur hour.

Maybe in the short term, Dave. A new man may be able to deliver a few more points and a more attractive style of football. But medium-long term the club will not succeed with the current set-up. In fact, even with a better man in the head coach role, I predict we are now seeing the early signs of regression which could start to get worse rather quickly unless something fundamental changes.