ClaphamFox

He was excellent, wasn’t he? A team that includes him, Braybrooke, Evans and Aluko is one I might be able to get behind next season.

Objectively our worst ever season—ten years after our best one and just five years after our second best one. Probably the worst case of owner negligence in English football history.

Cardiff play a variant of ‘Pep ball’ under Brian Barry-Murphy and have the highest possession stats in League One, and they’re going up automatically with the youngest squad in the division. The only team above them is Lincoln, who have the lowest possession stats. Make of that what you will.

Maybe so, but that still begs the question of why a group of players who were consistently underperforming under Still would very swiftly begin performing in line with their stats after he left. Maybe he's a very good manager who was just unlucky there, but it would be a risk given that he has no record of succeeding in this country.

Precisely. I guess that's what happens when you are in the process of sinking to the lowest point in your history—every appointment along the way becomes your most important ever...

Indeed. This is arguably the most important managerial appointment in our history. We need to do everything we can to get the best candidate—sentiment should play no part whatsoever in it.

Look at Southampton's transformation since they ditched him. No thanks.

It is, and our spectacular decline in recent years has nothing to do with it.

Do we have any idea of how much has been drawn down already?

It remains to be seen, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the appointment of Kevin Davies as CEO signals an intend to do just this. He has been credited with pushing hard for the club to move back towards a financially sustainable model and supposedly represented us extremely well at the November PSR hearing. If he lives up to this early promise, we may be in a much better place within the next few years.

Yes.

Not necessarily true. The parachute payment will still count as revenue for SCMR purposes—the fact that we took a loan from Macquarie doesn't change that. So we have the scope to spend the parachute money on the squad and stay within the rules. We also don't know whether the cash from the loan has been spent in full—some of it may still be held in reserve. And even if it has been spent, the owners could still make up the shortfall themselves and remain compliant with SCMR. So while the Macquarie loan complicates the picture, it does not remove our potential advantage.

What points penalty?

The combination of being allowed a 75% wage-to-turnover ratio and being in receipt of a final PL parachute payments will give us a major advantage next season that will not be repeated thereafter. It is imperative we promote next season.

I think we'll be operating in a slightly different market. We'll be the biggest club in League One and will aiming for an instant promotion back to the Championship. There are quite a few managers who would be interested in that gig but wouldn't particularly fancy Barnsley.

He hasn’t even had a full season in League Two. He’s done a decent job but come on…

I've seen an alarmingly high number of comments citing the sacking of Ranieri as the main reason we deserve relegation. I wasn't previously aware of how that (absolutely correct) decision had deeply hurt so many fans of other clubs, but apparently it did.

I don't think it will be Martin, but I can absolutely see them going for Davies.

It won’t be abandoned. The women’s team will move there and parts of it may be mothballed while we’re in L1 to cut down on running costs. Belvoir Drive will be up for sale.

I can’t see Forest wanting to train at Belvoir Drive.

Rumours on social media that Top will be there this evening. Operation Promote to officially launch with fireworks and a brass band straight after the final whistle?

They all apparently have relegation clauses written into their contracts, so the assumption that they'd earn more by staying with us may be flawed.

I understand the cynicism but I don't see us appointing Johnson. It will be imperative we get out of League One at the first attempt and there is nothing in this bloke's CV to suggest he could achieve that. That's not to say we'll make an inspired or imaginative appointment, but it won't be Johnson.

What has Lee Johnson achieved that would recommend him for the job? Isn't his record pretty abysmal?

That's only the case for clubs who have less than three international players. Clubs that have three or more players on international duty have their games postponed.