ClaphamFox

Very strange. Rowett was available at the time and perfectly suited to their requirements. Oh well—their loss is our gain.

West Brom are a worse side than us, as they’ve shown over the course of the season. They will sack Ramsay at some point but I can’t see them finding a replacement more suited to a Championship relegation scrap than Rowett. Turning around teams that fumble under pressure is Rowett’s specialty—he’s done it before. A few weeks ago, Stoke would have 100% won that game after getting the late equaliser—we’d have folded. Yesterday, we went looking for the winner and should have got it. That was after just three days of training under the nee manager. I think you underestimate the impact he can have when he has more time with them.

Same knee injury that kept him out of the FA Cup game.

I’m sorry but this is nonsense. There are 13 games left. All the teams above us up to Charlton are catchable. Rowett has only been in the building five minutes and he’s already had a clear impact on the team’s mentality—and mentality has been our biggest problem this season. Our squad is higher quality than any other team around us—if Rowett can instil some self belief, that superiority will start to show. It won’t be easy but we can definitely get enough points from our remaining games to stay up comfortably.

Thankfully Rowett is likely to make his decision based on what is best for the team now, not on what’s happened in the past. If he believes Winks can help us stay up, I’m happy for him to play.

Exactly. If he’d refused to celebrate, people would be slagging him about that. Instead he celebrated with enthusiasm and…people are slagging him about that. Maybe we should form a committee to determine the exact kind of celebration we deem appropriate for Winks and convey it to him via the club?

Like it or not, he could also be a major factor in helping us to survive this season. None of our rival teams near the bottom have a midfielder of anything like his quality. If he carries on playing like he did second half yesterday, he can celebrate how he wants as far as I’m concerned. It will neither annoy more nor make me forget about his past antics. I only care about what he can bring to the team.

West Brom have only conceded four fewer goals and we’ve scored 14 more than them. Our goal difference is better than most of the other teams near the bottom. Rowett has a strong track record of significantly improving defences in a short space of time. He had just three days with the squad before today. I’m not saying he’s going to perform miracles, but it seems a little early to dismiss any possibility of him improving our defence given that this has been a hallmark of practically every job he’s had.

Do it again in mimosa yellow.

Yes, I meant Vestergaard, not Nelson.

Lascelles will start ahead of Vestergaard if/when both are fit.

I have a feeling our season may end up hinging on the fact that we got Rowett before West Brom did. They’ll sack Ramsay for sure, but they’ll struggle to get someone better equipped for this battle than Rowett.

So you completely ignored the second half of my question?

What other candidates are: a) better qualified than Rowett for a Championship relegation scrap; and b) would take the job?

Simon Jordan is a **** and has zero understanding of what’s actually happening here.

Or because we’re doing the logical thing in response to the PL’a appeal?

IF it’s true that the club got wind of the PL’s intended appeal, then launching an appeal of our own was the logical thing to do.

Most likely the club knew the PL would appeal the decision not to sanction us for the late submission, and launched our own appeal to counteract the PL’s appeal.

Very much doubt we were after Martin. Enzo? Yes, I suspect that rumour was true…

He has a very strong preference for fast attacking players who can press relentlessly and enable quick transitions from defence to attack. Ayew is literally the opposite of a Rowett-style player.

Highly unlikely.

In the situation we’re in it makes complete sense to recruit a manager with a track record of stabilising clubs in crisis—much more sense than taking a speculative punt on a manager with no experience of a Championship relegation scrap. In the summer there will be a rebuild job irrespective of what division we’re in, which will require a different skill set. McCarron and—hopefully—a new CEO will have a major say in that decision, so hopefully we’ll think a little more outside the box than we would do with Top and Rudkin alone.

Rowett favours work rate, pressing, speed and quick transitions. Ayew will not be a starter under him.

He focused on the job that needs to be done, and he seemed very clear minded about that. Why would you want him to witter on about our history? As has already been pointed out, Rowett has a strong track record of getting wins on the board quickly when he starts a new job. Personally I'm glad he's 100% focused on that rather than trying to butter up the fans by talking about the club's history.

I don’t think Ayew is Rowett‘s kind of player at all.