Possibly Hodgson has been non committed , because he has been let down on promises in previous years, as regards squad improvements. If the club is not making enough noises, let alone commitments on that issue, why would he be keen to carry on. The chances are he is as fed up with the situation as many fans are.

Or a director of football with a small nest egg created by the release of up to ten players, some of whom are very high earners, and the end of the payments due to clubs from whom we bought players previously.

If we release, for instance, eight players, and begin a new FFP cycle, and use the loan system, I can see us getting five or even six new players in.

I've listened to a few interviews and podcasts with Parish lately and there are a few recurring themes. A key one is that he seems to think it is imperative that the club maintains local connections in its staffing and the way it builds the club, with a strong focus on community. Another theme is that he has repeatedly said he has been learning from previous mistakes and now tries to take a long-term view, even when there can be short term pain.

Whether ultimately this approach proves successful remains to be seen, but it indicates to me that he has a clear plan, unlike previous periods pre-Roy in which sometimes it appeared we were just fire fighting, or being attracted to shiny things like big name players or de Boer. The big question of course is how Roy fits into that plan. Whatever happens he has has my gratitude for steadying the ship. Nevertheless, given the investment in the academy and the recruitment of young players who seemingly were not chosen by Roy, it increasingly feels like the club are preparing to replace Roy as the next part of their plan, rather than building a team for Roy. If they were going to keep him you would think they would have said so by now, as there would be no benefit from dragging it out, unless it was simply a case of avoid relegation and you get another year.

As an aside from the Roy debate, the one thing that highlighted how important the club is to Parish was hearing him talk about the FA Cup final. He got quite emotional when putting a rhetorical question to the interviewer: "We were 8 minutes away from winning the FA Cup. How can you not keep out Manchester United for 8 minutes? A pub team could keep out Manchester United for 8 minutes." (I am retelling this from memory so that might not be word for word)

Chris Wilder might be available soon!

I never really take Scottish football seriously. Taking Rangers or Celtic to the title means very little. I doubt those two would hold their own in the Premiership.

Gerrard has accomplished nothing special....

Probably to get his replacement in from the small pool of suitable managers before we nick the best one