Where are they now? Martin Dahlin No chance of getting a penny in compensation... and he is now a football agent!

Clubcall - Canaries eye Bowen move?

OK so the timing leaves a little to be desired, especially as I only received mine for the Wigan game in the early hours of today, but once that is sorted out this will be an excellent initiative by Rovers. It means they can be sure that all the fans receive the information as well as a reminder. Much better than just advertising in the LET (which it actually also did as well) as it can reach those outside the local area. With the new initiatives and the membership scheme as well as 'The Card' scheme, the club is coming up with plenty of new initiatives. We are often quick to harrangue them for not doing anything but right now they are pulling out all the stops. So well done to the club Again though I'd hope they look at getting kids in cheaper, some have suggested being quoted a price of £13 for a kid which is pretty expensive when there are so many empty seats. As they are accompanied by adults we should be looking to get them in cheap as they'll have to be coming along with an adult paying full whack hopefully. Having cheap tickets for league games can be self-defeating as many season ticket holders will begrudge those who can afford to pay more getting in for cheap and rightly so. However, I don't think many would begrudge kids getting in for less.

Do they get free tickets? It's been mentioned before but was only answered in as much as they don't get free SEASON tickets...which wasn't the question. Frankly I think it often ruins what chance there is of an atmosphere building and whenever there is a decent atmosphere it is in spite of the drummers rather than being helped by them. They are trying to help Rovers I know and are committed fans but it contributes to lacklustre atmospheres which contributes to less fans wanting to go...and it's not like we have enough as it is.

If it does then it means we will be home to the teams we draw from Groups B and E and away to those we draw from Group A and Group C. This would make sense as it means the top seeds get to play at home against the toughest team and away to the weakest team etc. That would mean trips to one of... Sevilla, Panathanikos, Parma, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Feyernoord or Auxerre from the top seeds and away to one of... Besiktas, Palermo, Espanyol, Heerenveen, Partizan Belgrade, Rapid Bucharest, Wisla Krakow or Slovan Liberec. Wouldn't fancy a trip to Feyenoord and Palermo as both clubs seem to have had recent problems with hooliganism. Auxerre and Heerenveen I guess would be the best draw as regards not having to travel too far... It would also mean, if correct, that we can't be drawn to play Rangers at Ibrox but we could have them at Ewood...which would mean a big crowd if nothing else!

I'd hardly describe thinking he is rubbish after three woeful seasons of performances as being "hysteria". There is plenty of knee-jerk reaction on here but Brett is only now beginning to show the form we expected when we bough him...in 2003!

Middlesbrough never have too big a following at Ewood, their away support is pants. In fact, once they even neglected to send a team!

Ferguson admits street brawl Funny how he doesn't mind relating how he once got into a fight in the street yet fails to mention having ran home with his tail between his leg from the Premiership! Good to see Rangers soundly beaten last season and again yesterday...yes I know he left 18 months ago but his behaviour was a disgrace so it's only justice to see him failing! Oh and that was from his new autobiography...it'll be interesting to see if he mentions his transfers to and from Rangers. If there wasn't anything dodgy in those I'd be surprised!

Right wing back entails less defending than right back...usually when playing with wing backs there will be three central defenders (or a very defensive midfielder) to allow the players to go pelting forward. Emerton got plaudits at Feyenoord mainly for his attacking style. Wing backs are often noted for their explosive forward runs...Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Petrescu, Zanetti are good examples, although it is true that they are more associated with full back rather than winger positions. A right wing back is supposed to be a mix of both, they often play slightly forward of the centre backs. The reason right back is different is that he will be expected to be a part of the back four, it isn't always easy to be disciplined enough to stay with them rather than just drifting out of position. It's a bit too soon to say whether Emerton will be our new right back but he has certainly made a great start.

No, he often played as a right wing-back, which isn't the same as a conventional right back.

Hang on...when I mentioned that on another thread you responded with something along the lines of not 'thinking big'...

After an impressive start the question has to be..how much do we have to pay to buy him?

This boro site seems to be expecting payback for last season... Boro Must Rout Rovers I'll be optimistic and say 2-1 Rovers!

Ooijer will win over doubters says Hughes Sparky is confident the Dutch international will come good...and so am I. As a Dutch interntational and veteran of two World Cup squads he is proven quality. Just has to get used to being chucked into a Premiership side just as their defence was having a bit of a wobble. Hopefully a good game from him today to show what we paid all the money for

Mark Hughes certainly seems to believe Lucas will make a great captain... Our Best Man For The Job

You mean that season when new England manager Steve McClaren was newly installed manager at Boro? Yeah...they were pretty crap then! I'd expect that palace john is in the minority of Palace fans who think he is (was more like) a good manager...in fact I think Mark Goldberg still wakes up screaming when he dreams about Tel moving toward his wallet!

While I agree the prices are very reasonable it is pretty obvious that it will be no 'acid test' as it is only a one-off game. It's taken years for the supporters to slowly trickle away so having so many seeming to think they will suddenly rush back is suprising . There won't be 20,000 either I'd hazard. Hope I'm wrong though. It's a Thursday night game early on in a cup competition which is being shown on TV. Besides...Rovers can't just turn it on and off like a tap. The reason it is being put at a cheap price is because it isn't going to sell that many tickets at all otherwise. Which is a shame as I'm looking forward to it more than any other game this season. These cheap tickets did work for a time but the one-offs/cheap cup games stopped working a few seasons ago. To really see if cheap tickets worked it would involve Rovers offering it for at least a few months. Rome wasn't built in a day...and I'd be surprised if the Blackburn public were to be moved from their barstools in a night! As for Rovers drastically dropping their prices for a long time...it ain't worth the risk on our own. Getting the best team on the pitch is the most important thing, not risking earning a hell of a lot less from ticket sales than they do already. Can you imagine what the response would be if dropping the ticket prices didn't work after a while and they then had to shove them back up to previous levels? It'd be 1960 all over again!!!

Didn't his girlfriend come over and try some tripe? What more do you want?

You are forgetting how poor they were for us and if they had a negative effect on the club as a whole. Admittedly Grabbi was so poor we had to splash out on Cole but Davies was worse and his influence on the club was solely negative. Grabbi played well in some games and did seem to try. Davies was useless, lazy and seemed to bring the entire club down. Grabbi was a gamble, Davies a disaster...and that's alliteration for you! Using your criteria the actual performance of the player isn't fully considered...it's just whether they were a flop or not (suggesting each was as bad as each other) and that what they did (or didn't do) before seems as important than they did after. It's surely the effect they had on the pitch and on the club that seals it. Davies gets the vote...the only redeeming factor is that he seemed to be ill soon after joining, yet I seem to remember even before that he had turned up to pre-season training overweight. As poor a signing as Grabbi was...Davies wins as worst of the worst.

I love it when the old 'Lancashire United' stuff comes up...always some good, funny arguments and slanging matches follow Was he also the guy who said you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear

Think it's pretty obvious he needs games and he isn't going to get that in the Premiership...something like Michael Bridges did would seem the best option. Go to a lower league club and slowly get back into it - last season Bridges was playing in the fourth tier...after a promotion and a transfer to Hull is in the Championship. If he'd just gone straight to Hull he may even have expected too much of himself. Seems like the best option to Matt...if he is really aiming to go back into the Premiership it's likely to be another false start.

I'd say that those who supposed to be monitoring the game, the FA and Premier League chairmen, are so intertwined with it all that the incentive to root out corruption - IF () there is any. There is a need for an abitrary external regulator for football to see that money is being frittered away but there doesn't seem to be the political will from Downing Street anymore. It would have to come from there as football won't set it up...turkeys don't vote for Christmas do they? Personally I think that the program did prove that there is a culture of bungs in the game...unfortunately it produced no evidence whatsoever on those it targeted. It may be far less prevalent than it is rumoured to be but it was obvious that these things do still go on...somewhere.

If you really want to know more than take a look at your local bookstore or pop into your local library. There are much better works to look into than that ludicrous 'documentary' the other night. Of course if you are only going to believe anything can be amiss if you have a detailed, signed statement by the 'wrongdoers' saying 'we done it - you got us' then you aren't going to be satisfied too much. Then again...Al Capone was never actually proven to be gangster in that case was he? Just a tubby tax dodger... I hope Sam isn't guilty of anything either - it's not as if he is short of money and he really does seem to love the club he is at. If he was sticking his hands in the till so to speak at the club he has spent most of his working life then how could you really trust anyone in football?

Oh and I recently read 'No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency' by Alexander McCall Smith. A very pleasant and easy read following the trail of the only female private detective in Botswana. Don't think I can be bothered reading all the sequels though, it wasn't that good!

Surely this should be about making thems fans for life? Not that many people would be able to go every year of their life, especially with leaving for university etc, but may well come back in years or even decades to come. As for kids going along until they have to pay full price...surely that is better than them never going at all?