Hoilett was always going to be good. As for the rest of 'em, they've gone backwards under Kean.

From the very limited view I had, he looked to have good technique. He did tend to waste it by holding onto the ball too long. He needs a good manager to teach him how to use his technique to the best advantage of the team. Is Kean the man to do that? I don't think so.

Fans welcome to Ronnie Clayton's funeral.

For anyone who missed it, here's a fabulous tribute from Dave Whelan. Granada news.

Nice article from the LT

Here Zaccaius. If you type Blackburn rovers into the search box, you will find quite a few clips showing Ronnie, albeit briefly.

The best video I can find.

I would certainly love rovers to name one of the stands after him.

Really sad day. Ronnie was a true great. The Photo's of him at Wembley in the rovers kit will always stick in my mind. He was a leader as well. I remember him to be a kind of Bobby Moore of our club. Looked really smart and played the game in a manner that would shame most footballers of today. Honest and classy. Was a big part of the best midfield ever to play for Rovers - Clayton, England, McGrath. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One or two posts from the greatest ever thread: From AL: The best midfielder I have ever seen has got to be Ronnie Clayton. Played all his career at Blackburn and is still a big fan. A real one club man who can still be seen sitting in the stand with his great friend and other Rovers legend, Bryan Douglas. Ronnie was a class, mainly defensive, midfielder who having won the ball could supply a range of defence splitting passes or alternatively could bring the ball forward and join in the attacks, a real box to boxer with an engine like the QE II. Also scored his fair share of goals. His upright style of running enabled him to take in the whole pitch in front of him. This allowed him to make the passes that many others never even saw. Then there was his England career. One of the few Rovers players to have captained this country and it is claimed by many, together with his big mate Duncan Edwards, (sadly lost in the Munich air disaster) to have extended the England career of the great Billy Wright by covering for him in the last couple of years of his career. We will probably never see his like again. Bazza: The Claytons lived in Penwortham near Preston. Both Ken and Ronnie were given a trial by Rovers. There is some story that Mr Clayton, their father, insisted that both brothers were trialled and if Rovers wanted one, they had to take the other as well. How true this is I don't know. What I DO know is that Ronnie was being given a trial and he was playing right-half in front of David Gray. My dad was watching this trial and David Gray was constantly shouting instructions to teenager Ronnie. My dad shouted "David, leave the lad alone and let him play his own game." A chap came up to him to thank him. It was Mr Clayton, Ronnie's father. Both Ronnie and Ken played for Rovers as wing halves for a short time but Ken faded and Ronnie progressed to captain Rovers and England. Dr Rich: Contrary to what a lot of people seem to be implying, I don't believe we've been all that blessed when it comes to central midfielders at Ewood. In every other position there was at least two players who deserved the slot in my mind. Here, Clayton is an obligatory choice, great player, great bloke, should be the first name on the greatest-teamsheet. Billy: When Ronnie Clayton started playing for us I think he was 17 years old, but he made such an impression, like Colin Hendry did in later years, he was being called a future England player right from the start, Duncan Edwards was the newspapers favourite, obvious, he played for Man Utd, and he was good, but not better than Ronnie, they both played attractive fair football, far better to watch than later England 'greats' such as Stiles, Robson, and Batty, who had to have a new rule brought in for their tackles, not from the back and not two footed, as if they ever listened. But there is not much you can say, thats not already been said about Ronnie, brilliant in attack or defence, read a good game, and geed up the team when he was captain, even wrote a book on he's football stories. link

Aged 83. BBC.

We're both guessing LeChuck. Seriously though, I would hope that when making a decision about a young mans serious back injury, the potential transfer value wouldn't come anywhere near to being a consideration.

Barton was released because of a serious back injury. I assume he was released after taking medical advice. It's a bit premature to blame anyone at Ewood without knowing the full facts.

Messi's foot after being stretchered off after shocking foul for Barca tonight [from Paul Plunkett twitter] twitter

Well, the 12 of us went to Manchester on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who recommended pubs. I have to say that Manchester has some cracking pubs - but unfortunately, we didn't find any of them .We tried four pubs. First stop was Corbieres. Sorry Ozz, but I just didn't get what this place was supposed to be about. To be fair it was around 5ish that we got there and maybe the atmosphere lifts it later on, but at that time it wasn't great. We also tried the Walkabout, which I've been to before. There's nothing great about it, but the Mrs wanted to go there. The two other pubs were the Tiger bar? [next to the waterhouse] and the waterhouse itself. Nothing about any of those that would make me recommend them. We then went through to the Pacific China in Chinatown. It was a clean, fairly modern place and was frequented by quite a lot of Chinese people, which is usually a good recommendation. Most of us had the banquet at £28+service charge. One of the women asked if they would throw in the seas bass, considering there were so many of us - which they did at no extra cost. The food was very good and I would recommend this place to anyone. possibly not quite as good as the Yang Sing, but still an excellent meal. It was the wife's Birthday and when there's twelve of you, you always have a good time. No matter what the pubs turned out to be like, we had a great evening and a great laugh. So thanks again everyone.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The idea is to get into Manchester around 5:30ish, have a beer or two somewhere near [10-15 mins walk] to the Pacific China, where we are booked in at 7:30. So, maybe one of these suggestions before the meal, with another one afterwards? It's on a Saturday night, so I assume all these pubs will be open 'til midnight?

I've done the walkabout in Deansgate Ozz. Are there any decent pubs actually in Chinatown, or should we stay nearer the city centre? Need somewhere to get the coach driver to drop us off you see. Edit: I mean I've done the walkabout pub!

12 of us are off to Chinatown in Manchester in May for the wife's 60th Birthday do. Any suggestions for a pub pre/post meal, within say - 10 mins walk from China Town? Don't want stupid prices, but do want a bit of life in there. Good atmosphere more than anything.

Facebook.

I think you mean you would want it to. That right mum?

A couple of eye witness accounts of what they saw happening: LT comments.

LT update.

Official Statement.

He said that Mellison. Is there a real difference here?

Oi! He said we could go to Wham not needing to win.

He said that on Radio Rovers after the Wigan game. He also said, for the benefit of the Sam haters, that now we didn't need to go into the Wham game needing to win. We could sit back, stifle them, then try to nick one on the break.