I'll admit that when Souness went my top choice was Dowie, mainly because he had proven himself a brilliant manager at the club level and was familiar with the everyday ins and outs of running a club as opposed to a national team (i.e. transfers, training, etc.).

However, having seen what Hughes has been able with respect to Rovers' fitness (witness the article on Sky Sports today with MGP), their defense, and (so far) in the transfer market, I couldn't be happier with his performance.

Well done, Sparky, keep up the good work.

Not saying that joey wasn't right in his earlier assessment, but from the commentary I'm reading it sounds as if Stead's been a real handful up front this second half. This goal can only do his confidence a world of good.

Nelsen must surely be the best Premiership signing of the transfer window.

Let's just hope his rock solid play is down more to class and less to form. If so, then truly a masterstroke by Hughes.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant result... it didn't sound pretty but in the end, MGP was the hero AGAIN. Also sounded like a stellar performance from Nelsen, who has to be considered the bargain of the transfer window for any Premiership club.

Bring on Leicester and the quarterfinals.

I love him.

Injured? More like complete @#/?.

Would much rather have Stead or Jansen on than Bothroyd. It also sounded like Gally had been playing fairly well and had been getting wide and everything, so Bothroyd had better show something or this could wind up being a questionable call by Sparky.

Thanks streaky, American, and longsiders... I'm home on spring break now and am on a new computer, but I didn't want to miss this one.

Does BBC have live commentary of the match again? I'm not seeing anything online... so for everyone who's not going tonight, how are you following the match online?

I think the only hope is to play Stead until one bounces in off his back side because I can only really see a combination of Stead + one other working.

Totally agree Rev... maybe I'm biased toward the kid because his goals kept us up last year, but I still think he's got quality in him, and it would just take a goal or two to get his confidence up.

What's sad about the striker situation is that we're so threadbare up front that I would gladly have accepted a mercenary like Pandiani on loan for half a year--who cares whether he would have been committed to the cause or not, the so-called Rifle clearly doesn't give a toss about Brum but has already scored for them.

The one slice of good news in all of this is that it appears we're still a good team defensively, and if we can bring in a real quality striker in the summer then things could be looking up--assuming, of course, we don't first go down.

Even if Rovers stay up both Emerton and Thompson will leave in the summer for modest fees.

What makes you say that?

I think joey hit on it. It's tough to say that we should have kept a player who wanted out, but the fact that he was not replaced, nor was the money used toward another signing, made me vote no in this poll.

I feel like we could have extracted the same price from Rangers in the summer--they desperately wanted their golden boy back, and this wouldn't have changed between now and then--and to take away a good player from a team facing a relegation struggle is never good business.

That being said, I'm glad that a player uncommitted to the cause was offloaded, and I hope that the £2 milllion garnered from the sale is put toward the purchase of a quality striker this summer.

Does everyone realize that the last team to score against Chelsea was Arsenal... and that was on December 12?

3-0 Chelsea, though it'd be a real moral victory to grab a consolation goal.

Just read Gold's comments on Sky Sports and I must say that I'm thoroughly appalled.

I think one of them is that the pressure of playing for a big club like Birmingham has played on Robbie's mind and I think he'll be better off at a smaller club.

What a prick.

Having said that, RangerRover, what are your thoughts on having him back?

Thanks for an honest and sensible post by the way.

Although it was the Daily Record, it was also a direct quote from John Williams.

For me the sensible thing for Rovers to do would be to publicly reject Ferguson's transfer request.

Privately sit him down and tell him he can go in the summer if that's what he wants, PROVIDED the money is right from whoever.

There is certainly no way we should be accepting ANY offer from Rangers which includes writing off a sum due to them in 8 months time.

If they want the player now, they pay cash now.  Otherwise the player stays here.

Tris, I completely agree.

Noticed that all the talking about the transfer request was done by John Viola again this morning? I just wonder how total the extent is to which the Fergusons are being manipulated.

The only circumstances in which we should play ball would be if Hughes has a bargain lined up for which we need the Ferguson transfer money for- the rumour advanced by AndyC

Agree with both of you gentleman... while Savage would serve as a logical replacement for Ferguson, I shouldn't think there's any rush to sell in the window, as the transfer money can't really be put to good use. Though they're only three points adrift at the time being, Rangers haven't looked like catching Celtic for the past two years, and I don't think Barry will make or break their title challenge this year. Blackburn Ender put it well when he said:

That seems clear then.

Rovers can now issue a statement saying Ferguson has handed in a transfer request and the club will listen to offers from any club prepared to meet Rovers' valuation of (oooh, shall we say) £6.5 million?

If the fee is not met, we do not sell and Ferguson gets on with it.

The one thing that strikes me about all this is that I don't particularly hate Ferguson in all this. Think of it this way... he was recruited to come here by Souness, and it seems fairly obvious that the reason he chose Rovers ahead of other clubs was the fact that he would get to play for one of the great Scottish footballers (and a fiery midfielder to boot) of all time. With Souness gone and Rovers languishing in the lower reaches of the table, there's no great incentive for him to stay here. Yes he has been made captain, but I feel like the only reason he handed in a transfer request is that JW intimated that he would have to do so in order to procure a transfer (thus Rovers are off the hook for loyalty bonuses, etc.).

As Bryan said earlier:

We don't know for sure that he wants to go to Rangers, only that he doesn't want to play for us anymore.

I could certainly see him moving to Newcastle or Everton... if he does indeed move back to Scotland, he knows he has to know that he'll be labeled a failure, so I'm not so sure he's not looking to stay in England. As much as I'd hate the prospect of him coming good with the Toffees or Barcodes, we should most certainly sell him to the highest bidder.

One more point... does anyone think that Rovers could get Ball as part of any potential deal with Rangers? Not sure if Sparky's a big fan of the (still) young Englishman or not, but it's certainly something worth considering, especially with Gresko out for the year and Gray having worn out his welcome.

"The final deal is likely to include a clause preventing Savage playing for Rovers when they visit St Andrew’s on April 30."

How stupid! He's a midfield grafter, hardly Thierry Henry is he?

What Babies.

Can they even do that if it's a permanent purchase? I just assumed you could only do that for loans. I mean after all, if that was the case everyone would write in clauses like that and no one would ever be playing against their ex-club, right?

I agree, theno... what babies.

I'm just curious to see how Sparky uses him. I have a feeling that he's more Premiership ready than Mokoena, but whether Hughes chooses to use him in central defense or elsewhere (the holding role in central midfield?) will be interesting to see.

Just stumbled across this from the September 2003 issue of FourFourTwo, in an article entitled "Robbie Savage: on his various managers".

Sparky Hughes is the most laid-back man in the world, with a totally different style to any of the other managers.  It really is a case of what you see is what you get.  But he's clever.  Before the momentous Wales v Italty match he told us we were free to go out for a couple of drinks on the Saturday before the Wednesday match.  But then he added, "I know you'll do the right thing."  As a result we didn't bother--we knew what he was saying.  Subtle, that's Sparky.

I don't have a bad word to say about him.  It came as no surprise to see him turn down the possible chance of becoming Sir Alex Ferguson's number two last month.  He has a job to finish with Wales, although once it's done I believe he could move to a top club.

Good bleeding gawd! Are these chaps for real?

That looks a good foot over the line.

As the commentators said: "That's not an inch or a foot over the line... that's a yard."

In defense of the lineman, it was probably difficult to be in position to make a call on the play. That being said, he may have been the only one not to have seen it. The human error argument and all that is great, but I have to argue for the use of some type of replay system to check things like that. Not every injustice can be rooted out of the officiating, but the blatant ones surely must be.

Hopefully Carroll's gaffe means that he'll be dropped, and maybe Tim Howard will find himself back in favor--after all, he still could be the future for the U.S. national team in goal.

I'd welcome Savage to the team to solidify central midfield, but I fear that as the price rises, the deal is looking worse and worse for Rovers. £3.5 million is a lot to ask for a 30 year old central midfielder whose primary attribute is his combative nature, and I would certainly hope that Rovers could snatch him for somewhere around £2.5 million if they were going to get him at all.

What pisses me off most of all about all this, however, are the Birmingham management and fans. Of course I'd be steaming if my team captain wanted to leave, but to chastise Savage for a lack of ambition and for moving to a smaller club is ludicrous. Take one example--the quote I found from Soccernet.com's Birmingham correspondent:

In any case, I'm not convinced that moving to Blackburn will answer all his problems anyway. Certainly for footballing reasons he'll be taking a backward step in joining a smaller club with less prospects than the more established set-up at St. Andrews..

"More established set-up"? Just because Chelsea were stupid enough to loan you a 20 goal striker and you had one good year does not me that you have a more established set-up. I'd love to see Savage join so we could leapfrog Brum in the table--and I certainly don't see how they can afford to keep a player who doesn't want to be there, as roversmum said.

I think they will have too much quality for us and our mis-firing front line will not find a way through often enough.

...and it'll call for some serious thought as to what Rovers need to do in the transfer market this month to keep us in the Premiership.

2-0 to the Addicks.

i was very anti souey,but could not bring myself to boo him on boxing day,i actually like him as a man,but his managerial decisions were baffling too say the least...

I must say, waggy, that's one of the best posts I've ever seen you make.

I absolutely agree with your assessment regarding Souness... he's a scrapper and a fighter, and it's certainly hard not to respect a man like that. Unfortunately, while as a player you can make up for what you lack in skill with heart and hustle, the same cannot be said of a manager. Souey did a great job for a few years with Rovers but in the end it was simply time for both sides to move on.

As a sidenote, Sparky's done well so far, but the true test will be at the end of next year--where Rovers sit in the table (or indeed, which table they sit in) once Hughes has brought in his players. He's proven himself a better tactician than Souness already--not that that was a very tall order--but now he has to prove that he understands how to wade into the transfer market.

Hey hey hey, I'm back folks. Haven't really had the time at school to keep up with the messageboard, but I've certainly been following Rovers results, and I must say that I have faith in Sparky to continue to turn things around. One loss in the last ten matches isn't a bad record, and if someone can start scoring goals then the midtable finish that many of us predicted can certainly still happen.

9) Who do you want (realistically) to sign in January? What positions do you need to strenghen?

Need a leftback as cover, a centre half a midfielder and a striker. I wouldn't mind the kid from Brighton as full back cover, Dawson Forest or Knight from Fulham as CB, van Bommell midfielder and any one of Keane, Beattie or Hartson up front.

Just thought that was kind of funny. Signing "the kid from Brighton" (I'm guessing he means Daniel Harding), Dawson, van Bommel and Beattie wouldn't exactly fit into Flopsy's "realistic" requirement... unless of course Villa have £12 million or so sitting around that no one else knows about.

I'd hope Stead gets the start in this one alongside the in form Dickov and breaks his duck for the year. If he can find his stride, the goals needed by Rovers to stay up needn't come from an outside source.

A cup game midweek, could we see Jay and Matty up front. Or should we go with Stead in the hope he can get a goal to lift his confidence. Its a nice dillema to face.

and what about gally?

A very nice dilemna to face indeed.

Great win for Rovers... and from what I've heard of Sparky's actions on the touchline, he seems so far to have what it takes to succeed at the Premiership level. I don't need to say anything more about Matty, as it's already been said.

The thing that I love as the club goes forward is that there are finally some options at a couple of key positions. Short is hurt, so either Amo or Nissa can fill in for him. If MGP really was that ineffective, Hughes can draft in de Pedro to take his spot. Stead could even be dropped, but should we start with Jansen or Bothroyd in his place? Or even drop Dickov and give Gally another shot? Maybe the quality isn't quite there yet, but the depth finally is, and Hughes should have some options going forward.

Onward and upward Rovers!