Taylor must have a decent chance of getting in the side ahead of Marshall. How far is he off first team fit?

As phillipl has said goals is the absolute number one problem. No one even looks vaguely like scoring double figures except for Rhodes. Marshall, our second biggest goal threat, has been hopeless. If we do get out of embargo in Jan the owners have to fund enough to get someone who can score around 15 from Jan to May. Or we are sunk. Koita getting a goal would be really really useful.

Yeah I've found them hilarious. Obviously I'm easily pleased but hey...

Yes, it does look the goal posts have moved...

Great post, I agree with it 100%.I saw enough in the Wolves game to think we will be okay this year. Defence is still a total mess but Koita looks a handful, Guthrie is what we need in midfield, while an attacking setup of Rhodes, Conway, Barrow and Marshall in addition to the two names above looks pretty bloody good to be honest. Hardly relegation material. Of course lose Rhodes and take Guthrie out with an injury and its a different story.. If Bowyer pulls it together we will pick up wins. Theres no real reason to doubt he will as he did so the last two years. Certainly not to the point we get relegated. A more likely relegation scenario, in my humble opinion, is if we pot Bowyer and make a really bad appointment as we did with Berg, Ince and Appleton. That's what I worry about. I'd like to know who would pick the replacement.

The appointment of Ince was totally mental, really blotted Williams' copybook.

I can't see us going down unless Rhodes leaves or gets a long term injury. Essentially we have the same squad as last season minus Gestede. His loss isn't enough to put us in the bottom three. I can see us finishing anywhere from 8th to 14th.I do feel a quality manager could get us into the playoffs.

Give Bowyer the perm job so Venkys can focus on selling up and fooking off. if they do stay, god i hope not, then they need to sack shagnew and shabby, find a good football MD and allow him to build a management team.

Wow - surely that has to be some sort of a record?

Quite aside from the appropriateness of Sepp Blatter's comments can we all just pause to give a MASSIVE HI-FIVE to rover_786 for his best sentence yet in grammar, syntax and spelling? ps. Sepp Blatter saying that there is no racism in football is akin to saying there is no sexual harassment in bars and pubs. Just because a tiny moniority of people do it is not a reason to deny it's existence and deny the need for censure. That was his mistake. And frankly the guy is a high class buffoon who should have lost his job years ago. If he was a person of sense and judgement then I imagine he would get a little more leeway.

I sort of agree. But then you do have to ask who would manage the club? The only way that could work is if we had someone lined up who had 100% agreed to take the reigns. Looking at the shambolic corporate adminstration of Rovers that is about 0% likely. After todays game there might be the spark of an inkling to find someone new, but it is going to take weeks to sort it out. The temptation from the boards point of view will be to "see how it works out, maybe it will be okay.....?"

I would severely question Kean playing Dunn in central midfield away at Everton! However I do agree that the side was well setup against Blackpool, Arsenal and Birmingham. You can argue with RSC being included but there was little to suggest anyone else would be better until after the Birmingham game.

In case you haven't seen arguably the best and catchiest parody to grace the internet..... Charlie Sheen - Bi Winning

Yeah, I think Duff is the only one in the 2000s who has gone on to achieve. Maybe Bellamy to a degree at Man City but they have now jettisoned him. After Tugay McCarthy was, imo, the most naturally talented player to turn out for Rovers in recent years. Breathtaking ball skills, excellent finishing and a good footballing brain. If he had tried he could have been one of the best players in the Premiership - but he never had his head on straight. Such a waste.

Christ, what a naked attempt to get a job?! Although to be honest he is no worse than Andrews.

Two ex Rovers have stormers for Liecester:- Bruno Berner (remember him?!) and Gallagher. Gallagher is maturing. Could well come back into the Prem next year either by Liecester's promotion or someone buying him. Leicester v. Notts Forest

Is Ilan any good? If I was Zola I would partner Benni with Cole. Cole would suit Benni perfectly.

Yup. Out of all the players who have left Ewood over the last six or seven years there are only three I hold a grudge against. Bellamy for lying (which is just unbelivably taking the p***) and Ferguson and McCarthy for refusing to train. Cruz and Bentley while annoying largely conducted themselves within the boundaries of what is acceptable, even though they were knobs about it (the interviews they gave primarily). However they continued to train and let us negotiate big fees to compensate us.

He has always been good at that. Shame he does not live up to his billing. If I was a betting man I would say he is going to have a great end to the season, get eight or nine golas, go to World Cup, have an average time there, and then only get around 10 starts next term and score a couple of pens. After that he will end up in Dubai or the like on a fat contract.

He has been a d!ckhead and I am glad he has gone. Shame as if he settled down I think he could have worked really well with the younger lads like Kalinic, Olsson and Hoilett. It is also annoying to have had, three years ago, three of the most technically talented players in the league - Benni, Bentley and Tugay. Now we have no real entertainers. I hope that Basturk goes someway to filling that gap.

Yeah, it is a shame. If Benni had kept his toys in the pram and kept on scoring then he could have probably got a move to a CL club the following summer for the circa 15m we were looking for. However he lost interest when Cruz took over the lead role and suffered a massive dip in form. Arguably, after Tugay, the most technically gifted player we have had a Rovers in Premiership times. But his biggest enemy has been himself. He could have become one of europes top players imo if he handled himself correctly. The annoying thing is he will probably walk into West Ham and set the house on fire till the end of the season. He showed against Fulham what he can do when he foucusses and the Hammers will reap this as he will wnat to impress the fans a win his place, Not good when we are competing against them in a relegation battle.

Hmm, problem I have with Hoilett is that he does not seem to have much of a shot on him, or a cross. If I was Sam I would be looking to start Kalinic and McCarthy regularly together. THey compliment each other well. Hoilett should be reserved as an impact sub on the wings I think.

Really? I would say most teams struggling in the Prem will have a look at him alongside Galatasaray et al. I think there will be a bit of interest. 2m is not going to buy us a servicable player. it won't even get us Beattie for God's sake. We shouldn't sell for 'what we can get' we should sell for what he is worth to us. And I would say 4m is about right. If we get much less we should keep. He is looking like forming a good partnership with Kalinic.

True. Annoying. If he really is contracted till 2011 we should be looking for 4m I would say. Ambitous I know but he is a brilliant player on his day and already attracting far more interest than Beattie is who is rated at 3m.

I am sure he is on more than this. After his exeptional first season here he would have been bumped to 40k+ imo.