I find it intriguing how:

Keegan really admires Cole

and

Souey really admires Fowler

Stop it with that talk !. Stop it now. I'll personally rip out Souness' heart and eat it if a swap happens, and we fail to get a left winger.

I actually would not mind seeing Robbie at Ewood PROVIDED Cole stays and he is payed reasonable wages (for somone in his form I would say an absolute maximum of 20k a week).

On the other hand Fowler commands at least 40k at Man City so I cant see him moving to us, especially as he would certainly (if sanity prevails) be behind Stead and Cole.

Cole should not leave unless we are getting PROVEN quality. Fowler is certainly not that.

The Guardian's match report said the same thing about Cole and in the transfer news, quoted Souness as saying that a few players will be leaving and they will be finding out their fate in the next week. Yorke should definately leave, but not Cole. He has scored 11 Premiership goals this season and he and Stead are forming a good partnership. If he and Yorke leave that leaves with an extremely young strike force, with Jansen not being 100%. This would mean that Souness would have to bring in a striker and he has said that he is only looking at English players, when there are plenty of top quality foreigners who aren't pre-Madonnas.

As for the other players that are getting the boot, Todd would seem likey, Babbel and Andresen were leaving anyway, but who else?

I would imagine Yorke, Andresen, Babbel and Todd will all leave.

Jansen, Gresko, Douglas and Cole could all go too.

To be fair out of all of those Cole is the only really significant one, he must stay. Douglas could be a decent defensive midfielder I suppose, and maybe jansen could find his old form... not holding my breath though.

Nice to see he still has a sense of humour! You have to say it is quite worrying that he dislikes Souness to that degree, it is a real rarity for a manager to rile so many of his players. On the other hand Souness has done a lot more for the club.

On the top of my summer wishlist is for Graeme to acquire some humility (and some kind of tactical long term plan!), im sure the likes of Wenger or Strachan would of been able to (or at least striven to) nurture Dunn's talent rather than alienate it. Losing David has not been a huge blow, but in terms of what he could have been it was deeply sad.

ps. what pedant has put in this "like you could have paid more attention in school" nonsense? Is it neccessary?

What is the over/under on tiny own-goals?

Play him at right fullback, Brucie !!!

Taylor has been shocking at rightback, but then I can hardly see Douglas turning him inside out

Given that sufficient funds were available who would you like to be signed.

Rumors are we have around 15million to spend pre-season. My personal choices would be, Robbie Keane, Jermaine Pennant, Geremi (loan), Muzzy Izzet, Danny Mills and possibly Ian Harte (all of the players we have been linked with). Should be a good side should we manage to get them.

I realize that Brum have had a good season, but does anyone else think that Robbie Keane and Geremi might be a little bit out of their league?

I just have a feeling that Tiny will play and will be solid at the back in a 2-0 Blues victory. Sure hope I'm wrong, but at least Rovers don't need a result from this one to avoid relegation.

Im not sure about that. Bruce is ambitious and has a long term plan. If Spurs were willing to sell I think Keane could be convinced. You have to take your hat off to the Brum staff.

Personally we are not playing for much more than prize money (important as it is) so I think Souness should make some tweaks for creativity's sake:

Cole Stead

Tugay

Gresko Emerton

Flitcroft

Gray Short Nissa Reid

Enckleman

Wont happen though, fully expect the team that started at Spurs to line up again.

that is quite simply insane. We might see duff back in the Blue and White halves one day yet. Alienation doesnt seem to be something Roman cares about...

We didnt have any problems at blackpool or wigan and Blackburn seems to let them in, and when you are outside grounds they have a list of things you cannot take in with you ie Air Horns, Knives, Darts, Bombs, flags e.t.c. but nothing about inflatable toys,

You mean I am going to have to leave all my knives, bombs and darts at home?

Its a bloody nanny state I tell you....

Further problems surface. Lunatic wage structure riles Chelsea's best player- Frank Lampard.

I want more cash

I think Ambrahimovic (however you spell it) might throw him out for that. By his own reasoning he is going to get David Beckham, why do you need Lampard? I pity what ever manager takes over at the Bridge.

joey_big_nose

fair enough, I see your point. It makes sense if the money laundering/profile seeking element is a higher priority than actually winning trophies.

Just out of interest what would happen if Putin prosecuted Roman for misappropriated funds or something like that?

I dont believe phillipl suggested either of the above alegations.

Those are your interpretations and I presume are hypathetical queries.

okay, i withdraw the comments.

I dont know whether the lad's cash is dodgy or not, it is just questions have been raised in the press and I was wondering if (if it is the case that he has funny money, which i dont know) Putin would have the power to pull him up and out of the UK. Purely hypothetical, innit?

And I wasnt insinuating anything either.

Is that enough disclaimers?

As I posted elsewhere, these bids are inevitable.

OK imagine you are Abramovich. You are just about to receive £2 billion in readies from the sale of a minority stake in Sibneft to Total having trousered £600m earlier in the year from selling the odd interest in Aeroflot and aluminium production.

The biggest risk to yourself comes from Putin cracking down on the oligarchs so apart from putting your cash beyond the Russian taxman what's the best bet?

Make yourself too public for Putin to be able to touch you- hence the smart move to buy Chelsea.

£250m later, Chelsea is probably still worth more than the cash you have splashed on it. So what now?

For the relatively modest outlay of £150m you can buy all of

Beckham

Ronaldo

Ronaldinho

And have the biggest marketing power in the world of soccer by far.

It will be nice having seen Abramovich stuff the chances of the middle ranking English clubs by buying their best players now to fillet La Liga of its three most marketable assets.

So what are you waiting for Roman?

fair enough, I see your point. It makes sense if the money laundering/profile seeking element is a higher priority than actually winning trophies.

If he was trying to win the Premiership on the other hand messing the squad around so much probably isnt a great idea. Eventually players wont want to come to the club and the manager will have a complete nightmare trying to settle the side down.

Just out of interest what would happen if Putin prosecuted Roman for misappropriated funds or something like that? Could he be extradicted and the money be withdrawn from the club? Could he be challenged to account for the source of his cash by the UK government? Is he paying UK income tax (that would pay for a few schools on its own!)?

Just thought it might be worth pointing out because when these stories emerge they usually happen in regards Chelsea.

If these sort of transfers happen over the summer then there are going to be a lot of available players knocking about on the relative cheap. Any fringe player at Stamford Bridge seems to be finished so Gronkjaer, Zenden, Melchiot and even Cole and Hasslebaink could well become available.

Duff, Crespo, Lampard et al might just be thinking that Roman is actually taking the ###### now too despite being established first teamers. The managers on the way out before he gets to finish a great run in the Champion league and go for second, and no one knows where they stand.

Im beginning to smell trouble at the bridge....

link

The last three games has been fantastic, but I still believe that Souness has taken this club as far as he could.

I'm hoping he will resign in the summer.....

I think Blackburn Rovers are at the pinicle of their current potential. To say that Souness has taken them as far as he can means that he has to be replaced, and someone else come in! This would be almost impossible!

If you look at the type of side that we are, it is impossible to argue that we deserve to be in a better position than we are. As is acknowledged by all managers in the premiership at some point, any team can beat anyone on their day. The difference between the clubs from 6th to 17th is very little, and this only goes to prove the point. Last season it was us and Everton who were at the top of the mid table sides, this season it is Villa, Charlton, and Fulham.

What Souness has done for us is ensure that we have Premiership football for another season. He has weathered the storm I believe, and will go into next season having learned from the last.

To say that this season has been a failure is over the top. Priority number one is all but achieved. Cups will be played for again next season, but dropping down a league is the only thing in my book that would constitute a season of failure for Rovers. That isnt going to happen, so we have avoided disaster.

What the club really needs at this point is continuity; a change in manager would disrupt what is an evolving team. If you look at the events of last summer with Duff and Dunn leaving, a period of transition was almost inevitable. Souness may have cut it fine, but he and the team have succeeded in keeping this club in a position where it has the potetial to grow.

In my eyes we are still a season or two off stepping it up a level. Yes we were in Europe last season, but we are clearly not a club that can compete at that level yet. Souness recognises that all that is important for Rovers is to be in the Premiership. That is all Blackburn can and should aim for at the moment.

A change of manager therefore would be harmful. Souness is keeping us at the top of our current potential and fulfilling the goal that is required of him. Consistency and a long term plan is what is required. We saw the problems created by short term goals after we won the league. Business guru and allround wise one Jack Walker saw the fact that Rovers won the title a year too early.

Establishing ourselves as a Premiership club is goal number one. Aiming too high has huge implications, as we have seen from Rovers disgruntled home support this season, having a negative effect on home form.

Souness is the man to keep this club moving up. His resignation would be a disaster for Rovers.

What an excellent post, one which I sort of both agree and disagree with.

I agree with the principle that Rovers need to develop- we have class players in every position bar the left of midfield (one which will hopefully be addressed in the summer), indeed in terms of pesonnel we are superior to a large amount of teams above us. We have been unlucky with injuries and underperformance in vital areas- Emerton stands out particularly being our main midfield attacking threat.

On the other hand it is hard to say Souness is committed to a long term strategy of development, and the aim to compete regularly in the top six- going for the grail of Champions League qualification. He said it himself, if you stand still you fall behind. Fair enough, injuries and so forth have made a nonsense of a consistent team, yet he dosnt give off the air of man who knows where we will be in two years.

Frankly we need a core squad of 14-16 players who are committed to the club and sufficently talented to consistently secure a top eight finish. People will cry this is ridiculous optimism but I will point to the players at our disposal. We have to have confidence in our own ability and the question is whether Souness does. Does Souness think himself calpable of taking us that far, and if he does how does he expect to achieve it? There are a lot of teams on a similar footing to us (Villa, Charlton, Fulham etc.) but the one who is going to make the step up to join Newcastle and Liverpool is going to be the one who wants it most, and is the most prepared to do it.

Top Eight class Players:

Friedel, Niell, Amoruso, Short (getting on a bit), Nissa, Gray, Thompson, Ferguson, Emerton (if he pulls his bloody finger out!), Tugay (getting on a bit), Stead, Cole, Gallagher.

A decent left winger and we hit the fourteen player target. Hopefully younger players such as Reid, Donnelly (dreaming?) and Douglas can make more of an impact next season to take the reigns of the older ones.

Top Eight Class manager:

Souness?

Mind-boggling transfer, but it's about to happen.

The player is in Manchester talking to Sam Allardyce at the moment.

Cheeky buggers.

I hear their sniffing around Prso also.

Get your finger out Souness...

And you have to say that if you were prso you would be more intrigued about playing with Rivaldo than say Barry Feguson.

That plus the extra tickets sold and the vague possibiity of some Brazilain flair makes it an excellent signing.

Utterly amazing. I quite liked Ron in a kind of buffoonish way, his (un racist) abuses of the human language were very entertaining.

I think perhaps that word that Atkinson so unfortunately chose to employ is now the single most powerful exclamation in the world. It ended a career. One word, not even said on air, ended a career. Incredible.

"If he doesn't resign and we lose to Fulhum he should be sacked. "

Ah, but he's on a big contract, so if he's sacked, he'll get a huge golden 'f_ck off' which will probably cost the club a million £ or more.

Make your feelings known at the games with chants and banners. It's all we can do. Well, we can start lobbing dog poo at his house, death threat and stuff, but that is going way too far, and is personally upsetting to him and his family.

Im not sure when we are trying to pick up the points to survive the fans having a go at the manager publicly in the stands is a good idea. We have only got six games left and we need to raise the team rather than disspirit them.

IU agree Souness needs to go though.

5 months on since the first post, and it cannot be denied that what has happened in those last 5 months largely vindicates Rover6's point of view.

If we had known then that  by April 1st another 7 players would have been played out of position in left midfield, that the lady luck / ref conspiracy drivel would have been trotted out another 20 times, that our defence would still be as dodgy, that we would only win one home game, and that we would be 3 points above the drop zone, I think there would have been much greater support to get rid of the Great Man.

Funny that you should bring up Rover 6's early posting career, I had just been noticing his mellowing on the old Souness out mantra. Its still there mind.

My own opinion is that Souness' has done little that is drastically wrong, his tactics, transfers and so on have been on par or better with most other mid table teams over the last two seasons. He has never on the other hand made a team that copes well in a fight like we are now (which seems odd when compared to his personality). That is the central problem- we cannot grind things out. We prefer controlled possesion footbal but we dont have the personnel (mostly due to injuries, but the lack of a left sided player is a big issue) or the confidence to suceed in it. Man management has recently been a bit dubious with the COle/Yorke thing and some funny comments by Short, and more importantly than anything Souness not actually looking in full control himself. He looks quite rattled.

Some of the attacks made on him by some board members seem unfair, yet my confidence in him is shaking.....

Tashor, im Impressed!            

If I was Souness I would be intrigued about what I could achieve with a young talented squad. Ferguson, Thompson, Niell and Emerton are all at their or reaching their peak with at tleast five seasons of football left in them. Also they are proven top class players who provide experience to the team. Gallagher is going to be a top class striker, there can be little doubt about that, while Steadinho is full of promise. Fiedel is much older than the rest but as a keeper would be hoping to play at the top level into his late thrities

      Gresko, Nissa and Todd all have a few seasons left in them (in Nissa's case, quite a few!) and have variated in form- but ultimately have looked capable of cutting it if they settle down. Add to this exciting youth team players like Johnson, Danns, Douglas and most importantly Donnelly and we have a great future. Look at the side-

             Steadinho       Gallager

Thompson                           Emerton

               Donnelly            

                           Ferguson

    Gresko                              Niell

                Nissa       Todd

                       Friedel

Out of those only Donnelly and Stead are untested at Premiership level. And while question marks would hang over Nissa and Gresko both have enjoyed excellent games for the club and hopefully will find their form. An addition of a young left winger (downing? we have been connected to him) and we would look good.

If I was Souey I wouldnt be able to resist it- especially as all the players would have been brought to the club or come up through the academy under him. The average age can only be about 24!

Souness is hardly tactically naive, if anything he is too much of a purist. He is trying to establish a team that can compete with the big teams in terms of style and ability and he managed that last term. This has however come with the sacrifice of the 'killer instinct'. We would of been in the Champions league last season with a top goal scorer, whether it was Cole living up to his billing or even Robbie Keane. We are suffering because we arnt competing- in terms of talent in the squad we are easily in the same bracket or better than Charlton or Fulham. We have been unlucky with injuries to our most creative players, something you cannnot blame Souness for.

Ask yourself this, at the start of the season who would of not swapped their manager for our Graeme? Only the top three and arguably Charlton, Newcastle and Southampton- even Liverpool would of taken him back......

Just been reading the same article on

http://www.wldcup.com/news/2004Jan/20040115_21905_world_soccer.html

Alan Smith for £1.5m on Monday sounds like a real deal to me, James Milner is left sided and there may be one or two others. Vultures circling over Elland Road lets get in first as once those administrators receive bids the decent players will be on their way.

I think even the most pessimistic Leeds fan would anticipate getting at least £4 million for Smith. Birmingham would pay that in a shot so its up from there. I cant think of a club in England who wouldnt be interested- Arsenal, Man U, Newcastle are all actively looking for strikers. If it is a fire sale then I would think around £25 million at least for the squad could be raised. Milner would certainly be an interesting target.