Imagine what Hughes could manage with a squad like Brum's! I love the rovers but in terms of playing talent only Pedersen, Nelsen, Bellamy and possibly niell would get in their side. Friedel and Savage would be a close run thing on last seasons form against Taylor and Butt/Jarosik. Delighted to see them come up short with a 3-0 (!) loss today.

I just found out the full name of the lead character in the movie "Unbreakable", who also happens to be completely invincible, is David Dunn. Oh the irony. ps. As an aside, as much as I hate them, Birmingham look like they will be half decent once everyone is fit (Dunn's due back at the end of september, Heskey for their next game I think). There's a lot of talent in their team (Forsell, Dunn, Upson, Melchiot, Maik Taylor, Pandiani, Heskey, Pennant are all very good players. Butt might refind his form too....) they just need to bring them together. Our game against them could be very tough. Forgot that they have just got Jarosik too! One player I wouldnto of minded turning out for us!

I reckon this is the team Hughes will plump for if Bellamy is out but the Axe is back. Emerton has to be dropped: Bench: Encks, Emerton, Flitcroft, Gallagher, Gresko/Johnson Personally I would be tempted to just do a straight swap on the right for Gallagher, but I think Hughes is more likely to go for the above. I think Spurs have an excellent team this season which is better or equal to our side in every position except left midfield and Nelsen's half of the centrebacks. Anyway, I would be happy with a point but a win is not out of the question as Spurs have a habit of self destructing.

Well in many ways having Nelsen fit is more important than having Bellamy who dosnt look like he will make it. My Team: I would put Tugay in for Gallagher but I think he would be more effective coming on in the second half. The rather random inclusion of Gallagher comes from the fact that he is, apart from an on form Tugay, the best passer in the team in my opinion. Playing him in the middle should not present any defensive problems as the Axe is effective there and Tugay himself in almost invisible so it is no downgrading. Emerton is left out so that he can think about how bad he has been and hopefully respond as he did by getting (at least a bit) better last season. (In actuality I realise that Hughes is about as likely to castrate himself as put Gallagher in central midfield, but I think it is an interesting idea).

Well it looks like it will be Kuqi up front on his own and Gallagher available from the bench. Not too promising but this is the kind of think we are going to have to deal with if we are going to have a decent season. Also Hughes upset with Toshack Gallagher played for Scotland U21s two days ago. Im not sure how he played- anyone know?

What I have been thinking increasingly is why not push them out? Couldnt the other 85 or so league clubs agree to move out into a new system unless the European money is divided more fairly- ie. the vast majority of the money from the Champions League is shared out amongst all the teams in the football league equally. Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. would still recieve a relatively small match fee and keep the money from gate reciepts so they would still make some cash. Another cup could be added, or the league cup adapted, to exclude clubs competing in europe. In order for consistency however it would have to be agreed that the Premiership money would be shared out with lower league teams. To not do that would just be hipocracy. Would we as Rovers fans be willing to allow that? It means financially we would be vastly worse off. It is radical but it would work in terms of competition, even if it would probably result in the big teams opting out to a European league to preserve their money.

Whoops! Yes, a typo. Bellamy would play on the right in favour of Emerton, I reckon. I have amended my previous post.

It will be interesting in so much as it will sow how Hughes will set out his stall. I would think the line up will be: Or: I have no doubt it would be the latter if we were playing any of the 'big four' away, but as it is a newly promoted team and we have had an encouraging pre season the former is possible. 451 and I would say it was a near banker for a draw, maybe we might snatch a win. 442 is a lot less predictable, but we would certainly have more goals in us. Will Sparky take the risk?

This is the full list going to Germany. Only Amo is missiing due to his operation. GK: Friedel*, Enckelman. CB:f: Todd*, Nelsen*, Mokoena, McEveley, Harkins. FB: Neill*, Matteo, Gresko, Taylor, Gray. CM: Savage*, Reid, Tugay, Flitcroft, Douglas. WM: Pedersen*, Emerton, Thompson. Att: Bellamy*, Dickov, Kuqi, Jansen, Johnson, Gallagher, Derbyshire. And being a bit sad I have put them all in order of where they stand in the pecking order (in my estimation, but I think it is accurate based on what we know). And to further compound my geekiness I have placed a star next to 'definate starters if available'. I will get my coat. ps. looking at it we certainly do look like we are in need of another central defender. Moko is awful there, although he would be good as a full back in the Matteo mould or in his supreme DM position. We need to bring another player in. Also there is no obvious partner for Savage. Reid is okay but I have a funny feeling he wont adjust to being in the middle of a 442 too well, if thats what happens.

I wouldnt say that. I think if the Israli's would accept a situation where there was a peaceful Palestinian state existing alongside their own. Indeed, I would say the majority of Israelis would just like to live peacefully and get on with their lives. The same goes for the Palestinians, it is just a militant minority who are slowly destroying everything.

We shouldnt scoff just yet, they still have a pretty decent side and they are looking at Boa Morte too. That is a side far superior than our own. The only players that we have who could get into that side would be Bellamy, Nelsen and possibly MGP. Look at the quality on the bench too: Butt, Ameobi, Milner, Bowyer. It is all a bit midfield heavy but you cannot deny that Souness is bringing in quality. Even if Jenas goes they can just go out and buy a decent left winger with the cash. They will get at least 12 million for him While Souness has money to spend I think he will be okay. If he could find some tactical acumen, which I know is dubious, then a top four finish is not impossible. They are in terms of all round qualiity not too far off Liverpool and certainly ahead of Everton. ps. Bowyer would be a decent acquisition as he would be cheap. We are unlikely to get a player of his quality for a million or so. Hughes obviously thinks he can control wayward players, so why not? We could rehabilitate the thug.

Blair could have just been wrong about it, made a mistake. Or, probably far more likely, is he thought the ends justified the means. He exaggerated the likelhood of of WMDs existing in order to get public support, and reasoned that toppling a dictator and liberating millions of lives, presenting a strong front to the terrorists and maintaing some kind of influence on Washington was worth it. A dubious method but this is not borne out of self interested or poor intentions. And yes I do agree that idealism goes out the window, you have to broadly appease 60 million people of diverse views so to plug a single narrow agenda is virtually hopeless, and will ultimately lead to you being ousted. That does not mean that they have no morals though, just that they are practicle, just as we all are really, to one extent or another.

I always like you posts Brian but there are a couple of things I have to say about this one. Firstly, why such a downer on politicians. You talk as if Blair relishes sending kids out to die to sate his own ego. That is completely and utterly unfounded, insulting and degrading. Even if you oppose the Iraq war, a quite tenable position, it is completely another thing to say that Blair did it for pure wnwholsome motives. Remember he gained nothing out of it, in fact he lost votes. It was probably the most difficult decision of his entire life. I hate it when people attack politicains who have broadly speaking done little wrong (Archer, Mandleson, Nixon is a different matter...). They are all self interested, yes. But in the same way we will all moneuver for promotions and try to appease those who pay our wages. I have never seen anything in Tony Blair, or John Major, or any others which has suggested that they are any more disgusting than the average man you sit next to at work, or even the man who sits in your own chair. Tell me- do you really think Blair sent people to die for his career? Do you think he let all those Iraqi's get blown to bits for an extra line in a history book? Do you think an entire cabinet of people who, I am sure, are just as intellectually capable as you and I would of sat there and looked at all the evidence and said- "oh, its obviously not justified in any way, but we will support it to for Tony, and maybe people will give us credit too, let those kids, those civilians die". Does that sound even plausible? Robin Cook spoke against it, but he never questioned that Blair was doing it out of anything other than the best intentions. And lastly, would you make a better Prime Minister? Does anybody think they would on this board? Thats an interesting question (I know I wouldnt). We bleat but we do nothing, and we vote the fekkers in. One day we will get someone in who is as bad as we say then we are doomed. There was a second point but I will leave that out for now.... I have written enough.

It is amazing that people who open;y espouse views like this can walk the streets. Anybody who admits that they are willing to commit murder should be locked up. Can anyone clarify whether he new legiislation that comes through will put such dispicable people as these behind bars? Youthful bravado or not there is no place for this in our society. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On another point I do not really see the current situation as a result of US foreign policy. While the Iraq war was broadly questionable it was clearly not an attack on Islam nor was it motivated by any real sinister motives. It was, for right or wrong, conducted in order to relieve the possiblity of further outrages and, one suspects, to give the US voters a feeling that something was being done. In the long run the residents of Iraq will, unless extrmeists hijack the whole thing, do very well out of it. Israel aside, whose creation is not down to the US but rather a Western phenomena, the US has been a positive force for the Middle East- it provides huge investment and has constantly striven to stabalise rather than destabalise the region. A peaceful Middle East keeps oil prices down and people not getting ruthlessly killed- something that, despite some amaxingly hysterical Americanophobia in Europe and the Middle East, the US approves of. We are in a bizarre situation. The US and the UK only want the terrorism to stop, they have utterly no desire to subjegate or imprison or enslave the peoles of the middle East. They are there for security reasons, not to conquer. Th Oil interest plays iit role but only to the extent that we need reasonably priced oil in sufficent quanity for our economies not to collapse. If we could get fuel from another place believe me we would. Yet the US and UK are getting attacked for being invaders and subjugators. We are not against prosperity in the Middle East, we are not against religion in the Middle East, we are not against the people of the Middle East. The terrorism is, in my book, founded on deprevation (which is not the US's fault but rather created by under developed economies and these countries own regeimes) and volatile rhetoric rarely grounded in reallity. The US could withdraw tomorrow but the whole region would go into meltdown. What the people of the middle east have to realise , and I think most of them do, is that a United States fostering democracy and development in their region is better for each and every one of them in terms of liberties, prosperity and progress than these crazy @#/?s who want to impose a strict religious system upon them and once in charge doubt blow the hell out of each other for the next century.

4 Strikers?! Looks like Bellers is playing on the right. Guess the side lines up:

Call me ignorant but I never realised that Bellamy has a kid. That alone should give him a reason to find some real perspective. He obviously recognises that he needs to change his temprement, he said as much when he joined, and i think Mark will try to help him in that area. If he is as single minded as the article suggests he must realise that to be taken seriously he needs to stop making headlines for the wrong reasons and start banging in the goals.

Just thinking about it I reckon Hughes might sign a couple more players. I doubt Bellamy would of come unless he felt we had a real chance of climbing up the table. A Cole-Bellamy strike force could be handy, although not a lot going on in the air with it. One decent defender for cover and, crucially, a talented attacking midfielder and we could be looking at a transformation from a slitghtly tepid squad a week ago to a decent top eight challenging side. At any rate it would still not be bad if we just sign Cole: Fairly classy. And adaptable too for the better opposition:

With forcing bellers out of the club it looks like Souness has given back a fraction of what he wasted on Grabbi, maybe he felt a pang of guilt. NB. Some caution is in order to, both bellamy and savage are here because Hughes is in charge much like Ferguson and Souness, if he is poached off us then we could well lose these players. All in all though, as much as I dislike Craig, he is a cracking player and the in terms of talent the best striker we have had since Shearer (Cole and Sutton not quite at the same level in my opinion).

Get a life. You got it wrong. You must lead a pretty immaculate life Smithy because you throw more stones than I have ever seen thrown by anybody. Bilious, bitter and sad seem the most accurate words for you.

I think Hughes will cross that bridge when he comes to it. The plan seems to be get Cole and McCarthy. He will consider youth buys next season depending on how things turn out, it is hard to say whether Jansen or any of the young strikers will bloom over the next twelve months. Signing a fourth striker would be a waste, the next target would surely be a central midfielder. Sparky has said as much. ps. If Benni is unable to join I would guess that MH might settle for Cole and Kuqi and look for an attacking central midfielder for circa 3 million. This would probably force us to play 451 but hopefully with a bit of skill on board (Dunn anyone?) it might be quite entertaining. This is not ideal but hardly terrifying for next season.... pps. Just read a couple of pages back and have now found out Dunn is injured until October, ho hum. Substitute any likely looking name for that player.

I have to say I am suprised by all of the negativity towards Liverpool. They are an outsider, and whatsmore an English outsider, to win a major tournament. This is good because it means the Champions League is not becoming as dull as everybody thought. Furthermore it means clubs like Everton, PSV etc can go into next years competition with a bit of hope. For that alone I welcome a Liverpool win, it makes things more open. Also Liverpool played with a bit of heart and it was an incredible game, Steven Gerrard seems about as 'real' a footballer as you can get in the modern game and it was brilliant to see him lift the trophy. I have no soft spot for liverpool but they are certainly closer to my heart than the corporate bully clubs of Chelsea, Man Utd and AC Milan. So what if they have only two English players. I would like to see more in the game but you can hardly blame them. Virtually every club in the league is like that, including ourselves. So much bitterness for very little point in my view. Good on them.

Bugger, Blake of all people

These players have to be expendable: Amo one out of Nissa and Matteo, possibly both could stay if we do not sign a left sided defender. Flitcroft (I think he is poor and he is going to find it incredibly difficult to get a place with Savage, Reid, Moko, Tugay and hopefully a new player in) Douglas One out of Thompson or emerton Thompson or Emerton are the only ones we could hope to get cash for and it would be certainly worth selling if the money would fund a quality player who could play wide or in the centre. Short, Gray and Bothroyd will all go. Jansen will stay if he accepts massively reduced wages. The squad will be a bit smaller next season but hopefully will possess a bit more talent. We are probably looking up against it to find a decent left back as cash needs to be spent in other areas. I just hope Gresko looks decent when he is fit.

Our players are are going to be knackered, 4 games in 10 days! In light of this I hope Tugay gets a start over half fit Savage. 1-1 draw.

If you allow for the transitional period under hughes and the start of the revolution after the two back to back 4-0 defeats it is even more impressive. You dont want to jump the gun but Hughes is a gem. I would be amazed if we do not continue to build into next season.