Well, and this exposes me as someone who has used cocaine before, a gram sits at about £ 40. This works out at about 8-15 lines I think. Consumption of cocaine is mostly amongst well off people as far as I understand, and as a result does not result in the low level 'fix' crime 1864 was talking about. That mostly comes with Crack and Heroin use. I would support a massive toughening of penalties for Crack and Heroin dealing (20 years imprisonment). These drugs are so unbelievably destructive that if there is any chance of eradicating their proliferation then they should be persued. Cocaine should also be eliminated due to the simplicity of the process to turn it into crack. Ecstacy and Cannabis should be legalised for the simple reason that they appear to cause no more harm than alchohol or tobacco (indeed many studies show a much lower level of damage), and the vast majority of social problems associated with them come from control being in the hands of organised crime, and the huge amount of money it generates. A strong approach is required, but one based on the premise that it actually protects. The 'gateway' argument- the only one with any real credibility against cannabis and ecstacy- is insuffcient. As far as I understand this is a common opinion amongst police and young people alike- which is remarkable and damming for current legislation.

I wouldn't say that. We still have some tweaking to do in midfield and we need the friendlies to sort this out. If everyone is fit I think we all know what tactics will be used (a holding midfielder in a 442 system) and who the starting keeper, strikers and defenders will be in Germany. The two questions are who will be dropped out of Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham and Cole, and who is going to be the holding midfielder. The holding midfielder is the big one because whoever comes in will not have a huge amount of international experience.

He can pass the ball better from deep but Parker is far superior at breaking up play and can still distribute very well. With the attacking talent of Lampard, Gerrard and Cole I would say it is more necessary to have someone to get the tackles in. At any rate either of them is a better option than King. The Gerrard-Beckham comparison seems an easy choice for me. Gerrard can dribble, shoot, head, tackle, drive forward and get into the box much more well than Beckham. I would also say Gerrard is a superior leader and commands more respect which ridicules the concept of Beckham being left in as he is 'captain'. It can only be a matter of time until Gerrard gets the captaincy, why not just bite the bullet now? Indeed the only advantage in having the tattooed one in the side is for dead balls and crossing- and the diminutive stature of our forwards somewhat negates these benefits. Nonetheless I fully expect Sven to pick him

The England squad has been announced and parker is still not included. I find this suprising as I rate him as a superior player to King, Jenas and Carrick. Apart from that the rest of the squad was pretty predictable. Robinson (Tottenham), Green (Norwich), James (Man City), Neville (Everton), Young (Charlton), Bridge (Chelsea), Konchesky (West Ham), Ferdinand (Man Utd), Terry (Chelsea), Campbell (Arsenal), King (Tottenham), Beckham (Real Madrid), Gerrard (Liverpool), Lampard (Chelsea), J Cole (Chelsea), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Jenas (Tottenham), Smith (Man Utd), Carrick (Tottenham), Owen (Newcastle), Rooney (Man Utd), Defoe (Tottenham), Crouch (Liverpool)

Thats a fair point, it does make the board more interesting to read. But what I do not understand is why anybody resorts to insults. To illustrate when has anybody been been inclined to be convinced by an argument when the other party insults you? If there is one sure fire way to make an individual you are trying to persuade to entrench their position it is using insults. As far as I can work out insults are pretty much one of the most useless aspects of language. What purpose do they serve which is desirable?

To be fair what goes up must come down, they cannot win everhing forever. We need these teams to decline to inject some interest into football, and all major sides have bad seasons. Ferguson is arguably the greatest British manager of all time (although I would put Cloughie amongst others ahead of him) and the 'crisis' consists of not being in the top four. The fans just need to buckle down and accept that sometimes things don't work out, the baiting of him is unfair. If the next few seasons are affiars whereyou actually cannot predict who will be in the top four before a football is kicked that will be only good for the sport. On current form it does seem that Chelsea are in a league of their own, while Arsenal still have a bit more class than everyone else and you suspect they should take second. Apart from that it is much of a muchness. Who knows who will grab third and fourth by the end of the season? It will be interesting!

If we do sign Petrov then it will be an interesting battle between them as presumably both cannot play in the same 442. As a sidepoint, I have not watched Celtic too much but he seemed more of a skillful breaking forward kind of midfielder in the Scholes/Lampard type (I could well be wrong about this. I haven't seen the Hoops play in over a year and then only briefly and with minimal interest) rather than a deep sitting dictator of play like Tugay/Ferguson/Keane. ps. I have to say those who advocated a switch to 442 have been absolutely vindicated. I opined sticking with 451 and have been proved utterly wrong, much to my delight! It has to make you wonder what kind of force we would be with another true world class forward. Hughes has been tremendous and has proven himself as a manager who can achieve with few resources. Bentley aside none of his signings have been less than very good (Nelsen, Kishi and Bellamy have been sublime!) , and all have been bargains (apart from possibly Savage. 3.3m was a bit steep at his age but he has been doing the business!).

Do you always have to be so abrasive? It does not win you any admirers.

I think Matteo would feature before Amo, but tbh the way Hughes has organised the defence I think anyone could come in and be at least decent.

Certainly have- I am on a year exchange at the university of Washington in Seattle. The perverse thing about it is I get to see more games out here because of Fox Soccer Channel. The combination of a lack of car, my folks living outside London and student finances meant I got to see three Rovers games a year at best.

I completely agree with that, Parker is certianly a better option than King, although SWp is better in my opinion than you suggest. However Sven has shown that he will not drop Beckham, he just refuses to do it. If Gerrard is dropped in favour of Beckham it will be a sad day for English football, but I can see it happening.

If Savage dosnt make it then suddenly we look weak in the middle- especially against the quality of Smertin and Murphy. I guess Moko will fill the gap. Perhaps only 1-1 without two of our best players (nelsen and Savage).

On the other hand it is hard to see how capping salaries would be defensible. Why should they have their salaries limited when no one else does? And how is being a footballer any different from being any other skilled artist- some musicians, film stars and writers make buckets full of cash. Presumably out of fairness we would have to cap their salaries too. Indeed to make the system water tight you would have to cap everybody's salaries. That would be no less than tragic economically, mass capital flight, brain drain and curtailment in investment. Also there is the practicle question of players just moving abroad, and free market legislation. Arguably if Hill hadn't scrapped the wage limit all the players would of just buggered off to Spain or Italy. And also what would they do with all the money they saved? Give it back to the supporters? Hmm, cant see it happening. Personally I think that they do earn too much cash and are feckless with it but rather than regulating them (which is an unfair and unworkable intrusion of the state) fans should simply refuse to be held to ransom. If demand falls as the price rises then prices should fall again.

I quite fancy us for this one. In bellamy we are likely to have the best player on the pitch. I am looking for a good performance from the wingers, and Kuqi to get more involved with the ball at feet. Apart from that everybody has been at least decent recently so I suppose thats why I am quite confident! (ps. I would like to see Bentley given a shot in the middle, up front or in midfield, but I guess that is only going to happen if we are winning by a bit of a margin)

I think that is a bit unfair. As football generates more and more money you have to say that the players deserve their share. If they didn't get it then the chairmen or the TV companies would take it, and it really is the players and manager the people come to watch. Players wages are driven so high because there only is a tiny 1% (if not less) of footballers who are world class. Short supply, high demand is always going to result in massive prices. In the long run more top players need to be produced to bring the wages down, or teams need to work out how to get more out of average players. The market finds its level.

What I dont understand is how Bruce is managing it with much more quality in his squad. Much as we like to do Birmingham down they have alot of players who are better than ours: Pennant, Pandiani, Heskey, Forsell, Dunn, Melchiot and (to a lesser extent), Izzet and Upson. Indeed apart from the super quadrate of of Pedersen, Savage, Bellamy and Nelsen they are better equipped, Friedel and Taylor have been much of a muchness in the last couple of seasons. So the issue, for me, lies in the fact that Bruce cannot get the best out of them while Hughes seems to be getting alot out of lesser players. If they do go down we should be first in the que for Pennant and Dunn!

The obvious place to look is at Spurs where they are over loaded with midfielders. Carrick would be ideal, but may be too highly rated by the club to be allowed to leave. Apart from him both Sean Davis and Mendes are more than decent players and should both be allowed to leave if a good bid come in. I would imagine 2 million at the very most. Those two are plausible targets who can pass and perform at premiership level. In fact, apart from Graveson (must be on mega money, surely?) and Dunn (too injury prone), I cannot think of anyone we could realistically get with a comparable level of raw talent. And they have experience at this level, which is invaluable. However the gaffer has shown his stuff in getting in Axe, Nelsen and Zurab so maybe he can do it with more creative players who are relatively unkown on these shores. ps. We must be in a position where we have to offload. We have TEN midfielders at the moment. Flitcroft and Douglas need to go at the very least with Thompson, presumably, the next in line if he does not show some good form.

We have so many decent reserve players it will be worth putting them out. Bellamy should only come off the bench- We cannot afford to have him, Pedersen or Savage injured. Bentley should be tried in the centre (either in midfield or up front) just to see what he can do, although I am not holding my breath Subs: Bellamy, Enckleman, Matteo, Gresko/Dickov, Savage We are going to need out players to work their socks off against Chelsea so maybe even Gray should be swapped for Matteo depending how fit Sparky thinks he is. 2-1 AET. Home advantage should see us through.

My point being that neither do Tugay, Pedersen or Bentley. I think Gallagher could offer something going forward, especially in a 451 where Axe and Savage would take most of the defensive duties. Discouragingly I have been reading on the Stoke board that he has been a bit on the lazy side down there, something which he showed up here last season. The best option would be to get someone in, but gallagher has played some defence splitting balls. Just a thought

Player for player I would say that Charlton have a better side than us, just. Man City look slightly worse (Andy Cole seems to make all the difference. Hurrmph) but Pierce seems to galvanise. By the time we face Arsenal they could well be back to full strength. Chelsea have an unbelievably good side, the best in every department at the moment. Six points would be an excellent return, four points would be acceptable.

I would agree with that except I would play beelamy from the start on the right. Both Emerton and Bentley have been dissappointing on the right hand side and Bellamy is our major threat. Kuqi Pedesen Bellamy Savage ***** Axe Gray Nelsen Zurab Niell Friedel ***** is one out of Tugay, Reid and Bentley I think we will lose by the odd goal. Maybe 2-1. ps. Our bench is looking strong these days. Potentially Dickov, Todd, Matteo, Bentley, Thompson, Reid, Emerton all available.

The first game I have seen this season, and i have to sa that Savage looked our best player by a way. Did the most in the side in terms of attacking and defending. The whole defence was excellen and the strikers good too. The question mark for me is Bentley and, to a lesser extent, Tugay. I will be suprised if Emo does not take Bentley's place (shocking.... one shot and absolutely nothing else) and the top priority in January (presuming we have any money) needs to be a long term replacement for Tugay. All in all a very good result, especially as the next four will be real testers. Bellamy is a class above! ps. I advocated this a while ago, but who thinks Gallagher when he returns can be made into a midfielder? I still havn't seen anybody play for Rovers in the last two or three years who can pass as well as him bar Tugay and Ferguson. I know I will get slated for this, but if we don't have any cash then it may be our best option.

Oh AESF, why are your posts so long and uniformly dull? Is it a penance for us all, did we do something wrong?

I lived in Edinburgh for 3 years and I was only ever treated nicely! Whats your personal experience of this 'racism' and how does it compare to how you talk about, say, the Germans, the French and the Argentians.

I would not say that is true. Scotland probably has a more defined and celebrated heritage than England. They do not define themselves in opposition to us but rather try to protect their identity being swallowed by Britain, I am sure you would have a similar attitude about English culture if we joined a United States of European for a (hypothetical!) example. What the major complaint seems to be is that the English are overbearing and obnoxious, and you have to say that seems to be borne out by this thread. You could substitute 'England' for 'Manchester United', and 'Blackburn Rovers' for 'Scotland' in some of these posts and you would have the exact replica of the arrogance we detest in Scum fans. And as for all this 'little bitter country' stuff, it is true that smaller countries/teams feel threatened. Examine the relationship of England and the US or Blackburn and Man U for example. Scotland have a bad team at the moment, but it is a cracking country and hopefully things will sort themselves out. They are very much my second team (I like Wales to do well too), and Scottish troops go out and spill blood not just for Scotland but for the Uk, as do English troops. For all the bickering, Scotland and Wales are our closest allies and friends in this world. To think anything other is ridiculous.