Have you had you head stuck in the sand? He left because he felt Rovers were not in a position to challenge for Europe, had little hope of winning trophies, he was homesick and his hero Souness left and he coud not stick it out. He must of come to the conclusion that he just could not make it in the Premiership to the level he could in Scotland, which is pathetic in so much as it was obviously a hard move when he took it. He has potential but lacked to determination to carry it through. He wanted to be a big fish, he is as big as it comes north of the border, and could not cope when similar adulation was not forthcoming for a similar level of performance down south. We got 3.5 million rising to 4.5 million, although the conditions under which this occours are unclear.

I would say that Parker would be a supremely unrealistic buy. I cannot see him coming to us as clubs far higher in the table will want to have a look. He will also want to stay in London if he can. Everton, Liverpool (if Gerrard leaves), Newcastle, Spurs will all be very interested. Saying that Hughes should have a go, just to see. Maybe he can persuade him. Also I doubt Johansson and Stead will be starters next season, Hughes prefers Matteo over Nissa and Stead is obviously not rated that highly by Sparky (which is fair enough really, if you look at his form this season). I think Hughes will look for a left back to be ahead of Matteo and Johansson. We desperately need a bit of creativity in central midfield but no names really come to mind. Hughes should have a bit of a look around as I am sure he is. I think it not outsode the realms of possibility that both Bellamy and Carew could turn up in the summer. If decent bids come in I cannot see Hughes being opposed to the sale of Thompson, Emerton, Johansson, Amoruso, Gray, Flitcroft and, unfortunately, Stead. In reality all could stay as I cannot see anyone paying that much for them.

If they come out all guns blazing that will suit us. Reid, Pedersen and Thompson can hurt teams on the break if they have a bit of space. If Emertonand Stead fnd some form tht will help. What is important is who is coming back for Arsenal. If Gilberto and Campbell play we will have a much harder task. Realistically we will be massive underdogs but I would certainly say that outside of the top three we will offer as much of a challenge as anyone at the moment. We offer little space for Arsenal to play their football through. The run against Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd in the league will give us, and the players, an idea of how we will do.

But as Dale Arden said to Princess Aura when she said she would honour her wedding vows and not sink to the level of the evil Ming the Merciless, "That's what makes us better than you." You can learn a lot from Flash.. awesome If only t'young folk of today would watch a bit of flash, the world would be a better place....

I would go for that, its a good point. The only problem is he likes to play balls through but would not have too much to aim at. To be tight we need to not give the ball away which is something, unfortunately, that comes with Tugay's game. In retrospect against Leicester it may of been a good idea but against the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool we have to wonder what they would achieve from the extra posession that would definately result.... it's a tricky one.

Did you watch us play Everton? That would be a better game to compare with a Liverpool side that will attack rather than a Leicester team that tried to "drag us down to their level" to quote Levein. We will get chances, we just need to put them away.

Would the FA not be contractually bound to play them at Cardiff? I would of expected them to of made some down payment for hiring the venue by now.... Hope it does move however, it should increase the attendance!

I dont see how you can blame Hughes. We put out a side that played arguably the performance of the season against Everton. We dominated posession in the first half and did not allow leicester to break. We could not create chances because Leicester put ten men behind the ball. If we started with two up it would of left us open to the counter attack with not much suggestion of a more effective attacing threat. Dickov and Stead have not looked a good partnership so why sacrifice a formation that looked so effective just to experiment? Giving Stead half an hour at the end was a good decision and one that won us the game. Against Liverpool we will use 451 as I imagine we will for the remainder of the season. We have decent wide players (Pedersen, Reid, Thompson, Emerton) and an excellent defensive midfielder in Moko but poor strikers. It seems to play to our strengths, which is not conceding goals. If Dickov is out for six weeks, as has been suggested, Stead will get the chance to fit into the lone striker role with Gally or Bothroyd coming on to help out if we go a goal down or are chasing at home. It is not pretty, but it is effective. Next season if we can find a decent playmaker (not many about these days, Tugay was an exceptional buy) and a good striker things will change, but you have to use what works best- which seems to be 451 at the moment. ps. Thommo was awful against Leicester where he had no space but I thought he was good against Everton, better than Emerton had been in the last couple. I would be disappointed if Emerton came back into the XI on Wednesday night.

Savage is not going to be fit for two weeks according to his half time interview on the Beeb. I think we do stand a decent chance if Liverpool decide to take the game to us. If I was Rafa and I had been watching Rovers recently, especially against Everton last week, I might well be tempted to put a 451 out myself but I am not sure the Liverpool fans would stand for that at home. The formation, despite being so insipid today, is amazingly effective at preventing a passing game at all- more so when you have someone so quick, tall and strong as Moko infront of the back four. Getting the beating of him would be a task even for as inspirational a player as Gerrard. Providing Liverpool go for a 442 I have a reasonably decent feeling about this game. I can see Pedersen, Stead, Thompson and Reid all giving them problems on the counter.

It will be interesting to see what Hughes does in this match. Today we were rock solid but with very few ideas. The options seem to be straight forward- drop Moko and play two up or just play with one striker. For me I will be suprised If Hughes doe not go for 451 again. Liverpool will be looking to attack and play through us so should provide a lot of space on the counter. Pedersen should be advised to help out the striker as much as possible. So who will be that striker? It will defo be Dickov if fit, but Hughes was saying he may no tbe able to pass the fitness test for Wednesday night. I would like, just out of curiosity, to see Stead start. Dickov was great today and did the business but he does not bring the midfield or, indeed, a striking partner into the game too often. He wins lots of free kicks but they ruin the flow of the game. Stead is no master of this either, but he is a small improvement. On that note I expect the team to be: 1-1 (hopefully!)

I watched the Newcastle game and I reckon they are very beatable. They leave gaps all over the central midfield and play with a huge amount of width looking for crosses. We are set up to deal with that kind of play well- they just cannot really hurt a team through the middle in my opinion. Their defence is also weak so we could trouble them. If we draw them I think we might have as good a chance as 50-50 Arsenal I can see us beating if they do not find their feet, but they have a whole month to do that! If Sol and Gilberto come back and Viera finds his form it will be a near impossible task. Man United have looked invincible in the FA cup the best thing that could happen if we draw them is Ferdinand, Rooney and Ronaldo getting injured but even then we would only have a small chance. We have done well to get this far, to go ay further would be terriffic. I hope Hughes can pull it out of the bag!

How about the rocky theme tune? Not Eye of the tiger, the other one. The orchestral one with the uppy downy bits. It would be genius, when they come out to warm up they could run around after chickens and beat giant cow carcasses into a pulp. We might need to trade in Hughes for a small irish-american man the wrong side of eighty t be the manager, but hell, it would be awesome. Seriously, Rocky is the way forward.

And what is even more scary is that you would assume that 14 clubs like that could not all continue to dominate their respective leagues without a few dropping away. There are only a few exceptions: PSG, Dortmund, Liverpool and Marsille have all moved around a bit. All the others it is extremely unlikely that they will finish outside the top four in their league every year. Even the clubs in the G14 must realise this will hurt supporter interest...

Rovers to win 2-0 Stead, Thompson. Team After arguably the performance of the season Hughes should resist the temptation to mess with the system. Stead should be given a chance at continuing where he left off, with Dickov coming off the bench. Savage should come in for Flitcroft. Under no circumstances should Emerton come back in. Pedersen and Thompson will hopefully provide plenty of support so that Stead is not isolated. Feeling confident, but lets not count our chickens....

That is an interesing point whaich I agree with. Football as it is is not sustainable. If in five years it is still the same three teams dominating the league attendances will fall dramatically. This will come to a head, Keegan is only acknowledging a point obvious to all involved in the game. It is only a metter of time berfore te teams outside the top sixteen or so in Europe start putting pressure on Uefa to start spreading the money round more evenly. Only two possible outcomes in my mind, either a breakaway european "super league" or a redistribution of money. Within the next ten years this will happen- market forces dictate it. Personally I would hope we can keep the Premierleague in its current format, but theree is little chance Man Utd, Barcelona, Munich, Milan etc. will give up their money without a fight.

Surely they would only do that if he was so knackered that he was likely to play under half the games in a season.... If that was the case we couldnt possibly justify taking him on ourselves. If, on the other hand, Brum have merely gone mad and decided to sell him despite looking like he was over his probs he would be worth a look. Hughes has got the team motivated, although to be fair we have not got anyone as lazy as Dunn on the team at the mo, so he could do david some good. He is fraught with risks- Bad injuries, bad mentality- but he is so talented that it would be remiss not to monitor the situation.

I think 50's enough for the time being Bryan. (I thought about going up to a hundred - but that would have been taking the p!ss!) I could never hate you in a million years Rosie. For a few of the names on my list (eg: Graham Poll, Ruud Gullit, Mark McGhee) "hatred" is too strong a word. "Dislike" would be more appropriate. I wonder if you have ever been labeled "judgemental".....

well said prof but you better duck I think thats unfair. While I appreciate what you say about Dickov, Stead should certainly get another shot at the lone role up front, Savage deserves to come back into the team. He has been one of our best players in recent weeksand as far as playing a more attractive game goes his passing and distribution is a massive improvement over Flitcroft. Also he gets forward more.

Just to echo other poeople I anticipate that next seson the remainders from our squad will be: Freidel, Enckleman Niell, Gresko, Nelsen, Todd, Johansson?, McEveley, Matteo, Reid, Savage, Thompson, Pedersen, Mokeona (I see him as a midfielder really), Flitcroft, Emerton. Stead, Gallagher (possibly play on right wing/in the hole?), Dickov, Johnson. 18 outfield and 2 goalkeepers if Nissa stays. Realistically for the Prem we need around 21 outfield players and must be careful too as there is no certainty that Gresko, McEveley, Gallagher, Stead and Matteo (should be sold, but Sparky likes him) can really perform for us consistently enough to play. Also I would be wary of Flitcroft and Dickov as they will be on their last legs I am sure. Anyway, for the new signings I would say, in decending amount of importance and therfore money speant upon: First rate Striker-Left Back*-Creative Midfielder-Right Back-Central Defender (this should be made irrelevent by Nissa staying, hopefully). *The reason I put for Left Back over a midfielder is that hopefully Reid, Thomspon or Savage will be able to fit into this role. I do not think we have the money to purchase genuine class in this area if we also buy a striker. The only way we could finance a good central midfielder is if one of Emerton, Reid or Thompson left for decent fees. I would like to see the Aussie go, but I am not sure we can get the 3 million for him needed for some decent quality. I think we could get a good left back for a bit of cash and then get in a promising midfileder from the Championship, or someone like Koumas, for a small amount of cash.

Dickov's injury isn't serious and he will be fit for Sunday. I think we'll be back to 4-4-2. Thats actually quite problamatic. I cant see Hughes changing the shape as you suggest. He might need to make a choice between Dickov and Stead.

Well, he well deserves it. Our team looks transformed from a side with some talnted individuals who frequently lose concentration to a solid unit who are extremely hard to beat. The quality of football we are playing is improving to- we a re pinging it around a bit more. Looking on Everton websites last night and the general consensus was that Rovers looked like a team that should be the opposite end of the table. The only real difference between us and Everton in terms of league position has not been talent but organisation and work rate. Hopefully under Hughes we can keep up these high levels. Add a quality striker, a creative midfielder (if Reid does not fill that role....) and a left back over the summer and we could really be in business. Top man.

I will be amazed if Hughes does not use the exact same team against Leicester with only two alterations- Savage (if fit) in for Flitcroft and Stead in as a lone striker for Dickov who looks like a long lay off. Thompson adds a little guile to the side and is much more of a goal threat than Emerton. I cannot see how the Australian can come back in unless Thompson goes missing again. Hughes was delighted by yesterdays performance and will not upset the balance. Emerton could be in for a while on the bench.

That was true but only in the second half. He had four decent oppertunities to trap the ball in the first half and he misjudged them all. Still Im not complaining, heres to a resurgent Stead!

The problem is that when he was getting balls in the box, there wasn't anyone to get onto them. This was his best match of the season, and it was one of the few times I saw a Rovers player consistently putting balls in the box. One time he put a perfect one in, if we only had someone a little taller on the pitch. I was wondering if this was one of the smallest starting lineups we've ever had. I wouldnt say that at all! Johansson, Nelsen, Todd, Pedersen, Friedel, Moko and Stead are all over six foot. In fact I would say it was one of the tallest lineups we have had in recent years. Reid, Niell and Flitcroft are hardly tiny either We have put out a side where every player bar the goal keeper and the centre backs has been under six foot at the start of the season (Niell, Gray, Ferguson, Tugay, Thompson, Emerton- might be over six, Gallagher, Dickov). This is from memory so I might be wrong but I do remember noting it. As for Thompson he had some good moment s today, especiallywhen he got ot the by line only to step on the ball. If he could have cut it backit would of been a real oppertunity. What I particularly enjoyed about yesterdays game was how fluid every thing was. Reid and Thomspon would interchange a bit, Pedersen drive up front, Flitcroft drift out to the left. One advantage of 451 I suppose, more leeway to do this sort of thing with Moko holding things together.

Seems a bit unfair on Todd, fair enough he dosnt say alot but he leads by example. However, It is absolutely guaranteed, barring some calamity, that come next season Nelsen will be the new regular captain.