joey_big_nose

Ferguson might just end up wishing he stayed to the end of the season. We could have done with him yesterday and the draw we got means we have a decent crack at a semi final. It would be an experience I think you would agree, bigger than Bolton-Rovers anyway and even the Old Firm derby in its own way. Well, good luck to him. I am not bitter but surely six more months would of been worth it to see if something like this would of happend.

Obvious question, suprised no one has explicitly asked it- I could not quite decipher Phillips cryptic comment in the report. What is a decent guesstimate for the summer's transfer budget if we exclude unknown factors (dont factor in Dahlin money, Assume Finishing at 17th- it cant be any lower! etc.)? Does the Walker funds intervention have a huge impact on this or a tny one? Will we see Shevchenko and Ronaldinho sign in the summer? Or Nicky Barmby and a one legged chimp?

Its a funny old game..... We do not really deserve to get such an easy route to the semis but we cannot look a gift horse in the mouth. Our defence is meaner then my gran and in the likes of Savage, Pedersen and Dickov we should have sufficient tenacity and a tiny bit of quality to be favourites against both Burnley and Leicester (should we get there). Getting to the semis would be great but that is as far as we can possibly get unless somebody finds their shooting boots. We were woeful up front against Burnley. It is unfortunate in its own way that our team which is so inferior to the 2002-2003 vintage should be so blessed. A draw like that handed out to the likes of Duff, Berg, a top form tugay, Dunn and Cole and we would be laughing. Oh well, all ifs and buts.

Can you sort something out for me? I caught the rugby league world final and the commetator constantly referred to canterbury being australian. I had an arguement with my flat mate where I said they were from New Zealand and he said that the commentator was right. Was I right, or is there another canterbury in australia? If not that is some shocking research done by the commentating team.

A valid and important point. but probably not one that Rovers fans can make! I knew some one would say that. Nonsense!!! Rovers did not go out and buy established international superstars in the early nineties, like Chelsea and Man Utd are now. Indeed we bought much lower profile players than Man Utd did then too (Cantona anyone?). Shearer Le Saux Sherwood Ripley Sutton Wilcox Were all talented up and coming players, not people at the top of their game. It was intelligent management rather than raw economics which won us the title. Batty could be said to be a well respected player when he moved, while Shearer and Sutton were recognised outstanding talents but still! We had the financial backing but we were not massively outspending the other big clubs (look at Cole's 7 million transfer in '95 and shearer's 15 million). We were not operating with kind of advantage that Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal can exercise now. Rant over.

Wednesday because my dad supports them, but always rovers if Wednesday were in the prem or met them in cup- like the league cup on the way to cardiff! Hearts in Scotland because they are my cousin's team and i am at uni in edinburgh. I cannot stand the old firm. Apart from that no one really. I always go for the smaller team if I am watching a game. I have a maissve antipathy for 'big' clubs who essentially bully teams with their financial clout. What I do like to see is clubs exceed themselves in terms of their relative financial position and play decent football. On that basis I had a soft spot for Arsenal in the early Wenger years but since they have been throwing money around I have lost that. The bottom line however is that Rovers are the only club I feel attached to, the only club I support.

He scored two goals which is good, but his link up play has been atrocious. It really takes the impetus out of the team. We need to free up cash and we cannot just pray that he will improve. Stead and Gallagher are the players we are looking to for the future to have Matt as well is a luxery. He will go.

It is a ridiculous thing to say that Australia are a better team than England. The friendly, despite being an excellent performance by the socceroos, does not prove much. England currently have more world class players and a stronger all round squad than at any time since I dont know when. Ferdinand, Campbell, Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham, Rooney and Owen would all get in to almost any team in the world. Even rat face Neville can be said to be world class. Wright Phillips, Downing, Terry, King, Smith and De Foe all look like real prospects too. I just hope Sven can make it work. With players like that we should be looking at the semi finals as the bare minimum in the next world cup. It would be a real travesty if such a golden era of english talent is wasted. The only weak link is the goal keeper and the left wing. We need to find a system, 442 preferably, make it work and stick to it. Oh I do love making up formations: That is one hell of a side, Sven just needs the balls to pull Beckham off and stick SWP on if he is underperforming. Similar goes for Owen and Defoe. Also, get us to pass the bloody ball and retain possession! ps. what is even more encouraging is that the next world cup will only be the last for three players in the side, and for those obvious replacements seem to be maturing: SWP for Beckham, Terry for Campbell and Glenn Johnson for Neville. A good time to be an England fan.

That might make them a bit more pro rovers....... Anyway, we are suffering from a bit of a comedown. When we had Duff, a top form Tugay, Dunn, Cole and Yorke we were one of the most attractive sides in the league- although we didnt quite get the press we deserved for that. At the moment I would certainly say we are no worse than the likes of Charlton, Bolton etc. I do believe Hughes will look to get the ball on the deck next season and pass it around more, indeed we can move it round at the moment okay. The fact of the matter is however that we do not posess the strikers to make that system work effectively and we need the points but we are hardly route one. We havnt got anybody who can win it in the air! Savage can pass a bit, Gallagher is technically proficiant and Pedersen has a some invention about him. If we can get in a striker who can hold up the ball and a true creative midfielder I think things can rapidly change. Having fullbacks who can actually overlap would be good too. Oh well, as long as we stay up!

Oh bugger it. I havnt a clue. How about this? 8-0 Rovers.

Things have gone from looking quite reasonable a couple of weeks ago to looking pretty desperate. While our midfield seemed to be playing well and sort of making up for our forwards being inept now that looks lost too. Emerton is looking low on confidence again, Pedersen is losing momentum and we have a new problem of finding a partner for Savage. The way I see it is we persevere with MGP and Emerton. They have been decent so we just need to pray they get back into it. Dickov needs a partner, I personally think Gallagher is the best shot but that is merely on the basis that he gets the midfield involved and can finish. He can be bustled off the ball but that goes for all our front men, bar Dickov. Moko looks like he can do a job sitting infront of the defence. Flitcroft is a decent alternative, but not much more than that, and Tugay is a huge risk. Why not tell the fullbacks to play flat (ie. dont foray too far into the opposite half) get Moko to act as a defensive shield and tell everybody else to drive forward. It is not much of a plan but it is the best chance we have to create openings. I, an eternal optimist, am beginning to feel a little desperate. Realistically we have to try for three points against Norwich as the following four games are stick on losses.

You've gormlessly put the cart before the horse! Murdoch (an Australian with no vested interest one way or the other) put money into English football not to help it out or to make it better but because it is more marketable and he will make even more money by doing so! PERIOD. To put that amount of money into Scottish football would have been suicidal from a business point of view. Try and think things through before you let your prejudices run away with you. When it comes down to it Sky pored 20 million pounds per club into England in the early nineties because the crowds were bigger, the interest was larger and the competition was more fierce. The SPL lacks competition, crowds and international interest compared to England not just since the Sky money came in but since the start of football records. Why? England is bigger and has more fans more fairly divided (although not fairly enough....) to actually create a competition. That is the crux of the scottish problem, you cannot just say "oh, its only because you got the sky money!" because the league earnt that money out of the virtues of its size and competitiveness. Murdoch did not put it in out of the goodness of his heart, ha, but to turn a profit. Rovers, Bolton, Charlton etc. are all part of that success and fully deserve a share. Indeed they deserve a larger share than they currently command as Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool etc need us to survive. If we were all rubbish teams who they could turn over with one hand (which is worryingly becoming more and more of the case due to money issues) then we would go the way of the SPL. Anyway you talk about Henry, Berkamp etc, coming for the cash. Then How do you explain English dominance of Europe in the early eighties before SKY was even a twinkle in Murdoch's eye? We have a better league, we always have. Not because the English are intrinsically better than your lot, but just because there are more of us. ps. The Scottish porblem is made worse however by the way Celtic and Rangers monopolise the whole nation. The Celtic and Rangers shops in Edinburgh do far more business than the Hearts and Hibs shops and if you go deep into Perthshire or Aberdeenshire then still the majority of fans will be for the old firm. If it was a little less cuthroat then maybe more than would 4,000 would turn out for an average league game at Livingston.

Virtually impossible to work out what is going on with these commentators. From what I can make sense of it seems we are utterly toothless.

There is nothing to suggest that Jansen will get a new contract. He has been terrible since his accident and there is little prospect for improvement due to his age. For the sake of his career and rovers wage bill I believe he will be moved on. I expect Gallagher and Stead to stay due to their age and low wages while Bothroyd will not be bought. Hopefully we can buy a 'quality' striker over the summer leaving us with: Stead Dickov Gallagher Johnson AN Other Pedersen (?)- see how he does in the role this year.

Savage had an excellent game last night although he probably served to be booked. The guy ran and ran. With him and moko in the middle we are going to be hard to play through and he showed some decent technique and passing. Moko similarly. What was interesting is that in our second game he was as influential as Ferguson's near best (only performances like Barry's against Newcastle exceed lily's last night). Not as neat on the ball as Ferguson or as composed- but his driving runs (a la the penalty) and shooting are a lot more convincing. When Hughes said "he more than compensates for Ferguson leaving" I think our manager might be right. Im am glad, especially in the pridicament we are in, that he is at rovers.

My team: Got to be optimistic..... 2-1 Rovers. ps. Just realised that if this team plays, which I think is quite likely, then we will only have one English player on the pitch. And only 3 (4 if you cont Reid) British players- which is a bit of a shame.

Nope. The 4.5 million includes the 2.5 still owed-written off as part of the transfer.

Told you all Seriously I dont think it is such a bad idea. Reid/Thompson and Emerton on the wings will provide more defensive awareness while Pedersen has shown suprising versitility in the air and on the deck. I imagine Flitcroft will return alongside Savage as Tugay has been a complete liability giving us one hell of a tough tackling midfield. I hope Pedersen can make a go of it as, to be brutally honest, none of our 'real' strikers (bar Dickov) have. If he looks good then I am more than happy to have Emerton back on the left as he has been good there. If Dickov fails his fitness test it will be interesting to see who Hughes partners with the Norweigen. I would guess Johnson, but Gallagher could be a good shout. It is amazing how the running order of strikers changes each week but this is how I think it is at the moment. 1. Dickov 2. Pedersen 3. Johnson 4. Gallagher 5. Stead 6. Bothroyd 7. Jansen Their have been murmurs about Jansen playing but I just cannot see it.

A good case in point. Duff respected the club and went when Rovers were satisfied by the price/ release clause was triggered. Unlike a different scumbag. Duff was as good to Rovers as anybody in the last twenty years. Showed more respect than Shearer or Dunn for example. Deserves a cheer. Hopefully he wont, along with Robben, destroy us.

Can't be arsed with your cheap digs. Some people talked sense on this thread and some didn't. ladies!....

You raise some decent points. However, had Barry signed for Sunderland it would have been seen as a backward step. Yet what if they achieve promotion and then consolidate their Premiership status for a few years and reap the benefits that continuos top flight football and a massive fan base generally bring, would it still be seen as a step back ? I agree there's more of a possibility that Sunderland will go up than the Old Firm being invited to into the Premiership but if that happened then we would no longer be paupers in a poor league. Rangers (and Celtic) have the fan base to sell their allocation of tickets for any away match down South without one supporter up here having to cross the border. That's the real benefit of a Nation with only two main clubs - the fan base throughout Britain and indeed the World is massive. We could attract the top players if we were on a level playing field and who wouldn't want to play to home crowds of 50,000 plus. Would Gattuso, Boumsong, Van Bronckhorst etc leave to join teams in superior leagues at such a rate if they were receiving the same sort of cash at Ibrox - I think not ? I go along with the suggestion that we are not one of the biggest clubs at the moment but the potential is there should we ever be invited down South. If that happens then you'll have a better understanding about the size of the club. That's why I think Barry is at home competing with our main rivals for Championships and cups and an opportunity of adding to his medal collection as well as playing regular European football - because he believes that's what players of big teams do. Well you did try to dress it up but the fact remains that Rangers and Celtic will never be invited into the Premiership. Reasons: a) Tukeys do not vote for Christmas- 18 of the 20 clubs need to approve changes to the rules of membership. As around 10 of the twenty clubs have relegation fears each season they would never ever vote to expand relegation to 5 places to sate the Glasweigen thirst for cash. Collapse of the Home Nation system- If the main Scottish clubs joined the one of the principle reasons the home nations have seperate teams would collapse. It is a point that three Welsh teams operate in the English league and we might be able to hold on to it using conservative ("why, it has always been this way") arguments but the FAs, FAWs, SFAs and NIFAs positions would all be severely weakened. c)If the Turkeys wont vote get the chicks- The other membership option would be to get Two of the three places available for Championship teams given to Rangers and Celtic. Will not happen as the Championship would sue the Premiership- ugly. d)FIFA/UEFA would go beserk- FIFA have a very strict attitude about national leagues. You play within your boundries. There are exceptions- Wrexham, Cardiff and Swansea as said before and Monaco in France- but the old firm would e a move of unprecedented size. FIFA and UEFA would see it as a challenge to their autority and quite rightly view it as a problem that could snowball. The big Vienna teams would want to play in Germany, the Portugese in Spain, the Danes and Belgians in Holland, and even the Greeks in Italy? It would be mayhem. Never ever going to happen. The only hope for the old firm is a european super league sanctioned by UEFA which does not look close TBH or try and join the Conference to avoid problems A and C. The only thing is that B and D are stilll very real. So Barry moving back is going backwards- massive support- OK. But realistically he will always play n a team miles away in terms of talent from Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich etc. Your squad is little better overall than ours, your league is stagnant (Championships and cups in Scotland are not worth much, are they. It is given that you do not even need to be a very good player, in the greater scheme of things, to win one) and the players you produce (Ferguson, Dickov, McFadden and a few others aside) are awful. Dont you sometimes wish you were not so massive? That there might be a bit of competition?

He is going Tris - firstly because he's a greedy disloyal git who put in a transfer request the month after saying that he wanted to stay. Secondly because Mr Williams capitulated on the £6m fee and didn't stick to his original guns. Ferguson refusing to play against Colchester changed the whole situation for Williams (and Hughes) ... it left them three days to try and get the maximum cash from Rangers. Given the way Viola and Ferguson have handled this whole affair, one assumes that Rangers would have been made aware that Ferguson had pulled the ultimate stunt to force his return to Glasgow. Once Ferguson went to that length to get his move, he devalued himself ... ... in more ways than one. Thats absolutely disgraceful behaviour by Ferguson, completely unprofessional. We can only hope one day he finds out what it is like to be actively screwed over. If the tables were turned it would be like a club forcing out an injured player, or denying him treatment- something I cannot see JW or BRFC ever doing. Why? Because they have some decency. Wanting a move is fair enough and understandable- but forcing the hand of the club in that way is fraud. We paid for his talent and participation and he denied them to us. I know we would never do it, but technically you could sue for that kind of behaviour.

IF WE CANNOT FILL SEATS GIVE THEM AWAY TO KIDS. Precisely. See my earlier post on Leicester Tigers rugby union club and their success in building a fan base by grabbing the kids at an early age. Call me a stupid old fart, but this problem requires some new thinking. Here's an idea: Rebuild the Riverside and give over the entire upper section (4,000 - 5,000 seats ?) to children, who would be given FREE season tickets. The cost of building it ? Only the price of one Grabbi, one Davies or one spineless Scot. The long-term benefit ? Absolutely priceless. Generation upon generation of children imbued with the habit of attending football matches and (hopefully) a love of Blackburn Rovers. I realise there may be logistical and stewarding problems with so many kids in one place but it's worth serious consideration. when we already regualrly have at least 5,000 seats empty why bother rebuilding the stand. We could give away/sell very cheap say 3000-5000 easy at the moment. A general deal of all kids (14 and under) for £5, upto 4 per adult. The Darwin End would be ideal, the only problem being the away support in the bottom tear. I cannot see it really being that bad however. The offer could be recinded for Liverpool/Man Utd,or shifted to remaining seats in other stands going on purchase two days before the match. When we cannot fill our ground at the moment building a new stand would be lunacy.

I cannot see Johnson being left out. He scored in the last game afterall and we need scorers (even if it was against Colchester). Goodpoint about us being over run, but surely if we stick five in the middle without having a player to hold up the ball we will just surrender posession. Look at the Man U Boro game last sat. No way of hurting Utd till they got a second striker on. Brum Chelsea was the same. The simple fact is Chelsea have the wingers (Duff,Robben) of a high enough quality to support the main striker (Drogba, Gudjohnsen) who is strong and technically good enough to hold on to the ball. We have none of those things. Five midfielders might well play but Pedersen will play off the front man if so. Has anyone noticed how good he is in the air? I was supised- wingers are usually so poor. He could teach Stead a thing or two.

Murray isn't stupid. I'll bet he knew he'd need to pay more than the original derisory offer - but the moment he put in a bid and Ferguson was interested then Williams was on a loser. Keep Ferguson or lose money - he had no choice and was forced to make a decision. It's that simple. Failure in Europe - something we both have in common then And remember - it's not that long since only two sides were dominating your league now it's just the one ! As for Fergie, I've seen him run the show against, Feyenoord, Paris St Germain, PSV etc - comparable I'd say with at least - the very least - half the Premiership clubs. I do have some sympathy with Rovers supporters as I always like to see them do well but i think it's unfortunate that barry seems to be one of those players who performs better in surroundings he's familiar with. Ferguson is a good player but there is no doubt he is moving backwards, not forwards, going back to the SPL. No matter how you dress it up, in football terms it is the north of the boarder that is the backwater. Rangers and Celtic in terms of playing staff only posess the resources of a mid to lower table premier league side (a case in point- apart from Larsson and Miller what SPL players have gone on to play for top clubs in the last two years?). We are weak up front but in terms of the team in general their is not a lot to choose between us and the mighty Gers... I suppose he just doesnt like a challenge.