Don't get too excited. Mourinho, Martin O Neill, Fat Sam all rule themselves out. Capello announces himself as desperate for it. His price is always going to shorten. I feel the market knows nothing as we are weeks away from the FA announcing they have a 'short list'.

I don't buy this 'the 11 players don't care' business. Watching the game on Wednesday I do believe that most care. I just believe that we weren't a good enough team. Crouch cared. Campbell and Beckham care but they're past it. Wayne Bridge may well have cared but crumbled under the pressure and put in an absolute shocker. We also have no evidence that to an extent Lescott and Richards also couldnt handle the occasion and were found to be not good enough. I'm pretty sure none of the came off the pitch not caring. The main focus is the gruesome twosome of Lampard and Gerrard. Two figureheads of the England team. Two supposed world class stars. However they never contribute their club form for their country. Why. I don't know but for the first time I found Gerrards comments before and after the game almost false. Joe Cole is one that I can't make my mind up on. As a player and a person I find him an obnoxious diver. However he can commit and go past opposition defenders. He's also fairly mobile. On the left wing he is being wasted. Before moving to Chelsea he was an attacking central midfielder. It would be interesting to see what he could do there. Unfortunately there are 'irreplacables' in that position for both Chelsea and England.

It's hard to know where to start to have a rant at this. 1) Goalkeeper. I feel really sorry for 22yr old Scott Carson. Never gets a game and then gets thrown into a pressure situation like this. He should have either been blooded a few games back or James should be playing in case of Fat Robbo. McLaren has made a big call on a crucial day in order to look 'decisive' and take the heat off him once England qualified. It's backfired big style. 2) Fat Frank and Gerrard doesn't work. It hasn't done for 5 years. It didn't do again. Sticking Barry in there as an extra man doesnt matter. They don't work. Gerrard was mediocre in the first half. Rubbish in the second. Fat Frank was woeful all game. At least he had the character to take a penalty which leads me to.... 3) Wayne Bridge. Spineless. Didn't want the ball. Played every ball safe. None of his usual enthusiasm to go forward. Scared to tackle around his box. His performance stank of someone who didn't want to be the one to make the 'mistake'. Shocking. I don't like Ashley Cole as a person but thank god for England when he's fit. 4) Whilst I'm criticising. Micah Richards was poor and appeared to me to look unenthusiastic, especcially later on. He often jogged back when a Hendry or Samba would be sprinting back. Lescott isn't good enough. Campbell has served Enbgland well but is past it. Defoe is a good Premier League striker but won't score international goals. 5) Fair play to Crouch. I thought he did OK. I also thought SWP did OK and looked positive. I know he's Bentleys rival for that position but in the first half he was one of the most likely. Joe Cole is out of position. He's a soft diving little git who I cant stand but he tried and did OK. Try him in Fat Frank or Gerrards position. 6) Beckham. Yes he set the goal up with a ball into the middle. However he also saw very little of the ball and is immobile. He's had his day. England need to look to the future and I'm talking more Lennon than Bents. Beckham has served England well, he's a nice guy and all but he's always been overhyped. Give him his 100th cap and wave adios. Or 'Have a nice Day' as he's now used to. 7) McClown. Must go. All my points above he's ignored at some point. even tonight in the last 5 minutes we had 4 men back. i know Croatia left a few up front but that should have left us space. Jesus Christ his job depended on it and yet Richards, Campbell, Lescott and Spineless were still in their own half. Surely, surely one (probably Richards) should have been moved upfield. He's cocked up time and time again in this campaign. Look back through the threads on this board. He's gone surely. Who do we replace with. I don't care. Give flippin Owen Coyle a go. I hear he's the next best thing since sliced bread. At least Bentley gets a rest next summer!

Hopefully it starts at half time and McClown as McClown is sacked.

Off topic but I've just put some highlights of Burnley away 2000 up.

Let's hope you dreamt it. The spineless idiot has decided not only to hand Beckham a start in order to get a soft cap to push him up to 98 appearances. He's also dropped Gareth Barry and re-united the dream-team of Gerrard and Lampard. He says Lampard is playing the 'best football he's seen'. Seriously, a poor performance tommorow night would be no bad thing for the national sides future. What a tool !!

Anyone see Andy Fordham in the daily mail today? He's lost 10 stones since January and you wouldn't recognisde him if you passed him on the street! Link here

Do you not believe that is how all players not in the starting line-up regularly feel - Roberts, Ooijer, Berner, Tugay (who has made similar noises in the past), Peter (who has also). A lot of players at most Premier League clubs who aren't regularly starting would give the same reply as Mokoena has done if asked by a reporter. Are you really suprised by what he has said? No because you knew thats how he was feeling anyway. Unless he says "I want to leave the club" it's not really a story. edit - In my opinion edit 2- Anyone that moans at Mokoena (such as the prats commenting on the original link) should realise that we do need a squad with back-up midfielders. We aint going to get a squad with 4 excellent central midfielders. (Do we have any?) The Axe is a solid squad member who does a job. He's not going to suddenly become Viera.

I agree completely Cocker. It's not only what he's good at, it's also I presume something he loves doing.

No he hasn't pretty much said that. I get frustrated at my work quite often and want to do things I'm not allowed to. However I am not disillusioned with the company and aren't actively looking for a new job.

Thats typical story-out-of-nothing journalism. Sometimes people need to look behind the story. He was probably asked how he felt about starting on 2 games this season. Look at what he is actually quoted as saying. ""Every player wants to play as much as possible .I've always been patient, but I don't like sitting on the bench. I started more games towards the end of last season, but it has been more frustrating this season once again."" It's not like he's stamping his feet for a move benni-style is it. Personally I'd play him before Tugay nowadays anyway.

I wasn't aware until today that England had a meaningless friendly against Austria on Firday night. Now will Mclaren give Bentley a decent run out or will it be a Beckham, SWP, Lennon cop out. We shall see.

I knew I was putting myself up to be shot at but I still stand by it. I reckon had it been the same price structure as last year we'd probably be nearly at 30,000 anyway for the Liverpool game. Apart from the City game which was boosted by a large away following the other attendances must be viewed as disappointing considering the price structure. As many people have said, if we charge £10 per ticket I still reckon the attendances against the likes of Fulham and reading would hardly increase. I'm not moaning about it. I'm happy they've done it and I'm only paying £299 for my season ticket. I believe that we only have around 19,000 home fans. I also believe that figure is good considering who and where we are. JW and the board often tell us they want to fill Ewood every week. This price drop was the one thing they could hope would help to achieve this. It's not going to happen. I believe the affect it has had so far will be disappointing for the board. The only hope now is that recognition and a glimmer of top 4 success will improve matters. (what also won't help is the 18 live games we've got on Sky from December onwards !!)

That's possibly the only way short term. Good recent form against a 'big' club brings out the fans. It's true we did probably only get about 3,500 more home fans last night than for the other games but the 3500 turned up because of the opposition and the attractiveness of the fixture, not because of any price reduction. I know I'm stating the obvious here but Fulham, Reading and Birmingham don't have the same pull. They aren't attractve games to the Blackburn public as Liverpool or Man U whatever the price structure we put on them games. I believe that the attendances this season would only have been down by about 1500 had we kept last years price structure. A 7.5% attendance increase for a 30% price reduction is not the effect Rovers wanted. In summary- the Premier League product in general does not attract the casual supporter of Blackburn.

Cracking 30,000+ crowd and atmosphere last night. Strange though that the first game that sees us sell out at home is one of the games that still costs £30 to watch. More evidence that reduced ticket prices aren't making that much difference?

King Georges hall has finally been given the bullet as a Premier League Darts venue. Unsuprising really considering the trouble last year and the fact the event has obviously outgrown the location. Nearest location for 2008 is the MEN on the 14th February. Tickets £20 & £25 Dates here

The MGP booing happened once that I am aware of as he was subbed against Portsmouth. It was from a relatively small number of people in the Blackburn End.

Forget our drummers. That Portsmouth fan with the bells would drive me mad if I was sat near him all week. They were going through me from the other end of the ground. Edit for Ste B post below - Cheeky Cheeky !!!

And I wouldnt have had much worry picking up my cash either.

He's 6/4 and if Betfair had a market at that price up I'd probably lay it.

I said at the end of last season that McCarthy has got the old problem that he appears to put in subdued effort and can often go through games contributing very little. However his finishing is exceptional and he scores goals. If the goals dry up for a substantial length of time then we have a problem. However we're only 5 weeks into the season so let's see what happens. He, along with MGP and to some extent Bentley, haven't caught fire yet this season. The fact that we're still unbeaten is a testament to how good a side we have now. Benni had a quiet spell at the turn of the year only scoring once in the league after New years day until early March. However he hit 8 more from March to the season end. People are just worried over whether he is trying to play his way out of the club following his silly comments over the summer. If he is then Hughes has the players on the bench to be able to bomb him out until January. Let's see what happens over the next few weeks. Was Jay Bothroyd lazy ?? :ph34r:

Sorry to bring it up this back up Tris but I too was sceptical about Dunns signing. However in the games he's played this year he really has proved the doubters wrong. I'm not saying he's the second coming or anything but he's put in some good performances as shown again today against City. Now he's had a pre-season the worry about any stamina doubts are long gone. The image of his coming off 60 minutes into the UEFA cup game knackered are long forgotten. In both todays game and the Arsenal game he ran right to the very end. He may look 'fat' but his fitness isnt in doubt. I don't think hes the player we sold as he hasnt shown the ability to dart forward and past a player like he used to but he's still technically very good and seems to accept his defensive responsibilities much more not than under Souness. All those peoeple who thought he added nothing to the squad, and there were many of them, are IMO now being proved wrong.

Amazing how the ommision of two letters can transform a sentence.

I've got £30 on Painter to beat Taylor with a 6.5 leg start. :ph34r: Normal people would edit this post now as it looks as though I'm knackered but I'll leave it up for the crack.

Bit gory (you have been warned) and not really funny but video clip of a guy hitting a long jumper with a javelin tonight in Rome. The 'funny' bit is the interview after. "I'm not very happy because my javelin hit a man." "Can you tell me what happened?" "Err, My Javelin went a little bit too much to the left". http://www1.nrk.no/nyhetsspiller/type/loop...12736/tab/sport