If that's the case then full marks to Souey the Machiavellian mastermind. Seriously though, if Bellamy was to go either here or Brum, I don't think there would be a happy ending. He's a big-headed little **** who thinks he should be playing for Man Utd, and assuming he has a successful season of rehab wherever he ends up (please, not us) his agent will be sorting out his escape route pretty damn quick.

Well, I care. There's something about him that turns my stomach. He might be a good player but he's a vile man.

Fingers crossed it isn't true. Maybe we could partner him with Diouf to cement our position as the most hated team in the Prem.

Agree! Out of the frying pan...

I think it means 'the boys, the boys' or something like that.

Well, my theory still needs a little work...

My time machine only goes backwards - I can get you some lottery results from 1996, if that's any use.

That's not a fact! If he was the best of his era, maybe it's because the 19th century equivalents of Maradona, Pele, Zidane, Van Basten and, erm, Sherwood were doing more popular, more lucrative things. ie, back in ye good olde days, the vast majority of people with any natural footballing talent slipped through the net. If you were halfway decent and managed to survive to the ripe old age of 21, you'd stand out among your typhoid-ridden, one-legged team-mates. Today, you've got to be so phenomenally good just to get a chance, and everyone with natural football talent is playing the game at some level. Old Forresty might barely be good enough for Darwen. ergo, olde association soccerball was rubbish. Look at the size of the doorways in old pubs - olde folks were malnourished midgets who would get muscled off the ball by Tugay.

Fair point. What I was trying to say is that to be a Premiership-winning footballer in this era takes a lot more than to be a winner 100-odd years ago, when there was no competition. Back then, a footballer probably worked down the pit on Saturday morning, spent the afternoon playing soccer against a bunch of unfit old men wearing long trousers, got wasted on beer and opium in the evening, then woke up in time to burn a few witches at church on Sunday. Maybe Forrest could have cut it in today's world. But would he have got into a Blackburn side with millions to spend on the pick of the country's talent? Heck, there are probably more kids vying to get noticed at the Rovers academy than there were adult footballers back in Forrest's day.

I guess it's just disappointing when there's any kind of 'greatest ever' poll and few voters had previously heard of half the winners. It's like all those stuffy 'greatest movie ever' polls, where you just know Citizen Kane and Metropolis are going to be at the top, despite the fact that with each passing year they become less relevant to the average person. 1995 was our glory year, not 1895. Sherwood rose to the top at a time when every kid in every country dreams of being a footballer. Forrest may have been the best of his day, but there wasn't a great deal of competition, what with rugby, cricket and badger-baiting being more popular sports at the time.

When I think of 'vintage' football I can't help but think of that Harry Enfield sketch... It has to be Sherwood, because he won the biggest domestic trophy in an era of fierce, professional competition; when it actually meant something. And he probably didn't have a couple of pints of mild and smoke a pipe at half time. Or during the match.

Huh? Was that around the time we refused to take Ronaldinho on loan?

I wonder who's going to sign him when he's released? I mean, he was a £5m player not too long ago, he's 28, 29-ish? He may well win an appeal, in which case he could be out midway through next season. Of course if I was a relative of the bloke he wasted, I'd make damn sure he was never capable of playing football again, but I can see some team signing a hate figure worthy of the name...

Erm, on a lighter note, the other side of the sale/investment coin is why Arsenal will be playing at the Emirates Stadium in the near future.

The two posts above have got me imagining an Ann Summers version of Mr Potato Head. Brrrr....

Well, I remember the Shearer Out campaign even if nobody else does. It rumbled quietly for years, in the same way the Owen/Beckham things have recently. From Soccernet, after a two-second Google: "And as the France 98 approached there were calls for Shearer to be dropped from the England side, but by this time Glenn Hoddle had made him skipper." Anyway, like I said, I'm not trying to denigrate Shearer. I'm very happy that the one and only prize he won in his entire illustrious career happened to be with us.

Perhaps I'm alone in recalling the people who wanted him out of the England side because he was too slow, rarely scored and was holding the rest of the team back...

At 18, he's proved he's different class to Shearer?! The other one's got bells on it mate. Shearer, top club player as he is, didn't really do it at the highest level. Scored the odd goal for England, but you'd never look at an England side with Shearer in it and think "That's the man who's going to win us the game." During the latter half of his England career, Shearer's reputation-based selection tended to draw groans of disappointment. Anyway, I'm not here to disrespect the best player Blackburn ever had. Just wanted to say Shearer = reliable goalscorer in the Vieri mould. Rooney, however, looks like a Zidane-style once-in-a-generation super talent, something English football has probably never produced in the past.

How can there be any doubts? Apart from his Auld Slapper incident, the guy hasn't put a foot wrong. I can't understand the Shearer comparison though - Rooney is clearly in a different class to Big Al. Hat-trick on your Champions League debut... Jeez.

And if tonight is 10,000 or less, that's definitely a pre-Walker attendance figure.

That didn't take long!

Would have been happy with any of the top three candidates but Hughes always sounded like the best choice. Good luck!

Or Paul Sturrock! Yes, Paul Sturrock!

And I'd also like to thank Jon Stead for his contribution to Blackburn last season.