My response was to the generalisation that because we all don't just agree that all things MH does are correct we should just accept them. I have never booed a Rovers player! But I feel that the captain should be someone who is fully committed. If this makes me a drama queen in the eyes of others, then so be it. If you cannot see the paradox in all of this, when our captain (penalty taker?) will in all probability be playing against his immenient new team mates, then I suggest it is you who is deluded!

Or true supporters.

"Ninety nine per cent of Blackburn fans are excellent. I have a good rapport with them. "(The goal) just gave a few people a reminder that I am fully committed to this club regardless of what everyone keeps reading about." I've just read this quote from AdelaideNow from a link on the transfer topic. Something like this, a direct quote from Lucas to the Lancashire Telegragh or from the club on its website is all what was needed weeks ago.

So in summary, is it fair to state that the majority agree?: 1. Booing your own players does not achieve anything and is wrong. 2. Whilst a player has a contract with BRFC for which we are paying, it is correct to play him subject to his performance being of the required standard. 3. Lucas on the whole has been a model professional who has made a major contribution to the Rovers and pound for pound excellent value for money. With just a couple of minor negatives which are far outweighed by the positives, concerning reported comments he has made on, the aesthetic beauty of East Lancashire, some of the females that reside there (despite the fact that his girlfriend is from Snuffy Harwood) and responding to derisory comments aimed at him by the supporters. 4. It is not ideal that the captain of the team is someone who imminently intends to leave the club. 5. Following on, Lucas should not be captain of Blackburn Rovers, but as it's MH who appoints the skipper it is he who anyone should address this issue to. As an aside, if there is indeed little honour in the modern day game post Bosman in the position of captain and it is merely someone who tosses a coin, especially as we already have a number of leaders in the team (Friedel, Ooijer, Neill, Todd, Savage, Tugay, Reid, Nelson) perhaps it might be an idea that a different loyal supporter each week can take a turn in performing this duty!!

The staff were concerned, both Mark Bowen & Eddie Niedzwiecki could see that he was about to do something as he brushed aside his colleagues and headed towards the BBE and both were shouting and waving at him not to. I don't think MH intends to do anything about this. He is a football man, knows how the game works and in fact did something not dissimilar when he left United for Barca. Can Rovers afford to disenchant any more supporters? The issue is not whether he plays (I am more than happy to play him whilst he has a contract and we are paying his wages) as he continues to make positive contributions to the team. The point is as stated in the title "Captain?". In my opinion he should not be captain of our club. The longer this goes on, the more it will spiral downwards and if he leads our team against Liverpool on Boxing Day then..................well I dread to think. I for one apologise if I place more honour in this role than MH, fellow players, ex-players, management team, The Board and others on this forum.

"Lucas played for Ray at Millwall, when Ray was the Millwall and he recommended Lucas to Rovers." Indeed he did and if Ray were still alive I'd bet he'd have a word of advice for him. Ray Harford was a fantastic coach with terrific knowledge of the game, no wonder King Kenny insisted upon him as his right hand man. For what's its worth I don't agree with booing our own players, although on occasions I can understand why. I must confess that I have in the past groaned loudly, with the use of a poor adjective! Two wrongs don't make a right and a player should not respond to the supporters who feel that they contribute to their wages. Irrespective of the man's leadership, temperament and character, I personally do not think the captain of Blackburn Rovers Football Club should be a player who publicly (either through comments made in the Oz press, or through his agent) announces that his immediate future lies elsewhere. For the first time I disagree with MH and think he is wrong. I bow to his greater knowledge of football, but one thing I am 100% about is that I will still be at Ewood supporting The Rovers long after Lucas departs for Liverpool and MH for Man Utd. Possibly other supporters feel likewise that it is an honour to follow the likes of Bob Crompton, Ronnie Clayton & Derek Fazackerley, the Board need to intervene.

MH is not helping Lucas by allowing him to continue as skipper. It only adds credence to anybody wishing to express their dissatisfaction during a game, or provide an excuse for their non attendance. However supporters will have to reconcile themselves with the fact that contracts last for a fixed period of time only and players will then move on for an extra few thousand a week. The supporters do not want to see the honour of captain to be awarded to any such person. For what it's worth it appears to me that Lucas's commitment and attitude has not been vastly different, but if the boos increase who knows? Surely the management and Lucas can see the supporters' views and address this? Lily for skipper until The Admiral returns and may that be very soon please?

Our home form will keep us up. Lots of home derbies in the 1st half of the season have impacted with easier home matches in 2007. Although our expanding injury list is a concern exposing our lightweight squad, 7 matches in 23 days starting on Saturday, 4 away matches with only Arse at home in January!! Oh my god, don't panic. The worst thing home supporters could do is to start getting twitchy and get on the backs of the players. Uefa cup success for little old Blackburn Rovers, imagine adding this to our role of honours, yes please!

Is there an advantage from having the sleeves the same colour as the body? Hence on the white half have white sleeves and on the blue half with blue sleeves also. Would it have been easier for the officials against Spurs (when Mido caught the ball and threw it down) if the sleeves were a different colour, to have spotted a hand ball? I think many years ago circa 1900's this was the kit?

MH reported comment today, "He understands that if in January the situation arises where I feel the squad will not be weakened then I will look at it. But if that situation does not develop he will not be moving." And what will be the response from Lucas if he wants to force through his transfer to Liverpool in January? I may be wrong, but would not be at all surprised if his "nagging hamstring" persists a while longer!

And are we all still happy that when/if he returns after injury he gets handed the captain's armband for Blackburn Rovers Football Club? Ironic how a nagging hamstring can sometimes rule someone out!

As Captain Mainwaring said "Don't panic"! I reconciled myself at the start of the season that we would be mid table (8th to 14th). This is due to a typical good performance in one season (2005/06 for Rovers) sometimes leads to a different approach the following season from opposing clubs who might use a less expansive style of play and accept that a draw against us is a good result the following season. I'd put Rovers alongside other clubs such as Everton, Villa, Boro, Spurs, Newcastle & City in this category who might finish anywhere from 5th to 15th. with Rovers punching far above our weight too! Also taking into effect a good Uefa cup campaign I was willing to settle for mid table. Mid table may at times mean 15th/16th and 6th/7th, but overall not a time to panic but an awareness of the relegation battle. What I found enlightening was to hear last season about MH's points tally he sets. It would be interesting to see where we currently stand. Bear in mind that many of the other clubs around us will have played 15 games to our 13 after tonight. We might have to wait till January when Ryan and Reidy hopefully return and who knows who else in the transfer window, up to now MH has always pulled a rabbit out of the hat! So now is the time for patience rather than panic.

Is that Birmingham with Dudley Council?

6 of us (plus 2,494 mates) travelling Wed & Fri Blackpool/Amsterdam and staying in Swissotel for both nights. Come on Rovers!

A response to thenodrog in so far as he begins his posting with reference to me. Firstly your comment about our current education system producing "insular numpties", well I'm sorry but I'm a product of an education system from a bygone era and am amused and quietly flattered to think otherwise. Many of the attributes which I would advocate were developed from a more classical education, do tend to share many of the roles which I would suggest the carrier of the role "Captain of Blackburn Fovers FC" should possess. Loyalty, dependability, allegiance, fidelity, faithfulness. Naive is mentioned and perhaps as football supporters that's exactly what we all are, for continually coming back for more of the same from an industry were the term loyalty means diddly squat. Contracts and there role in football is like no other business in the way both parties run roughshod over them. But possibly this may be another reason why many supporters have had enough and are now voting with their feet? Perhaps they cannot reconcile such hypocrisy and would not tolerate disloyalty in their personal life and why should they? Sadly I am a hopeless case and there is no cure for my addiction to BRFC. In Div 3 when the attendance would sink to around the 4.000 mark I must admit that a thought did briefly enter my mind that I would pass on the next home match, but fortunately it soon wore off and I was back for more stood on the Riverside. I am quite prepared to accept that Lucas has freedom of contract and will walk on a free next July. I'm sure that the offer from LFC in August received due consideration by the Board & MH at the time, but with knowledge that Nelson was facing a six month lay off the decision to retain his services and enforce the contract of a very good defensive player made sense. I have not suggested Lucas should be dropped, he is still one of our best players. I think we should do everything possible to encourage Lucas to re-sign and committ his long term future to BRFC, but fully acknowledge that it is Lucas's right to chose the path he sees fit for himself. I applaud MH for trying all options open to him to accomplish this, which appointing him captain recently is an example. My own opinion as I have already stated are that the comments he is widely quoted as making in the past couple of days, are not those to which in my opinion the captain of Blackburn Rovers should make. Just my own personal opinion, I fully appreciate we all have our own thoughts on the subject and we reconcile and set our standards and morals. In reply to my initial comment that I hoped the Board of BRFC and/or MH might make a comment on Lucas's quotes, your response was, "Why? There really is nothing more to say that we dont already know." Well perhaps I hoped they shared my views on his comments rather thans yours. After what he's said can you reconcile Lucas wearing the armband at Anfield, representing BRFC?

For the sake of clarity I think we must have some comment from the Board and/or MH. IMO Lucas is a fine player and excellent athlete, in his early years with us his positional awareness was naive, but he should NOT be dropped as he is one of our best defenders. But we need a more fitting skipper until the Admiral returns. I have been impressed when he has played centre half and with our current frailties in that area and Bert's fine form at RB I'd play Lucus there. Does anyone disagree that his position as captain is untenable?

Indeed, Duggie, Ronnie, Noddy & TP all fine examples of players who in the past have shown magnificent loyalty to BRFC, you could even add SG & Faz to that list. These were still in a minority with many dissatisfied players seeking a move, however they just got on with it and were shipped out. But all from a bygone age with maximum wage, dictatorial Chairmen and pre player power. In the current age we have, transfer windows, agents, multi-media, the world wide web with players having their own websites and quotes being sought from an insatiable media. In my view it's intolerable for our club captain to make such public statements and he needs to wise up. Something which BRFC IMO needs to address, NOW by appointing a new interim captain. I can understand and applaud MH's attempt at trying various methods to persuade a very good player to re-sign, but it must now be seen as unsuccessful. Please Ryan get fit soon!!

We need a response from the club, either the manager or the board, soon! This situation where our club captain makes statements like this does not help matters especially with the current "feel good" surrounding the club. This cannot be allowed to continue. I know loyalty can no longer be relied upon and you could suggest that it never has, in the past it was kept under wraps. In my view player power highlighted in such a manner only disheartens supporters more and provides excuses for non attendance.

No, this is wrong!

I don't think it serves any purpose for aybody on this messageboard getting precious with each other, as if you post on here I'd suggest it's taken as read that you "support" BRFC. The questions for supporters' discussion and the club's consideration are "how do you increase our gates", "where have the missing supporters gone", and "why won't they come back when we are playing well and we are realistically in our highest position in the league". Lets face it the income from gates is less important as it's imperative to achieve premiership survival as this pays the bills. As ST holders we can pay roughly the same for our tickets, sit in a half empty stadium and object to initiatives from the club to entice missing fans. Hence the problem facing the club is that it would take a monumental decision to reduce ALL ticket prices with consequentially major financial risks in order to fill our ground. Otherwise you alienate the ST holders. It would appear from the offer to freeze ST prizes by renewing in April, no such radical plans are on the cards. I hoped that they might at least move the family stand and create cheap season tickets & matchday tickets to create more atmosphere. I'd suggest that the club are playing it safe. It's probably easier for Gordon Brown to balance his budget than BRFC!

I've heard on the grapevine that most of the major local pubs who have been showing live footy on Saturdays at 3.00 have this week been issued with a letter from Sky (who have exclusive rights in UK) warning them that they face fines of up to £20,000 if they are caught. I think this may scare off a number of the landlords. Also from another source that this was at the instigation of BRFC.

Yes indeed a fantastic post by Tris and the sort necessary to provide meaningful debate on this integral theme. However I would not share the 100% faith in the actual staff at BRFC being able to deal with the necessary resulting issues. I do at Board level and would add that in John Williams and Tim Finn we have excellent men working hard to provide direction. However the staff below them are frankly average. May I give an example? Perimeter Advertising boards at Ewood Park and BRFC’s marketing department. The club deal directly with the main national advertisers but sub-contract the other boards to advertising companies to sell, although they do not make this point clear. Last year this was performed by a company over in the Fylde and this year by one in West Yorks. My firm was contacted and I agreed (with this being the first corporate sponsorship at BRFC) that we would have a board last year. Putting to one side the resulting atrocious service which manifested itself in our board not being in place until way past the start of the season with the Man U game being missed. From that day until last week, when the West Yorkshire firm contacted me to enquire if we’d be interested in having an advertising board, nobody from BRFC’s marketing department has bothered to make contact with us to see if we were happy and whether we might be interested in any other corporate sponsorship! I have found this staggering that BRFC have a local business who are obviously interested in supporting Rovers but no one has even contacted us, missed opportunities? I’d be tempted to say that it was Conference standard, but that would be unfair on Stanley who in my experience are better than BRFC in the marketing department.

Yes I have noted BRISA's recent newsletter, I did mention this in my first comment on this subject, although I'll reserve judgement about the club actually monitoring this effectively! I’ve read the various posts, BRISA newsletter issue no. 2 and noted the Chairman’s remarks in the annual accounts concerning our falling attendances and wished to propose a couple of alternatives for consideration for next season. I’m sorry if I’ve gone over points already raised. As regards the assumption that cost was the only factor, I'd agree and did mention earlier that there are many reasons why we have missing home fans when we are currently serving up an excellent product. But as it does seem to be the major reason ex regulars give for no longer going, I thought it may be beneficial to consider what alternatives may be available to dispel the notion one way or the other that cost prohibits people attending. Thought provoking for consideration to address this issue, or otherwise lets accept that our 30.000+ ground will only have a 50% home capacity with no chance of The Riverside ever being re-developed.

I appreciate that there are many reasons why our gates are down, but just looking at what many consider the main factor, cost. What is the impact of failing to get missing home fans that may be cost sensitive to attend Ewood? Apathy has a tendency of spreading into many areas which might continue if not addressed. Do we think that the main reason for the missing fans is due to cost? If we think the answer is yes and we want to do something about this by offering cheaper tickets to them, I would imagine we could not afford to achieve this without also having a negative impact on the overall matchday income, which is I would suppose completely unthinkable. Hence any radical change must look at the affect this would have on the overall ticket pricing policy. Decreasing the cost of home matchday tickets in any other area of the ground excluding the upper B'burn end would impact on the matchday ticket price, we are compelled to charge the same amount to visiting supporters. If the average home fans attending in a season could be increased by only 3,000 at £15 per head, this could generate at least £855,000 of income. So it is rather more than stiffing Man U fans to generate £100,000. I’d agree that it would be a major upheaval for regular supporters content with their seats. I think I did mention that hopefully regular supporters might be tolerant in view of the attendance problem and a degree of tact and diplomacy might be required, something which the powers that be down at Ewood can sometimes be lacking! I too am all right “Jack” (Roversmum) in the Jack Walker lower tier, but should we not be looking at the bigger picture? As regards the smoking issue, I think we might find that the new legislation concerning smoking in pubs etc… is the tip of the iceberg, with employment law ultimately affecting employers such as BRFC banning smoking completely, in order to head off any resulting actions from employees who have worked in smoke filled areas. However could a portion of the concourse be sectioned off into a no smoking area?

Indeed sneaky, at the expense of many visiting supporters who are used to the concept of £40 ticket prices. How many times have we balked at the cost of tickets at away grounds? Would the typical away fan know the actual price, because the home tickets would be advertised with the exact same face value but cost the member say 75% of that shown. Sneaky might also be considered shrewd business! Yes a season ticket holder in the JW lower tier may pay more for their guaranteed regular seat in a prime part of the ground, as compared to the top tier of the B'burn end behind the goals. I'd agree that a balance must be found. The amounts were chosen as merely round sum amounts for ease of examples. Just some thoughts to try to generate some meaningful dialogue from us the supporters to rectify our attendance issue. I do appreciate that there are many reasons which have turned off many supporters; not least the overpaid prima donnas; the over exposure of the product on tv's whereby virtually every game can be viewed by many local pubs; tightening of spending in the entertainment sector whereby since last year people are watching what they spend.