Anyone see him and his Barnet team mates taking the Crossbar Challenge on Soccer am this morning? As he walked up to the camera he was doing a funny walk, and he annouced himself as "Paul Warhurst - Defender, Midfielder and attacker!" Wasn't far off with his attepmpt either ...

There's no way our game will be on TV. Why would any TV channel waste money on live rights for Rovers - to try and compete for the (limited midweek) football watching audience against Newc / Spurs / West Ham? If they all get eliminated and we don't then someone might take an interest in our games in the group stage. Boro managed to get on the box a bit last season. But lets be realistic - when you've had Tues and Weds watching the Champs League, there isn't much demand to watch second rate matches on a Thursday involving unpopular teams.

Aren't you the only one??!

There is a problem with the 12 votes for "keep them but get them to drum in time" How's that going to happen? Are we going to send these loons to the Royal Northern College of Music for percussion lessons? They've had enough practice FFS! It's not like they have to learn new chants every fortnight (or even every season!) Those 12 votes should be added to the "they should go" quota, on technical grounds. Last time this poll came up, I voted middle of the road "not bothered" out of courtesy to Billy and co. Soz fellas, time has come to get the BBE back to how it should be. Drummers out. Unreserved seating in.

Can't go. Gutted doesn't even come close.

any change in venue / date will be announced by 1500 CET

I lived there for 18 months, was hoping I'd never have to go back! They were crap then (apart from the hero Tony Cascarino) - but I guess if they won the cup they might be ok now. Nice town square, some good restaurants ... good local food and wine ... not a lot else to shout about to be honest.

Thank goodness for that! The Champions League "draw" lasted for an hour this evening!!! [And was probably all fixed anyway] I'm hoping desperately for home leg first .... otherwise there's gonna be a hell of a ruck with my boss

Orange customer service used to be the very best. It's gone to pieces - and it won't surprise you to learn that the decline started when France Telecom bought the company!

My bank changes me all the time - from annoyed to really annoyed to incensed, and sometimes depressed. My biggest gripe is this - in a world where I can buy goods and services with a few clicks on t'internet (and the money vanishes from my bank account balance within seconds) ... when I transfer money between accounts or pay credit card bills online, several days elapse between cash leaving one account and turning up in the other. There is no excuse for that whatsoever.

I have a Sky+ box (and a normal Sky digibox) - but infuriatingly I am not allowed to put a dish on this building, so both are redundant and awaiting the next house move. So I finally took the plunge on a DVD-R + HDD last week and settled for the Sony mentioned a few posts up. I got it from Currys where the shelf price was £499, but a long argument with the manager about their "price promise ("we won't be beaten on price") ended with her calling head office and me walking away with the new toy for £349. It was the only local store where there was stock and I didn't want to wait or mess around with home deliveries from the likes of Empire Direct etc. Top marks so far - it's a really good bit of kit, easy to use, and is coping with being hooked up to cable as well as offering the EPG for all Freeview channels. Brilliant sound too, as I've come to expect from Sony - I'm using a Sony amp and speakers I bought in 1990 and the new machine sounds great through that set up.

The hero Seb Perez left Istres in January according to this It certainly isn't him wearing the armband as suggested above - he's 32!!! Who can track him down!?

That's not a fair or balanced comment either. Infiltration into the Riverside and JW stands was rife - long before the City fiasco. Pockets of away fans and subsequent trouble when the likes of Man U and Liverpool came to visit will have driven away far more "floating" fans than were prevented from buying tickets when sensible restrictions were brought in to stop infiltration. I remember one Liverpool game when I sat in the JW upper and it was like being in the Kop. Rovers fans were leaving at half time because it was so unpleasant. The policies which have stopped infiltration are a total success - not the failure you suggest.

Going off at a tangent (and hopefully not an inflammatory one) .... I spent Saturday and Sunday at Headingley watching the cricket. It was noticeable (and surprising) that the make up of the crowd was massively weighted towards English support. Similar story when at Old Trafford and Lords. Perhaps 80-20 at Leeds and 90-10 at the other two. Watching the 5th day highlights on Sky tonight, and support at Headingley seemed to be around 50-50 England and Pakistan ... could be down to ticket prices (£15 today, compared with £22 - £42 days 1-4), could be down to variations in unemployment levels between West Yorkshire residents who support England and those who support Pakistan, could be down to the potential for a Pakistan victory today - or it could be none of the above. It doesn't really matter - cricket is way bigger than football and the local Pakistani fans didn't even bother turning up for their national side until day 5 of a test that happens once every 4 years. Getting similar folk down to Ewood week in week out to follow Rovers is a hopeless cause.

Getting as many Rovers fans through the door has been the mantra for 5 years and more. They're not coming - whatever Rovers do on or off the field. You sit on the fans forum - what have you proposed in all those meetings these last few years? What reactions did you get? Have your ideas been tried out? If not, why not? Maximising revenue HAS to be the priority now. Fleecing away fans might pay the wage of an important player for a season, who could make a difference. Going after non existant home fans won't do that.

£36 is a lot of money for sure - and so was £32 last season for the top category games. So is £35 at Watford, £39 at Reading, £44 at Spurs - and we're trying to compete with those teams irrespective of the size of the local population or difference in average wage. We're playing at the highest level, not Conference 1 North. Will a 4 quid increase make the calamitous difference in home area crowd figures which have been suggested over the last 6 pages? I don't think so. Those of us who are walk on fans gulped a bit at £32, and we'll gulp even more at £36 - but the number who turn away this time will be very small. Most of the turn away fans did so long ago. And therein lies the crucial misconception being aired in this thread. People still think these "floating 'supporters'" are going to come back to Ewood if the tickets were a few quid cheaper - they aren't!!!! They didn't last time we finished top 6, or when we won a cup, tried cheap tickets, improved the quality of football, won lots of home games, had a "star" in Bellamy, changed the management team, played different tunes when the teams run out, or had a blue and white balloon, flag and atmosphere day at Ewood Park. So realism has taken over. No Darwen end season tickets, and when the chance comes along to milk the away fans it has to be taken. Not that it'll make much difference. Arsenal will generate 60 MILLION this season from income in their new Emirates Stadium. Rovers will generate around 6 million at Ewood. Rovers could charge walk-on fans any price between £20 and £40 and that 6 mill wouldn't rise above 7 million or drop below 5. They have the best data they've ever had on trends and ticket spend, and have made the best decisions for the club on the basis of that information. Messageboard critics will always know better, but have no hard facts to support their suppositions and preferred solutions - which are often based solely on emotion.

To be fair, the new Wembley stadium will offer more tickets to fans of competing clubs in both domestic cup finals (and FA semis) than either the old Wembley or Cardiff. And by all accounts it'll be an amazing experience to see a game there. I'm quite sure that if Rovers happen to grace such an occasion, none of us will be complaining about how much the stadium cost to build, we'll be enjoying the day out as we always do.

To be fair they've made a pretty good job of it. The finished project cost just 67 million quid (substantially over budget but if the Welsh can build a parliament for 67 mill how come the Scots had to spend an extra 333 million?!) And the building has recently won this award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. National Assembly for Wales homepage

I'm pondering over the Sony RDRHXD710 and the Toshiba RD85DT, after my 16 year old VHS machine gave up the other day. I bet these new gadgets won't last for 16 years.

Took me two guesses - now I'm going to empty Jordan's bank account. (PS - 6 letters, begins with R)

Sven three rows back from Alan, wearing a white bib. He sees some games ....

Stop being so bloody optimistic. Really - you've been on here long enough. You should know better.

I was in Dublin this morning, and have never known it so hot there. When I got back to London this afternoon, it was way hotter than Dublin - I thought I'd arrived in the tropics. It's been a strange summer - as May turned to June I had to stick the heating on one evening. Since then, we've had a couple of these mini heat waves - and this one is beyond anything I can remember. To speeeeeeedie's point - I think that it becomes such an issue here because we are a.) so ill suited to the heat and b.) so ill prepared. None of London's buses or tubes have air con. Terminal 1 at Heathrow - very little air con. Like a greenhouse today walking from the gate back to the main building. Most modern offices do have air con - but most older buildings don't. And where in many parts of the world (including the USA) you can buy a unit which props up a sliding window, pumps freezing cold air into any room (and CFCs out into the atmosphere like 10 fridges on speed) for about 50 dollars - you can't over here. Cheapest are about 200 quid (but they don't wreck the atmosphere) - and for maybe 10 days out of 365 it's just not worth it. So when it is this hot we moan because it's hot at home, uncomfortably hot on the way to work, often hot at work, desperately hot on the way back, and then we can't flippin sleep at night cos it's too bloody hot!!

Don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed watching all of the teams from Africa - I was in Dortmund for Togo v Switzerland and it was fantastic entertainment. You can't say that about too many games involving Switzerland! My gripe is with Blatter who - in his quest for support from all corners - decided that the WC holders have to qualify, in order to shoe in an extra spot for a team from Africa. The holders should never have to qualify for the finals, end of story.

I'm not glad it's over. I watched and enjoyed well over 50 of the 64 games in full, on English TV, Dutch TV, German TV, in the fan parks in Germany and the two I was lucky enough to see live in Dortmund and Koln. You are only swamped by the media if you want to be. The broadcasters may put out puerile crap which is boring, but they do that World Cup or not. The schedules tonight aren't exactly making the pulses race (although Sussex and Essex put on a fine show in the 20-20 - but it's not quite the same!) The World Cup isn't about broadcasters. It's about a special festival of football involving 32 nations. We are only treated to this for one month in every 48. Over in Germany it was about colour, noise, friendship and cameraderie. About sharing experiences and a love of football - sod FIFA, sod broadcasters, sod sponsors and corporate tickets - it was about being there and eating the sausages. I enjoyed every moment - and that's what I wanted to do. It may well be that other people were just as determined not to enjoy it - up to each individual. But you are missing out on a lot of fun if you let the periphery (like the media) hijack the event for you. 1,418 days until South Africa 2010.