If you're referring to Nakamura as an average player I think that you are well off the mark. He's an exceptional player and should light up the SPL.

For all of you who were championing Gordon Strachan to succeed Souness, be thankful your man didn't get the job. Paul Telfer, Mo Camara?! Oh dear.

And Souness never said hello to poor Keith. If anyone in this world should be grateful for Graeme Souness, it is Gillespie. The guy returned to Rovers after failing during a loan spell in div 2 with Wigan. Souness let him have another chance and Gillespie took it and in doing so, prolonged his topflight/second tier career. Neil Danns is at Colchester Utd. Is Grabbi still playing professional football because no-one seems to know what club he's at?

Hughes seems to have gone for his strongest eleven to start (bodes well for Andy Taylor's chances). However, I know that pre-season is the time for baseless optimism but a central midfield of Reid and The Axe/Savage (when fit) does not exactly fill me with confidence. Even the back-up, Tugay and Flitcroft, are far from their best these days.

If he's sacked, he'll have Championship and a few Prem clubs after him like a flash. If you're a good player, there's no accountability.

Correct me if i'm wrong - but isn't Gary Harkins a central midfielder and occasional right back rather than a cb? I'm disappointed that Hughes has taken Harkins instead of an attacking player with flair like Welch or Peter. Surely we have enough combative but flair-deficient midfielders and Andy Taylor, Ryan Nelsen, John Douglas and Reidy are makeshift right backs to cover Neill.

I don't think we can take all the credit because we nabbed him from Mannheim. Souey's German scout seems to have got one thing right.

Nice to see Sergio Peter involved. It's crucial to have someone competing with MGP on the left and hopefully Peter can do that this season. We're a bit thin on creative players so he may prove more than useful. I wouldn't read too much into Thommo's absence; Gresko didn't play and Hughes has spoken about his readiness to give the Slovak a chance this campaign. And finally, well done the Kuqi! I have my reservations but I'll be glad to be proved wrong if he continues on the goal trail when the real thing starts.

Andy Taylor, LB and occasional CB, was called up to the first team squad at the end of last season, so when Vratty and McEveley reiterate their defensive frailties, and if Matteo gets injured, he may get a chance. I really hope Jay McEveley gets a chance at centre half some time because that is his natural position and it would be a shame to see him disappear having only made first team appearances out of position.

Even Souness isn't that stupid. Why would he buy another injured defender?

The most idiotic thing about all this is that Bush and Blair go on about the war on terrorism as if there's a finite amount of terrorists that just need to be wiped out and terrorism will be eradicated. Terrorists are motivated by a 'cause'. What is needed is to undermine that cause to reduce the number of terrorists. Invading Iraq without UN backing was simply strengthening these crazy murderers resolve to fight for their 'cause'. Can the war on terrorism be won? I don't see how.

As long as Rovers are play hard but fair - it matters little. However, I think most Rovers fans would prefer it if Robbie Savage kept his childish antics away from the football pitch.

At the moment when Bellamy gets injured (with pacy strikers like him, it is a matter of when rather than if) we will be in trouble. As for Shefki - he's only following in the footsteps of other members of his donkey genus, Ward, Ostenstad etc.

There's only one Laurent Robert! I cannot see Souness lasting beyond Christmas next season. He's made the big money signings and more are to come, so if it doesn't start well - bye bye Graeme, hello Alan.

Good luck to Stead at Sunderland. He's the victim of the rampant short-termism that is rife in football. Souness signed him as a long-term prospect - is one and a bit seasons a long-term opportunity? But we don't know the financial situation, so it is more than likely that Hughes had to make the sacrifice to bring in a striker who will supposedly make an immediate impact. Although - had we not wasted our dosh on Savage, we may well have been able to afford this mystery signing without selling one of our more promising young strikers. Anyways - bring on the new signing.

Oh great, the media darlings are back in the top flight. The army of Hammers supporting hacks are probably already preparing their 'Zamora for England' campaigns.

Yesterday just re-inforced my opinion that Gerrard needs a defensive midfielder to play alongside him to perform. Hence, England will not win anything whilst Sven picks Lampard (attack-minded), Gerrard (attack-minded) as the midfield pairing. By the way - what a comeback. But Djimi Traore - Champions' League Winner - still doesn't sound right.

Hakan Sukur....(13) And I see he tries to play down his fall out with Dwight Yorke and in doing so fails to respond to Yorke's claim that he was left with scars on his shin from the 'fall out'. I don't know who Souness thinks he's kidding. Quite simply, he has landed himself a job that is too big for him.

I have my suspicions that he just isn't up to it as a left back. Someone who has been made to look silly by Gary Neville must have question marks against his name (admittedly it was when he was 17). He's good on the ball but cannot use his right peg for toffee and as Mario Melchiot found out, rather weak when it comes to people running at him. To be fair, his favoured position is centre half so he may yet prove a good Premiership player and as a left back, offers more attacking threat than Matteo. Either way, I guess Hughes will keep him as a useful squad player in the short term.

I predict us to have sunk into lower-table mediocrity and have a South African called Aaron Mokoena, who signs autographs on calves with his studs, playing in midfield. I don't know why I feel this but I do.

I am surprised to hear that because, as far as I know, he started just about every match after joining.

He did hack it - to an extent because he was a fixture in their team. However, he did not impress as much as McEveley from what I read. He may well deserve his place on the bench but he is yet another defensively minded midfielder.

The TV rights question - IMO - is more likely to swing in the opposite direction. As was illustrated last night, there is a frightening gap between Arsenal / Chelsea / Manchester United ... and Everton / Liverpool / the rest of us. Collective sale of TV rights was outlawed in Italy and see the results... A line of particular interest taken from that article: "As an example of how outrageously unbalanced the situation has been so far, Juventus receive approximately ?65million each year from TV rights, while Siena barely clear ?5million and 14 out of 20 Serie A clubs are below the ?16million barrier. "

Are saying that Man U have bought this guy for more than 6 million?

If you think Tugay is up to being an integral first team player, I am afraid you are wrong. He still has the ability but is so inconsistent. He made that wonderful pass to MGP to score against Norwich and was generally impressive. However, two games against Burnley next and two very, very disappointing matches which cost him his place in the team. When he comes in as a sub or replacement after a break, he does so with good results (perhaps he should've come on v Arsenal rather than Savage). But when it comes to relying on him, weekly; no chance.