Surely the plural of scudetto is scudetti? Could one of our Italian speakers please confirm as this is worrying me sick. Anyway, if things go tits up for the clubs involved it's fair to assume that they will have to unload excess players due to the assumed massive fines and possible relegation sanctions they could face. This will spark major movements among the European big boys and could leave a few bargains waiting to be snapped up because of all the excess players floating about. It seems to me that Mr Hughes ought to put some petrol in his Vespa and take an Italian holiday to see what goodies he can get. While this is bad news for the Italian game and I have genuine sympathy for the rank and file supporters of those clubs (I'm not talking about teenagers in Guildford who think they are fans of "AC", as they would doubtless call them, because they own a replica shirt), on the plus side it would p1ss on the chips of all those sharks who are keen on a breakaway European league and see the likes of Milan and Juventus as integral to their fiendish plan. I reckon Grabbi could re-sign for Juventus (where he was once a ball boy or something) when they take on Pogibonsi following their relegation to Serie Z. Maybe Sourpuss will take up the hot seat at Lazio...

I organised our sweepstake at work and it all began in January. Everyone has paid £2 per month between January and May so all have paid £10 in total (pot of £320). Nobody knew which team they had back in January as all the teams were in sealed envelopes and all we did was write our names on our chosen envelope. As I was the organiser, I took the one that was left. Now £320 is a lot to win in a sweepstake so there are several prizes. £120 for being the World Champions £50 for finishing 3rd... that's right, there's nowt for the runner-up so if you are in the final it's all or nothing. £50 for the golden boot £50 for finishing bottom of FIFA's fair play league £50 for having the worst team knocked out in the first round. So in our sweepstake having Togo could be a huge advantage, while the real duds are teams like Ecuador, Paraguay, Poland, etc as they won't get beyond the second round, they won't score many, they won't get hammered and they're unlikely to behave particularly badly. Who did I get? Australia! Got to say I was gutted when I open the envelope but upon a bit of reflection I realised that with Lucas Neill in my team I could be on for the bad boy prize of finishing bottom of the Fair Play league! Go on Lucas, kick him!

Even thoug I expect Portugal will win fairly easily I really want Angola to win for several reasons. a ) After all the nonsense Angola has been through over the last 30 years of so I think they are overdue for a bit of good fortune and a party. b ) They have the best flag in the tournament. c ) It would add a bit of spice to an otherwise predictable group. d ) It would be great to see Cristiano Ronaldo blubbing like a big girl at the end. Edit: 4 minutes later... bugger!

Very surprised that nobody seems to be tipping the Czechs, but then maybe they are a bit too good to count as dark horses. Anyway, I reckon they are going to be a very tough nut to crack. Many of you are right to pick out the Ivory Coast as they are built like a set of brick sh1thouses and will almost certainly employ their usual battering-ram tactics. In the same group the Dutch will go great guns backed up by fanatical orange support and the Serbs won't be a set of pansies either. That sets Argentina up for another early flight home. Maybe being a bit optimistic but I wouldn't rule it out. Germany aren't as bad as many think, as long as they can keep their key players fit, but they should get through their group with only minor problems along with Poland. But expect Ecuador to be better than you think. The Germans have a great tactic of going into tournaments using the line "we're not as good as we used to be" but they still reached the final last time. Don't be fooled by the permed mullets and dodgy moustaches, beneath those white shirts beat hearts of plutonium. England should go through without too many scars but Paraguay will not role over for us. Sweden will be dull but steadfast in their resistance to us and will have at least one player called Lars Gunnarson (it's a legal requirement in Sweden apparently). T&T will collapse and get soundly whipped by all in the group. Mexico and Portugal will stroll through against a vastly overrated Iran. Portugal will make it to the quarters at least. Brazil will steamroller all in their group but will fall to Italy in the quarters. Australia will go through with them but falter when Viduka loses interest like the big girl that he is. Italy will go through with the Czechs after a series of tough group games, as will France and Korea who will scrape through by the skin of their teeth and will not have to rely on corrupt officials this time. Spain and Ukraine will go through with no problems before the Spanish crap themselves against a good team and go home like the whipped dogs they are. The Saudis will be rubbish again, but the real let-down will be Tunisia who will be unable to cope with the two European teams. Most annoying TV pundit will be Andy Townsend who will narrowly pip Ally McCoist. Steve Rider will reign supreme as the most annoying sports tw@t ever in the history of TV, but at least we will be spared the inevitable thought of "Gaby Logan is still good looking, if a bit beaky, but she doesn't half wear some crap clothes..." Most annoying football related advert will be Coca-fecking-Cola... as always. In the sweepstake at work (which I organised) I got Australia, so that's £10 wasted. Then again, there is a £50 prize for having the worst behaved team and Australis has good old Lucas "Unnecessary Yellow Card" Neill in the team...

Spain will bottle it like they always do. It's no coincidence that their national flag has a broad streak of yellow running through it.

Wise words! Well, except when I've said it. Those bloody awful Emperor books by Conn Iggulden are a good example of the "If you liked... you'll love this" type of blurb. As I've said before they're absolute rubbish and even less historically accurate than Carry On Cleo. DON'T READ THEM!!! Colin, got to agree about The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime as I found it to be very thought-provoking, funny, quite moving and strangely wise. As for Michael Palin, I read Hemingway's Chair a good few years ago and found it quite entertaining. It even inspired me to try a shot of grappa while on holiday in Italy but I'm afraid it was even more vile than it was described in the book. Flopsy, I read the first of Scarrow's Eagle books and found it fairly entertaining but it's pretty simplistic stuff. If you're tempted to read anything else set in the same period I strongly recommend you give Eagle In The Snow and Imperial Governor a whirl. You won't be disappointed. Alternatively, if you want to have a dip into ancient Greek history you could do a lot worse than try Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield. It tells the story of the heroic but doomed Greek army holding off the Persians at Thermopylae in 480BC. Epic scale, epic events and will occupy your every spare moment as you won't want to put it down. Any book that has Blue Phil and myself in solid agreement must have something going for it! Personally, I think it should be required reading by all European Citizens because if it was not for those brave Greeks making a stand 2486 years ago Western Civilisation as we know it would not exist. Great bunch of lads, them Greeks.

I've heard many similar comments from alot of people of many ages and I have to say I was tempted to buy the first book of the trilogy (Northern Lights?), but I've got a stack of books waiting to be read. I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks from reading for fun (got a lot of academic reading to do) but I expect the next one up will be Birdsong.

Back to the top again as it has all been quiet on the book front for a while and I figured we'd have all read a few new things by now. Over the last few months I have been reading... State Of Fear by Michael Crichton - rubbish. Definitely the worst book of his that I have read. It's even worse than Prey and that's saying something. And the science "facts" are largely nonsense. Don't bother. Imperial Governor by George Shipway - without question one of the best books I've ever read. It is the "memoir" of Suetonius Paulinus who was the Roman Governor of Britain at the time of the Boudicca rebellion in 60/61 AD and it presents Paulinus as a deeply troubled man, short of friends, facing a seemingly unstoppable enemy and in desperate need of a bit of good luck. This is really gripping stuff as Shipway weaves his tale of death, sex, honour, defeat, victory and deceit and I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone, especially those who are interested in the very bloody history of these islands. The battle scenes are pretty fierce stuff with the amphibious assault on Anglessey making the opening 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan seem rather tame in comparison, while the final battle with the warrior queen conjures up images of an open-air abattoir. That said, it's not all violence and slaughter as there's plenty of humour, intrigue and a bit of how's-your-father, and it makes you genuinely care about Paulinus and want him to win and each setback hits the reader hard, especially the massacre of the IX Legion and the genocide in London. For those of you who have read Wallace Breem's epic Eagle In The Snow or Steven Pressfield's Gates Of Fire and never thought you'd find better, here it is. Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian - the second book in the Aubrey/Maturin series that many of you will be familiar with as a result of the Russell Crowe Master & Commander film. I found this instalment to be even better than M&C and promptly went out and bought the third book. A good old-fashioned tale of derring-do and a lot of yo-ho-ho and bottles of rum. The love story element drags on a bit, but the scenes at sea and Aubrey's attempts to escape the debtor's prison more than make up for it. Grand stuff. Brendon Chase by "BB" - I first read this book when I was 11 and (foolishly) let my cousin borrow it... never to be seen again. The book that is, sadly my cousin is till around. Years later I saw it on Amazon and bought it for my nephew who subsequently raved about it. In a moment of indulgence I bought it for myself again and read it - what a joy! Described by many as the greatest children's book ever written (including Philip Pullman), it tells the tale of three brothers who flee the clutches of their over-protective aunt and run away to live as outlaws in the wild wood of Brendon Chase. Once there, they kill vast amounts of wild animals, make clothes out of rabbit pelts, raid the picnic baskets of unsuspecting trippers and make the life of the local constabulary a misery. What shines out from this book is the love of nature and the joy of being young. Yes, the fact that the boys have a rifle, steal rare birds' eggs, kill rare butterflies and deliberately trap a badger for its skin might make you feel a tad uncomfortable, but you have to remember it was written in 1944 when notions of conservation were somewhat different. If any of you have kids who spend their whole lives sat playing computer games and you want them to go outside and live a bit, this book might inspire them. Then again, if you just want a bit of nostalgia and relive the fun of climbing tress, having mini-adventures and not doing as grown-ups tell you, this one is for you. Nero's Heirs by Allan Massie - finished this one the other night and can't help but feel it wasn't as good as his Caesar and Antony but still a good read. Like his other books, it is narrated by an eyewitness to calamitous events, this time in the lead up to and time after Nero's death. It takes a long time to get going but with each subsequent emperor's rapid passing the tale gathers pace until Vitellius (a truly odious wretch) is overthrown by Vespasian. As ever with Massie's books, it's very clever and there's a bit of ooh-la-la, although most of that is about the narrator's lust for his boy slave, but it is the political scheming and lust for power that is the real driving force here. Good stuff and recommended for anyone interested in the debauchery of the Caesars and/or political intrigue, but maybe not so accessible for the more casual reader. Right, that's five to be going on with, all of which are available on Amazon at cheap rates. What have you lot been browsing over?

But Thompson isn't a play-maker in the same mould as Tugay, he's more of a charge downfield at every given opportunity type of player. Nakata picks people out with some cracking passes and gets forward when he needs to. Like Tugay he's quite economical when it comes to saving his energy and just seeks out the right position from where to receive and pass the ball. Another disadvantage of using Thompson in that role is, like it or not, he extremely injury-prone and even if he was used as a successor to Tugay we'd be bloody stupid not to have a decent understudy.

Now that it would appear Bolton will not be making a move for Hidetoshi Nakata in January because they can't afford the £2.5m fee Fiorentina are asking for, perhaps the Japanaese playmaker could be the sort of player we are looking for to replace Tugay when the time comes. Fair enough, he still has a lot to prove as far as cutting it in the Premiership goes and he's not a carbon copy of the type of player Tugay is, but he's a class player, he's clearly willing to relocate to NW England and the added TV revenue and shirt sales in Japan would help finance the deal and his wages. Just a thought. I have them occasionally.

He taught me as well and I always thought he was a good sort and I was enormously sad to hear of his arrest, especially for this. Although his name was published in the LET recently, it was widely known long before then and it wasn't much of a secret in Clitheroe or among former pupils of CRGS. Even though charges have been dropped, it's hard to see how he would be able to return to his job. News like this travels fast and it's hard for names not to be known. Take the Ronaldo case, his name wasn't published until a couple of days ago, but I was told by a journo mate within a couple of hours of the original story hitting the newstands. The news of Flitcroft's dodgy daliances was also widely known before the official announcement. I think that it would be very difficult to keep names out of the public domain, whether announced by the press or by word of mouth, but in cases where the accused are found innocent I have little problem at all in making the identities of their accusers being made public, especially in cases where there is evidence of it being a malicious allegation.

You deserve to be boiled down for glue for that. I recently read "A child called It" by Dave Pelzer. Riveting, deeply upsetting and left me feeling very angry. For those that don't know, Pelzer has written his memoirs of his horrendous childhood and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother while his father did nothing to save him. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this. It's the first in a trilogy but after completing the first part I have decided to opt for something lighter before I start the second part. Consequently, I've just started reading "Vernon God Little" by DBC Pierre and it's not bad, but the style takes a bit of getting used to. Anyway, it's made me laugh out loud a few times and I'm only up to chapter 4 so it must be doing something right. Once finished I will be returning to Pelzer's second part of his triilogy, "The Lost Boy". Over the summer I read "Harlequin", "Vagabond" and "Hereteic" (all by Bernard Cornwell) and they're not bad to read while on holiday (or while up on blocks as a result of a sprained ankle in my case). They are a trilogy chronicling the adventures of an English archer during the earlier part of the Hundred Years War. The characters are a bit 2D and anyone familiar with Cornwell's Sharpe novels will be able to recognise them straight away, but there is enough historical detail and exciting set-pieces to keep most entertained. I also read "Neanderthal" by John Darnton. Very reminiscent of Michael Crichton in style and subject matter but superior, in my opinion. In short, a group of scientists travel to the remotest parts of Tajikistan (look it up in your atlas) in search of yetis but discover something more surprising... and frightening. It's not great literature, but it's infinitely better than the sort of stuff offered up by Dan bloody Brown.

How ironic. This quote from a person who begins a sentence with "These type of chants...". Hats off to you, Sambo, for taking a stand. Football fans have a fairly shoddy reputation for their unsporting attitude and in recent years our own club has been brought to nationwide attention for the disgraceful deportment of some of our so-called supporters. The whole Dwight Yorke/ racist jibes incident was a notable example. For the most part, I think Rovers fans have a generally good reputation, but there are always a few morons who are keen to flaunt their trogodyte heritage by inane and infantile taunting of the opposition. Having read this thread (and others) I rather fancy that a few of them are among us. Now I have nothing against a bit of banter with opposition fans and players, but baiting a man over an injury that not only threatened his career but could have resulted in him being an amputee leaves a rather bitter taste. I would have thought that if people sought to wind up Cisse they might choose to laugh at his rather ridiculous hair. Let's leave the offensive and, frankly, sick chanting and taunting to others. We ought to be above all that.

Er... actually it is.

Oh for goodness sake! I've already said in page 1! Greasy hair Cheat Little (ie young) That clearly rules out anyone over 25. He's an international so it narrows it down a bit more. He's a RENOWNED cheat - he falls over a lot pretending to be hurt, or maybe the sort who uses his elbows against BRFC. AND HE HAS REALLY GREASY HAIR! FFS!

What a pleasant surprise that it wasn't one of our players allegedly up to no good. Of course it would be wrong to mention names until charges are brought, but if he's guilty I hope they throw the book at the greasy-haired little cheat.

Wise words. It is exceptionally annoying.

I haven't posted about yesterday's game until now as it has taken me until now to calm now. The 4-5-1 experiment has failed. It stops us winning but doesn't stop us losing and it's monumentally tedious to sit through. For years I used to look forward to going to Ewood (even when times were tough and a defeat was a strong possibility) but these days it's becoming a chore. We have players who are surviving by reputation alone. Some of Hughes' purchases have proved very perspicacious and in terms of their transfers fees it's hard to find fault with Nelsen and Mokoena. The real trouble lies with the ones that have cost us money. I had doubts about the wisdom of signing Savage (overpriced for his age and not exactly renowned for his club loyalty) and nothing I have seen to date has made me change my mind. He's a poor man's David Batty (at best) whose only discernable talent is for hitting the goalkeeper with free-kicks. I won't mention his corners as they're not worthy of comment. I was one of the few who thought Bellamy was a bad buy (in my mind it was catastrophic) and while I realise it is early days for him, there was nothing about him yesterday that made me think he was any more likely to score than Kuqi, Jansen, Dickov or the ghost of Super Atko. The players who cost money have to be successes, plain and simple. The reservoir of cash isn't so deep these days and we simply can't afford flops. I doubt I have little to add about Kuqi, except to say his "shot" (that most of us would stake our mortgages on a professional footballer at least hitting the target) nearly hit me. I sit on row 21. Among the players Hughes inherited, Gresko is suffering from the same condition as Jansen as the player we once had has gone. Reid seems to have regressed to being bloody awful. Neill is, was and always will be a liability. One good game in ten does not make him worthy of a guaranteed start. And although Emerton didn't play yesterday he's still a workshy tart. Finally, we come to the manager. I was ecstatic when Hughes was appointed and despite a slow start he steered us to safety by preventing our opponents from using their game to unravel us. Sadly, we haven't progressed or evolved and the others have rumbled us. The writing was on the wall for the 4-5-1 system towards the end of last season when we started letting goals in again and it will only work if the midfield do their jobs properly. The players look demotivated, devoid of ideas, they give up once we go behind and they seem collectively incaple of scoring against a team that is low on confidence, staffed by truly dire defenders and lying 19th in the Premier League. If we are to persist with playing one striker like Bellamy up front on his own and rely on his pace, we have to play deeper and draw the opposition in and then play the ball AHEAD OF HIM so that he can use his pace against the opposition and exploit the open ground. Keeping up a pressure game and keeping the opposition penned in (as we did for a lot of the Newcastle game) does not allow the lone striker the space he needs and so he draws a blank. I've said already that I'm no fan of Bellamy either on or off the field, but he was starved of service yesterday and he had to drop back several times to go looking for the ball. By the time Kuqi and Jansen were brought on it was too late and the whole sorry exercise was akin to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. We could have played for another 30 minutes and Newcastle could have lost another player and we wouldn't have scored. It seems to me that the manager, much to my regret, is out of his depth and he needs to learn how to swim very soon. Another season of grind awaits and I give thanks for the fact that Sunderland, WBA and Portsmouth are even worse than we are. Mind you, I'm dreading the Sunderland game as I can see the headlines now "Mighty Mackems record first win against ragged Rovers"... etc, etc. It's a grim business, gentlemen.

I've met a few Rovers over the years and the striking thing about all of them has been a high degree of modesty and suprise that they are nothing like I would have expected. David Mail was probably the first one I met as his late wife, Karen, used to cut my hair when I was in my early teens. David would often be with her and so me and him would shoot empty coke cans in our back garden with my brother's air rifle while Karen was doing my mum's hair. He was more accurate with an air rifle than he was with his passes on the field though. A thoroughly nice bloke and not an atom of ego about him. I got a lift off Noel Brotherston a couple of times while waiting for a bus into Preston and he was also a remarkably nice man. Very modest and very softly spoken. I met Colin Hendry, with his wife Denise, and Graham Le Saux at the cinema at Walton-le-Dale when they were sat on the row in front of me watching Jurassic Park. Colin was injured at the time and he gave reassurances that he'd be back to full fitness before long and he chatted about our prospects. Le Saux was very quiet though and didn't say much. The film got interrupted halfway through due to a fire alarm going off and that gave them an excuse to go. I don't think it was Colin's cup of tea. I met Le Saux again when I bumped into him (literally) at Preston railway station and we chatted about the forthcoming season after we'd just won the Championship. He was very tight-lipped about future signings but he let slip that we were likely to strengthen midfield. Ah yes, so that would be the might Matty Holmes then. Anyway, Le Saux was waiting for his sister and her train was late but he seemd like a decent sort of a bloke and happy to chat about Rovers. I remember seeing Kevin Moran after we beat Chelsea in the first game of the season (93-94, I think) when we beat them at Stamford Bridge. Kevin was walking down the street with a load of Rovers fans (myself among them) and enjoying the banter with the dejected Chelsea fans. He spoke to me and few others and reckoned we'd have a good season. About a week after he was disgracefully sacked, I saw Tony Parkes at the same cinema I'd seen Hendry and Le Saux years previously. He was out with his family and looked 10 years younger as he was laughing and joking. I shook his hand and told him that he'd been treated badly by the club but he said that he had no hard feelings about it and he was looking forward to having some time off. He asked me how long I'd been following Rovers and it was plain to see that even though he'd just lost his job in fairly shoddy circumstances he still cared deeply about the club. I met Bobby Saxton a couple of times when I was a kid as I knew his sons. He never said much and he always seemed to be in a rush and not one for talking about football at all. I also met Vinnie Jones at Leeds railway station (he was behind me in the queue for the ticket office) and I said (in state of shock) to him "You're Vinnie Jones". Bit lame, but I was just so surprised to see him. His response was "Yeah, I know" and I felt a bit stupid. Anyway, he was wearing denim dungarees and a white polo-neck so he looked a right tosser. I never liked him anyway.

A genuinely magnificent series and both teams deserve enormous credit. Just a shame it fizzled out the way it did but such are the rules. I wouldn't want to be Ricky Ponting when he gets back to Australia though...

Before the match I'd have settled for a point against a vastly improved Spuds side... but that was before I realised Davids, Carrick and Defoe were on the bench. We should have won tonight and no amount of grumbling about the perpetually awful Dermot Gallagher will excuse the fact we didn't have enough on the field to finish them off. Not seen Neill's 2nd yellow card yet but at the time I thought it was harsh, although those who have seen replays seem to think there was justification for it so I'll just have to wait until it's on MOTD. No doubt that tossrag Lineker et al will stick the knife in, but I guess we all expect that now. Oh well, another point and a clean sheet when down to 10 men. On the downside, Todd looked a bit ropey when he went off and that could mean Mokoena at the week at the weekend. Bugger.

Having seen the teething problems that Davids and Carrick are having in their fledgling partnership, coupled with our absent strikers, playing five across the middle is a must for us and I think it would be ideal for Tugay to make his mark again. We all saw on Saturday what the man can do given a bit of time and space and it seems to me that we should exploit Spurs' communication problems while we can. Tugay is also our most inventive player and he's a more likely outlet for creating a goal than Emerton, Reid, Savage or Mokoena, so that only leaves Pedersen higher up in the pecking order as far as tomorrow night is concerned. Besides, it's Tugay's birthday tomorrow and what could be better (aside from another 3 points) than to serenade him with a rousing chorus of "Happy birthday to you..."?

Whoever it was that suggested "Jump" by Van Halen and "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy deserve to be shot. No chance of clemency, just a bullet. Truly dreadful suggestions. While I can see some merit in a few of the suggestions made, we need something a little more timeless than a lot of what has been suggested. Kaiser Chiefs seem like a popular choice but I suspect a lot of other teams would choose, dare I say, the same obvious choice. As I have suggested before on similar threads, I think The Imperial March from the Star Wars films would be excellent as it not only has a hint of menace but it sounds great when booming out. Failing that, The Dance Of The Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet has the necessary gravitas and oomph (you'd know it if you heard it) and is altogether classier than anything G Jackson Esq would choose to play. If we were not to opt for an orchestral piece, I'd go for something that gives a message and is suitably loud. As such, Heatseeker by AC/DC would do the job. I'd also like to hear My Old Friend The Blues played at Ewood as I can imagine it being a great terrace anthem for us. It was originally recorded by Steve Earle but has been covered by The Proclaimers and the lyrics are great to sing for wins or defeats. Just when every ray of hope was gone, I should have known that you would come along, I can't believe I ever doubted you, My old friend The Blues. Lovers leave and friends will let you down, You're the only true thing that I've found, No matter what I do, I'll never lose, My old friend The Blues. Then again, the Benny Hill theme or the theme to The Muppet Show would be good options.

Just finished reading angels and demons which I found to be a more riveting read than da vinci code. I now have this craving to go to Rome and try out the mapping for myself! 290738[/snapback] I've just finished Angels & Demons and found the same flaws in it as Da Vinci Code. It's starts off quite well but just seems too familiar. For a start, the characters are carbon copies, the clues are alarmingly obvious and the improbability of it all just makes it so ridiculous. For example, Langdon's fall into the Tiber stretches the imagination of anyone, but for anyone who has actually seen the Tiber, they'd know he would break every bone in his body if he fell from 100ft, let alone the altitude Brown has him fall from! It the same chase formula as DVC and it also runs out of ideas at the two thirds stage. Good descriptions of the locations but very poor as far as "an intelligent thriller" goes. Nayef - get yourself to Rome as it really is a fantastic place, but read a decent guide that tells you the real history of the place, don't rely on Dan Brown. Piazza Navona is every bit as good as he describes and it's a great place to stroll among the artists eating an improbably good ice-cream, but he misses out the fact that it was once the site of an infamous chariot track where many early Christians were killed. Rome is spectacular and spooky and the whole place drips in blood.

Lister, you've crawled out of the shadows and back to Novelty Island at last. As for needing to be worried about Tashor, I'm not sure. Sometimes I think he's just a bit "Rocket Roy", but other times I suspect he's completely "Lipstick Lilly in a bad mood".