Former Rangers player Ronald De Boer has accused Barry Ferguson of being a bottler who "abandoned ship" by quitting Blackburn after just 18 months.

The Dutchman told Scotland's Daily Record newspaper: "I am sad and surprised at Barry leaving England."

"If you want to increase your profile and standing as a professional player then you have to play in the English Premiership to make a proper name for yourself. That's with all due respect to Rangers and Celtic - and Rangers is still very close to my heart. You can be a good player in Scotland but you won't really get any international respect," said De Boer.

"Barry had a good future ahead of him at Blackburn and had an opportunity to prove himself in the English Premiership. That chance has gone now. If I was in his position I would have stayed in England. But maybe Barry thought it would be better to abandon the ship."

De Boer hit out at reports that Ferguson was homesick in Lancashire.

"I left Holland and Ajax to join Barcelona and after I left my homeland I never once got homesick," De Boer said.

Meanwhile, Scotland, under Barry Ferguson's "inspired" captaincy, have dropped to an all-time low FIFA ranking.

20 years ago, Scotland were on course to qualify for the Mexico '86 World Cup, with some impressive results in their qualification group - beating Spain 3-1 at Hampden Park.

But now Scotland are ranked 86th in the world. They are currently rated below the likes of Estonia, Ghana, Angola, Thailand and United Arab Emirates!

Scotland are joined on the same points as Albania and Guinea - sandwiched between Syria and Togo.

Scotland's stock, in terms of international recognition and available players, has never been so low as it is now. The Scottish League is a joke. Other than Rangers and Celtic, none of the other teams would survive in the English Premiership.

Rangers' 7-1 win over Dundee United in the semi-final of the CIS Insurance Cup was a clear indication of just how uncompetitive Scottish football is.

(I can't recall a 7-1 win in a major domestic English semi-final for a great many years.)

Ferguson, the man who told us in December how happy he was at Rovers, now says that joining Blackburn was a mistake.

He went down even further in my estimation by apparently refusing to play against Colchester.

I think it's disgusting that a millionaire footballer who signed a contract with us 18 months ago can refuse to pull on the shirt in order to engineer a move away from the club.

Bellamy - a thoroughly unpleasant man, undisciplined, bad-tempered, immature and an all-round dodgy character.

You're right Drummer Boy. Bellamy is a thoroughly obnoxious individual.

As Steve Froggatt, the former Coventry player, said last week:

"When Craig first turned up at Coventry after signing from Norwich he came in holding a pair of gold boots and thought he was the business."

"The senior players at the club took a real dislike to him. From what I gathered from Gary Speed, he was not well liked in the Welsh dressing room either. Bellamy has often been labelled as arrogant and obnoxious and I would have to agree with that description."

Like yourself Drummer Boy, I would have serious reservations about Rovers ever buying such a dodgy character.

A brief history of Craig Bellamy....

September 2000: Dismissed for violent conduct against Belarus - the first Wales player in five years to receive a red card.

December 2001: Sent off at Highbury for an incident with Ashley Cole.

February 2002: Given a formal police caution for assaulting a female student.

September 2002: Headbutts a Dynamo Kiev player in a Champions League tie. Given a three-game European ban for the offence. Handed a further three-game ban in the campaign after getting sent off against Inter Milan at St James's Park.

January 2003: Bellamy makes provocative gestures towards Wolves fans during an FA Cup match.

March 2003: Charged by the FA for abusing a match official during Newcastle's clash with Middlesbrough.

March 2003: Bellamy is accused of racist abuse towards an Asian guy outside a Cardiff nightclub. Summoned to appear before Cardiff Magistrates' Court in relation to public order offences. Fined £750 for being drunk and disorderly.

September 2003: Bellamy is one of several players questioned during a police investigation into the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

No charges are brought, but a member of the public alleges that Bellamy was drunk and behaved obnoxiously in the hotel bar. Craig allegedly threw a £50 note at the girl behind the bar, saying: "Here's your wages for the week bitch."

March 2004: Bellamy throws a chair at Newcastle coach John Carver during an argument. Further reports of loutish behaviour from him at Newcastle Airport.

October 2004: Reacts petulantly to being substituted against Charlton at The Valley. Bellamy is caught on camera telling his manager that he's a "f____ pr*ck."

December 2004: The Ritz Hotel in London complains about "over boisterous" conduct by four Newcastle players, one of which is reported to be Craig Bellamy. The behaviour of the players leads hotel staff to write a formal letter of complaint to St James' Park. After hearing of the incident, Souness cancels his players' plans for a Christmas party.

January 2005: Bellamy feigns injury to avoid playing on the right hand side of midfield against Arsenal. He walks off the training ground saying his hamstring is tight after earlier telling other members of the squad that he was planning to feign injury.

Do Rovers fans really want to see such an odious character pulling on the famous blue and white shirt?

Someone who thinks that he's bigger than the club; someone who spits his dummy out when he gets substituted and feigns injury when he's not picked to play in his favourite position.

I had a couple of reservations about Savage's character - but Robbie is an absolute angel compared to Bellamy. I'm not sure I could stomach the sight of him ever playing for Rovers.

Anybody who feigns injury to avoid playing is a disgrace to the game of football.

Bellamy was hated

A generally hard-working committed display by Rovers was let down by bouts of sloppy passing (Thompson and Emerton), inept defending (Lucas), diabolical finishing (Savage's skied shot over the bar from ten yards out), poor goalkeeping (Brad) and a lack of composure in front of goal (Pederson)

We went to sleep for Chelsea's goal. Lucas Neill was out of position, Andy Todd allowed Robben to turn him inside out like a glove and Brad was either not concentrating properly or alternatively is in decline.

Hughes should consider dropping David Thompson until he can learn how to pass a football and not stumble over it when presented with a perfect opportunity to counter-attack.

Brett Emerton should be told that when in posession of the ball in the box, it's a good idea to try and find a team mate.

MGP should be given the advice that when a team mate is in space and better placed to score than himself, he shouldn't selfishly blaze the ball over the bar. If I remember rightly, he did the same thing against Man Utd.

Other than that, no complaints with the effort put in by the players.

Chelsea's style of play

In many ways the current Chelsea team reminds me of the 1991 Arsenal title winning side under George Graham.

The Gunners back then were built on a solid defensive platform - setting their stall out in each game not to concede a goal. They weren't always pretty to watch. The flair was mainly confined to Anders Limpar on the left hand side.

Chelsea are a similar team - efficient and effective rather than purveyors of the beautiful game.

Robben and Duff provide the flair. Other than those two, Chelsea are not free flowing or particularly attractive to watch.

The type of football that Arsenal played last season during their unbeaten Premiership run was more pleasing on the eye.

With Chelsea, instead of elegant attacking football, the philosophy is to grind out as many 1-0 wins as possible. This was Chelsea's eighth consecutive clean sheet and they have won 8 games this season by a 1-0 margin.

The emphasis is very much on preventing goals rather than scoring them. It was ironic that back in September Mourinho accused Spurs of "parking a team bus in front of the goal"

That's exactly what Chelsea have been doing for much of this season.

Chelsea look as if they will beat the record of Liverpool, set in 1978-79, of 16 goals conceded in the top flight.

(The difference being that Liverpool dominated teams home and away and scored 85 League goals in 78-79, a figure which Chelsea won't get close to.)

The media often tell us that Chelsea play a 4-3-3 formation.

This is not the case whenever I've seen Chelsea. Robben and Duff play as wide midfielders leaving just Drogba or Gudjohnsen up front on their own. It's more of a 4-5-1 formation rather than 4-3-3.

Tiago and Makelele sit just in front of the back four. Chelsea flood the midfield and use six defensive players in their side to frustrate the opposition.

They rely heavily, as we saw last night, on the pace of Robben on the counter-attack.

In other games that I've seen, Chelsea have resorted to thumping the ball forward for Drogba to chase. The other main goal threat is to tee things up for Lampard to have a long-range shot.

I have held the opinion that Jose Mourinho is extremely arrogant for quite a while.

I've held the same opinion too. In media interviews the Portugese manager comes across as surly, arrogant and lacking in humility.

He's been compared with Brian Clough. But whereas Cloughie was a showman and a great character, Mourinho is merely cocky and arrogant. He favours a defensive negative brand of football which brought him success at Porto and which sadly looks like bringing him the same results at Stamford Bridge.

Moourinho has got them well-organised, disciplined and difficult to beat. But it's not a fluent style of football to tickle the taste buds.

It's almost certain they'll win the title this season. Hopefully they won't win the lot.

It would be a triumph of ruthless efficiency over style and beauty.

Well what a complete shambles this saga has been...

None of the parties involved - Ferguson, Murray, Viola or Williams - come out of it with credit.

Ferguson's duplicity and deceit towards Rovers fans has been disgusting.

The man who just a month ago said: "I definitely see my future at Blackburn. Hopefully I can stay here for a few more years yet," now says:

"It's brilliant to be back home. As soon as I knew Rangers were interested, I wanted to make it happen. I missed the club so much and when I grabbed that jersey again it felt so good."

A couple of days ago, David Murray said: "Rangers will not be continuing negotiations. Our offer was rejected and negotiations will proceed no further."

That was a lie - they were still negotiating with Rovers.

John Williams said: "Barry can talk to Glasgow Rangers provided they meet our valuation of a guaranteed £6 million."

Williams said last week: "There is still a country mile between us. To say there is clear water between Rangers' original offer and our valuation is an understatement."

Our chief executive was quite specific that the fee was £6m guaranteed.

A link to those quotes from Mr Williams below:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/...1398558,00.html

As Revidge says, other clubs will now be aware that when Rovers talk about a "guaranteed fee", the price can still be lowered because the board capitulates.

Ferguson and Viola started this mess and have to be blamed for the fiasco. But questions are entitled to be asked about the way the Rovers board handles matters.

Personally I'm convinced that Ferguson is going nowhere.

He is going Tris - firstly because he's a greedy disloyal git who put in a transfer request the month after saying that he wanted to stay. Secondly because Mr Williams capitulated on the £6m fee and didn't stick to his original guns.

It would have been better if Williams had merely said: "We are negotiating with Rangers," rather than talk about a "guaranteed £6m" - which the club clearly haven't received.

When he joined Blackburn in the summer of 2003, Barry Ferguson said: "No disrespect to Scottish football, but there's only one big game and that's against Celtic."

When Ferguson plays against the likes of Dunfermline, Kilmarnock, Inverness CT and Livingstone - I hope that he thinks back to those words.

Sadly though, I suspect the greedy sod will be laughing all the way to the bank after spitting in the face of Rovers supporters.

If he had any decency at all, Ferguson would hand back the signing-on fee that he fraudulently received from Rovers in 2003.

Ferguson - spoilt brat who's unable or not willing to hack it in the PL.

Sums up the situation well Paul - more succinctly than my long rants....

Suffice to say that I'm totally disgusted with millionaire players on vast wages who spit their dummies out of their prams and use their wives and families as a smokescreen to engineer moves away from their clubs.

Blackburn is not on the other side of the planet to Glasgow. It's about a two and a half hour drive away.

Will Ferguson now come clean and have the balls to admit that he lied last month when he said:

"I'm loving it at Blackburn and, hopefully, I can stay here for a few more years yet. I definitely see my future here. The main thing is that I'm happy and my family is happy. I'm really enjoying it here."

He can't possibly be worse than Bothroyd.

I hope not given the performance last night from Jay...

As Scotty said:

Bothroyd put in one of the worst centre-forward performances it's ever been my misfortune to see from a Rovers player.

He looked lazy, he didn't compete for a single ball, his first touch was pathetic, he didn't make a single run into space, and I can't remember him winning a header. He was simply disgraceful.

Jon Stead, meanwhile, is going through a hellish goal drought - twenty one games without a goal this season.

(I accept that the service he's been getting hasn't always been great, but 21 games without a goal is still a terrible run.)

Jansen, with far fewer appearances than Stead this season, has at least managed to score some important goals - like the winner against Portsmouth in Sparky's first game in charge and the opening goal in the 3-3 draw with Birmingham.

I'm sure my pal The Drog will disagree with me - (If it was up to Gordon I reckon he would've strung Matty up by his boll0x after the bike accident!) - but in my view Jansen is no worse than our other strikers at Ewood.

A new one-year deal (possibly on reduced wages) could be an option for Matt if he can demonstrate some form and fitness in our remaining games before the end of the season.

Hughes didn't have to take this job - he's turned down what now appear to be more appealing Premiership positions.

I'm guessing Tris that you might be referring to the Southampton job, or possibly the Man United number 2 job, working under Fergie.....?

a mouthwatering tie against Colchester

I'm full of saliva already.

Well not quite - if we don't play any better than we did in the second half then we've got no chance of winning this competition.

If he just stuck to playing football rather than diving and bitching at the ref he might play a bit better.

Sounds a bit like the guy who was sitting in the stands tonight with a big smug grin on his face.

Maybe the "trauma" and heartache that his parents are going through isn't quite so bad after all....

"The speculation is annoying," said Barry Ferguson.

"I'm loving it at Blackburn and, hopefully, I can stay here for a few more years yet," he said.

"I definitely see my future here. The main thing is that I'm happy and my family is happy."

"I've still got more than two years left on my contract and since the new regime have come in, I've really enjoyed it. I've learned so much in the last couple of months and I'm really enjoying myself."

"The training has been excellent. I think I can learn a lot more off the new guys who have come in and the stuff they are coaching us."

The words there from Mr Ferguson.

They were not said a year ago or six months ago. They were said just last month in December.

When he joined Rovers, Barry explained the reasons why:

"Moving to England will be good for the family."

"I'm excited about playing in the Premiership. I have always wanted to play at Anfield, Old Trafford, Highbury, Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane."

Ferguson is a despicable and dishonorable man who has treated Rovers fans with contempt.

He told us how happy he was to play for the club last month. And now he wants to jump ship.

A guy who continued to have his vast wages paid each week when he was injured for six months - praising the care and support that he received from the Rovers medical team.

And this is the way that he now chooses to thank the club.

I'd like to know how much Barry was paid, in terms of a signing-on fee, to come to Rovers 18 months ago.

The usual amount is about 10% of the transfer fee. A six hundred grand signing-on fee perhaps?

Enough to pay for the nice big house he bought in Lytham St Annes?

Ferguson is a shameless, treacherous, unprincipled disgrace to football.

His actions have been disgusting.

When were Aston Villa last in a lower division?

Just briefly for one season in 1987-88.

They have been in the top flight ever since - finishing runners-up to Liverpool in 1990 and Man United in 1993.

...the hefty penalty we are almost certain to face at the end of the season when we are hauled up before the FA for our poor disciplinary record.

I suspect that buying Robbie Savage is hardly likely to improve matters either, Philip. Robbie was booked fifteen times last season.

Savage was rated as number 3 in yesterday's Sunday Times list of 'Dirty rotten scoundrels'.

Link below:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-1443720,00.html

if Southampton go down it wouldn't really be much of a miss IMO..

Harry Redknapp believes that it's now a four-way battle to stay up between Palace, West Brom, Norwich and his Saints team.

Southampton have enjoyed continuous membership of the top flight since 1978 - a longer run than the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle and Aston Villa.

The Saints' best finish was in 1984, when they finished 2nd in the championship to Liverpool. (Almost impossible to imagine that happening again.)

Rupert Lowe likes to have a high turnover of managers on the south coast.

The club have had eleven managers since the Premiership started in 1992 - Ian Branfoot, Alan Ball, Dave Merrington, Graeme Souness, Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle, Stuart Gray, Gordon Strachan, Paul Sturrock, Steve Wigley and Harry Redknapp.

Harry will be desperately hoping he's not the man to finally take the club down.

The Saints have had quite a few 'great escapes' down the years - in 1996/97, Graeme Souness kept Southampton up by just one point. (Middlesbrough were relegated after they had three points deducted.)

In 1995/96, Southampton stayed up on goal difference after Man City blew a two goal lead against Liverpool at Maine Road on the final day of the season.

The bookies currently have the three promoted clubs - Norwich, West Brom and Palace as strong favourites to go back down.

Blackburn are 9/1 with Ladbrokes to be relegated.

Portsmouth is the resting home for HMS Victory - the grand old warship which under Nelson's command won the Battle of Trafalgar, keeping the French at bay.

While it's true that the victory at Fratton Park yesterday wasn't quite in the same category, there's no doubt that for Rovers the win could prove to be highly significant.

We have 25 points now, with a nine point cushion over third from bottom Norwich.

West Ham were relegated with 42 points in 2003, but a lower figure of 38 points should be enough to avoid the drop this year.

13 points from our remaining 15 games ought to be enough - a task that Rovers are capable of achieving.

I'm reasonably confident now that we should stay up. (Although given our abysmal home record over the last 18 months, complacency is perhaps best avoided.)

It wasn't a pretty game yesterday. It was an untidy affair at times, with Andy D'Urso dishing out cards like confetti.

There wasn't much Turkish Delight in evidence from Tugay, but the important thing was the three points.

Our midfield could do with strengthening, but I'm not a fan of Savage, who would have probably relished this niggling scrappy game and added to the yellow card count.

Later this year, in October, it will be the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

As Blackburn now have some clear blue water between themselves and their rivals at the bottom, I'm hopeful that by the time the anniversary arrives, the Rovers fleet will still be flying the flag at the top level.

If only we could do something about the current French invasion....

Anyone notice Rooney's behaviour at Anfield yesterday? Celebration in front of the Kop and a reckless tackle leading to his booking. This lad could self-destruct if he doesn't learn to control to himself.

Absolutely right Paul.

"Nobody needs to tell me how to behave," said Wayne at the press conference when he signed for United in August last year.

The signs over the last few months are that Rooney would indeed benefit from somebody giving him a bit of advice.

His behaviour for England against Spain in November was appalling.

Wayne was like a rampaging monster that night. He began the match with a spiteful foul on Joaquín and then sent the Spanish keeper Casillas flying through the photographers.

He ended the match in a fit of childish petulance by stripping off the black armband worn in memory of Emlyn Hughes and hurling it to the turf.

What made it worse was that he refused to apologise afterwards.

For the disrespect shown not only to Emlyn and his family, but also to the England supporters, an apology afterwards would have been nice.

The following month against Bolton, in a flash of temper, Rooney raised his hand to Ben Haim's face.

Haim was guilty of ridiculous playacting - going down as if he'd been shot; but that still doesn't excuse Rooney's stupidity in the first place. Surely every Premiership player, even a 19-year-old chav, knows that if you raise your hand to another opponents face, however lightly, then it's a sending-off offence.

The FA were right to give Rooney a 3 match ban. (They should have punished Haim more severely though for his playacting.)

Returning to the league after his 3 match ban, you'd think that Rooney might have tried to keep his temper under control in his first game back in the Premiership.

Instead, Wayne was yesterday booked against Liverpool for recklessness again. When will he ever learn?

I wasn't surprised that he made a silly provocative celebration in front of the Kop. He's that type of character.

At Goodison Park, Rooney literally had more yellow cards than goals. His disciplinary record for a striker is dreadful.

I remember in particular one disgraceful two-footed challenge that he made while playing for Everton - for which he was rightly sent off.

I fear that the lad seems determined to press the self-destruct button.

I guess this is sadly what can happen sometimes when lads are showered with too much money, fame and adulation at a young age. Rooney doesn't yet seem to have the brains or the maturity to conduct himself properly.

Having a "role model" like Roy Keane as captain, together with the abrasive Alan Smith as his strike partner probably doesn't help matters.

There were those who thought that Fergie would be the right man to calm Rooney down. I think the opposite will be true.

There've been quite a few players down the years that Ferguson has been unable to control - Lee Sharpe, Norman Whiteside, Paul McGrath, Mark Bosnich to name a few.

Ferguson has so far proved incapable of handling Rooney in the right way.

It's about time the wee man opened his gob and said something one way or the other. His silence is deafening.

The wee man had plenty to say last month, CLB...

Barry Ferguson said: (I quote)

"The main thing is that I'm happy and my family is happy. I definitely see my future here."

"I'm loving it at Blackburn and, hopefully, I can stay here for a few more years yet."

"I've still got more than two years left on my contract and since the new regime have come in, I've really enjoyed it. I've learned so much in the last couple of months and I'm really enjoying myself."

(Quotes taken from the LET) - link below:

http://tiscali.football365.com/teams/black...ry_135783.shtml

But now though, according to David Murray, Ferguson has "expressed a willingness to return to Rangers."

"Blackburn risk holding onto a very unhappy player," says Mr Murray.

So in the space of just a few weeks, Ferguson has gone from being a happy player who is "really enjoying it" at Rovers - to now apparently being very unhappy at Blackburn.

If Murray's comments about Fergie wanting to move back to Rangers are true, then I think the whole thing is disgusting. Like the Savage saga, it sickens me....

based on every interview I have seen/heard with Savage in the last 3 years, he is one of the most avaricious people I have ever seen. Money is practically an obsession with him.

Latest news:

Robbie Savage speaks out over transfer heartbreak

Welsh star desperate to be reunited with loved ones

One of football's toughest competitors has spoken openly of his distress at his club's refusal to grant him the transfer that would allow him to be closer to his loved ones.

Birmingham City's Robbie Savage is known throughout the game as one of the Premier League's most uncompromising players but he has been reduced to a quivering wreck in recent weeks.

Based in the Midlands and forced to live miles away from a potential £35,000 a week contract in Lancashire the midfield enforcer is understood to be in a weak emotional state.

Faced with the offer from Blackburn of a large sum of money being deposited every month in his Halifax Xtra Saver account, the sensitive Savage has been reduced to tears. "I just want to be nearer to that large amount of money," he sobbed to reporters. "My bank account has been getting sicker by the day. If I can't get to its bedside soon, then I fear the worst."

Savage has been so upset by events that he requested a transfer last week. "I hope people can understand how much this means to me," he blubbed.

Counting some notes and loose change in his wallet, Robbie said: "My loved ones are very important to me."

One Birmingham fan said: "I've measured the distance from Robbie's present bank balance to the nearest next million quid and I reckon it might be quite a way."

And Savage's own parents have pleaded for their son to be allowed to act as "the greedy sod we raised him to be. If he's near to us then we can keep a close eye on him and his currently cleared funds."

A pal of Savage said: "People should be sympathetic to Robbie. He just wants to hold his loved ones close to his chest and kiss them tenderly, like he used to do with the Birmingham badge."

For anyone who didn't see the quotes from the porn baron David Sullivan in the tabloids yesterday, he had quite a bit to say on the Savage issue again.

The man who has made his fortune from publications such as 'Lovebirds', 'Playbirds' and The Sunday Sport says that Blackburn Rovers have been guilty of: "Outrageous, disgraceful and, quite frankly, despicable behaviour."

"I can only put it down to the naivety of their manager Mark Hughes and the bitterness of his assistant Mark Bowen, who left Birmingham on extremely bad terms."

Sullivan went on to say: "Do you really think that Savage wants to play for Blackburn because he thinks they are a better club than Birmingham? What a load of crap. It's about greed, it's purely down to money."

"As far as his parents are concerned, they may have had a few problems, but he's used that as an excuse without looking on a map and working out how far Wrexham is from Birmingham or Blackburn."

Steve Bruce, the man who has been in charge of Sheffield United, Huddersfield, Wigan and Crystal Palace - the club that he walked out on to join Birmingham - says that he's "sickened" by Savage's behaviour and lack of loyalty after signing a new four-year contract in the summer.

Perhaps not surprisingly given who Birmingham's chairman is, the club have been conducting their personal business through the media for quite some time. They have consistently been trying to paint Rovers as the guilty party in the long-running saga.

With the help of their friends in the media, Birmingham let it be known that they offered Savage a chauffeur-driven car to ferry him back and forth to visit his parents.

In other public relations moves, Karen Brady has been using her sweet feminine charms to give the impression that the club has been doing everything in its power to help the miscreant player in his time of need.

As Paul said earlier on this thread:

I'd like to see Rovers pull out of the bidding now and leave Savage and Birmingham to enjoy each other's company.

A link to the full quotes from Mr Sullivan in the Sunday Mirror is below:

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/sport/tm_obj...-name_page.html

Friedal - whoops, should have saved it

In a fortnight's time, the man nicknamed "slow hand" - Eric Clapton, will be visiting the city of Cardiff for a Tsunami benefit concert.

Some might suggest that slow hands from Friedel played a part in Cardiff's equaliser, but I didn't think that Brad was entirely to blame for the goal.

Perhaps more worrying though was the slow feet in evidence from Mr Matteo, who had a poor game. A bad mistake from Dominic in the first half, when he passed the ball straight to a Cardiff player, could have cost us a goal.

Their equaliser came about 15 minutes later, when the ball bounced off the crossbar on to Friedel and into the net.

And you think we're looking forward to it!

expect a 7,000 gate, at most!

Mr Williams, if you happen to be reading this, I hope that you'll be able to reconsider the pricing policy for this replay.

I fear that otherwise it might be an embarrassingly low gate. Like the Bournemouth debacle earlier in the season, this may give the impression to Mark Hughes and his staff that the Blackburn public are not enthusiastic about cup competitions.

I don't see the sense in charging high prices for this game and having a ground more than two-thirds empty.

Sheff Utd -Villa gets live coverage and TWO sets of highlights. Disgraceful coverage.

I thought the Match Of The Day coverage was poor last night, Paul.

Firstly there seem to be a number of inexperienced commentators for the matches. The guy commentating on Man Utd/Exeter game, Martin Fisher, seemed completely out of his depth.

For me this illustrates again the folly of the BBC hierarchy in not keeping hold of their more experienced commentators like Barry Davies, whose voice at least conveys some authority and gravitas.

As for Mark Bright, commentating on the Villa game, perhaps the least said the better. Together with his pal Ian Wright, the pair of them are a joke.

Gavin Peacock was one of the studio pundits last night. He's hardly had the most illustrious of careers - not good enough to win any caps at International level.

A woman's voice was heard last night describing some of the goals as they went in. I'm not being sexist in any way - I'm happy for females to be involved in football, but this particular lady had an irritating voice that distracted attention away from the goals.

Surely the BBC could do better.

The magic of the FA Cup has been further damaged in the game between Yeading and Newcastle which kicked-off about 20 minutes ago.

Yeading started off making all the right noises, insisting that they would play the game at their own home ground.

I didn't believe them. I knew that they would cave in, and that's exactly what happened when they realised the extra money that could be made by holding the game at Loftus Road.

Don't believe all the bullsh*t about "safety reasons" - Yeading's ground was perfectly capable of hosting this tie with a proper police presence, which could be afforded because the BBC are paying them £300,000 to show the match.

Yeading's decision to host the game at Loftus Road is entirely down to the extra revenue available in gate receipts.

It's yet another kick in the teeth for the FA Cup.

Just to address some of the points that our Cardiff fan Pugger made:

I wasn't having a pop at all Cardiff supporters by any means, but rightly or wrongly, it's fair to say that Cardiff City have made the headlines in recent years for various incidents.

The game on the pitch was not bad tempered.

From my own memory of watching the highlights of this game, it seemed to me that things were a bit bad tempered.

In addition to Smith's sending off and O'Leary's shouting and yelling on the touchline, the ref (who was struck by a flying bottle) dished out five yellow cards during the match. I believe that Rio Ferdinand was taken off injured for Leeds and there was some pretty strong tackling going on by both sets of players.

If it wasn't bad-tempered on the field, then things did get quite heated off the pitch.

It was reported in Tris's favourite paper the Guardian that:

" A female Leeds supporter received head injuries as a result of an incident during the game. Missiles were thrown by both sets of supporters in the exchange and objects were hurled on to the pitch. Cardiff supporters threw bottles at several Leeds players and at the referee"

The report went on to say:

"Riot police had to use batons and dogs to force back hundreds of Cardiff supporters who invaded the pitch and gathered in front of the away section to taunt the Leeds fans after their giant-killing."

A link to that Guardian article is below:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Repor...,628731,00.html

as for comments as "violent street battles", well lets just say as a season ticket holder since 83 I haven't seen such for years.

There's news of rioting and street battles involving Cardiff and Millwall supporters at the link below:

http://members.lycos.nl/nsh/millwallhoolcardiff3.html

In 2003, there were violent street clashes between Cardiff City and Sheffield United fans - which were described by South Yorkshire Police as "the worst violence we've seen in many years."

The report said that: "trouble flared between fans both before and after the match."

A link to this piece is below:

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/02...-name_page.html

Finally, in another Guardian piece, it reported:

"There is a long history of problems between Cardiff fans and those from Stoke and Birmingham, and some of the most serious incidents of football hooliganism to have taken place over the past few years have involved fans from these clubs."

"Cardiff and Stoke City have the highest number of fans who are subject to football banning orders."

Link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/hooligans/articl...,713644,00.html

Sorry if I'm dwelling on Cardiff's "hooligan problem" a bit too much - but I just wanted to provide a few links to address the points that Pugger made.

Going back to the actual game tomorrow - Brett Emerton, if selected, will be getting his first taste of FA Cup action tomorrow.

(He didn't play in last season's debacle against Birmingham.)

The Aussie says: "I grew up watching the FA Cup as a young boy. The cup means a lot to the players, we want to go as far as we can in these kind of competitions. We will be taking tomorrow's game very seriously."

When they allowed Manchester United to play the reserve team in the competition, was the day the F.A. cup died for me.

I agree Den.

The message that it sent out to the country was that the FA Cup is no longer important - it comes second to a joke competition staged in Brazil.

United's absence from the FA Cup and the way they were allowed to willingly belittle the oldest and most famous knockout competition in the world was scandalous.

When they arrived in South America, the United players seemed to be more interested in topping up their tans in the Brazilian sun rather than their performances out on the pitch, where they looked rather disinterested.

The pictures which appeared in the papers on a daily basis of the United players strolling around a Rio beach in their designer sunglasses reinforced the message that United were behaving like a bunch of prima donnas while the FA Cup's historic traditions were being damaged.

Nowadays, giant killing is a thing of the past. The small clubs can still beat the top clubs, but not beat their strongest side. They can beat their reserves.

In terms of the top three clubs in the country, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United, you're correct Den.

It's hard to envisage any of the top three clubs in the country being beaten if they play their strongest side against weaker lower league opposition.

It wasn't always like this of course.

In the 70's, 80's and 90's, there was at least one major shock each decade involving one of the top clubs in the country.

In the 1970's, Leeds United, when they were the top team in the land, were beaten 3-2 by Colchester in 1971.

In the 1980's, Man United (then the tournament holders) lost 2-0 in 1984 to Bournemouth, while Arsenal lost 1-0 to York City in 1985.

In the 90's, the Gunners (then League champions) were beaten 2-1 by Wrexham in 1992.

Now, because the financial gulf between rich and poor is vastly bigger than before, it seems inconceivable that Chelsea, Arsenal or Man United could be beaten if they fielded their strongest side against a lower league club.

For the match at Cardiff, Mark Hughes returns to the city where he played such a vital part in our Worthington Cup win.

I'm expecting Saturday's match to be a much calmer less volatile game than when Leeds visited Ninian Park in the FA Cup two seasons ago.

Back then, with the score standing at 1-1 in the second half, Cardiff chairman Sam Hammam left his seat in the directors box and walked alongside the pitch with a known football hooligan.

Together they incited the crowd, whipping them into a frenzy during a bad-tempered match against David O'Leary's side, who had the abrasive Alan Smith sent off.

A gesture from Hamman that might have been seen as an eccentric stunt at Wimbledon took on a different and altogether more provocative complexion when performed in front of Cardiff's rather inflamed supporters.

Visitors to Ninian Park can at times be subjected to intimidation from Cardiff City fans - although violent street battles are usually reserved for their Welsh derby matches against Swansea City and against teams saddled with a 'hooligan reputation', such as Leeds, Millwall and Bristol City.

I'm not a big fan of Hamman. For all his professed love of Wimbledon, he had no qualms about doing a runner with 30 million quid in his pocket, letting a bunch of Norwegians take it to Milton Keynes.

Like 'Publicity Pete' Mr Ridsdale, Sam clearly enjoys the publicity and the attention he gets.

He tells his players that they'll be forced to eat camel brains and sheep testicles if they let in too many goals - and then ensures that a camera is present at the restaurant to record the event. Anything for a bit of extra publicity and media attention.

Hamman likes to make wild boasts, once ludicrously suggesting that Cardiff City would become 'as big as Barcelona'.

At times, in his desperation for attention, Sam can behave like a yob - such as the time when he scrawled offensive graffiti on the team's dressing room wall at Upton Park.

Hamman even inserted a clause into the contract of one manager, Bobby Gould, giving himself the right to change the team up to 45 minutes before the start of any match - an outrageous breach of traditional protocol.

I don't anticipate any hooligan problems this Saturday, and I'm hopeful that Rovers will win this tie.

Prediction: Cardiff 0 Rovers 1

It's a rare occasion to be able to agree with both Tris AND Scotty but this is one of those.

You'll be shocked to know that you're also agreeing with me too, FLB...

I'm concerned that the proposed new technology for goal-line incidents will lead to a dangerous slippery slope; there would be demands for video replays to be introduced for every controversial decision, such as penalties and offsides.

Going down this route would be a big mistake in my view.

The delays to the game in order to refer to video would seriously disrupt the flow of the match - as well as potentially giving an unfair advantage to one of the teams having the 'break'.

A delay may give them time to rest, regroup and receive instructions from the coach in the technical area.

A major part of football's appeal is that it's usually a fast and free-flowing game. At the moment, games which kick off at 3pm on a Saturday usually finish by about 4.55pm.

Do we want the matches to finish half an hour later at 5.25pm because of continuous interruptions?

How many different people in the stands will the referee be able to consult? Will it be decision by jury - a group of men in the stands replaying the incident over again on video and arguing with each other over whether it was a deliberate or accidental handball?

If it's the case that only the clubs in the top divisions could afford the new technology then to have a different set of rules for different clubs would go against all the traditions of football.

The likes of little Yeading, who face Newcastle this weekend, would be playing a different game to the rest.

Arsene Wenger says that there's too much money at stake in football for video replays not to be introduced.

I would argue that to change the nature of football in such a fundamental way would be a dangerous move to make.

What a sick world we live in these days....

A collection for the victims of the Tsunami tragedy was stolen from Salisbury cathedral, police have confirmed.

A large collection box, marked 'Tsunami Disaster Fund', was removed from the cathedral and dumped in a nearby underpass, with the money removed.

Meanwhile, a man from Lincolnshire has pleaded guilty to sending a string of hoax emails to worried friends and relatives of the Tsuanmi disaster who had posted their details on a Sky News website.

The emails, purporting to be from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Thailand, stated that "the UK Government regret to inform them that the missing person they were inquiring about has been confirmed as dead."

40-year-old Christopher Pierson, who was arrested by police, at first denied all knowledge of sending the emails, before eventually admitting that he had sent them in a "moment of madness".

One interesting fact that I noticed was that they did not find a single animal corpse yet. They say that all of the animals in the area sensed what was coming and moved away.

It's remarkable that not a single animal corpse has been found yet, American.

I guess that it adds weight to the notion that animals may possess a "sixth sense" for forthcoming disasters.

There have been reports in the past about birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. Some conservationists believe that there would have been particular vibrations and changes in the air pressure which would have alerted the animals into moving to a place where they felt safer.

Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife, believes that the animals pick up on certain changes in the atmosphere, warning them of the imminent danger.

The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster, while some ancient cultures viewed elephants as being sacred animals with a sixth sense.

"I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful."

Some words from John Constable, one of England's finest ever landscape artists.

I suspect though that if Mr Constable had paid a visit to the concrete jungle of Birmingham yesterday to witness this wretched game of football played in atrocious conditions at Villa Park, it might have taxed the notion of seeing beauty in everything.

The Rovers motto is 'Arte et labore' - meaning "by skill and labour".

There might have been a bit of labour on show yesterday, but there was precious little skill.

The match (admittedly not helped by the diabolical weather) was an affront to the beautiful game. Sloppy misplaced passes and the lack of any cutting edge up front meant that it was a grey afternoon in every respect.

Sparky admitted: "It wasn't a pretty spectacle. There wasn't a lot of quality out there."

Villa's nickname is 'The Villains', but it was Rovers who were guilty of criminally bad defending - scandalously allowing little Nobby to head home completely unmarked.

Highlights were few and far between in this dreadful match. Nissa hit the bar with a header in the first half. Jon Stead, 18 matches this season without a goal (if you include the Bournemouth game) didn't look like breaking his duck here - curling a shot well wide of the post in the opening few minutes.

Pablo Angel should have scored for Villa just before half time; but the Columbian, like most of the others on the pitch, was off-target.

Villa have been suffering from a goal drought this season. Indeed a shortage of goals has been a long-term problem for them . No Villa striker has scored 20 goals for the club since the Premiership started. (Dean Saunders and Dwight Yorke both managed 17).

If Big Ron had bought a decent strike partner for Saunders during the 92/93 season, instead of his lazy namesake Dalian Atkinson, Villa would probably have won the first ever Premiership. Sadly they were pipped at the post by the Red Scum.

O'Leary hopes that James Beattie will be the man to solve Villa's impotence in front of goal. For Rovers (as I've just posted in the Hartson thread), I hope we don't look towards the vicious thug from Celtic as being the answer to our problems.

Big, big game tomorow where we must take all 3 points.

I agree that it's a must win game tomorrow. Our appalling home record has to be improved upon.

Let's hope we can see a bit more 'Arte' on the pitch against Charlton.

Incidentally, another club that still dabbles in the language of Latin failed to live up to their motto yesterday. Everton's badge reads "Nil satis nisi optimum" - meaning "Nothing but the best is good enough".

Alas, the blue half of Merseyside were thrashed by Spurs. There's clearly a huge gap in terms of quality between the top three sides in the country and fourth-placed Everton.

The top three sides are miles ahead of the rest, leading (in my view) to an unhealthy Premiership.

Aren't you just complaining about his complaining? 

Well I've got a bit of complaining to do in this post, American....

It's ludicrous for Savage to try to justify moving to Rovers on the grounds of being "closer to his family", when the distance time is hardly any different.

I might be in a minority on this - (I know that a number of fans, including two of my favourite board members, Blue Phil and Revidge, both rate Savage highly) - but personally I don't want to see him ever playing for my club.

I don't like Robbie because he's a cheat.

(I can't help remembering that time when he dived for a penalty in the box and then celebrated in a provocative way in front of the fans when the penalty was given.)

Plus of course, there was the time when he made a nauseating dive in the 1999 Worthington Cup final - which got Tottenham's Justin Edinburgh sent off.

As well as being a cheat, he's a prima donna. A cocky arrogant wind-up merchant with a big ego.

He's always ready to pose for pictures in magazines and give interviews to the press. Anything for an extra pay day - which I suspect might be on his mind at the moment as he weighs up a move to Ewood.

He and his agent have probably been calculating that he'll do very nicely out of a Rovers signing-on-fee and a bumper new contract.

Savage talks about "family problems", but so far he hasn't actually had the balls to put in a formal transfer request. Instead we hear various little titbits that he's been feeding to the press about his personal life.

I want to avoid relegation, but I want to do that by playing football - not by having a dirty obnoxious brat like Savage in our side.

With the Afgan hound playing for us at Ewood, we're almost guaranteed that he'll miss games through suspension. He was booked fifteen times last season.

"The whole build-up is going to be a nightmare," complained Savage, when he spoke about the England/Wales match at Old Trafford which he wasn't involved in.

It was entirely down to his own stupidity that he missed the game by getting himself sent off against Northern Ireland.

As a former Leicester team mate remarked: "If brains were chocolate he wouldn't have enough to fill a Smartie."

His arrogance was apparent even when he was a lower division player at Crewe, prior to joining Leicester. Called up for a Welsh game against Italy, he waited until the cameras were filming and then thought it would look good if he tossed Paolo Maldini's shirt into the bin.

Here was a cocky little git at Crewe dismissing one of the world's best and most experienced defenders.

Now it seems that Mr Savage, on a weekly wage in excess of £20,000 a week at St Andrews, is upset that his 57-year-old father has been forced to retire from work.

Up and down the country, millions of people are facing these type of family problems in their everyday lives - redundancy, unemployment, ill health etc.

It's not nice, it's not pleasant, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone - but it's an unfortunate fact of life for millions in our society.

I'd imagine that the blow of redundancy might be eased a bit though by having an affluent member of the family who is earning over 80 grand a month.

But this is possibly beside the point - Savage shouldn't be using his family problems as a smokescreen for his desire to change clubs.

And how do we know that he will stick with us at Rovers?

After a year or two with us, what's stopping him coming out with a similar "family problems" excuse to move clubs to Everton, for instance, on the grounds that Merseyside is nearer to Wrexham?

Steve Bruce says: "There are always distractions with Robbie. That is the nature of the beast."

Mark Hughes might be looking to try and tame the beast - but as far as I'm concerned Robbie, you're a cheat and I don't want you at my club.

You can go back to your collection of Ferraris and Lamborghinis in Birmingham.

I don't want to see a cocky git like you buying another flash car which you've bought with your signing-on-fee at Rovers, giving us lame excuses about "family problems".

In an interview with the Observer at the weekend, Dave Jones spoke of the nightmare of being arrested and taken to court for child sex offences that he didn't commit. Jones blamed what happened for the death of his father - who fell ill and went into a coma when the news of his arrest broke.

That interview with the former Wolves boss can be read in the link below:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1358401,00.html

The Observer recently conducted an interview from behind prison walls with Jonathan King - who it seems is actually enjoying his time in prison.

The disgraced pop producer says that he enjoys "delicious spaghetti Napolitaine, in a tomato, mushroom and broccoli sauce, as well as a glorious chicken supreme" and describes the chips and gammon ham he's had as "the finest I've ever eaten anywhere".

It was a calm November afternoon for the boats gently gliding across the Thames today.

Passing through Fulham and Putney Bridge, the young men and women on the boats might well have been oblivious to the vital proceedings at Craven Cottage - where Blackburn gained a welcome respite from the stormy waters that had been threatening to engulf the club in recent weeks.

Last season, a 4-3 win at this ground was the turning point in our relegation battle. The three points gained at the Cottage today could prove to be equally crucial.

This is a much more picturesque part of London than the Selhurst dump I'll be visiting in a fortnights time. It would be invaluable if we could get a win down there against Palace.

Some good old-fashioned wing play did the trick for us today after ten minutes. Steven Reid did well to get to the byeline and whip the ball in for Gallagher. It was dreadful defending by Fulham, but a deserved goal for Rovers after a bright opening start.

Radzinski, who looked offside, should have equalised a few minutes afterwards. Later in the half, Paul Dickov should have scored, but he seemed to snatch at his chance. He might not be prolific, but his effort and commitment to the cause are to be admired.

It wasn't a classic match this afternoon; there was a bit of sloppy passing from both sides at times. But to be successful in this game it's imperative to get good crosses in from wide positions. I was pleased to see Rovers do that today.

Chris coleman said this in his post match interview:

"Blackburn just showed more desire. Have Blackburn got better players than us? No. Did they want to win the game more? Yes.

Coleman was scathing about his team afterwards, accusing his players of arrogance and a lack of desire.

"Maybe our players think they are too good to be in a dogfight. There were too many players thinking they could just turn up. They looked like they were on a beach in Rio, flicking it here and there. We were rightly booed off today," Coleman said.

Sparky paid tribute to his players after the game. Hughes said that the lads were very sound defensively throughout the match.

(I actually thought we had a couple of dodgy moments in defence - but it was certainly a damn sight better than our defending in the Birmingham game.)

Gallagher, who scored his second successive Premiership goal today, looked lively up front.

Last season Gallagher's fortuitous 'handled' goal against Newcastle gave us a crucial away win at St James' Park, much to the chagrin of Sir Bobby Robson.

His goal today was well taken, putting his family problems behind him.

Paul's 40-year old mother has pleaded guilty to three charges of benefit fraud and has asked for another 38 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Blackburn magistrates heard that she used a different name and a false National Insurance number to fraudulently claim a string of benefits. Nearly as bad as an Albanian asylum seeker...

(I'll probably get another "fecking clown" comment from Scotty after that one...)

Anyway, well done to Rovers for an important away victory.

You wait years for a penalty and suddenly two come along in the space of three matches. It's a funny old game...