No, I was thinking more in general terms that some players are quick to criticise refs for poor displays, rather than looking at their own poor performances.

Pedersen and Hughes line up to slate Saturday's ref Whilst ref Alan Wiley didn't have a good game, I think Rovers were still a bit fortunate not to lose the match, because Andy Johnson's "goal" might well have been allowed by other officials. As for MGP, well his comments are fair enough - but perhaps he should be concentrating solely on his own performances, which have left much to be desired this season. He hasn't scored a Premiership goal since a 90th minute free-kick against Sheffield United over a year ago. When he's not scoring any goals, MGP's contribution can be somewhat limited. In fact, his passing, dribbling and crossing can sometimes be inept. But if in doubt, blame the ref....

You were right Gordon.... I wonder how long it will be before 'The Special One' returns to the game ? Under the terms of his Chelsea settlement he can't join another English club until next season at the earliest, but in any case Jose has indicated that England won't be his next destination. There's been plenty of speculation that a major European club (one of the Milan giants perhaps?) has already tapped him up for next season. The suspicion has to be that Mourinho was using the publicity of a potential England job to prompt an offer from a major European club. I suspect (but I can't prove) that Jose always had doubts about the wisdom of taking the England job, but he enjoyed his name being linked with it nevertheless. Italian football may well suit Mourinho's football philosophy. He favours a defensively tight unit first and foremost, rather than a fluent open attractive style of play. He often played Drogba as a lone stirker, with five midfielders pressurising play. Last year's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Man United at the New Wembley was a dire spectacle. After all the hype beforehand it turned out to be a dreadful match. But I suppose that Jose would argue that he got the right result and that winning is the only thing that matters to him. The International Federation of Football History & Statistics awarded Mourinho the title of 'World's Best Club Coach' in 2004 with Porto and again in 2005 with Chelsea. But Mourinho is currently reduced at the moment to appearing on Portugese TV as a pundit for that joke of a tournament, the African Nations Cup. How the mighty have fallen - from the 'world's best coach' to discussing the virtues of Zambia against Sudan and Guinea versus Namibia. I seem to recall that when he was at Chelsea he hated the African Nations Cup, or perhaps more specifically he hated his players like Drogba and Essien going there. But desperate times call for desperate measures and I suppose he feels the need to earn a few extra pennies now by appearing as a TV pundit before another managerial job turns up. I didn't like Mourinho's arrogance when he was at Chelsea. There were things he did and said which I didn't agree with at all and I was disgusted with Porto's tactics in the 2003 UEFA Cup final against Celtic. It seemed as if Mourinho had given his Porto players instructions to dive at every opportunity. Let's face it, some of the players he had at Chelsea like Drogba and Robben certainly went down too easily as well. But I suspect Mourinho would argue that this is modern football and other teams do it as well. Despite my dislike of certain aspects of Jose's tactics, I have to grudgingly admire his record as a coach. He was unbeaten at home in the Premiership for three years at Stamford Bridge. Before that, he was unbeaten at home for a long period with Porto, winning the treble of Portugese domestic league and cup and the UEFA Cup in his first full season in charge there, followed by the Portugese league and the Champions League the following season. So if you can ignore his egotistical arrogance and sometimes questionable tactics, it's difficult to argue against his managerial record in terms of trophies - apart from perhaps suggesting that with all the money Chelsea had, they should have won at least one Champions League title during his time there. (They were beaten twice in semi-finals against Liverpool and once in the last 16 against Barcelona.) It's extraordinary in a way that Mourinho not only threw a Premiership medal into the crowd that he won with Chelsea, but he also threw his Champions League medal with Porto into the crowd as well. Most people would guard their football medals like precious crown jewels, but it seems as if Mourinho isn't at all sentimental about them. He just wants to win, full stop. Bugger the medal at the end of it. I think whichever club gets 'The Special One' next can look forward to a strong possibility of winning trophies in the future. It's likely that Jose will make his next team defensively tight, difficult to break down and tough to beat. It might not always be pretty or stylish to watch, but by God it's often effective.

How it first started to go wrong for Ashley Cole Cole's lawyer Graham Shear says that Ashley had "a master-slave relationship" at Arsenal. Describing someone who's been offered a £55,000-a-week contract as a "slave" is deeply insulting to the millions of hard-working people in the country who don't get anywhere near that amount of money. Cole, the king of bling, has become a symbol of the sickening greed, disloyalty and disrespect that tarnishes our once beautiful game Yes. Vile animal Micah Richards

Whilst Robbie Savage was probably well aware that he was heading for relegation when he signed for Derby, he probably didn't realise just what a massive mess the club is in. It's a shockingly poor team. I think Savage would have been better off going to a decent Championship team with a chance of going up for next season. He certainly won't be playing in the Premiership next season with Derby. Paul Jewell admits the game is up "We looked like we were playing in the Conference," says Robert Earnshaw. It's sad in a way that Robbie Savage has reduced himself to this level of football.

"Dump this rat, Cheryl" Ashley probably doesn't have the brains to realise what a prat he looks in the picture below. He just oozes arrogance, with a "F___ you, I'm rich" attitude. I've never been a big fan of Roy Keane, but I agreed with the views he aired last year, when he said that the celebrity WAG culture in football is damaging the game. Keane said: "You see these footballers stood there doing these photo shoots and they might say 'I'm not comfortable doing it'. Well, don't do it then. Some of the players get dragged into it because of their partners. These so-called big stars, the ones people are supposed to be looking up to. They're weak, they're soft." "If a player doesn't want to move up to the North because his wife wants to go shopping in London it's a sad state of affairs. It's not a football move, it's a lifestyle move, and they’re the type you don't want at your club anyway. It tells me the player is weak," said Keane. Ashley Cole is both weak and arrogant.

I watched the second half of the Red Scum's 3-1 win over Spurs this afternoon on the BBC and I thought that Iain Dowie was a poor choice as co-commentator for the match. Dowie's East End voice sounded hoarse and he seemed to be mumbling during the match, which didn't make him easy to understand. I had little sympathy for Dowie when he was sacked after just 15 games in charge of Charlton. Dowie told the Palace chairman Simon Jordan that he wanted to leave Palace "to be closer to his family in the North". Jordan released him from his contract only to see Dowie turn up a week later at The Valley, just eight miles up the road from Selhurst Park. At the London High Court in the summer of 2007, The Hon. Mr Justice Tugendhat ruled that Iain Dowie had lied when negotiating his way out of his Crystal Palace contract. Why does the BBC want to employ the services of a proven liar ? At Charlton he was given a lot of money to spend in the summer that he took over. The players he bought were not good enough, and although being sacked after 15 games might sound harsh, if Dowie hadn't bought such poor players he might have survived for longer. Some of the players at The Valley were reportedly baffled by Dowie's training methods - unfortunately those methods worked for Dowie's Coventry against Rovers in the FA Cup. Finally, a word about another BBC pundit, Mark Lawrenson. He was a co-commentator for the Wigan V Chelsea Cup match on Saturday evening. There seemed to be a clear push by Anelka for one of the Chelsea goals, but Lawro didn't see anything wrong with it. Along with the infuriating Ian Wright as well, the BBC have got a few dodgy pundits.

Watching the Match Of The Day highlights yesterday of Derby's humiliating 4-1 defeat at home to Preston in the FA Cup (nice to know we're not the only ones who can be humiliated 4-1 at home to a Championship side) it struck me that Andy Todd is effectively now finished as a player. To say that Todd was abysmal during the first half would be an understatement. He was largely to blame for Preston going in at half-time 3-0 up and Todd was promptly substituted by Paul Jewell at half-time. A clearly angry Jewell said after the match: "I'm at a loss to explain it. The players fall apart at the first sign of adversity." Our old Rovers players Todd and Savage are undoubtedly heading for relegation in what is perhaps the worst Premiership team in history (with the possible exception of Mick McCarthy's Sunderland in 2005/06). McCarthy's side finished with just 15 points that season - breaking the worst record for points in the top flight, previously held by Stoke City with 17 points in 1984/85. Derby, with just 7 points so far from 23 Premiership games, realistically just have to try to make sure they get more than 15 points this season and don't go down in history as being the worst ever team in the top flight. Clearly Derby haven't had a prayer of avoiding relegation for some months. I'm rather surprised in some respects that Paul Jewell took this job. It was obvious to a blind man on a galloping horse that Derby were going down into the Championship. Does Jewell really want to have relegation on his CV ? When he first arrived Jewell tried to insist that Derby could still survive in the Premiership "I wouldn't have come here if I didn't believe we could get out of it," he said - but frankly Jewell sounded as if he was in denial about the reality that was facing him. Jewell has changed his tune now and instead talks about the "long-term potential" of the team, but he's got a massive job on his hands because clearly a number of players, including Andy Todd, are nowhere near good enough. The problem for Jewell would be if they struggle in the Championship next season with abysmal performances like the one against Preston on Saturday, the Derby fans may well start chanting for Jewell to go and a once promising managerial career could come crashing to an end. Personally I think Jewell would have been better off biding his time, playing some golf with his pals, and waiting for another club which didn't offer immediate relegation on his CV.

For anybody interested in another tale of how this slimeball Cole cheated on his wife - a link to today's Sunday Mirror story is below: Cole cheated with a second woman Effectively Cole seems to be treating these girls like prostitutes, offering them money after having sex with them. These women are behaving like tarts - and Cole has no respect for them. "You should feel privileged that I've been sick in your car," Cole apparently said to one of the tarts. What an arrogant toerag he is! It's not long ago since we had the headlines about Man United's infamous Christmas party, with United players allegedly encouraging and egging on each other to perform sex acts with a group of tarts in short skirts and high heels, who were apparently specially invited for the occasion. Allegedly, there were shouts of "Get in there my son" as certain United players took turns to satisfy their depraved lust. These sort of headlines don't exactly enhance our opinion of footballers. They come across as being selfish brats. The millionaire United "stars" apparently ran up a staggering £41,000 champagne bill during their boozy party at a Manchester hotel. One drunken United player reportedly wet his trousers. £41,000 is an obscene amount of money for a group of players to be spending on alcohol. But they don't care. Because they're a spoilt rich bunch of brats. Absolutely.

Ashley Cole caught with his pants down I find it laughable that this blonde slapper says: "I feel so sorry for Ashley's wife Cheryl." Yeah right - she's so sorry that she couldn't wait to pull her knickers down for Ashley and then sell the sordid details to a tabloid newspaper. Effectively this silly cow is like a prostitute. She's had sex for the money. But instead of getting her money through a pimp, she's sold the details of her sexual encounter to The Sun. Her body is cheap to her and she seemingly has no embarrassment about her family reading of her sex life in the press. (Incidentally although I sometimes read The Sun's online edition on the web, I don't contribute to the Sun's coffers by buying the newspaper in a shop, especially after the lies they printed in 1989 after Hillsborough.) As for Ashley Cole himself, I think he's a greedy selfish parasite. He insulted the majority of decent football fans throughout the country when he ranted that the £55,000 a week offer he had at Arsenal wasn't good enough for him. "I nearly crashed my car when I heard from my agent that the offer was only £55,000 a week," Cole apparently said in his autobiography. Just £2.9m a year that Arsenal were willing to pay him. How was the poor barsteward supposed to cope with just that amount? Ashley and Cheryl apparently sold their wedding to a magazine for over £1m, but clearly Ashley just couldn't cope with the thought of earning only 55 grand a week. Peanuts isn't it? You can't buy enough Bentley cars and diamond-encrusted mobile phones on that. Personally I think Cole and this dizzy blonde cow are well-suited to each other. How I agree with some of the comments that were previously made on this thread....

Lucas reveals all... West Ham defender Lucas Neill has decided to come clean and reveal the real reasons why he joined the Hammers last January. Lucas has finally put pen to paper in his new autobiography. The delay on the publication of Neill's book was due to Lucas and his agent haggling over money with the publisher, but Neill is now said to be satisfied with the financial terms of the lucrative book deal. Neill's book is available in all good bookshops.

Steve McClaren gave an interview to Radio 5's Gary Richardson recently. McClaren said that he had no regrets about anything during his time as England manager. He said that he wouldn't have done anything differently during his 18 months in charge. Is this man a fool or is he just deluded ? So he has no regrets about the defensive tactics away to Israel where we drew 0-0, no regrets about trying to hang onto a 1-0 lead away to Russia in a match we ended up losing 2-1; no regrets about the disastrous 3-5-2 formation away to Croatia which left the players looking confused in a 2-0 defeat. No regrets about the fact we could barely muster a single shot on goal during the first half against Macedonia at Old Trafford which ended up 0-0, no regrets about playing the inexperienced Scott Carson in our vital last match at home to Croatia at Wembley. Steve McClaren says that he's "still ambitious" and wants to manage at "the highest level". Which Premiership chairman would be brave enough to employ this clown again?

I decided to take a look back Simon at some of Brownie's previous posts at the time. (Not having a pop at Brownie, I'm having a pop at Lucas for being "economical with the truth" in my view.) When he signed for West Ham on Monday, January 22nd, 2007, Lucas Neill said: "I know it's the right move to make." Quite a change in attitude to his stance less than a fortnight earlier isn't it when he apparently said "No way mate" to the prospect of joining West Ham. So what exactly changed for Lucas during the ten days before he appeared at an Upton Park press conference, sitting smugly alongside Alan Curbishley with a West Ham shirt, like the cat that got the cream? Dare I suggest that during those ten days before joining the Hammers, Lucas found out about the very lucrative terms that West Ham were offering and he was suitably impressed enough to go from thinking: "No way mate" to "Yes please mate, I'll have some of that dosh." Is West Ham really the big club that "suits his high ambitions" ? The club has not won a top flight league title in it's history. The Hammers might get bigger crowds than us, but they haven't won anything since the FA Cup in 1980. In their history they have won three FA Cups and a European Cup Winners Cup, which is not as impressive as the history of Blackburn Rovers - 3 top flight league titles, 6 FA Cups and a League Cup. Lucas justified his move to West Ham by saying: "I'm just delighted to be at a very big club with a big tradition. The likes of Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore, Alan Devonshire and Trevor Brooking - they're great players and characters." Ah, so it's all down to the likes of Trevor Brooking and Alan Devonshire then ? Even though Lucas was apparently a Liverpool fan as a kid with posters of Liverpool players like Dalglish and Souness on his wall, it seems that he was actually swayed by the prospect of playing for the same club as Alan Devonshire. When Lucas Neill signed for the Hammers last January, if he had said: "I'm moving to West Ham because of the very lucrative terms on offer," people would have said: "Greedy bugger but at least he's being honest." But by continually denying that money was a factor in his move to West Ham, I'm inclined to think: "Greedy bugger and he's dishonest."

From the Guardian article: "On signing for West Ham 12 months ago the Australian insisted financial considerations had not figured in his chosing the Londoners over Liverpool. But that appears to have changed since he is now not content with his breathtaking salary." Perhaps the Guardian should have said: "When Lucas Neill insisted financial considerations had not figured in his move to West Ham he lied." When Neill signed for West Ham a year ago he said: "I feel a sense of warmth about this move." No Lucas, you felt a sense of warmth in your wallet at the prospect of being paid such vast wages by the Hammers and now you have the audacity and the arrogance to be leading the queue of players to request a pay rise this month. West Ham were knocked out of the FA Cup tonight after Petrov pounced on a mistake by Neill to cross the ball into the box for a goal. But will Lucas really care as much as the fans do - after all he's the guy who decided to chose money over medals when he turned down Liverpool in favour of West Ham. And however much this Aussie bleats about "financial considerations not figuring in my move", you know that this greedy bugger clearly sees money as a major motive for him. Lucas Neill wasn't involved in our Worthington Cup final victory in 2002. I suspect that in years to come, when his grandchildren ask him: "Grandad what medals did you win?", he'll probably open up his wallet and say: "This is what I won."

Prostitutes and Drugs.... Ipswich Crown Court has been hearing today about the evil way that five prostitutes were murdered in Suffolk between November and mid-December 2006. Obviously it goes without saying that every sane individual in the country would totally condemn these wicked murders. But I'm interested in whether or not these women would still be alive today if they had not been taking drugs. Peter Wright QC - who is leading the prosecution case against Steve Wright (no relation) - suggested that drugs were indeed the main reason which led all five girls into prostitution. Peter Wright, QC, told the court today: "At the time of their deaths the victims Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls each had a drug problem. Each of them had resorted to prostitution in order to fund their addiction. In each of their cases this decision was ultimately to prove fatal." Wright continued: "All the girls were addicted to hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, and were reduced at the time of their deaths to working the streets of Ipswich as prostitutes in order to survive and to fund their habit. Each of them was accordingly vulnerable to the predatory conduct of a killer or killers." Jurors were told there was evidence that the women were asphyxiated while under the influence of hard drugs. Harry Shapiro, spokesman for the charity DrugsScope, said in December 2006 that he hoped the murders acted as a "wake-up call" for the government to deal with the drugs problem in Britain. Mr Shapiro said: "Many of these women start taking drugs at a young age. They leave home and are very vulnerable at that stage. They often get involved with partners, who may or may not act as their pimp, who may also be on drugs. Being a street prostitute is about earning to feed that need. It is a vicious spiral that they get into." Simon Aalders, coordinator of the Suffolk Drug Action team covering Ipswich, said that the effects of withdrawing from heroin is one of the reasons why women continue to put themselves at risk by selling their body. Mr Aalders says that "pretty much all" of the women working the streets in Ipswich would have "some kind of substance misuse problem". The parents of Gemma Adams, one of the five victims in Suffolk, said that after Gemma "fell in with the wrong crowd" she turned from a piano-playing schoolgirl who liked pony rides and brownies into a drug addict. "We are going through hell trying to come to terms with it. It has been shock after shock," her father said. 'One of her teachers described her as an "ordinary, intelligent girl from a nice family" and that's exactly what she was,' he added. It's so sad how girls like this from respectable loving backgrounds nevertheless get caught up in the spiral of drugs. I'd suggest that as a society we are not tough enough with the type of "wrong crowd" who lured Gemma into drugs - the type of lowlife scum who think that it's okay to give drugs to young schoolgirls. Ultimately, and very tragically, it was to lead to Gemma's death. Clearly the liberal society we have at the moment has been a failure in this respect. 17-year-old girl tells the BBC: "I started selling my body at 15 to pay for heroin."

Sheffield Wednesday director puts his foot in it like Big Ron Apparently Mr Addy used the the same "N" word which finished Big Ron's career.... I don't condone the use of such a word, but in today's modern liberal society if you kill another passenger, before running away from the scene and are convicted of causing death by dangerous driving - you can still be welcomed back into football with open arms, as was the case with Lee Hughes and Oldham FC. But if you say the "N" word then you are completely finished. The Oldham chairman, when welcoming Lee Hughes to the club, said: "Everybody deserves a second chance". But as poor old Big Ron found to his cost, if you say the "N" word, you don't get a second chance in football....

Furious Hughes cancels days off Some harsh words needed to be said in the dressing room after the shambles on Saturday. Mark Hughes was right to have a pop at the players - but he also needs to question some of his own decisions, because his team selection and substitutions during the match were bizarre. Very few people on here are actually calling for Hughes to go. What a number of people have said - myself included - is that Hughes should not be immune from criticism where it is due. He's made some tactical blunders and team selection mistakes this season which have cost us badly. As well as the FA Cup debacle on Saturday, in the Carling Cup against Arsenal, Hughes's decision to play Steven Reid at right-back was clearly a mistake. If Graeme Souness had played Gamst at left-back and Samba as a striker against Coventry, Souey would have been slaughtered on here, so it's only fair that Hughes doesn't get let off scott free when he makes mistakes. A blind man on a galloping horse can see that the midfield partnership of Tugay and Mokoena doesn't work. Mark Hughes's failure to address the central midfield situation in the summer was a big mistake. One could argue that he didn't have much money to spend, but I still feel that Hughes should have tried to wheel and deal in order to get another central midfield player into the club. People sometimes feel that the media is critical of Blackburn Rovers - but I actually think, in terms of the national media, we have escaped quite lightly after Saturday's truly horrendous performance. On Match Of The Day, Gavin Peacock gave a wonderful understatement when he said: "Blackburn didn't play all that well." Few pundits have reminded the public what a shambolic performance we gave against Larissa in the UEFA Cup, while after the 5-3 humiliation against Wigan, the criticism that the Rovers defenders got seemed to be fairly mild. Even Mark Lawrenson - not traditionally Rovers' biggest fan - has actually been quite complimentary about us this season. I suspect that because Rovers are not a big city club, a lot of pundits don't actually watch us play that many games and therefore they just assume, because Rovers are in the top half of the table, that the team is playing well. In reality we have hardly played well for 90 minutes since the start of November, and even during the month of October when we were getting good results, there were periods when we didn't play well, but got quite lucky: for example scoring in the last minute in the 2-1 win over Spurs at White Hart Lane. If Gavin Peacock, Mark Lawrenson, Lee Dixon and others, actually had to endure for 90 minutes what thousands of Rovers fans have often seen this season - an inability to keep the ball, an inability to attack with sufficient pace, particularly down the left-hand side, shambolic defending and some woeful free-kicks and corners, I suspect that those pundits might be a bit more critical of our team. This is now becoming a very big managerial test for Mark Hughes. Our Premiership position in the top half of the table shouldn't blind people to how poor we have often been. The quality of teams in the bottom half of the Premiership is poor. The likes of Wigan, Birmingham, Sunderland and Fulham are poor teams who would come unstuck against European opposition - as indeed we did when coming up against Larissa. We couldn't keep the ball against a mediocre Greek team who are currently bottom of their UEFA Cup group. There's an awful lot of work for Mark Hughes to do.

What a bad loser Arsene Whinger is... On Boxing Day his Arsenal team failed to score against Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Tomas Rosicky missed a glorious chance for the Gunners with a minute to go. But the Frenchman, rather than questioning his own players for failing to hit the net, chose instead to put the blame on Portsmouth for the goalless draw. Wenger moaned afterwards: "Portsmouth didn't play at all in the second half. They just defended with 10 men behind the ball and I was surprised to see their negative tactics." As Harry Redknapp remarked after the match: "What are we supposed to do - just stand back and let them rip us to pieces?" When will Wenger start looking more closely at his own players' failings rather than always blaming the opposition? At Ewood Park after our 1-1 Premiership draw with Arsenal back in August, Wenger accused Rovers of "violence". And yet during Wenger's reign at Arsenal he's had 70 players sent off. When will Wenger start to look in the mirror and admit that his own players can sometimes be a dirty bunch? I remember when Patrick Vieira disgustingly spat in the face of Neil Ruddock. I bet if an opposition player ever spat in the face of an Arsenal player, Wenger would go mad. But he can't admit that his own players are ever wrong. Ruddock said of Vieira after the spitting incident: "I could smell the garlic on him."

"Joey Barton's latest arrest for assault adds to Allardyce's problems" I bet Big Sam needed this latest arrest like a hole in the head. I don't know about anyone else, but personally I'm sick of this repugnant scouser Barton, after each regular misdemeanor, snivelling to the press that he's learnt his lessons and that he's now a changed man. He seems unable to learn because of a lack of brain cells. A classic case of a leopard who can't change his spots.

Absolutely right.... Petrov was in a totally different league to Pedersen tonight. MGP was embarrassingly poor again, while City's Bulgarian winger demonstrated the speed, skill, intelligence and awareness that MGP sorely lacks. It's annoying to think that Martin Petrov was available for Man City to buy for just £4.7m in the summer, while at one time there was speculation that other clubs were considering bids of upwards of £5m for MGP. If only we could swap him now for Petrov. But I don't think Sven would be mad enough to consider it though.... There are certain attributes you fundamentally need to be a good winger in the Premiership these days - pace certainly being one. It also helps to have directness, awareness, good control, passing and crossing ability. I'm afraid that for this season (and indeed for much of last season) MGP has shown precious little of these necessary attributes. Or as the subtitle of this thread rather aptly says: "Winger my ar*e".

Police are not confirming or denying the involvement of any Man United players after an alleged rape of a 26-year-old woman at a hotel where United players had been attending a party. Link: New rape inquiry after Man United party

Perhaps he was just pleased to have a big cocker next to him.... It certainly seems to be a long time since Pedersen played really well - in terms of taking the game to the opposition, beating players and delivering quality crosses. At the moment he's struggling to do any of the things that Rovers fans should be expecting from a wide player. He's not crossing well, not passing well and also crucially, he's not scoring many goals. I think I'm right in saying that MGP's last Premiership goal was a 90th minute free-kick against Sheffield United in February 2007. In the days when MGP was scoring more regularly, the goals sometimes glossed over some poor general displays from him - but at least when he was hitting the back of the net he was contributing to the game in a meaningful way. Sadly he's contributing precious little at the moment and we can't afford to carry a passenger in the team like him. The late Brian Clough once said: "If you run a big company like ICI, with thousands of workers, you can afford to have a few useless buggers in the workforce. But in a football team of eleven, you can't afford to have one single guy who isn't doing his job properly."

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm absolutely not calling for Mark Hughes to go. I hope that he remains our manager for years to come, but what I'm using this thread for is to question the recent tactics and team selection of our management team and to make the point that recent results have been completely unacceptable. I'm sure the vast majority of Rovers fans want Hughes to stay, but today's result was a humiliation for our club and serious question marks have to be raised about not only the players, but also about the current tactics. Today was the first time ever that Wigan have scored five goals in a Premiership match. Our once solid defence that we took pride in is now frankly a shambles. The wheels have completely come off and we've only won one of of our last seven games. I think Hughes has a massive job on his hands now because serious weaknesses have been exposed. Some of the early season optimism has proved to be a false dawn. In our previous two Premiership encounters with Wigan at the JJB stadium, we won 3-0 in 2005/06 and also 3-0 in 2006/07. Clearly something is going very badly wrong and it would be foolish for anyone to pretend that everything in the garden is rosy. Significant problems, I feel, have been brewing for quite some time this season. The first indication of this, when alarm bells should have been ringing loud and clear, was after the humiliation against Larissa. We performed abysmally against a second-rate Greek team who are currently bottom of UEFA Group A - having lost all of their UEFA Group games so far. I feel that our Premiership results in October papered over some of the cracks. We had some positive results in October, but I feel that during the month Rovers only really played well during the first half against Reading. The 2-1 win over Spurs at White Hart Lane was somewhat fortuitous, scoring in the last minute, having been outplayed for much of the game. After the Larissa humiliation, Mark Hughes should have been identifying and analysing in great detail the weaknesses in the team, in particular our inability to keep hold of the ball for any length of time and the general sloppiness not only in possession, but also when trying to defend too. Perhaps Hughes did identify that we had problems in these areas, but in recent matches these problems have come firmly back to haunt us. It is not just the players, but the management team too who I feel have made mistakes lately. Regarding the team selection of our manager, this is certainly a valid point below: I think it's now 27 Premiership games without a goal for MGP. He is offering absolutely bugger all at the moment. It always astounds me when fans of other clubs tell me that they would like to have Pedersen in their team. A friend of mine who supports Arsenal told me in the summer that he was hoping Wenger would sign Pedersen. I said to him: "Surely you have to be joking. He wouldn't get into your reserve team." I suspect that some fans of other clubs have been given a completely false impression of MGP, because they've seen highlights on Match Of The Day of him scoring some spectacular goals in the past and they think he is doing this every other week. If only.... If my Arsenal-supporting friend had to endure what Rovers fans do every week - of MGP struggling to pass properly, struggling to cross the ball and hitting some hopeless free-kicks and corners that often fail to beat the first man, then I'm sure he wouldn't want MGP within a hundred miles of the Emirates Stadium. It's amazing how some people can be fooled by highlights of a few spectacular goals. Onto Benni McCarthy and a point from Paul.... I've been complaining about McCarthy's attitude for much of the season. During some of the opening matches of the season I thought he was woeful in terms of effort and workrate. He then had a little spell when he was playing better, but now seems to be back to his bad old ways again. I was disgusted when he told the press that the reason for his poor form earlier in the season was due to wanting to play for Mourinho at Chelsea and being affected by all the transfer talk. I'm sorry, but Rovers pay this man's wages and he has a duty to perform for 90 minutes irrespective of whether there is talk in the tabloids of him moving to Chelsea. It is no excuse whatsoever to not be prepared to work hard for the team just because you fancy a move to another club. Onto tactics.... We are frequently guilty of squandering possession because of these prehistoric long-ball tactics. Mark Hughes needs to seriously address this issue and get the team to start passing the ball with some degree of accuracy. Overall Hughes has been very good for our club. But his school report (or management report) for this year should perhaps read: "Mistakes have been made. He could have done better this term." At the start of the season if somebody had said to me: "You'll be humiliated in Europe, lose 0-4 at home to Villa and become the first Premiership team to concede five goals against Wigan," I wouldn't have been too happy. Finally, it is worth making the point that Hughes is by no means the certainty to succeed Ferguson at Old Trafford that some people perhaps feel. When the time comes (it could be several years away) when Fergie eventually leaves, I'm sure the Old Trafford board will look at a range of criteria. The United job is one of the biggest in world football and they'll want to appoint a manager who has a consistent record of success, preferably in Europe. They won't just be swayed by the fact that Hughes played for United. Hughes has some way to go before he can put trophies on his managerial CV or indeed point to positive results in Europe. Hughes has so far achieved neither. When Ferguson was appointed United manager in 1986, he had already won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983 with Aberdeen, beating Real Madrid in the final. In order for Hughes to get his hands on the Old Trafford job that I'm sure he would dearly crave, then if he doesn't win a trophy with Rovers, I feel he at least needs to demonstrate better results in European football than has so far been the case.

The temperature certainly seems to have dropped over the last week or so, with some cold frosty starts to the morning. December 2006, last year, was the mildest December in Britain for 18 years - although by the end of that month it became wet and stormy, with a few Hogmanay celebrations cancelled for the Jocks. We have a long way to go before it gets anywhere near as cold as December 1981. That was the coldest British December of the 20th Century, with some bitter temperatures recorded. On a couple of days that month roads between Blackburn and Haslingden were closed with 10ft snow drifts. This year, 2007, has seen some contrasts in the weather. We had the warmest April ever recorded in Britain, but also the wettest summer in our history. Link: Past weather in Lancashire

"Fabio Capello to be appointed within days," claims The Times I saw the rant below from someone on the Football365.com website, and it struck a chord with me.... "The NO GOOD business fraternity that calls itself the (sweet) F.A. have mugged the real fans for years. Finishing with 800 odd millions of pounds for a new state of the art stadium, which was no better than a rugby pitch for the Croatia game. Whoever they install as England manager will just be another patsy to take a fall. The set-up is all wrong. The hundreds of millions raised should be used for the England Academy generation. Get them playing together now, get the top coaches, forward thinkers, coaching them now through to their senior playing status. That would be a blueprint to start." "The next England manager is going to come for millions a year, knowing they do not have to win a thing, just take the media storm and runaway with millions in the bank etc. Wise up, that is why it is now 41 years of hurt. MONEY men and personal greed. We the fans are bankrolling failures to fortune and fame. Take Mr Barwick, why is he being allowed to make another choice ?"