hey mate, cool it cool it... i think it's just the pro-longed wait that's increasing the anxiety of all of us... can't really blame anyone really... we're just desperate to see him sign!

Very worrying that home-grown players aren't given more of a chance. I've heard whisperings that there's been a bust-up between Gally and Souness - any truth? i have no idea... i certainly hope not. really thought that gally could have got cygan into a bit of trouble had he played. his pace and trickery could at least have worked the arsenal defence a little more. hope its not another dunny incident. sigh.

maybe if he'll get in ahead of tugay as an attacking midfielder? morten can play on the wing with tugay rotating with de pedro for the attacking midfielder position. then again our master tactician may suddenly decide that morten's a right winger... or right back... or goalkeeper?

thought we did well in the first half, but arsenal just outclassed us totally in the 2nd. pluses - at least friedal looked to be in some sort of form - matteo is NO midfielder. i think most people can see it now. hope souness sees it as well. - de pedro looked useful in his cameo appearance - johanson looked pretty solid for 70% of the match... negatives - the right side was all wrong. emerton was quite honestly awful. he showed that he can go past players... but he can't do anything else. what happened to the emerton we thought be bought? as for neill... made a few good challenges early on but faded away... and then gave away a needless corner which lead to their second goal. after his very verbal abuse of the linesman, he was very lucky to stay on. that said, it was never a foul. - stead. i risk being lambasted but still, i feel that with the surprise element gone this season, he is being found out. - refereeing. abysmal. if the above neill challenge was a foul, why wasnt toure's challenge on dickov punished? and what must arsenal do to get carded? toure should have been carded early on for that deliberate challenge on short but wasnt. and emerton and neill were carded for very petty challenges in my opinion. baffling - why is gallacher nowhere near the first team? i'd have favoured him coming on instead of yorke. yorke quite frankly, did nothing. he ran, he chased a little, but wasted the ball everytime he got it. once, he got it in the centre circle, could have released emerton, but didnt and got tackled. - what's happened to amoruso? is he injured? is he dropped? did he have a bust up with souness? - why is matteo playing in midfield? he doesnt look comfortable playing in midfield, and to me, he doesnt have the necessary guile to play there. face it, matteo is a brute. stick him in defence and he may be of some use. playing in midfield, he's just a fiercer looking version of flitcroft, offering nothing more. in fact, i think flitcroft is more mobile than matteo anyway. finally, rant over. bring on manure.

0230hours now... just climbed out of bed in preparation to watch the game... and some good news before kick off!!! lovely job translating that article greggyk. many thanks!

personally, am a little worried about tromso officials travelling to london. certainly, we will be playing in london afterall, so the location does make sense. however, there is the propensity of the deal being hijacked right at the airport... ala one diego forlan and manure......... fingers-crossed hopefully we get this deal sorted out by the time the arsenal match's over. at least then, we'll have something to cheer us up... unless of course, its double happiness!

after all the excitement in anticipation of this new signing... we're back to... nothing.

what about henry and reyes vs any from short, amo, matteo, nils?

watching arsenal tear boro apart now. sad. very sad. just hope we manage to pull something out of our hat and keep it to a respectable score on wednesday night...

I watched that interview live. HE was stood next to Paul Sturrock. The interviewer asked something along the lines of "what do you think of recent events at Southampton?" He referred to people at the club shood be getting behing their manager and smart arse fans. It it was about Rovers club andor fans and him it was a very well disguised comments. I suspect people weren't listening probably. agreed stu, i saw that interview too. also, on the surface, it looked like he was somewhat sympathising with sturrock but it sounds almost like he was pleading his own case as well.

the espn commentators here in asia thought the same thing. infact, during the preview show, they had us down as a 3-5-2. personally, i thought for a 3-5-2, it looked like a pretty solid formation, with matteo short and nils at the back, gray and emo bombing the flanks and flits and barry protecting tugay. however, as we all know, it turned out to be 4-4-2... the rest is history...

fingers crossed... uriah rennie?

Good Post that. Let's all bow to greggyk, the supreme Rovers fan and Superman in disguise. He must be to be pounding on the keyboard so quickly after the match, or maybe he has a wireless laptop perhaps. We are all (well there are a few imposters) Rovers fans here. I have not been to a Rovers game in many many moons but if one of you wishes to tell me to my face I am not a fan the next words out of your mouth would most likely come accompanied by copious amounts of blood. Come on, I thought we did OK today, obviously still room for improvement but it will come. I hate this game. precisely because we deserved something from the game, and came to within a whisker of getting it, that's why we're so so so upset and gutted. all snatched away by an inept referee. i am beginning to agree with the conspiracy theory against souness by the way.

looks like a blatant hatred for us

yes. 45min of action has won me over. though i thought he didnt link well with stead, but hope they can develop an understanding soon. fullmarks too to souness for half time changes. still ###### off. arghh........ die d'urso. DIE.

in the last 10 min, a manure and a pool supporting friends called up to offer their sympathies. we were F****** ROBBED!!! what in the world is d-urso's freaking problem?!!!?! dickov was elbowed in the arse when it was a CLEAR goal scoring opportunity and short's penalised for a run of the mill everyday challenge in the air?!??!?!?! if short committed a foul there, then why wasn't johansson penalised throughout the game for the same challenges on beattie????????? what in the world is wrong with the refs?!!!!!!!! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i'm utterly screaming now. totally gutted, especially given the way we performed in the second half. we deserved something. freaking ref. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and how that was a penalty i will never know. the ref's screwed us.

how that was not a penalty, i will never know. when will we ever get a pen???????

what did souness do to emerton at half time!! come'on keep it up guys!!! great finish from dickov

philips was clearly onside. question is... what was emerton doing?! and what was short doing too?? sad. and what is souness doing??? matteo is no left winger... everybody knows that! sorry for tone. very upset at the moment. urgh

ferguson: agree totally. i was unsure whether it was him or de pedro who got OUT of the ball's way for that freekick. after watching numerous displays over the last 2 days, i think its a combination of both. javier turned away, while our captain courageous turned away and put his hands up to cover his chest. hope this never happens again. tugay: i thought he did pretty well... looked our classiest player by far... and that drive from 30 yards wasnt too far away was it...? anyway, hope that souness actually LEARNS something from this match and play a proper formation for the saints match...

Perhaps Souness realizes this, which would explain his interest in El Hadmouai (who is described as a very pacy forward). Like jim, though, I'm still wondering where the goals are going to come from. i am hoping and praying that beyond all odds, that little dickov will repeat his form of last season. for me, him hitting double digits will be miraculous, if not nigh on impossible. at the risk of being slated, i believe that stead will struggle this season, and while he may get some goals, will be nowhere as prolific as last season. although i feel this way, i still hope that i'm proven wrong! so come'on! hope the players prove me wrong! regarding the point towards pacy forwards, our lack of pace is not only obvious up front... but also in our defence... think amo and matteo or nissa... they are big... but certainly not fast... *gulp*

1. arsenal 2. chelsea 3. liverpool 4. manure 5. newcastle 6. middlesbrough 7. charlton 8. villa 9. birmingham 10. US! 11. spurs 12. fulham 13. southampton 14. portsmouth 15. crystal palace 16. bolton 17. west brom 18. man city 19. everton 20. norwich

no names... but are you sure he's from burnley???

while i believe and hope that we do bring in a quality striker to replace cole, i doubt that it will happen. souness seems to be well chuffed with dickov, publicly praising him several times already. in fact, i suspect dickov will be given cole's number. shearer 9, sutton 9, ward 9, cole 9, dickov 9 did i miss anyone out? however, i think we might bring in another young unknown striker, and barring a totally disastrous first half of the season, that'd be it for strikers. unless dickov screws up, i don't see us bringing in anyone else. however, if he's not performing, we might bring someone in during the january window ala cole and stead. also, there is always hope for matty... should we get a matty version 01-02, it'd be like a whole new signing. and if only yorke bothers to, he can still cut it i believe. he's strong, has a good first touch and other technical abilities. as for the wages saved, i now hope that they will be used to finance a deal for butt... he'd be a good foil for fergie in the centre, rotating with tugay depending on the opposition and situation.