LeftWinger

I wasn't particularly excited when we appointed him. How wrong I was! Probably my favourite time to be a Rovers fan was when Souness was in charge (I was only 11 in 1995). Promotion in his first full season, 10th and the league cup in the first season back in the Premier League and then 6th the season after. Some of the football we played was excellent. Jansen, Duff and Dunn blossomed and we had a great team spirit. He also signed Friedel and Tugay. As mentioned above, when he was on the TV in the concourse after the game, you'd stop and listen. As also mentioned, he did lose it somewhat towards the end. Still have nightmares about the formation played against WBA in that first game of the season - I've never seen so many left sided players in one team. All in all, great memories!

Well it looks like we've all decided that Sutton was better than Newell. Next up - who was better, Alan Shearer or Chris Brown?

I'm waiting for Mowbray to get some fake hands and put Sam Gallagher in a remote controlled wheelchair. He'd not win any less headers.

I know a way to bring the crowds back. Pints cost £1 until Rovers' next score a goal. Should be back to full price by around September on current form.

It's unusual to talk about one of players with the word 'finishing' in the sentence - unless it's preceded by a word like 'awful' or 'poor'.

Well, Bristol City next, who have failed to keep a clean sheet in 16 games.......

If ever a game screamed 0-0, it's this* *Guaranteed to be four goals by half time now I've said this.

Just had the email through from the club about the final five games of the season for £99 and it contained the following line: "You could be the difference as Tony Mowbray's men continue their charge up towards the top of the division" I'm not sure charge is the best word to use.

It's alright when you can name substitutes that cost £25m, £15m and £8m at this level.

I like your optimism, but for a side that has scored 3 goals in 10 league games since the start of the year - I'm not expecting us to score twice away at the best side in the league (we have only conceded 6 in those games at least)

What a front line that would have been! I'd have loved to have seen Batistuta in a Rovers shirt. Luckily we got to see Formica in one - who was just like Batistuta according to Kean. He was Argentinian and had long hair. That is where the comparison should have ended.

Out of those names - I'd have suggested Walter Smith would have been my preference at the time. He didn't exactly set the world on fire at Everton when he came though. Souness would probably have been my last choice out of all of them - although when he did eventually take over we played some of the best stuff I've ever seen us play. Obviously went a bit wrong towards the end, but the first three of years under Souness are some of my favourite times as a Rovers fan. I think it was fairly obvious which players we should have gone for. I think the manager situation was much less obvious - although I never thought Harford should have been given the job.

Who would you have gone for out of interest? Just looking on Wiki and Ossie Ardiles was the only non-British/Irish manager in the Premier League that season....and he got sacked. None of the British ones stand out as someone that I'd have brought in - maybe Keegan? So you're probably looking at being one of the first clubs to 'risk' bringing a foreign manager in. Not sure who was available that we might have gone for at the time. I see Wenger was mentioned somewhere on here - but that's one that's easy with hindsight. I'd not have been happy with him at the time - unlike a lot of the players that have been mentioned on here.

Disrespectful to say the championship winning team was a one man team. Flowers, Hendry, Le Saux, Sherwood and Sutton were all in PFA team of the year. Interestingly, Flowers made more appearances in the PFA team of the year than Schmeichel. Also disrespectful to the club to say "Shearer made Blackburn".

Found an article on the Premier League website and the keepers with the most Premier League penalty saves (as of 2018) were David James (13 saved from 63) Thomas Sorensen (12 saved from 50) Mark Schwarzer (10 saved from 49) Brad Friedel (10 saved from 51) Shay Given (10 saved from 66) The top 10 keepers had an average save rate of 21.4% There were 9 keepers in the history of the Premier League that had a save record of 30% plus (based on a minimum of 10 penalties saved). Dmitri Kharine saved 5 from 11! It must have been those jogging pants.

The other time we should have definitely spent money was in 1996 when Shearer left. I think Oliver Bierhoff was the name we were being linked with at the time. I was hoping for a big statement like a Batistuta or a Weah.....and we signed no-one. The alarm bells were ringing when we played PNE in a friendly just after Shearer had left and we started with Ian Pearce upfront.

Wilcox was a bit underrated for me - always got a lot of unfair stick......but Overmars was several levels above him.

I almost stopped reading when you said Henchoz was only OK.....then you described Jansen as nowhere near good enough and I definitely stopped reading.

Hodgson signed Filan and Henchoz who were good. Kidd signed Jansen who was excellent. He also signed a couple that had reasonable spells - McAteer, Gillespie etc. A lot of rubbish for a lot of money elsewhere though.

And available for around £17m (I'm guessing with Campbell). What would you get for that today? It's not even as though it's not obvious that those three would have hugely strengthened us (even at the time).

Rovers have long been interested in the forward who is on the fringe of England selection. Indeed they tried to sign him when he moved from Blackpool to QPR for £700,000, being persuaded by then-manager Gerry Francis that he would have a better chance of establishing himself at Loftus Road. Sinclair has never expressed a wish to move from QPR. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6206607.rovers-keep-tabs-sinclair/ That was from 1996.

A quick look at Soccerbase - and this isn't 100% accurate as some of the transfers slip into different windows (ie. Anderson/Dahlin/Henchoz fall into 1996/97 spend, despite being bought in the summer of 97) and there are undisclosed fees. 1995/96 - £2.25m 1996/97 - £8.5m 1997/98 - £14.275m 1998/99 - £29m Can you imagine if we'd have spent more of that money at the end of the 1995 season and strengthened rather than turned the taps off and gone backwards.....and then had to switch the hose on! Not a criticism of Jack at all, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I was always a fan of Overmars. It was reported Arsenal paid somewhere between 5m and 7m for him in 1996. He'd have been a top, top signing and could have played either wing as well. Obviously a miles better player than Ruel Fox, I only went for Fox then I could have Zidane as my continental addition. Overmars or Bergkamp would have been incredible. Can you imagine Bergkamp in behind Shearer?

Definitely a missed opportunity. There was definitely money still available (as Hodgson and Kidd were given a fortune in the late 90s), so it's a shame it wasn't used to consolidate our position at the top of English football. I'm not sure why Slater or Atkins were allowed to go - they were both solid squad players. We definitely had the core of a very good squad there at the right age - it just needed building upon. Would we have kept hold of Shearer for longer if we'd have been fighting for the title every season?

I do remember us being linked heavily with Trevor Sinclair - it was certainly around that time, if not maybe 1996. He would have been a decent signing and I think he could play either flank?