You may be right, but overall footballers, especially when in groups with fellow footballers, act like daft schoolkids. One on one they may be different. I'll also suggest that an England call up should help them grow up. I did read an account from Jimmy Bullard about how he and David Bentley acted in one of Capello's squads. It was embarrassing.

How many footballers aren't? Especially those under 30. I also disagree with your characterisation of him. He's been given all sorts of grief by the press. I think that he's handled himself quite well. He's still relatively young and has been playing first team football since he was 17. He's had to do a lot of growing up in the spotlight. As mashed potatoes points out he's had some bad press. I seem to remember on his way to training a while back that he was set on and racially abused by a bloke because said bloke's girlfriend said "look, that's Sterling".

Raheem Sterling won't play against Montenegro. He's been dropped for allegedly trying to get Joe Gomez in a headlock after reporting for England duty. It happened almost as soon as he arrived at St. Georges Park. Media reports state that although Sterling smoothed it over with Gomez after the game he managed to rile himself up after reading social media reactions to the confrontation. He supposedly apologised to Gomez and the rest of the team/staff after the altercation but Southgate had already made his mind up to drop him. This could get tricky. Southgate has to show that he can stop this dead. Any simmering could could problems further down the road.

Correct. After his failed attempt at Rovers he moved on to the Rochester Rhinos. That one didn't work out either for him. Rochester are currently not playing, they hope to come back next season.

It really is. Rovers were the premier team in Lancashire for as long as I can remember. My football supporting days started as a kid in the early 80's. Rovers were always in higher divisions than Burnley, PNE, Bolton, and Blackpool. Stanley were a non-league side for many years so weren't even a factor. Fast forward to today; Burnley look like they are staying up for another season (implosion notwithstanding), PNE are top of the Championship (for now). Stanley are fighting another season in League 1 with Blackpool sniffing around the playoffs in the same league. Only Bolton are worse off. They are also a side who had a decent few Prem years followed by decline. What a difference an owner change makes.

Venkys have ensured that their reign has been far too cringeworthy for existential reasons but I have one form a few years back. I think it was during Rovers first Sky Monday night game. My memory is hazy but it was an evening game, and it was probably Sky too due to the sheer embarrassment of it all. They brought out a cheerleading crew at half time, along with some two-bit singer nobody had heard of. The poor cheerleaders weren't very good. The girl's song was bad too. She could sing but the song was crap. Anyway, in true football form Ewood en masse started booing and drowned the poor girl out, then the Blackburn End started with the all too predictable "get your tits out for the lads" over and over. Crigneworthy. Who thought that it was a good idea wanted sacking.

When can we start? noon on Saturday? I foresee a home loss. For years Rovers have been the most charitable team in England when it comes to handing a new manager an easy win.

Anderlecht have been fined by the Belgium FA for not having a coach with a UEFA Pro license. Said coach is Vincent Kompany; Fine for Anderlecht It reads like they tried to circumvent the rules and got caught.

Its is. One of the best club managers of his era, Fabio Capello, completely failed with England. Hodgson is another one. A very good club manager who was woeful as England manager. I think that Guardiola would be a terrible international manager. He's too hands on and thrives on details and repetition. The national team job requires different skills. Hopefully the FA has learned from this that the next boss shouldn't be Mourinho, Alex Ferguson, or Arsene Wenger but someone who can command a room, and have a coaching staff who are good at setting up a team.

Southgate has been a breath of fresh air. I think that Allardyce would have been just as good. He would have had plenty of time in between games to develop and exploit the margins. The England job should be a figure head one. He only has the players for brief periods. His job should be to motivate and make sure that the squad meshes. He's done that. He can't help that the country is short on quality defenders. He was also heavily involved in the youth set up prior to him becoming manager. There is no doubt that there are a lot of talented young players in England now.

4-0 at half time. England are cruising against a bad Bulgaria team. The game has been stopped twice due to racist chanting by sections of the Bulgaria fans. UEFA should abandon the game, award England the 4-0 victory, then talk about closed door games. Unfortunately this exists everywhere. It was only last week that I posted an article about a Burnley fan racially abusing Burnley players.

England were woeful yesterday and deserve all the criticism they are getting. The Kosovo game was a warning, the Czech's did the same as Kosovo did; run at England and they'll fold. It's been an known problem for a while that England's back line isn't top class. Maguire has been good for club and country yet he's now a Man U player working with an inferior manager than Rodgers at Leicester. Keane alongside him isn't an international player. Yet options are limited at the mo. Stones is injured and Gomez (who I think is superb) isn't getting a game for Liverpool. Who else is there? Tarkowski isn't up to it either. Full backs are also up for discussion. Rose is past it. Chilwell is competent but largely untested. Shaw was touted for years yet after weathering the constant grief from Mourinho week in week out he's now injured again. Trippier deserves credit for going to Spain. He'll improve playing for Simeone but he's another one pushing 30. Trent AA is young and a fixture for Liverpool. He should play every game. Rice was crap, but is young. Sancho has a future but had a bad game. Kane will score goals but is somewhat immobile, especially contrasted to Sterling and Sancho. Rashford needs to leave Man U to fulfill his talent. If Klopp had him he'd be a world beater. Unfortunately he gets shunted around for Martial. Winks deserves a shot as he can keep the ball. Also if Phil Foden is the second coming he should be there too. Chelsea's contingent could help too. Mount, Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, Tomori, and to a lesser extent Barkley can all play. England will qualify. It's what happens after that is the issue.

I'm with Mattyblue on this. He should never be given the opportunity to manage in Britain again. He's a bust, and a lawbreaker. Even that waste of space Coyle got 3 UK jobs since Kean left Rovers.

I read that Gareth Ainsworth has now jumped to number 1. Why would anyone take the Sunderland job? Ego? Desperation?

That would be a feat. Huddersfield down 2 years in a row along with a former Prem regular. It goes to show that it's not just players who win games. The mentality and culture has to be right. For all the doom and gloom about Mowbray at times on here he seems to keep his players up for it.

I agree that centre forwards should score goals. However, on what you say above he's only played 4 games there. Give him a chance. Give him a decent run and I'll bet the goals will start coming. If he's out there causing problems and allowing others to prosper it's still good. Giroud won a World Cup with France and he may only have had 2 shots, never mind goals, throughout the whole tournament.

There is a topic somewhere on here from last season trotting out a few stats from Mowbray's reign. His Rovers teams average 1.5 points per game. This season is 10 points from 7, slighter below 1.5 with small sample. I don't expect much to change. I think Rovers will be better than last season but will finish outside the top 6 by a good margin. I'm hoping that the first 2 games were an aberration though and Mowbray has found a winning formula. As Tyrone said; anyone can win this league. I think Leeds and West Brom will be there or thereabouts for the top 2 come May.

Good point. Also the "lesser" teams qualifying for the Champs League give their fans the chance to see the world's best live when the big boys come to town. Celtic make it now and again. They get tubbed but sell out both home and away. I read plenty on here about Rovers Euro journeys in the early 2000's being wonderful times for many Rovers fans. Limiting the competition to winners only would reduce the opportunities for these away days. The "it's not a league for champions so I'm not watching it" argument is stale. Ewood Park isn't a park. It's a football ground. Are people going to stop going because they expect swings and a see-saw? A lot of this thread would not be up for debate if Rovers were a Premier League side. Fans would let it slide. Unfortunately scrapping in the Championship rather than dining at the top table creates animosity.

England for me. I've never been the most passionate Rovers fan, even when I lived in East Lancs and had a season ticket. Before the development of Ewood I stood on the Enclosure as I wanted to watch. My pals were singing it up in the Blackburn End. I went to watch the game and enjoy myself. When the game was over I went back to whatever I was up to. A loss never ruined my evening. A win never sent me giddy either.

You forgot the Liverpool-Barcelona semi final. They were 2 tremendous games. Liverpool bossed the first but came out 3-0 losers thanks to Messi's brilliance. The return leg was one of the best games I've ever seen. The analogy of the group stages being like the WC/Euro qualifiers is apt. It's rare that the top teams don't make it through, but they have to turn up. Watching the best players perform against each other is what is worth watching.

England were never going to get beat. Kosovo's goals were all from England mistakes. Rather make them now so that the coaching staff can deal with it.

I watch. However, I live in the USA where there's constant coverage so it's very easy to do. I don't have an affiliation to any team. Until Tom Brady and his coach are no longer together I can't look past the Patriots to win it all.

2019-2020 group stage draw; Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Bruges, Galatasaray Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Olympiakos, Red Star Belgrade Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta Group D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Slavia Prague Group G: Zenit St. Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, Leipzig Group H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille

Forum gold from you two yesterday. I'm reading through the topic now. Brilliant.

Fair enough. You bring up a good point. How many clubs are wholly beholden to their owners? A lot of Prem clubs should be OK if the owner walks. Certainly Burnley, they are swimming in cash. I'm sure that the lower down the leagues you go the worse it gets.