speeeeeeedie

From the posts so far, and the average age of MBer's, it looks like Le Saux will win it. He was good, very good, but I would go for Eckersley. I've never seen him, but so many glowing tributes, Tom Finney's endorsement (many rated him as being better than Stanley Matthews, he could play either left or right wing and murder any full back), and his ashes on the pitch cement it for me. The age issue will be a constant bone of contention in this vote. It's like polls voting the latest "it" band as being the best ever in the paper because young people are the only ones that vote. I only have 15 years of genuine Rovers knowledge in me, so I can't vouch for the older generations but by listening to others I'll make a choice. It will get more interesting as we progress through the team.

Tom, thanks for the info.

Tom, can you explain the Lee Hendrie fraud signature?

Scotty, I understand the frustration, but what else are we supposed to do? The lad has talent, he will blossom. He went from his team's star player, local lad done good, to a newcomer on a struggling team who don't speak his native tongue. Far bigger crowds than he's used to would justify why blooding him the reserves probably won't do him much good, but it could. He may like the smaller gate and perform, but get scared again when he steps up. No-one knows how long it will take. We spent a full season last year without balance, we signed de Pedro to sort it out, and as yet he's too podgy, Pederson is the opposite. Who would you put on the left if you were to shuffle him off to learn his trade? Or is this another thread?

A couple of statements from MB'ers have me a bit worried. Pedersen has been here 2 minutes and people are writing him off. Why? He needs time to adjust. It's a big jump from the Norwegian league to the Premier League. Yes he is light, but will get bigger, they said the same about Ronaldo at United, he's managed to put on some bulk. But Stead made the leap from the 3rd without a problem you may retort. That division is far more physical than Norway. Give the lad time, don't knock him. Did it not take Bergkamp ages to score his first for Arsenal? Should they have got rid after a 2 weeks. Sometimes the negativity really irks me.

Quick one regarding Hughes' consultation with Fergusson before taking over. Ferguson said go for it you'll do well. This is the same bloke who said that Brian Kidd didn't have it, and was correct. Is this a good omen?

Looks like I missed the main event. But I'd like to recap to see if I've read everything right. BRFCC was subject to a banning order from football stadium on the grounds that he's a known hooligan. He say's he's guilty of nothing, and the police are victimizing him because he and his mates wear expensive clothes and congregate together in pubs before football matches. He has a couple of sympathizers who blame the police for inefficient techniques, and the rest argue that all hooliganism is bad. Any more? I have a few questions if the debate is still open. Does BRFCC fight on matchdays with opposition fans? He says he's never organised anything but does he look to fight where there may be likeminded opposition fans? He mentioned more than once that there is no trouble at Ewood, and is quite proud of that, but does he use the club's name as a springboard away from the ground? How do you justify fighting in the name of the club? There are very few things in the world woth physically fighting over, entertainment is not one of them. Why do they choose to fight? This is a greater social issue but I don't understand why they do it. If he is completely innocent and his only guilt is having a few and wearing nice clothes to games, as he states, he's been hard done by. However we don't know the police side, we don't know what he does on match days. I'd like to see the other side. Having a go because you don't like what he does won't help with information gathering. For the record I despise hooliganism, whether it be at the ground or elsewhere. Football matches bring out tribalsim in people, when you've just been beat 5-0 and the opposition fans are winding you up in the street it can casue some to lose it and start swinging out of anger. The organisation, looking for fights, and stupidity that these people think when they are "just having a bit of fun" is complete nonsense. There is the international reputation English fans have got because of it, forcing the government to invoke policies in order to save face diplomatically. Saying that no innocents get hurt is naive at best. Putting people in hospital needing treatment, making authorities spend £5 million in Lancashire alone, massive police presence at games, wrecking bus stations and the like, all add up to tax money the British public have to pay for a few lads out for a jaunt. There must be something constructive to do?

Very happy. His appointment alone will lift the fans on Saturday. He won't have much time to change what the players do on the pitch tactics wise, but I'm sure they'll perform as they'll be playing for their places, unlike last week when no one seemed to be bothered as no manager was likely to turn up and drop them. The board and JW have to be commended for a forward move. Now the players have to start the season albeit 5 games late. A few of the players played with him so that will be good news as it will give them something to go by, and him someone to talk too in the early period. I can see major improvements in Rovers soon. He was, IMO, one of the dirtiest, niggliest players I've ever seen, but so different off the pitch. He seems to be a Sven motivator type but with a good enough name to attract players on. I seem to remember Beckham/Posh talking really highly of him (not that it matters to many on here) as a person who helped them "through the bad times". Who will he bring as his assistant?

BRFCC one of the hooligans? Is he using this board to try and help his case? What happened in order for him to get banned? I don't know any of the names mentioned in the LET. The judge was having a go at the police for taking their sweet time and giving the opposition only 3 weeks to prepare a case. The people were banned for a reason. What was it? I'd like to hear both sides if possible. As for hooliganism in general, it is a horrible blott on football. They don't even go in the grounds anymore. People write books on it and make loads from abject idiocy. No. I don't like them.

Just read the Telegraph article; it will be Mark Hughes. I trust the local news. Roll on Sparky, time to get these lumps who call themselves players working together again.

Looks like a two horse race between Dowie and Hughes, it's up to you to decide who to believe depending on the source; BBC, Sky, Soccernet, The Sun (who claimed Peter Reid Last week), Daily Mail plus a few more. I'll be happy with either appointment. Hughes looks to be the front runner though.

I fear the reason behind this thread was a combination of popular sugar daddy press stories and the sad reality that we don't have one. When Jack Walker came along the club got slated for us buying the title, now it's all the rage to go out and get a big money benefactor to bankroll the signing of expensive stars. I shudder to think what the reaction would have been if we were touting the Thai prime minister to give us a load of money. Instead Liverpool were unlucky not to get it, but our local supporter did us a favour and we become the millionaires club. The bias stinks and we have to deal with it on many levels. Back to the issue, we do not need more investment, we have one of the most astute chief executives in the game. JW is trying his best to make the club stand alone without the need for massive windfalls. If we can become self sufficient it will keep the club solvent long after Williams has retired. A well run academy producing young stars who can then be sold to give us that needed cash injection will make me happy, as long as we are in the top flight. Crewe did it for years. We have a far better structure than they do so why not? Auxerre in France also do it. They don't win the league, but stay competitive then every once in a while a Liverpool comes along and gives £14 million for a player. The board is always preaching that the gates have to be bigger, which they seriously do. However it is very hard to do. We can say that we have the cheapest ticket prices in the league, but for many it is still too expensive and with nothing to compare it against we are stuck. You could say that our competition are Burnley, Bolton, and to a lesser extent the Manchester clubs, but who in East Lancs would travel there? We are straddled with the town's small demographic and no significant area nearby to poach football fans from. Only Accrington offers a decent sized pot to try and win fans from. Most towns are loyal to their own team futher restricting the migration of fans. If you take Blackburn's population of 140,000 and try to fill 27,500 seats (we sell 2,500 away tickets) and that adds up to 20% of the population. Can you honestly see 1 in 5 coming to Ewood regularly? Including old folk, kids, and the bored youth? I can't. If you add in Hyndburn's 80,000 it's still 1 in 8. I know statistics can be skewed to suit your purpose and people come from different places to watch, but our direct catchment area is too small. This is what we have and must live with it. It was only 15 years ago we were getting 8,000. We need more revenue streams, as the financiers call it, not large scale handouts. Finishing higher up the league would help a little, especially if 4 places means an extra £2 million. Bring on the new boss.

Looks like Hughes has ruled himself out by saying that he has no intention of quitting the Wales job. Or is it a smokescreen? Will Rovers let him do both? Middlesbrough let McClaren work with England. Hughes has Bowen as a full time assistant to do the dirty work. If Hughes stays with Wales it will probably be Dowie, which will be a good thing. This evening's LET report (Here for anyone to read) has a right go at Souness. Dowie's purported fitness regimen will have our lads running again.

New manager quickly. We need an injection of pride into the club. The players are waiting around just like the fans. Unfortunately, the players have to pick up points. Whoever gets the job needs to shore up our back line, we have more holes than a Swiss cheese. Many may not like it but we need Amoruso in there, he's not the fastest but has passion and will organise. Also, I fear our lack of creativity is killing us. When I see us play I never see any real chances, we seem to score from flukey chances rather than sustained pressure like most other teams. The new manager has a job on their hands.

tgb, I'm sorry, but Gregory? Where did you pull that one from? He's terrible. His ego is bigger than Souness' without the trophies and playing career to back it up. He'd cause allsorts of problems.

LET has not one word on Reidy. I'm now at ease; he's not coming. Side note. I remember reading a topic about a month ago about people concerned with message board quality/gereral lack of content. It seems to have picked up now hasn't it?

Sweating right now with dread. Reid will drag us down. Hopefully it's all paper talk. I'll wait for the LET to come online, which will either ease my worries, or compound the frustration as they are the only paper to trust with Rovers news.

Read your Dowie post. What about his heroics at Oldham? I haven't heard that much about Dowie's training methods. But I do know he is clever and takes what some would view as a US approach to the game; analyzing very specific details to increase the benefit of the total package using statistics and varied experts. If we groom Shearer for the Newcastle job, then he will have done a good job for us. We are far more stable than Everton with far less expectation. Read the papers and ask your nearest Toffee. I agree that Hughes would need to bring in a good backroom staff. That is my hope for whoever comes in; they build the coaching infrastructure to suit all. Murray, Boersma, and Donkey Dean were not my idea of good. Someone did make the comment on here earlier that they were all "yes men". Most football clubs are filled with "yes men", that is how they keep their jobs and as a result of them working in football, how the average man on the street thinks that they are special.

As usual some posters' continual doom and gloom passes over what is a very interesting and pivotal time for BRFC. The LET now says that around 30 have thrown their hat in the ring, 3 current Premiership managers and even much derided ex-international managers (including 2 ex-England) think that the Rovers job is for them. I have the view that the club must be doing something right to attract this type of interest. I think the names touted with us are far better than ones bandied around for the Newcastle job. Souness took Rovers as far as he could. He did well for us and should be applauded when he returns to Ewood, not just for the job he did do (promotion, cup, Europe) but for the fact that he left without being sacked allowing the club to find what will hopefully be a very successful backroom staff. Back to the "No, not him!" argument. The board has been burnt in the recent past with appointees who come from two main gripe areas. Brian Kidd was a No. 2, unproven, an excellent coach who could not manage; and it showed. So the board thinks well we'd better not get one of those then. So they go back to the boardroom and look at managers with international qualifications. Roy Hodgson's name then comes up. English, but leanred his trade on the continent, ex-international manager with scores of plaudits for being a great coach. Turns out he was pants. Now what does the board do? People it's over to you. We do not need a figurehead who has been successful in the past but is currently out of work. Venables, Hoddle, Advocaat, Houllier are in this category; all credible but not for us. The media likes these names because they are well known. They would be no good for our club. We are a town club and so need to create an atmosphere of togetherness and continuity. A solid backroom staff built around a common philosophy will steer the club right. Again my picks are; Dowie, Hughes, Shearer + coach, Moyes + Irvine. All would be good for our club.

I'll not offer anyone new, my post on that was yesterday. The betting angle, seems to be a bit wayward; I don't really trust the short odds on some, especially Hughes. I'd like him but he won't abandon Wales. My main area of interest comes with the fact that Souness has taken his cronies with him. I don't know much about any of them, but this board seemed to hate them. What can be done now by the manager who comes in is build from the bottom up. We have a tremendous youth set up with fantastic facilities and we need a manager to nurture our best asset. JW is right, we a re a stable club with a good financial set up, the board shouldn't go and balls it up now by appointing the latest fly by night. Houllier springs to mind with this one. I would like to see Moyes and Irvine come. Irvine was around when Brockhall opened, he and Moyes both like to build a solid foundation. I'll repeat what I've said earlier, we need a motivator and a good coach working with him to get the best out of a telented bunch of players. Parksey will spring a few surprises this weekend.

Please no Peter Reid. He shouts and screams players up the league for a season, then it all goes south. See Leeds, City, and Sunderland. He had a hand in all their demises in recent history. He may have not been the major cause (Leeds) but he didn't do anyone any favours. Fans have been moaning about Souness' treatment of players, he's a saint compared to Reidy. However he is a mate of Terry Darracott our chief scout. Players have too much ego these days to be bothered to listen to ranting, they need a boss with charisma, much like Eriksson has (I'm not debating his tactics but all the players really like him so they play for him). We need a coach to do the training and a motivator to do the managing a la Harford - Dalglish.

Yeah the Arsenal directors were so incredibly stupid when appointing Wenger What were they thinking???? We all know that only the English can manage clubs well, just look at all the international trophies won by English managers!!! I really don't like when people here (Or on other predominantly British boards) slag off people simply for being foreign. Hitzfeld, who's had one of the hardest and most prestigious jobs in European football (Bayern München) for many years is obviously someone we don't want at Ewood, he's just a useless foreigner I guess I must clarify myself here. I do not think that only English/British people can manage teams. I am merely stating that for a club of our meagre stature a well known foreign coach would not fit in. We are a very close knit small East Lancashire club. We are not in London. If you've ever visited I hope you'd see that straight away. London caters to the world, it has everything anybody wants, East Lancs has never been labelled as cosmopolitan; not from my experience anyway. Wenger has done well at Arsenal: I'm not having a go at foreign managers, I'm just saying that it takes a special type to understand the locals and what they want. Hitzfeld is a good manager too, but you won't find many German brasseries on Darwen street. Manchester is the closest big city, it is having a resurgence but it's nowhere near London as a cultural melting pot. I cannot remember what your fellow countryman, Martin Dahlin, said after his very unsuccessful spell at Ewood but it wasn't very flattering toward East Lancashire and its people. As for the predominantly British boards slagging off non-Brits. What do you expect? Everyone sticks up for their own kind, but that is another thread on another board.

Mixed bag about Souness going. Fans were getting impatient with him but he does wear his heart on his sleeve and has the ability to attract players. Parkes will do his usual; 5 wins playing flair football, then steps back down to anonymity with another pay rise. I'd have Ian Dowie. Great manager, clever too. He's got a chemical engineering degree or something. Can think and is willing to learn. Did wonders at Oldham and Palace; who will get relegated this season. So he comes to us and steadies the ship. As for popular opinions: Hoddle: wouldn't move north, plus he's a bit of a loony. Newell: No experience? Did Dalglish have any when he took over Liverpool? Bad argument for me, but I don't know much about him, apart from Luton are top and the fans would appreciate him. Hughes: If he came he'd never be allowed back to Wales. He will stay with Wales until 2006 qualifying is over then on to Man U. Houllier: Must be on drugs. Wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. He'll buy too many overpriced continentals who won't like the weather or area. Strachan: Maybe but he got Coventry relegated. The "fancy foreigner". Never. John Williams isn't stupid. He did well with Souness and will think wisely. He looks after the club well and thinks of the future. Allardyce: No. He wouldn't leave Bolton. He's on a good gig there, the chairman lets him get free 1 year over the hill superstars. Rovers want to build from the ground up. Venables: We're not flash enough for him. Moyes: Will bring Irvine back to Ewood. Could be a possibility, he's fed up with Everton right now. Hendry: Another emotional choice. No Chance. Steered Blackpool to bottom of the table. O'Leary: He wouldn't leave Villa, he got it running right there and I think Deadly Doug doesn't have long left making it easier for ayone to run the team. George Graham: Would shore up the back, but we'd be very mediocre. We need entertaining football if we are going to attract fans. Solid record and a disciplinarian, but boring football. Woodward: Let's jump on the bandwagon eh? Silly. Robsons' et al. We would go backwards. Shearer: Many fans' emotional choice, plus conspiracies will be abundant. Odds on for the NUFC job and was passed over, Souness tried to bring him back, Uncle Jack offered him the job back in 1996. The media would like us better and we'd get a few penalties. Brings in Newell as his assistant. Ahh, to dream. I wonder how many would ask about Shearer's lack of top flight managerial experience? Methinks not many. I shall wait and see who else is thrown in, but don't look for a quick appointment, everyone knows Parkes will do well.

Soccernet says that they are in talks with a view to talking over the remainder of his contract. Nothing definite yet, but in all likelihood he's off. Our only chance of a replacement is a lower league player or the Matt Jansen story was a reminder that he's coming back. Ricky, your comment is priceless, taking the joy out of a good moment for many fans.

Having seen the match and finally watching the US equivalent of MoTD I have to say that we were definitely not the only team to be on the wrong end of very bad refereeing decisions last weekend that cost teams points. Everyone has had a good gripe about the Saha handball and the dubious sending off of Amourso, so I won't voice my opinion on that, but I will offer up some other instances last weekend. Arsenal - Norwich. Huckerby went down like he'd been shot, the replay showed there was no contact, but the young defender Hoyte didn't think and looking at it in full speed was a pen. However, how Lauren stayed on the pitch is beyond me. He'd already been booked and then decided to put in a very late, very dangerous tackle right in front of the ref in the centre circle. The offical didn't blink. Favouritism? Villa- Newcastle. This one didn't fall in line with the "big clubs always win" rule. Bernard was clearly fouled in the build up to Villa's second. But the big one is how does Sorensen stay on the pitch? The ref acknowledged that he handled it by awarding a free kick and booking him, but why not a sending off? It cost poor old Bobby his job. Bolton - Liverpool. Garcia's equalizer. Never offside. So folks, judging from these I would like to console everoyne that there is no conspiracy against Rovers, but I'm not curtailing the fact that ref's do give more leniency to the "big clubs" and it's here to stay. I won't totally blame referees though, regarding their decisions. The game is getting faster with players able to do far more than previous generations. Ref's have a split second to make a decision and stick to it. Couple that with the saturation of play acting, diving and general faking that has become an integral part of the English game, and you have a recipe for disaster. Feigning works, so players will do it until mandates are passed down saying that any acting will be dealt with strictly it will carry on. It's not in the British psyche to do it, but if our clubs and the national team are to be successful we have to learn to cry like babies and fall over every time someone breathes on us as the rest of the world has a 15 year head start on us. As for our formation/tactics, we did well, but need Amoruso playing. For all his misgivings he's a tremenbous talisman who plays with his heart on his sleeve. He needs a good run to show everyone.