Presume you are not a regular reader of The FT (it the only paper my place of work will buy for us :-( ) and just see the news stories about Fat Cats. The majority of company shareholders are large investment firms. they are in for the long haul and are prefectly happy to have a cheif exec preside over a large loss IF the companies business plan stand up to examinationa nd they are turning the company around. Yes, if performance is bad they will be asked to stand down, but a loss is not bad performance. If i took over a company who lost 100mil in the last financial year and in my first year i turned the company round to make only a 50mil pound loss should I be disposed of as I have turned the company instantly profitable? It a case of balancing expectations. Very few football clubs make money (ManU). Even Chelsea and Arsenal are currently loss making. Its just a question of ensuring sustainability and longevity. For all those who want Finn and Williams to earn a lot less or be replaced. Please tell me where you will find people willing to do this job, do it better, have the expereince and want substaially less pay.

The board would have approved the increse to keep them in line with chief executive pay for companies with a multi-million pound turnover. And as someone earlier mentioned, the way to increase attendances is not by marketing, its by on pitch improvement. Marketing will increase attendaces slightly, as would cheaprer prices (although this would be relatively revenue neutral). Let them empoly a marketing person (which i expect they have) and concentrate on keeping our pemiership status. I dont think anyone canhonestly say they have done a bad job, yes they could do better, but they could do an aweful lot worse. Stick with and pay the devil you know.

As much as they could have done a better job, they also could have done a lot worse. I think they have done a pretty fair job and are earning a market value for a fair job. You will not be able to recruit a chief exec for a company with our turnover for much less than we currently pay (if ads in papers are anything to go by). As for then adding into it expereince of running a football club, well....... Finally, some chief execs deserve pay rises even when the losses are huge if the losses are less than expected and the company looks to be improving its fortunes. Their salary is not just bases on the profitability of their company but far more on the direction they are taking it.

Dunlop Slazenger Also own Sports World and Donnay see http://www.brfcs.co.uk/mb/index.php?showtopic=8736

Am I the only one who noticed this? The only danger Bothroyd would pose would be to Rovers - making sure we loose the ball and not scoring when we have the chance! Think back to Rovers away v Norwich and it makes perfect sense.

Possibly more bad new for us.

You actually mean the South East. And I feel Savage will do a very good job fus and will help give us a steely edge in midfield, like flitcroft can, but will also have more attacking capilbilty. He will releive pressure from our back four, but will also help our meagre strike force out in the attack.

Well do you want to be lumped with Mancs and Scousers. And where have you met all these "Southern Lads" (and by Southeren, where did they come from?) I am proud to be from the South West speaking in a strange dialect of Gaelic But I feel that i am no different to a Geordie, a Londoner, a Sousers, a Brummie or whatever.

So you are happy to be classed as a Northerner and lumped in with Geordies? The supposed South has 4 more distinct regions. The South East, The Home Counties, East Anglia and The SouthWest, (make if 5 and have cornwall seperate to keep them happy).

I think people are blaming Bard overly. Yes, he could have got down quicker, but we may then be complaining as the ball flew over him. It was a hard and fast shot that Brad could have done better on, but he did not know whether it was going high or low and by the time he knew he did not have much time to get his large 6 foot plus frame to the ground. I allways feel the goalie gets unfair stick in cases like this as if the defence had done its job his life would have been easier. The blame has to be spread. Where was Lucas? Gudjohnson flick on enabled Robben to expose our defence, Lucas should have been closer to him as we all know what pace and devestation Robben can wreak in scenarios like that one.

Well...I only used southerner to mimic your use of the word northerner but you are right that lumping people together is just as redundant as referring to large areas as if they were just the same all the way through. Fully agree. Alwways been amazed by the Northener thing being "North of Birmingham". Has anyone ever looked at a map and just seen how much there is North of Birmingham. Manchester is only halfway between Birmingahm and Newcastle yet some people think they are only a few miles part as they are in the "North".

Because I wanted to see how long it would take for someone to come up with your response and it took ages. Oh, and you are lumping Southerners together again. Arent you just lumping everying south of Birmingham as a Southerner(WTF is a Southerner or Northener? Where is the Boundary? What are you if you are in the middle? Why does no one care about them?). I've allway been annoyed by the whole North/South divide bo11ocks. It really doesnt matter where you were born/bought up/live. You are what you are.

I wish Northerners would not lump every thing South of Birmingham as The South. Have you ever been South? Your description sounds like the South-East and not teh South West. The South West has a lot more identity than The North. This is probably due to, as you would say, most of the North is an homogenized area anyhow when compared with the South West.

Agree, he goes out of his way to play in a style to annoy the opposing fans. As Mark said, he didnt like the style Savage used when getting around the pitch. That style is who he is and it is (whether deliberate or not) what makes him so disliked by the opposing fans and frequently loved/liked by his own fans.

Didnt you start the b1tch1ng by b1tch1ng about Savage? Be a and just back your own players.

As i said, the arguments I saw were justified. And they werent arguments, they were bol**kings for bad play, the sort that has repeatedly has cost us games. Sloppy passing mmmmm. you mean like Thompson did (far worse than Savage), Tugay does, Emerton does. Running around like a headless chicken, wee Thommo still wins that one hands down. Corners/free kicks. Savage was no worse than anyone else who takes them for us, they are all poor and need improving Before you criticise one player you obviously dislike, look at his teammates as well. Savage got around the pitch, created our best oppurtunity for a goal, had a great shot just off target, hampered Chelsea and broke up play (including our own). He did the job as his manager wanted him to do it. That is what matters not what you or I think. As long as the manager is happy then he has done what he is paid for, whether we like it or not. We also have to remember that he is probably noy fully natch fit.

Have to agree that Shearer is a goody two-shoes and from watching them on the pitch I have had the feeling that they never liked each other. Probably part of the problem at Newcastle. I dont care what he said as Newcastle trated him like ###### and he reacted badly and acted like ######. Both parties are very much to blame for the actions that occurred. If our manager thought he could control him and get the best out of him then so be it. What i want to know is why McDermott is getting invloved and stirring things after the player has left and he has never even met him. Newcastle should hust have shut up once they had shipped him out on loan. All they are doing now is devaluing him. Good for us if we want him, bad for them

Well that touched a nerve. A true Rovers fan would have paid for a ticket and sat with his fellow fans (alhough it appears you still sat with your fellow fans). You are not always supposed to like the players on th epitch but if they play for you you should biew them with slight blue (Rovers blue not Chelse Blue) tinted glasses. Savage, like Pederson and Mokeoena in midfield, stuck to Hughes gamplan and made Chelseas life very hard. He got around the pitch, helping out defensively and attacking gaining us a penalty. He also had a couple of shots on goal, one which, as you said, was very close. I am not a huge Savage fan and feel we paid the absolute upper limit for him but fell he did well last night and will prove his doubters wrong. Finally, whilst he pulls on the blue and white halves he will have my full biased support. ---- Oh, and the bollocking i saw him dish out to Neil was fully deserved and Neil knew it. You fail to point out that Nelson also gave out some good tongue lashings to his fellow back four. Should we drop him as well? We need passion and desire from our players, something that we are now showing. Savage = Footballer Mark != Rovers fan

I think he must feel that it is now an offence to get around the pitch and prevent the opponents from passing the ball freely.

Mark, a rovers fan?

Are you still here? You would have to guess that either a ) he is really a closet rovers fan or b ) Birmingham have so few fans computer literate enough to mange their own forum that he has to find another.

What, a premeirship quality midfielder

Firsty it is spelt hypocrite so we would be hypocrites. And I am not a hypocrite. Savage asked to leave you and was still willing to play for you. Your chairmen etc bad mouthed him and the whole scenario was done without dignity. The most important thing here is Savage was still willing to play. Our board in both cases kept quiet and handled the transfers whilst trying to maintain dignity. I think they achieved that. At the end of the day though both clubs handled the transfers in similar, and the correct manor, trying to get the most for the player . The two big differences here are we (in the majority) purely blame Fegurson and his agent for his desire to move. It is not Rangers fault that he wanted to join them (in my eyes). Whereas It was everones fault bar you club that Savage wanted to leave. Finally, I feel most of us felt it was despicable how your club made such as big thing of it and tried to keep it in the press every single day.

At 16:22 I made a note of the poll totals (see my post in the poll). This was after it had come out about Colchester and it was 50 v 113. It is now 60 v 159. So although some may have changed there minds it means that at least 10 people have voted after it had come out that he refused to play etc and that he made a mistake in joining us. Just wonder why those 10+ still think we should have kept him????

Sorry, agree i misread post. Just figured he was still one of the 27% who still think we shouldnt have sold Fergurson. I shall now state that those opionions of mine are not directed at tris, but anyone who feels we should still have Fergsuson.