Why not make Brad captain? It doesn't mean the outfield players aren't allowed to be leaders as well. Brad deserves it for his contribution to the club. Flitters isnot a regular anymore and whilst Todd has been excellent in the last few weeks, who knows when he's going to go off on one again?

Brad for captain..

.......... players with no premiership experience

u just dont learn do you

What a Cock!!!!

lack of premiership experience hasn't been too detrimental to Carvalho, Fereira, Gallas, Tiago, etc at Chelsea.

Henry, Pires, Ljungberg for Arsenal.

...and the tens upon tens more players around the premier league who had no premiership experience.

Think about what you're saying

Who doesn't learn

of course, the best transfer policy is to sign players with lots of premiership experience.

Heskey, Gronkjaer, Yorke, Dunn. You can't go wrong really can you...

muppet

I've said before all this happened that I think Ferguson was vastly over-rated.

That said, I still think he's one of our better players. But if he wants to go back to Rangers and play park football for the rest of his career then he's clearly not got the guts or ambition to succeed and we should get rid. £5m would be enough for me.

as others have posted - I fancy Hughes' ability to find players abroad for half the cost of british ones. I thought Mokoena looked quality the other day.

I've been as critical about Fergie as anyone but he has made outstanding performances. Against Newcastle for example. He doesn't do it often enough yet for me but I think he'll improve alongside Savage.

fair enough, I wasn't at the newcastle game. But his reputation still outwieghs his input.

Emerton has been our best midfielder this season IMO.

I just think there is a lot of wishful thinking about Fergie on this MB. I know he's our only player with a big-time reputation but noone can point to a single outstanding performance.

At least the people going on about MPG haven't seen him play yet!

I'm still waiting to be impressed with Fergie, he has good technique and he can distribute the ball very well so I'm not saying he's a bad player. But most teams in the premiership have a player like that:

Is Ferguson unarguably better than Murphy, Carrick, Graveson, Jenas, Holland, Okocha, Amdy Faye, Boateng or others? No he isn't.

When Souness bought him it was to take us to the next level, to do that he needs to impose himself on games in the way Viera, Gerrard or Keane do. So far, in the games I have seen him in (admittedly only 7 or 8 in the flesh) he hasn't done that once.

So on that basis, if someone offers £6/7m for him we should snap their arm off! The players listed above mostly cost half that and we could spend the rest on a striker.

we need a centre back a defensive midfielder and a 15 goal striker.

but we can only afford the first two. Henchoz and Gabbidon would be good and I think Savage would be a blinding signing but I can't belive Bruce is silly enough to sell him (although he did buy heskey, gronkjaer and yorke so...)

with a decent defensive base then maybe our midfield will start chipping in with more goals, can't see any of our strikers getting into double figures this season.

we need to shore up at the back. Nissa is our best defensive option there, end of story. Emerton can take care of the attacking.

If we failed to break down spurs then I think it's a shade harsh to blame the guy at left back!

Nissa the best?

are you... are you for real? seriously, are you taking the pish?

hes utter sh!t, utter sh!t

he's our best defensive left-back admittedly that isn't saying a lot. not sure there is a single defender in our squad who would get into aonthe prem team.

I was amongst the people calling for Jay to come back and he gifted two goals in two games. Gray is ok going forward but weak defensively.

It's a very good point but doesn't count as it was 2 games ago and you should know that all players have to be judged on their last game only.

There was a game before Tottenham? Nah, you're having a laugh surely.

we need to shore up at the back. Nissa is our best defensive option there, end of story. Emerton can take care of the attacking.

If we failed to break down spurs then I think it's a shade harsh to blame the guy at left back!

Wilcox was a very good player but the whole point of the 95 team was that apart from Shearer it was about the team not individuals.

How many of the players in 95 did well elswhere?

Wilcox at Leeds?

Ripley at Southampton?

Sherwood at Spurs?

Flowers at Leicester?

Berg at Manure?

Batty at Newcastle?

Duff is brilliant for Chelsea, he's been brilliant for Ireland and he will continue to be one of the most exciting players in the world no matter what shirt he's wearing.

I know he was before my time (started following rovers properly in 86/7) but I have to admit I hadn't heard much about Brotherston. Wheras Compton, Clayton and Douglas are bona-fide legends of the game.

Sellars was my favourite player as a kid, even the papers down south used to describe him as the best player outside of the top flight. I was gutted he didn't get to play for us in the Premiership.

That said, the boy Duff was almost certainly the best left-winger in the world when he was playing for us and in modern times only Shearer and Friedel came close to being the best in their position whilst at Rovers.

So Duff for me unless one of the old-timers can come up with a very good case...

really looking forward to this game. Sat with my Spurs fan mate in the pub watching the 4-3 Arsenal game a couple of weeks ago followed by the 3-3 Brum Rovers game a week later.

There will be hatfull of goals in this game with 2 lousy defences and 2 good forward teams. They have the better strikeforce but we have the better midfield and the better spirit.

3-2 rovers (Gally scores two, Emerton gets winner in 82nd minute)

can't wait

That was the best performance I've seen from the Rovers in a very long time. We completely bossed the midfield for 90 minutes even though they were playing 5 across the middle. I knew Ferguson and Tugay were goodbut Emerton and Reid have been a revelation in the last few games for me. They both look like premiership players - big, strong, quick and with good technique.

The only downside for me was Dickov and Gally's partnership. After Dickov's hissy fit last week (when Gally put the ball over the line) and his performance on Saturday I can't believe how greedy Dickov is. Even the penalty only came about when he should already have crossed the ball! Then at full time he comes over and gives it the Rocky salute celebration whilst all theother players are just applauding the fans.

Yes he does work his heart out but when we look good going forward it's as a unit - Gally's movement, distribution and finishing are much better. I think Gally and Stead/Bothroyd will be our fist choice before the season is out.

let's not act all defensive about this.

I think MOST of the press coverage has been quite fair. Nearly all the reports have said it was 1 or at most 2 fans behaving like that and equally they have reported that the one from the pictures was thrown straight out by the stewards.

Blackburn fans have nothing to fear from this unless we start going on about how Yorke shouldn't have confronted the fan or whatever.

22,000 fans, 1 idiot (who wasn't even wearing a Rovers scarf) . We don't have to defend ourselves!

1885 Final

Here is a brilliant description of the 1885 cup run. For anyone who thinks that football back then was like Sunday League park game it should change your mind. 12,500 people turned up in London (at a Cricket ground) for a game played between teams from Blackburn and Glasgow (what kind of a trip home was it for the Queens Park fans?)

Vote Forrest!

Many happy memories from this fixture - although last season sat with the Fulham players families (Mark Crossley's Dad is a nice bloke) and got some strong looks when Steadinho cracked that winner and I lost it. This year I'll be back down the Putney end so I can celebrate properly!

3-2 Rovers. I think we have our scoring boots on now that Thommo is back and Fergie, Reid and Emerton are all playing with confidence. But Fulham have so much pace up front that we will concede a couple.

Should be fun (unlike Charlton and Chelsea)

I'll be the bloke trying to explain the offside rule to the three Sloaney Fulham-girls I'm bringing with me (we need all the support we can get!)

Dunny gave a perfect example of how to celebrate at your old club, contrasts totally with Duff at Chelsea. Showed a lot of class.

Unfortunately, my sources (brother at the FA) tell me he is one or two breakdowns from having to retire. If that's true it would be a real shame.

maybe Sherwood is the best midfielder of the last 20 years but when he played for us he was no more than the 5th or 6th best midfielder in the country. How can he get into our greatest ever team? At least Le Saux was the best left-back in the league at the time.

Come on guys, I don't mind people voting for Sherwood if they rated him better than I describe him above but not just because you haven't seen the others play.

Our 'greatest ever since 1990' team would be the '95 team plus Duff. Not very interesting...

I have seen Tim Sherwood play many many games for us and at no stage was he anything other than a capable midfielder who played his part in a team effort, but no more so than the likes of Mark Atkins, Paul Warhurst and (especially) David Batty.

Couldn't agree more. Sherwood was a good player but to have in our greatest ever is an insult to the history of the club. Tugay is (or maybe was) a better player than Sherwood.

Vote Forrest now!

I'm so nervous about this game. If we can't come out of games against Norwich, Citeh and Brum with more than 3 points we're asking for relegation.

no more excuses, we HAVE to win.

but no way we're keeping a clean sheet.

so I'm going for 2-1

Thompson to score a 25yrd screamer

Respect to Hughes for being able to make tough decisions, it shows he's trying to impose his will on the club.

but most of all thanks to Tony Parkes for 30 years of hard-work, dedication and more success than most coaches will ever see.

Are we having a testimonial?

When did this thread become the clothes show??

couldn't care less what people wear and I think we all agree that standing would be better. Singing and banter are essential parts of the football experience and we need more not less of it.

But there is a difference between happy memories of singing 'you'll never get a passport' to Al Fayed whilst standing on the old terrace at Fulham* and the lads who were standing at the chelsea game flicking V signs at the home crowd and abusing the stewards and their own fans.

surely we can all see the difference? I admit that I didn't say anything to the lads at Chelsea but next time I think I will.

*(I do go to games outside of SW London as well! )

I have worn an aquascutum cap before for football matches, along with other designer labels. Im not a hooligan so why put everyone in the same boat who wears labels?

fair enough, but it's not really hard to spot the people we're talking about they are the ones who don't give a crap about football and just want to hurl abuse even if it's at their own fans.

We're not even talking about hooligans here - the potty oiks at chelsea wouldn't last 5 minutes in a ruck, they're just playing at being hooligans and because the rest of us are well behaved they know that large scale trouble won't kick off.

they're losers and we should let them know.

Tempted to go for Atkins, but I won't for two reasons

1. He really wasn't very good

2. There is noone from the C19 team in so far.

If Forrest our best player when we were the best club-side in the world then I'm going for him.

living in London, I basically only go to away matches. Also being the only Rovers fan I know I usually persuade a mate to come along with me. The behaviour of our away fans over the years makes me proud to be a fan and means that my Spurs and Chelsea supporting mates never fail to comment on what a positive and good humoured experience it is.

I wasn't at Norwich but I have to say the 5 lads (none of them over 18) sat in front of me at the Chelsea game were a disgrace and ruined the experience for me even more than our performance. They spent the first 45 minutes slagging off their own fans and the stewards without getting behind the team once.

What are they trying to achieve? I almost wish the stewards had let them into the Chelsea stand - there are a lot more thugs there who would show these little sh#ts what hard really is. Personally I'd rather be part of the nicest fans in the league.