Great idea, although we need a clear definition of 'Greatest' first. Greatest Player to pull on the shirt? (Ardilles, Dalglish?) or Greatest player based on when their time at the club?

exactly why Atkins get's my vote (along with Clayton). The Greatest 11 is about more than how good they were as players (otherwise Newell goes in ahead of Garner) it's about what they represented to the club - Atkins was crucial during the most celebrated 4 or 5 seasons in our recent history and performed when it mattered. To be honest, he deserves it just for making that lung-busting run in the play-off final when every other player on the pitch was struggling to get beyond a jog.

Sherwood got his obligatory England cap within a month of joining Spurs (Captaining a title winning side not being enough you inderstand). At the same time he did a bunch of interviews in the London press about how great it was to be back from the provinces - no way can he be in our greatest ever side. Let's face it apart from Clayton, the modern team has not had any outstanding central midfielders so I'm sticking with Atkins for being man of the match against Leicester in the playoff final and for being at the centre of the title winning side.

brilliant post by colin - Atko deserves his place alongside Clayton. Always enjoyed telling people that think we bought the title in 95 about how important Atkins was. Maybe I'm being nostalgic but I seem to remember most of his goals being 25 yard screamers as well. 1st Clayton - captaining England in the 60's says it all 2nd Choice - Atko represents the best about club players (I'll even forgive that own-goal against Liverpool)

we'll probably lose this one - but at least if we can make a go of it and maybe if Stead or Bothroyd could get a goal or two it will improve confidence (which is the biggest problem at the moment)

surely the lesson of the last 18 months is that you don't get anywhere by selling your best players and bringing in 2 or 3 mediocre ones to replace them? That's the policy that Souness followed and we've ended up with a large, mediocre squad. Everyone on our bench on saturday is equally as good as the ones on the pitch it's the quality players like Fergie we need to build around. We need to trim the squad down by 5 or 6 players (Nissa, Reid, Amo, Gresko, Jansen etc.) use the lower wage-bill to bring in a couple of top quality free-transfers and give the youngsters a chance.

this all makes a lot of sense - went to my first Ewood match in a couple of seasons Vs ManYoo and was stunned at the lack of noise. Compared to the away games I'm normally at where we usually out-sing the home fans. The prawn sandwich eating red scum were making more noise than a full Ewood Park - this can't be right!

Alternative link Basically, it's called the Prince of Wales and it's opposite West Brompton tube / rail station Although given your location I guess you can walk there ... cheers! was worried you meant the place next door which is defintely a chelsea pub.

the links not working for me - which place was that? ta

Lloyds bar is uptheescalators atthe shopping centre attached to Fulham Broadway - cheapest pint in Fulham and not really a Chelsea haunt either.

by the way - when does Ronnie Clayton get a look in? I thought he played right back/winger?

whats the point even discussing this one? Douglas retired long before I was born but along with Crompton he has to be in the side on legend alone. Ripley was a great part of '95 but that's not enough, so was Atko and there's no way he's going to get in the team is there? now left wing - that's a better discussion...

a merger would be crazy, if you combined the support of PNE, Notlob and us you'd still be about the same as Villa or Spurs and less than Newcastle none of whom have a trophy cabinet to envy - so what's the point? The North-West is the home of football, the fact that there are so many big clubs in the area with history is something to be proud of. Most/all fans follow Rovers because of emotional ties to the club and would never follow an 'East Lancs United'. I spent my childhood following a mid-table 2nd division team that occasionally got 1-1 draws with Liverpool in the cup - and you know what? It was just as fun. If we end up back in the 1st division it won't stop me (or anyone else on this site) going to matches, in fact I'll probably be able to afford to get to more. If I want to glory-hunt I'll join everyone else down south and support Utd

Got to be big Colin, if only for the time he tackled Paul Ince in the box with his head... On a seperate note it's all very well the 'old giffers' going for the 60's players (and Clayton and Douglas have to be in the team). But how can we have a greatest ever team without anyone from the 1890's? Do we have any historians on here? who was the star of the treble cup winning team?

I don't think anyone thinks we should be challenging the top 5 and I agree that but for a bit of bad luck we would be 4 or 5 points better off and comfortable in mid-table (which is where we will probably end up). But what depresses me is that we are not going to do it in any style and there is no chance that we will be one of the teams that over-achieves. In seasons past we've had some players that made you proud to be a Rover. I remember watching Cole smash home Tugay's world class pass at Fulham last year and it was worthy of any team - with this current lot we're all hoping the ball might go in off Stead's arse!

I don't understand people praising the team spirit, the whole team is just playing with a complete lack of confidence in each other which means they are all playing safety-first football. The defenders hoof it forward every time, the central midfielders don't trust each other (or Amo and Matteo) enough to make any forward runs (doesn't help that flitcroft and tugay can barely run any more) which means Stead and Dickov just get endless balls pumped up to them that they can't knock down to anyone. The plus points I took from last night are that Emerton, Jansen and Tugay can all play (even if they are frustrating) and we can hustle when we have to- for the last half hour we looked like the home team. But until we have some pace and mobility in defence and a midfield quartet that understand and trust each other we are not going to get anywhere. I have only been at two matches this year (Man U & last night) but I am not confident we are going anywhere this season - we have a squad of 25 mediocre players who are pretty much interchangeable (Stead/Gallagher/Bothroyd flitcroft/douglass depedro/mgp) but noone to inspire us. we have the worst defence in the league (although I thought Gray was man of the match last night) a midfield that act as if they've never met and 4 equally hardworking but goal-shy strikers. It's going to be a long season...

Can we really get tickets on gate?

Amoruso gets unfair stick because he's the only defender we've got who doesn't run away from the ball so he get's exposed. I agree that Tugay is past it, but who else knows how to pass the ball? First out should be Douglas I have never seen him play well.

The shame is that Blackburn are a community club. As a London based fan I'm always proud to show whichever Girlfriend, mate, relative I've blackmailed to come to matches with me how many girlfriends, grandmothers and kids there are in the crowd. Almost all Blackburn fans (myself included) have links to the town (why else would we bother?) and it's a shame that one of the largest elements of the local population aren't represented in the crowd. The number one problem is that the cost and hassle of going to Ewood (or any other Premiership ground) is way too high for what you get back. The clubs charge what they can get away with because of our emotional attachment. There is no chance of me paying what it costs to see Chelsea every week even though I love football, the only way the Asian community will come to Rovers is if we start with the kids and get some attachment. We have a ground that holds nearly a 1/4 of the town's population in an area with more top class clubs than anywhere in the world. We can't expect to fill it unless we get a new generation of Asian fans!

Hughes knows it's all about the defence and Charlton have had some shaky results. I'm going to take a good book with me, it's got to be 0:0 with 3 world class saves from Brad, Jansen hitting the post and Bothroyd missing a sitter in the last minute. sad to say I'd actually be quite happy with that..