Commondore

I honestly thought Akpan was OK at the time, gave a woeful midfield some defensive stability.

A few days back I was reminded that Souness briefly used Jonathon Douglas in the team when we were struggling at the tail end of his tenure, Douglas even scored in that 4-3 win against Fulham that Stead clinched. Must be rare for one of our own products to have taken a place in central midfield, in the Premiership no less, only to completely go off the radar in just a season's time. Then there's Dunny... Had a decent career as a whole, but he looked so damn good in the promotion season and first season in the PL before getting on the wrong side of Souness and all the injuries.

This deal broke down, and Olsson has now signed a three month contract (for a total of less than £1.000!) with his home town club Helsingborg in order to keep fit while waiting for football to start again. He probably doesn't fit out current business model and would be some way off from match fitness, but he should be very much available.

I never saw those goals back in 2003, only read about them, and this showed up in my Youtube feed. Besides, it's an interesting reminder of a bygone, yet not that distant era, where we signed respected players and developed several prospects of our own, for the world stage rather than the English second tier. Lots of blasts from the past as well. Classy players like Jansen och Cole, workers like Flitcroft, Emerton and Thompson, and just plain odd signings like Baggio and Gresko.

We really battered them at home, could have scored five there and should have gone through if it weren't for bad finishing and excellent goalkeeping from their guy. Speaking of goalkeeping, Friedel doesn't exactly cover himself in glory for their first goal in the away tie, even though it's a good finish.

I wonder how many Championship midfielders live up to that?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/25/boxing-deontay-wilder-blames-ring-walk-outfit-knockout-loss-tyson-fury Embarrassing. I though he handled himself gracefully in the immediate post bout interviews, but stuff like this is just laughable. Does he/his team think we're all idiots? Or is he such a narcissist that he needs justifications like this in order to move on?

Joshua has fought and beaten big lunks before, but on the evidence of his last fight I'd almost rather see Ruiz fight Fury at this stage. Still, Joshua is pretty much the only big name left for Fury to put away after having beaten Wilder, I don't really see anyone coming up behind him at present.

Shaun Wright-Phillips has an 18 year old son? Those Wright men seem to settle in early.

My immediate association after seeing that starting 11:

And everyone who goes on about how Chapman is our salvation will be put to the test...

I'm not saying you're wrong, but Mowbray clearly signed him to play in that weird striker on the wing-role he likes to employ. We're much more likely to see him there than as the lone striker.

With Rothwell out for a month I don't see Brereton leaving.

Every club where a player has been between the ages of 12-23 gets to share 5 % when he generates a transfer sum. In other words, we'd be getting a bit of compensation, but nowhere near £5 million.

I've been impressed with Atsu when I've seen him play for Ghana, and he's played almost 20 games for a not terrible PL side already this season. My only reservation would be that I'm not sure he has the motivation to step down to the Championship on loan and push on from there, I'd rather have a hungry player with something to prove.

Reel it in a bit... If it turns out to be someone with the pedigree of Baines, Albrighton or Antonio, I'll eat my hat.

GET THE **** IN!!!!

Anyone else thinking "How are they going to screw this one up?"

I certainly did, good catch!

Allardyce's results against Manchester U, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal: 21 Feb 2009: Man Utd - Rovers 2-1 14 Mar 2009: Arsenal - Rovers 4-0 11 Apr 2009: Liverpool - Rovers 4-0 16 May 2009: Chelsea - Rovers 2-0 28 Aug 2010: Rovers - Arsenal 1-2 24 Oct 2010: Liverpool - Rovers 2-1 30 Oct 2010: Rovers - Chelsea 1-2 27 Nov 2010: Man Utd - Rovers 7-1 0 points out of 24 possible. It is what it is, it wasn't easy taking points from those teams, but I think this supports that he targeted "winnable" matches and let other ones go.

I like that midfield trio, but not the players in front of them.

Well, the one positive thing is that our unbeaten run is intact, as that was dreadful all around. Even Walton, with his two good saves towards the end, looked shaky throughout the rest of the game. While he didn't exactly turn the game around, I feel Holtby showed that he needs to be in the team when fit as he's our best passer and decision-maker in the final third as well as offering effective solutions further down the field.

Terrible 45 minutes, Wigan not much better mind... If this proves anything it's that Tosin needs to play every minute of every game, on crutches if need be. Think we would be well served by Holtby's composure on the ball in the second half, everyone else is currently just hoofing it away or slowly advancing util they run into an opposition defender.

It was hardly a barrage against Walton though, it seems harsh to expect the opposition to not create a single goalscoring opportunity. And they were only awful because we frustrated them and didn't let them play any better.

I've seen a tendency in him to play for himself rather than the team in central midfield, I.E he's tackling, shooting, passing and dribbling but without much thought or positional sense for such an important position. He was toned down today and had plenty of defensive support in midfield from Travis, Bennett and Holtby, and looked much better.