I'll be in the Anti-G for 6:30pm then. Usually plenty of Rovers fans in there and I can think of worse sh*t holes for away fans' pubs in London. But then as Tris said, it's been done up!

Never been to Carrow Road before so will definitely be up for going. Probably the stop over too.

I think overall I'm pleased with the appointment whilst I don't think any management appointment right now would have had me doing cartwheels. First of all though let's just stop the comparisons between Hughes and Brian Kidd. "Kiddo" is a decent coach, and the players' mates. But, let's face it anything else and he's as thick as two short planks. In contrast Hughes oozes charisma, quiet off the pitch and a menace on it. Reminds me a lot of Kenny Dalglish. He will command respect straight away. I'm more concerned with the backroom staff. Mark Bowen! - solid prem defender at Norwich if I'm not mistaken? Now is he a qualified, and highly respected coach, or a kit boy? Because it's essential we have a Ray Harford as opposed to a Derek "yes boss" Fazackerly (sorry Faz..) Apart from that we can be as sceptical and optimistic as we like (by all means carry on USA Blue), but I think we can all agree to get behind the manager and the players 100% starting on Saterday.

Yes, I think we have a better squad of players. We've added balance to the team and we probably have more options now in terms of style of play and formation. I don't however, think we have a stronger first 11 than we had previously.

I don't think any of us really know how this signing is going to work out. By all means he has the attributes to be a decent prem footballer, but his style of play and perceived attitude does worry me. Rovers fans are a lovely, but fickle bunch and we certainly love a striker that chases lost causes, which Jay must now learn to do. He also cannot afford to look p*ssed off at any point in the game, or God forbid smile! I think ultimately it's the quality of our strikers that will make or break our season. It's no real loss that Yorke has gone, but for me the decision to sell Cole (whether it was Souey's or not) and bring in 2, less proven footballers will determine Souey's fate.

And that is the funniest thing I've read on this messageboard in a long time!!! Got your season ticket for't Turf then Gav?

Dave Emerton? We've not signed his brother as well have we? :

Strange one this. I remember at the end of the season worried that Cole was going to go but hoping it would be Yorke instead. Once Cole had gone I thought it might not be a bad thing for Yorke to stay. Obviously his relationship with Souness being the main problem. Let’s not forget his best performances for Rovers have come when he’s played up front without Cole. I’ve been very worried about the pressure lying on Jon Stead. If Yorke’s playing alongside him then it can only help IMO. I now think if Jansen’s not going to be in the team, or the number 1 sub, then he should be loaned out. A decent Nationwide team who play football. Someone like Preston perhaps, or better still Forrest. I do wonder just how much the animosity between Souness and some of his players is hyped up by the press. Let’s face it without it we (Rovers) wouldn’t get a look in. The more and more I think about it now, Cole was sold on for financial reasons. Yorke on the other hand, is on a much lower basic wage (which has been pointed out countless times on this MB) so will not be draining the resources too much. Rev/Tris – I’m not sure what you’re getting wound up about. Every team out of the top five has the same number 1 prority – Prem survival. The gap between 6th and 18th is very small, and only the likes of Keegan will be bigging up the team about a top 6 finish. And you don’t want to say that and it come back and slap you in the face. I’m feeling strangely optimistic this morning. Something’s not right….

Just what is a footballer paid to ? Work hard on the pitch and produce the goods, that's it. For me, Cole did this, and anyone who watched him regularly will know how hard he worked. Let's face it, for half of the time he was here (the absence of Dunn/Duff and Tugay off form) his service was poor yet he still lead the line superbly. It's quite clear that some fans just don't like a player because of how they perceive their attitude, and this messageboard is full of them. I'm willing to assume the board and Souness have made a shrewd financial decision to sell Cole now, knowing they have the resources to fill the void. But, I'm far from convinced. Young Stead has a lot of pressure on him already... but of course he has all the Nationwide League experience of Paul Dickov to help him out. Yeah... good riddance Andy.

Arse! All the away games I can get to appear to be on Sky. I'm not saying Southampton vs Rovers shouldn't be on sky (it's a long way to go) but 12:45pm is ridiculous. Charlton on a Monday night too.

Those time constraints must be a walk in the park compared to your escapades in Turkey Tris! From what I remember from last year the weekend hotel prices in Dublin soar so we ended up staying the Friday night in a plush hotel in the Financial quarter - same price as the Comfort Inn. I'll probably be up for it again though. Nice place, nice people.

Good comment I think Flitty will have until January 2006 before his contract expires. I'd still be nervous about our midfield strength in depth if Flitcroft were to leave now and not be suitably replaced. He'll be an excellent squad member this season and I expect him to play more matches than not. You know you're going to get 100% from him, so how people can moan about his wages and how long he has to run on his contract is beyond me. Good decision though. Should be the best out in Fergie.

My favourite Rovers team, with a big emphasis on attack, and of course, only those I saw play... Friedel Price Berg Hendry Le Saux Dunn Sherwood Tugay Duff Garner Shearer subs Flowers Ripley Sellars Jansen Sutton

The problem is that James arranged his defenders then stood slap bang in the middle of the goal (the one place Zidane wasn't going to put the ball), with his view obscured by the wall in front of him. Seems logical that he should have either A: put a man on the near post, trusting him to be there if Zidane put the ball round the wall and allowing James to cover the far post if ZZ went up and over, or B: positioned himself more towards the near post to cover the shot round the wall and hope the wall did it's job if Zidane tried to shoot over the top of it. In the end he did neither, and it cost us a goal. i thought the goal went into the far post! shows how good a view I had! in any case - you simply can't have a man on the line, for all the reasons i said above Yes, it did go inside the far post. Putting players on the line is dodgy as it just creates more uncertainty inside the box for the defending team. I re-iterate the point that if he'd stood a couple of feet to the right then he could have easily caught the ball. From the position of the free kick, a right footed player shouldn't have caused us so much concern. Even if it was Zidane.

Cheers Andy for that report, must have been a great experience I'm sure.... Well, after a couple of days of reflection, I do think 2 players didn't use their brians when the moment arrived - Beckham and James. We can all point at Heskey and Gerrard but they did their bit and were both guilty of unfortunate errors. Spur of the moment stuff. Beckham had the opportunity to put England 2 up and was completely out psyched by Barthez in my opinion. If you can't guarantee you're going to stick it just inside the post (like Zidane did) then you should be anticipating your oponents move. There was only one way Barthez was going to go, and Beckham bottled it. James, well, we're all saying he was beaten by brillance etc etc but the free kick didn't go over the wall it went just to the side of the wall at the keeper's side. Don't care who's taking the free kick, you shouldn't be beaten there. If goalkeepers want to stand in middle of their goal and wait to see where its hit then they might as well not bother with a wall. If James had been a yard to his right he could have caught the ball. Had Zidane then curled it round/over into the other corner then the keeper would have been faultless, and the goal would have been one of the best ever seen! But... thought tactics were good and we have the power and pace (if not the skill) to do well.

I'm not inspired at all by this signing, but can't really complain about it either, as long as Cole isn't going anywhere that is. We already have 2 young exciting stikers in Gallagher and Stead. Cole has proven he can still cut it with the best and be our number 1. Yorke is on his way and there's still a lot of questions to be answered about Jansen Personally I'd love us not to sign another striker and the Cole/Jansen partnership be as good as it was in 2002. Just as much I'd love a Gally-Stead partnership to be a massive success. Thing is we don't know this is going to happen, so a fifth stiker IMO is important. It's better we spend 100k now on an experienced player than have to panic buy come January. As has already been pointed out, we've spent a lot more on less quality players in the past. He works hard, he works intelligently, and does posess a fair bit of pace. For all those not happy about this, just spare a moment to think about some of our other great strikers of recent years..... Ward, Blake, Ostenstad.... Grabbi Welcome aboard Paul

He had to go really. They've gone backwards since winning the 3 cups in 2001. When you look at all of his signings, it's a wonder it's taken so long..... Jan 1999: Jean-Michel Ferri from Istanbulspor £1.5m Jan 1999: Frode Kippe from Lillestrom £700,000 Jan 1999: Rigobert Song from Salernitana £2.7m Feb 1999: Djimi Traore from Laval £550,000 May 1999: Sami Hyypia from Willem II £2.6m Jun 1999: Titi Camara from Marseille £2.8m Jun 1999: Stephane Henchoz from Blackburn £3.5m Jun 1999: Sander Westerveld from Vitesse Arnhem £4m Jul 1999: Dietmar Hamann from Newcastle £8m Jul 1999: Vladimir Smicer from Lens £4m Mar 2000: Emile Heskey from Leicester £11m Jun 2000: Bernard Diomede from Auxerre £3m Jul 2000: Nick Barmby from Everton £6m Aug 2000: Christian Ziege from Middlesbrough £5.5m Sep 2000: Gregory Vignal from Montpellier £500,000 Nov 2000: Daniel Sjolund from West Ham £1m Dec 2000: Igor Biscan from Dynamo Zagreb £5.5m Jun 2001: John Arne Riise from Monaco £4m Aug 2001: Milan Baros from Banik Ostrava £3.4m Aug 2001: Jerzy Dudek from Feyenoord £4.85m Aug 2001: Chris Kirkland from Coventry £6m Sep 2001: Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama Pongolle from Le Havre £6m Jan 2002: Abel Xavier from Everton £800,000 Jun 2002: El-Hadji Diouf from Lens £10m Jul 2002: Bruno Cheyrou from Lille £3.7m Aug 2002: Salif Diao from Sedan £5m Jul 2003: Steve Finnan from Fulham £3.5m Jul 2003: Harry Kewell from Leeds £5m

Opposing teams would slice through our midfield like a hot knife through butter.

Well, I've yet to see anything quoting Smith saying he wants to go to ManUre. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until then. He goes to Everton, Newcastle, or even Liverpool (can't be too popular with Leeds fans at the moment) then that's acceptable. Let's face it, Smith has just been honest with the fans and stated it was time to move on. The club need the money too let's not forget. However, if he moves to Utd then all his "love for Leeds" and "passion" will mean absolutely nothing. He'd not only be a traitor but an idiot as well. How easy will it be for him to return to his home town after signing for their most deadly rivals?

Must have been those 'Cheeky Vimto's' we were drinking. For those of you feeling rough on Sunday, spare a thought for us living dead of the London Branch trying to play football at Brockhall in the afternoon heat. Even Cath's goalkeeping talents couldn't have saved us Cocker, we lost 11-2 to The Fieldens Arms. It could have been a worse scoreline but for us sneaking on (goal hero) Mushy as a ringer. Thanks again Mushy. I blame the pitch.... err.... too flat!

Excuse me? Didn't we beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle United, respectively the champions, second and third-placed teams, at home last season? I said much better, and we wern't. Those 3 games were probably the only exceptions. Too many dull draws against cr*p teams highlighted this, along with the fall in season tickets.

We have to stick with him as you can only change your manager if you know you can get someone better. Quite simply, he's the best for Rovers at the moment. With Souness you know who the boss is and who's running things. He's had bad luck in the last 2 pre-seasons (Jansen & Duff) so he's not had it all rosy like some people say, however....... ..... we've been cr*p at home all season and wern't much better the season before. Without the creative trio of Duff, Dunn and Jansen we lack the ability to break teams down and this is the main thing GS needs to address. He has yet to do so, and without some more balance and creativity to the team we will be in the same situation next season. ...... his public fallings out with players have been well documented and while a good b*llocking shouldn't good amiss with these overpaid stars I don't like the theory/fact that Souey freezes players out. This is no good for a young footballer's confidence. The 2 players that spring to mind the most are Johansson and Gresko - promissing stars that GS signed. ..... basic coaching - sometimes it looks like we don't have any. Most Rovers fans can see this as we witnessed the Rovers team of the nineties who were well drilled by Ray Harford. If GS isn't supposed to coach our defensive game (and I'm talking about the midfield and strikers here too) then he needs to get someone in who will because Saunders and Parkes clearly don't know how to. His passion is what makes him stand out though. He also has that something special where he can get the best out of players when most needed, as proven in many of our "big" games over the past 4 years. He's still the man (dunno if this needs to be in one of the many other GS threads)

You're thinking of the "Red Light District" I think... Ha Ha If memory serves me right, it wasa on the main road between Seven Sisters tibe station and White Hart Lane. If memory serves me - and in this case it certainly does - this is the most vile public house that I've ever set foot in. Quite apart from the fact that we had to argue with the bouncer to let us in - I took a couple of mates along last season and he didn't want to let them in cos they weren't wearing Rovers tops ... Once we were in there I wish we'd stayed outside. The beer was minging, the walls were peeling, it smelt, it was outrageously expensive, the coke was served warm out of 12p Aldi own brand 2 litre bottles and sold for two quid, the glasses were dirty and the staff were rude. Personally, I ain't going near the dump again ! Wholeheartidly agree. Makes the Springbok at QPR look like the Ritz. Apart from that dive I've only been to a nice little back street pub (more like someones's front room) which serves Belgian beer and has a decent beer garden. Only been there with my Spurs supporting mate though and I think a couple hundred Rovers fans wouldn't really be welcome. As Tris said, Highbury & Islington is only 1 stop down on the tube so may be well worth going somewhere there first, Upper St is pretty good. Assuming there won't be bouncers on doors etc at that time.

Why are people comparing Big Ron to a black rapper? OK then, let's do that. If Ice T was working alongside Clive commentating for the Monaco/Chelsea game and came out with the same outburst that Ron did what would happen? He'd lose his job that's what!

Should hopefully be able to make it. My first Blues bar meetup....