Strange decision. Hilly seems the sort of bloke who attracts controversy.

I saw a bit of Portsmouth’s pitch today on the news . Unbelievably good. It looked like it was the opening game of the season.

Yeah, they made the glass too big.

This is Wayne Rooney this morning in my paper - “ I’ve had plans for playing in the Championship next season as well as in League One. I’ve got a lot of work done. My pre-season is done, my pre-season fixtures are done. Everything is done “.

I’d rather take a chance on an up and coming younger player from lower down the league to be honest. Some work out and some don’t but Johnson is on the downhill slide now.

Deep joy.

It’s an F off from me.

Funny how Kipre never got a game.

Yes, it’s like the old saying - “ You owe the bank £10,000, you have a problem. You owe the bank £10,000,000, the bank has a problem”.

Talking about individual players in isolation is a pointless exercise unless we’ve decided on a coherent way of playing. Then we can decide what we need to sign in the way of players to fulfil the plan. I don’t think Mowbray works that way though. He just collects players first and then just shoehorns them into some in-effective system.

I was just looking through some old “Last Sports “cuttings. Anybody remember the little cartoon character Sam in the “ Sam Says “ strip that was always in the “ Last Sports “ ? He was a typical old Lancastrian chap with a soup strainer moustache and a flat cap with a big Rovers rosette on his chest. He always had a pithy remark in broad Blackburnian for right after the game. One or two - After we’d beat Sheffield Wednesday easily 3-0 -“ Yon owls played like they’d bin up all neet”. After a great 5-5 draw with Arsenal - “ Ah’ve had to check in’t Sports to believe Ah’ve sin such a crackin’ game. After thrashing Leeds 4-0 in the League Cup - “ I towd tha last weeks win weren’t a fluke “ After a dull 1-1 home draw with bottom club Leyton Orient - “ Trust t’rovers to mek a hash of easy meat “.

I think if Rhodes had have been on the end of all the chances Armstrong has had this season he would have had about 40 odd goals to his credit. The down side is he wouldn’t have got to some of the chances in the first place.

Yes I agree with that. My point about some Prem clubs allegedly wanting Armstrong and yet never wanting Rhodes lends a bit of weight to my argument though.

...... or brains.

That’s what gets me down about Mowbray, there’s absolutely no passion in anything he says. Radio Lancs interviewer - “ What did you make of today’s game Tony . “ Mowbray - Long pause as the gears in his brain start to turn over. Sucks his teeth. Then a slow stream of platitudes that never make a lot of sense emerge. It’s as though he’s being asked if his piles are still bothering him ! He’s just a joy free zone.

Yeah getting dropped is bad enough but getting dropped for somebody you know isn’t as good is a real pisser.

I look at it like this - are we likely to replace him with a better player ? If as I suspect the answer is no we aren’t, we need to keep him.

I was reading a report of the Derby v Owls game today in the “ Sunday Observer “ and this piece struck home for me. “ You tirelessly run the channels for 46 games, only to be relegated on a technicality. You invest your time and emotion and your iFollow subscription, but you are powerless to stop the club you cherish being mismanaged into the dirt. Grief is the price you pay for love. Despair is the price you pay for hope. But for the growing number of clubs in the dungeon of English football, the equation between hope and despair has never been so cruelly weighted. A life of eternal serfdom to the Premier League giants: that’s the best case by the way. Meanwhile your wage bill is 130% of turnover and there are still no fans in the stadium “.

If I had to choose between Armstrong or Rhodes it’d be Armstrong every time for me. Premier League clubs are seriously interested in Armstrong, none of them ever gave Rhodes a second glance.

What other answers are there ?

He’s got great pace, good athleticism and physical size, and decent defensive ability. You’d think he could make a good Champ level centre back in the fullness of time. He hasn’t and probably won’t because his heading ability isn’t up to the job. Most of us realised that years ago when he first came into the team. Why is that still the case now ? Why hasn’t it been worked on. Why has inability to jump and keep his eyes open at the same time been improved upon ?

The bloke at Bolton has worked wonders there.

I see Weds started with Rhodes but subbed him off in the second half.

Let’s not get carried away. This is a really under strength big club side.

it’s worth I try. I would expect if you asked the two players concerned where they’d like to play that would possibly be it.