The games we've lost when we've gone behind would suggest otherwise. The stats don't lie in that respect. If we score first we're in with a shout, if the opposition score first you may as well switch your TV off.

It depends what you mean by attitude. All pals together on holiday and taking the piss in training - yeah great. Coming back from a goal down - not so great. Too many happy go lucky nice lads and not enough bastards who'd kick their granny to win a game of snakes and ladders.

I wasn't a fan matey. I found myself thinking " how did that get into the back of the net ? " too often with Fred. He was a bit like Robbo in that respect. I only ever saw him have one game that justified his reputation. Away at Burnley when we lost 1-0 to a Gordon Harris penalty. He was brilliant that night. He stopped everything they threw at us and he even got a hand to the pen but couldn't keep it out. I'd say Roger Jones, Gennoe, Jim Arnold were all better goalkeepers.

I think Roy Keane fits into the category of a really great player who struggled all his life to deal with players who 1) Didn't have his ability 2) Didn't have his level of commitment and will to win. Any managerial job he took was always likely to come up against that major obstacle.

Yes, it was a bad one. Just when he was looking the part after waiting patiently for his chance and then grabbing it with both hands. He'll be missed when you consider the other three centre halves are not strangers to the treatment table or the disciplinary committee..

I think Wharton might struggle a bit. What with his leg being in plaster and all that. This time next season he might be ready for a run out.

A bit like some recent performances - out enthused.

Brazil 1970, best team I ever saw. It tells you how good that England team was then because ran them so very close in the heat of the mid day sun in Mexico. I remember watching the players waiting to kick off and shadow of the overhead camera was almost directly overhead.

I'd take a 1-0 win now but I'm not sure we do 1-0 wins anymore.

The point you seem to be missing is - if we paid more, like Leeds have done for example , we could get a better class of manager. I would have thought that was obvious. If your manager isn't the highest paid employee at the club I think you're making a mistake. Do you think Mowbray is our highest paid employee ?

How many managers would say no to the sort of money we spent on Brereton ?

England was the best centre half I ever saw in the flesh bar none. I can't think of many as good that I've seen on TV - maybe DeSailly in his prime or Lucio who used to play for Brazil. He was a colossus. He had size ( 6ft 3 ins when that was unusual ), speed, two great feet, super passing ability both long and short, he could tackle and unlike most tall guys he had a terrific spring in his legs. I've seen him head corners downwards into the top corner of the goals ! He was a centre half without a weakness. Utd wanted him before Spurs signed him but Utd wanted to do a cash plus player deal and Spurs stumped up the full amount. When the " Rothman's Football Annual " came out in 1970 they started a tradition of choosing a UK best 11. Even when he was past his best he was chosen as the centre half for a few seasons. I was privileged to see him at his best for Rovers

This is what I don't understand. A bad manager can lose you more games than a bad goalkeeper, a poor defence, shot shy strikers, anything on the pitch you care to name. So why is it we're prepared to spend £7million on an apprentice striker yet when we come to the most important role in the whole of the club - the team manager - we want to do it on the cheap ? I just don't get that at all.

The game was much different then. You could get by with a much smaller squad. Having said that, as the earlier poster said, we were a couple of players short. The attack was brilliant and could score goals for fun. Defensively we were a bit lacking. John Bray at right back was on the way down and Mick McGrath at left half was also coming to the end of a great career. Two replacements there and a better goalkeeper than Fred Else and we would have been bringing silverware back to Ewood. Losing at Oxford led directly to the loss of Fred Pickering. That was a massive blow in itself but what was worse we blew a chunk of the fee on George Jones from Bury who was a bit of a Brererton type signing, in theory one for the future. That didn't work so well and we already had a ready made replacement for Pickering in John Byrom. We'd have been better off using the Pickering money to strengthen the defence.

Ah well, I've got the hardback version. How do they describe the diagrams on " Audible " ? No I didn't see the Netflix show.

This team could win them all or lose them all. They're only predictable in their unpredictability. Having said that aren't we due another death spiral ? How many points will we need to stay up this season ?

I've got this fancy gadget matey. It's called " a pair of reading glasses ". Sounds like you should invest in pair. I could read great without them until I was about 60. Now I need them for reading all the time. It can happen pretty rapidly . Did you get the hard back version ? I've got another, similar, one " Called Flat Back Four " by Andy Gray. That's interesting.

Yes that team would have graced Wembley in the final. As it was West Ham just about scraped past Second Division Preston in an entertaining final.

I'm back to reading " Inverting The Pyramid " again. It's a book about the evolution of football tactics basically. One of the famous managers in the book reckoned three years was about the optimum at any one club before things started to go stale and the players began to get tired of your voice. Usually he'd fallen out with enough of them by that time so they didn't like him as a manager any longer and that showed in their performances. He reckoned the two alternatives then were 1) Leave. 2) Get a new squad of players.

It comes from a pal who was a Darlington fan. Their deadly rivals are Hartlepools who are known as the " Monkey Hangers " in Darlo because allegedly they hung a monkey back in the day thinking it was a French spy. My pal called them " The Chimp Chokers ", so I just borrowed it.

Yes, what a bollock that was - Rovers not signing him. It was almost unfair when he was in his prime, it was like 12 playing against 11.

When you get to the point were you can't pay the bills even " unattractive " jobs have their pluses. If you wait around for too long in football management you can get left behind and out of the loop. Mark Hughes is in danger of falling into that bracket. We don't know who would fancy the job until it becomes vacant. There's a lot to like about managing Rovers at the moment. Expectations are very low for a start.

Roy Keane would be lying down in a darkened room after a bad loss. I remember Roy Keane playing like two men in that Champions League semi final when he already knew he was suspended from the final. That was the measure of the bloke. He didn't just give 100% that night he gave 150%.

Problem solved, lets sign the world's two best centre halves and we can forget all about miss matched mark ups at corners.

Re your second paragraph. That's one way of looking at it and in certain circumstances not an unreasonable one. That's more or less what Brentford have done. Sell your better players for big money and hopefully get good replacements at half the price. A lot is riding on your recruitment team though,