Where does he play ?

Different style of player entirely. Regarding Okocha and Le Tissier a pal of mine had been a top youth player and later a scout for City. He had a saying - " A team of Bobby Charlton's wouldn't win anything because they'd never have the ball ". Teams needed ball winners just as much as they need flair players.

I liked David Batty a lot, I thought he was a better player than Sherwood and he had to play second fiddle to him most of the time. Batty and Tugay in central midfield ? That really would have been something to behold.

Sherwood wasn't in the same league as Tugay. Not even nearly.

My favourite memory of him, apart from him going in goal, was the goal he got a Rochdale in the promotion season. He picked up a loose ball in the last third, fed Bennett out wide right, then made a great run into the box to get on the end of a good cross to volley the ball home left footed from about 10 yards out. He made it look easy. Mowbray probably said to him " What were you doing there son ? Hang around on the half way line in future ". He brought some real pride back into the shirt when it was badly needed. I'll always be grateful to him for that.

What a pitch !

Me too. Brunt's been a good player in the past but nothing is forever. I think it's time to go for Downing as well.

I think that's what I said. It's certainly what I meant.

You need at least four centre backs that are all capable of holding down the position given we nearly always have two out on the pitch. Another reason is injuries and suspensions crop up regularly in those positions. Having a couple of kids waiting in the wings is always a plus as well. We have Lenihan for No1, we need a quality replacement for the lad we had from City for No2. Williams if he's staying could possibly be No3. If he's leaving we need another experienced player. Wharton could maybe be No4. We have several kids who could play the odd game in a pinch.

We got the best out of him, that's for sure.

Samba behaved like an arse at the end but it's easy for us who have been brought up in the welfare state to criticise blokes who maybe grew up not knowing where their next meal was coming from. From a playing point of view on his day the guy was a one man defence, a colossus. I'd put him behind Mike England, who is in a league of his own, but in front of Nelsen, Henchoz, Hendrey etc. Matt Woods was a real stalwart for Rovers back in the old days but you've got to be getting on a bit to have seen him play.

I don't get it. Football's full of equally difficult to like managers. I couldn't care less as long as they're successful. They're not marrying my daughter.

Real legends in my time - Freidel, Newton, England, Clayton, Douglas, Shearer, Tugay.

I was thinking Sunderland would be a good fit also.

Anybody think Mowbray might be one of the eight applicants ?

If you're not 100% regarding Downing that should really be enough to tell you maybe it's time to part company.

In our greatest ever side -no, but I agree with what Parkes had to say about his all round game. He was top class, unfortunately we never saw him at his best in a Rovers shirt.

I'd like to think those days are gone. We can't afford to have players just hanging around on big bucks. I thought we did well to get what we did out of him. Let's not push our luck. I think the " wall " came knocking on his door during the shut down

I agree, much as I liked Matty as a player, with the form he was in he would have been off before too long.

Douglas was Tugay with added pace. The nearest to him playing now - Eden Hazard on a good day.

If they didn't retire it when Bryan Douglas called it a day they never will.

Regarding centre backs I think you need three first choice plus one that can play there without maybe being as good as the other three but not far behind in terms of ability and a young one who can come in and do a good job there at a pinch. I'd put Wharton in the latter category if he's made sufficient progress on loan Our centre halves seem to be prone to injuries and all centre halves will be picking up the odd suspension if they're doing the job properly so you need quite a few of them.

I saw him played for Scotland at international level against the best of Europe and he still looked top class. He reminded me a bit of Souness himself as a player. As you saw he was just beginning to find his feet when he got that freak bad injury at Newcastle. As I said earlier every transfer is a gamble. Plenty of good players haven't made a success of the move from Scotland to England and plenty of unknowns have gone on to be real stars down here. Archie Gemmell being just one but I could name dozens of other similar cases, our own Colin Hendry is an example nearer home.

He was class act when he playing for Rangers and Scotland.

I was only thinking that the other day. Some of them have never seen a real Rovers team playing with passion, skill and flair. This dross on show at the moment is all they know.