A top class centre half and a top class left winger would have been my choices. I don't think Ferdinand and Shearer would have been a good combination to be honest. Too similar in their style of play.

Toss up between Schmiecal and Brad for No1 for me. With Brad in the goals we had a goal start.

You've just won the Premier League, you're in the Champions League when it actually was the Champions League. Everybody wants to come and play for you. You should be saying " Who are our two weakest players and who can we bring in to replace them ? So we sign a reserve winger ! It was hard to believe then and it's hard to believe now. Apart from letting the Chicken Chokers buy the club that was the biggest mistake we've made since we decided to sell Fred Pickering.

Give him time.

Yeah he was really crap. Like somebody who'd won a contest to play in a charity game. Pure dogshit.

Bruno Berner or Bell or Williams at left back ? Berner for me.

Mokoena looks like Patrick Viera compared with some of the wasters we've had. Lowe for one.

Their hearts weren't in the job.

It'd be easier saying which ones of Roy Boy's signing didn't under achieve ? Stephane Henchoz - that's it !

He played on the other wing that day. He looked ok but Gillespie was in another class. He missed his way without a doubt. If we're talking about players from other teams Paul Lake at 'City was in another class but permanently injured. Back in the day Doncaster had a forward called Alick Jeffrey. Everybody was watching him, then he broke his leg playing for England u-23's. It was a bad one so he called it a day and went out to Australia. Later on he came back to Donny, they repaid the insurance , and he started playing again. I saw him playing at Rochdale for Doncaster. I was stood by the railings when he came out near to me on the wing. As he got the ball three 'Dale players closed him down. Bish,bosh,bish and he was gone. Just like magic, his ball control and speed of foot from a standing start was amazing. A class act. Peter Knowles at Wolves was another. He was at the Matt Jansen level when he packed it all in to be a Jehovah's Witness ! Wolves kept his registration for the next ten years hoping he'd change his mind and start playing again but he never did. What a waste.

Sounds like the bell has tolled for KS Cracovia.

I went to a pre-season friendly years ago - Rochdale v Man Utd Reserves. They had all the kids playing , Beckham , Scholes, Butt, the Nevilles. Gillespie was head and shoulders better than all of them. He was unplayable that day. Real pace and he could go either way. He reminded me of George Best on a good day ! Eamon Rogers should have gone on to be an all time great at Rovers.

Eamon Rogers, Malcolm Darling. Dwight Yorke, Martin Dahlin.

Yes, and " Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you ".

That's how I read it also.

Yes, I read that on holiday a couple of years ago. It's very good.

Anybody who wants to read the Robert Enke book, I'd be glad to post my copy to anyone interested FOC once this crisis is over and there's no danger of me passing anything on.

Get the Dahlin shirt, it won't need washing !

Even if he was having a quiet game Whittingham could usually do something out of ordinary, a nice cross field pass etc.. Lowe was just ordinary all the time.

There's a shop near me that specialises in framing sporting memorabilia. Usually it's Utd, City, Liverpool. stuff. 99% of the signatures on the shirts and football boots are just scribbles and are pretty well undecipherable.

" Flat Back Four " by Andy Gray is on a similar theme and is better than you'd think given the author. A really good old one if you can find it Is " Soccer for Thinkers " ( I think It's called ) by Malcolm Allison.

Yes, I've read that. Very good. That England opening batsman who also had mental issues wrote a very good autobiography. Just can't recall his name. Trescothick ?

" Inverting The Pyramid " about the evolution of football formations.

We didn't have many Scots in the 1960's but one I thought was going to make it in a big way was Malcolm Darling. He had it all apart from maybe temperament. He was quick, tricky, had a good shot in both feet and for a smallish guy he had a good leap and he was a good header of the ball. We had three really good young home grown players in that era - Eamon Rogers, Billy Wilson and Malcolm Darling and all three were allowed to just drift away from the club for some reason.

That's one of my claims to fame - I saw Stuart Monroe play ! How many other Rovers fans can say that !