Tyrone Shoelaces

I bit belated but Wayne Fontana died on Friday. I saw him at the height of his powers with the Mindbenders at the Cubi-Klub in Rochdale back in the day. He was an excellent singer.

Opening in a 5 day Test Match is not just about scoring quick runs, it's about wearing the bowlers down, taking the shine off the ball, and setting up a platform for the middle order.

Jonathan Wilson, one of the more perceptive football journalists, has an interesting article in todays " Sunday Observer ". He's referring to some comments Guardiola has made about City. It has a bearing on our manager's recent love affair with possession of the ball. Apparently Guardiola has blamed failures in both boxes for some previous poor results. Wilson comments - " Perhaps this a necessary failing when your dream is essentially a team of midfielders. If you value players for their passing, movement and tactical intelligence, necessarily you don't value the more defensive and attacking arts - tackling, heading, marking, shooting, finishing quite as highly." Sounds very much like what is happening at Ewood Park also.

I remember when only Bryan Douglas and Ronnie Clayton had little saloon cars. Then Dougan got a Jag ! The other lads came on the corporation buses from town like the rest of us. I can recall seeing Mike England, Keith Newton and Fred Pickering hopping off the bus when it stopped near the ground.

He was one very limited player. I remember Jansen getting away down the right wing in one game. He put the full back on his arse and turned back onto his left foot. Looking up he saw Ward moving un marked into the centre of goal about 10 yards out. Matty picked him out with a perfect pass, right onto his foot. Ward managed to volley the ball half way up the Darwen end stand.

Good target man ? So's my dartboard.

Jim Smith told a similar tale about Roy Boy signing Christian " Bloody " Dailly. He knew Rovers were interested so he approached his chairman to see what sort of fee would be acceptable. The chairman said " Not a penny less than £2 million Jim ". Roy's opening offer what £5 million and Jim managed to talk him up to £5.25 million ! We've signed some crap over the last 20 years but no manager signed more rubbish than Hodgson given the fees involved. I agree with you about Ashley Ward, he was awful. I remember watching him chugging after the ball out on the wing close to where my son and I were sat. The centre half who was running with him wasn't a speed merchant but he was laughing at Ward. My son said " You could run faster than him dad and you're forty odd ! "

Make that 3 that don't play football manager.

That seems to be very prevalent in footballers of a certain era.

That last sentence sums up everything about the Chicken Chokers to a tee.

What a shock that news is. I remember Stuart when he first came into the team on the right wing. He was a real handful, very tricky and quick, he could cross a ball which is a bit of a rarity in todays football. We all know he favoured his right foot more than most but he still ran full backs ragged. He was our best player in the 4-1 Cup defeat by City and I thought he was the only one of our players that wouldn't have looked out of place in their very good team. Later on he moved into midfield where he was just as effective. Although he wasn't a big lad he could take a kick and give a kick, you didn't take liberties with him. He'd walk into the current team either on the right wing or in central midfield. Like a few of the other posters on here he was roughly my age and I suppose we all identified with him more closely because of that reason. Thanks for the memories Stuart.

Tom, if you're not a winner you're a loser. There's no middle way in football I'm afraid. I've said it before - how many people turning into work this morning would pull their tripes out if all of a sudden the upper management or the owner of the company suddenly disappeared. Some would, some wouldn't and it wouldn't be too long before the grafters starting saying " If that lot aren't going to do anything neither am I ". I've seen it happen in my working life. You can bring any manager you want into Rovers but it would take a superman to get us back on track whilst there is no sense of hands on direction from the top. " Whilst the cat's away the mice will play ".

And we'd two oven ready turkeys plus Holtby that should have been able to step in and make up for us losing Dack- but they didn't.

I've just been reading an article regarding Fulham and Scott Parker. Joe Bryan is praising Parker for eradicating the " Losing Culture " at the club and bringing in " great expectations ". In my opinion the "Losing Culture" crept into Ewood Park after the removal of Big Sam and the appointment of Kean. None of our subsequent managers have succeeded in doing what Parker has done at Fulham and bringing in a winning culture. Nobody at the club has " great expectations " anymore. You could say the " Losing Culture " came in through the door with the Chicken Chokers and it has never left.

The guy has mentioned those examples of clubs buying expensive strikers who haven't set the world on fire, that's fair comment. However we appear to be the only club that have managed to make the same mistake twice !

I don't think I'm the only one on here. Are you his agent ?

The guys you mentioned have hundreds of International caps between them. Gallagher is just a journeyman at best. It's a pointless comparison. You could have said the same about Best, he'd played for several top clubs and he'd been paid probably more than Gallagher to do it. He was still garbage.

They're also real footballers.

I've seen Shearer do exactly what Morsy did. He just helped him on his way. Did we get a free kick ?

They are discussing Brentford in my paper today and I saw this quote " they possess the second best defence in the division, three masterful great Danes in midfield and arguably the league's finest goalkeeper in David Raya ". So we manage to go from selling arguably the best goalie in the league to loaning arguably the worst in the league.

A 22 year old didn't used to be a kid but it can be today.

You can have any odds you like - that team won't start our first game next season. You'd be doing well if you get 7 of them right.

Who down there actually cares ?

Mm, If I was sat on the other side of that desk I'd be thinking " This guy doesn't seem to be that keen to sign me, do I really want to play for him ? " In my walk of life if I went for an interview for a fitters job and the manager said " I'd like to give you a start son but I need to sign a turner and a milling machine operator first ". I'd be looking for another job somewhere else.

The guy is terminally indecisive. You only have to look at the fact that he still hasn't settled on a way of playing and his best eleven after 3 full seasons to realise that. Dean Saunders told a story about Brian Clough. Saunders had been to Cloughie's house to discuss a move. He told Cloughie he'd need to talk it over with his wife. He set off for home in his car, when he got there he found Cloughie sat on his couch smooth talking Saunders wife about the move !