I'm not sure Downing is a leader, Whelan could be. You don't have to be 30 plus to be a leader,

They would be if they were both 5 years younger.

No, we're got a satnav now, it saved me and Mrs Shoelaces from getting divorced !

You won't get that past me, I used to have the single.

Well a map of England would help you find your way to Ewood Park one day.

No maps in your house ?

He's a good player though. He gets on the ball more than Dack.

You must be a pretty wealthy guy to be able to afraid that sort of dosh. Does the club know you'd like to be a benefactor ? On a more serious note I agree that your goalkeeper is a key position, Bryan Clough used to say " Nobody can lose you a game quicker than your goalkeeper ". I just can't see us ever paying those wages again for a goalie.

Yeah, money won't spend itself.

I've not bought a replica shirt for about 20 years but I'd be very tempted by those shirts.

It was the weight of his wallet that was causing the problem.

I had my cctv guy call around today to service my cameras. He's a football fan and he was telling me he was called out to service some cameras recently on a private estate. He called at a really big house that he thought was the customers house but there was no answer. When he phoned the customer on his mobile the guy told him he was at the wrong house and that Venkies owned the house. They bought it off Phil Neville apparently and they stay in it a couple of days a year !

Well it certainly looks like it Stuart.

Cardiff fans liked Whittingham and wanted him to stay. Look how that ended. What I want from our signings this time is some leaders. The sort of players who grab the ball out of the back of the net when we've just conceded a bad goal and rally the troops. We've already got enough players who just stare at the ground and pretend nothing has happened. Downing doesn't strike me as being a leader.

No he's not Jim, but if he's going to have to play out wide I'd rather see him on the right than the left.

I await with interest a film of your ball juggling exploits Stuart. I practised until it went dark most nights and I wasn't even near that level.

Shades of Derek Dougan in the 1960 Cup Final and there were no subs for us to bring on then !

I don't want to rain on his parade given he's only 14 years old but to get to that level of dexterity you need to be something special. If I'd have seen that when I was 14 I may have decided that cricket was the way forward for me !

That and having attractive football to watch. How many first half goals did we score at home last season ?

Terrific bit of film, Without a doubt the best passer of the ball I've seen at Ewood in nearly 60 years. His close control was mesmerising. Dougie was equally clever but faster and played nearer to goal.

First European game of football on TV I ever saw was the final between Real Madrid and Eintract Frankfurt but I won't be watching tonight. It's a disgrace that it's not on BBC1 or ITV. So it's " Inspector Montalbano " for me on BBC 4.

I've only seen Bauer once but he looked deeply average to me. I wouldn't say he was much of an improvement on Downing and not nearly as good as Lenehan.

I think " Seem " is the operative word. We'll know more in August.

I don't get your logic there. Just because we paid £7m for Big Ben it doesn't mean he's worth it. I'm not a Gallagher fan either. If you rolled the two of them together you wouldn't have an in form Danny Graham.

You mustn't have seen him play then. The lad is nothing like Dack position wise. He's a midfielder who normally plays in front of the back four. So a replacement/back up for either Evans or Travis. He a busy little pass and move type player who's always in the game and looking to get on the ball. As I said earlier he's what I thought we were getting when we signed Danny Murphy, somebody to direct the traffic in the centre of the pitch a la Gordon Cowans. Although he'll try and put a tackle in his lack of size handicaps him in that respect. When I saw him play he was the best player on the pitch but that was at a level down from us.