Tyrone Shoelaces

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.

I think I preferred Chaddy.

Are " A " levels over then ?

Bellamy was 19 at the time and had just got into the Norwich team that was playing in the division we were in last season. He wasn't anywhere near his prime. Did you not understand that point ?

It'd be more than great on several levels. That's why it was a crucial signing. The goals would be great, the team would be better to watch and most importantly of all the Chicken Chokers may decide to put some more money into the club.

It could be Chaddy if it wasn't for the lack of spelling mistakes.

Even with very young and in experienced players you should be able to see something. My eldest son used to work for Chris Lucketti's dad. Chris was playing centre half for Bury at the time and we got complimentary tickets for Bury games. I recall watching them playing Norwich. Bellamy had just got into their team and you could tell right away he was a star in the making. His pace, desire to get on the ball, will to win, eye for a goal was obvious for anybody watching. He wasn't the finished article because he was still developing physically but he was still a handful.

Regarding Lowe I said " He won't be good enough " after seeing him play one game. Same story - what did he bring to the party ? Could he tackle ? Could he pass the ball long and short ? Was he a good header of the ball ? Could he run with the ball ? Did he find space ? All he could do was to run around to no real purpose. Now tell me I was wrong.

If we were a top half Premier League side that would be a gamble worth taking, but we aren't. For Rovers we were betting the ranch.

The evidence of my own eyes. What is he good at ? Is he quick like Bellamy ? Is he a physical player like Dickov ? Is he good in the air like Gestede ? Is he a goal poacher like Garner ? What does he bring to the table ? I can't see any of those assets and for £ 7 million I'd want to see at least one of those. We won't be the first club to spend big on a 19 year old and have wasted our dosh. Look back at under 19 teams from say 15 years ago and see how many made it big. Usually its about 2 out of the 11 that go on to the big time and half of them end up in non league.

I've seen enough of his all around ability to say he's not the answer. I'll stand by that opinion in the future.

The same scouting team that decided that signing Whittingham would be a smart move ? Managers live or die by their signings and they make mistakes. That's why they get fired on a regular basis.

Err how does that argument stack up regarding Grabbi and Davies ? Utd paid mega bucks for Sanchez does that mean he's going to be a success story. Ditto Andy Carroll.

Nothing that I've seen out on the pitch suggests that Big Ben could step into Danny Graham's shoe in goal scoring terms. He's never going to be prolific in front of goal unless he completely changes the way he plays and I can't see that happening any time soon.

There are experienced players and then there are players past their best and on the way down. For every Gordon Cowans and David Wagstaffe there are the Danny Murphy's and Peter Whittinghams. It's a big risk and you tend to get more wrong than right. For me replacing Conway with Downing is a pointless exercise. We aren't improving the team in any real, long term way. We do need experience but I'd rahter be signing a Kevin Moran, John MacNamee type if that's the road we are going down.

I'm not a fan Tom. He hasn't done much that I'm aware of since he left us. I might take him on loan again failing someone better but not as a permanent signing.

I saw him recently at Rochdale. Tall guy, very commanding. Pulled off a terrific save when he had to back pedal like mad and then leap backwards to keep out a miscued defensive header that was dropping just under the bar. He hadn't had a lot to do up to that point but he was wide awake. I'd say he's an improvement on Raya and I like Raya.

If you come bustling out and you collide with an attacking player you'll always get the free kick so why stay rooted to your line. These days you see keepers trying to make a save from behind the goal line. Crazy.

I thought the Derby keeper at fault for the first also. Another modern goalkeeper rooted to the goal line as an opponent heads in from the edge of the six yard line.