Let's hope so. Are we going to play Brereton up front on his own or jointly with Armstrong ?

It's funny you should say that but when I watched the video of Brereton the player that sprang to my mind was Kalinic. I liked him, things just didn't work out for him at Rovers. Not done too bad since he left though has he ?

Just my gut feeling after watching more years of football than I care to count anymore. I really hope I'm wrong, we need a new striker desperately at the moment. Nuttall is too raw, Samuel and Armstrong are injured, Graham is a 60 minute man unfortunately. I can't see any point getting into a debate about it now. The lad's coming so that is that. We'll soon see who's right about this one.

At the risk of being called negative ( again ) I think we've made an expensive mistake signing this lad. I've seen other 19 year old kids have a good game or two against high profile opposition and then fade away. Watching him on the video I just don't think he's the type of striker that we need. He's a lot like Armstrong only bigger. I sincerely hope I'm wrong because there's a hell of a lot riding on this signing for Rovers. If I'm wrong and the lad leads us up to the top of the table I'll be back to hold my hand up.

No, an engineer.

Too many off field distractions and I got the feeling he thought Ewood Park and Blackburn Rovers were beneath him.

That's just your opinion. Some see the glass half full, some see it half empty. Me , I think they made the glass the wrong size.

I'm never happy with the team, we can always improve it. Do you think Fergie was ever happy with the Utd team ? He'd try to strengthen a top side every season"

A good team has a mixture of both flair players and grafters. The team we had that won the big one had it right. A ex pro pal of mine used to have a saying - " You'd never win anything with a team of Bobby Charlton's because they'd never have the ball ".

Contracts only get you so far. If a player wants to leave they usually get what they want in the end. At least you get a sensible fee for them.

Not me, Fowler was past it and Yorke couldn't be bothered.

Taxi for Dyche ?

He's got a very good change of pace though, and he knows when to use it. He can slow opponents down and then go past them. That's ok when you're picking the ball up in the areas he plays in. Granted he won't win a lot of 25 yard sprints against the top defenders.

Keith Newton went to Everton for a massive fee at the time. It was a record for a full back. Everton were in the top three teams in England then, we were languishing at a slightly higher level than we are now. It was a miracle we hung on to him as long as we did. A Rolls-Royce of a player, we've had some decent full backs over the years but he was head and shoulders the best.

I suppose so but I can't say I'm too bothered either way. I'd like them to stay in it a bit longer to get honest.

Yeah Duffer was doing it in the World Cup against the best players there were at the time.

Ooijer's debut was terrible. He did get better though and turned out to be a good buy. I honestly thought I could see something the first time I saw Samba, he was raw but he had the size, speed and determination. Another one who went backwards when he left. I rated Nzonzi the first time I saw him also. Good touch for a big guy and he was a big unit.

No, I think Tugay was a better player for us than Berkovic would have been. Nice to have the choice though. It'd be great to have a Berkovic now.

I'm not sure he's at that level yet. It would be a gamble for them but £10 million is nothing these days for Premier League teams. When you look at what the Dingles have been paying for average Championship players he's got to be worth more than that. Creative attacking game changers are rare in British Football.

Thinking about it I think I would have preferred us to sign Eyal Berkovic instead Tugay at the time. In my defence Berkovic was a really good player.

None of it adds up to me either.

I thought David Bentley was a lightweight. Eventually I was proven right but not before that brilliant spell he had for us.

It's our ground and our grass, we can please ourselves about that.

I wouldn't be too worried about playing them with our best 11 but with the potential goalscorers in Dack, Armstrong, Samuel all out and Graham only capable of 30 minutes I couldn't see where a goal was coming from. Given the stat that we only had 1 shot on target in 90 minutes I wasn't far wrong.

I feared the worst when I saw the team and the subs bench. That's a great result given the attacking players we had missing. The stats don't make great reading but we got on the right side of the only stat that matters. Well done lads, let's get some of the walking wounded back soon. Where's Gladwin, Whittingham and that other midfield player we signed in the close season. I still don't know who Rafferty is !