Tyrone Shoelaces

Or the midfield colossus that was Whittingham.

Goals would nice, starting games up front would be nice. Given he's cost more than the rest of the team put together I'd expect any £7 million signing to be the first name on the team sheet. The suspicion that this is some sort of " moneyball " type signing gets stronger with every cameo he puts in.

We beat Arsenal 3-0 at home in that cup run Jim, Byrom scoring 1. in the next round we drew 3-3 with West Ham away, Byrom scoring all 3. No wonder Bobby Moore hated the sight of him. Were you at that game Jim ? In the replay that Rovers won 4-1 he got another 1 and Andy Mac got another 3. Could it be that game you're thinking of ? Byrom got another 1 away at Norwich and 1 more in the home game with Sheff Wed in that years FA Cup. A very underrated player who incidentally made his debut for Rovers in the First Division at the age of 17 years and 4 months. Makes Brereton sound like a veteran.

I think if Samuel hadn't have got injured he would have gone out on loan. I reckon Doncaster would be first in the queue after tonight !

Could the Prem cope with him ? He can put it about when it's needed, not a problem there at all.

Britt was a world beater at West Ham as a young player. He more or less won the Youth Cup for them on his own scoring a hat trick in the final against Liverpool's Tommy Smith. We put the boat out to sign him as a last hope of staying up. Unfortunately he'd done his knee at West Ham and he achieved nothing at Ewood. Allegedly he could only jump for headers off one leg ! He retired at 21, that was a real shame. Gilliver was a top young centre forward at Huddersfield but he'd done a disc in his lower back before we signed him . The osteopath/physio that looked after me years later told me Gilliver had come to see him in secret for a second opinion because he wasn't impressed with the medical advice he was getting at Rovers. I believe he later had a disc fusion to " cure " the problem. He always ran a bit stiff backed after that op. Sadly we let John Byrom go to Bolton so we could pay for Gilliver. Byrom went on to score a hatful of goals for Bolton for about 6 seasons after ! Bobby Moore always hated playing against Byrom because he invariably scored against hm.

Yeah a replay would be great. I expect it to be full of Sunderland fans who'll be there to boo Rodwell !

Unfortunately we have previous in signing promising young strikers who didn't fit the bill - Britt, Gilliver, O'Mara from way back to name just three.

Give it a good go this time. Win, lose or draw lets see how far we can go. A tough draw but we've won there before a few times.

Going off those highlights Wednesday looked like a team going through the motions hoping the new manager gets fired soon.

When we're in the same position in the football pecking order as Dortmund then we could maybe start pinching kids off City. I don't think we're quite there yet.

If we were still living in the past with Shearer and Sutton playing up front and Jack was writing the cheques signing expensive ' projects ' could be seen as a decent transfer policy. The thing is our current recognised strike force consists of a very good player who is unfortunately at the wrong end of his career and is prone to injury so very rarely plays the whole 90 minutes. Back up is a young lad who seems to be going backwards and an experienced pro who won't play again this season. Until recently we've been drip fed funds to sign journeymen players were a fee of 750,000 pounds was seen as a mega bucks investment. In the light of that some of us find the Brereton signing strange to say the least. I don't think that's an unreasonable position to take. Anyway I need to finish the fence.

I've been on both ends of that analogy. Some kids I wouldn't even let them go to the chip shop to get my dinner.

Anybody else hear that the Bolton players didn't get paid at the end of November ?

Oh Yeah, I forgot to mention my apprentice is on megabucks. Do you still want him to do the re-wire or shall I pop around.

I hear Franck Ribery is on the move, we need a left winger.

I know, football is mad. He'll earn more in a month than 90% to 95% of the people on this board earn in a year !

Correct, I'm not a big Conway fan but he played well on Saturday, he should get the chance to do it again at 'Boro. Same goes for Downing.

Because week in week out he's not been this good previously. He could just as easily play against play against 'Boro on Saturday and get the shepherds crook after half an hour again. Same goes for Downing to be honest.

I'm coming around to rewire your house tomorrow - do you want me to do the job or my 19 yr old apprentice ? Listen, me and you aren't going to agree on this. I think the club have dropped a big bollock with this signing, you think he's a star in the making. In time one of us will be proven right. Let's leave it at that shall we ? I've got a fence to Creosote.

He's cost the club megabucks, we needed a tradesman not an apprentice.

We need to forget about Chapman. Unfortunately he's one of those players who's career will be blighted by injury issues,

Just as well isn't it because the lad is nowhere near ready to replace Graham.

Yeah, you'd have to have played a bit to know that. None of them were all that easy. Ask that guy at the Dingles v Newcastle on Monday !

If they go up it's money well spent. The mentality you are pushing is the reason why the Dingles are second from bottom of the Prem. Brereton may be on less money but we won't be paying the £7 million over the next year or two with magic beans.