Tyrone Shoelaces

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 !

Who's Finnerty ?

Bloody hell I hope none of the full backs get injured. Where's Gladwin when you need him ?

I'm getting weary of this " Trust Tony " stuff. I don't trust anyone not to make mistakes in their life , working or personal. I'm on mistake number 357 at the moment. He's a human being, he's fallible just like everybody else. So if I think he's getting it wrong I'll say so . If I'm wrong I'll be on mistake number 358.

" Palmer, Rothwell and Palmer " . So good they named him twice !

Playing for England these days has become almost meaningless. Just look at some of the puddings who've pulled on the shirt over the last few decades. Then you think Howard Kendall never got near a cap.

It'd have to be something pretty serious for a player to cry off when you've only just arrived at a new club. I hope he wasn't taking his dog to the vet.

And what if he can't hack the pressure of the fee and just goes into his shell ? That's happened plenty of times. Kevin Davies being the classic example. Then we've blown our dosh. We need a target man because we can't play like we did at Hull every week, I wish we could. Teams will come to Ewood and deny us space for the quicker players to run into.

You know when you buy a car and the seller wants £6k for it and then £8k then £12k , what do you do ?

Pickering was the next best behind Shearer. After that it'd be Bellamy ( I'm a lot older than 34 ).

I'd walk away. He's not the only deal in town.

The only drawback there is if he does flop we won't have the back up centre half we've been agitating for.

I agree, it's the fact that for various reasons it's ages since he last played competitive football that's bothering me. It's hard to pick it all up again after a long absence even if you are an international.

Yeah and he didn't cost £8 million either.

Yeah I agree, I was just thinking who was the last full England international we had at the club, Wes Brown then Danny Murphy just sprang to mind.

I'd rather be playing this away really. We seem to be set up better for away games. I'll reserve my prediction until I see the team.

Well done Sam, obviously fed them duff information.

Well anyone who pulls on the shirt gets the benefit of the doubt from me in the first instance. We'll soon know if he's good enough or not. He should be the best player on the pitch in training if his past achievements are anything to go off. It'll give our existing centre halves pause for thought if nothing else.

Maybe he can keep Gladwin company on the treatment table ?