Cole's actually quite handy I'm led to believe. I teach kick boxing and he seemed willing to sign up too.

The most shocking part of this story is that Ossydave knows a talking horse. Funnily enough I once spoke to Ruud VN too, what an arrogant clown

Duff did too............. Let's ignore that though, he's to blame for the season ticket fiascos, the kits and the leaky defence, God damn him

Cole will not go Fulham, from the horses mouth. He'll finish his top flight career at Rovers and either drop a division or retire after seeing his contract out. Funnily enough he speaks very highly of Dean Saunders too

Part of the reason we have a decent(ish) average attendance is due to the fact we give away fans such big allocations. The likes of Leicester, Coventry & Villa didn't fill theirs, Eveton more than likely did.....

On what proof? When our defence crumbles next season...you will see how much a bad signing this is.. Oh ###### off you irritable hemroid Dingle invader if I ever saw one.

Ha ha ha...read it all now. What year is blackburn the capital of culture, and what else are you famous for? Just bitter lad...oooohhh, taste that lemon. Famous for featuring in THAT Beatles song? One would have thought they were so proud of Merseyside they'd sing only about you. Taste the lemon? Is THAT the reason for your hilarious (not) MUNICH chants aimed at the Mancs year after year after year?!?!? Believe it or not there's no worldwide conspiracy against you oh so cheeky scouse boys. Grow up you clown.

I knew I'd agree with one of your posts eventually

It wasn't fact actually. They said he escaped from Plymouth hospital, he escaped form Derriford Mental institute. They said he was depressed when in actual fact he had a massive cocaine addiction. If you let what a tabloid says bother you, you've got very thin skin. Jesus Christ, Beckham would have done something drastic years ago if he was as touchy as you lot.

I'm definitely going. Not sure yet whether it's gonna be 2 of us, me and the missus, or me and about 15 lads, but will let you know

Years ago my uncle threw himself off an electricity pylon. How did my mother (his sister) find out about that? By a sickening picture of an Accrington man about to jump from the pylon on the front page of the LET. Some of you may or may not remember this picture but its the single most disturbing thing I've ever seen in my life. The relations had a right to know first. We haven't held it against the LET though, We know what sells papers and what doesn't.

Which ones? Im not being arrogant, i just cant remember..... Would just like to know for interest/reference. Thanks. Have a think about it, it's really not that hard.

Just let it go. The Sun bases their whole paper on lies, we all know that. Either you accept their apology or you don't. There's been far worse incidents than this which have received no apology whatsoever. Like they say move on, life goes on.

Or the Blackburn that had 5k gates? I'm talking about now, stop living in the past FFS.

.......and that's all we are asking for. When you've seen (to pick just a few at random) Speedie, Garner, Shearer, Hendry, Gennoe, Reid, Barker, Moran, Atkins, Fazakerly, Wright, Brotherston and I don't know how many others dieing for the cause, you know, you really know when a player is committed. Steven Reid comitted? Are you mad?!?! ( ) Who out of the current squad would you say is committed Paul?

Somewhere that lives/eats/breathes football, know it's not a town but Newcastle always springs to mind as an instant example. Middlesbrough are still effectively benefiting partially from signing that irritating Brazilian the first time and other big (ish) signings.

You can think it's daft all you like but it really isn't. as that's where the core support is, Of course not all Rovers fans come from Blackburn, nobody said the do, just like any other club. Most do though. Just like any other club, including Manchester United; a majority of the fans at Old Trafford comes from the Manchester area. The areas around Blackburn are the heartlands where most of the support comes from. They're bound to be, if Rovers is the nearest club they are likely to support them. So the size of the local population has nothing to do with it? Where do you want Rovers to get most of their support from? Cornwall? Essex? We're stuck with the area whether we like it or not. I'm not suggesting there isn't plenty of Rovers fans who aren't from Blackburn (and on this site we see that Rovers have fans from all over the globe) but it is where the basis has to come from. Same as always. Not a local team for local people exactly...but it does need the local people. Maybe Man U could get big crowds without Mancs...we couldn't get them without Blackburners or those from Ossy or Accy. Actually we can't get big crowds with them so Lord only knows what we'd do without them. Simply...if the local population isn't that great then we can't expect massive crowds. Worse than that...if they don't renew there isn't that many others to take their place. Come on then how many 'small town teams' reside in the premiership? Not an awful lot I'm sure you'll agree. The fact is our attendances increased by a MASSIVE percentage when we got to the premiership. Thats simply a natural reaction. ANY town team in the whole of the UK would see huge increases in attendances. If Burnley got in the premiership would their attendances rise? YES. If Accy Stanley did? YES. If Rochdale did? YES. If Barnsley did? YES. If Ipswich did? YES. I can see a pattern emerging here. Fact is, there's not enough small town teams in the premiership to make an accurate analysis of how well supported we are. My point still stands, Blackburn is not a footballing town IMHO. Incidently I wouldn't say Middlesbrough is either. Face it, the novelty of top flight football is fading away, fast.

To be honest mate theres F all else to do in Blackburn/Ossy/Accy anyway but no I don't believe Blackburn is a passionate football town. Sorry if that upsets your applecart.

You've got to laugh really, especially when you compare it to Burnleys 8 man squad or whatever it is

Not if it's Heineken no.

I've read your post on 3 seperate occasions and it's changed each time. I'm not questioning whether or not we're a well supported town team. My point was that you could go into Blackburn town centre on a match day and it's no different to any other. Wander into Newcastle for example and make no mistake, you know about it straightaway that theres a game on that day. Theres a buzz there. I still enjoy going to Ewood, the sad thing is it's not really because of the quality of football on show. I enjoy meeting up with the lads for a few beers, having a sing song and a natter. Ewoods become more of a tourist attraction than a football ground now, it's to Blackburn what the tower is to Blackpool. Theres no passion about the place and to be honest I'd go as far as to say it's actually boring at times. I'll always go to Ewood, it's an addiction to me, I have to get my fix, even if it's more like a flat pint of Heineken than a bottle of cristal. A lot of its almost like a sense of duty though and the associated factors, a LOT of people probably go to Ewood to be entertained, if they feel that's lacking they simply don't go. On another note I think it's a bit daft comparing population of towns to attendance figures. Do ALL rovers fans come from Blackburn? Do they ###### and its the same at every club. And I agree with Manchester Blue, this isn't happening at every club, even those enjoying a LOT less success than us, it's an extremely worrying trend. Will anyone dare to put their money were the old mouth is and bet me that our season ticket sales drop below 10k next year (assuming we don't finish top 4)? Before I forget SG yes I remember those away followings too. I also remember the likes Of Grimsby taking 8,000 to Anfield. Oldham was always a good day out though with a big following

Don't have time to write a full reply as I've got a meeting soon. I will when I get home later on though. But, to say we have tremendous and loyal support is in my opinion way off the mark. Where on earth was this support in Div 2?!?! Jack Walker brought an instant, overnight increase in attendances that none of us could ever have imagined at the time. Those attendances peaked around the title winning season and have been very slowly slipping ever since. If we don't have a top 4 season next season we'll drop to sub-10,000 ST sales, I've no doubts about that.

please tell you are not trying to say that the second best goalscorer of all time in th PL is not as good as Paul Dickov, who most his career has not been good enough to even play in th PL, unless he's got relegated in a single season. I'd guess he's trying to say that if Dickov had the natural talent Cole has he wouldn't be #2 all time, he'd be #1 (or if Cole had the desire Dickov had). Either way it's complete @#/?. Cole DID work his socks off and anyone who say's otherwise is basically a bit of a clown

Well chuffed with this signing Another player with good leadership qualities too and will lead by example. Amo/Matteo/Fergie potentially rallying the troops next season can only be good news in my book.

Blackburn is not a footballing town it's as simple as that. There's no 'buzz' round Ewood on matchday. There's no air of excitement round the streets of Blackburn pre-match. The difference you see when travelling to some (but not all) away games is quite something. The only way we'll fill the ground again is by challenging for the premiership, and to be honest that probably wouldn't do it any more