I see Ronnie's son, Russ, every day and can assure you that the family were happy with the applause. One of ronnie's best friends in football was Bobby Charlton whom you can be certain will be there on Tuesday. I for one am honoured that I have a collection of ronnie's photos on my wall at the royal oak which ronnie wanted people to see as opposed to keeping. I never met Ronnie, but his son Russ, is one of the kindest friendliest friends I have ever had.

Was speaking to him just before you took over the Oak, he worked with Debs for a while.

He's great isnt he ? He lives two doors away from the pub. Likes his Low C !

Paul Round ? In my pub (Royal Oak) right now and approx 3 other nights every week ! ( Wonderful bloke btw)

If anyone can tell me a better place to dine than The Royal Oak at Pleckgate I would be amazed. Top quality food, good prices and a pleasant atmosphere. Two of the best chefs in Blackburn too.

You must be sh*tting me right?

Is this apart from SEVERAL European Cups, League titles, FA Cups and League Cups whilst being captain of Britains most successful team ever, as well as captain of prbably the best ever Scottish national team as a player?

Adding a managerial trophy cabinet consisting of numerous Scottish titles and Cups (Some of which as a player manager), two English domestic Cups and a promotion, Foreign domestic trophies as manager of some of europes biggest clubs?

Think what you want of Souey as a person, but as far as CV's go, his is probably the envy of most people who have been involved in football at any decent level.

Not forgetting he turned our club round that was heading further and further into oblivion.

If you recall it was like turning round the Queen Mary.

The players were yellow and he installed fire and steel into our backbone and re-built the team.

Take Keith Gillespie for example, who else could have got what he got out of him ?

IF every manager Rovers employed left the club in a better state than when they took over I'd be forever happy

Why are people getting het up about Lucas Neill?

In the words of Fleetwood MacAvennie: "Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone."

Yes, he told Brownie fibbers (probably because he knew it was going to be all over this website afterwards), yeah he ran his contract down to get a mega-dosh move, yeah he's not satisfied with earning only 55k a week at West Ham. From what I remember though, he said he moved to have a new challenge, not necessarily to win things, and he didn't want to be a substitute.

"Modern-day footballer out for himself, not fussed about leaving current employers shocka! Read awl abaht it! 55k a week not enuff!"

It's a wider pehnonemon than just Lucas Neill.

Absolutely bang on Bryan if I'm not bothered about him telling me 'fibbers', why should other people be ?

No matter what anyone says, he's a top bloke and why do Rovers fans feel they are entitled to dictate to a proffessional with a 10yr career span where he should play ?

Is it only Rovers fans who are so insular ?

99% of em probably are dishonest. Who cares?

Fact of the matter is that WHU simply made him an offer that he could not refuse (prob after he's spoken to Brownie). What is wrong with him doing that? Am I misssing something? If something similar happened to a mate in 'real' life we'd all say "bloody hell! Doubled your salary? Ya jammy bugger... you can't miss that! Anything said after he signed is simply the usual platitudes uttered by every new signing and is solely intended for the new clubs supporters.

I simply do not understand this ludicrous and continuing witch hunt of who imo is a fairly decent and basically honest guy from half way around the globe who is simply trying to do the best for himself. Christ almighty the nearest thing that I can align this to is the emotions involved and displayed in the divorce courts! What t f IS going on with everybody? Move on ffs.

Very very sensible post.

I'd like to believe the offer did come after I spoke to him but he knows I post on here so who would blame him anyway for being cautious with a big money move looming ?

As most people on here want to move on, lets do so.

It's those Uncle Jack's FC boys on a Sunday after the game. Tight as submarine doors they are - the lot of 'em.

Takings are boosted every Sunday with those Blackcurrant and lemonades !!

Glad to see you still defending him, after the guy you considered a friend looked you in the eye and lied about being interested in going to West Ham.

How's the pub going btw? Hope it's going well.

I still remembering laughing at the prospect !

Pubs going great on saturdays, did you not see me in last Fridays Telegraph ??

Rest of the week is a struggle but its the same for most pubs

He wasn't really, he's just a very good athlete.

If he was exceptionally talented in a pure footballing sense I don't think people would mind him getting these telephone numbers as much.

He wasnt exceptionally talented , just a high quality full back with two feet and the best chest back-passer in the Premiership.

His athleticism was down to his professionalism and hard work put in daily.

No coincidence that the two fittest players I've seen at Rovers are both Australian.

"he is now not content with his breathtaking £55,000-a-week salary. Although he is approaching 30 years old and has been far from being the club's outstanding performer this season, Neill believes he is owed at least parity with the former Arsenal midfielder Freddie Ljungberg's £70,000 a week and has asked for a contract extension. His request was understandably dismissed."

I always had a strong dislike for him when he was with us, there was something about his general demeanour that I couldn't stand...not to mention that he seemed to like bad-mouthing us every time he went on international duty. What an arrogant arsehole he must be to believe he deserves a £15,000 pay rise on top of what is already a ludicrous wage for an average footballer, especially given that Ashton is still on £20,000 a week.

It's one of life's injustices that he was born with footballing talent, because he plainly doesn't deserve it. You get the feeling he wouldn't give a toss how many medals he gets in his career, he'd be far happier with an extra figure on his pay cheque. I can't think of many players I'd say this about (only Barton springs to mind), but I'd be quite happy if he was on the end of a rather nasty challenge.

A very ill informed charactar assassination.

He is self confident, which most Aussies are, but is also a very generous, considerate and friendly person who goes out of his way to please fans and regularly does a hell of a lot more than many would find acceptable.

As for the nasty challenge comment, says a lot more about you and your personality than your nonsensical drivel says about Lucas Neill.

Possible Scenario

Benni turns up for training and told to report to MH's office for a meeting about his behaviour this summer

Rest of squad train as normal

An informer notices Benni not training with the rest of the squad and makes a mistake

Benni is told to go home, think about things and train with the rest of the squad next day (today)

Only a guess but could have resulted in todays mis-reporting

Strange little non-story this one

Who told the BBC the nonsense then ? and why ?

Not turned up for training yesterday according to Radio 5.

The bloke is an arrogant idiot

If he's not good enough for us, then we need to get rid of our whole strikeforce. Then you have to wonder who, out of the players we can actually attract, would even be good enough according to this standard.

My original wording was a little misleading, my point was that I'm not convinced he's irreplacable.

Losing him would not dissapoint me as much as when we lost Shearer, Sutton and Bellamy, mind you, I never really rated Simon Garner .........

McCarthy isnt good enough for Utd or any of the top four. Not 100% convinced he's good enough for us.

He needs to buckle down and prove himself with a second successful season rather than 'dreaming' about a big move.

DAMMIT.

How many times must we be teased that this horror show is leaving only to have our hopes dashed at the last second?!? It's sickening to think of the drain on wages Andy Todd has been during a period at a club where he's caused as much unrest/controversy off the pitch as he has made decent tackles on it.

PI$$ OFF TODD.

Grow up you idiot.

Todd has won Fans Player of the Season twice, worn the armband with distinction and hardly put a foot wrong on the field in years.

Where do you work out this has been a drain on the wage bill ?

Stop it with the big letters, dramatised tantrums and cleverly disguised bad language and do your homework.

OK thanks for clearing that up I didn't mean to sound like you were trying to hoodwink us. Neill has come across as a nice enough guy and I hope that remains so.

No worries FLB, so do I now I've put my neck on the line !

I guess we will see then if he is really a "diamond geezer" or just good at telling people what they want to hear. I do hope he has the good grace to not just slag a town or their fans off who helped him make him a even more well-paid player. If his issue was with the board then that is fine. I've not got much respect for Henchoz any longer due to his comments about Rovers when he left. Even less when he tried to brush it off as being misquoted.

Why not spill the beans if said anything negative? Or are you trying to mislead the posters on here by only letting us know the nice things?

He never said anything remotely negative about the fans or the area aside from the fact he mentioned no player should ever get booed as it only affects the team as a whole.

All negativity was aimed at the board.

I never asked him about MH, I wish I had now.

Well his conversation with you, whether it happened or not

Classy post Eddie.

FLB makes a good point - we'll see the measure of the man when he's gone and comments on things himself.

Personally I think good luck to him but I want him out now as soon as possible - his being around will not make for good team spirit going forward

One thing he mentioned was that he will tell his side of the story once he's gone.

So if he does goto West Ham he has been telling you fibs

Like I said, I mentioned West ham because my brother supports them.

He replied " No way" , then obviously the salary offer has come in since then.

So you have really been speaking to him then

Not today, saturday morning.

Glad I didnt post everything he told me.

what a load of crap that post from brownie was. Obviously we offered him more money...jesus christ. Why do people pretend and make things up.

Who's making things up ? Lucas or me ?

What a lot of small minded, small town, backward and bitter people there are on here.

Stick to the facts people rather than silly girly emotions...

1. He signed for BRFC for 4 years cos we offered more for his services than Millwall.

2. He's virtually all but seen his contract out as promised and it's been our decision to sell him now for OUR own profit.

3. Taking wages out of the equation we've had excellent injury free service AND made money on him.

4. He's signed for WHU for 2.5 years cos they offered more for his services than BRFC.

Just what is the bloody big issue children?

What are doing posting that on here ??!!

You sound ridiculously rational and intelligent

And are big enough to admit you would do exactly the same put in his position than every single member of this messageboard

Despite what many think on here, Lucas is a diamond bloke who would do anything for anyone.

He has an agent who works for him and that agent seems to have brokered him a remarkable deal for his committed though limited talents.

Time to grow up for most of you.

I wonder why players were queueing up to sign for us in the early nineties ??