Thanks! Someone from Darwen ordered one this morning - was that her??

*Blush*

Watched the Blackpool game yesterday having been under the impression that Burgess was a beanpole, whereas in fact he's built like Micky Quinn and Jan Molby's lovechild. Did nowt though.

I really don't see why it came to this. Coming into the window, we had a player with a good Premier League pedigree who wanted to leave and a manager who wanted to sell him and replace him - a win-win you would think. Now, with a week to go, the world knows we have a fat, lazy, out-of-form player on strike, which can hardly be pushing up the bidding price - everyone loses!

Perhaps I should have said, 'Benni probably considers himself to be a very proud man..' But as I said, where was your outrage when he got his own way and moved to us for a steal?

Where was all this outcry over Benni when we signed him? We knew full well of his antics, in fact we benefited from them! If he was the model pro, someone would have bought him before we did and paid a lot more. Benni is clearly a headstrong very proud man who doesn't 'knuckle down' if he feels he is being unfairly treated. Personally I'm not sure that, if I had a Champions League winners medal, I would have stayed silent when constantly being rubbished in the press by a manager who has won f-all in his entire life. Obviously he will go but I don't see how Allardyce's mouthing off in the press about his fitness, work-rate and so on has helped the process one iota, psychology of the individual and all that.

Hmmm, when an ageing player comes good, Allardyce gets the credit, when they don't, it's the player's fault. I've seen this pattern somewhere before. I'm not sure why Sam is conducting this motivational exercise through the press. If I were Benni, I'd be asking where was the public lambasting of Diouf, who is even further from his best.

And if Dunn gets injured - far-fetched I know - what would you do then? We would have to play 4-4-2 and Benni is first choice for that formation, in my book anyway. Will any replacement for Benni be more 'ready' than have been Kalinic and Salgado? Any Jan signing has to step straight in. In the last 2 seasons we will have lost Bentley, Tugay, RSC and Benni, i.e. 95% of the skill from the team that finished 7th. Depressing.

A fit and motivated Benni is far better for us than a fit and motivated RSC, because we don't have a Bentley. Benni creates far more of his own and others chances through his awareness and flicks.

I never said he was perfect but I support his right to express it as a view

You're the embarrassment on this board pal. Nothing interesting to say and full of cheap personal jibes. Why don't you offer to buy Waggy a pint and repeat your comments to him in person?

As usual, a contrary point of view gets shouted down by the group-thinking mob. This is a message board for Rovers supporters, of all opinions and backgrounds, not a showcase to impress to$$ers from other clubs.

I see Hughes has been mouthing off in the press, ruibbishing the previous regime at City, which of course he did when he came here. While he may have a point, it irks me that he feels so superior to predecessors who each won plenty of trophies as managers whereas Hughes has won nowt as yet. He keeps waving the qualifications of his staff, but until he wins things...

Was it just me that had become a little bit fed up under Hughes? I really thought he hit his peak in the Bellamy year. We played some great stuff and even in March had a genuine shout at a top 4 spot. But then we stopped being the fittest team, in fact I don't think we were as such, we just had some very fit players who then moved on. And far too much ref baiting and blaming. Plus tactically very poor. I couldn;t believe how many games, when he has had all week to plot and plan, that the first half would prove embarrassingly inept. Time was up in my opinion.

Who, despite all their qualifications, could not defending of corners or indeed our taking of them...

There are perfectly logical reasons why it appears that Andy Neild pinches stuff from Nicko's column. I would imagine that he does indeed have much better contacts within BRFC than Nicko, you just need to see all the direct quotes from Chairman John to see that. But such access comes at a price, which is toeing the party line. We saw with LDRover's column that, despite his affable persona, Chairman John doesn't see the LT's role as being presenting both sides of an issue. So Mr Neild is in something of a bind, he has good information but can't use a lot of it. His one get-out is that once information is in the public domain, there is no point keeping schtum, so he is then able to add his own angle, usually supported by direct quotes. If I were Andy Neild, I would be delighted that Nicko is burrowing around and going to press with stuff on an internet site, because that includes stuff spiked by the nationals and hence adds to the amount of news that he can leverage. In fact, I might even drop Nicko the odd tidbit....

Interesting clip. I like the ref in tweed jacket and tie! What were the rules concerning that semi-circle around the goal?

Makes Mystic Meg seem gifted

For any other poster I would respond with, 'Well what HAVE you been saying for the last 23 pages / 3 years?' but I know that would only prompt another full-page regurgitation of your ramblings, so please don't answer that! If they are sound businessmen creating success on and off the field, and their debt is keeping them nominally in our league, then what really is your problem with them?

These are not random events that have 'gone in their favour' 1) They stuck with RFW when everyone else said he was finished 2) They 100% backed his judgement on signings 3) I'll wager the new deal was actually lower than the Glaziers thought it should/could be 4) The Glaziers saw that a 30-year waiting list for season tickets was unfulfilled demand that could be exploited through higher pricing Although you paint them as buffoons, the fact is that they are largely the architects of their own success.

Given that all the debt is on United's books, the Glaziers would be just fine wouldn't they? And even if the hedge funds did take over, they are not in the business of running cash generators into the ground, so the best plan would be to keep the Man Yoo machine running. Do you really believe that the Glaziers, with their hard=earned billion dollar fortune and track record of running a successful major sports franchise, haven't thought of any of these pitfalls you, an internet jockey, have been pointing out for the last 2 or 3 years....??

I'll second that. In football, as in the workplace in general, people are rarely fully equipped to immediatley perform to full standard at the next level up. For every player we have in our team, somone at some time pushed them up a level when they weren't quite ready for it. Both Duff and Dunn were little boys lost in their early games - both played in a relegation team and were not snapped up by eager buyers remember. While I have no opinion on specific individuals, I find the counter-argument to Rover6, that we can't afford to blood youngsters unless they are already good enough to displace Santa Cruz to be ridiculous as it would condemn us to a future of having to buy every single player in the squad - something we are the worst-equipped of all Premier League clubs to do.

Make sure to tell your mum to buy a copy!

All you chocoholics out there would definitely enjoy 'Cadbury's Purple Reign' by John Bradley, just appeared in Waterstones

Agreed, I couldn't put it down. If you didn't hate 70's Leeds already, you will after reading it. I also enjoyed Sir Alf - sorry can't recall the author etc as I have lent it to a mate - what a manager.