Moved down south 20 years ago - have dragged my 2 girls back up to Ewood and to games across the South East for the last decade. My youngest (she’s 10 now) finally got it tonight.

Yep - missed the goal rebooting the sky box to see if that would help ?

I understand your sentiment - but remember that if he hadn't gone to City, then the moment Spurs/Villa/Newcastle/Everton came calling he would have been off anyway.

Read This Thing of Darkness while on holiday and must say a big thank you to all on here who recommended it.

sat in a car all day, but just watched the game which i dvd'd. Gamst was def one of our better players - cant understand why he is being singled out.

Might? If Shaun Wright-Phillips is already on, Keiron Dyers crutches won't carry him through the game and El-Tel's back is smarting a little.

It is a shame - but bearing in mind that those teams with smaller capacities have not filled their smaller stadiums on any occasion (Portsmouth exempted, more on that below), then why would their having a bigger stadium suggest they would get more support - just by having a bigger ground does that make our support worse in some way?!?? Although I would also question the validity of their research when Portsmouth's highest attendance this season actually exceeds their stated capacity??

Somebody else would have given him the clause - as a result he would have gone elsewhere. This way we get two seasons out of him and receive a transfer fee of twice the value we are quoted as paying for him (when he will be 2 years older) - and thats a bad deal???

He played in 20 games this season - but accept that this possibly wasn't the reason. Possibly, more likely that they were future-proofing his contract. At the end of this season he would enter the third year of a four year deal, at which point he would be able to buy his way out of it under the new FIFA regulation.

It seems to be the way the club are operating at the moment. If you perform, and exceed their expectations you are rewarded with a new improved contract. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. It sends out the right message to players.

Groundhog Day? Now they are just repeating stories from last summer.

Agreed,West Ham are rapidly becoming very useful to any selling club. They declare their interest at some vastly overinflated fee - the player decides he doesn't want to go there and the selling club can then say that is the market value for their player. Darren Bent as case in point.

No i wasn't at ewood but not sure what difference that makes - i was at the madjeski stadium in December if that helps? The point was, as Eddie says many teams seem to struggle in their second season (West Ham, Wigan just two examples)

I don't see why Doyle would not want to come here over Reading. The possibility of European football, an established Premier Division side looking to push on into the top 6 on a regular basis - Reading have had a great season and all credit to them, but their target for next season will still be avoiding the drop.