It's definitely a very good move to agree a price. However, given he's from a not-particularly-wealthy club, and wasn't a first choice player there, I was surprised we agreed on £2m. I'm sure we could have got him for 500-750k less, which is a hefty amount when you're as short of transfer cash as Rovers. £2m may still turn out to be a bargain, but still not as good a bargain as we might have got.

Can't remember who mentioned the resemblance on a different thread, but why not "Dr Who's Blue and White Army"? That gets the rhythm spot on as well. Or if you prefer "Tom Baker's..." It also gives extra chant potential for when we take on Davros at Selhurst Park!

I still think that it's a gamble for a club in our league position/defensive inadequacies, given we're signing a manager hoping he'll prove his potential, rather than because he's got good club manager experience. I'd have preferred Moyes or, failing that, Dowie because more club experience. However, he's not Reid, Robson, Hoddle or Strachan, so that's great news for me. Plus I do think he's a high profile signing, which can only do good things for attendances and attracting players. So overall a decent decision that could work out really well IF Hughes fulfills potential. Come on Sparkey!

In terms of ability, I'd vote for Le Saux, but is this the only criteria?

A crunch game, just like last season. Hopefully not the same result. I reckon 1-1, which is not great news for either side, but I think Stead will get ours, kickstarting his season.

I so hope this is tabloid nonsense. To think I laughed at Newcastle fans getting a manager v.different to what they expected. If anyone sees anyone from the club, they need to stress how badly Peter Reid would be received. The Sun claims he has a lot of supporters inside the club - if true, who??? Do they know anything about football? Is it the person in charge of the swear box? Is Reid good at buying players No. Is he known as a good coach? No. Is he known as a tactical genius? No. In his defence, he does seem to be good at swearing at people at halftime rather than relying on things like tactics etc. I don't want McCarthy either, as per some other papers. I think I need to ignore. Right, I need a lie down.

I'm not sure about Redknapp. At West Ham, he did give a lot of young players their chance in the team, BUT 1) they were exceptional young players before he took over coaching them & 2) if you look at the squad he left excluding those your players, i.e. the people he brought in, it was pretty desperate. He does seem to motivate the players at Pompey pretty well though, as most of the aging players he's brought in looked pretty suspect at the time, so maybe he's improved. On other names mentioned, I'd be a bit annoyed if we got Hughes when Dowie was available, as Hughes has literally no experience of managing a club side. Would be ok if we had a great bunch of players and were guaranteed a mid-table finish, but seems a big gamble for a team flirting with relegation.

Does anyone have any stats for Strachan that include money spent etc? Because I'm still very confused about where he has this good reputation from, e.g. if you look at the current Soton team that he built. I hope we get some idea of who the board is going to appoint before it's set in stone, in case we get the same level of completely underwhelming candidate that Newcastle fans have got (vs. who they could have got), so we can try to make the board realise the error of any appalling decisions, e.g. Walter Smith or Bryan Robson. From the reaction of Newcastle fans, I still wonder whether Souness will get sacked before he even starts!

He has got a truly appalling squad to work with though and has had no money to spend.

I'm confused about why so many people are so keen on Strachan. My impression of him in his last few years as a manager is that he's too old school and half-time talks rely on shouting rather than tactics, and so isn't particularly suited to the modern game. Yes, Soton were good at home while he was there, but barring the start to this season they always are. He left Sturrock with a bad squad - exception being Beattie (am I right in thinking he didn't buy Beattie and also tried to offload him early on?). He also took Coventry into relegation and given their massive financial problems, presumably spent a lot doing so. Given our lack of cash, we need either someone who is well-known enough to allow us to punch above our weight in the free transfer market, or a very good coach/tactician who'll bring the best out of the players we have. I don't think Strachan is either. If we have to go with a relative novice then I'd rather have Dowie than Hughes or Coleman. Moyes would be good, but Everton's cash injection/Rooney money will keep him at Goodison. Robson would be very bad - good as a Director of football to attract players/youth players, but he really is past it now at managing. Plus, we need to improve at the back and let's face it, it really isn't Sir Bobby's strength Houillier/Hoddle - no, no, no, but luckily I suspect Houillier wouldn't consider us. Can't see why Mike Newell is worth considering after such a short period at Luton (albeit a decent job on a shoestring budget).

I was a strong Souness supporter given the way he turned us around, but have to say that this season's tactics have finally turned me and I think he's taken us as far as he can. However, I'd still rather have Souness than some of the people we could end up getting - there really isn't much available managerial talent out there at the moment. Hope the compensation was enough that we can offer a new manager some money to spend in the transfer window and also stop Ferguson, Stead & Friedel leaving.

Jeff Kenna must be quite pleased about his unexpected vote as well!

Berg was the best I've actually seen at Ewood, but perhaps my current mindset is biased towards solidity over attacking flair given last season/this season. However, it seems wrong to overlook a legend like Crompton just because I haven't seen him play, so he gets my vote.

Definitely a better squad. Especially nice to have not one, but two left-wingers (one of them must turn out ok) and some pace in the team with Boothroyd's arrival (although who knows about the rest of his game...I don't). Nice to have Yorke out of the way. I'd preferred us to have a decent, quick centre-back though. If Short gets injured - which he will - we're in trouble. Matteo may do ok there, but will he ever get a chance...?

You may be right about Emerton - there was an interview in a paper/magazine (can't remember which, sorry) last week with one of the Wolves full-backs saying that the only time he'd been taken to pieces last season was by Emerton, who he said was lightning quick when running at defenders. After reading that I was quietly optimistic that maybe he'd come good this season...until Saturday. Maybe someone should show Emerton the article.

3-5-2 got us up from the first div and on sat we were playing a first div style team ....with the exception of the excellent Kanu. BUT the FA cup tie v Arsenal showed that we dare not play 3-5-2 against quality opposition! Anyway who else plays that way in the prem? Your suggestion that the current squad is suited to 3-5-2 also beggars belief as to play that the back 3 have to be lightning quick........hardly a description that would apply to the likes of Amo, Short, Johannson or Matteo is it? ----------- And most contentious of the lot............... 5. Given that Tugay's introduction made the difference on Sat (despite one or two wayward passes), and given that when he plays he seems to touch the ball every 3rd pass or so, maybe we should build the team around him. The formation needs to provide him with players who can not only exploit the openings he provides to hurt the opposition BUT also players who can protect his physical vulnerability. Not an easy ask and apparently an impossibility for Ferguson (rem that they did not gel at Rangers). Fergusons style is to drift forward irresponsibly at every opportunity whilst with Tugay on we need a midfield growler to cover for him. IMO thy are not a good pairing so who will have to give way? The ageing maestro with the God given talent or the as yet vastly over-priced, over-rated and unproven team captain? More importantly who will come in to fill the gap? Neither Flitty nor Matteo seem to play well with Ferguson, Flitty's days as a 1st team regular are more or less over (although at PNE I'm sure that he looked considerably 'lighter' than he did last year) whilst Matteo has not impressed in the holding role of midfield. Sticking my neck out I suspect that Matteo and Tugay might just be the best pair but until I see them play together for a time I will reserve judgment. Totally agree with you about 3-5-2. Re. Tugay - i can't really see how we can build a team around him, at least with the current squad. The problem with Tugay is that he's a (probably unique?) midfielder who hangs back all the time.....but can't tackle. If you put a holding midfielder next to him who can tackle well, it means your forwards never get any support from the centre of midfield, e.g. Flitty and Tugay together last season. It might work ok if we had Duff on the left and an equally creative attacking right midfielder (or Henry up front), but with our current squad I just think we'd be woefully uncreative in the final third of the pitch.

2-0 to Rovers (Dickov, Amoruso) if Big Brad is playing. Otherwise 2-1 as a shot squeezes into a corner where the longest arms in football would have saved it. Not getting 3 points is too frightening to think about given the nasty run of fixtures that follows Saturday's game.

Official site also now says it won't lead to a suspension because it was a self-contained pre-season tournament with its own set of rules. Phew - couldn't handle another farcical game with no specialist left-midfielder!

Very bad news indeed. However, if, as the LET says, Cole has said he can't play under Souness then I really can't see what option Rovers have apart from getting rid of him. One or both of the parties has clearly come back to pre-season training determined to fall out with the other. Why couldn't whichever it was have decided this weeks ago and given us time to find a new striker before pre-season and also allow us more time to negotiate with clubs interested in Cole? Cole is clearly not worth £55k a week. In fact, I doubt he's worth £30k a week on last season's form, i.e. scoring record, despite being one of our best players. IF we could clear him completely off the wage bill, then I'm sure £40k a week would attract a decent replacement. Unfortunately, I can't see any club being willing to pay Cole anything like £55k a week (except Boro who've already got their forwards sorted out) nor paying us much as a transfer fee. So any transfer fee and a chunk of the wages saved will go on a Cole severance package, leaving us scrapping around for free transfers.

I agree. Motson is now terrible. Really annoying voice, annoying comments and seems to believe he's as good as some people wrongly said he was. Fingers crossed Motson will be poached by ITV in the same way the Beeb got rid of Lynam before he went downhill. Joe Royle is also an uninspired choice as co-commentator. ITV has still somehow managed to be worse though - despite his experience, Bobby Robson is the most rambling, uninsightful co-commentator I've heard in quite some time. And as for having Andy Townsend in the studio for analysis...

Great win and lots of good points. Apart from the Talented Mr Rooney, can't believe how many times our midfielders won back possession almost straight away. Neville and Cole both look far better defensively than before (Neville has always been very solid for 99% of games but prone to costly lapses of concentration). Really looking forward to the Portugal game, but 3 concerns: 1) Given we'll have about half the amount of possession vs Portugal, someone needs to explain to the midfielders that Owen is no longer incredibly fast, so chipping the ball through the middle at every possible occasion just gives the ball away. 2) When Scholes goes AWOL from left mid to make admittedly good runs in the centre (I guess he was AWOL for 90% of the game), someone will need to help out Cole, who was almost without fail left in a one-on-one situation with the attacking midfielder. A team with a good right-mid will cause big problems. 3) Some extremely nervous defending as a team in 2nd half, even when we still had a goal to play with. Hate to see us in a really high pressure situation. Set piece defending also awful, but I suspect Portugal don't have the ability to exploit them as well as the Croatians.

Personally, I'd rather have MGP and I still have reservations about de Pedro's current form BUT given the lack of cash and that we couldn't afford the inflated fee required for MGP, this is as good as we're going to get so well done Rovers for moving in before other clubs. Good news that he'll be arriving in time for pre-season training rather than a last minute arrival like Andresen who turns up out of shape.

Can't believe that, depending upon how long Matteo's contract has to run that could be a very poor deal. 3 years at 40kp.w. would cost us £6m. We'd be much better off paying more for a younger player on lower wages who'll retain his value. For Matteo £1m and a 2 or 3 year deal on £20k p.w. would make more sense. I agree - paying anything near his current wages would be a very bad move. For a defender to be paid £40k in today's climate, he has to be one of the best in the world. So a solid defender, aged 30, with dodgy knees that mean he's unlikely to manage to play every game shouldn't be worth more than £20k a week, or maybe £25k if he arrives on a free.

Can't say he's my number one choice, but if we can get Leeds to carry on paying some of his wages then it's a solid transfer. If we get him, I'd also like to see us bringing in a young centre defender with an eye for the future, although I'd guess there aren't that many around.

For the money, this is a good signing to keep Cole and Stead on their toes. Also means we have two very different strikers on the bench (Dickov and Gallagher) to bring on depending on the game in question.