I'm saying he is the only ex England star to make it as a top manager

Bobby Robson?

Pilkington is from Darwen, as is arbito. I imagine it was fairly easy for him to find that out, especially considering he reffed for a long time. Come on chaddy lad!

He'd need a better Norway team first!

He's a potential good 'un, no doubt. But assuming the top 6 cartel stays as is, you think he'll be one of Man Utd/Man City/Lpool/Arsenal/Tottenham/Chelsea's keeper by 2021? Quite a prediction!

Leeds, Villa, Lampard’s Derby. At least we’ll have plenty of 3pm KOs...

Leutwiler was obviously only brought in to ensure we didn’t play on international weekends. Fielding is an established Championship keeper and it keeps a talented, yet still a little raw keeper on his toes - a Blackburner too! Would be a canny signing.

Times of austerity at Villa Park incoming... https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2018/05/30/club-statement-dr-tony-xia-on-future-plans

I was looking through the sponsors of Championship clubs the other day (the life I lead!) and well over half were gambling firms...

It's the name of the game, I'm afraid. Club's have a ceiling and there is always another one up the foodchain. Hughes to Man City springs to mind...

Seaman was probably past his best by 2002. However, in the 90s he was one of the best around.

"Everyone in my kids school support (enter non descript southern town here) a BIG SIX club but I told mine to support the plucky underdog!' (Instead of our local League 2 team - ya know an actual underdog!)

I remember this ‘stand where you like’ debate at the time. I doubt it will be much of an issue now we are out of League 1. I.e. you won’t have stewards actively telling fans ignore their seat number as they entered the ground.

Burnley have an equal if not better catchment area than us considering they draw support from Hyndburn in the west over to parts of Yorkshire.

This overboard segregation thing is a new phenomenon, we didn’t seem to feel the need in the PL when we had 30,000 crowds that included a Darwen End full of Liverpool/Man Utd fans.

It’s just the LT trying to wring out every last utterance of TM into around twenty consecutive days of copy.

Big Boro fan though, ain’t he?

Middlesbrough are lucky that they have a hinterland to draw from with no league club competition. Indeed the whole north east of England has 3 league clubs. Teeside is similar in population to east Lancs, yet we have three League clubs on top of each other, plus Preston immediately to our west then around 9 clubs in a twenty/thirty mile radius to our south - 4 of them clubs with enormous fan bases. Old Lancashire being the heartland of the game and saturated with clubs isn’t optimal for growing gates from nowhere like sides like Middlesbrough can do.

Sometimes you have to wonder if the ECB is actively trying to run down the county game...

Liverpool have millions of fans in this country alone (yet never seem to get the glory hunter tag United fans get), not really a like for like comparison.

If we make a decision to charge less than the competition due to the economic situation of the town of Blackburn, then can we expect to compete with the many city clubs that now make up the second tier? As an aside, I can imagine the percentage of our season ticket holders that reside in BB1 and BB2 have decreased somewhat this past decade or so, as demographic change has seen many fans move further afield, so we aren’t wholly reliant on the prosperity of the town (nor should we be if we want to be successful in the future).

They do at the moment but despite being from one of the country’s largest conurbations they’ve struggled to muster 20,000 home fans in the PL for years.

Last time we were promoted out of this league it contained the likes of - Grimsby, Gillingham, Tranmere, Walsall, Port Vale, Wimbledon, Stockport, Crewe. It’s a tough old division these days.

Lampard to Derby? Certainly a departure from the usual managerial merry-go-round...

Easy enough by train. The ground is near South Bermondsey overground station which is only a few minutes from London Bridge.