Sh!te 2291st post.

We were always going to play Bohemians Prague as neither Blackburn or Birmingham wanted to play each other. Something about it being too competitive for this stage of pre-season or something. Birmingham will be playing Ulm on Friday. Last night, during the break between the two Rovers matches, SteB, Manchester Blue, Jordan and myself were sat outside a bar just across from the stadium drinking an ale or two. Along comes one of the Ulm players and sits down with us saying he wants to speak English again as he misses it. The player was Daniel Sengewald who apparently used to play for Motherwell under Terry Butcher a couple of years ago - as well as a string of other clubs including Royal Antwerp, 1860 Munich and Genclerbirligi. He was a top fella and sat there chatting with us for about ten minutes or so before he had to rush off and get ready for the match against Rovers. While he was there Souness walked past so Jordan mentioned that Daniel used to play for Motherwell. Souness then came over for a quick chat - at one point he was pointing out the virtues of Glasgow women! Anyway, our Dan (as we now know him!) gave Jordan his mobile number and has promised to show SteB and Jordan the sights and sounds of Ulm after the game on Friday. Daniel also mentioned that he hated Robbie Savage (as well as telling us an extremely libellous story about Savage that I couldn't possibly repeat on here) so there could be a bit of needle on Friday.

Ok, I'm back from Germany, I'm completly knackered, but I thought I'd better let you know what happened last night (although it looks like you know most of it). Oh, just for everyone's piece of mind, I didn't miss a single train, flight, bus or taxi during the whole trip - nor did I get off at any wrong stops! The tournament started at 5:30pm with an exhibition match. Both Saunders and Souness came on in the second half, I think Saunders even scored a goal, but to be honest I wasn't paying too much attention. We were too busy trying to get the Rovers squad to sign the site flag. After this had finished Rovers played their first game against Reutlingwhotsit. We looked a class above and ran out easy 2-0 winners, Gally scoring both. The second was a cracker. The only other notable event was seeing Tommo generally charging about clattering into people. He clearly doesn't know the meaning of the word friendly. We then retired to the bar outside the ground (you could only get alcohol-free lager inside the ground - as SteB found out to his cost) for refreshments while Ulm played Lucernne (sp?). That game finished 0-0 but was won on penalties by Ulm. This meant that we played Ulm in the final. Before that though the two losing teams played. The scores were level at full-time so they went to a penalty shoot-out that seemed to go on for ever. Eventually Reutlingwhotsit won about 45-44. All this meant that Rovers second game didn't kick-off to well after 10pm. We played a completely different team (on paper a stronger team) and we were sh!te. Then, halfway through the first-half, De Pedro was sent off for absolutely nothing by a referee who looked like he'd just come home from school. Ridiculous decision. The rest of the half was littered by bad tackles, niggle and more shocking refereeing. There wasn't much good football played. Fortunately, the ref seemed to relax a bit at half-time and the second half was a lot calmer, although we were still crap. I guess we had an excuse though as we were down to 10. The match limped to a conclusion and we were down to a penalty shoot-out. Freidel's save of their first penalty was simply world class. His second save was pretty good too. In contrast, we looked assured and only Dickov missed (the goalkeeper tipped his shot onto the post). So, at about 11:30pm, we finally won the tournament. At the end of the match it looked like Souness was trying to convince the ref not to mention De Pedro's sending off in his match report so he wouldn't face a ban. I also notice that there is no mention of the sending off on here. I know Lee came on last night and removed all trace of the sending off - something I strongly disagree with. This is a supporter's web-site, it should have no official links to the club, and if a supporter writes about what happened in a match then it should stay on here - even if the information may cause problems for BRFC. Which is why I've included it in this post. Anyway, it was a top trip, I had a brilliant time and I'm sure I'll write more about it in the future. Right now I'm off to bed!

I think Stead did improve Cole's game. Cole has always done well at Rovers when he's had an energetic partner to play alongside - someone who can move defenders around and give Cole a bit of space. Unfortunately, for a large part of Cole's stay at Ewood, Souness played Cole with Yorke who hardly moved a muscle most of the time. It was, therefore, easier for defenders to mark Cole and nullify his effectiveness. Which is why I was looking forward to seeing Cole play a full season with Stead. I really thought they could have been a brilliant partnership together - similar to the Cole and Jansen partnership that did so well in Cole's first season here. I think it's a tragedy for the club that we're not going to see that now.

I went to that game too Bob and I thought exactly the same - both Yorke and Cole were taking the pi55. What I realised over time though was that whenever Yorke and Cole played together they took the pi55. That's because they both looked to do the same things and were equally as lazy. They both prefer the ball to feet, they both don't like running into the channels, neither are good in the air and they are both thrive on supply form wide areas. They were a terrible pertnership together and yet it took Souness over half a season to realise it. Cole has always been at his best for Rovers when he's played alongside a forward who's got a high workrate and a physical prescence. Jansen fitted the bill perfectly initially and, please god, Stead may be the answer now. Unfortunately, just when we were all getting excited about the prospect of Cole and Stead linking up we find out that Cole's been released. Personally I'm gutted. I really thought those two together could be brillant. I'm afraid I don't hold out the same hopes for any of our other strikers, especially Dickov who I feel is no more than a workmanlike first division forward. IMO we need to sign a centre forward. Someone who can put themselves about a bit, run the channels and generally take the pressure off the other forward. Sadly I'm not sure we've got the funds to do it. Which is why I would never have let Cole go.

Just had a text message from Jordan. he's convinced it's that bloke from Stockport. He's clearly pi55ed. Don't worry folks - I'm going over to germany on Monday. I'll identify the mystery trialist and report back. I never get pi55ed so you can rely on me.

I've been as critical of Souness as anyone recently but I don't think you can call Cole a bad buy. Far from it in fact. He rescued our season when he first came, scored the winner in the cup final, and has continued to be our best striker since - despite his disappointing goal tally. £7m well spent in my opinion. After saying that, I'm surprised we aren't getting at least a nominal fee for him and I will be disgusted if we don't sign a quality replacement.

Has it not occured to you that Ossydave may just be taking the pi55 a bit?

No it hasn't. That was the slant put on it by the LET but do you really know that to be the truth? Well humble apologies oh master of the conspiracy theory. Kindly elaborate and present your evidence that anything other than Cole refusing to do his job is what has happened. So you don't know that to be the truth then?

No it hasn't. That was the slant put on it by the LET but do you really know that to be the truth?

You can be as pedantic as you want to be, and god knows I know you will be, but on this occasion the Nixon fella appears to have got the main facts of the story right. He said Cole was leaving after a bust-up with Souness and that seems to be what's happening.

For all the slagging off that Alan Nixon's received on this board it seems he was right on the money with this story all along.

I've never said it was all Souness's fault. I'm sure both parties are to blame. However, top managers command enough respect to prevent the players falling out with them in the first place. On the rare occasions that fall outs occur a top manager would ensure that the outcome is the best thing for the club. I don't believe that shipping out Cole, Flitcroft & Todd is the best thing for the club at the moment. As for your comment about the team spirit - why are you making out that you know something the rest of us don't? You know no more than I do. Even if the team spirit is fine, it's only a matter of time before another of our better players falls out with Souness, then another, then another. I could cope if we replacing like with like but it seems we're not.

There's more to Cole's game than just the goals he scores. For example, as others have said, I'm sure Stead wouldn't have made anything like the same impact had he been partnering Gally, Yorke or Jansen towards the back end of last season. Cole's one of the few class players we have left. And now it looks like he's going. Possibly to be replaced by a journeyman like Dickov. It's a tragic state of affairs.

I love the way you instantly assume Cole is the one in the wrong. Has it not occured to you that our manager might also be at fault here? Do you not see a pattern emerging? Souness has now fallen out with Todd, Cole, Flitcroft, Dunn, Yorke, Gillespie and Sukur- all within the space of two years - and those are only the ones we've heard about. Can you think of another Premiership manager who's fallen out so publicly with that many of their players? No, me neither. There's been some brillant posts on here spelling out why Souness's antics are causing us so much worry and yet you continue to defend the indefensible. Souness was brillant for the club during his first 3 years here. He's now become a liability. Get rid.

Personally I think it's a scandalous decision to let Cole go, and it highlights once again that our manager isn't good enough to take the club forward any more. He's slowly ruining the club and, unless the board act quickly, we will be relegated next May. Every season for as long as I can remember I've been optimistic during the summer - looking forward to the new season. This summer, much like the last one, I'm not looking forward to it at all. We don't have enough quality players, no pace, no guile, and now we're getting rid of our one proven top class forward. Stead may become top class but he's not there yet and it'll be even harder for him to get there now that Cole is leaving. We could maybe cope without top quality players if we had a manager who was tactically adept and inventive. But we haven't - quite the opposite in fact. Still, no doubt we'll replace Cole with a 30-something journeyman that will get the likes of Tris creaming themselves.

From reading your posts on this thread and other similar ones in the past it's clear that you don't have a clue what happened that day. I assume the articles you mention are police in-house articles, and are therefore totally independant and totally factual, I don't think. I understand why you're trying to deflect the blame away from the South Yorkshire police but you're wrong.

You're acting a little precious aren't you? My post was in response to a couple of the previous posts (namely Manchester Blue's & Tris's) who instantly dismissed the news about Flitcroft as nothing to be remotely concerned about. I didn't agree. Is that OK with you?

So Souness has pi$$ed another player off. Marvellous. How many more does he have to fall out with before the people on here who love Souness become a tad concerned? Regardless of what you think about Flitty as a player to not tell him about the change in captaincy in advance is simply bad management. It can hardly help team spirit if an influential player like Flitcroft feels the need to comment in the media like this. And, no matter what spin was put on it, this is another negative Rovers news story to go along with those we saw towards the end of last season.

Wonderful posts from Colin, Tris & others. The lack of thought and understanding shown by some earlier in this thread is quite frightening. Good luck to all at the HJC.

I always post this when our attendances are discussed. It was a reply I made a year or so ago in response to a post by Gav. He made the point that our attendances should be better because we were having relative success compared to the 70's & 80's. Here it is: There's the rub Gav. You're right, it doesn't get much better to you and me, but to the "new" fans who've only become interested in Blackburn since Jack Walker, Shearer, Dalgliesh et al it did get much better. They were introduced to the Rovers when the team was challenging for the title, had numerous England internationals, and were playing in the Champions League. Today's team is a bit of a come down from those heady days. And whether you like it or not, these "new" fans are just as important and worthy as us old uns. The point I'm trying to make is that our modern-day active fanbase peaks at about 30,000. This is pretty good for a town of our size and is certainly a lot better than any of our Lancashire neighbours. When times are good almost all of the 30,000 will attend the games, when times are bad some of them won't. It's always been the same. When I first started going to Ewood, about 25 years ago, our active fanbase was probably only around 15,000. When the team was bad only about 6,000 of those actually turned up to the games. Comparing us to other Premiership clubs doesn't work because they almost all have larger fanbases than us. They come from big cities and we come from a town. The other clubs have increased the capacities of their stadia in recent years to allow more of their fanbase to attend. Hence the rises in attendance seen at most of the other Premiership clubs. Bolton probably have a similar fanbase to us. However, Bolton are having their most successful season in years, they are at a peak in terms of their appeal. So, more of their fanbase turn up at the matches. What I think is happening throughout football at the moment (something that Jim has alluded to) is that all clubs' fanbases are reducing. For most of the Premiership clubs it hasn't become noticeable yet. For example, if you say Everton (just picked at random) have a fanbase of 100,000. Two years ago, 80,000 of those fans will have wanted to attend matches. Now, I think that figure has probably gone down to say 60,000. But as their ground only holds 40,000 it's still full every week. Our ground is bigger than our fanbase so the reduction in support is more obvious. Believe me though, if the game continues in its current direction then reduced support it will become more obvious throughout the country, not just at Ewood. I still think it's relevant. The bottom line is that our support peaked the year after we won the Championship. We're not as successful now so the crowds are less. We're also in the almost unique position (throughout The Premiership anyway) of our fans knowing that they can attend virtually any game they want without buying a season ticket in advance. The incentive to buy a season ticket for the Rovers isn't as high as it is at other Premiership clubs.

Nope, but we are expected to compete for them all. Last year we couldn't be arsed in two of them.

Are you telling me that Dean Saunders is responsible for putting the Leeds United tea-ladies on the game? If this is true surely Saunders' position at Rovers has become untenable. The man's a monster.

Great post FLB - absolutely spot on. All this moaning about Blackburn not being a footballing town is just rubbish. There are loads of reasons for our decline in attendances over the last year or two and they have all been brought up on here many times before. Unfortunately, some people choose to ignore these and cling onto their ill-informed beliefs that Rovers fans are the worst in the world.

Top team scorers in the tournament - top individual scorer in the tournament. The boy Rooney done good. For those who said we had no chance of qualifying (you know who you are Philipl et al) stick that up your arse. Roll on Portugal now.