I thought we looked nervous as kittens at the start and only really settled after we scored. Our midfield lacked bite and tenacity throughout the first half, only Gerrard provided any real drive and determination. Once the Swiss chap was sent off though I thought we used the extra space well, switching play frequently and getting our full-backs to overlap. Both second half goals were well worked and showed what England are capable of. The boy Rooney is just superb, Beckham was a lot better today and Gerrard ran midfield. The biggest plus for me though in both games has been our defence. It was considered, quite understandably, to be our weakest link before the tournament but so far we've looked very solid. Campbell especially has been a rock. With only a draw needed against Croatia and then a possible quarter final tie against Greece, things are starting to look a little bit healthier than they were a couple of days ago.

No and no.

Yes, sorry Tris. How dare I stray off message. Fantastic signing, everything at the Rovers is great and I'm sure we'll now win the league.

I'm delighted we've signed a left midfielder/winger, but I have to say that I'm a little worried about how he's going to settle and whether his heart will really be in it. Let's face it, how many Spaniards have come over to play in England and been a success? I'm sure there must be one or two but I'm struggling to think of them. I suspect he'll start off like a house on fire for about 10 games and quickly become a fans favourite before fading when he starts to get a little tired and the weather becomes a tad too chilly for him. Then obviously in January he'll pick up a career-threatening injury like most of our new signings do and be out for the rest of the season. Still, even if we only get 10 good games out of him next season it'll be 9 more than anyone else has managed on the left since Duff departed.

I suppose these quotes can be interpreted a number of ways. Either: 1) We've got money and don't want other clubs to know. Does this approach actually work? Why not wait until after the renewal deadline before making the announcement? 2) The club, or more specifically the manager, is just being honest and also perhaps making an excuse up front for another potential season-long struggle. In which case we'll have to rely on key players staying fit, Souness and his coaching staff dramatically improving their tactical input, and hope that we can pick up one or two bargains along the way. 3) The club think that this might emotionally blackmail fans into renewing season tickets. A ridiculous move that will surely back-fire. 4) Souness has had a bit of a hissy fit because the board won't give him any money to spend. If it's 1 or 4 then the club or the manager have timed the announcement very badly. If it's 3 then the people who are behind this are just stupid. If it's 2 then we're probably going down. Incidentally, if we really don't have any money then why have we spent what admittedly was a small amount of money on a striker when a left midfielder is a far bigger priority? Let's hope the club just made a booboo with the timing of this and we really have at least a few quid up our sleeve. I seem to remember similar noises coming out of Ewood last season but we still seemed to have £5m to spend even before the sales of Dunn & Duff.

I agree with your other points AESF but I'd argue with point 1. Rooney looked knackered and had to be replaced. To be fair, one thing Heskey can do usually is hold the ball up so it made sense to put him on. He should just have never gone anywhere near our area. The bottom line is that if we'd have scored the penalty it would have been game over and we could have got the cigars out for the last twenty minutes. The positive thing to come from tonight though was that we matched the French without even playing particularly well ourselves. Yes, France had lots of possession and kept the ball far better than we did, but they hardly created a chance and never got behind our defence. If we play them again it'll be equally as close. Hopefully we'll get the rub of the green next time.

er...is that directed at me? Who else could it be directed at. I didn't really understand why my opinions resulted in me being called "your vulgurness". I guess it's a Midlands thing. As for being a gloom monster - well, maybe at the moment I am. However, there are some people on this board who are just living in denial and seem to have forgotten just how bad we were last season already. And why people treat a negative opinion about Souness or the club as some sort of personal attack I'll never know.

er...is that directed at me?

I think we'll forget all the threads and just do that anyway, even if we're bottom of the league and haven't scored a single goal. If that's OK. You still got off the bus in Huddersfield.

Actualy no it's a yet another thread where somebody decides to make a name for themselves by being 'controversial' knowing full well the response they will get. A poster that has watched highlights last season but has come over all mystic meg and already can tell us what kind of a season we will have next year. Even Jim is prepared to wait till the first couple of games next season. Well I watched most of our games last season, and I'm certainly not "trying to make a name for myself", but I find myself agreeing with some of what ptholt has said and virtually all of what EiT said. I'm not remotely excited about the signings we've made or been linked with so far, I've got no faith that Souness will learn from his many mistakes of last year, and I suspect we'll struggle again next season. The time to judge is at Christmas, not after a couple of games - we started pretty well last year if you remember. However, that doesn't mean we can't speculate and add our opinions on here. By all means, if we're in the top half at Xmas and playing well you can dig this thread up and give me all the stick you want. I'll be delighted to take it. But slagging people just because they post something negative about the Rovers is just childish.

As FLB mentioned earlier, I'm sure I read/saw an article on Matteo last season that mentioned he's got a long-standing knee injury. Apparently he hardly trains between games and often needs pain-killing injections before a match. Hopefully that's behind him now but you have to worry that we might be taking on another Thompson here - i.e. plays for a few games then spends a year out after career-threatening surgery. Other than that I think he's a decent player. Not sure he's any better than what we've got but he'll be handy as cover if nothing else.

I imagine that having to sit and listen to his dad all afternoon must put him off a bit too.

One of the reasons Dickov scored so many last season was because he had a big target man (Les Ferdinand) to play off. We don't have one of those so I don't expect Dickov to be as successful. I don't think he's got enough quality to create goals for himself and I don't think our current midfield has enough quality to create goals for him.

Here's some pics of the above stadium - here

Well he certainly doesn't play like any of the forwards we already have so I don't know what you mean with that, I can tell that from the limited amount that I've seen him. Dickov is a handful for opposition defenders, getting in their way and disrupting their game which certainly none of our current forwards do. There are two types of forward I'd have liked to have seen us get. The first is a target man who can hold the ball up, win flick-ons, run the channels, and get on the end of crosses. The second is someone with real pace who will allow us to play the ball over the top of the opposition's defence and turn defenders. A forward of either type would give the team more options. None of our current forwards perform either of these roles. Neither does Dickov. Imo Gallagher, Stead and even Jansen can perform the run around hassling defenders for 90 minutes role.

Well, imo we've bought an average first division player who gives us absolutely nothing that we haven't already got. The plus side is that it hasn't cost us too much money. If there's any truth in the stories that he's here to replace Cole then we really are buggered next season. Hopefully he'll just be a backup striker to Cole & Stead.

I've left the arrangements to Manchester Blue (God help me! ) but I believe he has already booked the flights. I think he's waiting to see where everyone else is staying before he books a hotel.

Try getting one facing the pitch this season Rev.

It's the club's fault for releasing the story to the press. If we'd kept it quiet his mum wouldn't have had a clue. She'd have done his tea and everything but he'd have been in Blackburn signing for the Rovers.

But Scotty before copious amounts of beer after the brum game you came up and admitted Douglas had been excellent. Really. You did. He was excellent in that game but he was excellent as one of three battling central midfielders. Now, if you really want us to adopt that formation for the whole of next season then he could do a good job. However, watching us would be as exciting as watching paint dry, ticket sales would reduce dramatically, and we'd get found out early on by other teams who'd recognise that we weren't capable of scoring enough goals to trouble them.

It's hard to reply to that Rev without being insulting. Douglas came in and did a job by playing very narrow and battling alongside two other battling central midfielders. This allowed Tugay the freedom to create further forward. However, it offered us precious little in the way of width, balance, or supply to the forwards - something bourne out by our lack of goals towards the end of the season. Douglas is a workmanlike central midfielder who can put himself about a bit. No more, no less. I actually agree with Souness when he says that Douglas will make a decent right back. He's defensively-minded and a good tackler. But to say he should be our left-sided midfielder for next season defies logic or sense.

If everyone is fit next season then Tugay won't be first choice imo. For me, both Ferguson and Tugay perform a similar role i.e. taking the ball off the defence and distributing it. Whilst Ferguson may not be quite as good a passer as Tugay he's a lot more mobile. I suspect it'll be Ferguson and (at the moment - ahead of any potential new summer signings) Flitcroft who will be our first choice central midfield pairing. Incidentially, I've seen nothing in Thompson to suggest that he'll be a good central midfielder. He's not disciplined enough defensively or positionally to hold down a role centrally. That's assumming he gets back to the level he was before his injury, something that shouldn't be taken for granted. After saying all that, in an ideal world we'd have cover for every position so I'd like to see Tugay stay. But if he wants a shed-load of money, or a long contract, can we really afford to give that to someone who'll probably be no more than a backup player next season?

Weren't you having a go recently for all the negative publicity coming out of Ewood and how it might affect season ticket sales? Well, I suspect the club thought that publicising the fact that we're after two players may just help sales. You can't have it both ways.

Yep, it was a tremendous night and good to meet a few more people from the Messageboard. Manchester Blue and myself ended up in a casino in Manchester until the wee small hours which, looking back, was probably not a great idea. And I'm afraid I haven't recovered as quickly as some of you obviously have as I still feel ill!

Hey! I was keeping that quiet!! The place will be swarming with attractive young women now - I'll not be able to get to the bar!! You've come up with some excuses for not going to the bar in the past but that one takes the biscuit.