Thought national teams had insurance to cover the players' wages if they are injured playing for their country. Isn't that why Newcastle are miffed, because they pay Owen about £100 thousand a week and the FA insurance only covers wages up to £55 thousand?

Also, are Bolton offering free typing lessons to people who can't get their thread title right?

Not the worst but certainly the coldest has to be the Reebok. Remember going there a few years back when Craig Short scored in the 96th minute. All the crowd around me stood up as Rovers came forward. I was in such a hypothermic slump that I'd lost the will to move and missed the goal!

We all imagine that it's better abroad because the guys can usually speak English as well as their own language so we think they must have brains but it's not true. My daughter who lives in Munich said the most embarrassing interview she's ever seen on tv was Lucas Podolski and, I think, Schweinsteiger. She reckons she as a native English speaker speaks better German than either of them do.

Yes but the manager's supposed to have fallen out with Morrison so it isn't going to happen

Watched Bruce squirming on SSN this morning and have to admit to a huge dose of Schadenfreude (not a new cereal but sheer delight in the sufferings of others)

I quite agree that season ticket holders do need to be carefully handled by clubs because their income is guaranteed, but I have no problems with the current offer for walk ons. I bought tickets for 4 season ticket holders for the European games (2 adults and 2 young adults) and a junior season ticket holder and an ordinary adult for the Chelsea game last week and the total came to £63. This shows excellent committment by the club to its season ticket holders as well and, provided it does not become cheaper to only buy individual match day tickets, then I don't think any season ticket holder can realistically complain if they claim to love the club.

The article on ethnic minority support backs up much of what I have said before. You don't go to football matches if nobody takes you because going to a football ground is a daunting experience. Most of the young Asian heritage kids in Blackburn have never been taken. Their families are often nominally supporters of whoever was the glamour club when dad, grandad, or, in some cases great-grandad arrived in this country and the kids don't go against that other than to suppport today's in-club as all young kids are apt to do (my husband was a Leeds "supporter" and still has a sneaking respect for Aresenal - his dad's team - although he is a true Rovers fan of many years standing now) To win over the Asian heritage kids will take time and continued success and, and here's where we have the real problem, improved media coverage and respect.

Surely something to that effect was implied?

Anyway, whatever you think, I'm sure we are all agreed that Newcastle is a step back for Lucas Neill. What a horrible set of circumstances they are in! Huge debt, a squad full of overpaid under-performing/injured players, set for a relegation battle, and managed by a very average manager to boot.

Amongst other things.

Thanks for explaining what I actually meant. I think I was half asleep when I posted that. Will try to do better in future.

Personally I've always hated Newcastle almost more than any other team because childhod habits die hard and when I was a kid growing up just outside Middlesbrough, we were only second division and Newcastle were the big shots in our area. I can't understand any player going there unless, like Shearer, they are your team because they live in the past and seem to think that just being Newcastle gives them the right to success. I suppose Freddie's huge wages might tempt you but for how much longer can he bankroll them when the fans are starting to drop away. I know it was only Bolton yesterday and it was on tv but people who turn out in their thousands just to see a new player signing don't give up that easily on their team.

Well well well.

The Aussie boys get delayed and arrive back in England much later than planned, but not only do they both make the team - they both complete 90 minutes.

Some of our Premiership rivals were resting players who barely got over the channel in midweek.

It's a great message being sent out by Mark Hughes. Players at this club are pushed not pampered.

Subs are made to win or protect points, not to rest legs (Tugay's excepted).

I hope he lets Lucas and Bert have a lie in at least once before we head to Poland. They both deserve one.

What it also says is that he trusts his players because he said he'd checked with them whether they felt able to play and both had said yes

Some of them were certainly not born in France although most grew up there and came through the French system

It seems to me that the tactics talk is masking the problems of inflexibility among our top players. Remember when we were promoted Rovers would switch to 3 at the back if necessary and go back to 4-4-2 just as easily. The Croat manager said it's not about formations but about players being adaptable and when you watch the best teams play they don't seem to stick rigidly to any formation but the players seem comfortable moving into areas of the pitch they feel they can exploit. When Rovers are on song they seem to move from formation to formation covering for one another and dropping back or pushing up depending on what they sense about the opposition. Now of course sometimes that goes wrong but if a team like ours can attempt it surely the so called stars of England should be more than capable, but it seems they lose the ability to think

when they put on an England shirt.

Well, if he's set to be named then they've moved PDQ because yesterday they hadn't even asked! Also if you look back in the thread it's only the Daily Mail and local paper in Norwich that have gone big on the Bowen to Norwich story.

Wasn't impressed with Gray for the reserves on Monday but then it is difficult to tell from reserve games and he wasn't playing at left back. Would prefer to keep Lucas in team just because he's going to play his socks off if he thinks a move depends on performance and from any interested clubs that seems to be the message at the moment -"we're watching him".

I think we have already known that he won't sign the contract for us a long long time ago. Only Hughes didn't know (or he did not want to know).

Think Mark knows and has known for some time too, but he's also known that to get a move to a bigger club Neill will have to play well, and especially if it's Liverpool he wants because he's not well thought of by fans. So it's been in our interests to keep him in the team for the moment but don't for one moment think there aren't serious plans afoot to strengthen our defence. Hughes doesn't say a lot but that doesn't mean he's not working behind the scenes t sort it out.

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Well, of course he isn't because he's grown up with the idea that Liverpool are all that's wonderful and Rovers are second rate that comes through so much of the media nowadays and has done for years. If it's all you hear then some of it's bound to rub off. More young players should look at people like Bentley, Steve Sidwell and others who've got away from big clubs and realised that they are good enough to hold down a starting place in the Prem and become heroes in their own right instead of always standing in someone else's shadow.

Have seen Andy Taylor play and, while I'd admit that he shows promise, the occasional run out for the reserves ( and there aren't that many reserve games) against reserve and youth team strikers does not tell you whether a player will cut it in the Prem. He looks too lightweight to me still and until he grows and bulks up I can't see him being a first team defender. It would be grossly unfair on the lad to throw him in at the deep end unless we had to.

Somewhere in that it said "He's working with premiership and international players" Think it might be that that keeps him at Rovers, because Norwich look awful.

Still nobody has really answered what we'd do if we dropped Neill. I read all those who think we could go to back 3 but that's rubbish because if we can't keep clean sheets and give very few chances with 4 half way decent defenders what are we going to do when we have only 3? We have no real option but to play Neill until at least the January window. The thing that annoys me most of all is that Lucas thinks if he went to a club like Liverpool he'd actually play. If even Stevie G is not guaranteed to start every week and Peter crouch can score brilliant goals and be dropped next game then what is in Lucas's head because it definitely isn't a rational brain?

All those people who keep saying that we should drop Neill and play him in the reserves, Who would you play in his place because I watched the reserves last Monday and there's nobody I would even think of putting in the first team ahead of Neill, whatever he says about wanting to leave.

Who's undervaluing him? Very sure rovers fans aren't and Mark Hughes certainly doesn't nor do our players who always pay tribute to the backroom staff and not just the manager. Might it cost Norwich too much to buy out his contract anyway bearing in mind that he signed a new one when Hughes did?

Season ticket from our point of view is not just matchday ticket but investment in club and guaranteed ticket for any final we happen to get to. However, I would not like to see too many games where tickets for walk-ons are cheaper than my season ticket. Don't have a problem with the occasional promotional offer and I think the club understand this. Season ticket holders are still what gives them a guaranteed income and they will not want to upset us, especially those who have had tickets for a long time, as we are the fans who enable any forward planning to take place because income from us is already in the bank or promised.

Besides we need support against Bolton because who in their right mind would actually choose to watch their football over that of some other clubs.

Still seems to me that the immigrant population is one of the areas that we have a problem with. Most people are brought into football by grandparents, parents or other family members or friends. When your family first arrived here to settle Rovers were lower league and teams like Liverpool and Man U were reasonably local and well-known. Many of my Asian heritage kids in school follow Liverpool and Man U simply because their parents latched onto them and never thought of going to Rovers. Rovers will struggle to bring in support from among the Asian heritage population until they can compete year in year out with the big clubs and not just in a good year. Add to that that if our school population is anything to go by then the Asian heritage population is growing and there are bound to be problems with crowd numbers. When you then factor in low income for many families (we have a huge number of families on benefits, free school meals etc) then you have an even more significant problem. Then add in the fact that in towns like Clitheroe, where Rovers could expect to pick up fans, the population is as much Burnley supporting as Rovers fans and the rise of Accy stanley has attracted many people. Many of the population of Clitheroe are now elderly as it's not a place young people can afford to move to and if they haven't been rovers fans before they're unlikely to start coming now. Young families moving in tend to be from outside the area (people moving from high priced housing areas who can afford clitheroe prices) and so already have their allegiance to a different club. That's true of most of the ribble Valley towns. Many of our young people go away to University and, although those who have been season ticket holders may make real efforts to get back for games, those who might have been walk on fans probably don't.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought it was one nil to them and was surprised when the stadium announcer gave the score. And I was only 3 mins late. They must have scored as I was getting through the turnstiles. It was a good job we scored early on because we had very little chance of scoring later with the size of their defence and the lack of height and strength in the Rovers attack. Parlour was his usual filthy self and should definitely consider retiring and apart from his size I couldn't really see why the Boro paid so much for Huth.