I think part of the problem is our start to the season we have had but also you can't deny we were fed a bit of PR from Hughes saying he would bring players in who would take us to 'another level'. Also there is the logical notion that finishing 6th should bring in greater pulling power. Personally I think we would have brought in all of our signings regardless of where we finished last season (obviously not if we were relegated). Roberts said UEFA cup was a big draw for him but the fact is we still pay bigger wages outside the top clubs (in this case we were directly against Charlton for his services). There has obviously been a reality check over the summer and also we have to accept that we probably have missed out on a lot of our targets. We would not be the only club in the Prem who has been unsuccessful in strengthening their squad. Overall, I think deep down Hughes would admit this summer has been a failure for us with regards to bringing players in. There is the Mido saga which lasted far too long, Bellamy leaving, dithering over Roberts until we had to make an approach because Charlton were in talks. Hughes has said himself this summer was more about trying to keep our players and that it took a lot of time and resilence from himself and the board. On the other side of it you can say that Hughes has brought in 3 of his long-term targets. He has been interested in McCarthy, Nonda and Oiijer for over a year so he must be pretty sure of their qualities. Time will tell how good they will be.

For London based Rovers fans see this thread below. http://forums.gumtree.com/about9294.html

Interesting match reports below..... I have quoted some of the People report.... Sunday Mirror People report Hughes' tactical thinking used to be spot on with the way he instructed his players to go to war. Winning every little battle on the pitch and becoming the most hated team in the Premiership along the way suited him fine. But it's always good to have a Plan B - and that seems to have been forgotten as his battlers have turned into clumsy scufflers

Being a boyhood Liverpool fan he would have been gutted not to play in the derby match.

As I started this thread (and I do admit it is fairly pointless!) I feel I should reflect on my original comments.... It was on the back of watching the review of last season in DVD last night and being heavily intoxicated - in that I obviously saw our best bits of play, goals from last year etc. I do think it is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to the start of the season and I am maybe guilty of this. Expectations are higher this season and that is because we were successful last season. We can make a more accurate assessment on how things are going after 8-10 games. The real point of concern at the moment is that we do not seem a settled side so far. We do have options up front and defence but midfield and creativity wise we possibly are lacking. As for personal insults, I agree in that we should leave them out and apologise for any comments I have made which has annoyed anyone. I just hope we do ourselves justice in Europe on Thursday - afterall we are just a small town in Europe.

May I make the point that my posts last night were under the influence of a lot of alcohol and watching last seasons review of the season DVD!

Theno - you must get annoyed with yourself quite a lot of the time then!

Probably could be merged with another thread.... shillito15 - I don't find the sh*t that Hughes is putting out amusing at all. He will be off soon. thenodrog - can't we give you your own section in the MB, the tosser section??

Kuqi story here.......

Just accept the truth lads, we have gone backwards over the summer.

Or you could simply say we are a shambles when we do not have Nelsen. Or that we are playing our right full back at left back. Cover it up whatever way you want.

I remember Hughes saying we must push the boat out this summer for signings....... Obviously we backed him as much as we can.

Does anyone realise how much these players contributed last season............ too much either off the bench or starting in cup matches. Have we replaced any of them properly? Have we brought in any quality at all? Can Blackburn fans get excited after finishing 6th or is that simply it? Have we built on last season? Answer to all the questions is... NO

Gally should be ahead of Jeffers - hope I am proved wrong by 5pm.

They just summed it well on Sky Sports - look at our summer signings. Who have we brought in who has the required quality?? McCarthy maybe....

3-1 Sheffield Utd - I just don't think we know our best team yet.

Sorry Phil - you were right.... Dunny for England!

I was just thinking and someone mentioned it earlier....... I believe Hughes has an enormous amount of trust in the coaching that takes place at the club. He is also very shrewd with the money he spends and only spends if he feels there is a real need to add to the team/squad. He has gone on record before saying he will not buy anyone unless he is 100% sure they are right for the club. I do think he has money to spend but he will only spend it on the right player and right quality. Tugay is back and Nelsen is a month off from returning - Roberts/Mccarthy will only get better, Nonda has scored goals wherever he has been, Oiijer will get used to the Prem League, Neill turns out to be a solid left back, Pedersen gets his scoring boots back on and Steven Reid finally wakes up - keep the faith.

And you really think Hughes will choose to pick a crock to use up our wage bill?? Things appear to be really tight at the moment money wise so I doubt it.

Dreaming of Dunn coming back is nice but not realistic. The relationship between the two clubs would not help such a transfer especially if he starts playing well. The fact is that we have not really built from last season - we would have signed all the players we have regardless of where we finished.

We have to build on finishing 6th........... the club matches my ambition... blah blah blah Lets see what happens folks!

How long we will have to wait though to get things 'right'...... At the end of the day we are dropping points - does not matter if it is the start, middle or end of the season.

Can't say I was very impressed with Saturday's performance. It sums up our transfer activity so far... lethargic. We seemed to have an obsession with playing long balls to our front men all afternoon. Pompey have two solid centre halves but it did concern me how easily Robers/Benni got dominated in the air and on the ground. From a creativity point of view we created nothing despite having a lot of the ball for the away side. Few points of note: Bentley in the centre just does not seem to work. I watched him having a great game for England Under 21s in that position so it might be that we persist with him. He does come deep for the ball but all too often he loses concentration. That brings me on to Tugay or should I say the way play without him. Too often we have produced sub-standard performances when he has been out of the side. Was Reid fit? He did not seem his energetic self and at times it was if we were trying to carry him. Injuries, suspensions and no Tugay could make this a bad start to the season.

Excellent news - Emerton knows he will have to perform to get in the team after being dropped for a while last season. He is a useful player to have as we are going to be playing a lot of games over the season. Other side of it is that there will always be clubs interested in buying Emerton so it is a win-win situation for us!

Was it Hughes who offered JJ his new deal?? It must have been JJ - New deal