colin

Good luck with him, if you have just half as good a player as the Turk that GS signed for us you'll have a good one. Mind you, he signed some real turkeys too.

I give up. You have the sensitivity of a drunken rhino.

Interesting that Galloway had met Hussein exactly as many times as Donald Rumsfeld. It's a rum world when you're trying to pin the blame. Delete "fat george" from the above and replace with "Donald Rumsfeld" and you'll havea whole new viewpoint.

No its not amnesty international Smithy, I don't thinkI have ever seen anyone sink so low as you have in your last post. You're just an ar5e.

As a colleague at work said "All you need now is Lee Bowyer and you'll have the full set." He meant it to be funny. I'd just like to comment that I'm really impressed by the quiet way MH is going about his transfer business. With the exception of the Savage saga, MH has been very quietly bringing in some good players. Nelsen & Mokowena arrived with barely a ripple in the press and now Bellamy when everyone thought he was either staying at SJP or Parkhead or going to Goodison. And for £5m - that's a bargain. Let's hope he does his talking on the pitch from now on (cliche no. 17)

It'll be OK Smithy, people coming over will be "overseas types" too. They'll also smell too and probably won't notice the smell of the others already here. ********** The words "######-up" "brewery" "organise" and "couldn't" spring to mind. Along with "Millenium Dome," "Wembley Stadium," "Portcullis House" & "Scottish Parliament."

This is probably digressing somewhat but what the heck, let's go do-lally for a while. If Liverpool are offering Gerrard £100k per week this equates to £5.2m per year. Assuming that he has a 5 year contract then he'll be raking in (stops to take shoes off to use toes) £26m over the next 5 years. Now assuming that Chelsea ofer him £150k per week on a 5 year contract this will get him £39m over the same period. So just what is Gerrard (or for that matter any other greedy overpaid footballer) going to spend that extra £13m on? What on earth can they not buy for £25m that they can buy for £39m? How many Bentleys can they drive? How many bloomin' apartments in Dubai can they live in? Can anyone here suggest anything?

Yes I am actually. (and I didn't use the word "merely") The board of any club appoints a manager and relies on him to make "football" decisions, just as Modes has described. Just like boards over the years have give managers freedom to sign such donkeys as: Forlan; Veron; Grabbi; Kezman; Klievert;...need I go on?

Smithy, I think your questions 1-5 may be answered in the Annual Report when it comes out. Until then they are really hypothetical. As for Kidd, Grabbi, Ferguson, Amoruso: well the first one may be down to Williams, but I don't remember anyone complaining at the time, do you? The latter trio would all be down to Souness. He presumably wasn't appointed as manager to have his judgement on football matters over-ridden by the board. Souness was a good manager for us then, eventually, he wasn't.

I was only asking. It was just a passing question. A sort of sad statto thing. I'll shuffle off back to my garrett and my lumpy & damp mattress

Just out of interest, has any existing ground ever been re-named. The ones that I can think of have all been new ones. Sunderland: Roker Park to the Stadium Of Light Boro: Ayresome Park to The Riverside Bolton: Burnden Park to The Reebok Leicester Filbert Street to The Walkers Stadium Hull: Boothferry Park to The KC Stadium Stoke: Victoria Ground to The Brittania Stadium Derby: Baseball Ground to Pride Park Citah: Maine Road to The City Of Manchester Stadium Reading: Elm Park to The Madejski Stadium. Wigan: Springfield (D'oh) to the JJB (I'm showing off a bit now) So, has any existing ground been re-named? The "Leavers Pie Stadium" has a certain portly ring to it, plus undertones of The Riverside disappearing before the final whistle (but that's probably best left alone.)

Excellent post there 1864, as every day passes since GS went to Newcastle I think that we were lucky that they took him off our hands. I'll take Flopsy's point that he is our second most sucessful manager (in the last 50 years maybe,) but he was fast losing the plot at Ewood. He seems to be carrying on where he left off here at SJP, blanking players, creating rifts and general discord. Our gain is their loss. A bit like The Red Scum would have considered Kidd's departure to Ewood.

Oh stop it. Bellamy has just posted one of the best micky-taking messages ever seen on here. Have another read.

Made me laugh too.

Looks like Tony is going to be the"Father Of The House." Me. I've had an ST for 15 years and attended regularly for 5 years before that. Then again I've seen Brian Douglas and Fred Else play way back when my Dad took me in the very early 60's. Just a suggestion, Mods: why not turn this into a "poll" just to have a look at how long we have all been going to Rovers. It'll help the summer go by.

Bet you would have liked that, straight back home to Mum's catalogue for a damn good Sherman. There's a very good comment on women's football here courtesty of the usually excellent John Nicholson. Got me tickets for the final at Ewood on Sunday, and really looking forward to it. And sorry, got no freebies to hand out this time.

Me too, he always seemed a nice bloke,which is quite rare in today's game. I hope he does well at Sunderland, but not well enough to score against us. I'll give him a cheer if he plays for them at Ewood.

Good Lord, Pere Ubu. Now that was a band to be challenged by. Trying to hum along to "Non Alignment Pact" was one hell of a job.

Just out of interest, if you are from the school of thought that women's football is no good because women are not as physically well developed as men, can you give your opions on (say) the athletic abilities of Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes. Paying special attention to the fact that neither of them are as good as their male counterparts. As a sporting event watching England v Finland women at the COMS should not be compared to watching City v Rovers at the COMS. I enjoyed both. Different atmosphere, different audience, different social event. It's a bit like saying "this is not a very good apple." then, learning that you're eating an orange, saying "well I still don't think it's a very good apple" I suppose someone would have to engineer Rovers women v Burnley women* to really get some interesting outcomes. *insert obligatory gratuitous insult here

Spent a day off work and read Ben Elton's "Blast from The Past." Cunningly constructed and it all comes together at the end. Not exactly a classic , but a good read.

Just had a word with Rachel. She thinks you look like Millhouse from the Simpsons, but with spots and a less attractive personality. And acne.

"Therein lies the rub" Speedie was also an obnoxious sod, but he was quite good for us. Only time will tell.

Yeah, well you can (not you personally) take Clarkson and ram up his own exhaust pipe. We saw a great game of football tonight at the City Ground, England grabbed the winner in the 90th minute. One yellow card, no writhing about "oh my gawd my leg's broken." "Ooops it's OK now." No mouthing off at the ref, no hystronics when the throw in was given the other way. None of that crap when a foul was given. Great atmosphere too. Twenty nine thousand at the City Of Manchester Stadium. Sorry, I'll just repeat that: Twenty nine thousand at the City Of Manchester Stadium. Monkey tennis my atrse

Cold Shower for Smithy. Or Kleenex.

Got to disagree. Rio should be held up as a beacon of a footballer. Overpaid. Stupid Unable to defend against Duncan Ferguson Multiple driving offenses What's that word you use when you want to describe some one who can't talk proper? Know what I mean? Looks like a duck, quack. Want's more money than £100,000 a week (£5.2m a year) ........................ Just changed my mind Bryan, you're right.