I hate it when people say that. I forgot, Duff, Pires, Henry, Giggs, Scholes and the rest don't play in England do they? It's what people like to spew out. The premier league has just as much skill, it simply is played in a different manner. Players are not allowed as much time on the ball and it's played at a higher pace. This means that there is less room to show off. Maybe you should try reading the sentence in full, I said clubs have MORE tougher/stronger players THAN those with skill. For example, look at teams in Spain, Italy where even the defensive midfielders like Baraja, Davids, Gattuso all have both skills and strength. The players you mention are worldclass players but like I said, they are a minority in their clubs. The Premier League doesn't have the ammount of skillful players like those in the above leagues, even the French league has more skillful players than the Premier League. However it's slowly changing due to the increasing ammount of players like Zola, Bergkamp, Duff, Giggs etc plying their trade here. Those players above aren't the norm in our league, they have had to adapt and add another dimension to their game or else they wouldn't have survived in this league. The reason people don't have time on the ball is because the majority of English teams are more aggressive. Players with skill doesn't mean they show off. Why do you think players like Veron have problem playing in the Premier League but on the Wednesdays when playing in Champions League, he excels and on many occassions is probably the best player in his team? Also apart from United, name an English team that consistently does well in Europe? Try explaining that then Eddie

Comparing it to you watching rugby isn't the same. Football is the biggest sport in the world. It's much easier to get into football then it is to watch any other sport, especially rugby or even cricket. The reason is one of the biggest sports in the world is mainly because it's not a complicated sport with complicated rules (excluding the new interpretation of the offside law) and everyone has played it at some stage in life. My aunt is married to a dutch (and lives in the Netherlands) and shes never spoken about football eventhough she's close friends with Van Der Vaart's family but throughtout the Euro 2004- she's been emailling me and we've spoken a few times and I've been baffled by her knowledge of the game- I definitely underestimated her knowledge in footy. But I wouldn't be surprised after the tourno that she returns to her daily life and most likely wont talk about football until the next tournament.

They are supposed to be the same but interpretations are different, everyone knows that most of the challenges that take place in the Premier League would have been a yellow card or in most cases a red card in any other league in Europe including the top ones (La Liga, Seria A, Bundesliga etc) Which is why the Premier League clubs have more "tougher/stronger" players than skillfull ones compared to the other leagues. Hence why many players and managers say that the Premier League is the toughest league in Europe.

Bolton handed the captaincy to Okocha, when they were afraid he was going to leave this season. I think it was the same with Vieira and in both cases the players became more consistent and raised their game the following season. This captaincy will also show what Ferguson is made of. If he is captain material (which he has shown) then this should raise his game and he would be more influential throughout the match. It'll be interesting to see the differences between Ferguson and Flitcroft as Rovers captain this season.

Whoever the captain is, the team needs more than one leader and I hope that the ones that have been at our club the longest set a good example and provide the leadership qualities and show how it's supposed to be done.

Imo this move could mean three possible scenarios: 1. We're at an advanced stage in negotations with a central midfielder. 2. Ferguson will take over Flitcrofts defensive role in midfield. Souness said when we bought Ferguson that he was the next Keane or Vieira. This would mean that Tugay will play the same position he played since the Fulham game. 3. None of the above, Darracott gave Souness a CM game as a present after last season and it's given him some food for thought.

Rev, I think it's because you're in the "wrong place." It's much cooler and less "risky" to support a team with Beckham, Owen, Rooney, Lampard etc than support a team with Cole, Friedel, Tugay and Neill. Also recent surveys have shown that alot of female (and none footie fans) feel the need to watch these matches in order not to feel left out the next day at work. And when it's going well, as it's been the past few weeks, it's much more fun to be there and get into it, whereas watching Rovers play Everton on the tv, somehow isn't that interesting for a non footie fan.

In some ways I feel sorry for Roman. I don't think he quite expected it to be like this when he bought Chelsea, the same way it hit Sven after all the Ulrika stories etc. I presume he's a fan like all of us but his knowledge of the players aren't as well versed so he does what most people in management do, they hire the best people to surround them to help disguise his lack of knowledge. Unfortunately the people around him (Kenyon and co) think it's fun to buy any player they want with someone elses money (like in Champ man) and on some occassions, they've bought players (in my opinion) to get one over someone else (i.e Ferguson) rather than any real need for them. If anything it proves the point that money can buy you many things but in no certain terms bring you happiness.

I was waiting for that replay aswell. I think the Portuguese tv editor forgot to show the replay after celebrating the goal.

You're not allowed to play without your boots. If you look at the replay, Terry has his arm on the goallies shoulder - stopping him from getting to the ball. Thought it was harsh but then didn't expect anything more from a very poor referee. He was in poor in his first match aswell and along with Terje Hauge (who also has been poor in the two matches so far) have been mediocre in an otherwise good tournament for the refs.

Quick mods, get the fire extinguisher out, put out that fire! I thought Ashley Cole had a superb game. Showed far more courage and strength than any other player in the England side. On the other hand, Beckham. What a waste of space. Kept waiting and waiting for him to start to perform, but nada. Can get back on his moped and join Raul, Del Piero, Ballack, Kahn, on the way back home.

Even if Rooney was in the team, it would have been the same. It was the same against France. In my opinion what this match showed was-in how poor condition the English players were in. The Portuguese ran and ran and ran while the English players stood in their position trying to recover from the last attack. I remember how our players reacted when Hodgson brought in that Italian fitness coach and we trained twice a day. All the training the players do throughout the year- it's in situations like this that it shows and I felt the English players looked tired far quicker than you would expect from a strong squad.

If you took out insurance, it might be worth cancelling the flights and booking with Hapag Lloyd - that is if theres a huge difference in price

Fantastic post Lathund. Just wanted to add that all this "big footballing nation hype" comes from the ignorant lazy fans or pundits. They have such a small knowledge of the game that they rank teams based on how many world cups they won in 50s or average attendance in their league. Pure rubbish. These days the gap between any team is tiny. Futhermore having the pressure of the English, French, German, Dutch, Italians etc to thrash every other nation on their way to the title makes it easier for these "small" nations to step up and it's much easier to be the underdogs (Swe, Den, Greece etc) because you've got everything to win and almost nothing to lose.

Anyone who watched the Sweden-Denmark match will know that neither teams played for a draw and if it wasn't for the rubbish pitch that was created by the rubbish weather than the match would have been much better. Apart from the Jonsson equaliser it's very hard to see any of the other goals beens cored on a normal day, well I could exclude Tomassons goal which has to be one of the best so far. Before the match me and my friends all joked about it going to end 2-2 but to be honest none of us expected it to end that way and after the equaliser we were all hoping for Italy to score another just to stick it down their throaths after all the rubbish that their media started about the two Scandinavian teams were going to play for a 2-2 draw. Although when I watched the rerun of the Italy match, I felt abit for Cassano (without a doubt one of the best Italian in this tourno) after he scored when he ran towards the bench thinking that Denmark was leading 2-1 and that he had just put them through to the quarterfinals and than the subs revealed the news and he just dropped and was devastated. This tournament has been interesting in a way that I've never seen before- it's almost turned out to be Euro youngsters with the emergence of Rooney, Vicente, Ibrahimovic, Cassano, Ronaldo etc- most of them probably could still qualify for their respective u-21s and the end of the road for the Vieris, Rauls, Owens etc.

I think we have a Norwegian here, who's jealous that two of his neighbouring countries have both gone through. I do feel bad that Italy didn't go through but they've only got themselves to be blamed. They played a formation that didn't suit any of their players and they didn't have anyone who looked like he could pop up and score a goal like Tomasson or Larsson. Very disappointed with Vieiri and Del Piero along with Raul and you can see why those countries aren't in the quarterfinals.

The irony was it was Vieri that was on the line when Son of God did his ninja kick assault on the ball.

The same could have been said about Baggio, Yorke, Babbel etc- all whom came with lots of Champions League experience and international experience and neither of them proved their worth. The main reason I'm not over the moon over this summers transfers is the sudden change in transfer direction -from going for young up and coming players who will have everything there to help them improve themselves and the team- we've gone for people who don't have many seasons left in top flight footy. I believe that older players are needed in a team as their experience will be benefitial to the younger players however all our transfer targets seem to be over 30 and if we go down this road, then it's going to be a huge task in a season or two when they need to be replaced because then we'll have to do another huge overhaul like last summer which may result in another relegation battle if the team don't gel in time.

I'm with you on this. It's the whole transfer strategy that is puzzling me. Soon when the Sportsworld deal ends, we can lease the ex roverthemoon shop to a retirement home. I just hope that we continue scouting for a striker and a left winger despite signing Dickov and De Pedro because realistically we need to planning for replacements for the both of them next summer. I just feel that this summer Souness has got sick of this whole transfer business and just tol JW to go get him because he was free. Anyway, it's always nice to have a new face in the team.

Thats what I was trying to say earlier. I think it's the LET just trying to sell a few more papers on a quiet and depressing "Rovers news" month/week/day.

Yep, he's a good player. He can play on the left and right. Against England a few months back, he played on the left and he terrorised Neville on that flank. Plays for Anderlecht.

That's my view on the matter aswell. However, I don't get how the club should be the only one to be blamed when it's the LET that's printed the article. I haven't seen the article but to me it sounds like the LET is trying to sell a few more papers.

Didn't you get the letter from Rovers? They've asked all supporters to be in disguise before they announce the major signings and the new kits, later this year. Until then, you'll have to hide your head in a brown paper bag and where a black bin liner so that the media and rival clubs won't be able to suss who the new signings are and what the kits going to look like. It's part of Rovers groundbreaking PR plan to cover up the major leak after an emergency Fans Forum meeting.

That's true. The only question is for how long before he has another fit. Papers claim that we're looking for the price we paid for him, we paid Charlton the 750k asking price however since we've paid them two extra installments based on the clause in the deal. So are we asking for more than 750k or will JW sell him for whatever we pay for Matteo - just to free up the space.

That's my point aswell. Infact I do think Matteo would be a sound versatile player to have in the squad, who can play in midfield and in defence. With Dickov and the possible acquisition of Matteo, we're putting our squad through another tough challenge in the nearest future, that is regeneration. Most of these players will be most likely gone or will have trouble genuinely fighting for a place in the squad for the start of 2006 campaign. Amorosu, Short*, Todd*, Flitcroft, Tugay*, Cole*, Yorke*, Dickov, Friedel *2005 This leaves us with players like Thompson, Jansen, Johansson, Neill as the players that have been at Rovers 1st team squad the longest and to be honest, I can't see any of them being anywhere close to the likes of Short, Flitcroft et al in terms of being a leader and providing the backbone of the team and showing the newcomers how things work at Blackburn. We need to be looking every season to be replacing those players above with players in their mid 20s to provide the team a sound future. Last year we brought in players like Emerton, Enckleman and Ferguson who are all in the right age but this season we've gone back to square 1 and started to look at short term signings. Alot of people felt that the backbone was ripped apart with the departures of Dunn, Duff, Berg, Gillespie all whom who were pivotal figures in providing the team with the backbone and whom the new players knew that they'd been at the club for years and provided the familiarity and it's part of the game that every 4-5 seasons there will be major changes and as a fan you accept that but it'll be tough to accept it if the problem isn't solved and instead carries on from season to season.