I think Taylor has only gone for a month.

Taylor has now gone to Blackpool on loan. Apparently Grayson had wanted to sign him before QPR came in for him. He is likely to get games as Jason Wilcox was sent off in their last game and Taylor is going to replace him.

In last night's LET, Hughes is quoted as saying he wants to open contract talks with Gray in the next few weeks to keep him with us next season.

I thought the performance last night was dire-even though someone I spoke to said the performance at Everton was even worse. Credit to Sunderland who worked hard all the way through the match. They are, however, an incredibly poor team. And yet they produced around 4 good goal situations which a better team could have scored from:if Owen had played for them it could have been a repeat of the Newcastle home match. The defence were not the reason Sunderland did not score. The defence was remarkably poor. Reid cannot play right wing. He has not the skill to play there and he looked very uncomfortable. Again. If he has a role it has to be in centre midfield. Which brings us to the centre midfield. I think Tugay is 1 of the 2 creative players on the staff. If he loses the ball when he plays deep, it is arguable his best role is playing further up field where he can have a bigger effect on the attacking part of the team and where it is not so crucial if he loses the ball. I am surprised no-one has criticised Savage. I thought he was awful and I can't see any quality he brings to the team. The fact that Hughes bought him, and arguably overpaid for him, means we are stuck with playing him regularly.Our view of him was that he can't pass, he has no ball control, he can't head, he can't tackle, he is not scoring goals but he likes running. We watched him run and run and run and run.He didn't do any of the things he can't do- he just ran alongside people who should have been tackled . It was like he was playing tag and he did not want to be on any more. Pedersen was clearly not fit. I don't think Bellamy was fit-when he is fit he is absolutely superb for us. But he did not look 100% last night.Pongolle made a real classy start-he showed good ball control, did 2/3 good passes early on but then faded.The question is whether he will be a goal scorer for us. It certainly was not the kind of match that will encourage the crowds to come back.

According to the LET MGP is likely to be fit. According to Gray on Radio Rovers, the players have been left in no doubt about Hughes' opinions on the last 2 performances.

Good post!

I am totally in favour of having an Academy-Uncle Jack saw it as one of his major legacies. What I am questioning is how effective it is at the moment and what can be done to improve it. I have been watching Youth teams for 35+ years and one of the problems is watching lads who have the potential to make it. You hope they will make it but very few can do so.Even in very good years, you will be lucky if more than 1 makes it at the top level.

Richard Dinnis summed up the game by saying that there was no understanding between Brad and the centre backs, that Gray played poorly and is in a bad run of form, that there was no creativity in centre midfield and tht nothing came from the wings. As a result Bellamy had to drop more into midfield to try and get the ball. He also made a comment that during the warm down, the faces of the Rovers players suggested that Hughes,who "normally does not throw tea cups" had probably had a right good go at them.

Which means that Johnny Carey's youth team was the best by a mile. I was concentrating on players who made it in the top division but I take your point.

Don't forget we bet MU to sign Keith Brown.

Only England, Pickering and Newton were first division quality players from the 59 youth team. Since the Academy started Douglas, Gallagher, Danns, McEveley and Peter have played for the first team. Danns, a Liverpool reject, was considered not good enough by 2 managers and was releaed by Hughes. Douglas plays regularly for Leeds but is never mentioned in reports I read. McEveley made a promising start for the first few matches in the first team and has gone backwards since. A major question about him. I would love Gallagher to make it with us- a local lad who has scored goals for us in the top division, but 2 managers appear to have questions about him. In my opinion there should be more questions about the way the Academy is being run. Premiership quality players are not being produced and I don't know if it's because we can't attract good enough players or if the coaching is not good enough to help youngsters achieve their potential once they get to us.

The most successful youth team ever for the Rovers was the team of '59, which "only" produced 3 players for the first team, who all went on to become internationals. If we could get 1 player for the first team every year that would be excellent. However, the team that last got to the final and lost to Arsenal was our first team to get to a final and not produce a top division player(Danns might still come bck and prive to be the exception). For the second leg against Arsenal. I was sitting next to a friend of the parents of the right back, called Rose. He told me the club had told his parents they had high hope for their son. I could not see any real quality. Since then the Rovers have let him go and I don't know what level he has achieved in the game. The person who sits behind me at home games , who goes to all the away games, as well as many Reserve and Youth games, has said that the Youth teams tend to play very direct football-i.e. with tall strikers and not much concentration on skill. The main fact that is obvious is that the the last Premiership players the club produced were from the David Dunn era. Some people argue this is not good enough.

No. On the basis of price it might be worth considering the Martin Lewis website. He also does comments on quality.

You could try uswitch for advice on price.

What interested me in reading the Independent article was that there was not only attack on us-which had been widely covered- but there was also an attack on Chelsea, who are not as big a club as Manchester United. Although Ferguson has made a lot of bad buys and has been made tactical errors at times, I do think the attacking principles he has followed have been good. I just think it is a shame he can't be more magnanimous.

The disappointing aspect about Ferguson's reaction was that it did us no favours-I figured that most neutrals would say " Dirty Rovers won it ". Whereas it was a great match to have won and could lead to getting bigger crowds at Ewood. On reflection, it was the only way Ferguson could go.We scored 4. We should have scored 6. Yes 6. Against Manchester United. Which must mean they have major problems. In my opinion they have good attackers. Where they are weak is in centre midfield which in turn not only weakens their attacking possibilities, but also does nothing to protect the defence.And yet it is an area Ferguson has not strengthened. He has bought 2 new defenders. Both were a disaster against us. The left back looked good in the first half against Reid but woeful in the second half against Emerton.The centre back looked poor and not even Neville could protect him.So Fergson could not come out and say, "I have made some more bad buys and this was a big contribution to our defeat". He has to find out some other way of explaining the loss. After all he will have to go back to the Glazers for more money for even more buys.

I think the West Ham score was 5-4 and it was obvious that if the game had lasted 10 more minutes West ham would have won. The thing that surprised me that did not happen againgst M U was that they did not get a penalty as it was obvious they were going to get one, meaning that after 4-3, they were bound to get at least a draw.

As someone who was never in favour of the appointment, I take no pleasure in Souness's dismissal. I'm just pleased that many supporters have changed their minds about him. As for Souness, he's just been paid 18 months approx salary as a manager and a big pay off when he was probably within a couple of weeks of being sacked by us. The biggest clown in the Newcastle situation is Shepherd who sacked Robson before getting his replacement ligned up ( Radio Lancs tonight argued that Bruce had been the number 1 choice).

Who do Liverpool fans most like to see lose?

Excellent.

At the following AGM Coar said that the fee Newcastle had to pay was £15,750,000 as they could not pay the full £15,000,000 in one go.

We could throw in "getting Graham Oates on the cheap". And never acknowledging the full amount of Alan Shearer's transfer at £15,750,000 as they could not pay the full amount in one go.

Todd has received 2 reds- Hughes did not appeal the 2nd so we have to presume it was correct. Has he not had any yellows?

We're missing Bentley as well as Bellamy(Radio Lancs).