Lovely stuff Fife, but unfortunately it means bugger all 120 years on. I think we'd all be kidding ourselves if we started pretending that Stoke City and Notts County have had more of an impact than Manchester United.

Let's get Vinjay back and spice the place up!

I don't think he's too bad. I can imagine it's very hard to play alongside McCarthy and let's not forget he's been out of the game for a long time previously. We desperately need a striker and a new midfielder.

I think that people look at the purchases of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton and lazily suggest that we bought the title; Tim Flowers - £2m Southampton Shay Given - youth Henning Berg - £1.75m Lillestrom Colin Hendry - £700k Man City Alan Wright - £400k Blackpool Andy Morrison - £500k Plymouth Ian Pearce - £300k Chelsea Graeme Le Saux - £700k Chelsea Tim Sherwood - £500k Norwich Stuart Ripley - £1.3m Boro David Batty - £2.75m Leeds Jason Wilcox - youth Mark Atkins - £45k Scunthorpe Robbie Slater - £300k Lens Paul Warhurst - £2.75m Sheff Wed James Beattie - youth Alan Shearer - £3.6m Southampton Chris Sutton - £5m Norwich Kevin Gallacher - £1.5m Coventry By my reckoning, that's just over £24m on 19 players over about three seasons. You can see that not only are there few groundbreaking transfer fees being paid, we are not exactly signing superstars. No £30m purchases of players in the twilights of their careers, and no £6m purchases of youngsters who have only played a handful of games. Good, solid, British backbone to the squad - aswell as a British manager to boot. Bear in mind also that we sold David May in the summer for £1.5m to United. So we basically paid £24m to win the league - about £1.26m per player on average. And don't forget this is basically the entirety of our squad - I'm sure I've missed a couple but nobody that played a vital role over the course of the season. Liverpool had Stan Collymore (8.5m), Mark Kennedy (1.5m), John Scales (3.5m!), Phil Babb (3.6m), Julian Dicks (1.5m), Ruddock (2.5m), Clough (2.75m) Utd had Andy Cole (6m), Kanchelskis (650k), Hughes (1.8m), Cantona (1.2m), McClair (850k), Pallister (2.5m), Ince (1m), Parker (2m) Arsenal had Wright (2.5m), Kiwomya (1.5m), Hartson (2.5m), Helder (2.3m), Bergkamp (7.5m!!!), Platt (4.75m) Chelsea had Dave Rocastle (1.25m), Peacock (1.25m), Stein (1.5m), Furlong (2.3m) I may be slightly out with some of the timings/transfer fees here, but the fact of the matter is that we were simply paying pretty much the going rate, not grossly overspending on foreign superstars.

Although he would undoubtedly improve our team, I feel that a right winger is the least of our worries. We have Emerton and Bentley (two of our better players this season) that can play in that position, not to mention the likes of Gallagher waiting for a chance. A central midfielder and a new striker are a must for me. Anything else will be a bonus.

I'm sorry but I've said it before and I'll say it again, Aaron Mokoena is NOT good enough for Blackburn Rovers. I'm not doubting his attitude, his work ethic or his professionalism or anything like that - it's just his ability. Indeed, on paper he looks to have all the attributes of at least an average Premiership holding-midfielder. However, he panics when he recieves the ball, he looks underconfident, and doesn't seem on the same wavelength as the rest of the team. Unfortunately for him, it's a vicious circle. I he continues to start on the bench and only play bit-roles, he's only going to be the same for as long as we keep him. However, if Hughes does seem to see something in him he will need to give him a run of games in which I'm certain he would disappoint, therefore possibly being relegated to the bench. Top players need to be battle-ready at all times. That's one of the reasons I can see a chink of light at the end of the tunnel for Franny Jeffers - he looks like he's attempting to make more of an impact on the game when he is brought on as a sub. At the end of the day, if Mokoena is happy being a squad player and he isn't going to cost too much, then I don't see much harm done by offering him a new contract. A three year contract is too long though, and I sincerely hope we can bring in another midfielder or two to make sure we aren't forced to play Mokoena as regularly as we are doing. Rover6 - I agree completely. Unfortunately we will have to wait until January to improve our squad.

You make it sound like he's died! Yes it would be a major blow for the Rovers, but on a personal note I would be very surprised if he hadn't earnt an absolute fortune already, never mind the hefty insurance payout he would presumably get. Unless or course, his injury was a genetic one - but that's very unlikely............surely................?

I think a fair summary of Souness' transfers (at Rovers anyway) would be that he is excellent at looking for bargains, but when it comes to splashing the cash he is a bit daft. Friedel, Neill, Emerton, Gray and Tugay were all pretty cheap Souness signings; Friedel......................Free Neill.........................£1m Emerton...................£2.5m Gray.........................Free Tugay......................£1.3m To say nearly half our current starting eleven was acquired for only £4.8m says a lot really - especially considering the length of service by these players.

Radio Lancashire pal. Apparently they have an online feed aswell.

SG194 - I know what you're getting at, but you can't compare the attendances of Rovers to that of Middlesbrough just because the sizes of the towns populations are similar. Boro's main rivals are Sunderland and Newcastle which are 33 and 44 miles away respectively. In the whole chunk of North East England you basically have three main clubs with a sprinkling of smaller clubs such as Darlington and Hartlepool. The North West as we know is a true hotbed of football - but unlike London our population cannot meet the demands of a number of football clubs; Burnley - 11 miles Preston - 11 miles Bolton - 13 miles Bury - 23 miles Rochdale - 24 miles Blackpool - 27 miles Wigan - 27 miles Oldham - 32 miles Manchester City - 34 miles Manchester United - 38 miles Liverpool - 41 miles Everton - 41 miles And there's more. You could even throw Leeds/Bradford into the equation and the list is seemingly endless. I think we do relatively well to get how many we do on Ewood, compared to 'similar size clubs' such as Middlesbrough and Fulham.

You can't really compare McEveley and Gallagher. I think the simple fact is that Jeffers is a good player who has a lot to live upto, Peter is a cracking prospect and our most natural left winger after Pedersen (who is one of our more inconsistent performers, thus warranting a left-wing replacement on the bench), Mokoena is pretty much our only holding midfielder after Savage, and McEveley is a defender. Maybe we are reading too much into Gallagher not being on the bench - he can only choose five subs!!!

Did I get a post deleted on here?

When I have a flutter I normally tend to avoid the 'absolute bankers' such as Chelsea and United because their odds are terrible for the risk they actually represent. I'm not saying they lose regularly, but all you need is a dodgy penalty or freekick to equalise and that's your accumulator gone to pot just for the sake of including a team that to be honest will not affect the outcome of your accumulator too much. The 'millionaire' game at Ladbrooks is good, but I'd be astounded to hear if anyone had actually ever won.

I agree Hughes must be insane if he wants to improve his defence! Nelsen is injured, Ooijer looks dodgy, Hughes obviously dislikes Todd, Neill wants off, Matteo is just utter dogpoo, and Henchoz's face is still too red. I'd say if this Egyptian guy is any good, then he could be a brilliant signing. As for the strikers Joey, I disagree that we are sorted in this department too. McCarthy looks pretty average to me, Nonda works hard but has struggled to score (and is only on loan), Jeffers is clearly not a first-eleven striker, Roberts is injured, and Gallagher is presumably having it off with Hughesy's wife. Yes a quality midfielder is a priority, and I'd be very surprised if MH didn't agree. But to disregard the signing of two other departments just because they are 'better off' than the midfield would be very foolish. And I'd be very surprised if Hughes didn't agree with that too.

I think the issue I have sometimes with Hughes is not that he is willing to give youth a go (we've seen the likes of Gallagher, Peter, Taylor, Derbyshire on the bench), but rather that he only throws them on for the last ten minutes here and the last five minutes there. Now I don't profess to be any kind of footballing managerial mastermind like our good man MH, but even I know that if you come on into a heated contest for the last ten minutes it is so hard to get into the game never mind have a positive influence on it. Maybe we should look at giving Sergio the odd start, or maybe bringing Gallagher on at half time if* we are 2-0 up at home. *- And yes I do realise it doesn't happen too often.

I always get the impression that Vinjay was banned because he was unpopular from the off, and his anti-mainstream opinions were that of a member not associated with the 'original'/close-knit members who seem to get along so well. Thenodrog does not seem to get the same kind of abuse, yet he's always banging on about certain 'issues'. Not that I agree with Vinjay's points, or for that matter disagree with Thenodrog's! ;-) And I very much doubt the fact that anyone would be bothered enough to file a law suit against a football messageboard over something as trivial as criticising the owners of a football club. There's being prudent and careful, and there's being just plain silly. I personally would like Vinjay to be re-instated - even on the terms that he longer was permitted to talk about the Walker family. At the end of the day, this football messageboard is no more important than talking about similar issues over a pint in the pub - so let's not get all power-obsessed now.

I don't think that Douglas or Mokoena were/are good enough for Blackburn Rovers. In my opinion, both players are of very limited ability - I cannot believe Aaron Mokoena is an international captain with a shed load of caps!!! Mokoena just does not look confident with the ball at his feet, and I'm afraid to say that you will just not succeed in the Premiership if this is the case. He panics when he gains possession, and does not seem to have any positional sense to get into good positions to recieve passes. Now many members on here protect Rovers players from any form of criticism (especially if they have been bought by the current manager) and we just have to accept that sometimes players need criticising for bad performances. If we accept any less, we will end up in big trouble. I'm sure MH won't let this happen, and I do sympathise with his current plight - he couldn't predict that his three of his main players would be injured at once. Having said that, I would play Gallagher in our next game. I'm not overexaggerating when I say that I would rather play without the traditional 'ball-winning' midfielder than play Mokoena. On the rare occasion that he does win the ball, he doesn't do anything with it!!! Gallagher on the other hand has plenty of technique, creates chances and links up well with the strikers. If I was Mark Hughes I'd; - Firstly give Pedersen an absolute bollocking and tell him if he doesn't pull his socks up, Peter is starting the next game - Tell Bentley he has been excellent, but that he needs to start tackling, and move him into central midfield in the absence of Savage - Tell Gallagher to take his chance and play him on the right - Put Tugay in the middle and tell him to shoot more

Don't you mean...

To be fair on Derbyshire, you can only score against the teams you are up against. And also, just because he hasn't scored against a few Premiership reserve sides, it doesn't mean he can't cut it. I'm sure Hughes is looking at his performances overall (and in training) to judge the player - you can't judge a player just on how many goals he scores.

Good post Colin, and I'm certain that the Rovers are in fact experimenting with their pricing structure. I think the way forward is to offer cheap seats compared to everyone else - not just for the odd game, but for EVERY game. We may lose a bit of money, but at the end of the day if we can fill our stadium and/or generate more interest in our club, that can only be a more postive thing. Charging mega-bucks only decreases attendances and alienates fans. I would hazard a guess and say that the very fact that more people buy tickets at cheaper prices will encourage yet more fans to go because they know it will be a better atmosphere! Nobody wants to watch or play football in empty stadiums - I'd rather us lose the extra money (if we do lose any) every week than see a half-full stadium. People moan that if we lower prices then the club lose income to buy more quality players, but at the end of the day players want to play for clubs with packed stadiums thus giving a perception that that club is a bigger club. A fuller stadium is a win/win situation for me!!! Yes the crowd may have been poor last night, but we wouldn't have filled the stadium if we let people in for free. And that means you just can't start charging the earth for a product that is in low demand. Imagine the attendance at £25 a ticket!!! Less than 10k for definite - maybe even less than 8k! 13k @ £15 = £195k 8k @ £25 = £200k I know this doesn't tell you the true story but in terms of pure supporter enjoyment alone, is an extra £5k max worth having a stadium attendance to be REALLY embarrassed about??? If half of the extra 5000 people buy a programme, we make the money back! I know we are just picking these numbers out of the air as fans, but I think it helps to illustrate my point. Long live cheap tickets!!!!

It's almost as if people WANT to pay more for the football!!! Nowadays, football clubs are businesses - but that also means supporters are customers! I was one of the 'missing 5000' last night by the way - unfortunately I had to settle for listening on the radio. I think the problem is though that there just isn't the same enthusiasm for football from the large majority of fans anymore. Atmosphere at grounds has been significantly reduced, costs have risen, lifestyles have changes, and the game of football itself has in my opinion taken a turn for the worse. I'm not ashamed to say that now, I go when it is cheap or convenient - or ideally both like for the Salzburg game. People need to realise that the average fan now has to make choices between luxuries, and football is just that - a luxury. The simple fact of the matter is that if I had attended every game last month, it would have cost me more than my food bill for the month (and that's with 'reduced' tickets). For someone like me, that is too much.

Listened on Radio Lancashire, and can I just say that Callum Davidson's laugh is so annoying it's unreal. Good result - by all accounts we scabbed it a bit overall and the scoreline was flattering. Then again, it makes up for all the times we play excellently and end up with nothing. Somebody get the goals on youtube!!!

Can anyone shed some light on the 16-21 club for Rovers fans. I've signed up, but I'm unsure whether it can be used in the European games as well as Premier League games??? I'm assuming not?

Spot on again Thenodrog. I honestly get the impression though that in the areas of Colne and Nelsen, and to a lesser extent Barnoldswick and Clitheroe, the support of Rovers is creeping up on that of Burnley's. Now that isn't saying much, but it is disturbing the amount of United and Liverpool shirts you see in these areas nowadays. The problem Burnley have now is that you can go and watch a Premiership game for the same price of a ticket on t'Turd. The main reason football is fooked is because you can be an armchair fan of a big club, and still feel the benefits of being a season-ticket holder. You can easily see your team play week in week out from the comfort of your home/local pub.

You'd have thought that a major games developer (after many years of the same problems) would have increased the priority placed on testing and evaluating the games??? I feel sorry for the customers out there who have a very limited knowledge of computers, or indeed those with no access to the internet. You wouldn't buy a packet of salt and vinegar crisps if you knew that you would have to wait a month for the salt to arrive.