Jeez Oklahoma.........You aren't thinking straight are you? Lest we all forget. We couldn't even have got into the Prem without JW! And btw how many supporters can you rem paying to see the team when we were in the 3rd div?

From my earlier post .......... ALL of the Lancashire town clubs DO have traditions and have had major success in the past and some most noticably in the present i.e. Rovers and Bolton to an extent. So please explain why are our crowd figures declining so abysmally? Especially given that we won the prem title (ffs) and the Worthy cup? And when you've explained that SG please offer a realistic solution cos I dont have one. It cant be my serve SG...... you havn't returned the last one properly yet. Give me an alternative solution.

So thats two forward thinking members. Just another 15000 (and falling ) to go.

Are you sure? I'm sure that BRFC got most of Blackburn Olympics fans on free transfers. Anyway this is a merger that I am proposing not a Butcher Bob Hatchet Job.

Of course it was Jim and I think I've already answered that in my last post.

So please explain why are our crowd figures declining so abysmally? Especially given that we won the prem title (ffs) and the Worthy cup? And when you've explained that SG please offer a realistic solution cos I dont have one. (granted Notlob have done exceptionally well but we would still be in the 2nd / 3rd without one mans input.....the like of which we will never see again ).

Just how many truly 'die- hard' fans do you think we have Tris? Come on be honest! I'll wager its not as many as you think. Let me give you a clue. When we were in the old 3rd div (and rem that was just a few short years after dropping out of the old 1st Div) we had about 7000. Meanwhile Bolton PNE and Burnley went down to the 4th and their fan base of 'die hard' fans reduced to about 3000-5000! At that rate of decline just what do you think any of those would attract on the Conference? Given that we therefore have approx 5000 true die hards we are better upsetting them than the rest!b Just like the political parties, they dont give a stuff about their dyed in the wool voters they just pander to the floating vote for support. Of course nobody (and especially me) wants us to merge with our neighbours in an ideal world but unfortunately there is no such thing. BTW Have you lot ever heard of King Canute? Cos you are all beggining to act like him.

Football fans are tribal with allegiances going back generations. If Burnley and Rovers were merged, would you go and watch East Lancashire United? I wouldn't. In the 1980s, Robert Maxwell proposed merging Reading and Oxford to form Thames Valley Royals but fans quite rightly gave his plan the boot. He also tried it with Hibs and Hearts and they did likewise Jim. The common denominator of all this is that none of em have won a bean since! In fact Reading would prob be history but for the false input of Madjeski. Their crowds and their ambitions are every bit as bleak now as they were then. And all those middle aged die-hards who took to the streets to complain vigorously are now dribbling and smelling of urine in their nursing homes whilst their grandchildren are buying Arsenal / MU shirts. Ugh!

1. One stadium for all of course. 2. New strip. 3. Somewhere between Junctions 2 and 3 of the M65. 4. I'm not really advocating merging with Bolton btw but rather more likely with PNE and Blackpool. Afraid your chin-waggings are just trivialities or daft revenue consuming options. If football was invented in the year 2000 then no way would there ever have been 4 teams formed within a 10 mile radius of Blackburn. Accept that fact and you must also accept that we are defying gravity and the inevitebility that it will all end in tears and that the kids of the town will gravitate to the likes of MU........again.

Thank you SG you have completely and totally validating my point! I repeat......... The town of Blackburn and surrounding area can / will NOT provide an income stream capable of sustaining a poor football team at the top level! Period. Learn the lessons of history (as PhilipL said this downward spiral is oh so reminiscent of the 1960's decline) and please realise that if we want something different to happen then we must do something different!

A point that I've made many times on here Philipl. It's obvious that Blackburn as a town simply cannot support a poor Premier League team. Too many so-called fans simply drop off the minute the going gets tough thus speeding up the downward spiral. Maybe now that Whelan (btw rumour has it that he's cashing his chips in with JJB) and loadsamoney Hemmings are the new football megabucks powerbrokers in Lancashire there may be a different approach to forming one super team in this area which could sustain top flight football. But I somehow doubt it. Through provincial, small town thinking I fear that we Lancastrians are doomed to live in the shadows of the Mancs for ever.

I dont think that I'll ever be ever able to take you seriously again American after that daft comment. Dickovs name will be already be on the team sheet for the next match! I'll give you credit for putting Bothroyd in front of Jon Stead though. Bringing Stead on was Hughes only real mistake, I had hoped Bothroyd would have come on as imo he would have been far more useful given the situation of the match. I have criticised Ferguson frequently but I'll hold my hand up and say he had a cracking game (still cant see 7mill though). I have not seen it on tele since but wasn't it Barry that was clearly outjumped by the midget Hendry for Villa's equaliser? If so his copybook was well and truly blotted. The nervousness of the defence can be attributed to..... 1. Lack of professionalism and ability. 2. A frail midfield line up that included Jansen, Ferguson, Tugay, Emerton and Djorkaef(?). Afraid there simply is not a tackle in that lot! The defence was always going to be put under severe pressure I'm afraid. I've said it before and I'll say it again Tugay and Ferguson are defensively poor when together. Maybe a return to Douglas on the left would stiffen up the midfield as it did last year. We would be poor on the left but it might just be the best way to accomodate the undoubted talents of Djorkaef. Jansen criticised GS in the LET on Sat but he should keep his mouth shut and let his boots do the talking. That flash in the pan goal, like that one v Lpool last season flattered to deceive, he still has much to prove!

Lot of ex-rovers players on the pitch when you count Given and Shearer. But to those who doubted the wisdom of trading Dunny for 5 mill, Bruce summed it up by praising his ability but informing the interviewer that he's only started 18 games in 18 months! Dunn looked good today but that type of stat was predicted on here many times when he was sold. Maybe he would benefit greatly from ice baths! Best bit of all was the ref turning down the mags appeal for a pen and GS immediately wading into the 4th official! Will he never learn?

Dooley. Hmmm used to be manager of the Owls didn't he? Thats a blast from the past Billy. I can rem my father telling me that he was the dirtiest bsrtd that he had ever seen on a football pitch. It finished his career when he broke his leg then had to have it amputated. The old man said that tragic though it appeared at the time it saved many other player's (gk's in particular) careers being brought to a premature end instead.

Dont forget Hendry left us twice! Anyway at that time I considered his 4m move to Rangers as a good bit of business and was a bit like Souness's move to the Mags, it was the best for all concerned.........except of course for Rangers who got a has-been and in truth had very few games out of him. Ooops....sounds like Amo in reverse. Maybe we should call him 'Rangers Revenge'

Bellamy and cash!?! He's an aggravating git but that'll do me. Cant see it mind cos Bellamy's pace is the only thing keeping Shearer out of reserve team football.

Or maybe Tim 'First time ball- inspirational leader' Sherwood Well done Brownie. Sherwood may or may not make the top table in this poll but I bloody well wish we had him at his best now! Sherwood was imo vastly under-rated by fans and media alike. Some of the posters on here obviously do not know a footballer from a cows arse! Sherwood was up there with Big Col and second only to Shearer in his personal contribution to us winning the title in 1995. Never flashy, never fast or free scoring but Sherwoods ability to find colleagues in space, switch play and control the tempo of the match provided the heartbeat of the entire team. KMD had him down as a proper player and made him captain in front of both Hendry and Shearer! So which of our over-critical smarmy numpties wish to publically argue with his judgement? ..........Oh and btw he was hardly ever out injured either!

Carefull laddie unless you want a toe up yours!

We need to turn some of that optimism into points otherwise it will evaporate pdq.

Hmmmm difficult. Mike England was a better player than Hendry without doubt and his clashes with the Burnley bruiser Andy Lochead were legendary with no place for all of this puffy elbowy stuff that we have nowadays. In the 60's use of the elbow was compulsory! Hendry on the other hand was his equal if not his better as a defender and became something of a talisman / cult hero, especially after Wembley and Everton away. Anyway whats the point of worrying about it? If Keith Newton cannot get in the team then these two have no chance. This board'll prob settle on Keeley and Amo.

All this loyalty stuff regarding players pre 1963 doesn't wash with me. Clubs held control of the players registration and the maximum wage was in place so no player would have been better off for moving to another team in this country. I rem the great Tom Finney the mention of whose very name causes nob-enders eyes to go all misty, (the player whose tremendous ability above all connected him the most with one club loyalty) admitting to a TV interviewer that when he was at Preston on £25 per week he asked the Preston Chairman if he could go to Italy where one of the eytie giants had offered to pay him £10000 per annum!. The cahirman said 'No Tom you cant go we need you here'. And that was that! The good old days eh?

TDi..... I seem to rem you spending ages proclaiming the abilities and defending criticism of Senore Grabbi!

Exactly! And the same with crosses. For ages I've wished that the players be given instructions when supplied by soft airey type crosses from deep to head the ball down for their teammates rather than continually nodding it tamely into the keepers hands.

2. Why? I have asked you this before on the other thread regarding this and you have still yet to give any reasoned explanation or evidence. Sorry Capt its the same point. If in contravention of Taylor a club sanctioned standing in seated areas there would surely be an issue with the insurance company. Higher premiums or worse a refusal to insure the spectators in those areas could be seriously costly.

Is there just me who sees a connection there?