At least not since JW's days.

Souness is to be congratulated for picking the forward line just right and they are all playing a good part in it as it is. (Dickov's behaviour might mean that he will not always see a full 90mins out anyway). Our problem is his stupid and stubborn tinkering with midfield and defence. It appears to me that his starting formation v Soton was based on his own stubborness in the face of fans criticism. How else could he justify; 1. putting Matteo instead of Gresko in left midfield instead of using him as an obvious centre half replacement for Amoruso? 2. Playing Emerton at right back (a decision which cost us the opening goal and could have cost us our own second if he had kept him there) when Neill (deemed fit to play for the reserves in mid week and fit for the bench) should have been played from the start. Sure D'Urso's an incapable nobhead and gave em a goal but lets not forget that we gave em two!

Hmmmm.....They havn't lost for about the same length of time that we havn't had a penalty! Us winning with a penalty goal could be a good bet! .........just dont put more than a fiver on btw hope the refs from Nottingham.

Yeah OK Eddie.....but I've supported GS since he came and instilled some much needed leardership quality into the club and I still do support him! But that does not mean that he is above constructive criticism. I gotta say that I was absolutely gobsmacked with his starting 11 v WBA! I said on the other Souness thread that he should emulate Big Sam and recruit people in the areas where he is weak (especially tactics) but apart from a re-shuffle in his backroom staff no one of note appears to have been drafted in. Id do find GS's apparent lack of tactical nous bloody odd given the mans almost unparralled playing record not only here but in Italy where tactics play such a huge part of games.

Without wishing to get at phil, when are people going to recognise that England are an under-motivated, second-rate football team As are France, Germany, Italy, Brazil et al, Paul. Judging by the WC and this Euro tournment the natural order is fast changing and everything is up for grabs. This Euro tournament contained 4 teams in the semis with a combined total population of less than 40 million! With a half decent manager we would have beaten a poor 10 man Brazil with their star men off the pitch, leaving only a half decent Turkish team and a weak German team left to beat. Svens tactical ineptidude spewed it big time for us.

Certainly he did but check your reference books Flopsy and I think that you'll find Sir Alf managed rather more than that.

Bobby Robson? The man who ruined Glenn Hoddle's international career? The most gifted midfielder of the last 40 years was continually stuck on the right wing ffs! Its like us playing Tugay there Flopsy. Surely you must mean Sir Alf Ramsey?

accept your points but 1. If Matteo was 'looking out for' him then Tugay would have to try to play a little further forward. 2. Yorke playing deep naturally fills the gap and provides the link between centre midfield and centre forward.

3-5-2 got us up from the first div and on sat we were playing a first div style team ....with the exception of the excellent Kanu. BUT the FA cup tie v Arsenal showed that we dare not play 3-5-2 against quality opposition! Anyway who else plays that way in the prem? Your suggestion that the current squad is suited to 3-5-2 also beggars belief as to play that the back 3 have to be lightning quick........hardly a description that would apply to the likes of Amo, Short, Johannson or Matteo is it? I said on the 'Souness out' thread at the end of last season that GS should take a leaf out of Big Sams book by recognising his weaknesses and recruiting people to cover those areas, GS's has many qualities but his tactical nous is poor and he has not appeared to have learnt his lesson from last year. Points from the match 1. Despite having all summer to think about his best formation he puts out the most disjointed 11 that I can readily think of. 2. Emo is NO right full back. Everytime WB attacked his wing in the 1st half their cross came over. Nuf said. 3. Di Pedro is nowhere near ready for the Prem. We must stick with Gresko and Gray on the left and in any order until one of em gets suspended / injured. 4. Dickov as I have predicted will be a success. And most contentious of the lot............... 5. Given that Tugay's introduction made the difference on Sat (despite one or two wayward passes), and given that when he plays he seems to touch the ball every 3rd pass or so, maybe we should build the team around him. The formation needs to provide him with players who can not only exploit the openings he provides to hurt the opposition BUT also players who can protect his physical vulnerability. Not an easy ask and apparently an impossibility for Ferguson (rem that they did not gel at Rangers). Fergusons style is to drift forward irresponsibly at every opportunity whilst with Tugay on we need a midfield growler to cover for him. IMO thy are not a good pairing so who will have to give way? The ageing maestro with the God given talent or the as yet vastly over-priced, over-rated and unproven team captain? More importantly who will come in to fill the gap? Neither Flitty nor Matteo seem to play well with Ferguson, Flitty's days as a 1st team regular are more or less over (although at PNE I'm sure that he looked considerably 'lighter' than he did last year) whilst Matteo has not impressed in the holding role of midfield. Sticking my neck out I suspect that Matteo and Tugay might just be the best pair but until I see them play together for a time I will reserve judgment.

This is like that stupid old thread about why we have no IndoPaks playing in the Prem.......because there is not one of them good enough! And likewise neither is Matt Jansen folks! Jeez if he was any good do you lot think that Souey would not have kicked Yorkes ass to the railway station and back? Would we have signed Dickov and put in a small bid for some promising kid? It's obvious to a blind man on a galloping horse that MJ's career is over. BRFC are not a benevolent society! We cannot afford to be cos the Prem is no place to nurse lame-ducks back to som semblence of health. Waggy might have something when he said that his career at BRFC will finish as soon as his compensation claim is settled, cos I for on have been mystefied for some time as to why we are still employing him. Why are we continuing to pay his wages when we could spend em on someone else? People on here are far too sentimental, this is not football it's big business so even though it's really regrettable it's time to cut the chord and get rid. And ffs stop blaming Sven! He can be blamed for a lot of things but causing MJ's accident is not one. He hardly hired the damned scooter for him and forced him to ride it did he? It's cruel but the reason that MJ is finished is down to MJ's own recklessness. When you think 'poor old Matt' just stop to think what his stupidity has cost US and then rather think 'poor old Rovers'.

Disgraceful affair all round ....... Just a thought but will the severity of the sentence discourage others from running away from the scene........ or encourage them?

With reference to new signings, my main grouse is that despite being painfully short of attacking pace in the squad last year we have not attempted to remedy this. De Pedro and Dickov are hardly speed merchants are they? Our build up play is often far too slow and square to trouble good defences and is indicated by our record penaltyless(?) season. Just compare this to Portsmouth where HR has signed Lua Lua to play alongside Yakubo, with Berko pulling the strings in front of a defensive midfield. As we know to our cost last season they will cause other teams big problems, especially away from home. The current rules re: fouling attackers by the last man mean that more than ever before genuine pace will always trouble most defenders (as we know all to well! ) so the option of having a genuinly quick player, even one who is not top quality, can provide enough options to change the balance of a game. btw Dont ask me who I'd go for though but Matt Jansen regrettably would have to be the one to make way.

I bought some Trevor Hockey style footy shorts.......retro but trendy at the time. I was the first in the school to do so. I must have looked like Jimmy Clitheroe going to a fancy dress party as Alex James! I seem to think that Hockey died young. Am I right?

Anyway we now have the players threatening to strike if he is potted! What a hoot! And what a heaven sent opportunity to get rid of the useless, overpaid, over indulged, but totally detched from reallity sods and send message out to the rest what it should mean to play for England! If this story has any foundation the FA should take Cambell and Rooney to one side for a quiet word and then simply stop this nonsense immediately by thanking the rest for their services to date but informing them all that those services will no longer be required within the England set up ever again. And if they want to sell tickets for that I'd pay dear for one on the very front row! I would just love it! We would miss nowt. Its not as if they are any piggin good is it ffs! We could get another team to do just as well as that lot by throwing darts blindfold at a list of names.

Agrred Phil but there in a nutshell is the reason Clough didn't get the job. Although press and public were massively behind him the daft sod gobbed off about dismantling the FA from top to bottom before he even applied for the job! Once he did that he was never ever going to get the job was he? The old dodderers and yes man at the FA would have been like Turkeys voting for Christmas.

My how time dims the memory MB. As far as Venables is concerned it was only the (London) press that got him the damned job in the first place! His managerial achievements certainly never merited much above the a 'big' 1st Div job. Apart from one lucky season at Barca (how on earth did he get that job anyway?.......must be the same mystefing reason that Woy got the Inter job too). As a manager he was nothing, he simply talked a good game.

No he did'nt indeed, if I rem right he half filed the directors box with shale! Funnier still when Wolves came a'calling in a promotion game and he went right through, two footed and brutally clattered Wagstaffe (later to be our hero) twice in the first ten minutes. I can rem how gobsmacked the entire crowd (home and away) were when the Ref sent poor Waggy off! We still couldn't beat em though and ended up 4th whilst Wolves and Coventry eventually went up. BTW AllRoverAsia do you rem the blatant but not-given penalty decision against Coventry? It was that one incident that totally soured my hithertoo innocent childhood notion that this life is ever fair. In fact I've been a suspicious mistrusting burger ever since! ........and in 90% of cases since I've been right to be.

Wha Hey at last me'n Jim agree on something! Fergy.........what a guy! All the requirements for real 'cult hero' status. He could easily beat most opponents with basic skill but when they came out to simply kick him off his game he did something which so few skilfull players seem to be able to do........he tw*tted em big time! Duggie absolute genius! The best dribbler that I have ever seen ....and thats even including Duffer! Duggie knocked both Matthews and Finney out of the England team so how goods that?! Tony Field lovely balance, so just why did he not play at the top level all his career? But neither of those two had a personality that reached out to the crowd like Fergie. Cult hero's are not really about skill or ability as much as empathy with the fans so on that criteria I'm going to wimp out from sticking to just 3 by selecting any 3 from.... Fergy Garner Speedie (how would he have scored in this if he had been here for years?) Hendry (scored the winner of the first trophy that I ever saw us win after years of watching). and Mekky ps With Johnny Price as a distant sub!

Well err I gotta admit that she actully had em with me..............but she didn't inhale!

So he failed to land his top TWELVE targets !!! Does that mean granddad Les was number 13 on his list ? Are the BFS Fan Club on here going to re-consider their membership ?! Before you laugh too loud Tris it would be interesting to compare the number of season ticket sales. I don't know where Notlob are up to but I a sure as hell that ours are somewhat worse than disappointing. I know that the two are connected but if GS loses his job at Ewood the loss of ST sales will have figured larger in the boards decison than the lack of success last season. I've got to say that I've bollocked quite a few people for not renewing. OK they all give plenty of excuses ranging from last years poor home results, Footballers wives and roastings through the sales of Duff / Dunne, players that are Soueys 'babies' (imo more accurately described as BRN's (Big Ron's nemesis)), revoltingly bad taste cars on the Blackburn End car park that can only ever be sold on to drug dealers, to sickeningly excessive players wage demands etc etc BUT The population of this small, deprived, run-down ex-mill town does not deserve a Prem League team, neither does it warrant a Prem League team but it is struggling desperately to defy gravity by keeping a Prem League team! The current sceptical / critical / sarcastic call it what-you-will mood of the waggy style waverers coupled with the downright wicked mischief making of the Jim's etc is unfortunately all so very reminiscent of the 1960's when following a relatively successful period a bad performance in an FA Cup Final (re: the 'Derek Dougan effect' for the 'Cole/Yorke/Todd effect'), the subsequent lifting of the max wage (topically and very ironically something which many people are now calling for a return to), and the subsequent sales of star home-grown players saw the club enter into a 30 year decline rescued only by the immense fortune and extreme good will of one of Blackburns favourite sons. (Barbara Castle Way?!?ffs---- but that should be on another topic.) They say that 'history repeats itself' and that 'what goes around comes around' but if we want to retain top-flite status then we all need to pull together and try damned hard and everything in our power to ensure that 'where were you when you were sh1t' is never heard again around Ewood Park.

Oh thats a good one. Oh wait, you weren't joking I wouldn't criticise too much. He may cut a comic and portly figure on the pitch but Campo played damned well as the playmaker for Bolton last season.

USA - Yes I was pro Cole. Quality player and certainly can't fault him for lack of effort, Aha so you only got on of those 1/2 season season tickets for Christmas did you FLB? If so you must still not have used it until April! Cole's work rate in 75% of the games that he played for us was at best poor. He seemed to have an unequalled determination (cept by Yorky.....hence my frequent 'holding hands' comment about em) never to run wide to pull the defenders away from his playing partners.

Jeez waggy you are talking ever increasing 'Ballacks' in your quest to diss GS out of the club! Keep it rational. In our religious post match pub analysis Rev and myself frequently discussed Babbels ability to shirk tackles and hide during games (typical kraut....only motivated by big games). Which only goes to prove that if some dis-interested, faded superstar, on loan and still in the process of recovering from the seriously debilitating Guillain-Barres syndrome can undermine our towering, man-mountain of a centre half's confidence then there was something seriously wrong! I personally wouldn't have selected the kitten-hearted pansy Taylor for our bloody pub team! (Again something that I discussed with RB many times was that Taylor would never reach his potential and that he more than anybody was responible for Amoruso's bad start.) So you can hardly cite undemining Taylors 'confidence' as a negative, Souness gave Taylor every chance but eventually getting 1.25 million for him was damned good business. If it had been me I'd have done a 'Yorky' on him first!

Amen. You might be an annoying bigoted idiot, but there is the truth. I think that you must be mistaking me for someone else JBN.

Feasible? If the FA have any sense (extremely doubtful) I expect one of those two will be the next England manager! If its Big Sam then Curbs can cherry pick his next appointment from virtually any club in the div. Why the hell would either of them take a lateral (or even downward) step?