Not intentional that Phil. You know me I cannot always tell the Woods from the trees.

Must say Phil I run with the Hare and hunt with the Hounds on that one!

Good points eddie. The country's full of people who always want summet for nowt.

1. Have you or anybody you know ever downloaded any music / games / films illegally Oscar? It's much the same argument. 2. Anyway if there are lots of people disillusioned with football as you suggest then they wont miss the game being banned from the tele will they? 3. Can you define 'working' and 'middle' class please? They are terms that should be long gone and consigned to the history books. imo most people you prob deem to be middle class do actually work hard for their 'ill-gotten gains', whilst sick notes have more work in em than huge traunches of people that you prob deem 'working' class.

eh? Whats to stop the photgraphers assembling on the Riverside Eddie?

You never lose it eh? But..... Typical Rovers PR to show off Santa Cruz to the world's press and media with the Riverside shed in all it's glory in the background! I despair at times.

"I haven't got a problem with expectations and raising expectations because the supporters want to hear people being positive. "It's very easy to underplay your chances and then hope to over-achieve. What a contrast to so many comments attributed to our last manager who treat European and domestic cup competitions with complete disdain.

err could you have another go at posting that please usroverme? I'm struggling to understand your point.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/200...89520-19569736/ Thats arse about face! They would be better served by appointing referees who were strong enough in past seasons to stand up to the likes of the old RFW and Jose Mourhino. To admit that their members are susceptable to bullying is a sad indictment of their selection procedures.

This looks to me like a grace and favour story where some journo is having his strings quietly pulled by another club? Does that ever happen Alan?

No it didn't Simon we made money on Bellamy and he scored enough to get us into the UEFA. A very successful albeit not perfect liason that would have been perfectly acceptable if he'd been signed on a one year deal from the start. (Course as is the way these days he'd want the security of a long term deal should serious injury / loss of form occurred) Would you rather he'd have signed for Celtic or Birmingham for those 12 months? I'm sure those two clubs would have taken the option on that..... and especialoly so in hindsight. What about offering the same deals to the likes of Gudjonnsen, Defoe, Anelka, Baros, Cisse etc ? 'Your careers dipped son so come here, earn a bagful of dollars and if we get you top drawer again you can move on for 'x' million?' The only time the term 'take it or leave it' will be uttered in negotiations with these guys will be by their agents to us! So Rev in hindsight if you were Hughes / Williams would you have taken Bellamy and Benni clauses and all or would you have taken the huff and left em?

He shaped up more like Frank Sidebottom!

I think I'd hand the job to Dunny after watching that! btw I noticed that they didn't have Brad in the nets.... watching that clip I'm sure that it would have taken hours to complete.

I still hold by what I said at the time that he was wrong to retaliate BUT he took two snidey and painful kicks before he did so. One seriously high studs up lunge from the black fella with the long hair that deserved a booking and a kick on the shins from Dugarry that warranted the same. Course the ref, who should already have dismissed and at very least booked Dugarry for deliberately elbowing McEverley, unfortunately/conveniently 'missed' those didn't he? Was similar when Todd retaliated against Andy Reid after Reid stamped on his ankle causing him to be out for weeks. btw once he was walking he should have dropped the gobby Lazarides for good measure imo!

Events of last season and this coming one indicate to me that Abromovich is determined to get rid of the seemingly fans favourite Mourhino by chipping away to make his position eventually untenable. I'd wager that he will not see out next season.

Am I being overly cynical (and pessimistic ) or does the timing suggests a possible connection.

A real steady eddie. Apart from a few spats with the management he certainly never did us any harm did he?

What? He only figured in a handfull of games so God only knows what the expectations were.

Perhaps Ryan Giggs had already got wind of it.

Very brief comment from an elderly gent of my aquaintance who is a very close and long time friend of a couple of Ewood players from that era ..... "???????? reckons that Derek Dougan was all for himself". Who was it who said that 'football is all about opinions'?

MP3 players have certainly moved on a pace!

http://archive.theboltonnews.co.uk/1996/5/24/852320.html Maybe if we had signed Dugarry and ZZ then Shearer might well have stayed for longer. As it was we ended up with George Donis. Whilst not the best of the four by a country mile I think his pace would have been devastating with him supplied and providing for the others. The press reports suggested that the then French manager Aime Jaquet advised all his squad to play in Seria A rather than the Prem as he believed that Seria A would develop them into better international players. He was probably right too. I rem after Ray Harford was sacked later that year he was quoted along the lines of 'in the close season I was looking forward to playing Zidane, Dugarry, Shearer and Donis in the same team, but bit didn't happen .......'. Not difficult to sympathise with him was it? Biggest mistake of the Walker years imo.

Yeah great goal but I'll remember Benni's against them in't Cup a lot longer!

A testament to his action in asking for a transfer on the morning of the FA cup final from an opposition source (Wolves centre half Bill Slater) quoted today from the Daily Telegraph......... "On the morning of the FA Cup final in 1960, he (Dougan) asked Blackburn manager Dally Duncan for a transfer. Wolves, pressing for the double under Stan Cullis, thumped them. Bill Slater, Wolves and England centre-half, observed: "I never expected to play in the Cup final against someone [Dougan] who didn't seem to be trying." Sorry but to follow that course of action in front of thousands of supporters from BRFC who had been starved of cup success since 1928, who were looking forward to the day of their lives, and who had spent a lot of (very) hard earned money to follow the entire cup run and especially to get to Wembley in those days does not rest easy with me. I may not choose to speak ill of the dead but I certainly cannot praise him.

O.K Fife. I might well be able to find that out. If I do I shall let you know.