No he shouldn't BUT you can bet your bottom dollar Hughes would have been.

I don't mind admitting that I really rated McEverly when he played his firts few games under Souness, and I have frequently wondered why... 1. He left Everton 2. He has not developed in line with the talent and promise that he posesses. This article from tonights LET shines some light on things..... "McEveley: Andy Cole saved my career BLACKBURN Rovers defender Jay McEveley has found the road to redemption - and it's all thanks to his former team-mate Andy Cole. The England Under 21 international, who is currently on loan to Ipswich Town, admits there was a point in his career when he was guilty of having a serious attitude problem. However, some wise words from Cole helped to put him back on the straight and narrow, and now McEveley appears to have rediscovered his focus once again after spending several years in the football wildnerness. McEveley was first thrust into the limelight as a 17-year-old, when he was given a Premiership baptism of fire by Graeme Souness in a Lancashire derby with Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok in December 2002. He then went on to make a further 12 appearances in the first team that season, including both legs of a League Cup semi-final with Manchester United in which he was given the task of marking David Beckham. But, instead of kicking on from there and trying to nail down a regular starting place in the side the following season, the Liverpool-born defender sulked when he was eventually axed by Souness and it took a pep-talk from Cole to bring him to his senses. McEveley, now 20, and older and wiser than the teenager who made his Blackburn bow, said: "When Graeme Souness took me out of the side I did not know what to do. "I was being selfish and stupid. If I was out of the team, I would sulk and moan and say I didn't care. "The penny dropped when Andy pulled me aside one day. He reminded me how I had got into the side by working hard and doing things properly. "They were brilliant words and, from that moment, I have never slacked off. "I went off the rails a bit but, as I've grown older, I've learned how to deal with it." McEveley's fit of pique ultimately cost him the chance to make the left-back spot his own at Blackburn. Souness questioned his attitude on several occasions and eventually shipped him out to Burnley on loan in December 2003, the first of three such spells with Championship clubs. Mark Hughes briefly offered him a route back last season; McEveley made four Premiership appearances on the bounce last Autumn. But he was then sent out on loan again, this time to Gillingham, before he returned in time to appear in Rovers' game at Tottenham on the final day of last season, the last time he pulled on a shirt in the Premiership. Ipswich was McEveley's next port of call and since August, he's been a regular in Joe Royle's side, clocking up 12 appearances and scoring once. It remains to be seen whether McEveley still has a future at Blackburn or not, but, wherever his career ends up leading him, he will always be grateful to Cole for saving him from football's scrapheap." Serious attitude problems! What a cupid stunt eh?

I know that City were short of players and I know if my auntie had bolloxz she'd have been my uncle but imo a fit Neil and Emerton would have earned us 3 points today. We were just so weak down the right. With Gray and Pederson misfiring too and City's well rehearsed offside trap catching Bellamy and Dickov with aggravating regularity our attacking threat was zilch. But last season such a performance would have seen us come away with nothing so it's a nice feeling supporting a club that is at last difficult to beat. Hughes only mistake imo was in not giving Kuqi at least 30 mins of action. His enthusiastic work rate and physical presence caused more probs for Dunn and Distain in 10 mins than Bellamy and Dickov had done in the previous 80. Gary Linekar has backed Stuart Peirce to become next England manager but his actions in twice darting onto the pitch to grab the ball and speed up play out of frustration will have set any chance of that back immensely. The FA will certainly not want to hire such an emotion driven individual I'm sure.

..........without selling someone.

Hendry imo has never been management material. He is extremely wealthy though and owns more property than you can shake a stick at. He doesn't need the job to eat and maybe that is the rub! He'll never be hard up and imo whilst he holds a special place in our hearts he simply must owe a greater debt of gratitude to BRFC than BRFC does to him. Gave us great service but left us twice, the first I can forgive but the second was just pure greed. Shortly after agreeing a new megabucks contract with us he left us at the drop of a hat on the promise of even more money from Gers. In the long run it was a damned good deal for us (in fact it was our second best scam ever......after getting Fat Freddy to PAY for Souness ) because his best days were long behind him, but it was still a slight on us as viewed by the rest of the footballing world.

Last night was speaking to a bloke that had managed a large hotel in this area and quite out of the blue he said that the rudest sporting person that they had had stay was Steve Bruce! He sais virtually all the staff that he had had contact with complained about his ignorant and dismissive attitude! As an aside this chap said that everybody else in the sporting world that he had contact with from the RFW through to snookers Steve Davies, Dennis Taylor Willie Thorne etc etc were superb and mannerly with the only other exception being Stephen Hendry. He said that on more than one occasion he had to request that Stephen Hendry dispensed with his habit of continually ordering Big Macs and eating them in the hotel foyer. I guess that Hendry's attitude might have been more shyness than ignorance but it certainly accounts for his spotty face!

So you WERE a Rovers fan in those days? Good! Well done Philip. Are you now simply one of the 9000 less v Charlton than we had 3 years ago? Whether you are or not 1. do you expect that BRFC have sold on your ST seat(s) and...... 2. Can you personally not support the principle of supporting the club financially without actually attending home matches? As for me just a plain old 2 ST's every year, a few away games, a few kits and prezzy's bought at the store and funding the odd game under the heading of corporate hospitality. Is that OK for you? I do what I can. Maybe I could use the Blues Bar more......I dunno........

In your usual haste to stir unecessary trouble by winding up our distant friends you have shot yourself in the foot. Why should they pay when you state quite categorically that you won't Jim? People said that in the 60's and 70's after the max wage rule was ended Jim. I must have heard "Overpaid prima donnas on £100 per week do not need my money!" more times than enough in those days! The inevitable result was that as income dropped we paid less in salaries, attracted poorer players and played down with the dead men of Div 3. Make no mistake....... it's happening again.

Those 3 measures alone would probably ensure that there is no long term in the Prem. The aim in running any business is to maximise revenue and not to provide subsidised facilities when there is no subsidy to be had! That is the way to administration! People really have to get out of nurturing these stupid but quaint idealistic ideas. The Prem is all about money, if we want to be there then the club needs through necessity to finance that privelidge. We must provide funds in the short term first and let the long term take a back seat. We know that cheap tickets don't work, we know that the only thing that draws the less committed people through the turnstiles is the prospect of watching decent football from a winning team.

Just got a ticket an hour ago! My mate rang from the ground to say that a few more have been allocated for some as yet unknown reason, so that's us sorted. Don't know whereabouts we are though. Not expecting too much because one or two of our players are in the middle of frying bigger fish re: WC qualification.

Just a thought but in the 70's I knew a bloke, a die hard BRFC fan who had to miss his 1st match in years due to his sisters wedding. He felt so stongly that he wrote and sent a cheque to the club for the same amount as the price of his admission. Now I'm not addressing you in particular Philip, but would you (and other regulars on here too) ever consider doing likewise? You get more than your money's worth of entertainment on here alone never mind watching most of the matches basically for free in some far flung bar? I mooted this suggestion some time ago as a way forward for caring fans to help fund the club rather than attending away matches. Average awayday spend must be in excess of £50 so why not watch the match in the pub and send BRFC a tenner (for example)? About the price of a round of drinks! I know that it will never work as people are just not made that way nowadays, but imo the principle is right. We love having a Prem team but the fact remains that this town cannot fund one indefinitely, and our 'absent' friends as it were do not even have to find the price of ST's do they?

Disagree completely. What would make that midfield perfect first and foremost would be a quality player with a piggin left foot! How long it will take Downing to recover and how he develops or improves from then on is a biggy in our WC chances. As for somebody saying that Beckhams playing better........ Yes he is and like Emerton at rovers it sometimes takes a threat the like of Wright-Phillips to focus the mind somewhat. He is also and without doubt one of our BIG players. The 'usual' Beckham is a world class winger though and only an 'England squad' quality mid-fielder. If he is not considered for the wing then we should not attempt to invent a position in the middle for him, his midfield weaknesses are insurmountable at international level.

eh? imo it could easily have been 7-4 for England but for the post and some truly sensational saves by thier keeper from Rooneys chip and point blank efforts from Owen and Beckham. Furthermore Lampard failed to score when he sent two or three screamers narrowly wide / high from perfect positions, just how often do expect to see that? I am not belittling argentina and I know that we could have been 2 down early on which would have changed the game entirely but they could easily have suffered a Germanesque type drubbing on another day. One confusing point was that the pundits all praised Ferdinands performance but imo he was as he usually is......average to poor. So often he goes for the ball with his boot raised 6ft off the ground when he should be heading the damned thing. A liability, and in a key position too.

Indeed. More his physical presence than anything he actually did, which is well worth keeping him in the 22 for cos if you want something different to happen then you have to do something different! The emphasis changed because the Argies appeared to find him so difficult to mark and they started to struggle to even clear the ball. Great game for the spectators and played in a good spirit by both sides. imo we deserved to win because over the 90 mins I feel we had the better chances abnd their keeper pulled off some stunning saves.

C'mon 1864 cheering / applauding / punching the air when your team scores is hardly bad behaviour is it? Do it in the Darwen end of the JW and it hardly causes a ripple of resentment from the home fans but do it amongst the lower orders in the Blackburn End and its almost like a declaration of war. Why is that? What is the difference? As to Stu Wilkys statement that it is a breach of ground regulations then how come many away fans every match are treated to corporate hospitality courtesy of some company that takes a table in the stand and then are given tickets for the JW stand? We took two customers who are LUFC fans with us 2 weeks ago, fed and watered em in the International suite and then sat with them in the JW stand without any probs.

Are there any rules governing sitting with the home supporters? On sell out days I remember frequently seeing people ejected from Ewood (usually the Bburn End) apparently for the crime of jumping to their feet and applauding a goal by their team. They are suddenly identified and surrounded by scores of finger pointing, angry rovers fans until the stewards arrive to remove them. 1. Is this legal? if so then 2. Are they ejected completely for celebrating their teams goal or are they put into the ground with the away fans? 3. If they are ejected do they get their ticket money back? 4. If they are ejected and it may be unlikely but are they theoretically within their rights to request video evidence of their 'crimes' in order to pursue the club through the courts?

I wonder just what state the finances and the club would be in without Mr Souness's considerable input?

Has anybody else down there been anywhere near either Lee? Or is it all returning to the bad old days of pre Jack Walker? Maybe terminal apathy has returned to the ticket office too?

Your last sentence is nonsensical...... 1700 was obviously not enough and thats that! No matter who applied and when! Also it will be plain bloody stupid if there are any unsold empty seats around the ground.

Correctomunday! And imo reading the tea leaves it was a planned scam with GS involved too.

A very accurate comparison Joey.

Don't worry longsider 1882. It isn't anything you've done it's just that eddie resides in Gay Paris and is understandably a little stressy at the moment. Oops I'm forgetting, you lot are already well aquainted with race riots aren't you?

Quite right. I've already pointed out weeks ago that Bentley appears to have nothing to bring to the party. btw I see the 'Save Jon Stead' Brigade have gone mighty quiet of late! Especially those who also happen to also be fully paid up members of the 'Paul Dickov must go' and 'Bellamy is a liability' gang!

I wouldn't have minded going as I have never been to the CoM. 1700 out of 48000 seems mighty stingy for a derby, especially when we'll prog allocate them about 5000 at Ewood. Oh well never mind. I'll get over it. City obviously dont need the bunce. I guess that I should really now spend some of the money in the Blues Bar or the shop though. (does the shop still count btw?)

Thank you. I can assure you that I'm blushing prettily Shaddy. Cue another smiley. ...............I guess scotty will just have to make do with simply blushing.