Agree with others sentiments here... if Mark Hughes selects him, he has the 'stamp of approval' from the Rovers manager..

...what good would it do to try and undermine the managers authority at this point?

Mark Hughes probably feels that Savage+Ferguson together in midfield will see us comfortably avoid relegation this season.

If half the Ewood crowd start booing him, what message does this send to Hughesy?

'Mark, you're wrong about Barry. He's a mean stupid little boy who isn't fit to wear the shirt and we want him out.'

Maybe Barry will only start at away games for a month or so??

Scotty - on the one hand, would you prefer to see a 'local lad' play for BRFC, who loves the town, has lived there all his life... but is quite frankly lazy, useless and couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo?

Or someone who was born on the other side of the planet, who lives about 20 km from Blackburn and doesn't really associate with the town? But when he pulls on the blue'n'white halves, he busts a gut and plays every game in a committed and professional manner?

Personally, I don't care what the players think about the town as long as they perform as professionals.

But then again, I live on the other side of the planet.

I can see that for locals, it would be immensely frustrating and annoying to see your local club paying someone thousands of pounds a week who clearly looks down upon the town and its people.

But... at the end of the day you are paying the player to play football. He doesn't hold a representative office, he isn't the mayor, the chief of police or the local baker.

"Stefan is not looking left of right - he is 100 percent a Rangers man. He is only interested in playing for Rangers for the rest of his career".

Doesn't that sound very similar to

"I'm loving it at Blackburn and, hopefully, I can stay here for a few more years yet. I definitely see my future here. The main thing is that I'm happy and my family is happy. I'm really enjoying it here."

Now obviously as you've met Klos and you know he's a Rangers man there's probably a bigger chance that he's actually being sincere. But you should never trust a footballer when he says he's "definitely" doing something

Amen to that Lathund.

I trust what a footballer says to the media regarding his family about as much as I trust Donald Rumsfeld.

Dado - I admire your optimism

Emerton - judging from that angle the ball was running away from him and he was never going to get into a position to shoot.

we're going to lose - can feel it in my water

It's all your fault!!

Why would we need the next Duff, when we already have a perfectly good player on the left in... no, I wont turn this thread into another one of 'those' threads by mentioning 'his' name...

Voldemort!?!?

I've had a look at the series I will end up in, and I don't think I'll have too many problems.

I'm feeling much more optimistic about the situation now.

sam - luckily for you there is a sucker born every minute

I got relegated today. Oh well... time for some re-building.

I find that season prices drop towards the end of the season. Its a great time to buy, not so great to sell.

But you can turn your whole squad over without worrying about the TS hit (because it gets reset at the start of a new season).

And for those of us who have to sell before we can buy, it really is the only option.

Note the prices will spike the week before a qualifier as teams look for that key player to save them from relegation/help them with promotion.

I drew 4-4, and I'm now in trouble.

I'm 5th on goal difference (+2), but the 6th team has a walk-over next week.

I play the top team next week, who will MOTS as a win will guarantee them auto-promotion.

The 7th team plays the 3rd at home, and having just come off the bye, will probably beat them.

I'm thinking about chucking it in now, selling off my midfielders and getting ready for life in Division IV again... and training up some superstar midfielders, as well as giving my wingers some PM training.

I suppose you probably won't want to read this article then either Tris

George Monbiot

A work mate of mine started complaining about how Citylink (tollway consortium in Melbourne) only gave away $50,000 to tsanami charities... and then proceeded to publicise it to the whole community.

Whereas he feels they should be ashamed for being so stingy.

But personally, I was suprised the private companies are giving anything away at all.

Private companies exist to protect the interests of their shareholders.

And it doesn't matter if they kill people (e.g. James Hardie), poison the planet (Exxon) , or profit from war (Halliburton)... as long as shareholders are looked after and mums' and dads' investments in managed funds are looking okay, nothing else really matters.

What do people want instead? Government regulated industries? Enforced charity obligations?

Sounds like a lefty-wishy-washy-bleeding-heart socialist dictatorship to me!!

I won a must-win game on the weekend.

Need to win next week, and have a few results go my way to avoid automatic relegation.

It's not looking good!!

As an aside many Australians were critical of their consular/ambassadorial efforts in helping getting the Australian survivors home when compared to the efforts of the German government rescuing its citizens.

And who created 'the market' in the first place?

And who makes the rules of the markets?

Perhaps now is the time for a real 'coalition of the willing'.

I'm sure you'd find that the majority of Australians are very happy for our government to give lots of taxpayer money for aid.

And many Australians will also give additional donations to the Red Cross and Oxfam etc.

it is our 'backyard', and Australians do travel so much in S.E. Asia. Not to mention the amount of immigrants and family connections we have in the region.

I think the 'stingy' response regarding the US initial contribution was related to the US initially under-estimating the scale of destruction.

At the moment, the death toll is as big as any of the major earthquakes over the past few decades (e.g. Mexico City, Armenia, Iran), but it is likely to get bigger.

But the spread of destruction over several continents is something that hasnt' been seen since Krakatoa.

Hmm... dunno about that.

Cole didn't score that much in the last few games of last season either.... but he laid on heaps of goals for Stead.

He will usually attract the best centre-back and most of the defence's attention, which makes life easier for Stead/Gally/whoever his strike partner is.

Stead showed last season that he could cut it in the Premier League.

Gallagher has showed glimpses at times that he has something to offer at this level as well.

Unfortunately, Stead doesn't have Cole to play with this season.

And he's out of form.

But I think its almost getting to the point that you might as well just throw Stead in and keep playing him until he gets his confidence back.

Is a low-on-confidence Johnny as good as a Dickov?

Everton's central midfield is too strong.

Graveson and Carsley will win much of the ball with their physical presence, and lay it off to Cahill who with his energy and pace will run the centre of our midfield (and defence) ragged.

I'm not sure what Hughes plans to do about this.

Personally, I just hope he plays Stead for 90 mins. Class in permanent, form is temporary. I still think this kid has the goods. We just need find someone whom he can play up-front with.

We'll probably lose 2-1, but I'd like to think we can get something out of this in front of a big home crowd.

Now that rock is 'cool' again...

... I wonder if Oasis will have another big global album??

I PIC'ed and threw my league game yesterday against the top team, getting ready for my 8th round Cup game this week.

I had to play my third-string striker in defence because two of my defenders were still injured.

Now another defender got injured on Sunday.

I only have two fully fit defenders in the whole club

Did he get a reception?

Bleedin' eck!

The season isn't half over yet. Even Brian Kidd won a few games whilst in charge.

The jury is still out on Hughes... lets see where we finish at the end of the season before we pass judgement on him.

People are nuts... I would not have paid 2.8 million for that.

Consider I paid 2.5 million for an 18 year old player with excellent playmaking and excellent wing last season. He also had a head specialty.

But, I bet you aren't complaining Sam

BTW I managed to win my cup game yesterday in a penalty shoot-out. I'm now through to the 8th round, and for the first time in eight seasons, I have a home cup game!!

Tris - don't stop now.... but I think I can hear Rupert giving you a job offer

Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Emerton used to cop loads of flack for not taking defenders on and running to the bye-line.

And now that he does.... the criticism is that he's doing it too often!