I don't know why people use the Dunn example of Souness' mismanagement.... because there are far better examples to choose if one wishes too Dunn handed in a transfer request under Kidd and was on his way out. Under Souness, Dunn developed into a superb midfielder and got his first England cap. Dunn then (for whatever reasons) has gone completely off the boil. If Souness was completely wrong about this, the Dunn would be a superstar at Birmingham and would have made the central-midfield position his own,and would be a starter for Portugal 2004. But he isn't, he hasn't, and he won't. Looking at 'statistics'.. I know this is bad and doesn't always reflect on a player's true contribution, but : Emerton has played 30 games. With two goals, twelve 'assists', 15 shots-on target and 73 'successful crosses', which is the most in the league. On a statistical base, he is the 9th best midfielder in the premiership. Dunny has played 20 games. Two goals (both of them match-winning), one assist. Seven successfull crosses. Dunny was sold for 5.5 million pounds. Emerton was bought for 2.5 million pounds.. or there-abouts. Emerton has less talent, flair,creativity and potential than Dunn, on that I will agree. But so far, Souness is still ahead on that managerial decision IMO. If your argument is 'but a decent manager should have been able to turn Dunn around and harness his true potential'... well that is a fair point. But so far Steve Bruce seems to have given up as well. So that's Kidd/ Souness / Bruce that Dunn has gone through so far. Take Souness to the cleaners for his formation choices/player selection/treatment of other players as much you like, but the old 'look what he did to Dunny' chestnut doesn't stand up in the light of day anymore.

My god.. I think I agree with rover6 By John William's own assessment, finishing below 10th is un-acceptable for a team with the 8th highest wage bill in the league. The management structure has to change. Like others, I found Souness' comments before the Villa game encouraging, as it showed that he was willing to change. As a journalist wrote back in November, this is the first real crisis he's had as a manager, and he's 'hit the wall'. He can either ignore it, try and bash through it, or go around it. Hopefully he realises now that he needs help, and he must change, and can accept some new appointments. But more of the same is un-acceptable.

It certainly has put Roy Evan's reign at Anfield into context. At least under him they were contenders. In Kenny Dalglish's autobiography he gets a very big wrap for his role in the bootroom during the 80's. I always wondered what happened to Mr Evans, and would he ever be tempted to manage the Rovers at some point in time...

I originally posted "Give him 'till Christmas" back in the earlier poll. Since that poll we've had one decent home result, but two fantastic away wins. While the defeat against Bolton was heart-breaking considering we were 3-1 up, before the game I thought we would draw 2-2. I can't remember the last time we had an easy win against Bolton... home or away. Over the past few seasons they have always matched up well against us, so losing a tight game to them with several reserve players in the squad doesn't make me want to reach for the razor blades just yet As long as we put in good away performances (such as Newcastle and Wolves) I think we will be OK. As Jim pointed out, our home form has been disasterous, and in other years it alone would have been enough to consign us to the relegation scrap heap. But with Leeds and Wolves faltering, along with our pleasing away form, Souness for me has shown that he can finish the season in a position higher than 18th. What happens next summer is anyone's guess!!

Balwyn Rovers (Oceania III.8) (team id 37287) There are quite a few players from the Blackburn Rovers email list who also play. Hattrick is great!!

Yes, go to The Age Letters section and all you will find is how embarrassed Australians are that a sour-faced and shameful display by John Howard ruined an otherwise memorable night. John Howard - your true colours are showing EDIT - for the record. If England regain the Ashes next time they play, I wouldn't mind that much...in fact it would be good for the game.

Tris - I never wrote anything beforehand..because I don't know anything about Rugby.

From what I've seen, everyone from the top down (ie Eddie Jones) have praised England as worthy winners, as the best team in the world. Most Aussies are satisfied that we took the best team in the world to overtime, but ultimately, weren't good enough on the day. Best bits of the game for me : England scoring a try Watching "Little Johnny Howard" having to give every England player a winner's medal. THANK YOU CLIVE FOR WIPING THE SMUG GRIN OFF THAT B******* FACE JUST FOR ONCE!!!!!

LOL @ thenodrog No, I was not lucky enough to see Alan's debut game for the Rovers. Until recently, you hardly saw any premier league matches in full down-under, and back in the early days (ie the '92 season onwards) I had to subsist on one late-night one-hour highlights package per week. I began watching the late night highlights after Shearer was injured, so most of memories of the '92 season are taken up with the crowd chanting "Newell, Newell!!." It wasn't until the '93 season that I got to watch AS. Anyway, I still stand by my assessment. I watched Suker's game away at Newcastle and he was horrendous. The biggest impersonation of a donkey playing football we were privaleged to see since the Ashley Ward days. But he was electric at Fulham. His two finishes were absolute world-class, with a touch and finess that IMO I have never seen in a Rovers shirt ever. I"M NOT SAYING ALAN WASN'T WORLD CLASS!!! Because we all know he was! His performance in Euro '96, when he was at the peak of his game, confirms that. But AS was a different type of player. He relied on his strength, speed and power. AS would have blasted those chances at Fulham into the back of the net with a thunderous drive. Suker just showed us something else. A real shame when you consider that Fulham game was about six months ago. We had Suker, Duff, Tugay and Cole on fire and we absolutely destroyed them. Fast forward to today, and we would struggle not to get beated 3-0 at Fulham

Random mutterrings : Radaghast : I think Unsal was home-sick and went home (a tradgedy..what an asset on the left he would have been!). Suker wanted too much $$$'s and so was left to go back to Turkey. A shame. He came to Ewood, broke his leg in training. On his return game at Newcastle, he gave the best impersonation of a wandering donkey since the days of Ashley Ward. A few weeks later, having regained match fitness, he gave the most clinical display of world-class finishing away at Fulham I have ever seen from a Rovers player. I think you can put these two in the "ones that got away" basket. Now, regarding the crisis of confidence at BRFC these days, does Souness have any "friends" in upper football managment? Someone he could employ as a "horse-whisperer", as it were? A Mark Hughes or Kenny Dalglish, someone to watch training, say a few words to GS and the players? Just to give it a different perspective? GS is in trouble and is right to say that this is his lowest ebb. How he responds to this challenge will determine whether he can become a great manager, as opposed to a very good one. I see that he is taking the players away on a retreat before the Everton game. I hope this works as well in previous situations (ie during our flirtation with relegation in the 2001).

Actually I thought Duff gave a lot of credit to Saunders for helping his finishing ability? BTW why would Chris Coleman leave Fulham? He is currently setting the Premier Leauge alight, having just knocked off last-years champions away. He has a fair amount of financial backing at the club and a good set of players. What would a managerless Rovers in the relegation zone offer him??

Don't worry about Mr. Blair Bryan. With a bit of luck they will be bombing North Korea by the end of the year, so Tony and George can stand shoulder to shoulder on an aircraft carrier somewhere and talk about "defending freedom" etc. That should help his popularity!

Wasn't Dean Acheson (US secretary of state during the 50's) once quoted as saying that since the average American only spends 10 minutes a day thinking about the rest of the world, that gave the govt. the right to do whatever it liked without worrying about public opinion? I guess everyone has overloaded on their 10 minutes recently...so it is back to "Big Brother" and Millionaire-game shows. I know where you are coming from Rosie. Two weeks ago we saw non-stop video of tanks rolling in, bombs exploding everywhere and dead bodies. Now when all of the interesting issues come to a head, the world's attention is once again diverted away. I guess it isn't in the US administration's interest to have the world watching while it divides the riches of Iraq amongst the "coalition of the willing". Let the people watch their game shows, and in five or so years when we have another war, we'll do it all again (ie non-stop media exposure about how terrible and horrible a certain regime/tryrant is, good days for freedom loving people everywhere etc.)

For what it is worth. I have nothing personal against Jim, but he did manage to get up every Aussie's nose the morning after the loss to Uruguay. He does have a rather obsessive hatred for all Australians. Mind you he does have to work for one of them And I do appreciate it when he posts breaking news on the message board. And as for thenodrog, I will never see eye to eye with him. But I do consider it one of the highlights of my year on the board that I managed to get him to agree with me on one of the threads on politics