Rovers 2 Everton 1 Just got in!

brfcs should do them for copyright infringement then!

'Arry with his £30m, Villa / O'Neill rebuffed by Celtic, Rovers with Ooijer, Rovers with Nelsen, Reid, Gamst, Gray and now Emerton- The common thread is that short of specific escape clauses, clubs everywhere have smartened up on hanging onto players and the supply isn't there in the market short of splashing sums like £5.5m for Heskey and £18.6m for Carrick. Emo is not my favourite player but boy, have we progressed since we hid in the cellars waiting for a Souness team sheet? Or even worse, a line-up including Peacock, Ward, Dailly, and other such lummaries of the Kidd era. Quite simply, there was no guarrantee we'd get a player at least as good as Bert so absent a realistic offer from Boro, he was going to sit out his contract. So sensible chap took a small pay rise and security and has thrown his lot back in with the Rovers. Pragmatism all round.

Chesh will write a contract for one of the corgies to come and pee on your front garden. Is that royal enough?

TheOlympic Committee threw out Juve'sappeal. In reality it was an attempt at reconciliation between Juve and the prosecutors who thankfully wouldn't budge an inch. Juve's grounds are that they want the same punishment as the other clubs. They are considering their options at a Board meeting on Monday. This includes yet another level of Sports Tribunal appeal and civil action in the Courts. Their latest quarterly turnover figures showed a 40% decline and that is before they have started the new season. Meantime, Reginna have suffered a 15 points deduction and President banning and Arezzo have lost points and had key people banned in Serie B. All the other punished clubs are off to the Olympic Committee on appeal.

Poor little rich 'Arry. No doubt Hughes will be drumming into our walking wounded that we couldn't be playing Pompey at a better time. Their Manager has just told half the team that he tried to get better players than them and failed and the he's going to carry on trying to get new signings. There are enough solidly good players around who would have been available at £3m (£5m to a money bags) that 'Arry could have transformed Pompey into a real threat for a UEFA place with £30m. Perhaps Gaydamuk just wanted £10m show ponies for his cash? As it is, Pompey look like relegation possibles with that current squad. And we all know Rovers' fallibilities against those (even Sparky's teams) :ph34r:

Fife, I was too young to see it but, I was brought up on tales of Douglas, Dobing, Dougan, Vernon and McLeod as the best forward line Rovers had put out. Mind you Ferguson, McEvoy, Pickering, Douglas and Herrison were the ones that immortalised themselves against Spurs and West Ham.

Simple economics lads. Boro bid £3m, bye bye Bert Boro bid £800K, bye bye Boro Re-signing Enerton at least will keep the boo boys on their usual target and off MGP, Bentley, Kuqi, Jeffers or whoever else they need to find to deprecate. Hughes is right- give the ball to Emo and he and the ball usually end up deep in the opposition half. He didn't say anything about great distribution, dangerous crosses, heading ability, eye for goal, tackling, football brain... Rather suggests that Sparky is going to do his utmost to turn Emo's natural athleticism into a footballer but he's not sticking his neck out on this one just as he won't have guarranteed first team starts although with the current injury list, Bert will be playing centre back alongside Neill on Saturday.

The Sun says- 1. Chelsea (same as last year) 2. Manchester United (same as last year) 3. Liverpool (same as last year) 4. Arsenal (same as last year) 5. Spurs (same as last year) 6. Newcastle (lets boot little Rovers out) 7. West Ham Combined with the most cloyingly supportive comments about those clubs. Still think it has nothing to do with readership numbers?

The last two pages have made extremely pleasant and very amusing reading. Well done Rovers and Nelsen. Where's Peter Cucumber to write a song for 'Arry on Saturday? If nothing original comes up, could always sing loadsoplayers to the (obscenely loathesome but funny when the Blackburn End waved its credit cards at the opposition) loadsomoney chant we had in the early '90s! 'Arry, 'Arry, who've you signed?

The Sun preview was worse thyan pathetic. Driven by readership numbers. Re Charlton, JFH and Carson are very good signings and Traore and Faye are not players I'd want to see signed by Rovers but are not that bad either in terms of adding real competition for places in an already reasonable squad.

Fife's suggestions are all excellent. I am sceptical that there is any formula for a salary cap that would work practically that wouldn't harm the Rovers. More than 50% of the salary cap proposals I've seen would cripple our club's ability to compete in the PL. The most likely and most sensible suggestion will be to use the increase in TV monies next summer to shift the financial balance significantly towards the non-CL clubs in the EPL. Most other ideas are only cosmetic in comparison. The top English division has survived periods of domination by one club before. The emergence of a clique of four that depends for its financial survival on coming in the top 4 is new and I think far more damaging to the EPL as a spectacle. Three or four seasons ago, Alan Green said in a commentary for something like Charlton v Boro in late November; "This is a cracking match and I haven't seen a bad Premiership game yet this season." That level of entertainment has fallen away terribly in the intervening period. Yes, I am very excited about the start of the new season but there are far too many Prem games you won't get me any where near a TV to watch unless there is a massive change in attitude by several clubs' management. Thankfully after playing the most unwatchable football Rovers heve ever played in my life time during the last two years of Souness, Rovers have reverted to being very good to watch again. I agree that Spurs v Rovers was the best pure football spectacle of any game in the Prem last season and for sheer unbridled enjoyment, Rovers v Mancs at Ewood was unbeatable.

Nice if predictable review from ESPN then in the last sentence: If Hughes wins their first silverware since 1995, they'll make him a Saint. (hmm, why go to Southampton?)

To be honest, with the Glazers repaying £600m+, A Manager who can work within limited means is very high on their priority list. Queroz is probably marginal favourite if RFW departs on his own terms. Lippi would be a good shout if the Glazers boot RFW out but whenever it happens, we are in for a worrying time at Ewood Park.

The Guardian preview, Bob's review and Kanu signing for Pompey have tempted me out of my shell. So the Premiership table will NOT look like this: 1 Chelsea - third time but will be a competition this year because 2 Liverpool - would win it but for Abramovich's buying power and Mourinho's ability to keep it together 3 Tottenham H - Jol will be so determined after the Canary Wharf trots and he's pulled a good squad together and has his summer transfer budget still intact 4 Arsenal - could have an iffy start with so many injuries and losing Reyes will be a huge miss but Arsene will make one or two key signings. If not they'll miss out on CL and not 5 Manchester United - ignore the name and look at the squad, its not good enough. Carrick starred in Rovers 7 W Ham 1 remember? 6 Blackburn Rovers - we came 15th twice running so why not? 7 West Ham U - a very serious threat. They've hung onto the players they wanted to and their signings are shrewd. Rovers dare not let the Whammers open a gap like Spuds did last year as we won't catch them either. 8 Aston Villa - O'Neill will work the oracle on a decent bunch of lads © O'Leary but the spending power will be for the big surge next season 9 Everton - was tempted to push them higher given their signings but they are a bit thin when suspensions/injuries hit and Moyes might not be that good a boss. 10 Charlton A - good signings. If they get a typical Charlton start, Dowie will make sure there isn't a typical Charlton slump. Could be a real threat for a UEFA place but probably not. 11 Newcastle U - how I want to see another Roeder relegation special but it won't happen sadly. No defence, no forwards but midfield will see them through. Duff will shine and save them. 12 Bolton W - not a good close season so far. Will be tough to play against, Nolan will sparkle, other than that the worst team in the Prem to watch. 13 Fulham - signings good enough to keep them up. Will be in deep doodoo if they start losing at the Cottage. 14 Middlesbrough - even if they get Emerton and Distin, they are still not as good as last season but I'm betting on Southgate being a better manager than England's new teeth. 15 Portsmouth - £30m to spend and at the moment weaker on paper than they were last season; not even Don Mackay managed that! However, 'Arry will carry on last season's end of term form so they won't be in danger of relegation. 16 Reading - you don't collect 106 points in the fizzy pop and not have the ability to pick up a few points in the Prem. Coppul is a decent Manager who knows what the top level is about so the biscuitmen won't crumble... 17 Manchester City - very vulnerable. Too many old players in the wrong places and fell apart at the end of last season which is a pointer to what's coming. 18R Wigan A - second season syndrome again for Paul Jewell. Heskey to carry on his BIG CLUB form and these boys are in trouble. Bad set of opening fixtures could set the tone for a failing struggle. 19R Watford - incredible achievement by Boothroyd and some smart signings but again don't have the opening fixtures they needed to get on a positive run. 20R Sheffield Utd - spent big to the delight of club Chairmen in the Coca Cola. Davies and Jagelka are probably good for the Premiership. Akembiyi, Hulse et al are not. Will get caught out by the Prem speedsters and Warnock will lose it big time. Chelsea and Liverpool might be one player short of their original shopping list plan but most of the other clubs are probably well short of what they hoped to get. Posting this now says that for most of them, its going to stay that way. For Rovers by the way, a great start could well help tip a few key signings our way.

Pompey have just picked up Kanu on a free- dangerous on his day and very likely to face us on Saturday.

In the BBC's ten to watch list.

Neil Warnock's lovable personality puts him much closer to the Bramall Lane Exit than that article suggests. He nearly got fired whilst getting the Blades promoted so a predictable bottom-grinding start to life in the Prem could see him out.

201 years this October 5th.

Hughes had better not bank on signing anyone in the January transfer window as Villa will be splashing the dosh. Quite apart from the other Prem clubs having a rude awakening to this news, down in BIG CLUB the Gold, Sullivan Brady threesome will have gagged on their Coca Cola breakfast this morning. Not only are they permanently condemned to being the littlest club on their own patch but Lerner wants Villa and its land for the Super Casino the porn boys had dreams of building into their 50,000 seat complex in Sutton Colville. So there's a silver lining somewhere...

Jonathan Douglas of Leeds United has been called into the Irish squad according to the BBC.

Given his choice in the matter, Sparky would like to be able to select his backline from Neill, Oijers, Zura, Nelsen, Todd and Gray (plus another signing?). Of that list, Todd is the least naturally gifted so is likely to see more of the bench this season but his days would only be numbered if he has another temper tantrum.

Isn't Lua Lua out injured? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...uth/5250030.stm

Who knows how many £10s of millions 'Arry won't have spent by next Saturday. As things stand, he's recruited four and let ten go including D'Allessandro who was 50% of the reason for last season's late charge. The current squad is basically not very good and I'm sure Calamity and Sol are feeling mutually nervous about each other whilst counting the cash. If 'Arry does spear one of his targets (possibly a surprise catch on a fishing expedition is a more apt metaphor), they won't have much time to settle into the 'Arry way of doing things and even less to adjust to 'Arry's way of talking. So an ideal time to play at Fratton; mid-August is lovely for sitting out in the sun in the open air. Very much a must not lose with two losable home games coming uplater in the week. I'll back Hughes to get the back line fit again and tightened up to give Rovers a 2-0 away victory.

Interesting that both this site and the official one contain massively divergent opinions about Reid yesterday. I am delighted that Benni showed some pure class. That was always the thing that separated Bellamy from any other speedster and it looks like we again have a forward who plays very inteligently and is going to need a couple of opponents to keep him from doing lots af damage.