Wembley pitch- Windsor Park is better England defence- introduced to each other at kick-off England formation- time for McClaren to remember how he got a moderate Boro to score 4 in tough situations in Europe for Boro. Get the second EPL reserves quality England striker on now. The truth is, Croata have far too much quality all over the pitch.

Russia haven't scored yet....

I was not doubting the veracity and value of a lot of the research (not all of it) which goes behind those games' databases. What I was getting at was the "flog these 6 players, buy those 8" type of comments which forget the risks involved in transfers (particularly when you have a social and sporting well-bedded set-up which Rovers have at the moment) and the sheer overheads in costs (signing-on fees, signing-off fees, agents, wage drift) and managerial time involved. Andre Ooijer suffers in the minds of quite a few Rovers supporters from having had a rough settling in period in the Premiership. I bet that given his time over again, Sparky would not have dropped Ooijer for the Old Trafford match and stuck with him at right back and Bert in the centre of midfield. Andre seems to have a huge amount of football cunning and ability which compensates for his lack of pace.

VAT tribunal found Birmingham and Newcastle guilty of exactly the same offences as the FA are charging Luton with The Quest report disclosed that 16 Premiership clubs have done the same thing when it came to non-contracted payments to agents but presumably unlike Newcastle and Birmingham did not have the cheek to reclaim the VAT or have quietly settled with the VAT man. Agents talking about fighting the charges. I wonder what harm this is doing to Mike Newell's employment prospects- the fact that he spoke out publicly about a practice that seems to have been/be commonplace throughout football post-Bosman and only his former employers are getting the book thrown at them?

The illicit drugs industry

Ahh, Benni looking after a fan.

The latest goss. Or, "we haven't a clue and are still gobsmacked by yesterday's results". Napoleon asked for lucky generals. Problem is that judging by his Austria selection, McClown's genius will be in chucking it all away again.

Mark Hughes interview in Manchester

Benni dreaming of CL with Rovers African Nations Cup

An interestingly vituperative piece on England's plight

Mike Newell going onto the attack

And Venables thought... There is supposed to be a picture here of Venables looking like "what the **** was that?" as Beckham is substituted.

Everybody must now be praying for Russia to get the result they need. I shudder to think what McClown would consider to be a line-up capable of beating Croatia if we still need to win that one. Ah well, that's as close to Austria and Switzerland any of the home nationsare going to get in 2007/8. Austria were every bit as woeful as their recent form suggested from the bit I saw.

I'll have a look if Bentley comes on. Excellent post on 606 encouraging me to watch what I am missing: "This does not look like an England side desperate to inspire its fans to have hope, just a bunch of mismanaged crocks coming to pick up their payslips"

George Cohen calls it exactly as it is.

FA charging Luton directors past and present and six agents over mucky business.

I see that the "Football Manager" play station generation are out in force on this thread.

Emerton interview at Brockhall Scroll down and click on his pic to play.

More details on the deal for Sparky and team

I don't want it to look like I have anything against the completely ignorant incompetent thickos working for the press but was it was or was it not 2nd v 6th in the Premier League this twit was reporting on, and the same player he and his chums from the reform school for the severely educationally subnormal routinely say Spurs are interested in/ about to buy/ have bought?

What is becoming ever clearer is how much of a unit Mark Hughes and his back room team are. Losing them all would be a body blow to Rovers but absorbing them could be a head ache even for MU. Would Ferguson really want to see his entire support team lose their jobs when he retires? No doubt club management/ownership and Mark Hughes have sat down and addressed all possibilities in pulling the new contracts together. What is not yet clear is whether the rolling element is continued, extended or ended.

Football's Mr Nasty at it again

Sparky about to sign one year extension to contract

Considering the bad blood history between them, the bookies must have been ecstatic when the Souey to Wigan bandwagon got going. Dave Whelan has just brought himself to utter a dignified: "I've not spoken to Graeme for three years," he said. "I've never spoken to him at all about being the manager of Wigan. How that story's come about is a mystery to me." (BBC)

Problem with Lucas was not the odd cynical challenge (although he had those in his locker) but his inevitable lapses of concentration with about five horrors every season. What little I have seen at WHam of Lucas indicates his all round game is down a notch from his time with Rovers and he managed three horror lapses against Boro in 15 minutes- Boro contrived to miss all three gilt chances. In subsequent snatches of games he also looked less tight than he was for us. Ignoring his lapses, Lucas could completed lock down his side of the pitch as a no go zone which is something Steven has not yet managed. But Steven keeps his concentration up so all round I'd say Steven is the better of the two.