If Souness goes in for him, the money will do the talking- wages for Neill, silly money for the Rovers. If Boumsong = £8m, Lucas = £?m. I would get a pet hack to start talking big numbers if I were JW/Sparky to get Fat Freddie acclimatised. A straight Neill/Bellamy swap? Why not be cheeky. He is good but there are better RBs out there.

That £7.75m list starts from 1 July. Add Darren Purse £500k, Martin Albrechtson £2.5m, Richard Scimeca undisclosed (rumoured £1m+) who were bought in June 2004 and its in the £12m range. I thought Horsfield, Gaardsoe and Kinsella (another £4m to £5m for those three) were closed season signings but they arrived last season. Contra is a loan and Kanu and Campbell were completely free transfers. OK I was wrong - but its still a significant transfer outlay.

Look at the Baggies' current form (three wins in four). They are the team down there producing the results at the moment and with the near £20m spent on transfers, they probably have the most class, most depth and best-balanced squad of the strugglers. They had two against the woodwork as well as the one they scored against Everton today. The 4-1 win at Charlton two weeks ago didn't flatter them either and unlike Palace and Saints, they kept their good run going inspite of the long break. I don't fancy our chances of getting three points when we go to The Hawthorns and am only grateful that the Semi has pushed that fixture back. As for the sun, it has been 13 and raining all day today.

1864, four draws against Palace, Soton, Baggies and Fulham will see us safe on 37 points even though that would be massively disappointing in terms of looking up the table for place prize money. Apart from anything else, it runs down another game for the clubs below/around us to make up the points deficit. In that scenario for us to go down, two of these three unlikely outcomes have to happen: Southampton to get 9 points from the other 6 games West Brom to get 10 points from the other 6 games (assuming they don't overhaul the 9 goal difference disadvantage) Palace to get 10 points from the other 6 games. It also assumes, Pompey pick up 6 or 7 points from (h) Charlton, Liverpool, Southampton, Bolton and (a) Man City, West Brom (that could be a tasty end of season affair!) For the record Fulham have (h) Man City, Newcastle, Everton, Norwich and (a) Bolton, Boro, Rovers so I don't think either they or Brum (already on 36)are in any real trouble. My end of season prediction looking at the fixtures: Norwich 23 Palace 33 Soton 34 Baggies 35 Pompey 35 Rovers more than 37 Southampton's game at Ewood next week is absolutely MASSIVE for them.

Well we are through the nightmare run of fixtures and sure enough, had we lost all four we would have been a precarious 1 point above a relegation place. Fulham winning by a margin of two has dropped us to 15th on goals scored whilst the win for the Baggies against Everton not only makes Liverpool favourites for 4th place but really stirs things up at the bottom. Palace, Southampton and West Brom are in a two from three scrap but with Pompey somewhere between dead slow and stalled, they may well be in deep trouble very soon as well. Rovers have a bunch of games coming up which we have to avoid loosing- victories would be nice but not essential in terms of Prem survival. Seven games to go, six points and goal difference in hand should be more than sufficient to see us OK, especially as the strugglers have a preponderance of fixtures against the top half clubs with European places at stake. It is easy to see the Prem survival mark coming at around 36 points this season because the battle to avoid the drop is going to produce some heroic performances. Rovers might not be in the battle themselves but how we play against Southampton, Palace and West Brom could well determine their survival and relegation issues. It all adds to the clubs at the bottom looking at their remaining games and counting the Rovers as amongst the likelier sources of three points. Far from having opponents sitting back and defending, I suspect the next four games at Ewood will be amongst the most entertaining this season, even if we play 4-5-1. Here's hoping we see no wild celebrations but lots of tears at the Darwen End. "You're going down with the Norwich"

Well its what I think and feel about ManU. No doubt RFW and the chorus are reciting all the poor hard done by tales of missed chances and hitting the woodwork... diddums. We have still got at least five or six games of outrageous good fortune to come before we are even with the scum.

Just got in (I didn't watch it). Great result and yah boo sucks to the Mancs!!!

Steve Cotterill is too good for Burnley!

Somehow, I don't think Robbie will be responding to this Toshack effort

Cracking piece of analysis from Asian Betting Handicap: Man Utd giving up a +1.5 start to Blackburn looks a bit too much for me, and therefore this is a decent bet @ 2.00 from Sporting Bet. Blackburn are presently the 5th best performing side 'away' over the last 5 matches. They are showing better form on the road than they are at Ewood Park, and the showing from the players in their last 3 games against 3 of the Top 5 , is a clear indication of the improvement that Mark Hughes is still bringing to the club. Beating Everton 1-0, then drawing with Liverpool 0-0 were good results , although not very pretty to watch, but then again "Sparky" has never claimed to be a proponent of 'total football'. He gets the job done in anyway possible. The 1-0 loss to The Arse was a performance that Hughes will have taken a lot from. As poor as they have been in scoring - worst in the league- their attitude on the pitch has often verged on GBH!. "Intimidation" is an accusation that Norwich's Worthington levelled at the Rovers , and he's not that far off the mark. They are very aggressive and physical in their style, which is why i see them being tough opponents for Manyoo on Saturday. Keane, Rooney , even Rio all have a fancy as hard men, so throw the little princess "Ronaldo" into the mix and there should be enough to keep the ref busy for 90mins...and more. Physical sides are more likely to put Manyoo off their stride as there is less time for the one touch style of play. It's all go from the whistle, space is closed down and harder to find than an englishman in the Arsenal team. The last 2 meetings have gone 3pts to Blackburn and a draw: both at Ewood Park. In fact the last 7 meetings overall have gone 3-1-3, with both winning on home ground , but Manyoo getting a draw last time out at Rovers. Only once have Manyoo beaten them by more than 1 goal : April 2003 :3-1 :Old Trafford. No doubt Blackburn will have the usual 5 in midfield , leaving Fergie with thoughts of last week's display against Fulham, when they failed miserably to capitalise on their dominance. If they couldn't do it against the Cottagers, then they will struggle even more with Blackburn , a side who appear to revel in frustrating their opponents. As I've said on many occasions, Dickov is an underrated player who gives so much grief to all defences, goading them, hassling them, really getting under their skin, and I think that Mark Hughes will be acutely aware of how much of a weapon this is when playing the 'Devils' on their own ground. Get them rattled , EARLY!! ....that's the way. No time to settle. Blackburn have scored on each of their last 3 visits to Old Trafford and should do so again, forcing Manyoo to find 3 for us to lose out on this bet...possible, but I don't see it. Securing only odd goals wins over Fulham and Portsmouth in their last 2 home games isn't inspiring, and with RVN still not on his game, plus Ronaldo's often poor decision making in the final third adding to the permutations, I am very happy to take this handicap. And for "balance" , the view from Manchester complete with Spelling mistakes. Go Ryan!

The LET doing its bit to drum up support There is a club plane flying down from Blackpool- £325 with all trimmings!

Perhaps the sceptical Rovers supporters would believe you jim if the LET had updated Ewood Eye and a Rover All View. There are two cracking articles previewing a cup tie away at Turf Moor on their web site.

Assuming we are still level after Extra Time and Penalties, we will keep taking penalties till somebody misses. Does that mean the TV coverage will disappear if they are still taking penalties at 3.00pm?

Who is Fernando Ricksen?

One thing is for sure. Before every Wales game with Toshack in charge, the Press will only talk about Robbie Savage and Mark Hughes. Here is this morning's version for instance! As for non-playing Managers, Wales had one in Mike Smith.

We got £4.5m rising to £5m on appearances. I suppose given he's the Scots captain, the Gers cannot very well shaft Rovers on appearances the way they did Everton over Ball. The only risk is that Ferguson has a Brasilian Granny. He is homesick for the Maracana and he wants to win lots of silver foil.

It gives me no pleasure to write this but the Toshack appointment can be summed up in one word- disaster. Disaster before it was made, disaster whilst he is in charge and disaster, the sum total legacy. The man has immense abilities and huge achievements to his credit but has been undermined by an alarming personal hubris. So at a time when he should be sitting as a colussus in charge of a trophy winning machine, the giant ego is sitting in a tin pot organisation populated with self-opinionated taffy pygmies with egos from the same Welsh paranoid parochialism as his own. Only John Toshack and the odd committee man Robbie rubbed up the wrong way can fail to see the folly of dropping Savage. Effectively Tosh said he wasn't man or big enough to be able to manage Savage- what an admission! The rest of the world looked on and laughed whilst the Austrians laughingly said taf very much before choking as Poland smashed 8 past the hapless Azeris..

Under Ranieri, Chelsea would be in a dog fight for the title at best- would a Ranieri managed side have won at Ewood this year? I doubt it. Mourinho is a god to the Chelsea fans- even more than Abramovich. Just imagine he were at Rovers, we'd love it!!! That said, I think he is in deep trouble with UEFA and they are determined to make him pay for forcing Frisk out of the game. Chelsea probably won't get stripped of titles or games but they will hit them with everything short of that.

Lovely bit of understatement there Back in the days of Romario and Stoitckov running rampant in the Spanish League for Barcelona, their main rivals were the Deportivo side managed by Toshack. He also won the league with Real Madrid in 1989, with a side that scored 107 goals in a season... still a record. Won the Spanish Cup in 1987 awith Real Sociedad and the following season guided the side to second place in the league. Fantastic what fried bananas can do. Chicken and beans won one measly Premiership.

This is the website of engineering works- supposedly. Scroll down to the bottom and the semi final weekend appears with no mention of engineering works in the Bristol/Cardiff area. However, these guys don't seem too clever at keeping their web site up-to-date! As for biddy's information, there is one railway but two companies. It could be they are reducing the lines to one track and they have kicked Arriva into the Bristol Channel or it could be the colon is excreting and the sphincter is closed. Any how, there are direct flights from Malta to Cardiff bnut they are chartered and the sods won't sell me a ticket because they are reserved for taffies going on their holidays I never knew that you are only allowed to emote with a con five times per post. Cannot even cheat by adding a sixth in the edit!

Back to normal. Burnley fans arrested.

You're going to stick with this fried banana theme aren't you? Well I like fried bananas even if Robbie doesn't. Yum Yum

The weakness in Toshack's argument is: Wales squad to play Austria in World Cup Group Six qualifiers on 26 March in Cardiff and 30 March in Vienna: Coyne (Burnley), Jones (Wolves), Price (Ipswich), Delaney (Aston Villa), J Collins (Cardiff), D Collins (Sunderland), Page (Cardiff), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Edwards (Wolves), Partridge (Motherwell), Ricketts (Swansea), Roberts (Tranmere), Davies (Tottenham), Fletcher (West Ham), Williams (West Ham), Koumas (West Brom), Earnshaw (West Brom), Giggs (Man Utd), Robinson (Sunderland), Bellamy (Newcastle - on loan to Celtic), Hartson (Celtic). Wales Under-21 squad to play Austria in Uefa Championship Group Six qualifiers on 25 March in Merthyr Tydfil and on 29 March in Neuseidl Am See: Hennessey (Wolves), Worgan (Rushden), Anthony (Cardiff), A Davies (Yeovil), M.Jones (Wrexham), Cotterill (Bristol C), Beevers (Boston), Duffy (Portsmouth), Gilbert (Plymouth), Morgan (Wrexham), Nyatanga (Derby), Ledley (Cardiff), Pipe (Notts Co), Birchall (Arsenal), Caliste (Man Utd), Crofts (Gillingham), C.Davies (Oxford), Vaughan (Crewe). So after seven EPL players retired following his apointment, Tosh is left with three players currently holding first team places in the EPL and three youngsters with EPL clubs in the under 21s, none of which I think have started a game for their respective clubs. Promising youngsters he's got coming through.

The Guardian's match report this morning. Makes some good points about the youngsters coming through at Arsenal and our need for a Plan B.

Did you see the goal he scored against Norwich at home?? or Burnley home??? Point taken but as a wide player he only seems to me to beat a man when the defender is tight on him. There were several opportunities yesterday when MGP was running at a defender and he chose not to take him on.