Dwight's number falling off might be an indicator of the fact he wasn't going to get one! Clubs often have a pre-season agreement that rather than red carding a player, they get subbed immediately. Very disturbing that our Australian contingent on the right are continuing to play horribly badly. I am much more worried about those two than any other aspect of the squad- up front, Stead, Gally, Dickov, Jansen and Yorke (its more than odds on that will be our choice when we kick off against WBA) are not world beaters but they can hack it in the Prem. But if its all going down under on one flank, we are in deep trouble. Will be interesting to get the SCFC fans' views on last night. Incidentally, just seen that Palace bet Sporting 1-0 last night.

If it weren't for the fact that Steve McLaren is rumoured as the successor, I would say it would be deeply irresponsible of the FA if they do not sieze this opportunity to get rid of Sven for nothing. His behaviour in the England job shows that his acceptance/rejection of Jack Walker's offer was IN character, not an aberration. His performance in the England job indicates that had he come to Ewood, we would have been boring, won nothing, but would not have suffered the Hodgson/Kidd trauma and relegation.

Gally was also on the mark. Anybody know which Taylor was playing?

Damien Duff? Of course Duff was skilful and certainly gets in the top three for most exciting but he was not one for doing the breathtaking sublime. McKenzie would do that every time he pulled on the shirt- I think he only scored twelve goals for us but at least six were in the "how did he do that category?". Plus the way he would take the ball and two opponents to the touchline, completely bamboozle them and escape with the ball at least 50% of the times he did it. He's the only player I've seen do a driven volleyed back heel flick from 20 yards- and it was only just over! Bohinen was in the same class but either times had moved on or he wasn;t as capable so his sublime moments were less frequent. Thinking back, perhaps Stuart Metcalfe should be in the dead heat third as well- what he could do with the ball at his right foot was awesome. At his left foot, a joke! But there was a player who deserved all the adulation we devotedly gave him.

Why not take the players nominated so far and have a poll? Glad to see Duncan Mckenzie get a nomination. For breathtaking skilful ability my all time top three in order would be: 1) McKenzie 2) Bohinen 3) Dead heat between Tugay, Ripley and Sellars.

Thankfully none of them played in blue and white halves! Good shout FLB. Noel Brotherston, Simon Garner and Killer Keeley for me. Last one more deadly than the three Amercan mentoned.

No doubt the Gers/Scouse/Saints fans I speak to are as unrepresentative as Waggy's friends: Gers- Souey is God. He started the revival of the club on the football pitch whilst Murray sorted out the money. Souey had the guts to confront the Rangers bigotry and transformed it into a modern football club. Whilst Souey was there, the bhoys had to eat dirt, dirt and dirt again. To a ger, not much else matters. Liverpool- Souness was reviled at the time he left but seen in retrospect as better than everything that followed him. He suffered by being appointed too close to the Shankly/Paisley era. Most Liverpool fans would have willingly swapped five years of Houllier for five years of Souey. In fact they feel quite guilty about the treatment Souness was given as the Liverpool Manager and have a soft spot for the Rovers because we revived his career. The stories of Souey the midfield enforcer tend to get confused with Souey the Manager. Saints- Souey and Southampton don't go together (they are saying the same about Paul Sturrock). Souness was not altogether bad for the club but not very good either.

So far so good. Only one worrying injury (to Friedel) and by all accounts all players have been at least OK with two fringe players outstanding- Gresko and Nissa. That at least should increase the competitive pressure for places which is excellent news. Any sign of Matty getting back to form or Emerton showing something like? Thanks to the lads in Germany- great reports back!

Tugay's invisible friend becomes visible. Perhaps the friend was not really invisible but is just a very fast squirrel. Whenever Toogs passed to him (her?), the squirrel was already up the nearest tree.

Pre-season friendlies, indiffeerent opposition and a multitude of Rovers players used but, 190 minutes and not a goal conceded shows encourging signs that the malaise at the back might get sorted out.

I know exactly who it was and I wasn't there and don't have any inside information. Anyone else who knows should keep very very quiet bout it as well.

To Andrew Cole- thanks for the memories: The Worthington Cup winner The way you fired us to safety and tenth place The goal at Liverpool Many sublime moments of skill Your link work with Stead-especially the goal at Everton There were some horrible misses (far too many of them) which if Rovers keep on creating chances at the rate they have been doing I suspect a far lesser player than you will get on the end of many more and convert a bag full. Sadly, Hoddle was wrong about your chances to goals ratio- towards the end of last season in the live games I saw it had worsened to about 8 chances missed for every goal scored. On balance, I don't think you are a bad lad and I am sorry you are going. Paradoxically, you might be leaving just as the Rovers have a midfield availble which would have played to your strengths but you did not see it that way and your insecurity about the Rovers' signing Paul Dickov says all that needs to be said about your frame of mind today. Good luck at Fulham. I hope the boo boys keep quiet at Ewood when you come back with the Cottagers.

Wild speculation mode on here, but.... I have been very surprised the way that Skysports, BBC, Guardian and Independent news sites have not carried the development of this story and Tuesday's board meeting- could the LET have over stepped the mark in their zealous reporting of some Rovers' bad news? Alternatively, could it be the Rovers' finances are in rather worse state and in the absence of any interest for Yorke and Todd, the club has had to find a way of getting rid of its top paid player? Mega-optimistic, but it could be that Matty is showing really well in pre-season training and the club have decided that Stead, Dickov, Gallagher and Jansen with one or two very promising youngsters coming through is enough cover for the forward positions?

Tris, agreed- great post with a huge amount of reality and exactly the way Souness, the Board and all Rovers' fans need and want to see the state of things at Ewood/Brockhall. The problem Souness will have if the Rovers have a second successive disappointing season is that a very different perspective will be used to judge the situation, especially if we have messrs Todd and Yorke still on the wage list. Manchester Blue asked a very valid question- yes I have had similar situations in my working life. Unless there is prima facie evidence that the employee is correct or the manager can be persuaded to change his/her opinion or way of presenting it, the board has no option but to back the manager. To do otherwise is to undermine the manager in the job the manager is employed to do- to use their own intelligence/experience/discretion and manage. However, a board never forgets being forced into such a situation and rarely forgives.

Interesting turn of debate in the last few posts. Have to say that whilst I welcone the reinstatement of the drog, I do miss the contributions of people like Bernard. Souey is undoubtedly a very large step closer to the sack than he was on Monday. Irrespective of how unrealistic or unreasonable Cole's behaviour has been, it is Souness' job to manage his players. In that respect having to report to the Board on Tuesday that Cole is now unmanageable (by Souness) is a huge admission of defeat/inadequacy on Souness' part. Credit to him to be man enough to admit defeat and to turn to the Board to ask for their support in resolving the situation but he is certainly one more cat's life closer to the day when the Board will be asked to support him and will give a negative answer. Let's hope the on field performance does not bring the Rovers to that situation. What is most worrying is that in the transfer market, one aberration (Grabbi) has now been added to the three most controversial Souness signings all turning sour as a result of clashes with Souness. These are HIS signings we are talking about, not local boy made good, thinks he's God and takes a liking to pies and page 3 girls. To have Cole, Yorke and Todd all mouldering away is a criminal waste of the club's scarce resources.

Elsewhere, Paul has commented on the decline of the quality of discussion on this board and others he participates in. It certainly is the case that this board is not is good as it once was- too many petty or ill-informed posts, knee-jerk goose steps and the countervailing arguments which often have precious little to do with the subject in hand. Not forgetting the terminally depressed (and depressing). Above all, it is frustrating that so few people bother to read what has been written. A few days ago, I posted a deliberately provocative football item and returned to see how the debate followed. In fact there was a string of childish one-liner posts as two members continued a fatuous argument from elsewhere. Interesting to see that the Lee Grooby official rovers.co.uk site in its nth incarnation seems to be a much better place to read intelligent informed discussion at the moment. I guess these things go in cycles.

Whilst we are talking about the inexplicable, nice to see the 2004/5 season start on Saturday (Inter-Toto preliminary round) before the 2003/4 season had ended (final of Euro 2004). The SPL showed its enormous strength in depth with Hibernians drawing at home to Vilnius.

Yes but you have also just said you have never heard of Joaquin, Reyes, Vicente or Exteberria. If that is true it makes your comments look ridiculous really doesn't it. right i have got my euro 2004 fansbook in hand,etxeberria plays for bilbao has 50 caps and scored 12 goals. joaquin sanchez? plays for real betis played 19 times and scored 2. these were before euro 2004 and the other 2 are not named unless they go under other names. so i now know a little about these spics,still no nothing about goped Waggy, Reyes is the kid Arsenal signed for £12m last January and scored several wonder goals for the Gunners as they walked away with the Premiership. I haven't heard of him either... Vicente plays for Valencia- Spanish Champs and mildly successful in Europe over the past three seasons. Current incumbent in the Spanish national side and appears in a number of lists for team of the tournament despite Spain's early exit. If we have the non=playing de Pedro of last season, we haven't solved the left wing problem. If de Pedro shows the Real Sociedad form which challenged Real Madrid for la Liga title to the last game of the season thirteen months ago...

Waggy, You can find similar posts from myself. The hard facts are we had a miserable season last time out, were in grave danger of relegation eight games from season's end with all Souey's failings plain for all to see, yet We avoided the drop by twelve points and the Board stuck by Souey. Now there is no question of Souey being fired unless we find ourselves in deep trouble as Christmas approaches. That is quite possible- a bad start is very much on the cards given the opening fixtures. A battling draw by tthe Baggies and we could have played very decent football and still only have one point after four games. However, I think there is a more than decent chance that we start next season with a squad and team which is overall appreciably stronger than the one that finished sixth two seasons ago. Whether Souness has learnt from his period of self-reflection, whether the captaincy and back-room changes will pay off remain to be seen. I for one am willing to give the guy a decent chance.

Gerald Krasner has been quoted today that the Milner sale is the first of many departures and that he wants the Leeds wage bill below £20m a year by the end of this week. I would say it is looking good for those (myself included) who will be happy to have Matteo at Ewood. Incidentally, Alan Smith must be delighted to find out that he is being offered as a makeweight in the ManU bid for Rooney.

So that is Duffers new role now they have signed van Robben...?

Five Live has been reporting a bid of £5m for Jeremy and J Cole - seems cheap? Not when you consider they will be earning 5m a year in wages. As one of the very few clubs able to pay those types of wages, Spuds are joining Boro as the place where high paid cast-offs confirm their status as failures.

I wonder how long Peter Kenyon will last at Chelski? So far this summer, every transfer objective has rejected them except for a £13m full back who is so good, he has been dropped by Portugal! Meantime Spuds sre sniffing around Joe Cole and various other likely victims of the Mourinho axe.

There is no doubt that Dickov was enormously popular with the Leicester supporters. The good news for Rovers is that Dickov will set a level of determination nd commitment below which our established forwards cannot fall without being replaced. I should imagine at this stage, Souness is thinking in terms of Cole and Stead starting games with Dickov being introduced with 20 minutes to go to produce new problems for the opposition defenders.

Sorry to say this guys but I feel totally philosophical about the England defeat now. Whereas as big a defeat for Rovers and I would still be feeling gutted three days later.