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.

The door is wide open for Janathan Stead if he keeps up the performance level he was showing in the second half of last season. He has the height as well as the close control to cause all kinds of problems to most defences.

There seems to be an inconsistency between the information publicly given out by the club at the time of the Dunn and Duff transfers and what the Fans' Football Forum is being told. Dunn's transfer was apparently stalled whilst the Rovers negotiated away the Brum clauses tying payment to Brum survival in the Prem. This was widely reported at the time of the transfer and whilst contingency payment clauses remained relating to the player's performance/achievement, I clearly recall the Rovers announcing that the deal was not dependent on Brum staying up. Similarly, the Duff deal was hailed by the club as being all cash with Chelsea meeting all incidental costs. Unfortunately, the timing of the transfer deals relative to the Club's financial year end means it will be difficult to see which version (or perhaps most likely, something in between) turned out to be correct.

I agree with the comments that the big tournaments at national level once every two years are very special. The great shame about last night's exit is that it has come at least one game too early to become a big enough football mania to drive the non-committed to feel sufficiently committed to buy Rovers Season tickets.

Sorry to have been proven correct

Portugal are going to have to miss their's- did you see Calamity flap at that cross?

Phil Neville? Well if he is not good enough for Man U Reserves, he's good enough for England- obvious isn't it?

Revidge, you have obviously forgotten Rovers received £17.7m cash on the nail with no deductions for Duff. Your sums don't work.

The crowd will be evens. Beckham's miss in the shoot out will mean he will never return to English Prem football.

After all the "big" countries getting through the qualifiers for Euro 2004 unscathed and only Latvia beting Turkey ranking as the only surprise in the final eliminators, I had expected the "big" countries to have made the last eight with the possible exception of England. Its going to get really interesting now with size and reputation counting for nothing. Czech Republic v Sweden final?