It's a strange one because for the first three quarters of the season (injuries aside) Nyambe was the undisputed first choice. He was unreservedly dropped and never really got back in the team. During this period he signed a new deal. One school of thought was that Mowbray wanted to shoehorn Bennett into the team. Another rumour was a fall out. Very strange.

With Nyambe being away with Namibia he will miss much of pre season as he will be on an extended holiday. That probably means Bennett will play right back until Nyambe gets up to speed.

I didn't think he did dive Andy. I watched it several times in slo mo and he accidentally clipped his own heel. The Arsenal player was in real close proximity and my reading was that Pedersen genuinely thought he had been tripped. One thing I'm sure we could agree on though is that Pedersen was a genuine, honest bloke so it seemed out of character.

I'd also been told that Friedel had made some bad investments and was struggling. Randy Lerner had offered to help him set up some soccer schools in America as they are from the same state (although I've never checked).

Does it say 'sex digital insita'?

I remember the bus stopping for people from the Park to get on but not recently. Quite a few get off at the top of Watery Lane and further down at the Function Room. I know of at least two contributors to this site who are usually on the bus.

He is a dingle showing his true colours - envy green. He tried to buy into Burnley and was knocked back. He then bought Accrington. You can take the boy out of Burnley..................

Although the bus doesn't pick up anywhere on the way the driver usually drops off several people close to their homes on the way back. It's a really good service and the Heifer bus is usually full. I have to stress though that these buses are organised solely by a couple of supporters with no input from the club.

The real galling thing in that match was that we were coasting at 2-0 and Birmingham had given up. The penalty gave them hope and in the end we were hanging on to a point.

I pay £3.50 fare from Darwen and I think the double decker bus is around £180 to hire. We are dropped off at Ewood WMC and picked up behind the old Albion pub. It does seem we given priority over traffic afterwards and quite often are back at the Craven Heifer pub before 5.20.

Mowbray has signalled his intent by publicly stating he is looking to sign a new keeper despite Leutwiler signing a new deal. Unless you are a Man City (Richard Wright) or Chelsea (Robert Green) it makes little financial sense to pay a decent wage to somebody who invariably only trains and travels with the team. For me Raya can be sold as I don't think he has improved in two years. The weaknesses he showed then are still there. Undoubtedly his great strength are his reflexes and he is up there with Friedal in that respect but he is average or weak in all other areas. I don't buy the theory of poor coaching neither. Lots of keepers do things naturally and I honestly don't see how any coaching can improve his decision making which is an area that really lets us down. It's a sell for me and I just get the impression that is the way Mowbray is thinking too

Steele was injured when Mowbray brought Raya in. Would he have dropped Steele? We'll never know.

There has. This bloke was signed by Warnock at Bury where he played 37 games. I actually refereed him when he played for East Bengal in a pre season tournament at Leicester. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaichung_Bhutia

How many games did he actually come on and we successfully closed a tight game out? I genuinely don't know but that was the excuse traded out last season when he got a new deal. From memory I can't recall that it happened too often.

The process when I was active was that the referee should ask the Match Commander and Safely Officer if there were any safety issues which would effect a potential penalty shoot out. This briefing takes place 75 minutes before the game. If they have a preference then the referee should inform the managers and captains at the exchange of team sheets an hour before kick off. If there are no issues then it's the toss of a coin and the winning captain chooses. In my experience the choice was usually in front of the home fans. I always suspected that it wasn't a decision made in the interests of safety but to give the home team an advantage. I've never seen such a public show when a delegation troop onto the pitch to tell the referee where penalties should be taken from. Poor from the referee for not sorting this out privately before the match.

They absolutely would. In their promotion season Accringtons top paid player was on £1200 a week. They will be on better money now with the club having a greater income but nowhere near what the likes of Smallwood and Conway are on.

There was a song to the tune of Johnny Goes Marching Home which had lots of na, na, na's but the lyrics were 'Mokoena's gonna break your legs' which I took to be a dark compliment to his ability to kick and hurt opponents.

They are an entitled bunch who sing about being Champions of Europe but they didn't actually win anything. And I take a dislike to any club who shamefully fleece visiting supporters.

He definitely did try (or actually did) to kick the Sunderland lad. I saw it in real time and couldn't believe it. The Pompey lump thrn wanted to fight several Sunderland players who came over to the scene. I read today though that the Sunderland player doesn't want to press charges.

Sorry to prolong this but who mandates them? I'm not doubting you by the way. I just can't understand why any employee would have to contribute to an insurance scheme that benefits their employer.

I don't understand then why a player would voluntarily pay for an insurance policy that they wouldn't benefit from. The club have to pay them even when they are injured so surely it should be incumbent on the club to pay the premium. I know that all players are insured by the PFA but that is only if they have to retire through injury, it doesn't cover wages because that is the clubs responsibility.

I've never heard of that before. To be clear does the player have to pay out of his own wages or does the club pay for the insurance you mention.

Are you saying that his wages are/were/will be covered by insurance? If so I have never heard of that before. I know insurance claims can be made when a player has to retire through injury - is that what you are implying?

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/premier_league_table/16135948.figures-reveal-amount-rovers-spent-on-agents-fees-during-the-last-12-months/ We spent over £750k on agents which included contract renegotiations. Every deal has hidden costs. What will the agent charge the player for his services? FIFA’s regulations recommend a commission percentage of 3% of the player’s remuneration, but that has generally not been adopted by the industry. Most agents in England charge 5% commission, though 10% is fairly common around the world. It is open to the club signing a contract with a player to pay the agent’s fee on the player’s behalf (in England this results in a benefit in kind tax liability for the player). It is also open to an agent to represent both the player and the club(s) in a transaction, provided he/she has the full and informed consent of the parties (known as ‘dual representation’), reducing further the player’s liability to his agent. An agent should be knowledgeable in the regulatory and tax implications of doing so and should ensure the agent’s fee is paid in the most tax efficient and regulatory compliant way.

That's a great point and pertinent to the debate. There is still some bitterness from good people who lost their jobs or had their hours cut because of sheer incompetence of the owners and people running the club. My real concern though is that Mowbray wants to keep players who simply aren't good enough and will add no value whilst costing not insignificant wages. We have under 23's who play in the positions (and probably better) of the likes of Conway and they will probably be sent out on loan.