Paul if you have a season ticket I think you can try out another area of the ground by requesting a season ticket "exception" from the ticket office.

Den, I don't think the club can do any more on prices overall, but it is quite apparent that JW upper central is rather expensive in comparison with other parts of the ground. For that part of the ground to be more attractive it either needs reducing in price or the rest of the ground would have to be closer in price. Actually hypothetically I'd rather pay 1000 quid for my season ticket and watch Duff if you see what I mean but I doubt this is a widely held view.

As regards numbers of season tickets sold there seems to be some considerable under exageration. Last year's ST figure was 14,000 not 12,000. The only official word from the Club has been that sales were COMPARABLE TO THE SAME STAGE LAST YEAR. Pre Bellamy or indication of anyone decent coming in that would have been quite encouraging IMO.

The frequently mooted suggestion that we demolish the Riverside to increase demand is the most ludicrous I've ever heard and frightens me senseless. Yes we would sell out the other areas of the ground quicker but all we would be doing would be capping our maximum potential capacity at around the 25-26,000 mark and missing out on the extra revenue from the big games. And we would be ensuring in future that no more than 18-19,000 Rovers fans could gain access to Ewood thereby killing off demand IMO as people couldn't get tickets. The Riverside is a problem though, it will have to be replaced at some point and do we want to be the only club in the League playing to three sides? I thnink the current capacity is about right, something aesthetically pleasing on the eye with a similar or slightly increased capacity to the current Riverside would be the ideal solution in an ideal money no object world.

I knew Souness had lost the plot big time over the last few seasons but the man is now clearly certifiable. "Dyer is the obvious replacement for Bellamy - and he will score more goals." Oh my aching sides. Oh to be a Newcastle fan. Maybe he'd give us back the money he wasted on Amoruso to use him as a target man. Maybe it's time to log onto Betfair to put a bet on Newcastle being relegated.

I was there when we were bottom of the 3rd in the early 70's!

It's part of the terms and conditions of the standard contract produced by the League managers association that a manager has complete autonomy over the footballing side of matters and in the hiring and firing of his backroom staff. So hypothetically if Hughes is given a transfer budget of 10m quid and wants to sign Grabbi for 7m, a figure well within that budget, in theory the Board shouldn't intervene. If however he wants to sign someone for say 12m, a figure above that budget, it's then down to the Board to either refuse the request or justify it on the basis it's an exceptional player etc.

I haven't renewed my seat yet, definitely will before the start of the season but to be frank I couldn't possibly be feeling less enthusiastic about the forthcoming season at the moment. We've raked in around 7m quid from the departures of Ferguson, Stead and Beattie and there's absolutely no indication at the moment we're going to be doing anything other than starting with a forward line of Kuqi, Dickov and possibly Cole. About 106 years and 150,000 quid between them. If season ticket sales are holding up well then that's a remarkable show of loyalty from the fans in the circumstances. The Club really do need to do something to fire people's imaginations a little.

In the light of how things eventually panned out under Souness I think "insightful" and "prophetic" are more accurate descriptives than "negative" USA.

The biggest plus about these changes is David Brown's closer involvement as Trust representative. This really should have happened a long time ago and can only help matters assuming he likes what he sees. Also good news if Tom Finn has a more influential role. Always comes across very well in my experience. A crucial part of John Williams new role will presumably now be to attract new sources of investment into the club. All I can say is let's hope he has more joy with this than with filling the ground. Judged by any objective criteria his performance over the last couple of seasons has been singularly unimpressive. We've failed to hold onto our best players, and attendances and performances on the pitch have declined dramatically. He's created a negative amosphere around Ewood in the past by continually banging on about survival and the message will have to be a lot more positive in future before any other suitably interested parties are likely to come aboard.

OK, having got rid of the best striker available to us on the books we're now looking at forward options of Dickov (ugh) Gallagher (much to prove) Jansen (even more to prove) and Johnson (not good enough). That lot would struggle to make much of an impact at Conference level on last season's form. I sincerely hope Stead's departure signals the arrival of a slightly cheaper "older" signing like Cole or Phillips AND a top quality signing like Keane/Bellamy/McCarthy otherwise we will be in big trouble.

Excellent points Glenn, I've never understood the potential attraction of being able to purchase a S/T in April myself, I would have thought the object of the exercise for most people was to keep the money in your own account until the last possible minute. There has to be some incentive (i.e. reduced price) to buy a season ticket early so would the advertised price reduction satisfy people in the event we were subsequently relegated? Would the people buying later not expect it even cheaper than in the first place after the discount? These problems of course would not arise with an all year round rolling DD scheme. All that would be required would be an adjustment of the monthly payments.

I would agree that I can't see why we're letting a young striker with great potential like Stead go for the sake of a fee that could possibly rise to £1.8m. I do not agree that Savage is a waste of money. In a recent interview with the LET he was refreshingly honest about his time at Ewood thus far stating that he hasn't shown anything like his best form due to injury. He said that whilst obviously no Gerrard, Keane or Viera, he believes he is the best player of his type in the Premiership and compares favourably with anyone else. I expect him to show that next season. Must say Savage is getting a lot of stick for one injury hit half season compared with the likes of Emerton and Neill who have been pretty abysmal for most of the last two campaigns.

As far as the direct debit scheme goes the cut off date is again ridiculously early. IMO this would work best as an all year round rolling scheme which you have to cancel if you don't want to go any more. This would have the advantage of keeping monthly payments to a minimum and people would have to make a conscious effort to cancel rather than to apply. Inertia might just win the day. As far as the marketing aspect of the club is concerned, the only positive comment I've seen has come from Hughes about wanting to compete in the top half of the table. The silence from above has been deafening, nor has there been any transfer activity or speculation to whet the appetite. In terms of declining attendances it's a case of trying to stem the flow after the sale of star players, several seasons of negative comment about survival being the be all and end all, and a couple of seasons of poor performances at Ewood. Having initially salvaged the wreckage of the Souness era, hopefully Hughes and his seemingly very capable coaching staff can achieve this.

A renewal of my ticket in JW upper central would be £540. On perusing the season ticket pack it seems I could relocate to the family stand, (£385) and take my 2 daughters age 14 and 12 (£70 and £60) and still save £25!!! This doesn't seem right from the club's point of view somehow, almost like stealing money off them. Not sure what this says about our prices, probably that the pricing for juniors is truly exceptional value, (too cheap really?) possibly also that the pricing in JW upper central is too expensive in comparison to the rest of the ground.

I wanted Preston to go up if only for the fact they'd have been absolutely nailed on to go straight back down. If Wigan are actually given a £25m transfer kitty by Whelan, I can't see any of the three promoted clubs being the usual automatic relegation fodder next season. I think the likes of WBA,Portsmouth,Charlton,Fulham,ourselves and Newcastle will have to be very much on their mettle next season. When he was here Souness constantly said that being in the Premiership for 5 years would be the making of us as a club. Unfortunately, unlike Bolton we've not moved on at all in that time.

There were a couple of interesting Scum stories in the press yesterday. Firstly it was reported that a condition of Glazer borrowing so much money was that he had to undertake to cap spending on players to around £25m p.a. until 2014. That may not buy very much by then. Secondly Nike were making noises about possibly taking their option to exit their £300m 13 year sponsorship deal in 2008. A spokesman commented that with Chelski champions, Arse winning the Cup, and Liverpool the Champions League it could be argued ManUre were only the 4th best side in the country. Things seem to be unravelling nicely.

Have to agree with 1864 and SG194, I don't mind a modest 6% price increase over 2 years bearing in mind prices were frozen last season but as we are competing in the Premiership and receiving Premiership TV and place revenues I want to be watching Premiership standard players. Three seasons ago we were watching Cole and Duff, now it could be Dickov and Kuqi? C'mon Rovers get a grip!

Hear, hear. 318592[/snapback] Yeah like we are overwhelmed with british talent Friedel USA Neill Australia Nelsen New Zeland Todd English Matteo Jock ( non talent) Tugay Turkey Reid Irish Pedersen Norway Emerton Australia Mokena South Africa Dickov Jock also add into that Gresko, Encklmen, Johnson 318611[/snapback] Fair point, was thinking about this after complaining about Liverpool's lack of British talent. We usually field at least five British players in our eleven. 1) Gray or Matteo or McEveley 2) Todd 3) Savage or Flitcroft 4) Reid 5) Dickov or Stead or Gallagher That sometimes becomes six if Thompson starts ahead of Emerton. There's a big difference between two and five or six which I actually think is the right sort of blend. I still can't really see how the neutral British soccer fan can be expected to be any more excited about the current Liverpool outfit achieving success than say someone like Deportivo La Coruna. To the extent it was a stirring comeback and a triumph for the underdog then yes it represented everything that was good about the game. Again not something necessarily associated with the Liverpool of the last few seasons.

Can't quite agree with that, how many British players are there in the Liverpool side? Spanish coach? I can't muster up any affinity for them at all and I used to love Shankly's and Keegan's Liverpool and had massive awe and respect for Paisley's Liverpool. I also agree with Abbey that anything which makes one of our rivals stronger is a bad thing from our point of view. Recently the top 3 have been light years ahead of the rest with nothing much separating the rest in pure footballing terms. Anything that propels a fourth club onto that loftier plane can not be good for us. All that said I am extremely pleased for Gerrard who has had to carry a very average side on his shoulders over the last few seasons and who has had to take some very unfair criticism recently IMO.

Hmmm.............. I'm really no more of a fan of Benitez's Liverpool than Houllier's but I suppose you have to give them credit for coming back from 3 down.

Now 3-3 after a flukey penalty rebound after the keeper saved. Pass me a strait jacket.

Oddly now 3-2 after two goals in a minute from Pool. Surely the second rate scousers can't do it can they? THey're not even the best side in Liverpool.

Without playing the video.....I don't think he scored against Forest in the 7-1 I think he scored a screamer into the top corner from 30 yards in that game as well col. Was a fantastic player for us at a bargain price. Came in from the cold at Chelsea and re-invented and re-established himself so successfully he became England's left back. Was quite vocal about the decline of the club post Kenny. Don't blame him for that at all. Let himself down in moscow but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. Good luck to him.

I really must've been watching a diiferent game. Maybe these chaps should see a few games from the Seventies, then they'd know what a kicking was. Foreign poof. 317243[/snapback] I know this point has been made before, but just wait until Arsenal and the Scum are kicking lumps out of each other on Saturday. Al the commentators wll be chortling about what a wonderfully committed full blooded affair it is etc.