Excellent post Paul, couldn't agree more.

And your reply Rev conveniently ignores the fact that as the Ewood wage bill is already around a dangerous 75% of turnover, it needs cutting not maintaining ... ... and our club cannot gamble sums of £6 million on the assumption that one single player may improve our league position by 6 (or even 2 or 3) places. And the ones which turn into "substantial capital assets" are the exception rather than the norm. Do you think Robbie Savage is going to be a substantial capital asset this time next season? To get back to the initial point before we lose sight of it - there is not one single summer signing that Rovers can afford to make which is going to boost season ticket sales. End of story. 317216[/snapback] I agree fully that the wage bill needs to be trimmed, hopefully though this will be done by cutting down on some of the fringe members of an overbloated squad rather than by lack of investment in the first eleven. When all is said and done every club, not just Rovers, has to take an element of risk in order to try and preserve premiership status. Savage? Maybe not a player who has any potential for profit on resale but a substantial asset nonetheless if he helps bring about a wortwhile improvemnt in our league position over the next couple of seasns. I guess the main point I'm trying to make is that it matters relatively little if any new signings boost attendances, what is more important is their potential to earn us more place mney.

We've even tried the entertaining football bit over the last few years, but although that brought a cup win, 6th place and Europe twice, Rovers fans (at least on here) have since made it clear they prefer 4-5-1 and security. And at the time, ST numbers fell by 3000, which I'm afraid leaves the "playing well" argument redundant. 317182[/snapback] Err......... no Rovers fans on here have made it clear they prefer playing 4-5-1 and winning games 1-0 or failing that not actually losing them than the dire fare and results served up under Souness last season. Two seasons ago we finished 6th and responded by selling our two star players. That had an obvious effect, as has a prolonged period of largely uninspiring home form. Just as damaging in my view has been the air of doom and despondancy created around the club over the last few seasons by John Williams and Souness in insisting that survival was the best that that anyone could hope for. Thankfully we now have a bright young manager who is rightly promoting the hope and belief that we can challenge in the top half of the table next season. I would expect this to halt the decline in season ticket sales, substantial increases will probably have to wait until the players show they can perform consistently well week in week out.

This argument is made again and again and needs to be quantified. Look at what a "quality signing" - the sort which brings in new ST holders or persuades existing ST holders to renew - actually costs. His name is Crowd Pleaser. Lets's say £3 million as a basic fee, and a modest 20K a week on a 3 year contract. Again, rounding down (and ignoring bonus payments and all other costs), you're already at 2 million pounds per year. If each and every Season Ticket at Ewood Park brought in £400 (this is way too high given the number of kids and discount STs), the signing of Crowd Pleaser would tie up the revenue from 5 THOUSAND ST holders EVERY SEASON. There is no way - even if Rovers re-signed Duff, Shearer and Dunn and also brought in (say) McCarthy and Gabbidon - that 5000 Blackburn folk are going to alter their intentions over buying a season ticket. And that little lot would come for a combined fee of around 25 million (assumes Shearer would be a free) and annual wages of at least 12 million. Or 50 thousand new season ticket holders (full price) at Ewood. So the idea that the club should gamble on some "crowd pleasing" signings in an effort to boost Season Ticket sales is totally and utterly out of the question. It's going to be down to the same hard core fans again, and they will have to be content with more astute business from the club in the transfer market - which means frees, loans, cheap gambles and cast offs from elsewhere. 317179[/snapback] Fair point but on the other hand Tris your post (as usual) conveniently ignores the fact that ticket income is currently relatively insignificant in relation to place money. Assuming he is not an additional squad member and someone else is offloaded to balance up the wage bill "Mr. Crowd Pleaser" only has to stimulate an improvement of six places from our current 15th to pay for himself in twelve months leaving the club no worse off with a substantial capital asset on their hands.

Wonderful, wonderful night, didn't think I was going to be able to make it but skulked in at 8.15 and was delighted to see the kick off delayed so I didn't miss a thing. Was a surreal feeling in the first half with the crowd willing on the 95 side as opposed to the current side! Shearer appearing and scoring and finally getting the reception he deserves totally made my evening, let's hope some enterprising young wag obtained his signature on a rolled up contract disguised as an autograph book! Of our side it was a much more fitting send of for Shorty. Tugay did things with the ball that hardly seemed legal, plenty of life in the old dog yet. After a very disappointing campaign Gallagher also showed he has bags of natural talent if he can harness it with the right attitude. Conversely even at this level of play Stead failed to impress on the night and Jemal Johnson looked woeful. The one thing that really caught my attention though was Matt Darbyshire's stunning strike, so clinical it made me shiver. Plenty of hope there for the future perhaps.

Quite a generous report from 1864, I thought this was a very poor performance and even worse game. The main problem was that the whole team was at least a couple of yards off the pace which I can put down to only one of two things: a) Feeling the pace after several very important games in quick succession. or The "phew" factor and mentally relaxing after virtually guaranteeing safety on Wednesday night. I suspect it was more than a). Not one player performed anywhere near as well as he is capable. As such the game barely rates a mention. That said it is harsh to be overcritical as the players have been superb recently.

That article says nothing of the sort. The rule clearly states that if the Champions League winner does not qualify through domestic League position it is then up to the National Football Association (The FA) to make the case out for the team in question (possibly Liverpool) No doubt in practice if the FA intervened then the decision would go in Liverpool's favour, but if hypothetically they declined to get involved then it would be tough according to a literal interpretation of that rule. Of course it seems ridiculous that a country otherwise entitled to 4 teams can not field a 5th in those unusual circumstances.

It's not possible to slander a club but by way of example if a tape could be obtained of the post match comments on talksport on saturday imo much of the stuff said about Todd was libellous and a lot of ill intent on Hughes' part was also implied. speeedie is right though, we somehow need to woo the press back on our side, not alienate them further.

Tony Parkes Select X1..................... 1) John Williams 2) "The mole" 3) Rob Coar 4) Graeme Souness 5) Gerald Jackson 6) Stanley Ternent 7) Alex Ferguson 8) John Bond 9) Andy Payton 10) Dean Saunders 11) Phil Boersma

I think your assessment of Pedersen is harsh Den. He's won us numerous points with crucial goals/moments of inspiration this season. Yes his all round play could sometimes be better. But he's one of those players that currently you daren't leave out or take off because he's always likely to win you the game with a flash of inspiration. He is only young and I'm sure his contribution over 90 minutes will improve as he gets older. Was thinking about this the other day. Whilst he is nowhere near as good a player (yet) I bet his goals return compares quite favourably to Duff.

I've never rated him, granted, for the reasons I've mentioned. You seem to be right at the other end of the scale and particularly rate him as a good holding midfielder. Somewhere inbetween the two most observers seem to be of the view that Flitcroft has been poor for this season at least. It's a game of opinion and it would be a poorer one if we all saw the game exactly the same. By way of example I particularly rate Savage in the same role, waggy judging by the above does not. No need to get personal about it.

Funniest thing I've seen for a while that! Anyone know where I can buy the poster? Jan's probably in production as we speak.

Bollax. Well thought out and reasoned reply. I preferred your (excellent) match report.

Agree with just about everything everyone's said. Frankly I thought we were safe on 36 points. On 39 even with other sides to play each other we're not quite mathematically safe (are we?) but are firmly into "if we go down I'll show my **** at the top of the townhall steps" territory. Given the significance to Palace I was amazed at how open and freeflowing last night's game was. I thought they looked a much better proposition than either Norwich or Saints before them but lacked any sort of cutting edge. (Can't think who that sounds like) Special mentions: Matteo - can't quite agree with Brownie that the criticism he's had this year has been unwarranted - he's played most of the season like he's had his boots tied together. However since coming in for NEJ six games or so ago he's looked a totally different player and credit to him for that. Todd: Great performance and character in all the circumstances. Proper Captain's stuff. Reid: Getting better and better. Along with Stead my man of the match last night and indeed for the last umpteen games. Shame that his finishing wasn't steadier on a couple of occasions. The end of the season will come too soon for him the form he's in. The hub of the team at present. Stead: Fantastic performance in terms of holding the ball up and all round play. Runs his socks off just like Dickov but gives us so many more options. But (and it's a big but) for a striker, he should have found the back of the net. If he can rediscover his scoring touch and maintain that performance level he'll be some player. Very enjoyable stuff. Again. Another home win. Again. Who knows John Williams will have to amend his normal doom laden "survival is the aim" message for next season's season ticket package if we carry on like this!

True, but Dahlin's condition clearly went well beyond the normal bumps and bruises sustained by footballers. Any how it's not the situation that the policy is not paying out at all, the appeal court decision would seem to affect quantum rather than liability. So it's a case of fingers crossed and let's hope we get as much as possible.

When the player doesn't have "a pre-existing condition" of any kind. I can't remember the exact wording of the original ruling but remember thinking it would cause ructions in the insurance industry as it tended to nullify the standard "we don't pay out in the case of pre-existing conditions" clause central to insurance policies. Still we may get something, even if a much lesser amount.

Flitcroft does not battle, he puts in a couple of tackles a game and coasts through the rest of it. Anyone with an ounce of sense only have to look at the effort put in by a half fit Savage to see the difference. (Granted he didn't have a particularly good game last night) Maybe to say Thompson doesn't battle is not quite the right analysis but there's a difference between battling to some effect and not being able to do a single thing right as has been the case with Thompson for several months now. He's clearly a better player than that (or was once) so the reason for his performances is a mystery to me. "Play with 10" was the shout from one wag behind me when Thompson stripped off last night. Trouble is, no-one was disagreeing and this comment brought chuckles of amusement rather than the righteous indignation it should have done had Thompson been performing to an acceptable level lately.

The difference this season Waggy is that everyone is that with the odd exception (both of whom didn't start last night) everyone is battling like mad and doing themselves great credit anyway. So there would be nothing to be gained in terms of spirit by bringing the youngsters in. Last season there would have been as as clearly no-one was prepared to perform for Souness.

Not surprised by this at all. Thought the original decision in our favour was a very surprising one.

Surely Craig Short is far more deserving of one last hurrah in a Rovers shirt than Amoruso? He may well be a very nice guy off the pitch but the sight of him warming up on the touchline sends me into a cold sweat. I wish someone would show Hughesey a tape of Amo's last outing, the 4-0 reverse at home to Boro and our Uefa Cup games last season before he is tempted to do anything daft.

Fair point, but the more clubs there are performing desperately poorly the better it is for us! The fact it is a "big" club makes it frankly even more satisfying. The fact it is Souness who took us on exactly the same downward spiral makes it "priceless" as they say in the ads.

I was thinking that Tony, the Club has been very quiet in the face of all the unjustified flak that has been flying around, even if not defending the on the pitch happenings, a spirited defence of the club's supporters wouldn't have gone amiss. Having had a few days to reflect the level of criticism the team has been subject to is totally uncalled for. There is nothing at all wrong with the team's overall style of play. However there is no need for the sort of studs up knee high challenges perpetrated by Flitcroft and Savage, and on another day Thompson's unnecessary petulance would have seen him enjoying an early bath. I'm sure we can cut those sort of things out without in any way compromising the team's competitiveness. The most unjustified attack in the National Media was that on the fans. When the hysteria finally settles down, fair minded analysts might just recognise the occasion as an imoportant day. It was a day that the average football fan finally drew a line in the sand and refused to be taken advantage of any longer. To me it wasn't so much the early kick off time, or the venue, but the refusal of the FA to make available adequate numbers of reasonably priced tickets particularly for kids. For those who had to disappoint little Johnny, it must have been a desperately difficult decision to make but they may just have done the game a favour in the long term.

Agree entirely with tash, Todd has already protested his innocence therefore MUST plead not guilty. On an objective and impartial hearing it would be impossible to prove his guilt on the basis of the video clips................ we shall wait and see. Have to pick up on a point in jim's post. I may be wrong but I thought I had read elsewhere the referee had seen the incident but viewed it as accidental which was why he failed to mention it in his report as opposed to not seeing it? If that is the case the FA decision to override him and charge Todd is disappointing and smacks of big club bias.

For the general good of the game I'd love to see unfashionable Bolton clinch the 4th Champions League spot. However from a strictly selfish point of view I think it would be a very bad thing for Rovers if they were to do so giving them for the first time a significant financial advantage over us.

Not half as crap as they will be by this time next season if GS and his "coaching" staff are still there. Good to see he has them conceding the standard four goals a game already.