Excellent news on the interest free direct debit front, really well done to the club on this one. I shall be taking advantage of it and upgrading to a more expensive seat. Just hope that the offer is in place permanently and not withdrawn at a later date. Surely now, no-one can use price as a major excuse for not buying. Poor performances maybe but not price.

Shearer wanted to join Man Ure for those very reasons. Uncle Jack wouldn't allow him to move to OT and back at the time Newcastle were a viable looking alternative in that respect. Looking at it from a neutral standpoint, still very harsh on Smith. Leeds wanted to sell him far more than he wanted to leave and given a free choice where would you expect him to go, to one of the two clubs where he's guaranteed to regularly win things or somewhere else? Of course if I was a Leeds fan I'd be hugely brassed off and wish he'd gone anywhere else but.

Perderson's club are obviously angling for more dosh to release him immediately with this "We want to keep him until the end of the season" line. It depends how good Rovers think he is. If we really think he's that good then there should be few qualms about signing him up now for £1.5m and allowing him to arrive in October or whenever. Then he can be patient and await his chance behind Douglas.

Good signings (seriously) IMO Hypia £2.6m Henchoz £3.5m (though personally I'm not a particular fan) Riise £4m Kirkland £6m Kewell £5m Possibly Finnan £3.5m Total: £24.6m add Homegrown Owen, Gerrard, Murphy, Carragher and one or two lads from Melwood and bingo you've saved over £90m!. Is this football management lark really THAT difficult? The thing that got on my nerves about Houllier was that he always insinuated anyone who criticised his record was in some ways a traitor and not a true supporter of the club. Mottman if you see this thread what do you reckon?

£15m for Diouf and Diao - ouch! Who the hell is Diomede? Does he even exist?

If Liverpool could tempt O'Neill down you could see them becoming a real force again. I reckon next to go will be Sir Bobby who seems to be similarly going backwards at a rate of knots at Newcastle.

But Scotty before copious amounts of beer after the brum game you came up and admitted Douglas had been excellent. Really. You did.

Edit, Paste, blow up into letters ten feet high, and stick up on wall of John Williams office.

Weren't you having a go recently for all the negative publicity coming out of Ewood and how it might affect season ticket sales? Well, I suspect the club thought that publicising the fact that we're after two players may just help sales. You can't have it both ways. Fair comment although news of a concrete bidhaving been made/a done deal would have been even more beneficial.

As far as Douglas is concerned he's come in and done an absolutely outstanding job on the left towards the end of the season. Personally I would be assuring him that the left wing slot is his as long as he keeps playing to that standard, and ploughing the extra money earmarked for Pederson into a centre half.

Tugay does have an "invisible friend" in central midfield, he's called Garry Flitcroft. Whilst Shagger observes play for 90 minutes his partner has the proverbial broom up their backside having to get through twice the normal workload just to try and hold the midfield together. Whilst at the same time being expected to provide the creative spark. I'd wager that Tugay would look far more impressive alongside a player who performs the holding role in midfield properly i.e. Ferguson. Even Andresson made Tugay look a lot better. On another note, it would another huge body blow psychologically if we lost Tugay. Another fans favourite through the door, the club will be in increasing danger of fielding a team of players no -one wants to watch

Not too sure about that Gav. We saw only one really good performance all season on the opening day of the season and a solid game against the red scum. Home performances weren't particularly good in 2002/3 either. A lot of people are going to want a lot more reason than that for forking out £400. Realistically season ticket sales will fall but hopefully these measures will reduce the bleeding, then the club must set about winning these punters baxck with improved performances on the pitch.

Well if we miss out on Pederson we've only ourselves to blame after announcing we were going to bid for two players nearly a week ago (one of whom was obviously Pederson) thereby issuing an open invitation to other clubs to steam in and spoil the party. The only news that should have come out was after the deal had been done and dusted.

A price freeze was really the only viable option for the Club after the sort of season we've had but fairplay nonetheless. However this will only be of benefit if we actually strengthen this close season. The benefits of the price freeze will soon be forgotten if we see Friedel and/or Ferguson and/or Cole heading for the exit door this summer. (Still can't understand why the club are surprised attendances dropped after selling Dunn and Duff.) Of even greater significance though is what the club are hoping to do with the direct debit scheme and with a bit of luck they really will deserve praising on that front.

Maybe AESF should change his name to AEAASF (Anti Euro Anti Alan Smith Fan) I think much of this thread is extremely harsh on Smith. Leeds have or had no more desire to keep their saleable assets (Smith Robinson and Viduka) than the players have to play in division1. Presumably they would prefer to keep Milner as he'll be on far more reasonable wages but even that I would say is unlikely. Suitable target for Rovers?

Are you talking about Cole or Fowler? If the former I feel it's a bit unfair on him as he seems to have found a new enthusiasm for playing alongside Stead. The point about Cole is that it only makes sense to sell him if we can get anyone as good as, or better, in to replace him. Fowler might have been that player once but there's been little sign of it since he left Anfield. Other than that, can't think of too many realistic candidates who are a better bet than (a motivated) Cole.

WE DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY MORE OF OUR BEST PLAYERS LEAVING THE CLUB FOR ANY REASON BE IT FOR A DISAGREEMENT OR NOT Is that not the primary reason why we pay top dollar for a manager upwards of £1m per year and a chief Exec around £250,000 per year?

That article indicates to me quite clearly that he will be sold Alan. Hope it doesn't happen.

Back to the football and yesterday's disappointing offering summed up the season pretty perfectly. Dreadful first half apart from a class through ball by Tugay and finish by Cole, twenty or twenty five very good minutes at the start of the second half when the game should have been put beyond Birmingham's reach, then we sort of coasted through the rest of the game allowing Brum back into it. Souness complaining yet again after the game that the result was due not to our inadequacies but the referee. The final rites, a five yard pass from Neill which went sideways out of play, summing up his and the team's season. 1864 no disrespect but you should try a seat facing the pitch! Flitcroft was abysmal yesterday, (I would say no change there) Tugay had a great game. And how can you slate Douglas? He had an off day at Spurs but yesterday and over the four wins recent wins he was inspirational, here there and everywhere. Very good performance from Cole, we need him next year, Stead seems to works harder than anyone else, Emerton - worrying he couldn't impress after being dropped, Gray impressive as always, I was quite wrong about him. What on earth are we going to do at right back next season though? About seven months too late Neill was rested but his deputy Reid hardly covered himself in glory either. We could do with a right footed Gray. All in all, thank god that season's over.

Excellent night, and I was even back home very much the worse for wear at the comparatively early time of 10.30p.m.! Debs, hope you emerged unscathed after our tumble on the dance floor! Good to meet everyone who I hadn't met previously.

Hmmm........ never stopped him with Dunn and to a lesser extent Todd (based solely on this season's performances) I can't see Cole leaving voluntarily if rumours about the £1m loyalty clause for seeing out his contract are true. I can see the Club selling him for this reason and I think this would be extremely worrying as I feel it is essential for next season we keep our best players i.e. Friedel, Ferguson and Cole and make one or two QUALITY additions. We don't want another season playing catch up as a result of waving our best players goodbye in the summer like 12 months ago.

Try this one, it's already had a cockatoo. Yep like that one, but all the suggestions were very good! Robin, if you're not up on Saturday will get you a pint next time we're darrrn saaarrff, halves for all the runners up who are there on Saturday evening!

There must be a joke in there somewhere. A parrot walks into a sex shop, asks for an inflatable doll and the shopkeeper says.......... Discuss. (I'll buy a pint after the Brum game for the best suggestion.)

Pre Todd falling out with Souness "Brilliant - player of the year by far" Post Todd falling out with Souness "Rubbish - never liked him - glad to see the back of him" Maybe Todd shouldn't have spat the dummy out of the pram but it's very sad to see him leave the club after the season he's had unless we've got someone better lined up. You can hardly say Amoruso and Short are reliable injury wise. And commercially, surely to god we could have got back the 750k we paid for him?

There could be a bit more entertainment value in this story yet. Stanleh is quoted in the LET as saying that he didn't want to leave and that he will make a full statement after Sunday's game.