It's a good job Paul Bradshaw isn't about these days, if the current regime had been in charge when Roger Jones was sold we'd have probably signed some no mark 30+ year old to replace him and Bradshaw would never have seen the light of day. Not for us anyway.

I think they both look quite promising if only we would give them a proper chance. I'd play Raya over Steele every day of the week personally.

Strange how opinions on players differ, I think he's pretty useless and equally as poor as Feeney.Yet we keep on signing **** poor players like that and denying academy lads or young signings a chance to prove themselves.

There's no great conspiracy. Kean was infinitely cheaper than Allardyce and Coyle is presumably prepared to do it a lot cheaper than Warnock would have been. The owners never learn it seems. However as has been correctly pointed out there's no benefit whatsoever to anyone in us doing badly, even if you subscribe to the theory we're deliberately being run for the benefit of agents.

Have to reiterate my comments about Darren Clarke really in the light of the way the singles went. The Americans putted far better than us generally and Justin Rose in particular will probably never putt as badly as that again. All that said I'd give Clarke 2/3 out of 10 for his selections. On the plus side it was as always a fantastic spectacle, arguably the best in the sporting world. The matches between Reed/Rory and Phil Mick/Sergio were the two best I've ever seen. I was at the Belfry in 1984 when Seve came back from 3 down to tie with a bang in form Tom Kite but this surpassed that. Mickelson chucked 10 birdies at Sergio and only got a half! Roll on 2 years time.

Europe chucked it away at the end of day 2 somewhat. Must say Darren Clarke's cocked up a number of his selections for me. Played his mate Lee Westwood again after he got thrashed on Friday and should have been left out, found a pairing made in heaven in Garcia and Cabrera Bello and unbelievably broke it up to pair Garcia with out of form Kaymer, ignored Chris Wood after he played particularly well in yesterday's foursomes, keeps playing Justin Rose who can't get the speed of the greens, and played Fitzpatrick who looked a bit overawed in the foursomes instead of fourballs and has now left him without much golf. The only thing that has worked for him is constantly playing another rookie Thomas Peters despite his opening morning thumping when he was let down by Westwood in the foursomes. The Belgian player has been outstanding.

Just had a look on Via gogo and tickets seem to be selling pretty fast. It's predicted they'll sell out today according to the site. Now you're talking!!!!

They are both ordinary players at best and that is arguably being generous on the basis of their contributions over a 46 game season - particularly in the case of Marshall who usually looks like he can't be arsed. Duffy at least gives it his all every game but is error prone and just isn't very good. A sad indictment when they're considered our "star" players.

Not read the rest of this thread, want to make a last minute effort to get to AC/DC at the Etihaad on Thursday night. Don't suppose anyone has a spare ticket they want to sell?

Hard to disagree. Someone I know whose house backs onto the Academy says we've just had the pitches completely relaid at the Academy and this apparently happens every year. We seem to spend fortunes on incidental stuff like that and new ticketing systems and running tracks round the pitch without getting any of the basics right.

Extremely minor in the general scheme of things but If they are relocating the cameras to the Riverside it is a long overdue and very welcome move imo. Nothing was ever said about the direction of the sun when I was on the Fans Forum years ago, the problem seemed to more one of convenience in that everything was hi tech and just plugged straight in in the JW stand. A minor plus if it happens. Now all we need is a manager and some players.

I don't rate Graham in the slightest, as is my prerogative. I hope he goes on to prove me wrong for the sake of the team.

Back on topic nineteen points needed from eighteen games to stay up. Should be easy enough with Gomez dictating proceedings in midfield as long as we convert the chances we create.

Jackson, Watt and Graham are more or less straight replacements for Koita, Lawrence and Rhodes. On top of that Olsson was sold. We really are screwed if Graham is intended as Rhodes' long term replacement.

Well said Stuart. At least someone is maintaining a sense of perspective round here. Wouldn't we have been far better off simply swapping Lawrence for Watt and bringing in Gomez on loan? Letting Rhodes go at this stage was a completely unnecessary gamble. If PL can carry it off all credit to him.

Not sure why people are hung up about the perceived difference in ability between Rhodes and the likes of Cole anyway. Rhodes cost 8m, Cole would cost 50, 60, or 70 m in today's market. It is and always has been a pointless and academic debate. He's not as good as a select handful who have worn the blue and white halves during the Premiership era, he's better than a good many of them over the years and his goalscoring record stands up for scrutiny against anyone. Anyone looking beyond that is trying to find fault for the sake of it.

Best player I've ever seen playing for us apart from Shearer. An absolute joy to watch. Dearly wish the Walker Trust had not been predominantly concerned with recouping money in the latter years and had kept him at Ewood as our figurehead for several more of his peak years. Arguably my favourite memory of Duffer was the pre season friendly we played at Ewood one season against Barcelona in front of 24k fans. They couldn't get the ball off him. Absolutely unplayable. Wish him all the best for the future with whatever he decides to do.

I didn't realise he was at the helm when Bolton won the 3rd Division title. I thought it was Ian Greaves who actually succeeded him on looking it up.I definitely don't think he achieved anything at Leeds who were still a marvellous side at the time. I got the impression he was an avuncular type figure who was brought in to smooth the waters after Brian Clough's turbulent 44 day reign. A sort of 70 ''s version of Woy Hodgson as it were. More of a politician than a manager. Just my view. Seems a lovely bloke and somewhat of a national treasure which is more important. Still glad we got Howard instead though.

Great post. Before becoming a manager Howard was one of the best midfield players of his or any other generation forming part of the fabled Holy Trinity of Kendall, Ball and Harvey at Goodison. I think it's very unlikely that we'll see too many top players in future cut their teeth in management in the lower leagues and go on to great success, they're already financially secure and don't need the money or the hassle.Going back to what another poster said about his appointment, thank goodness we ended up with the up and coming Kendall and not the rather staid Jimmy Armfield who whist a great player in a bygone era and a perfect gentleman never demonstrated much in the way of managerial ability imo.

I was really upset when I heard this news today, arguably our greatest ever manager given his astounding success relative to the scarcity of the resources he had to work with. To get us promoted immediately then follow that up with another near miss on goal difference without any financial support from the Board was an astonishing achievement. And of course we saw how good he was when he went to Everton and achieved unprecedented success there. Good comments about Gigg Lane. I was sat at the side and the stand behind the goal housing the Rovers fans was indeed shaking. RIP Howard. Should be right up there towards the top of the list of Rovers legends.

Souness had completely lost the plot by the time he left us, the place was starting to resemble a retirement rest home and I think it's highly likely he'd have relegated us had he stayed any longer. I'm sure I commented on here that we started one game with 5 left backs on the pitch. In answer to Abbey's question Souness or Allardyce you'd maybe take the Souness of the first two or three seasons with us (even though he needed the Trust to bail us out by buying Andy Cole)and undoubtedly Allardyce thereafter as he's a lot more consistent and far less erratic.

Spurr's long throw is pretty useless (as was MGP's) but I do think we look more solid defensively with him in the side than Olsson and his delivery from free kicks in dangerous situations is excellent.

I really don't understand where this assumption we won't go down under Bowyer comes from. We're currently on a run which if repeated over the season would see us relegated with less than 30 points. If we were playing particularly well or GB had finally happened upon his best starting X1 then I'd agree there were grounds for thinking this might be a temporary blip but neither of those apply as far as I can see. In fact I only expect the tombola selection to gather momentum with all the midfield options.

On the pitch there is, in the dug out though? Imo we were beaten on Saturday by a Wolves side that did not play well. I posed the question then, who will be actually be good enough to beat under this manager? Not Shrewsbury obviously. The other most worrying thing for me (apart from bizarre team selections and use of personnel) is the spirit within the dressing room. There really didn't appear to be any burning desire to pull it back to 2-2 when we came out for the second half on Saturday. The game just sort of ambled along like a meaningless training exercise until the late introduction of Koita. Similar comments were made by Radio Rovers when we were trailing in the second half on Tuesday. It's only two games in and obviously too early to say the manager has lost the dressing room already but by the same token even at this early stage the players certainly don't look as though they're prepared to run through a brick wall for him and the team either.

Why even bother posting the above?