There was a phone in on TalkSport the other night asking whether the Premiership was value for money this season. The programme started by pointing out that six category A games at Spurs this season will cost more than 70 quid!!! and that the most expensive season ticket at Arsenal would set you back 1800 quid. My view is that the prices at many grounds are now stretching the loyalty and patience of even the most diehard fan but that by far the biggest turn off factor is players earning anything from 20k to 90k p.w. who obviously can't be arsed putting in a decent performance on a weekly basis. I thought one or two callers might be thinking along these lines but to a man not one complained about price/lack of competition etc. They all displayed the sort of mentality outlined in the article and compared the experience of supporting a club to being part of an large extended family. Fans of lesser Clubs argued that a promotion via the play offs once every blue moon more than compensated for the years of overpriced crap inbetween etc As long as people still think that way, and I'm not necessarily knocking them for their loyalty, the TV Companies, players agents and Club owners will obviously try to milk them for as much as they are worth, and I don't suppose you can really blame them for trying either. The main problem is the "prune juice" effect. There's huge amounts of money out there but most of it completely bypasses the clubs and ends straight up in the players pockets. So the clubs feel obliged to try and screw that just that little bit extra out of already hard pressed fans. If they're successful the players ask for even more - and so on and so on. At some point the fans as a whole will say "no more" but we don't seem to have reached that point yet, although some have started dropping off.

Still don't understand how Bellamy can be struggling so badly with injuries after a close season off. What's he going to be like later on in the campaign after a gruelling series of fixtures?

I expect us to win this game comfortably, if we don't we may be in for another hard season. 2-0 Rovers.

To be fair to Mokoena he has looked absolutely outstanding whenever playing a holding midfield role but has never looked at all comfortable playing centre back. We need more cover in that position. I didn't think Savage was as bad as a lot of people are making out but he is capable of a lot more. Still think he is some way away from peak fitness. Emerton needs to be taken to one side and told he will be packing his bags if there isn't an immediate and drastic improvement on his "exertions" of the last 2 seasons. Meanwhile would give Gallagher another chance in that position. Since Christmas Dickov seems to have had little to his game other than falling over looking for fouls, and constantly whinging at the referee. He can pack his bags now for me after Saturday's unbelievable stupidity. I thought it was extremely strange that Bellamy was beset with injury after a close season off and if it is right about him needing injections at this stage it's very worrying. There was a throwaway comment in last week's LET that we had asked Newcastle for his medical records although it was stated it was "standard procedure"

Also watched the game live on foreign TV and on the evidence of today's game disagree with those who say we must play 4-5-1 - that's where it all went pear shaped today IMO. West Ham are not a great side and for the first half hour we were well in control of proceedings. We then gradually let them back into the game and poor defending immediately after the half time break gifted an equaliser. West Ham then built up a head of steam and what we really needed to do was try and retain possession better and ride out the storm for 10 minutes or so. Instead I felt Hughes panicked by pulling Kuqi off after just 55 minutes, this effectively signalled to West Ham we had given up any notions of trying to win the game and gave them even more impetus. The situation was then exacerbated by a poor piece of defending from Mokoena and at 2-1 down the decision to pull Kuqi off then looks foolish. Hughes was eventually forced to revert to 4-4-2 but is undone by a suicidal piece of play from the woeful Emerton. Game over but to rub salt in the wound that is immediately followed by another ludicrous and completely unnecessary challenge from Dickov. Overall desperately disappointing to finish well beaten by a side that will be down amongst the dead men at season end - especially after looking in control for much of the first half. If any evidence is needed of how important Nelsen is, here it was. Todd and Mokoena had very poor games. Matteo was back to his sluggish early season form of last year and Emerton and Bellamy were both completely anonymous.Bellamy has a bit of an an excuse after missing pre season but the Aussie must surely be in last last chance saloon. Hopefully today's reckless lunge will be Dickov's last act in a Blackburn Rovers shirt. Huge improvement needed for the two home games coming up, and Mark Hughes needs to be more positive with his game plan.

Probably means it will be totally wrong but Mike "porky" Parry on TalkSport is thinking along similar lines to me today. He has us to be the season's surprise package in 6th behind Chelsea, Man Ure, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton (who he supports) Spurs 7th.

On the eve of the new season it's mighty rib tickling to see Newcastle going into the new season without a fit striker. The admirable but ageing Shearer injured, Ameobi suspended and Chopra apparently out for 3 months with a longer term injury. Quite how Souey has managed to turn a top five outfit into such a shambles in such a short space of time is anyone's guess. Makes our 6th to 15th in one season look almost respectable.

If we have an exceptionally clear run of injuries there's really no reason why we can't "do an Everton" and finish 4th 5th or 6th. The season will however largely hinge on keeping Bellamy clear of injuries (not looking good so far) and suspensions and nothing happening to Todd and Nelsen. Reid could also be a key player judging by his form last year and his performance against Espanol. Optimistically and with an injury free run, 6th behind Chelsea, ManUre, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs.

Mine never arrived either. Just had to ring to organise a replacement. **** poor really. EDIT: It gets worse. The ticket office have just rung back. The ticket hadn't been sent out because they hadn't had proof from Premium Credit that the first direct debit payments had been received. I received a letter from Premium Credit confirming the payments over a month ago but apparently sight of that letter isn't good enough for our wonderful ticket office, they won't release the ticket until they've had confirmation from Premium Credit directly. The words "organise" "brewery" "Couldn't" and "knees up" spring to mind.

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.