That could come back to haunt you!

On another note, Hignett, Davidson and McKinlay have all been shown the door by Leicester today. Gillespie is available on a free transfer.

Cole is at Highbury tonight............... turning out for an England XI in Martin Keown's testimonial. I must say that despite some of his hands-on-hips performances over the years, I do not think it is in our best interests if Cole leaves. He has scored 11 goals this year feeding on mere scraps, he knows his way around the Premiership and remains a talismanic figure for the younger players. Souness knows best though doesn't he?

Thug - vicious or brutish ruffian according to the dictionary. Describes perfectly a "footballer" who lumps his team-mates on the training field.

Worth a read on the nigger debate. http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020304&s=hitchens Interesting that the word Tory used to be seen as malicious but has since become an accepted part of the language. It's still a swear word in our household.

It's difficult to comprehend how a cultured footballer such as Colin Todd could have produced such a thuggish offspring in his son Andy. Colin Todd was indeed an excellent player and would have gained many more England caps had he not had the misfortune to be around at the same time as a certain R Moore. I did wonder about Colin Todd the man however: I remember watching him on TV in his Derby County days mouthing racial insults at West Brom's Laurie Cunningham when black players were just breaking through into league football. As a manager he was very tense and extremely difficult to deal with. His teams were non too exciting either. I'm glad Andy is leaving the club.

So it's OK to call someone a nigger then. I'm glad we sorted that one out.

"There's plenty to criticise or argue about the man but the signing of Steadinho surely isn't an issue." Except that his first choice was Brian McBride.

Never feel sorry for anyone in football: it could easily have been us going down. Let's just thank "Lady Luck" and Jon Stead that it isn't.

Let's get this straight. Ron Atkinson is a racist born of the Alf Garnett generation. It must irk him terribly that the English title was won by a team most of whom are niggers playing the beautiful game with beautiful football. Atkinson was found out and he has paid the price. Bye bye Ron, the world and your attitudes have moved on .

Excuse me? Didn't we beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle United, respectively the champions, second and third-placed teams, at home last season?

It's easy to be cynical about this (especially when it's one of your neighbours and rivals) but I think Bolton should be congratulated if they manage to secure Rivaldo's signature. The interest created by Rivaldo in the Premiership will lift Bolton's profile enormously on TV and in the press both here and abroad and may give the club another boost next season after their successful campaign this term. His name will help Allardyce to draw other signings to the club and, who knows, he might even be a fantastic success on the field if he manages to recapture the form of two years ago. If he has any professional pride he will certainly want to restore his reputation after his experiences at Barcelona and Milan. I wish we were signing him.

Good grief.

I wouldn't be too sure. The prospect of Jonathan Douglas signing another contract is sure to have major sponsors and TV companies beating a path to Ewood.

Mind-boggling transfer, but it's about to happen. The player is in Manchester talking to Sam Allardyce at the moment.

That was one of the worst days in Rovers history. I can still remember the shock in the town.

Strangely, the remarks were only heard in certain countries in the Middle East, but it was enough to cause his downfall. Anyone remember Ron as manager of West Brom in the 1970s, when he called his black players Cyrille Regis, Brendan Batson and Laurie Cunningham "The Three Degrees" after the famous singing trio? I wonder what they think now (though Cunningham sadly is dead)? PS: Sunderland's defeat at Palace meant Norwich were promoted tonight. Looking forward to another 7-0 next season?

There's a good story emerging over Ron Atkinson, who has had to resign from ITV Sport after making an off-air racist comment following last night’s game between Chelsea and Monaco. Apparently, the words "Desailly", "nigger", "useless" and "f*****" were used, though not necessarily in that order.

Tim Flowers is my favourite Rovers goalkeeper of all time, and I've seen a fair few. It's obvious that he still loves the club and never wanted to leave; let's hope he returns in some capacity very soon.

To judge from this correspondent's predicting record, that's Souness out of a job next season. I would also say that if Souness had had his way, we would have Brian McBride and not Jonathan Stead in our attack. Souness is a lucky man if he manages to hold on to his job. This thread will run and run if he does.

A very odd post. Hiring and firing the Maanager is the Board's decision, not JW's. In case you haven't noticed, JW runs a very good operation off the pitch and its Souness' job to run a good one on it. Pardon? John Williams said recently that he expects season ticket sales to increase next season, suggesting a man living in cloud cuckoo land rather that the real world. The board may have the final say over the appointment of managers but Williams most definitely has an input. I would suggest it is now far too late to replace Souness. Middlesbrough showed the way a few seasons ago when Venables was brought in to help the floundering Robson and stave off relegation. That is what the board should have done months ago, although I doubt if the Souness ego would have taken kindly to working with a coach who actually knew what he was doing. I did something very odd at today's match. I didn't rant or rave at our players as usual but just sat back and watched us sink to another inevitable defeat. Watching Rovers today, the plain fact is Souness has assembled a squad of very ordinary players who would struggle to survive in the Prem even if Arsene Wenger were in charge of them. Short, Tugay, Cole, Flitcroft, and Amoruso are too old, Gray and Neill are merely average and Emerton and Reid are poor beyond belief. Stead and Gallagher are babies in football terms and it shows. I can't see any way that we can avoid relegation now. If we could not beat Portsmouth and Leeds it was vital that we did not lose to them, and we could not manage even that. Two points from those games (and two points less each for Pompey and Leeds) could have saved us. I was rather impressed by Leeds today, not just their spirit but the quality on the ball of Viduka, Smith, Milner and Pennant. We do not have players anywhere near their class. I expect Leeds and Pompey to survive with us joining those other sub-standard teams, Leicester and Wolves, for the drop.

Some interesting quotes on PA from Souness today in which he says he won't be changing his style of management, so presumably if we somehow escape the drop we can expect more of the same poor decision-making next season. Souness said: "I have questioned myself and I have questioned some of the players I have brought to the club and I have found out a great deal, including some things I was hoping not to find. "The easiest thing is life is to look at other people but I will be asking myself some more questions at the end of the season and I hope some of my players will be doing the same thing. "I won’t be changing my style - I have been doing this for years. My questions have to be ’who have I bought and have they done the business’, or ’shouldn’t I have picked that team or made that substitution’.”

Unless Williams has some marketing initiatives up his sleeve, I cannot understand why he expects ticket sales to increase this summer. Last year they declined despite a momentous season in 2002-03 so after the miserable performances at Ewood Park this term there is no logical reason why they should increase. If we somehow manage to survive this season I would expect to see another decline or about 5 to 10 per cent because people know they can pick their matches and turn up and pay on the day. Relegation could see a decline of 25 per cent or more.

So why, in Williams's opinion, has it all gone wrong for Rovers this season or did no one ask him any difficult questions?

1. Because I and thousands of other help to pay his wages. 2. Because he is charge of my club, and he is making a total balls-up of it. 3. Because he has involved us in an unnecessary relegation battle and I'm worried sick. 4. Because he hasn't a clue about how to fix the team's defensive frailties, evident since last August. 5. Because he is unable to motivate a disinterested and lazy squad of players - viz yesterday's first half and any number of similar showings this season. 6. Because I'm fed up with his excuses after yet another lame performance. 7. Because he's an arrogant so-and-so who will never admit he has made a mistake - unlike the referees he loves to lambast. 8. Because I'm a Blackburn Rovers supporter of 70 years plus standing and I'll still be here when he's @#/? off to another club with his vast redundancy cheque. That's more than enough reasons why I'm entitled to call Souness inept. PS: Who are you?