There is going to be an excellent Italian coach looking for a job in the summer.

Good grief.

1 SOCCER Leeds Snap Leeds United plc announce to Stock Exchange that they have secured a week-long extension to the standstill agreement with the club’s major creditors.

Can I quote you on that in May? Wolves are now just three points behind us, are slowly clawing their way out of trouble after a disastrous start and appear to have the appetite for the battles ahead. Our lot, on the other hand.......

Would you care to indicate a single team in the league which has this, either below or above us ? Times have moved on. If we're talking about honest commitment: Above us, in no particular order: Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea, Newcastle, Liverpool, Charlton, Bolton, Southampton, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Fulham, Portsmouth, Everton, Man City. Below us: Leicester, Wolves, Leeds. Did I leave anyone out? Same of them may be poor teams, but at least they play as if they care. This Rovers team is not honest. They are cheats, to themselves, the club and, worst of all, to the supporters, the paying public.

If Rovers were in the same shamble they were under Kidd we would be deep in and not above the relegation zone and Souness would have been sacked long ago. The players we have now are infinitely superior to the ones we had then. The spirit of the team is also far, far higher - noone could fault us for effort and commitment against Chelsea. A well timed substitiution by the manager got us deservedly back onto level terms only for a typically gift wrapped goal to prove our undoing. There is nothing a manager can do about that kind of moronic 'defending' by players that are far better than that sort of mistake makes them seem. I'm not sure that the players are "superior". They may have a better pedigree but their attitude to me is just as bad as those under Kidd, if not worse. I'm sorry but I just did not see in the Chelsea match the commitment required to get us out of trouble. We need the old Everton "dogs of war attitude".

I agree that Souness talks intelligently on football and usually has something interesting to say. If he were not a manager, no doubt he would make a living as a full-time pundit on TV. There's nothing in particular that makes me anti-Souness (though no doubt USA Blue will drag up the usual story), but I have felt for some time that his time is up at Ewood. Every manager has a natural shelf life and Souness seems to have run out of ideas and inspiration. He has made dreadful mistakes in the transfer market over the past year, his selections often defy common sense and his tactics are, to put it mildly, questionable. Worst of all, he seems unable to motivate a well-paid squad that has no fight, guts, will-to-win, or stomach for the relegation battle. The defence has been a problem since the start of the season, which Souness continues to acknowledge yet shows no signs of being able to sort out. In short, the club is in a shambles, probably as bad as it was under Bryan Kidd when a similarly under-motivated team was relegated. It was interesting to see that Dean Richards, who led Leicester rugby club to unprecedented success over the past few years, was shown the door today after it was deemed that he had "lost the dressing room and was out of touch with his players". Hard decisions have to be sometimes and Leicester made theirs. The Rovers board should have done the same months ago.

when i read this post my heart sank.i find it appaulingly inaccurate in so many ways. firstly, how can a premiership manager and a manager with SO many years of experience in football and all over europe have "primitive" tactics?! i have watched blackburn play on numerous instances since the charlton match and we have looked superb minus the hurrendous mistakes of individual players and a lack of touch up front. you speak of lack of confidence... mayb that isnt souness fault but the fault of a group of incredibly talented players that simply arent cutting it on the pitch. souness has been involved in team building exercises an such an the defenders of ewood showed a good team spirit. as for the left wing - anyone will tell u that the sale of duff will leave u a huge void. admittedly tommo aint the best suited player to that position but with so little money given to spend and the lack of players available that fall into our wage structure, he is still a decent repacement. reid is a young player and was a good signing but hasnt quite settled and has been rocked by injury. who would u suggest we buy/put out on the left? as for grabbi, grabbi was a proven goalscorer but 7million was just too much and he was a flop - one of souness few mistakes as manager. if he cant cut it, then get him out! my criticsm is not that he withdrew him from the bench but that he didnt sell him ages ago, admit defeat an such. as for lying to the fans... thats ****, he will use excuses which i find to be commical genius; if it isnt the referee, its the pitch, or the opposition fans or the weather or a bird that flew a little too close to the players... but as u speak of confidence, would saying that players were **** EVERY match raise their confidence??!!! NO! any decent manager would know that. as for ferguson.... WHAT R U THINKING?! ferguson = deal of the season (if he hadnt have gotten injured) seeing as parker went for 10million an has performed on only a few instances and is relatively new to the scene, ferguson was a bargain being scotland captain and rangers captain and a true performer. at rovers he was slow to start, but MY GOD when he got going he ran the game! he was amazing. one of the best cm's iv seen this season in the premiership! newcastle for eg, he ran the game, got injured and it started to slip away from us until we got a lucky handball goal. we have missed him and havent been the same since his injury. alan mahon is not a good player - hence why division one clubs r after him. souness is not the problem! finances and players playing badly is our problem!!! i think more fans should stick up for our manager that has done so much for us. sorry for the essay and im sure im going to displease the moderators... sorry! but that post was incredibly wrong in so many ways. Have you heard of punctuation and paragraphs? No doubt you have made some very good points in your post but I can't be bothered to read it because it looks so awful.

The vultures are moving in. Spurs have offered £5 million for Bakke and Robinson, according to the tabloids, the exact amount Leeds need to stay out of administration. And Brum have made a bid of £3 million for Butt.

David O'Leary to the rescue!! The former Leeds manager has offered to defer until March 1 £600,000 of his £4 million compensation package. Very magnanimous of him. Bit like Titanic captain handing buckets to the passengers.

Too true matey, like all of us Souness (salary £2 million plus) has to do a bit of moonlighting to help pay the mortgage and a few extras for the kids.

If that is the case why do some of his team selections and tactics appear to make no sense at all?

Dont want to be a I told you so, but look what time this was posted. Posted: Jan. 20 2004, 12:29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .....and the latest from Leeds........players arent prepared to accept a 30% deferred wages cut to save the club the required £5million. Players to accept wage cut - click me Though the crux of the article gives no details about what the players are willing to do, just that they are willing to help out, the headline says they WILL accept the pay deferral. Wrong. They are refusing to take a pay cut - point blank - because they fear they will never see the money again and insist that the club sells players first. In other words, stuff the club, we're looking after ourselves thanks very much.

Tell you what Jim, why don't you do your job for 30 percent less? I am.

The greed of footballers knows no bounds. The Leeds players tonight told the board that they would rather the club sold one of the players rather than them all having to take a 30 per cent pay cut.

Interesting.. Statistically almost identical to his record at Liverpool. The difference is Liverpool fans regard him as a disaster as a manager whereas (some) Rovers supporters see him as the greatest manager in the history of the club. I found this on a Liverpool website: "After nearly five years at Ibrox and numerous domestic trophies, Souness arrived at Anfield in the Spring of 1991 in the wake of Kenny Dalglish's decision to step down and after Ronnie Moran had filled the position as caretaker-manager. "Graeme bought and sold with the same almost reckless approach he had shown in Scotland but what might have worked north of the border did not have the same effect in England." "Souness was sacked in January 1994 after the FA Cup 3rd round defeat to Second Division Bolton Wanderers coupled with an alarming slump in League form." Sound familiar? It was the same story at Rangers. Souness enjoys playing the transfer market, which is why he grabbed the £17 million on offer for Duff to spend on new signings. It will be interesting to see what happens if he does not sign anyone in the transfer window. Perhaps he will have to motivate and organise better his existing squad, which is what being a manager is really all about.

Good question - wishful thinking but long term: Milner, short-term: Viduka.

1 SOCCER Leeds Nightlead LEEDS GET SEVEN DAYS By Ian Parkes, PA Sport Leeds’ acting-chairman Trevor Birch has today been given just another seven days to find the funds which will prevent the club falling into the hands of administrators. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, Birch revealed the week-long extension to their ‘standstill agreement’ with the principal creditors who are owed a combined £82million. Birch now seems certain to turn to the club’s highly-paid stars and ask them to defer a portion of their wages - likely to be around 30% - until the end of the season, which would provide Leeds with the £5million needed to see them through the next four months. Birch has also managed to agree the possibility of a further two-week extension up to February 6, however, that will only be allowed on certain financial conditions being met.

Tomorrow's Independent reports that the Sheikh has come up with the £35 million necessary to save Leeds.

Trevor Birch got the job at Leeds on the strength of his success in finding Abramovich to save Chelsea (so we can thank him for us losing Duff, which is another story). Birch then lost his job at Chelsea (cut-throat business football) and I would say he might lose his post at Leeds unless he can save them from going into adminstration. Monday is the crunch for Leeds - unless Birch can pull a rabbit out of the hat between now and then, the adminstrators will come in and sell everything that moves, or doesn't in the case of the fixtures and fittings at Elland Road. Pity the poor Leeds fans who hold shares in the club - totally wiped out and not a penny returned on their investment.

They're about to apply for planning permission to increase ground capacity at the Valley by another 10,000 which will take them to roughly the same as Liverpool, Everton Chelsea and Arsenal. Beyond Spurs and West Ham - suddenly football in London looks very different. Charlton are running an aggressive marketing campaign down the railway line to places like Rainham and Gillingham in Kent. Direct and regular trains to Premiership football, and 5 mins from the station to the ground. Massive - and rich - population in that corner of England. Attractive to families because there's no history of trouble unlike any other London club. Cheapest tickets in the Premier League (and cheaper than Millwall and QPR who evolve in far less fashionable circles). Charlton are on an absolute winner, within 10 years will be up there with Arsenal. And Chelsea if the Russian hangs in there. I wouldn't say North Kent is rich; in fact parts of it are downright poor and it is a horrible flat, ugly area best passed through with the carriage blinds closed on the way to the South of France. Good club though, better than their poxy sarf London neighbours Palace. Their success in attracting supporters has been at the expense of Gillingham, who resent seeing their local kids tripping off to the Valley each week (sound familiar?).

Hardly knee-jerk dear boy. I've been saying or months that Souness is past his sell-by date and events are proving me right.

I think Souness has realised he cannot do anymore. He has run out of ideas and does not know how to solve the current crisis other than by sepnding yet more money. All very Roy Hodgson-like and very reminiscent of four years ago. The board will not sack Souness because it would cost too much to terminate his contract. My only hope is that he will do the honourable thing and resign after we are inevitably relegated.

The past is irrelevant. The here and now is that Souness's mismanagement has got us into an unnecessary relegation battle. The present squad clearly is not good enough in terms of ability and is being badly managed. Poor results over the next 10 days and we could be second bottom with only Wolves below us.

Leicester and Pompey winning too.