It's Mourinho criticising Rovers, not Oliver Holt.

Amid the euphoria at a battling performance and losing "only" 1-0 to Chelsea, we have lost another home game and are still in the relegation mire. The game was yet another example of Rovers shooting themselves in the foot, giving away a soft early goal to the Premiership's best team (Friedel at fault yet again) and missing a penalty. Just like the Bolton match, the last period of the game was awful with aimless long balls forward to no one in particular. A bad night.

I'm still puzzled by the legal implications of this. Why did not Rovers suspend him without pay when he refused to play ? Any lawyers out there ?

I find Ferguson's refusal to play against Colchester astounding. Can Ferguson refuse to play from a legal point of view ? When he refused to play, was he not breaking the terms of his contract and why did not Rovers suspend him without pay, remind him of his responsibilities to his employers, send him home and tell him to return to the club only when he is ready to play again ? IMO the club missed a golden opportunity to teach Ferguson and other selfish players like him a lesson.

IF WE CANNOT FILL SEATS GIVE THEM AWAY TO KIDS. Precisely. See my earlier post on Leicester Tigers rugby union club and their success in building a fan base by grabbing the kids at an early age. Call me a stupid old fart, but this problem requires some new thinking. Here's an idea: Rebuild the Riverside and give over the entire upper section (4,000 - 5,000 seats ?) to children, who would be given FREE season tickets. The cost of building it ? Only the price of one Grabbi, one Davies or one spineless Scot. The long-term benefit ? Absolutely priceless. Generation upon generation of children imbued with the habit of attending football matches and (hopefully) a love of Blackburn Rovers. I realise there may be logistical and stewarding problems with so many kids in one place but it's worth serious consideration.

Ferguson said today he should never have left Rangers for Rovers in the first place. “I am man enough to admit I made a mistake 18 months ago by leaving. I can understand people saying I lacked ambition (coming back) but that’s their point of view...three-and-a-half weeks ago when I knew Rangers were interested then there was only one place I wanted to come back to. “It has been hard, the last 18 months, but I made the move, I made the decision to try down south which I don’t regret.” Despite playing at some of England’s finest stadiums, Ferguson said no match could compare to Scotland’s Old Firm derby with Celtic. “No disrespect to Blackburn but the local derby was Bolton and it is not the same. Even going to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, they are beautiful stadiums but a normal Premier League game isn’t the same."

Some observations: A bad day for Blackburn Rovers on and off the field. First and foremost, we have lost a key player in the fight against relegation. There is now a gaping hole in midfield that neither Savage nor Flitcroft are capable of filling. Like the loss of Dunn, Duff and Cole, the departure of another leading player also sends a further bad message to the Blackburn public .... and the board wonders why crowd numbers are dwindling. With regards to the transfer itself, Williams has been made to look the fool he is (again) by Murray. His "tough" negotiating stance was shown to be nothing more than bluster and he has been given the runaround by Murray both in the buying and selling of Ferguson at a cost to Rovers of £2 million. An amateur versus the professional. In addition, the outcome of this saga was obvious from the start, although not to philipl and his cohorts. An amateur versus the professional messageboard members.

Ferguson said last night: “I honestly felt it was dead last Thursday or Friday but Rangers never gave up and that means so much to me. “The chairman (David Murray) showed his commitment and I think he has been pulling his hair out but finally we got the deal done.” “The last month has been hard work. I went through a lot of emotions as I thought the deal was never going to go through but it’s brilliant to be home. “I went through all the proper channels and even handed in a written transfer request but it wasn’t until just an hour or so before the window shut that I really knew that I was back at Rangers. “As soon as I knew Rangers were interested in having me back I wanted to make it happen. “I have been avidly following the club since I have been away. I looked at the website, I got the Rangers News delivered and I watched Rangers TV. For me, Rangers is such a huge part of my life. “I missed the club so much and when I grabbed that jersey again it felt so good.”

So, Williams the tough negotiator capitulated and took the measly money on offer. What happened to the £6 million, John ? Poor bloody show that has left us out of pocket to the tune of £2 million with no time to sign a replacement or a new striker with the little cash we have gleaned from the deal. Williams out.

Ferguson talking to Rangers at the moment. Deal imminent.

Are you sure ? Rovers' record attendance was 61,783 v Bolton in the FA Cup sixth round in March 1929. There were 42,000 on Ewood for the FA Cup match with Man City in 1969 and that was scary enough.

Leicester Tigers Rugby Union club recently attracted a crowd of 12,000 for a RESERVE team match. The first team is a 17,000 sell out for every game and the club are going to leave Welford Road and share the 32,000-capacity Walkers Stadium with Leicester City to accommodate growth. We all know rugby union is a crap sport compared with football, so how do they do it ? This article explains how and makes for a fascinating read. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,...1456550,00.html To me, the best quote from the article is this one: "Twenty to 30 years ago, the club gave season tickets to children at rugby-playing schools. Those children are now the core of our loyal support,” Sam Rossiter-Stead, the club’s communications and marketing manager, said

According to the Glasgow evening paper a new bid "in excess of £4 million will be lodged in the next 24 hours". If that does not include the £2.5 million Rovers still owe for Ferguson then the club have no reason not to accept it. Still sticking my neck out, I expect Ferguson to be at Ibrox tomorrow night having his medical.

Rovers struggle to score more than one goal per match; Chelsea look likely to break Liverpool's record of conceding only 16 league goals in a season. So a contrarian view is that Rovers will win 4-0. Realistically, Rovers must aim for a 0-0 or 1-1 at best and the only way they will achieve that is by taking a leaf out of Chelsea's book and maintaining their shape and discipline for 90 minutes. It will demand total concentration by all the players for the whole game and they will have to work extremely hard and believe that they are capable of doing it. If they don't, and Chelsea score early and we have to chase the game, it could easily be a three or four goal beating.

It's nothing to do with football. You forgot that his wife doesn't like it down here and wants to go home and wives always have the final say . . . don't they ?? To repeat myself, it will take only a small increase in the offer from Rangers for Ferguson to be on his way. It is unrealistic for Rovers to expect to recoup £7 million for a player they paid too much money for in the first place. To be honest Jim, I don't believe the family issue. I'd agree family should always come first, however the arguement for high-profile sportsmen/women is a different. Footballers wives or "family issues" have often forced players to seek moves. A few years ago, David Unsworth engineered his exit from West Ham back to the North West with Everton so that his children could "play with their cousins more" !! Ben Thatcher's missus wants to move because their house in Manchester has been burgled twice, Colin Hendry followed his disgruntled wife back to Scotland when he moved to Rangers and Robbie Savage (allegedly) sought a move to Rovers so that he could "nearer his parents". When the missus barks, footballers jump !

It's nothing to do with football. You forgot that his wife doesn't like it down here and wants to go home and wives always have the final say . . . don't they ?? To repeat myself, it will take only a small increase in the offer from Rangers for Ferguson to be on his way. It is unrealistic for Rovers to expect to recoup £7 million for a player they paid too much money for in the first place.

Worry ye not. Ferguson will sign for you on Friday.

It was inevitable. No point keeping an unhappy player. To judge from last night's match, we will be considerably weaker without him. Without a replacement I presume Flitcroft will play in his place as Thompson looked unconvincing in the middle. We also need a striker who can score goals - and quick.

Wrong. Look at it again. There is no contact between Friedel and Diouf. What Diouf does, after he has gone past Friedel, is very cleverly put his right foot behind his left calf, causing him to trip up. A nice piece of skill and one that he has obviously worked at in training.

Threatening violence ? Um, is this legal ?

I was disappointed with Rovers' reaction after Bolton scored last night. The search for an equaliser seemed to consist of long high balls aimed at no one in particular with no attempt to spread the play wide and get in decent crosses. Needless to say the Bolton defence lapped it up and their keeper was not troubled.

At the risk of stating the bleedin' obvious, how about a winning team playing attractive football ? We were doing that a few seasons ago until the manager got rid of all the best players.

Interesting. The story yesterday was that talks had been postponed until later in the week because Williams had flu. Now we learn that Rangers and Rovers were in fact talking yesterday, presumably in Williams's absence. It's still my hunch that Ferguson will be a Rangers player by Friday. Last night's match showed how much Ferguson will be missed when he leaves and that Savage is not a replacement.

Well done to Gary Speed for his honesty. The Bolton midfielder said: “I’ve just seen it (the TV replay) and no, it doesn’t look like a penalty. "It’s amazing, Diouf got it, he never gets any fouls. That obviously wasn’t a penalty. Blackburn won’t be happy but we’ll take it. “Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t but that’s only our second or third penalty this year. It was probably a poor game to watch but we are happy with three points.”

Sam Allardyce tonight apologised for the behaviour of El Hadji Diouf and promised to discipline the forward as a warning to other diving players who con referees. "Diouf clearly dived for the penalty, allowing us to score and win a match that we did not deserve, and I just won't tolerate that sort of thing at my club. It has to be stamped out of football. "I apologise unreservedly for his behaviour to Mark Hughes and Blackburn players and supporters who must be very upset at losing a game that may be crucial to their chances of avoiding relegation. "Of course I shall be contacting the Premier League and ask them to hand the point back to Blackburn that we gained by default and I shall also be asking them to make an example of Diouf. "It has been a very bad night for football." Of course Allardyce said none of these things, refusing even to condemn his player for what was clearly a dive. Football is a sick sport.