jim mk2

McEveley out for the season. Medial knee ligament is detached from the bone and will require an operation.

McEveley was substituted after 15 minutes tonight. Either a bad injury or he's so bad he was taken off.

Eh ? He played first division football from the age of 17 to 27 - that's ten years at the pinnacle of the English game. How does that count as a third of a career ? Anyone who does not recognise George Best as one of THE greatest players of all time does not know football.

Load of crap, even by your standards.

Ahh, Craven Cottage, circa 1975, them were t' days. I can see Georgie now curling one round the flailing Paul Bradshaw from 25 yards in a 2-0 defeat if I remember rightly. Bobby Moore was playing too and Glenn Keeley got himself sent off for a stupid tackle (nothing new there). It is entirely correct that there should be a minute's silence for the finest player to emerge from these islands. Anyone who loves football would have loved George Best. RIP.

It's nowt to do with grieving. Best's public profile when he was a player was greater even than Beckham's (plus ten times the ability). His passing will be sad but also the chance to celebrate the God-given talent of one of Britain's greatest sporting figures. Incidentally, it has been reported that "Best carries a donor card and has said that when he dies he would like his organs to be used to help others". Georgie boy always did have a sense of humour.

As an icon of the 1960s and 1970s, the best player the British Isles has produced and certainly the best footballer I ever saw (and that includes Puskas, Di Stefano, Pele, Garrincha, Beckenbauer, Platini and Maradona), George Best was alot more than "very good footballer". His death is bound to dominate the news for a few days, and quite right too. From George's point of view it is sad that now we finally have 24-hour pubs he is unable to make use of them.

It's an old issue .... there has always been a floating support in Lancashire. Burnley's good attendances in the late 60s/early 70s contained many Rovers fans who wanted to watch first division football when Rovers had dropped out of the top flight. We always supported the opposition of course. There is no doubt that Rovers' attendances in the Jack Walker era were artificially inflated by fans from other clubs wanting to watch top-class football and players and a suddenly-fashionable nouveau-riche club that was the talk of the whole country. Perhaps now attendances are reverting to their mean average. Either way, the club cannot continue in the Premiership with attendances in freefall as at present. Hughes is ambitious and will leave and so will the best players. I will stick my neck out and say that unless attendances do not improve, we will be relegated possibly next season but certainly the season after. The task for the highly-remunerated Mr Williams is to find a solution before it is too late.

Salary caps work in US sport. With a strong lead from Uefa, they can be implimented here too.

Beaker wide of the mark as usual. The received wisdom was that Hendry left Rovers for Glasgow because his wife suddenly upped and went back to Scotland with kids in tow. Not sure why that was but there was talk of Colin's Ugandan relations with an Accrington lady (allegedly).

Good idea if the club were in the same financial straits as it was in the 1970s/80s. I refuse however to give any of my hard-earned pension money to continue funding the lifestyle of overpaid underperforming run-of-the-mill millionaire footballers. Agree with the sentiment: too much pontificating from foreign climes from folk who have abandoned the town and know nowt.

Wrong again. Sam Allardyce has been Blackpool manager in the recent past. With his current high profile, he is a much bigger "name" (not to mention waistline) than Hendry, a forgotten player from the 1990s. FYO, Matthews and Mortensen are legends of English football. Look in your Charles Buchan annual.

Not to mention Stan Mortensen and Jimmy Armfield.

The bidding has reached £400 and there's still four days to go ! Which just shows that some mug will buy anything.

I know it's been said before but the attendances at Ewood are becoming downright embarrassing. Top of the agenda for the newly formed BRISA.

There are many skills in football. Tackling and heading are skills. In Jansen's case, I would define it as his silky touch on the ball, which was rarely less than perfect. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

Is this the Chinese year of the football joke ? Bellamy is not unskilful but Jansen in his pomp had tremendous skill, particularly with his back to goal and turning and twisting past defenders. Van Persie at Arsenal is very similar. Bellamy's great asset is pace, which Jansen never possessed.

Souness was on radio last week professing his love for Rangers (he is a lifelong supporter). I think he would go back there tomorrow. For Hughes to get near the Barca job he would have to win a trophy in England first. The league title back at Ewood would do me fine.

Events, events. The unexpected always happens, particularly in football. There are stories circulating in Scotland that McLeish is finished at Rangers and that Souness is being lined up for a return to Ibrox. If that were to occur it would set off the managerial merry go round in England once more. Hughes for Barcelona is way off beam: he is far too low profile and was not a success there as a player.

One of the best stories of the year so far. Has anyone seen a full transcript of Keane's "video nasty" or have United confiscated all the tapes ? Hughes knows United is a poisoned chalice and is too sensible to go there. The decline at Old Trafford is wonderful to behold: all dynasties come to an end and the comforting thought is that it will eventually happen to Chelsea too. I still expect us to lose Hughes to a "bigger" club however. Probably next season.

Certainly Bruce's fourth year at St Andrews has been his least impressive, and one that adds weight to Gordon Strachan's theory that three years is the shelf-life for most managers at any club True. Viz Souness at Ewood.

My sympathy is entirely with Ronaldo and, before him, the Arsenal goalkeeper Graham Stack, who was accused of rape before the case fell apart in court, because this is a sad indictment of this country continuing to copy America. Years ago there was a US film, starring Alan Alda, in which a man committed suicide after being named by police investigating a rape claim. As it turned out, no charges were brought and but the man took his own life because of the public humiliation and trauma. Towards the end of the film, Alda's character says the US should be "the same as England, where people are not named until they have been charged with an offence". In fact, the film was wrong, because the right to anonymity in Britain used to go much farther than that. During their investigations into serious crimes, particularly in sensitive cases such as rape, police usually issued a terse statement, saying that "a man is helping them with their inquiries". Even if charges were brought and the case went to court, the accused was still not named. Defendants were not named until AFTER THEY HAD BEEN FOUND GUILTY. In other words, if the defendant was found not guilty, he could walk from court with his freedom and his reputatation intact. Now, footballers (and others presumably) are being named when they are merely being interviewed over a charge that may or may not be brought. Why ? And if the interviewee is named, why not also the girl making the accusations ?

Must admit I can't wait for Newcastle v Sunderland this weekend. A bad result at St James Park and the Geordie hordes will be baying for Souness's blood. No doubt there are one or two former Rovers players wishing him well too.

Why so ? The fact Le Saux's future wife did not want to live in the best part of England, and he agreed to her wishes, makes him even more contemptible in my eyes. And to think the little weasel was voted in the best-ever Rovers XI. Not fit to wipe Keith Newton's derriere.

Scientic argument based on a novel. Marvellous. And coming soon to a cinema near you: a Hollywood film based on historical fact.