jim mk2

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.

Agree with that. No one to put foot on the ball in midfield.

Cheating Diouf TRipped over his own feet for penaltyy

....because he has played his last game for the club. He will be back at Ibrox by Friday, if not before. There's more chance of Hell freezing over. And this is coming from a Rangers season ticket holder! Murray will not up his bid and sell us short on this one. There's going to be some very unhappy Gers fans this weekend. To be fair Dada...Jim is involved in the newspaper industry and has time after time on this site correctly predicted what is going to happen in transfer stories, even if Jim is a complete cock in every other regard...and he is. Thank you.

....because he has played his last game for the club. He will be back at Ibrox by Friday, if not before.

That article merely confirms my view that Rovers will be happy to sell as long as the price is right. Rangers will find the money, nae worries.

It's worth taking the young offspring for comments such as "Have the players had a wee before they come on the pitch ?" and "What do they do if they want a wee during the game ?" and "Are they playing football or rugby ?" and "Why is the referee bald ?" and that was in 1935 !

Disagree. Hughes said today: "Rangers have not come in with anything like a realistic bid and it is very difficult to say which way we can go with it. We will be speaking to Barry and his representatives on Monday and maybe then we will have a clearer picture." My reading of the situation is that Rovers are waiting only for a better offer, probably this weekend, and Ferguson will be on his way. Williams, for all his faults, knows that keeping an unhappy player at the club against his wishes is in no one's interest.

Harry Harris is one of the few who really knows what he's talking about. He got his first big break on the Mirror when he got hold of Robert Maxwell's personal home number and (that only about 3 people knew) asked him for a job. ..... What happened was Maxwell was so impressed that Harry had got his number he offered him a job on the spot - at (for the time) a ludicrous salary of course. Harry is one of Fleet Street finest, the author of such literary gems as ...."Bethlehem, birthplace of the legendary Jesus Christ" .... and "from my hotel room overlooking Mount Everest".

Dear den, I really am struggling with your words "decent striker" and players such as Paul McKinnon, Sean Curry and Paul Round in the same sentence. Would reiterate a previous message about David Speedie; without him we would not have achieved promotion in 1991-92. Watch the video of the season - he was truly phenomenal. Suppose it has to be Shearer because he would probably be a candidate for an all-time England XI. The way he left the club was still disgraceful however. And Garner to play alongside him because he had the virtue that the likes of Shearer, Ferguson and Savage all lack - loyalty.