Now that Cole has escaped from Stalag Ewood, stand by for red-top exclusives in the coming days/weeks dishing the dirt on his non-relationship with Souness. Should make for interesting reading.

Cole has now officially signed for Fulham on a two-year contract.

Marvellous. Has Souness phoned Cole yet begging him to come back?

To state as someone did earlier that Cole is not a good striker is clearly nonsense. A career record of 198 goals in 358 league games (Rovers 27 in 74) and 57 goals in 109 cup matches is the record of a top-class player in anyone's language. I would wager there are many Premiership defenders delighted that he will not be lining up in a Rovers shirt next season. In the end Souness keeps or loses his job on decisions like this but it must be obvious even to his his keenest supporters that he is taking a big gamble in relying on the unproven Gallagher and Stead and the dubious quality of Dickov to see us through the season. I forgot to add of course, Souness out.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating or some other such cliche. Middlesbrough have brought in star names and season ticket sales have gone through the roof. In the past two summers, we will have offloaded Dunn, Duff and (as looks likely) Cole, our biggest stars. Meanwhile season tickets sales have slumped. I wonder if the two events are related?

Souness packed him off to Turkey when he complained at being left out of the team. Weeks before, Souness had been lauding Sukur as "one of the best players he had ever worked with".

There was also a spat with Short when the veteran centre half dared to question tactics after yet another home defeat last season. Even Souness realises he cannot do without our best defender, however, and it came to nothing.

Middlesbrough are reporting record season ticket sales of 25,000 thanks to their high-profile signings of Hasselbaink and Viduka and expect to hit the 30,000 mark before the start of the season. Rovers on the other hand are trying to offload a popular player (for the second summer in succession) and think they can replace him with a cutprice non-entity who excites no one. And Williams wonders why he can't shift season tickets.

Souness would never have tolerated Figo in the first place. Figo is a big player with a big ego, the type of player who our manager likes to cut down to size by first humiliating them and then forcing them to leave. If I were Paul Gallagher I would be looking round for another club already. Souness talked last season about him "having his big head on", so the young striker has obviously been earmarked for the Souness treatment.

Don't we know it. Messageboard incontinence, known in the medical profession as fourlaneblueexcessivepostumopinionsoneverysubjectoutofrectumitis

While hardly a surprise in view of the smoke signals coming out of Ewood, this is very disappointing news. Cole has driven me to distraction sometimes but I cannot help feel we will be weaker without him. One can only hope that Souness has another striker of similar quality lined up because (discounting Yorke and Jansen) it places a terrible goalscoring burden on Stead, Gallagher and Dickov, of whom the first two are very inexperienced. A couple of injuries and we are in deep do-dah. Fortunately, at £55,000 per week (!!) I doubt if we can find any club willing to take over Cole's contract, unless we do a Leeds and pay Cole to play for another club or the player himself takes a very big paycut. The likelihood is that the situation will fester for weeks and possibly months to the dissatisfaction of all concerned. Souness out.

Alan Nixon is an experienced Manchester-based freelance who has extensive contacts throughout the game. Agents, players and managers (Souness has given him umpteen leads over the past few years) who wish to get stories in the papers (for whatever reason) supply him with information. His forte is breaking potential transfer stories, the type of stuff that the Sunday red-tops thrive on. Unfortunately, many of them turn out not to be true, which has given him a somewhat dubious reputation in the trade. I believe he was on the Daily Mail staff for a while but he did not last long. Quite why a respectable broadsheet such as the Independent uses him I do not know.

Disappointing to hear about the board's financial difficulties. Where's philip when you need him to sort out the accounts? I'm happy to sign up with a standing order. One question: is there a reduced rate for us cash-strapped OAPs?

Typical Merseyside, living in the past with a chip on its shoulder. Scousers Against The World is their motto; no wonder Liverpool has been in decline for years and its population leaving in droves.

He's also a 21-year-old sprog. If we had a whole team of young players there would be no need to worry over hunger and desire. Matteo is a reasonable signing (injury provided) but I am concerned that Souness has recruited yet another player in his thirties. Jack Walker's advice to Dalglish when he went on his spending spree was to try to buy "young and British" but by and large Souness seems to rely on experience. Assuming Rovers line against West Brom something like this, Friedel (age 33) Neill (26) Short (36)/Amoruso (33) Matteo (30) Gray (30 next month) Thompson (26)/Emerton (25) Ferguson (26) Flitcroft (31)/Tugay (34 next month) De Pedro (29?) Stead (21) Cole (32)/Dickov (31) ...... I would say it's a good job Thompson and Ferguson are available for selection again otherwise the line-up would look distinctly aged.

How about: Dominic Matteo, ra, ra, ra (repeat) as we twirl our scarves above our head?

Flitcroft is one of my favourite players but his days at the club looked numbered. It sounds as if he has had a barney with our esteemed manager, so nothing new there then. Now, now Simon. You should know better than to upset the unemployed former master brewer, expecially when he's out of his tree (again) after spending what's left of his redundancy money in yet another pub!

Greece think they have won Euro 2004 but back in the Fatherland, Rehhagel is seen as the real hero. So there you have it: Germany have conquered Europe, again. I agree that, as a supposed leading football nation, England have underachieved over the years. We did not even qualify for the World Cups of 1974 and 1978, which was inexcusable considering the quality of players that were around at that time, while we also missed out on USA 94. Our record in the European Championships is lamentable. I believe that we have had some outstanding players in England since we won the 1966 World Cup but they have been badly managed and coached. For that I blame the FA, who have made some very poor appointments for the manager's job. They sacked Sir Alf, the only man to have won anything for England, and appointed Revie, who was a crook and a disaster as manager. Greenwood steadied the ship for a while and Robson did well to get us to the World Cup semi-finals in 1990 but since then, with the exception of Venables at Euro 96, it has been all downhill. Next came Graham Taylor, who turned out to be an embarrassment and out of his depth at international level, and then Glenn Hoddle, of whom the least said the better, and Kevin Keegan, who admitted after he walked out on England that he "did not have a clue about tactics". Now we have Eriksson, whose one-dimensional approach (defend deep and try to score on the counter-attack) has been exposed in Japan in 2002 and in Portugal. I do not hold out much hope for 2006, assuming we get there.

Five Live has been reporting a bid of £5m for Jeremy and J Cole - seems cheap? Is that Jeremy Paxman the broadcaster or Geremi the footballer?

And others think that living thousands of miles away in the US is an excuse not to attend home matches too! Get on that plane lad, flying the Atlantic's never been cheaper.

Excellent. Stored away for future use.

Errr, no?? We had to let him speak to other clubs but why were we compelled to sell him? You are missing the point as usual. Gerrard showed loyalty to his club, Duff took the money and ran. End of story.

That would be a valid comparison if, firstly, Duff was a Blackburn lad like Gerarrd was a Liverpool fan and a local lad. Secondly, if Rovers could offer the same kind of competitive football as Chelsea did at the time. Liverpool can offer Stevie Champions League football just like Chelsea. Rovers couldn't offer that to Duff a year ago...which is why it isn't a fair comparison. As for Duff himself... he made us £17 million. It isn't his fault if we didn't spend it as well as we could. The guy made us a fortune. It's then up to us to use it appropriately. We weren't in the Champions League but we were in the Uefa Cup. Duff isn't a Blackburn lad but, as he admitted, he was very happy in the area and had no wish to leave. That is all irrelevant however. He showed no loyalty to Rovers once his head had been turned by the vast wages on offer at Stamford Bridge. Like Gerrard, he could have turned them down and stayed at Ewood on his (still very comfortable salary), but he chose to follow the smell of money. No wonder he kisses the Chelsea badge at every opportunity while his Mum (who looks after his finances) counts up the noughts on his monthly paycheck. Gerrard's decision is a triumph for old-fashioned virtues. All power to his considerable elbow. I look forward to more players following his example.

The more I think about it the more I admire Gerrard. It was reported that by joining Chelsea he had the chance to double his (admittedly exorbitant) salary from £65,000 to £130,000 a week. There are not many people, when given the chance to double their wages, in whatever walk of life, who would do that. His quotes today also demonstrated his deep feelings for his club, the love of the community in which he lives and his sense of loyalty to the Liverpool supporters. Contrast his attitude with that of the treasonable Duff, who sold his soul for laundered Russian roubles without a backward glance to the club that made his name and the supporters who worshipped him.

Yup, it's everyone else's but fault but our own. And in case there is any doubt, blame the poor old ref. Nothing to do with England's poor finishing, poor penalty taking, poor tactics, poor defending or (in certain cases) poor players then?