jim mk2

"There's plenty to criticise or argue about the man but the signing of Steadinho surely isn't an issue." Except that his first choice was Brian McBride.

Never feel sorry for anyone in football: it could easily have been us going down. Let's just thank "Lady Luck" and Jon Stead that it isn't.

Let's get this straight. Ron Atkinson is a racist born of the Alf Garnett generation. It must irk him terribly that the English title was won by a team most of whom are niggers playing the beautiful game with beautiful football. Atkinson was found out and he has paid the price. Bye bye Ron, the world and your attitudes have moved on .

Excuse me? Didn't we beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle United, respectively the champions, second and third-placed teams, at home last season?

It's easy to be cynical about this (especially when it's one of your neighbours and rivals) but I think Bolton should be congratulated if they manage to secure Rivaldo's signature. The interest created by Rivaldo in the Premiership will lift Bolton's profile enormously on TV and in the press both here and abroad and may give the club another boost next season after their successful campaign this term. His name will help Allardyce to draw other signings to the club and, who knows, he might even be a fantastic success on the field if he manages to recapture the form of two years ago. If he has any professional pride he will certainly want to restore his reputation after his experiences at Barcelona and Milan. I wish we were signing him.

Good grief.

I wouldn't be too sure. The prospect of Jonathan Douglas signing another contract is sure to have major sponsors and TV companies beating a path to Ewood.

Mind-boggling transfer, but it's about to happen. The player is in Manchester talking to Sam Allardyce at the moment.

That was one of the worst days in Rovers history. I can still remember the shock in the town.

Strangely, the remarks were only heard in certain countries in the Middle East, but it was enough to cause his downfall. Anyone remember Ron as manager of West Brom in the 1970s, when he called his black players Cyrille Regis, Brendan Batson and Laurie Cunningham "The Three Degrees" after the famous singing trio? I wonder what they think now (though Cunningham sadly is dead)? PS: Sunderland's defeat at Palace meant Norwich were promoted tonight. Looking forward to another 7-0 next season?

There's a good story emerging over Ron Atkinson, who has had to resign from ITV Sport after making an off-air racist comment following last night’s game between Chelsea and Monaco. Apparently, the words "Desailly", "nigger", "useless" and "f*****" were used, though not necessarily in that order.

Tim Flowers is my favourite Rovers goalkeeper of all time, and I've seen a fair few. It's obvious that he still loves the club and never wanted to leave; let's hope he returns in some capacity very soon.

To judge from this correspondent's predicting record, that's Souness out of a job next season. I would also say that if Souness had had his way, we would have Brian McBride and not Jonathan Stead in our attack. Souness is a lucky man if he manages to hold on to his job. This thread will run and run if he does.

A very odd post. Hiring and firing the Maanager is the Board's decision, not JW's. In case you haven't noticed, JW runs a very good operation off the pitch and its Souness' job to run a good one on it. Pardon? John Williams said recently that he expects season ticket sales to increase next season, suggesting a man living in cloud cuckoo land rather that the real world. The board may have the final say over the appointment of managers but Williams most definitely has an input. I would suggest it is now far too late to replace Souness. Middlesbrough showed the way a few seasons ago when Venables was brought in to help the floundering Robson and stave off relegation. That is what the board should have done months ago, although I doubt if the Souness ego would have taken kindly to working with a coach who actually knew what he was doing. I did something very odd at today's match. I didn't rant or rave at our players as usual but just sat back and watched us sink to another inevitable defeat. Watching Rovers today, the plain fact is Souness has assembled a squad of very ordinary players who would struggle to survive in the Prem even if Arsene Wenger were in charge of them. Short, Tugay, Cole, Flitcroft, and Amoruso are too old, Gray and Neill are merely average and Emerton and Reid are poor beyond belief. Stead and Gallagher are babies in football terms and it shows. I can't see any way that we can avoid relegation now. If we could not beat Portsmouth and Leeds it was vital that we did not lose to them, and we could not manage even that. Two points from those games (and two points less each for Pompey and Leeds) could have saved us. I was rather impressed by Leeds today, not just their spirit but the quality on the ball of Viduka, Smith, Milner and Pennant. We do not have players anywhere near their class. I expect Leeds and Pompey to survive with us joining those other sub-standard teams, Leicester and Wolves, for the drop.

Some interesting quotes on PA from Souness today in which he says he won't be changing his style of management, so presumably if we somehow escape the drop we can expect more of the same poor decision-making next season. Souness said: "I have questioned myself and I have questioned some of the players I have brought to the club and I have found out a great deal, including some things I was hoping not to find. "The easiest thing is life is to look at other people but I will be asking myself some more questions at the end of the season and I hope some of my players will be doing the same thing. "I won’t be changing my style - I have been doing this for years. My questions have to be ’who have I bought and have they done the business’, or ’shouldn’t I have picked that team or made that substitution’.”

Unless Williams has some marketing initiatives up his sleeve, I cannot understand why he expects ticket sales to increase this summer. Last year they declined despite a momentous season in 2002-03 so after the miserable performances at Ewood Park this term there is no logical reason why they should increase. If we somehow manage to survive this season I would expect to see another decline or about 5 to 10 per cent because people know they can pick their matches and turn up and pay on the day. Relegation could see a decline of 25 per cent or more.

So why, in Williams's opinion, has it all gone wrong for Rovers this season or did no one ask him any difficult questions?

1. Because I and thousands of other help to pay his wages. 2. Because he is charge of my club, and he is making a total balls-up of it. 3. Because he has involved us in an unnecessary relegation battle and I'm worried sick. 4. Because he hasn't a clue about how to fix the team's defensive frailties, evident since last August. 5. Because he is unable to motivate a disinterested and lazy squad of players - viz yesterday's first half and any number of similar showings this season. 6. Because I'm fed up with his excuses after yet another lame performance. 7. Because he's an arrogant so-and-so who will never admit he has made a mistake - unlike the referees he loves to lambast. 8. Because I'm a Blackburn Rovers supporter of 70 years plus standing and I'll still be here when he's @#/? off to another club with his vast redundancy cheque. That's more than enough reasons why I'm entitled to call Souness inept. PS: Who are you?

What as? A clothes hanger?

Slowly but surely, Souness is cracking up under the strain. Last week it was "Lady Luck" that deserted us, this time it's all the referees' fault. So nothing to do with your inept leadership Graeme? The first half yesterday was disgraceful, the worst I can recall in a long time, and a draw was all we deserved, blatant penalties or not. 1 SOCCER Blackburn Quotes BIG CLUBS GET ALL THE BREAKS, MOANS SOUNESS By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport Graeme Souness launched a scathing attack on Premiership officials following his side’s 1-1 Ewood Park draw with Southampton today. The Blackburn boss believed his side were denied a first-half penalty by referee Mike Dean after Graeme Le Saux’s challenge on Brett Emerton. And Souness insisted Dean’s failure to award a spot-kick was part of a much wider conspiracy which has failed to give Rovers a fair deal this season. Emerton crumbled to the floor under Le Saux’s challenge as he shaped to shoot and Dean instantly waved play on. Souness said: “I’m told it looked like a penalty but it’s no surprise to me that we didn’t get one because we’re not one of the big clubs. “We don’t get a fair crack of the whip. We haven’t had a single penalty this season and logic tells you we would get one in 20-odd games. “I could produce a video of a dozen great shouts for penalties that I know if we were Manchester United or Arsenal or Liverpool or Chelsea we would get." And Souness was also left to seethe about his side’s dismal start which ultimately cost them their first Premiership home win since November. Slack marking enabled Kevin Phillips to put Southampton ahead after just six minutes before Andy Cole’s second-half equaliser. Souness added: “I think we gifted a goal for Phillips and that goal set the tone for the first 45 minutes. There was that much room in the penalty box you had to wonder where all the defenders went. “That made us extremely nervous given our present predicament but in the second half we got going and we should have gone on to win the game."

Eh? Beg to differ old chap. Where were you on Saturday, and the Chelsea, Bolton and Manchester City matches?

once more that is an opinion, as is mine, but is an opinion i dont agree with im afraid. motivation not only lies within the manager but within the captain and the team. as we finished 6th last season with much of the same personnell i do not believe this can be attributed to our dismal showing, nor can it be placed simply on the manager. in addition to this, i have failed to note many noteable flaws in tactics, would be happy to listen to those you have seen. finally, largely i have agreed with souness' team selections considering the extent of our injuries and the experience of souness as a tactician and manager. Unfortunately, in the real football world it is the manager and not the players who carries the can when teams fail to deliver results on the field of play. Without going into his transfer dealings (suffice to say that the squad is weaker than it was this time last year), it is not controversial to say that Souness's selections and tactics this season have, at times, been extremely baffling. Injuries have certainly played their part but Souness has exacerbated the consistency problem by refusing to pick the same team twice when he has had the chance to do so, selecting players in the wrong positions and producing tactics formations that have appeared to confuse the Rovers players as much as the opposition. Souness has also presided over one of the worst defences in the league, one that has been apparent since the first day of the season and he has failed to rectify, and worst of all, he often appears unable to motivate a generally disinterested squad of players into giving their all for Blackburn Rovers. You can blame the board, the players, "lady luck", injuries or whatever, but the buck stops with Souness. And he knows it.

All those reasons for our dismal showing this season and not one mention of the poor transfer buys/team selections/tactics/motivational abilities (or not) of our illustrious manager. Something wrong methinks.

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

Good grief.