Now that post gives me hope. If the players are not doing what they are supposed to it is Sparky's job to fix it, I trust he will. Perhaps things will get interesting. As long as the management realises it too, then we obviously have the right people in charge. Not their fault we were crap when they took charge.

Perhaps after playing virtually an entire season in Norway he is simply tired, and cannot keep up with the faster league he finds himself in now and just needs a break and time to adjust? Shock horror, a piece of logical reasoning.

Sitting in the car today I was thinking about our current state and the thought popped into my head, "things will turn around, we are too good to go down" (no one get into that debate, this isn't the point). Then I thought, well who are the players that make us this, Emerton, Ferguson, Stead (?), Friedel, Short (when fit) . The rest are either inconsistent or just bad. I thought back to the days when our team was young and talented with the likes of Dunn, Duff, Jansen, Thompson and Neill being some of the best players in the country in their positions. Now I'm not going to have some big moan because I don't think we are going to go down, and I do think things will turn around and we will get back up there, it just takes time and right now we are rebuilding, but it seems to me that Thompson is very much a symbol for Rovers, I really can't wait to have him back, because he's the one player left from the "glory" years of recent times who's reputation is really still intact, other than being injury prone and unlucky. Edit: I do know that I just babbled on for a bit there, ignore it if you wish

haha...well Im so glad I was included in this

Our team is actually quite well known, we just don't think of it as that because they aren't playing that well and they are our own players. All the time, even here in France, I get people coming up and asking me about Stead, how he is doing this season, and where did we get him from, things like that. In Friedel we have one of the best keepers in the Premiership. Emerton was well sought after, and is finally living up to that. Ferguson is Scotland captain, and another well respected premiership player. Tugay is well known throughout the world for his exploits for Turkey, and also a couple of seasons ago many regarded him as the best at what he did in the premiership (yes that was passing to a totally unmanned area of the field ) True, after that you are probably talking about players who most know, but they don't stick out, the likes of Dickov, Flitrcroft, Amo... The team isn't all that bad though, if we are still down here in 6-10 games time, then I'll be worried, but for now, I don't mind. Every once in a while you are going to get thumped, it happens.

Funny, it sounds like they only did running, and yet they weren't that fit.

People have to be held accountable for their own actions. If we want to start laying blame away from the individual we may as well give up on free will, democracy and free markets, none of those will work with that sort of mentality.

I think the problem in England is it's now becoming pretty standard for the oppositions national anthem to be booed. Of course it happens in other countries from time to time for a variety of very stupid reasons; however in england it is now the trend. The sad thing is that as the quality of the national football team improves, the so called supporters can't even been wise enough to let rivalries and even "hatred" or dislike be dealt by, by those on the field, as it's quite likely that england will come out on top and that would shut the opposition up in the best possible way. I'm disgusted to see such things as booing during national anthems, I don't always find them particularly moving things, but it is an act of respect towards the fans present in the stadium, and to the country itself, to simply let them have their couple of minutes on their own so to speak, before the real thing gets started.

Are you French haha that is how i speak when i talk from now on you can all add that accent when reading my posts If Ferguson is seen to be at serious risk of injury then he should not play. However, if it just feels a little tight, but it's not a serious thing, then I see no problem in him playing. Though it's not really a very important game anyway is it? I mean is there a point to Scotland playing qualification matches? It seems a bit cruel to me

Though 100 hours community service may well get in the way of his football when it comes to training. Punishment for those sorts of things should really be higher, he created a situation in which someone could easily have been killed, just because he, and those around him, were lucky enough for that not to happen, doesn't mean he should get off with what basically is a slap on the wrist.

Big Ron is hard enough to understand when he speaks english I can't imagine how he'd communicate with them over in Spain

I think I read today that Thompson was looking to be back within the next couple of weeks

Well, it's more believable than Heskey scoring. A lot of strange things seem to be happening in the midlands. Then again, if you throw enough mud at a wall...

"I have trained a bit extra"..."I have always done that". Well the boy is certainly confused.

Finished 2-2 in newcastle game

Not really going to spark a long discussion, but just thought I'd like to point out that Birmingham have just equalised against Newcastle. Who was it scored by? None other than Dwight Yorke. It was also set up by David Dunn.

Unless of course we actually sign an Armenian

Funny how a week ago everyone was saying Tugay should be next to Bazza, now he's had his chance everyone is saying the opposite. Football is a confusing thing sometimes.

Did he look quality when he screwed up and allowed Kanu to score the first goal yesterday? Players of the opposition always look better because you don't watch them every saturday and see all of their mistakes. Our defence needs to be worked on, but I have no doubt that in them we have several good premiership defenders.

Well he's gone one step towards making up for being a little off.

If he starts getting us into the box regularly we might actually get one

Neither of those are as good as them beating us though

Why do politics even have to come into this?

He's only here until January, with the possible option for an extension, because the club want to see how he does. It shows that we are the ones dictating the terms of this deal, if he had his way and was just here for a final paycheck, I'm sure he'd be on a lucrative two year deal.