[Archived] Mark Lawrenson

[bazza]

That's because a hell of a lot of people born in Blackburn move out!

Or because some of us who have nothing to do with the town of Blackburn support the greatest football club in the world.

[Steve Moss]

Or because some of us who have nothing to do with the town of Blackburn support the greatest football club in the world.

Amen, brother.

[the original david brent]

One thing I will say is that a hell of a lot of Rovers' fanbase is outside the Blackburn catchment area.

i dug this up:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/3078163/Manchester-United-bottom-in-local-fans-survey-while-Bolton-spring-a-shock---Football.html

interestingly it says 65% of rovers fans are from blackburn. It doesn't say how many fans were surveyed, and it doesnt say if it is the town itself, the wider borough, or a certain mile radius.

I actually believe most of rovers support is concentrated within roughly a 10 mile radius. I seem to recall another premier league survey years ago, about percentage of season ticket holders living in a 10 mile radius, and rovers were nearer to the top

[TAFKAP]

P.S. He's from Preston. What do you expect from a nobender from Weepdale?

Hi Bazza, you're right he is from Preston, and he purposely puts Wovers down simply to wind you up. Sadly the majority of posts on this thread are correct in my opinion, clubs like Wovers, Bolton, Sunderland etc will never stand a chance competing for the top spots in this league while football is in the state it is now. Ironically, your club was part responsible, in my opinion, for the current mess.

[Mattyblue]

i dug this up:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/3078163/Manchester-United-bottom-in-local-fans-survey-while-Bolton-spring-a-shock---Football.html

interestingly it says 65% of rovers fans are from blackburn. It doesn't say how many fans were surveyed, and it doesnt say if it is the town itself, the wider borough, or a certain mile radius.

I actually believe most of rovers support is concentrated within roughly a 10 mile radius. I seem to recall another premier league survey years ago, about percentage of season ticket holders living in a 10 mile radius, and rovers were nearer to the top

I would wager that that percentage goes down every year.

[yoda]

Hi Bazza, you're right he is from Preston, and he purposely puts Wovers down simply to wind you up. Sadly the majority of posts on this thread are correct in my opinion, clubs like Wovers, Bolton, Sunderland etc will never stand a chance competing for the top spots in this league while football is in the state it is now. Ironically, your club was part responsible, in my opinion, for the current mess.

Don't belive all you read, what we spent was miniscual compared to what the top teams were spending at the time, a junk story put about by the tabliods who didn't like a town club winning against all the odds and it still winds them up today.

Lawro reminds me of the joke about about 2 country and western singers from Preston, all rolled into one

[TAFKAP]

Don't belive all you read, what we spent was miniscual compared to what the top teams were spending at the time, a junk story put about by the tabliods who didn't like a town club winning against all the odds and it still winds them up today.

So you didn't break numerous records with regards to transfer fees?

You reap what you sow, and unfortunately, the rest of us have to too, evidently.

[FourLaneBlue]

We broke the transfer record twice. Once with Shearer and once with Sutton. United broke it just as much.

Villa have no room to try and play the moral high ground. What was it for Collymore? 8.5 million? More than we have EVER played for a player. How much was Juan Pablo Angel?

You spent plenty as well.

[yoda]

So you didn't break numerous records with regards to transfer fees?

You reap what you sow, and unfortunately, the rest of us have to too, evidently.

typical clarot and blue blinkers

[jim mk2]

So you didn't break numerous records with regards to transfer fees?

You reap what you sow, and unfortunately, the rest of us have to too, evidently.

Jack Walker was way ahead of the rest in seeing the vast sums of TV money about to flood into the game and was the first to start paying high salaries to the best players.

Exorbitant wages and high transfer fees would have happened anyway; Blackburn Rovers, always pioneers since the start of professional football in this country in the 19thC, were at the forefront of change yet again.

[mellison24]

Yes, we broke the transfer record, but using that argument, you'd have to blame Cloughie for signing the first million pound player. Or maybe blame the first 500k player? Or the first transfer to command any sort of fee?

[yoda]

Yes, we broke the transfer record, but using that argument, you'd have to blame Cloughie for signing the first million pound player. Or maybe blame the first 500k player? Or the first transfer to command any sort of fee?

that would be us again

[yoda]

So you didn't break numerous records with regards to transfer fees?

You reap what you sow, and unfortunately, the rest of us have to too, evidently.

that would be us again

ooops, my appologies, got it wrong!

I thought this was a milestone

"1914 PercyPercy Dawson Heart of Midlothian to Blackburn Rovers £2,500"

now where is that burnley in diguise type of person?

"The first ever three-figure transfer fee was the £100 paid by Aston Villa in 1893 for Willie Groves. Eleven years later, Alf Common joined Middlesbrough for the first ever four-figure fee, a sum which caused a national sensation and outrage amongst the football authorities.[2] The £5,000 mark was first reached in 1922 when Falkirk paid that amount for West Ham United's Syd Puddefoot, and six years later Arsenal paid the first ever £10,000 fee to acquire David Jack of Bolton Wanderers. After the Second World War, the spending power of clubs in mainland Europe outstripped that of British clubs for the first time, resulting in several substantial jumps in the transfer record. John Charles became the first British player to command a fee of £50,000 when he joined Juventus in 1957, and four years later Denis Law joined Torino in the first £100,000 transaction involving a British club."

read em and weep TAFKAP

[benmaiden]

It's true that a quite noticable proportion of Rovers fans come from outside Blackburn. I pass them all on the motorway myself for a start. This has always been one of my theories why you might say our support isn't as passionate as other clubs, as the fans don't have that 'local pride'.

[Dufflite]

The Preston Puff is correct about us not being able to compete but he does like to rub it in.

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

[Look4Me]

The Preston Puff is correct about us not being able to compete but he does like to rub it in.

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

I suppose the fact that Manchester United broke the English transfer record that season, buying Andy Cole for 6 million + Keith Gillespie, slips their minds every time..

[DE.]

The Preston Puff is correct about us not being able to compete but he does like to rub it in.

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

I've never really understood the whole 'you bought the league' putdown in relation to any club. If you've got the money, why wouldn't you spend it on the best players in the hopes of winning the title? Particularly when (like Uncle Jack) you're a lifelong fan of the club.

[robbo_rovers]

The Preston Puff is correct about us not being able to compete but he does like to rub it in.

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

Many teams spend tens of millions like we did and get no-where the title. Just because we spent our money on good players shouldn't be a bad thing.

[Neil Weaver]

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

This one comes up fairly regularly and Colin provides us with this sort of thing.......

Rovers did not "buy the title." They won it by scoring more points over the

season than anyone else.

The fifteen players who played the most league appearances (in brackets) in that season are listed below,

along with their transfer fees)

Alan Shearer (42) £3.3m from Southampton in 1992

Henning Berg (40) £0.4m from Lillestrom in 1993

Chris Sutton (40) £5.0m from Norwich in 1994

Graeme Le Saux (39) £0.65 from chelsea in 1993

Tim Flowers (39) £2.0m from Southampton 1993

Colin Hendry (38) £0.03mfrom Dundee in 1987

Tim Sherwood (38) £0.5m from Norwich in 1992

Stuart Ripley (36) £1.2m from Middlebrough in 1992

Mark Atkins (30) £0.04mfrom Scunthorpe in 1988

Jason Wilcox (27) £0 from the youth team

Ian Pearce (22) £0.3m from chelsea in 1993

Paul Warhurst (20) £2.7m from Sheffield Wednesday in 1993

Tony Gale (15) £0 from West Ham in 1994

Robbie Slater (12) £0.3m from Lens in 1994

Jeff Kenna (9) £1.45mfrom Southampton in 1995

That's a total of £17.87m over roughly three years.

How does that compare with the £77m Manchester United paid for Veron, Ferdinand and Van Nistelrooy ?

So, copyright Colin!

[FourLaneBlue]

You get some hypocritical from other clubs spouted that kind of thing. It has no real basis in logic but just another excuse to bash the achievements of a club outside the established "biggies".

It all comes down to jealousy that we won the title and they didn't. As can be seen on this thread.

[jim mk2]

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

Manchester United have "bought" every league title they have won - their current squad alone must have cost more than £100m.

Ditto Chelsea and Arsenal.

Liverpool's success in the 1970s and 1980s was down in the main to buying the country's best players.

United produce some home-grown players but they manage to attract the best youngsters by throwing shedloads of cash at the parents (allegedly of course).

Anyone who says "you bought the league" knows nothing about football.

[Mattyblue]

It's true that a quite noticable proportion of Rovers fans come from outside Blackburn. I pass them all on the motorway myself for a start. This has always been one of my theories why you might say our support isn't as passionate as other clubs, as the fans don't have that 'local pride'.

Tell me how our support isnt as passionate as other clubs?

Total nonsense statement.

[TimmyJimmy]

The Preston Puff is correct about us not being able to compete but he does like to rub it in.

On the topic of spending - I work in Manchester and continually get the old chestnut "you bought the league" thrown at me. Has anyone got any great arguements against this crap??

Easy peasy. They just have to look at the amount spent by other clubs at around the same time e.g. Newcastle under Keegan, Leeds under O'Leary etc., they easily out spent us yet they didn't win the league. If winning was just about amount spent then they and many others would have won it wouldn't they.

What really happened was that we got a fantastic manager and back room staff who were backed by Jack to bring in the players they thought could do a job. We bought one world class star (Shearer) and built the team around him. The rest was down to hard work and brain power.

Cash gets you to the starting gate - or alternatively we paid the ante and bought the right to sit at the table and join the game - no more than that, the rest is down to skill and endeavour (what it say on the badge).

[colin]

Thanks Neil W, you beat me to it. We should all have that bit of info on a text document somewhere ready & waiting.

As the title of this thread refers to Mark Lawrensson.... he actually made me laugh the other day when he was commenting on a game on radio 5. He was talking

about some spectacularly poor performance by a player in a game.

"It reminds me of a shout I heard at Stamford bridge a year or so ago. "OY Schevchencho, warm up, you're coming off.""

Well it made me laugh.

Sorry

[Majiball]

Stoke City v Blackburn

Stoke are improving week by week. Goalscoring is still a problem for them although I think they will resolve that issue and I fancy them to win this one. Set pieces will be a big factor in this game, and it could turn into the battle of the set pieces.

Verdict: 2-1

Well done Lawro you've managed to do a review and not even mention one of the teams????