That`s my favourite. Think that was when he said it after the home game in the 2001/02 season after we lost 1-0 to Derby, we signed Cole shortly after I think.

I think it’s clear for what ever reason that Gallagher and Souness never saw eye to eye for some reason. Gally as someone mentioned earlier, had a very good pre-season yet hasn’t been given a full game to show what he can really do, which we saw glimpses of from last season. Who ever the new manager maybe, I hope Gally gets his chance, with the sale of Yorke and only with Stead, Dickov and Gally in my opinion as the only decent strikers left he’s bound to get his chance, hopefully.

Overall, I think now we’re much better off without Souness. His personality brings, conflict and that will remain wherever he will manage. In my opinion I think he took the club as far as he could when we finished 6th place. That summer we lost key players, especially in Duff and Dunn. Last year was a struggle down to poor performances, bad injuries as well but Souness has to take responsibility in his selections. What is interesting about the whole situation is that Newcastle asked to speak to Souness. Rovers didn`t reject it, they allowed Newcastle to speak to Souness and he went. Now in my opinion I probably think that if we had lost to Pompey at home on the 18th of this month he would probably have been sacked anyway. I have full confidence in Tony.

Rovers 2 - 1 West Brom Stead (2) - Neill og. Attendance - 17,562

I have to admit, I am slightly worried at the position we are in, in going into the first few games of the season. With Southampton, Arsenal, United and Newcastle coming thick and fast, I am worried. I know it’s only pre-season, but in the two games that I have seen I have been disappointed. On Saturday we failed to keep the ball for long period of times, which we know we are capable of. Attacking wise, we look weak, not enough quality. We have a poor start and Souness could be facing what he was after the Leeds game last season. I saw a little bit of trouble whilst walking back to the train station in the centre of town. Nothing that the police couldn’t handle, from what I could see it looked like the Burberry lot causing trouble. I think the police generally in Preston were OTT, just in case something like that was going to happen. Overall I enjoyed the whole day.

I would estimate in the region between 3,000 to 4,000, probably nearer 4,000 as there weren’t many empty seats in the Shankly Kop.

I thought Matteo did well in that centre midfield role yesterday. He gives the sense of aggression in the midfield, which can allow Barry to get forward and allow Matteo just to sit in. He gets stuck in and never realised how quick he actually was. At times yesterday he made some important tackles and is very strong on the ball. Did Matteo and Radebe ever play together in midfield for Leeds? I thought Radebe was injured last season? I can remember seeing Seth (£9M man) Johnson and Matteo in the midfield. Anybody for Robert Earnshaw to partner Stead upfront? Stead, the bigger out of the two, with Earnshaw, pacey player, who can run with the ball at defenders with pace, would only cause defenders problems all day.

Attacking wise we were poor.The front line we had out today was poor. Stead has the quality in him to score many goals for us, but what he needs is a player with quality alongside him. A player I would target is Earnshaw from Cardiff. Dickov does work hard and his goals come through this, but his overall quality, passing etc isn’t good enough for the standard of the league that we will be in. Yorke at times was good, passing and lack of pace was poor. Gray and Ferguson were two who stood out for me. Gray consistent as ever, Barry looks like the more games he plays the better he’ll become. I will give my overall judgement of the team once the pre-season has ended.

Exactly. jansenpresty10@wales – I think both club and the player have to move on, despite how much we regard of him. Yes, he was a great player but he will never regain that form again I’m afraid. From last season’s games one game will always stick in my mind and that’s United away. He never looked comfortable with the ball and in the air, his passing was awful. Either he gave it away or over-hit it to team-mates. The numbers are a bit strange in my opinion and who they have been given to. Emerton getting number seven? Shame it’s not flight number seven to Australia.

As club captain I thought Barry would have been given priority choice to what squad number he would want? That’s if he really did want number 16, then fine. Can anybody actually confirm which list is going to be the official list of squad numbers yet?

I’ll probably get the same train as you Ossydave into Preston probably. Does anyone know where the pubs are in relation to the train station? On row 37 for the game if that’s near anybody, should be a good laugh at Preston. Apparently the museum is available to have a wonder round in before the game.

I would say that there were about 400 Rovers fans in the ground last night. Not a lot but that’s down to Stockport for over-pricing the tickets. Unlike PNE, where the figure you said 1864roverite, sounds about right at the moment. A local derby, under half n hour away I can see just around and over possibly three thousand. Which wouldn’t be a bad turn out, considering it’s only a pre-season friendly, but for a game against local rivals a tenner for the game is well worth it in my opinion. Hopefully the atmosphere will be a lot better than it was last night.

Overall we controlled the game well and never really got going against Stockport. Player ratings: Encklemen - Never really troubled, did well when called upon. Neill – OK – has to work on passing the ball; communication was also poor with Emerton, good goal. Amoruso – Handled everything that came his way. One thing that I did find is that he looked slightly over-weight to what he was last season. Nissa – Calm on the ball, big season for him. Gray – Commanded the left hand side of the pitch. Emerton – Poor again. Barry – Controlled the game with Matteo. Matteo – Very strong on the ball. A good addition by Souness. Gresko – Good going forward, final ball needs to be improved. Stead – Worked hard, never really had a real chance apart from a header and free kick. Yorke – Well, yes, believe it or not he did actually work hard and play well. Subs Reid – Provided good options to the midfield when going forward. Tugay – Popped the ball about freely. Gally - Did ok, his chance this season to show everyone. Dickov – Nothing major to report on him.

Well said. Last night Yorke showed for some reason that he wants to play in a Blue and White Shirt. His work rate was good last night but I have two reasons why he might have worked hard. I’d be more than happy if Yorke gave every game his best but, from what we have seen from him at Rovers suggests that he may re-capture his lazy form. To becoming the sixth choice striker to suddenly being in the plans of the manager for the coming season suggests that Yorke has worked well in pre-season. Perhaps that because he wants to prove Souness wrong or, he’s looking to get noticed by other clubs that he’d consider moving to.

What do you make of it all? I can remember ABBEY particularly feeling strongly about Eriksson and the job that he actually does as well as a few other members on the message board after one of the England games in Euro 2004. In my opinion I don’t think he’s up to. For the amount of money that Sven is on a year, £4M apparently, I don’t think he’s earning his money well. I can’t honestly say that I can see us winning anything with him at all. Obviously there’s more to the story than any of us will know at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how it will unfold. Eriksson does not fear sack FA calls emergency meeting

David Speedie – My first memories at Ewood was of him, so it has to be him. I will always remember his goal in the play off semi final against Derby. Colin Hendry – A true legend in my opinion. Hendry was a player who played with real passion and commitment, I was fortunate to meet him about seven years ago, although he probably won’t remember me, it’s something I’ll remember for a long time, very nice person. Stuart Ripley – May not be everyone’s choice, but I thought he was a very under-rated player. Never got a real chance to show what he could do for England, remember him getting taken off due to a hamstring injury. A good winger who I always enjoyed watching, never complained, always got on with it.

Was given a copied cd of The Hives new album, Tyrannosaraus Hives. Very good in my opinion, definitely worth buying, number of good songs on the album.

Not sure. I think all clubs` squad numbers have to be released by a certain date, could be that one. However most clubs do release them earlier, for shirt printing and merchandise etc. Liverpool released there squad numbers a few weeks back for instance, where it wouldn’t surprise me if Rovers released them at the last minute. Incidentally El Hadji Diouf of Liverpool hasn’t been given a squad number for this season.

Why forget Douglas in that courtet? All I’m saying is at least try that midfield out in one of the three remaining pre-season games that we have left, to see if it might work for us. I can’t see what the problem is with Douglas? He has played there before and did very well, actually we were winning when he was substituted, and eventually we lost at home to Bolton, which FourLaneBlue pointed out earlier on in the thread. Douglas I think could be the player for the holding player to allow Barry to get forward. Douglas may not be the most talented player in the world, but as he proved last season in the games that he played in he does the simple things better than most. THOMPSON SET FOR CENTRAL ROLE

Wasn’t sure whether to put this into the other topic, feel free to merge it if you wish to do so. Pre Season Friendlies & Lancs Cup, What have you heard? Right, the pre-season friendlies coming up, thought they could do with a topic of our own. Wednesday night sees us at Stockport, 28th July. Usual questions. Which stands will everyone be in? We haven’t been allocated a certain stand. Which pub will most Rovers fans be in before the game? STOCKPORT UP NEXT Timetable result: Blackburn to Stockport Preston away, 31st July. Got my ticket earlier on this week, on row 37. Again, wondered where most of us will be and which pubs before the game? Timetable result: Blackburn to Preston

I think eventually Thommo will be picked to play in the centre of midfield. Thommo has all the qualities of being a quality midfielder. He has the skill, strong player and isn’t frightened of getting his foot in. Thommo could be a very influential player if he was to be played just behind the front two. He loves running at players, which is what we didn’t have last season. Not only can he create goal scoring opportunities for others, but he can himself. I’m not sure what position Thommo started against Gencler at Ewood. But I remember he was everywhere in that midfield, really worked his socks off that game. But on the other hand it also creates a problem for Barry. I see Barry as the complete midfielder. He can run with the ball, pass, shoot, cross, tackle and defend a lot better than Thompson in my opinion. I would like to try out, possibly in remainder of our friendly games the midfield that could look like this: Thompson Douglas Barry De Pedro With both Thommo and De Pedro getting forward, it would also see Barry getting forward as well, who can back also with Douglas sitting in as the holding player. People seem to forget, FourLaneBlue pointed it out that Douglas was the main reason why we were keeping Bolton’s attack quiet until he got taken off and other players messed up things. I wouldn’t say yes straight away, but I wouldn`t rule it out as a possibility.

Good post 1864roverite, agree with everything you’ve said there. Souness has said that the team spirit and the environment are now better than it has ever been. Gallagher has impressed and what’s good for the team is that Gally is scoring goals now and has the confidence to perform. Not only is it Gally`s goal to go out, perform well and achieve a place in the side, but it also makes the decision a lot harder for Souness with competition for places. I can’t wait to see Thommo and Barry within the next seven games. I reckon that both will play at Preston in giving them a good test in the game. The winning can only be good, confidence will be high in going into the opening few games of the season, it’s important the players work hard for each other as well as themselves. BLACKBURN BEAT BOHEMIANS

The statistics that was given out about Sunderland shows what could have happened if Rovers had gone down, but worse. Sunderland were getting full houses every week, playing some good football, sadly for them it went all wrong, with players not pulling their weight, which in my opinion was the main reason why they went down. The figure that has been estimated of the number of season tickets so far stands at around twelve thousand. I dread to think what it would have been if we were in Division One. People have mentioned the word or phrase with loyalty. The fans should be loyal, obviously like anywhere else there is going to be a group of supporters who will stick by the team anywhere. The players also have to be loyal, some have, and some haven’t. The only reason in how we’ll get fans back through the gates is for the team to start playing the football that we know that they can play. CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

Good suggestion there, as it’s pre-season friendly. Got my Preston ticket yesterday, from what I could see through the window there looked to be quite a few tickets left in the drawer. Happen to be on row 37, which I presume will be right at the back somewhere. Preston Train Times

When I go down to Fulham, I’ll applaud him and the same when he comes back to Ewood. Cole has done nothing wrong in my opinion. Cole gave his best and that’s all you can ask for, without his goals and his contribution to other players goals I dread to think where we would be now. Souness in my opinion is the baby, with this pathetic swipe at Cole. Both player and club have parted, so shouldn’t they be “real men” and leave it at that. Best of luck Andy.