Scumbag United fans.... Ugly scenes of violence erupted again involving Manchester United fans last night at their away match against Birmingham at St Andrews on Saturday evening. Police said violence erupted before the match, with further clashes at half-time. Seven people were arrested. In October this season at a Carling Cup match between Barnsley and Man United at Oakwell, the Yorkshire club said that Man United fans had been violent and had caused "substantial damage" at the Oakwell stadium. Police in riot gear were pelted with bottles from United fans and catering staff working at the game were trapped inside a food kiosk, having to barricade themselves in a store room when United fans broke in and caused havoc, stealing cash from the tills and throwing food and bottles from the shelves. It was no surprise to read Home Office figures in December 2009 that Man United had more fans arrested for hooliganism last season than any other Premier League club. United fans accounted for 185 of the 1,600 top-flight fans arrested during the 2008-09 season, with Newcastle second on 144 and Everton third on 139. Those three clubs alone - Man United, Everton and Newcastle - accounted for over 29% of top-flight fans arrested last season. Blackburn Rovers came 16th in the 'arrest league' last season, with 31 arrests during the 2008-09 season. Links below: Man United top hooligan arrest league Birmingham and Man United fans clash on Saturday night

A moaning manager moans about another moaning manager.... LINK HERE Personally I'm not a fan of Mr Pulis. I don't like his ugly style of football with Stoke and I was disgusted with his attack on Blackburn Rovers last season when we sacked Paul Ince. Pulis said that it was a disgrace that Ince was given just 17 Premier League games before he was sacked by Rovers. Pulis has been the manager of Stoke on two different occasions and in my eyes he's a hypocrite, because when he took the Stoke job for the first time in 2002, two of the managers that had preceded him at Stoke were Chris Kamara who had been given just 14 games before he was shown the door having gained just one win in 14 games for Stoke and after that Gary Megson who was given five months and 22 games before he was sacked by Stoke. Did Mr Pulis moan and say how disgraceful it was that Megson had been sacked after five months by Stoke's then Icelandic owners who appointed Pulis in 2002? No. He kept his mouth shut and was happy to get his grubby hands on the Stoke job when he was appointed the manager by the owners from Iceland. Pulis was formely the manager of Bristol City and took that job in 1999 taking over from Benny Lennartsson, who had again been given only a short period of time in charge of Bristol City before he was sacked. Did Pulis moan about how disgraceful it was that Lennartsson had been sacked? No. He was happy to get his grubby hands on the Bristol City job. So I think that Pulis should frankly keep his mouth shut about what happens at Blackburn Rovers. The length of time that the inept Paul Ince was given at Ewood Park (too long in my view) had nothing to do with moaning Mr Pulis.

There was an interesting discussion on last Saturday's "Football Focus" with Lee Dixon, Mark Lawrenson and Matt Holland. (Former Ipswich midfielder Holland doesn't conform to the stereotype of a greedy selfish footballer. He comes across as a pleasant amiable chap.) The guys on Football Focus made the point that football dressing rooms can be unforgiving places and if a player told his team-mates "I'm depressed" he would probably be given stick, might be laughed at and told to "Snap out of it" or "Pull yourself together" - not very helpful to those people who are genuinely depressed. It may well have been hard for Robert Enke to have opened up and told his team-mates at German club Hannover that he had been suffering from severe depression for a long time following the tragic death of his two-year-old daughter due to a heart birth defect. Earlier this year Enke and his wife adopted a baby girl, but later Enke became concerned that if the authorities knew the extent of his depression his adopted daughter might be taken away from him. He tried to conceal his acute depression from other people and after he died Germany's general manager Oliver Bierhoff said that Enke's depression had gone unnoticed by his team-mates and officials. In his suicide letter Enke apologised for hiding his depression leading up to his death. Understandably the exact content of his suicide letter has not been published. However one could argue that perhaps the unforgiving machismo culture prevalent in football dressing rooms didn't help Enke's condition. This may also be the same for other depressed people who work in traditionally male-dominated macho working environments, where cruel jibes and stick can often fly about and where compassion for personal difficulties can seem to be in short supply. Enke has been buried next to the grave of his two-year-old daughter, which of course must be heartbreaking for his wife Teresa. In an article in the Daily Mirror below, Stan Collymore reveals that he came close to suicide himself when he was depressed. Stan says that he put a belt round his neck and also went out in his car and threw a rope over a tree, but fortunately didn't go through with the actual act he had in mind. Link below: Collymore reveals he nearly committed suicide

A big round of applause for Sting.... I don't like his scruffy beard and I don't like one of the songs I heard last week on his new album "If On A Winter's Night", but I wholeheartedly agree with Gordon Sumner (aka Sting) on how utterly vile and appalling 'The X Factor' is. In an interview with London's Evening Standard, Sting says: "The X Factor is televised karaoke. It's a preposterous show and you have judges who have no recognisable talent apart from self-promotion, advising them what to wear and how to look. It is appalling. It's a soap opera which has nothing to do with music." Well said Sting - who appears to have recently dyed his grizzly beard from grey to black. A case of massage in a bottle - of hair colour. Link below: Sting attacks appalling X Factor show One of my favourite songs from Sting is "They Dance Alone", about the Chilean women left alone after evil Mr Pinochet [removed - see below] tortured and killed thousands of people. [Removed - Not relevant to this topic and designed at taking it off topic] Video link to the song "They Dance Alone" here

Thank you for your very insightful post and contribution to this thread 'tony gale's mic'. Have you got any further contributions or an analysis of Steve McClaren that you would like to share with us? Is there anything else that you would like to add to the debate? Thank you also for not resorting to a direct personal insult against me. I've noticed recently that you've been guilty of posting an increasing number of personal insults towards board members that you disagree with. To give just a few examples.... One wonders when you become qualified as a doctor 'tony gale's mic' whether you will be dishing out personal insults to your patients? Will you call your patients "idiots", "morons" or "twerps" if they come to see you about a particular medical condition? On this football website however, may I politely suggest to the moderators that they crack down on the increasingly unpleasant personal insults that tony gale's mic in particular appears to enjoy dishing out to other Blackburn Rovers fans. It's unpleasant and it's uncalled for. It also indicates an unwillingness (or an inability) on your part to be able to debate issues in a civilised manner. Please learn some manners young man. It will stand you in good stead in your future career. The purpose of this football website is to exchange different views and opinions. The purpose of the website is not to dish out personal insults to other board members, as you appear to enjoy doing.

"I let down the whole nation" says Steve McClaren. You did indeed Steve, but it's nice of you to belatedly admit in a TV interview that the embarrassing failure to qualify for Euro 2008 was very much the responsibility of yourself as manager. I loathe the way that some managers try to evade their responsibilities and make feeble excuses for their errors and failures. The hapless Steve McClown made a complete balls-up of Euro 2008 qualification, in particular during the vital game at Wembley against Croatia when he was tactically impotent and out of his depth when shielding himself from the rain with an umbrella. For his managerial failure with England though, McClaren received some hefty compensation in the form of a large £2.5 million pay-off from the FA. After Mr McClaren banked the cheque he swiftly buggered off on a long holiday to Barbados, before rather worryingly joining the shortlist for the job of Blackburn Rovers manager in the summer of 2008. Steve McClown was Jim's choice to be Rovers manager, but in the end John Williams turned down McClaren in favour of the inept Paul Ince - a man who makes me more angry than McClaren. Although Steve McClaren was out of his depth as an International manager, he seems to be a reasonably nice man away from football, albeit he does do silly things at times - especially when he gave Dutch TV viewers the special treat of him trying to speak English with a silly Dutch accent when he took over at FC Twente. On the other hand I view Paul Ince with complete disdain. I think he's an odious individual who brought our club to it's knees. He hated Blackburn Rovers as a player and if he had stayed in charge at Ewood Park for much longer I'm sure he would have completely destroyed our club and we would have been relegated. I found Paul Ince's arrogance disgusting and I thought some of his statements were outrageous - such as the time when Ince said: "I'm not worried, because people are expecting us to lose every game from now until the end of the season. Everyone thinks we are going to be relegated, so there's no pressure on us at all." Unlike Paul Ince, Steve McClaren isn't a nasty arrogant individual. It would however be nice if as well as acknowledging that he was a complete failure as England manager, Mr McClaren used some of his £2.5 million pay-off from the FA to give back a bit of ticket money to the supporters who had paid to watch England's humiliating performance at Wembley against Croatia. But let's face it, that's never going to happen in a million years is it? It's one thing for McClaren to acknowledge that he was a failure with England, but it's another thing for him to stick his hand in his back pocket and acknowledge that he didn't deserve such a large two and a half million quid pay-off. Video link below.... McClaren admits: "I let down the whole nation."

Muslim fanatics threaten to kill Mourinho.... 'The Special One' - Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho - has reportedly received death threats on Islamic extremist websites after he questioned his midfielder Sulley Muntari for fasting during Ramadan. Mourinho substitued Muntari early during a match against Bari and afterwards said that he took the action because Muntari was lacking energy during his Ramadan fast. For the duration of a month millions of muslims throughout the world do not eat or drink between dawn and dusk during Ramadan. Islamic fanatics posting on extremist websites have now said that Mourinho should be killed for his "insulting" words about Ramadan. Mohamed Nour Dachan, president of Union Of The Islamic Community in Italy, claims that muslim players are not weakened by fasting. "It can give them an extra edge on the field," he says. Oh yes, there's nothing like starvation to sharpen the mind and quicken the boots is there? I wonder if Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger will be telling their players not to eat or drink anything at all during the day before the 17.15 evening game between Man United and Arsenal on Saturday? I wonder if Carlo Ancelotti will be telling his Chelsea players before their lunchtime game against Burnley on Saturday: "Don't drink any fluids at all. I don't care if it's hot out on the pitch I don't want you drinking any fluids at half-time". I wonder if Sam Allardyce's "scientific" approach to the game will include telling his players not to drink or eat anything either before the West Ham match or during the half-time break? But obviously Mohamed Nour Dachan knows best. He says that Ramadan can give muslim players an extra edge on the field. How dare Jose Mourinho question this. How dare Mourinho question the wisdom of one of his players for refusing to drink fluids on a hot day. Perhaps Mourinho should be instructing all of his players that even if it's over 100 Fahrenheit on the pitch, they must never drink any fluid to quench their thirst. Clearly Mohamed Nour Dachan is barmy, as indeed are the Islamic extremists who now say that Jose Mourinho deserves to be killed for "insulting" Ramadan. Mourinho should be "cut down" according to one Islamic lunatic posting on an extremist website. The link below is admittedly not from the most highbrow of newspapers..... Mourinho receives death threats from muslim fanatics

Disgusting pitch invader carried young boy of about four on his shoulders.... LINK HERE It's reported that terrified children were caught up in the violence outside Upton Park when bricks and bottles were thrown. One witness said: "I brought my kids with me to the match and they saw violence that was indescribable." The fighting apparently lasted more than six hours, from just after 6pm outside the ground till after midnight. As well as a man being stabbed in the chest, another supporter was slashed across the neck. Gary Lucas, the owner of a local cafe in the area, said: "People were walking along with bottles in their hands looking to attack other supporters. I saw two lads on the floor with 40 to 50 people laying into them." Sick barstewards threw bricks and bottles at police horses. What kind of a sick person throws a brick at a horse - or indeed throws a brick at anybody? Link: Fighting like a pack of wild animals

Mourinho upsets the muslims.... It usually doesn't take much for them to get their knickers in a twist. But well done to Jose for not being rigidly politically correct and not being too frightened to speak his mind. The source of muslim anger on this occasion is that Mourinho has dared to question whether it's right for his Ghanaian Inter Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari to undertake fasting during Ramadan. Mouinho made a very early substitution midway through the first half of Inter Milan's match against Bari, taking Muntari off the field, and then angered muslims afterwards by saying that Muntari lacked energy because he had been fasting during Ramadan. Mourinho is only doing his job as manager - for which he is highly paid - and he has the perfect right to be concerned about one of his player's nutrition and energy levels. Nutritionists say that hydration is a major issue in sports and can affect aerobic capacity, strength and power. Another muslim player in Italy, the Algerian Abdelkader Ghezzal, says that he breaks his fast on match days and only observes the fast during his days off, when there are no games or training. If any muslim footballers are fasting throughout the period of Ramadan, including match days, then clearly this would have an adverse effect on a player's energy levels. I remember that there was outrage on this website from one or two of the usual suspects when I happened to mention in a post a few months ago that El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf - to give him his full name - and his former Bolton team-mate Nicholas Anelka were both muslim footballers. But clearly Mr Mourinho thinks that it's a relevant issue in terms of what a player does during Ramadan. I agree with him. I'd be curious to know what exactly does Mr Diouf do during Ramadan and whether he fasts throughout the whole period or just on his days off. Rovers are paying the Senegalese player a lot of money in wages and it would be interesting to know whether he puts his religious beliefs ahead of his energy levels for Blackburn Rovers. Link: Mourinho angers muslims over Ramadan

Disgusting bunch of neanderthals in East London.... Sickening scenes both inside and outside the ground at Upton Park for the Carling Cup game between West Ham and Millwall. A man was stabbed in the chest. Bricks and bottles were reported to have been hurled at police officers and their horses. Police described the violence as "large-scale trouble involving hundreds of fans". Coming just days after the dreadful stabbing in the legs of West Ham defender Calum Davenport, it's sickening that West Ham and Millwall fans should resort to violent attacks at a football ground. I feel sorry in a way for Gianfranco Zola, an amiable Italian gentleman, who must be thinking what the hell is British society coming to when one of his players gets stabbed in the legs and may not be able to play football again and just days later West Ham fans (and Millwall thugs) decide to disgrace themselves with sickening violence at Upton Park. Will the FA get tough and hand out proper punishments to both West Ham and Millwall ? I have my doubts. Although it's not Zola's fault, I really feel that the FA need to make it clear that this type of behaviour is totally unacceptable and if that means handing out League Cup bans for West Ham and Millwall then so be it. If this type of violence had happened at a Rovers V Burnley match we would have been crucified. I suspect that when the dust settles, West Ham will continue to be media darlings. They should have been relegated over the Carlos Tevez affair, but with influential people in the media and the FA, like Trevor Brooking, being firm supporters of West Ham, it never seemed likely that the Hammers were going to be suitably punished with relegation for breaking the rules. And now after tonight's disgraceful scenes, with hundreds of fans involved in trouble and with bricks and bottles lining the streets outside Upton Park, I suspect that once again West Ham won't be suitably punished. As for Millwall, they have been getting away with murder for years. Last season in their FA Cup tie against Hull at the KC Stadium, Millwall fans disgraced themselves. If the club continues to be supported by a thuggish bunch of neanderthals who cause chaos whenever they play in a Cup match then it's about time that Millwall were given a Cup competition ban.

Another pair of silly planks at Portsmouth - Marc Wilson attacks team-mate Nugent with a lump of wood. The plank above on the left is Pompey defender Marc Wilson, who together with striker David Nugent on the right have both been fined two weeks' wages by Portsmouth for what the club says is a "serious breach of discipline" on a trip to Portugal. It's reported that former Preston striker Nugent, who scored on his only appearance for England in 2007, was hit across the legs with a lump of wood by his team-mate Wilson after they became involved in a drunken brawl. The pair came to blows at the club's hotel in Portugal after their 4–0 friendly defeat to Benfica. According to The Guardian, Portsmouth manager Paul Hart read the riot act to the pair and immediately sent them home after the incident. We've previously had "The Nutter with the Putter" Craig Bellamy attacking his team mate John Arne Riise with a golf club during a Liverpool trip to Portugal - the Welsh thug launching his attack on Riise in a hotel room after the pair had earlier been involved in a drunken row during a karaoke night. And now we've got another silly plank in Marc Wilson, who decided to attack his team-mate by beating him with a lump of wood. I occasionally read players giving a nauseating justification for their salaries being vastly higher than in years gone by. Such players claim they are "fitter and more professional than before" and so their high salaries are justified. And yet here we have two different players in Bellamy and Wilson, both earning tens of thousands of pounds a week at their clubs who both thought it was acceptable to get drunk and whack their team-mates across the legs. We have louts like Joey Barton getting drunk and punching somebody's lights out in front of McDonald's. How is this being "more professional" than before ? We're the mugs who help to pay the massive wages of these disgusting individuals and often they decide to treat us with contempt. Thick selfish footballers. Link: "Marc Wilson attacks team-mate Nugent with a lump of wood"

Did John Terry stab Mourinho in the back ? I was interested to read claims made by Claude Makelele in his autobiography that John Terry played a leading role in the departure of Jose Mourinho after the pair had a blazing row over Terry's match fitness. Makelele claims that Terry was frustrated at being informed he was to be rested on the bench following a back operation. Terry did not want to be a sub and felt that he needed playing time on the pitch to get his match fitness back, but Mourinho was insistent that Terry needed more time to recover before being put back in the team. In his book called 'Claude Makelele - quite simply', the French midfielder wrote: "I got the news from a phone call from Didier Drogba. 'He'll be sacked tomorrow,' he told me." Makelele said: "I thought Mourinho was practically untouchable - the next morning at training it was chaos. I asked our physical trainer Rui Faria why and he explained a lot of players had complained about Mourinho, notably John Terry." Makelele wrote: "Jose Mourinho had told John that his level of performance was suffering because of his back problems and repeated clearly to Terry that he would be replaced until told otherwise. Mourinho pointed out that the central defence would from now on be Ricardo Carvalho and Alex. War had been declared. For John this was treason." “Mourinho had provoked a clash too far. Had it been me, Ballack or Shevchenko it might have passed but if there is one person who is untouchable at Chelsea then it is John Terry. And Mourinho knew that. When John let his discontent be known to chief executive Peter Kenyon, the owner Roman Abramovich decided to react immediately: the departure of Terry was totally unimaginable, from the point of view of the supporters, the players or the club owners. It was Mourinho who was packing his bags." Terry has dismissed the claims of Makelele and said at the weekend: "It's bizarre that Maka has put this in his book." A statement released through Terry's lawyers read: "It has been claimed that John was in some way involved with the removal of Jose Mourinho as manager. This is categorically untrue and there is no foundation in this allegation." But either Makelele's version of events are true or John Terry's version of events are true. They can't both be right. Clearly one of them isn't being entirely accurate with the truth. The question is - which one? And if Makelele's version of events are not true, what motive does the Frenchman have for telling lies? Link below: "Terry row led to Mourinho's exit," claims Makelele

Lucas digs in his heels and refuses any drop in his £65,000-a-week wages.... LINK HERE This is the guy who previously said how proud he was to wear the same claret and blue shirt as Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking. Lucas said that his move from Rovers to West Ham had nothing to do with money. "It wasn't about cash - that didn't come into it," said Neill after his move to Upton Park in January 2007. (See the link here) If that's the case, as Lucas claimed, that his move to West Ham had nothing to do with money, shouldn't he be only too delighted to sign the new contract on the table from West Ham, a club that he claims to love, on a new deal reported to be worth £48,000-a-week or around £2.5m a year. Considering that Neill previously talked about West Ham in such glowing terms - "They almost blew me away" he said in 2007, why then does Lucas appear to be not so keen now now to extend his stay at Upton Park? Could it possibly be that Mr Neill was telling porkie pies when he said that his move to Upton Park had nothing to do with money? It seems to me that Lucas is the archetypal example of a modern footballer. One minute he expresses his desire to play for his 'boyhood club' Liverpool, telling us that he had posters on his bedroom wall of Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish. The next minute he tells us how he would prefer to play for the same club as Trevor Brooking and Billy Bonds at Upton Park, and that this move to West Ham had nothing to do with money. Now he's apparently digging his heels in and stubbornly refusing to sign a new contract with the Hammers on reduced wages of £48,000-a-week. I suppose we'll have to wait for his next story if, for example, he signs for Man City - "I've always wanted to play for the same club as Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Rodney Marsh. My move to Manchester City has nothing to do with money." Or perhaps if he signs for Aston Villa: "I've always wanted to play for the same club as Peter Withe, Brian Little and Dennis Mortimer. My move to Aston Villa has nothing to do with money." I suppose that some people will believe Lucas Neill's soothing words of comfort to the fans. Please forgive me if I choose not to....