Especially not for the comedy circuit though Bowen's primary recognition of course came as a gameshow host. Actually Stephen Hawking even appeared in a fair number of comedic roles.

Jim Bowen has died aged 80. As most will know he was a supporter of Rovers so posted in this section.

Showdown at the PAOK corral. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43369490 Fixtures suspended too in this case by the Greek government.

Can't really blame the FA in this instance especially considering the amount of lawsuits that would head their way. Why should they be used as a propaganda tool for the government in this manner? Have to say don't Russia have more effective ways of murder than a nerve agent with wider scale risks? I've not read enough about the specifics but surely they must have known others could be caught up in such an attack? What's the point of that is it just sheer arrogance and they didn't care about the additional fallout? Not to mention their target is still alive at least for now. The guy killed a few years ago was killed by polonium wasn't he? It was certainly detected afterwards (on cups, etc) but it didn't kill or incapacitate anybody else. Can't imagine any of the other countries pulling out somehow as some MP's intend to try. I'm sure their answer will be NO even if the country had voted to stay in the EU. Just looked up a bit more on nerve agents and as this points out they are generally not used in assassinations. They are used in warfare. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-nerveagent/complex-and-dangerous-nerve-agents-are-rarely-used-for-assassinations-idUSKCN1GK2JR Couldn't they have just pinned this on ISIS or someone else? Russia are denying it so what's their reasoning? Someone trying to drive a wedge in relations using a convenient Russian target to pin the blame on? Maybe that's too much conspiracy talking but others have said the timing does not make sense. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/09/europe/salisbury-conspiracy-russia-intl/index.html Maybe this was done in the hope of eliminating Russia's main threat to the World Cup. They can't be that scared of Southgate can they? I don't think even the most outlandish conspiracy theorist would come up with that one!

MARTIN LIPTON: England boycott the World Cup in Russia? What an utterly stupid and ultimately pointless idea

It's All Rover Asia's fault! That being said his general point was accurate.

Goodness knows what you call Wigan's situation if Rovers have a "fixture pile-up". If they wanted to treat it like a training session then have a bloody training session. Not playing in a fixture at the expense of others (players in earlier rounds and the fans who showed up) plus you can invite local opposition to Brockhall and play behind closed doors since it's supposedly so essential. What a load of garbage the official sites report is compared to the "no spin zone" on here. It even referred to the opponents as "the shakers" four times quit giving such acknowledgement to the opposition. I couldn't give a rats posterior what their nickname is refer to the opposition in a formal narrative tone.

Its not often people react with this kind of criticism for a fringe tournament so that speaks volumes. I noted also that it isn't officially a youth tournament (unlike the previous night at Ewood) though my post was removed probably for remarks about our illustrious site founder. As for certain players being dumped how many of those (from the earlier LSC stages) played at Ewood the night before? That could be a major part of the reason. In Cup competitions its only fair to use the same players from start to finish. Look at some leading clubs they might let a generally sub keeper play in a LC final if he's the one who played the earlier rounds. There's a difference between that and my argument about Downing/Lenihan though while the latter was still injured. The business then is simply too serious not to go with the better and certainly more valuable asset.

I wish every bloody club would break FUP rules. JH we discussed this on twitter. How can you not have a gripe with these rules? That's what you're saying here that there's nothing wrong in principle not just alleged inconsistency of any punishments, etc. To use an extreme analogy imagine a lawyer complaining about their defendant being rightly convicted for murder. Reason being because someone else got away (in a virtually identical case) on a court technicality mistake or OJ Simpson style. Like I said "cutting your nose off to spite your face" and where FUP is concerned I refuse to do it.

Watch out Tony Watt! Player almost gets sent off for "backchat" over his name. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/former-arsenal-ace-sanchez-watt-12140356 Watt? WATT? WATT?

Advising a club isn't owning a club. The accusations with Venkys is they were a front for others, etc because of how clueless they were. Fosun International on the other hand are an investment company. There's nothing wrong with any company investing to boost their profile, etc (certainly not something Venkys did for anything good on their part) but that's what Fosun are specifically. The other clubs are complaining because Wolves are top. That's the difference whereas Rovers were (and maybe still are) a complete basketcase. I don't think Mendes is doing anything wrong who's top of the League? Yeah he gets financial rewards but bloody hell its not like nobody else in football does. Fosun know what they are doing with Mendes compared to Venkys putting their trust in a spiv from Barnet. As for anyone complaining about clubs such as Leicester over another matter (FUP) I can't bring myself to call for anyone to be punished over that. I know Rovers had a transfer ban but I'm not cutting off my nose to spite my face over FUP. Its just wrong and those who support it are wrong. Those who disagreed with my remarks on Whelan and liked Meadows post in response can shove them you know where. Some things I'll never "agree to disagree" on and FUP is one of them. The only thing I'm less likely to soften my view on would be the Walkers.

Should point out it seems routine. Or at least as routine as it can be for someone his age (same as mine actually) but I imagine autopsies, etc might be more extensive than a 90 year old would have. Depends on how obvious the cause is too being in an accident for instance would have different investigating prosecution procedures to a suspected heart attack. Not that heart attacks can't be triggered by nefarious means but this outlines Italian legal procedures noting its likely nobody is accountable. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/05/davide-astori-death-prosecutor-investigates-manslaughter-possibility

Assuming you mean Cellino and not the Italian who owns them now it was actually 2 days after the takeover! So it sure as hell wasn't because of Cellino! My comment about Leeds fans from Monk were supposed to be the perspective of a particularly demanding fanbase. As they should be but they certainly have faults too. They wanted Cellino but soon despised him. Question is though what did they expect? The man was evidently a nutcase he had 36 managers in 22 years at Cagilari according to Wikipedia (which as we know can sometimes have a few factual inconsistencies but its probably accurate here or close enough)

Well I still think he ranks ahead of Mowbray this time last year. Leeds fans seem to like Monk (strange he felt their owners couldn't live up to his demands yet Birmingham can?) and while he's been sacked since still think "damaged goods" is a little bit of an exaggeration. Monk will need divine intervention though if his first move isn't kicking misery magnet out the door. Lowe should follow his managers around wearing a black hood and a scythe.

At least one person was badly injured (think a few had minor injuries) but I'm talking more about security measures. If that happened today there's no way that game at Wembley would have gone ahead. I suppose there are differences now. Say what you like about the IRA they were not medieval lunatics. Nor were they particularly violent by 1996 compared to earlier bombings with no advance warning. They managed to evacuate the city centre because of a call beforehand. Irony is some people even think they did Manchester city centre a favor tracing a revival to the incident but maybe that's going overboard. As I've said nothing against Astori but where do people draw the line? Fans die young and nobody calls anything off for them. Astori's one guy and just because he's a footballer its an over the top reaction to me. Seriously what's disrespectful its just so the Italian football authorities can score a PR win. What if he wasn't an Italian international would they still have called every game off? I wouldn't really use the term "killed" and nobody called games off when Gary Speed committed suicide did they? I remember Hughes was doing punditry at a televised game about 2 days later might have been Arsenal v Man City. I don't think that was disrespectful though Hughes still came across as petty about City firing him when it paled in perspective on a personal level. Even as a non cynical 10 year old I thought the whole stuff with Diana Windsor was over the top and so did others. A fixture between Liverpool and Newcastle was even postponed because of that and she wasn't even a football person. I think its unfair on fans, etc who travelled including one Rovers fan on twitter (not Kamy who for the record supported the decision to call games off) who was abused just for asking when (the Milan v Inter game) would be rescheduled. Is it really selfish to say its an inconvenience for them and an overreaction? I'm sure some of Astori's closest teammates in Italian squad may not have felt like playing (and obviously Fiorentina) but why should it effect the majority? What are people supposed to do sit and stare at the wall for hours?

Birmingham have just appointed Garry Monk. Certainly argument to be made he's better than the standard I thought they might go for. Needs to make sure he does not continue on a downhill path though never really come across to me as an utter disaster anywhere he's been.

That wasn't nonsense. It was the truth and yeah that was calculated to provoke a reaction given advance notice of Rovers playing Wigan. At least if you consider it "provocative" to point out what a disgrace FUP is. I was hoping to provoke a negative outpouring of remarks towards Whelan but clearly that was too ambitious despite simply pointing out facts. Should be used to that by now don't know why I bother trying. Remember FUP is European wide so perfectly relevant to bring up on this thread. In 1996 didn't they play a Euros game at Old Trafford day after IRA bomb? I guess today they would have sent everyone home (regardless of travel arrangements, costs, etc) and played it an empty stadium a week later.

Well isn't that the point of a forum? I don't come on to say nothing. Perhaps I should be more selective of issues to bring up but its not like I planned to comment on an entire round of fixtures being called off. That's happened though and its big news. I saw the story on twitter, commented there and then brought it up on here. That's my opinion its an overreaction and very typical of liberal influence. I can't remember discussing Astori before so there's nothing personal there. Had nothing against him but if I was involved with a Serie A club (besides Fiorentina and whoever it was they were playing) I would have said the same thing without any hesitation. I'll leave it there if it upsets you that much but others on twitter are saying the same and are more familiar with Astori than me.

Should point out its hard to resurrect a club that's accomplished sod all to begin with. More a question of who can take them from depressingly mundane to slightly more tolerable mundane. So basically lingering in the Championship and repeatedly unspectacular spells in top flight. The latter looking a long way away for them at the moment. Oh I forgot they won the League Cup (I'm not being churlish after all Rovers win was significant) but what else? Tremendous legacy for a club based in a city that size...and some people still think population is the key measure of a clubs stature. In many cases it is but that's not exclusive and Rovers are testament to that. While I thought somewhat better of Gold after reading his book (free on his website by the way or at least it was at one point) his remarks came across as those of an arrogant buffoon. Savage threw those words back in his face (calling Rovers a bigger club) and he was absolutely right. Anyway that whole issue is a bit outdated now but Birmingham are still a smaller club who Villa wouldn't give a toss about if they didn't share the same city.

Yeah but Rovers fans damn sure didn't clamour for Coyle. On average even Redfearn and Slade had less detractors than Coyle and anyone besides Steve Kean could probably be added to that list. There wasn't exactly clamouring for Mowbray either though obviously he wasn't subjected to abuse from day 1.

Can't even understand why they would clamour for him to begin with. Nothing inspiring about the guy.

Its one person not a bloody terrorist attack. Its an overreaction and its not disrespectful to say otherwise. I bet there's some who spent thousands travelling to Milan and while you have to take risks into account with long distance travel that's more down to usual risks like weather postponements, etc. When Jack died Rovers trained as usual. Granted it was expected unlike Astori but what is calling off all those games going to achieve? Was Kurt Angle disrespecting his Father when he turned out for sporting activities later that day? I don't think so. Its about PR nothing else.

Well Rowett did have an eye on moving elsewhere and refused to sign a new contract. Replacing him with Zola however was an obvious mistake considering Zola's previous failures. Anyway hiring Cotterill made no sense given how they hired Zola for footballing philosophy reasons. I guess they thought that didn't work so they had to take the opposite extremity and bring in someone devoid of personality. Not that Zola has any particular personality beyond being seen as a "nice guy". Redknapp I guess worked for them short term as Rovers know . First thing I would do is kick Lowe out the door. Misery magnet.

What a ridiculous overreaction to call every Serie A game off because of what's happened with Astori and Fiorentina. There will be fans travelling worldwide for the AC v Inter game especially. Why is it disrespectful to play the other games at the very least? Kurt Angle's Father died in an accident yet he played the football (other kind) game of his life that same day. Its not going to change anything and talk of "putting things into perspective" has no logic at all in terms of scope. Its a typical liberal mindset making some symbolic gesture won't change a damn thing and its probably all for show to make the Serie A authorities feel good. EDIT-I still feel its over the top to call off every game but tasteless clickbait headlines from the Sun. "Why has AC v Inter been postponed" and "international football star dies aged 31" isn't Astori's death newsworthy enough alone?

Another managerial tombstone erected at the Jason Lowe graveyard.