not to "rain" on you but it seems obvious that's why the song is "there's only one REAL santa". I'm sure there's no disrespect to the new boy but RSC has set a high bar for him to measure up against.

If the alternative was losing EVERY game are you still going to be blindly adamant about preferring to watch good football to winning games? Ignoring the possible (maybe probable) concsequences of such actions, i.e. relegation.

Primarily I agree with AESF's concerns regarding BFS's personality, attitude and controversial history but I think Hughesy is right in that fans enjoy playing badly and winning regularly more than playing well and losing regularly. Regarding the legitimate tactical concern Jan raised, I believe the ability to play alternative styles is also heavily dependent on the rest of the coaching staff and I'm sure JW and the board will hold this concern in the same light as any other and will not make the appoinment unless they truly believe Sam either does have the necessary tactical prowess or has good enough support staff who can have a positive impact on tactics. Likewise, I'm sure that, especially given the fact that they are looking for a buyer and hoping to inflate the value of the club, they will want to be confident that the new appoinment will not bring harmful (potentially value decreasing) controversy to the club. I trust JW and the board to not only value the fans opinion but more importantly put the club first - the latter may well lead to his appointment despite fans' reservations but only if all the other concerns are dealt with. As such I will support BFS if he were to become our manager but it will take sometime before I stop believing him to be a selfish, arrogant, tactless, fat ugly sod with very narrow tactical expertises and it will be solely upto him to change my opinion by maintaining our status as a solid top-half club which enjoys an occasional good cup run and regular appearances in Europe.

YES - without a shadow of a doubt! Frankly though I do feel angry and betrayed by Sparky. Leaving us for CITY?! Granted they are a bigger club but they are certainly not a more successful club (in recent years). At Rovers he is massively respected by the players (many of them have spoke to the press about how badly they want him to stay), enjoys total adoration from the fans and, most importantly, is given the backing and freedom by the board which just does not exist elsewhere in football these days. So he is going to a club where the majority of the starting eleven were signed by the previous manager who was sacked in controversial circumstances after only 12 months and where the board clearly do not offer the support and freedom to the manager that he is used to (I am sure however that the fans will come to love just as we do). I could totally understand if he was leaving us for United and I would say "Thanks for all the hard work, you'll be remembered, good luck!". Added to that, he is a legend in the red side of Manchester and is considered a good prospect to be future United manager. If he goes to City and has any success then United won't touch him with a bargepole - their fans won't want him. It would be like Shearer or Dalgleish becoming manager of Burnley. He has brought the club so far in 4 years that I just can't imagine anyone else could keep us there (not anyone who would actually have any interest in the job). Seeing Allardyce and Jewell linked to our new vacancy is upsetting (frankly I'd rather have Souness back, at least he has experienced success) - they aren't capable of maintainging our growth and momentum in terms of size or success. There is no way that the likes of McCarthy or Santa Cruz would have come to Blackburn for either of those two and similarly neither of them could have found the likes of Samba or had the nerve to put Emerton into the midfield (which was a masterstroke). Sparky is more than a manager: to potential signings he is a whole ethos! Moving to City loses him a lot of respect from me and I won't be looking back and thinking "Sparky was great" as I would if he was goingto United (or maybe even Chelsea given the massive chance of success they could offer him). He is clearly going for the money, I can see no other reason.

Please don't mention the two in the same sentence. I'm not saying Bentley is world class but at least he's young and still has potential... Carragher is the second most overrated English footballer ever, behind Downing! He shows commitment and real fight about the way he plays but there's no way he should be in the starting XI.

I remember talking to someone the other night (who granted was drunk, and so was I) who claimed we would play SheffU first game claiming that they would be reinstated into the premiership by the following consideration: the courts would not overule the FA's decision to fine West Ham (as opposed to deduct points) as it may set a negative precedent for future relegated clubs but they would decide that, fairly, SheffU should not have been relegated (based on the fact that it was Tevez's goals that kept West Ham up) so SheffU would be reinstated into the premiership. This of course results in 21 clubs being in the prem and apparently the decision to relegate 4 OR promote just 2, from the championship, is yet to be decided. Sounds a bit far fetched and I took it with a pinch of salt but the guy had his wits about him if you know what I mean. Personally I think its codswallop - the courts just can't be arsed with the effort and forthcoming rigmarole of overturning an already made decision IMO. But hey, ya never know - I think SheffU deserve it and I think it would be a nice opening fixture for us (home or away).

Slightly flimsy comparison to make... ManYoo never made a bid, mostly because they want someone a lot better... Owen Hargreaves. They haven't yet bid for McCarthy and in actual fact I don't think they will but if they or another big four does it will be a whole new situation and he probably will leave. But as I say, I don't think he's good enough for Chelsea (given the amount of money they can spend on even bigger names) and I don't think ManYoo will be able to afford him after bringing in Owen Hargreaves, Gareth Bale and possibly Nani. He has been fantastic all season - for better than Bellamy and in retrospect and selling Bellamy turned into good business but we can't let our new star player leave immediately again because we won't always be able to find a class replacement who is affordable because he is unhappy and in the last year of his contract.

If Benni wants to leave the club will not get close to £15mil - it is a pretty outrageous thought that they would. Having paid only £2.5mil or thereabouts noone will be prepared to pay above about £7-8mil. Possibly wishful thinking but I don't think his price tag will be an issue anyway. If he is to go elsewhere in England it would only be to a CL club. ManYoo are after Torres still and if they get him will certainly not need McCarthy. Chelsea are categorically NOT going to put a bid in for him in my opinion: when Mourinho first joined was an ideal opportunity for him to bring along his big name striker from Porto but he chose not to because he is looking for a better class of player and now the media have brought up the old link because he has had a good premiership season but I don't think there's anything in it really. Arsenal still can't afford him (having spent so much on a new stadium) nor do they need him. Liverpool are the only club I can imagine showing interest: they have no consistent goalscorer and Bellamy has had a bad season what with him battering Riise with a golf club. I can imagine Liverpool trying to give us Bellamy back in an exchange for McCarthy but that is solely my imagination and is unlikely. More importantly, I don't think Sparky will want to lose his star striker again as easily as he did with Bellers!

Have some ambition man or there's nothing left to live for! They probably deserve it more than you though I suppose

Liverpool 2 - 0 Rovers Can't see us taking anything from this game. Forget current form, they just recently (relatively) bought our best striker for an unbleievably low price and, us being his former club, sods law says he will f_ck us right up by showing the Kop exactly what he is capable of! It is the way of the world but it is by no means the end of the world.

You can't argue with the prices for the Notlob game! At £15 for adults and £5 for eberyone else (in all areas of the ground) you have no excuse for missing it. That's an entire family for £40 (based on typical 2 adults with 2 children) - can't get prices like that anywhere else in the league!

I'm surprised to see the number of people here slating Gray for having been drunk. There was no reason why he couldn't drink. He wasn't in the squad that weekend and had no matches for a week. I'm glad he chose that weekend to go out and get sloshed. Would be a different matter if it really was in the middle of a busy spell with games the next day or so but it wasn't the case so we should give him the benefit of the doubt and accept that he wasn't harming the teams cause by getting drunk.

I think Hughes has gone on striker overload to a small extent. Benni, Jeffers, Roberts, Nonda, Gally, Derbyshire (do we still have him?), Bentley (capable of playing as a second frontman). Seems a large number of players competing for the same position compared to the number of central midfielders we have, particularly playmakers. I don't know whether a midfield playmaker was deemed unnecessary or overlooked or maybe we weren't in the situation to land any of our targets but I am certain we are desperately short of one. It has been good seeing us hold on to most of our players though (besides Bellamy of course) and if Neill does sign a new contract then that would be perfect. A couple of years ago we would have probably cashed in on Emerton and Nelsen.

As I said I've not seen enough of Ooijer to formulate a fair opinion but I did see plenty of Henchoz last season. I think a lot of people (myself included) are giving Ooijer the benefit of the doubt because he's still a fairly big player for Holland (who are a far better team than Switzerland).

Anything come up in the last few days regarding his intentions? Or those of the club as to his future?