Don't cry T4E - wait until the season starts for that sort of thing. Alan - I think anyone in their right mind would make that trip to watch the Rovers. Fortunately I live 10 minutes walk from Ewood Park so we'll just have to presume that I too would make that sort of commitment to the club. Actually it amazes me some of the distances that people do travel to get to Ewood. Whilst at the same time a lot of people in Blackburn are totally apathetic, a case of not realising what they've got. Still, it'll give people something to moan about (which is when a lot seem to be at their happiest) when our attendances are the worst in the league. The number of times I've heard this sort of thing is incredible... So called Rovers fan: "Have you been down there then?" Me: "No - I always wear a Rovers shirt on a Saturday and don't bother going when they're at home" "Alright clever lad. What was the gate?" "22,000" "That's really poor, how embarrassing" "Did you go?" "No, I can't be bothered"

Nice one American. Gutted with second. Travis sneaked it with the final game. I need to take a good look at myself between now and whenever and make sure I don't make the same mistakes again. I've learnt a lot about myself and the players I chose in this competition. Well done Travis.

Well thanks for that Shaddy - actually it's been playing on my mind. Just like Tony Hancock, I'm turning into a manic depressive. Actually I PM'd 'Sox earlier today. He recently suffered a nervous breakdown and hasn't been near a keyboard in weeks. Something to do with "the pressure" (not sure what he was on about to be honest). That and the fact his desk has been moved next to his boss and all his PC output is now shown on a 12 foot projector, as well as his own 14" monitor, means he hasn't been posting as much as he used to. Get well cards etc should be sent to: - Mr N. Sox Bedlam Blackpool Nr that there Lytham Lancs FY7 9NS Sorry - I appreciate that this is totally off topic but I think you should know.

Believe it or not, at the fore front of mind mind when I'm posting something that is somewhat off topic, shall we say, is "is this going too far?". As everyone is no doubt aware my style varies from down right off the wall to the down right sarcastic. Both styles probably grate with many posters. What I don't want to happen is for this "style" to turn people away from the board. How do I know if someone is annoyed at what's I've posted unless they tell me so? I've looked at other Rovers messageboards, including the official site, and they don't even come close - damn - I'm repeating what someone else has already said and I will do again in a minute. I too see it as an extension of the pub, just past the snooker room and into the car park. Just like the pub there are people here I often don't agree with, but I put up with them and wouldn't want them barred. As Al (and now Steb - this is getting out of hand) has pointed out this is the close season after all - the quality of posts will no doubt improve once the new season starts. In the interim the discussions about Matteo and whether he's good enough or not, Souness (should he go), season ticket sales and the new kit are probably as good as it's going to get. That's the problem with a Blackburn Rovers Messageboard - less to talk about when they're not playing. Whilst there is always room for serious discussion there should always be room for a laugh and a joke IMO. If the mods aren't happy with certain posters why don't they just name names or send a PM?

Can't believe Chelsea have signed Davids. Central midfield was surely one area that didn't need strengthening. I agree with JBN we should make a cheeky enquiry to see if we can get the likes of Parker or Cole on loan - who knows if we ask Chelsea to think about it long and hard enough they may have some other central midfielders that they don't want / need. Rovers "Can we have Alexi Smertin on loan please?" Chelsea "Who?" R "Alexi Smertin" C "Never heard of him, Are you sure he's one of ours?" R “He’s a central midfielder, was on loan at Portsmouth last season, played in Eur……. *deep sigh* never mind, it doesn’t matter”. We must feel a bit sorry for Tottenham today though. They nearly signed Davids after being linked with him for the last three / four weeks. What bad luck.

If this is the case, £33 extra per game, then it won't matter about the numbers renewing. If we only get 12,000 season ticket holders next year it'll be the equivalent of 24,000 if we end up having to pay again in order to get out. Of course you'll get some clever ST Holders going to the WBA game and not leaving until after the Fulham game in May, I doubt they'll be many though. Clever stuff by the Rovers but I'm not sure if I'm altogether happy about it. I'll sleep on it.

Have Bolton no ambition? Why can't they buy an "exciting" player rather than this fella who'll come in and do a good job for a season? What's wrong with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink? Next Sam will be talking about "budgets" and "wage structures".

I have classes three times a week... But the class content is to become soooo braindead I forget them.. Well said bellamy11. RoverDrake - these classes you're going to? Do you have to pay? If so can I recommend you knocking them down to just the one a week? I think you've cracked it already.... "It either fails or it works" - and the consequences of it failing? Blackburn Rovers wouldn't exist. You don't seem either bothered or aware. Hat's off to your teachers, they must be very proud of their star pupil.

Are yes - these young players with their whole Premiership future in front of them. You can pick these up for a couple of quid each at Clitheroe Car Boot on a Sunday - you just need to ensure you get there before Arsene and Alex though - they don't half push. I'm glad you were excited about John Stead signing. The majority of us (OK I'm guessing) didn't know anything about him. I wasn't excited I was bemused but prepared to give the lad the a fair crack of the whip. Hey! and guess what? I'm prepared to do exactly the same thing with de Pedro (who I hadn't heard of but remember seeing his ugly mug in a match before somewhere) and Dickov before I start slagging them off and saying that they're not good enough or "exciting".

I agree in that JFH would have been a good signing - if you like signing players who would probably cost in wages for the term of his contract what our entire transfer budget is for this summer and who are in a similar situation to the one that Dwight Yorke was in when we signed him and we aren't going to learn from previous mistakes and we hadn't already signed Paul Dickov (cheap) and we didn't already have five other strikers plus Dickov and I'm living in cloud cuckoo land - then yes - I think he would be a great edition to the squad. Really exciting.

Flitty may have fallen from grace, but I don't think he's behind Jemal Johnson in the pecking order...yet. I really do need to stop doing that. I keep referring to Jonathan Douglas as Damian Johnson. It's poor and I shall seek councilling to beat this thing. It's not even as though they're similar players or anything. At this point I'd also just like to apologise for any distress caused for any viewers who thought we'd bought Seth Johnson. It must have been awful - sorry Joey.

Flitty may well decide to leave - he might not. Who knows? He's put one hell of a good stint in for us for 8 years and as far as I'm concerned he's always given us (a massive cliché) 110%. All this about him being p***ed off really should be put into context. Souness has bought the Captain of Scotland and the former Captain of Glasgow Rangers to the club for 7 million pounds. If you were Flitcroft would you really be that surprised that this has happened? Second thing here is, whether he likes it or not, I would say that Flitty is no longer an automatic first choice. Thompson, Ferguson, Johnson, Tugay, Reid (?) and Flitcroft. If he's fit and up and running and showing the same form that he did before his injury I'd suggest that Fergie is the only automatic first choice. The others can fight it out amongst themselves. As TROOPER said - I'm sure Flitty is big enough to take this on the chin and get on with establishing himself as the second central midfielder. I really hope he does. Who knows, now he's not Captain, he may go from strength to strength. As an aside does anyone know Flitcrofts statistics in winning the toss for Rovers? I’d suggest no better than 50/50. Not good enough in my book.

I can't believe Duff's going to United...... Anyway - for all the money they've spent on players I can only think of one player who is more or less guaranteed a start, and that is Lampard. Who was already at the club! Sure the boy Duff was getting a lot of games but when he was injured, as he is now by all accounts, Chelsvich nip out and buy van Robben. I'm sure Duff is delighted and looking forward to next season no end. Why would any "top" player go to Chelsea? Not guaranteed a game, may never start (Scott Parker anyone?), no continuity of selection, no "team" understanding, and perhaps most importantly, no semblance of an overall long term strategy as to what they are doing. I'd imagine that the players who have turned down moves to The Bridge have down so because they don't see any credibility in the club. Raul: "Who are they trying to buy this week? Oh me. I don't think so, what was I? 4th choice Galactico on their list?" (Of course there is the small matter of £90k a week to ease the pain for the likes of Veron - now on loan I believe - so they're probably still paying some of his wages.)

Well they would be wouldn't they? It'll be nothing on the DeanoCard. Anyway I didn't mean Bolton - I meant Queen of the South.

Have they given any indication when these balsa wood "DeanoCards" are being sent out? By my calculations there are only 7 Saturdays left until the season starts? It's an absolute shambles of the highest order. I've never known anything like it. What if there's a mail strike or a war? Bolton sent their Season Tickets (the old type, you know, a book *snigger*) out in March for heavens sake - before anyone had actually received renewal packs. Why can't we do that? What were we doing?!? *namby pamby voice* "Waiting to see which Division we'll be in" ! It's nothing short of pathetic. A nonsense. I'm that angry I've a good mind to write an e-mail to someone irrelevant. I blame Beckham.

Flippin eck Bob !!! Do you have Saturday's lottery numbers ??! From the LET today ... I had no idea. Really I didn't. It's this PC - it keeps going back in time. We should put a bid in for that Steven Reid if you ask me. One things for sure he'll not be injury prone. Has Duff gone to Chelsea yet?

Is he not so good Billy? I agree with you. My only defence is that he started it.

Errr, no?? We had to let him speak to other clubs but why were we compelled to sell him? You are missing the point as usual. Gerrard showed loyalty to his club, Duff took the money and ran. End of story. Perhaps, just maybe, there was the smallest chance that we wanted the money more than we wanted to keep the player? But as you say - End of story. I just happen to believe that this may well have been the case. Thanks for clearing it up for me. Sorry for missing the point again and thanks for putting my mind at rest. As for "old fahsioned virtues" for Mr Gerrard - well it sounds more and more that that may well be the case - old fashioned like the Kray's at any rate. Nice to see that you can distinguish between the good (Gerrard) and the bad (Duff) so easily Jim.

Richard Keys? Probably Andy Gray actually. Or Stan Collymore. They all mate around together allegedly.

And there's me thinking we had to sell him? Didn't the clause in his contract say something along the lines that if a club came in with a suitable offer (almost certainly £17m) then we had to let Duff speak to the club in question? The subtle difference being that we could still have turned down the offer? But then again maybe it didn't. Who knows? Who cares? It's done. Still Jim - you know the in's and out's of the transfer so you just slag him off as you see fit. Anyway - for some reason my PC has gone back in time 11 months and I still seem to be discussing Damian Duff. Anyone going on the Bray Wanderers trip? That Emerton will be a good 'un - mark my words. I reckon this could be the season for Dwight Yorke to show us his true worth. Ferguson will be a great player for us - just have a feeling he might get injured up at Newcastle. Jim are you still winding people up?

Is that taken from the Sky Magazine? I can hear Richard Keys doing the trailer on Sky Sports as the build up to the season begins: - "........and next season we're bringing you something extra special, extended highlights of YOUR Premier League club on a Saturday night. It'll be like taking mucky polaroids of the wife and knocking one out in a cramped motorway service station toilet. It'll be that good."

Not being funny but Chelsea are going to have to take Gerrard back. If they've lost the receipt they'll be hell to pay. It's not like Tescos at Anfield you know. Chelsea: "Can we have our money back for Steven Gerrard please?" Liverpool : "What do you mean? We never sold him to you." Chelsea: "You did! We paid £31million a couple of weeks ago! Cash!!" Liverpool (now laughing): "OK - Prove it - Wheres the receipt divveee?" (The1mattjansen - don't worry about it mate - these things happen. Maybe Gerrard changed his mind half way through the tournament?)

Be a bit draughty Hughesy without any windows though wouldn't it? I mean Mrs Hughesy and the young Hughesy kids aren't gonna be best pleased if you're buying a season ticket and there's no windows in the front room. Sure it's OK now but come November it'll be a different story. It'll not be so funny when your children get covered in snow whilst they're trying to watch the Telletubbies I can assure you of that. Driving lessons can wait though, fair enough, but windows in the front room do have to come first for some of us. Personally I'd be looking to get a S.T. up front and pay for the windows in a series of monthly payments over 12 months. Failing that just sell your kids and the whole problem is solved. Maybe that's something Rovers need to be promoting?

Why do you do it Jim? Everyone knows you're about 36. For me it's not a case of people having more passion for England than BRFC. It's just a case of everyone getting drawn into it by the media and the general excitement that seems to be everywhere whenever a big tournament is on. People prefer to be part of something like this rather than be left out. This tournament was probably hyped up even more than the last World Cup IMO. It's different with Rovers though. People are less inclined to jump on that band wagon as we're far less likely to actually win anything, certainly not the Premier League (although the facts don't actually support this do they?). For me Rovers come first and England a close second. But that's just me. For others it'll be the other way round. No big deal - as far as I'm concerned the two are totally seperate. They're not likely to play each other are they?

Right that's it!!