The Match of the Day running order is in, though be warned - it is subject to change: Man Utd v West Ham Fulham v Birmingham City Reading v Tottenham Bolton v Sunderland Middlesbrough v Portsmouth Aston Villa v Wigan Blackburn v Derby What a surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a very prescient comment. It has been a roller coaster ride for Rob Kelly since leaving as well.

That's interesting but I am sure I saw him sitting at the back of the stand just after Liverpool scored- bit difficult to tell as the picture was made fuzzy by the falling rain reflecting the stadium lights.

Forbes have attempted to put a value on football clubs. This is for the 2006/7 season and shows Man U as number 1. Of course in 2007/8, the new media deal kicks in which will have boosted the English clubs at the bottom of the top 25 list by around 30% and those at the top by 20%+. Interestingly the Rovers' 2007/8 turnover will be comparable with what Everton and Villa's was in 2006/7 which placed them at 21st and 24th respectively. Those two clubs have an enterptrise value of around £100m each according to Forbes which points to a very good deal all round when Randy Lerner bought Villa. It also indicates that the £150m all up spent by Mike Ashley for Newcastle was correct. It shows the indebtedness of Liverpool and Man U very starkly- the cost of having their new American owners- and the extent to which Valencia are in deepest trouble. Dortmund of course had a very rough time not long ago and are still heavily in debt. On the other hand, if reports are correct, the new owners at Newcastle and Man City have wiped out the debts shown here. The countries of origin of the 25 richest clubs are: England 10 Germany 5 Italy 4 Spain 3 (including the technically bankrupt Valencia) France 2 Scotland 1 In 2007/8, Celtic and Marseille would probably drop out to be replaced by two more English clubs- quite possibly Sunderland and Portsmouth, whilst the big 4 will move closer to occupying all the top 4 slots. If Rovers had been finishing a couple of places higher and won the FA Cup this season, we would be getting very close to that top 25.

Good point jbn. Incidentally Sunderland got away lightly with that list- some of rover6's pet loves from the Cocal Cola League cost £5m a pop and Kenwyne Jones apart have been very poor.

If only he had gone to Spurs when they came in for him instead of pricing himself out of that move, Souness would have been a Rovers legend and all those horrors of his last two years would not have happened.

rover6, the Axe can and does do a job. Treacy is a player I have not seen and like all the players pushing for Prem places (olsson and Peter immediately come to mind) has been unavailable at precisely the moment the opportunity would have been available (red cards and injuries). Treacy was crap when the whole team was crap against Coventry. I have laid Saturday against Hughes- cardinal rule is you don't make substitutions when defending dangerous set pieces. Nelsen saying he didn't have chance to organise the defense is tantamount to criticism of the substitution and you can be sure that Queeroz and RFW will have coached their lot to whip it in fast immediately the opposition has just subbed. The camera at the Nuttall Street/Darwen End corner shows Axe arriving in the box from the bench and look around for his man as Scholes is back heading it to Tevez. Axe is not to blame for that unless he had been specifically told to get on the little ginger one from the corner.

The Setanta stats had us shading first half attempts on goal 6-5. Shots on target were 3-1 in Rovers' favour.

Garth Crooks bias against the Rovers knows no limits: "team of the week".

No- it was rubbish before and is still rubbish now. Sorry and all that but there is no such thing as a least demanding position when you are playing Premiership football, least of all when facing Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Scholes, Carrick et al. What yesterday did show is that Emerton besides being a supreme athlete is also developing a cracking good footballer's brain and that he can use his pace and close control inside as well as outside. It also showed the value of Vogel's experience and ability in that Emerton was able to play alongside him like they had been playing together all season.

and move the ANC into 2009!

Being reported today that Curbishley has been ordered to clear West Ham of players on excessive wages so Lucash and Ljungberg are to be sold. Presumably Upson and maybe Bellamy will also be out of the door if they can ever get them fit.

Its been a "cool" spring so far then, bang- today is by 2 degrees C the hottest April day since Maltese records began. 31.3C (that's 88F) in the village I am working in an hour ago. Tomorrow is going to be a more normal 22C (that's 72F).

Bang up-to-date all time Prem table from Statto I was looking for something else!

Thank you bish. Another thing to bear in mind is that as we move towards 2010, the world's press will increasingly beat a path to the door of the host's captain and record number of caps holder. He will become a one man publicity machine for whichever club employs him.

I'm not spinning- we've established on another thread that £26m in January was spent on three decent players (Anelka, Defoe and Diarra) and another £120m blown on over-priced non-impact players in the Prem. Given that an extra year in the Prem is worth £30m, I would think all three clubs coming up this season will need Mokoena-type players; solid no-nonsense defensive midfielders. Rovers won't want to sell so I guess it would take £2m-ish to prise him away. Value is what people are willing to pay- look at Derby, Fulham and Sunderland getting through £70m between them this season on below average Prem players who ought not to be holding down regular places but because they bought nothing else, they are doing. I know many don't hold the Axe in high regard but the lad does a job at Premiership level and a very good job if you play 4-5-1. And for Rovers, it worked- we are still in the Premiership. Something the promoted clubs this summer will be desperately working out how they can manage to achieve whilst "only" spending £10m to £20m on transfers. Anyway, thankfully Rovers have now an altogether different quality of beast in Johann Vogel. I just hope the fans are patient with him- he might well have some Ooijer-like early horror performances before he adjusts to the Premiership.

OK that's 3 at a combined transfer fee of £26m and wages of £200K per week. Anyone else?

How much is a place in the Premiership worth? How valuable was the Axe's contribution when we went 4-5-1 and secured Premiership safety? How much is the Axe potentially worth then? As a rule of thumb, any in contract mid-20s semi-regular Premiership player is fetching £2m-ish these days. Just look at the pile of footballing non-entities who got traded for a combined £150m in January. Defoe and Anelka have made an impact- has anybody else; any single one of the other transferred players in January???

Just changed my mind- seen that Malta beat Leichenstein 7-1 tonight with Michael Mifsud scoring 5.

What on earth is the point of international football? Let's scrap it. The Axe is going to be popular if that rules Roque out for any length of time.

Having just lost another wonderful friend (only aged 50) to tobacco-induced lung cancer I would happily make tobacco a class A drug if we have to have drugs made illegal to keep Blue Phil happy. I have known plenty of junkies and none of them have died from it.

Just switched it off. I see Laugherty is like Healy- dynamite for Northernm Ireland, rubbish everywhere else.

Wasn't Bill also Vice-Chairman of the Football League? Just checked- he was President of the Football League. There is no doubt Graham Kelly had a soft spot for Rovers and for the town club teams in general. When you look at his successors, I think Graham Kelly can be seen to have done a pretty decent job.

Ooh, I love a good conspiracy theory, eh? They are so much better with the added eh. So anyone watch the u-21s? I know Matty got booked, did anything else happen?

There is a simple blockage in your understanding. Decriminalisation does not equate to "giving up" on controlling hard drugs. If you ever see TV ads for any alcoholic drink in the USA you can immediately see and hear that decriminalisation of alcohol did not go hand in hand with abandonning measures to discourage inappropriate use.