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.

But the State already colludes in the killing of its own citizens from tobacco and alcohol through roads, medical mal-practise and running the armed forces. What we are arguing about is not whether drugs are desirable or not but what is the best way for society to police them, limit their use and help the people who use them and want to desist. Prohibition through criminalisation and harsher penalties is clearly as disastrous an option for controlling substances as it was for controlling alcohol in the States.

Just shows how blazee we are about having international players at Ewood, I hadn't noticed we had an international friendly week now which of course screwed the traditional Easter fixture list- happy days playing Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday are no more. Anyway, Roberts is playing World Cup in one of the Virgins, Emo is not in China, but MGP is in Podgorica and Zura, Ooijer and Bentley should all see action in various far flung places. The big worry is South Africa v Paraguay in Pretoria. Just hope the Axe and his colleagues don't chop Roque. We could have three quarters of our forward line seriously jiggered and jet lagged for the Reading match.

Definitely includes purveyors of tobacco and alcohol even if topping the bosses of Nestle and Cadbury's is taking it a bit too far.

Hammers fans debating whether he is greedy or not. Nice to see they are on the ball and topical down there.

A real shock. I was at Hull University at the same time as Anthony. The guy was just an incredibly nice, decent person with an astonishing intelect- one of those people who simply has that aura of being incredibly bright. Everybody knew who Anthony was and I don't think I ever heard a bad word said about him which is remarkable in a large University. He did some incredible things with the University Gulbenkian Theatre and with Hull Truck Company down at the decrepit Spring Street Theatre.

Of course they are AESF, starting with this week-end's game..... err, it's against us forget it.

They also make you paranoid

Slowly but surely, the arguments for decriminalising drugs grow more persuasive and closer to the "establishment". The Times this morning. A bloke has just been given 12 years in Malta for growing cannibis- bonkers!

No charges in the Jonny Evans case.

Daily Telegraph mocks ID cards

An LSE professor explains the dangers of the ID card system. I will repeat, I feel far more threatened by this legislation than I do by Al Quaida or the IRA before them.

I think Lucas scored 2 on the BBC player rater against Liverpool on Wednesday

Makes me want a pint of mild- that's for sure!

No doubt it will be closed as irrelevant when drugs are decriminalised.