I watched Slovakia beat France in a friendly recently and they were a tidy outfit. Remarkable result for Wales- didn't Slovakia win 5-0 in Cardiff recently?

That is true- 13/17 October is an international break as is 17/21 November so looks like (hopefully) nicko's chums got it wrong. Just hope Air NZ do the decent and give him a full length flat bed otherwise he's going to be cream crackered when he gets back.

If neither South Africa nor Samba's Congo go to the African Nations, that is a fantastic afternoon for the Rovers. Keeping fingers crossed that this is the outcome!

Glazers quick to rebuff the independent supporters' claims.

The Independent Man U Supporters' Trust has calculated that the cost of servicing the Glazer debt has now soared to £100m per year.

Yes I do. It is no different from Government doing the same with tobacco for which the cold facts are: - removes ten years' high quality of life ON AVERAGE from every user - will kill more people in the next twenty years than were killed by the Second World War and Stalin combined I would far rather have Government raking the profits than the Taliban, Yardies, UDA, IRA, Mafia and street gangs making billions. I want to see a 10% drop (at least) in most other forms of crime because there are no longer desperate people trying to find cash to pay criminals. I want to see insurance premiums go down. I do not want to see drug users in jail because it is completely bonkers putting them there. Some of the money raised by could be used to fund serious rehabilitation and prevention programmes rather than the weedy efforts at present by a dedicated but vastly overwhelmed and underfunded group of people in the field. Criminalisation of drugs is zero deterrent, be it zero tolerance, cold turkey or confusion. The scenario of Government taking the profits would be a huge improvement.

That is so obviously a para- military action. Section 6 of this report gives an insight into the particular issues in Northern Ireland My case is simple- Human beings have been altering their states of consciousness since the dawn of time. Whether it is legal (alcohol) or illegal ("drugs"), it seems to be a basic human need which different individuals deal with in different ways. Some of the greatest achievements of humanity have been conceived and realised by individuals under the influence of hallucigens. They are all harmful to health to a greater or lesser degree. There is a random divide between what is societally acceptable and not and what is illegal or not. 90% of all schizophrenics are tobacco users for instance. Prohibition of alcohol in the States was a dismal failure. Prohibition of drugs is causing far greater human misery and misallocation of resources (from funding the Taliban to hoodlums operating in gangs from Belfast to Palermo to Tirana etc. to private armies in Colombia) than other means and ways of attempting to regulate and moderate drug "abuse".

I've not looked it up but - when Duff moved to Chelsea it was widely reported the contract was for £75k per week. - similarly when he moved to Newcastle it was widely reported the new contract there was worth £55kper week - when Bellamy moved from Rovers to Liverpool, again there was a lot of reports he had been offered £60K to stay at Ewood and had taken £40k at Anfield. I must admit it had not ocurred to me that Liverpool's major signing that summer would not be on top rung except for Gerrard but it does make sense that Liverpool should pay loyalty bonuses within their structure so other long serving internationals get significantly more to retain their services. Having said that, it re-enforces what I suggested that Liverpool probably offered Duff as a new boy the same as Bellamy: £40K per week. Obviously this summer, the Liverpool wage structure will have changed considerably as have several other clubs'. Hence John Williams' comments yesterday about wages going up in a new spiral. In this, I have to say that West Ham are the major culprits and the way the Eggman came out saying West Ham have tried to sign British talent only re-enforced the points John Williams was making.

As you are a lecturer you will be used to getting references. Put wage structre and Liverpool FC into Google and you immediately see they missed out on Figo and Neill to name but two because they were unwilling to disrupt their wage structure. And to repeat, the issue about Duff moving was that Newcastle matched all Chelsea and Duff's contractual transfer terms and Liverpool were not willing to do. Newcastle only paid £5m to Chelsea but the deal probably cost them the thick end of £10m which has shot Duff into the ten richest football players in the UK. We do not know whether Duff rejectyed Rovers when he moved from Chelsea but we were simply not at the races when Newcastle were willing to do that sort of deal. Let's see what BFS's fitness regime achieves if Duff comes back and stays injury free. Thankfully Dunn has come back and stayed injury free (touches wood) and is showing what a fabulous midfielder he really is. If Reid does the same and MGP finds his best, we will have one of the best midfields in the Premiership by Christmas.

Exactly tcj, hit the nail on the head with the comment about regular football. Mourinho signed three of the best wingers around (SWP, Robben and Duff) yet was starting some games with not a single conventional winger on the pitch. That would make anybody get upset- in fact I remember Duffer at Chelsea saying "all I want to do is play football". Perhaps I should have encouraged bazza to carry on digging his hole? It is all an academic conversation because of Duff's wages- when he moved to Newcastle, he went from £75K a week to £55K a week at a time Liverpool were only paying £40K max (except for Gerrard). Newcastle also coughed up for a lot of contractual elements effectively buying Duffer out of his Chelsea contract so whilst Chelsea only received £5m for him, they had nothing to pay in severing his contract. Liverpool were not interested in doing that and to be honest, Chelsea were probably more comfortable with Duffer being at Newcastle than having Liverpool solve their left wing problem.

I haven't heard criticism of Duff's training before- in fact I remember him being quoted at both Rovers and Chelsea saying that he loved the training. And the badge kissing argument used for supporting a general character assasination is a bit wet as well. In fact bazza, I'd stop digging the hole you've dropped yourself into. For me, the key differences between Dunn coming home and Duff coming back are: - they both might have lost some pace but loss of pace is far more critical to a winger of Duff's style than to a central midfielder; Dunn used to be an option out wide for Rovers but I doubt Sparky would use him there now - Duff is in the list of the richest footballers with a personal wealth of around £10m. Unless he is turning philanthropic as he moves into what should be his peak playing and earning years, Duffer is way outside our wage structure whereas at least the porn boys knew how to keep a grip on what they paid their players at BIG CLUB- most of the time. It will be another year to 18 months before Duffer could remotely come onto the radar of a club with Rovers' current means and if Duff shows that he is back to something like form and fitness he will get offered a lucrative extension at St James.

Faz- Dunn for England?

As from last Tuesday, Reid is back in full training but no risks are being taken. That will give him the best part of three weeks from start of training (again) to the Chelsea game which is no match to come back into so I guess we will see him on the bench at least at Larissa. The good news about that line-up is the returns of Zura, Henchoz and Peter so only poor old Bruno Berner is currently completely out of contention for a place.

On the TV, the drum sounded different and less obtrusive. Has he changed kit? Much better.

Even as someone who desperately wanted Dunn to come back, I am being pleasantly surprised by his current form. He is heading back towards England contention.

The Times economics spokesman advocates dropping the war on drugs

Which particular shower of pigeon droppings did this bunch of Whammers come down with? If Bolton can block them from buying Anelka, how do they reckon an offer £12m less than the number Sparky has said Benni is worth more than will work? West Ham are all too gay to be serious. Back to the real world and Sparky is encouraged by the first start for the Benni/Roque combo. I thought it looked very promising. If we get Reid back to full fitness and the quality he had pre-injury, the thought of him charging into the holes caused by Benni dropping off and pulling the opposition defense all out of shape is salivating to say the least.

Covetous Manc eyes on Sparky. Sparky is already managing one of the top clubs in Europe.

As I commented on the match report, Benni's off the ball running and positioning is what opened Everton up so easily in the first half. Too bad you guys weren't watching carefully.

I thought Derbs was poor when he came on and he scuffed a late chance that Benni would typically have scored even though he had spent 90 minutes of the rest of the game having a stinker.

Mourinho said that the cheque book is closed for another window.... at the press conference for the signing of a very expensive 31 year old.

Other than Nugent who is seemingly already in the about to be off-loaded list at Pompey, Derbyshire's only young English striker competition at present is Lita at even less fashionable Reading. Therefore if Matty keeps getting amongst the goals at Rovers and England u-21 level, the absence of strikers who can score at senior level will heighten the press interest irrespective of playing for Blackburn.

Nobody has picked up on the fact that he is described as a striker.

More fuel for the debate

It was not just the first half either. After Chelsea had scored their second, he effectively closed out the game for them with decision after decision going against the Rovers.