...and I used to think Charlton were a model of a well run football club!

Charlton have appointed Les Reed as their new coach. They persevered with Curbishley for 15 years, let Dowie spend £11.2m in the summer, gave him 12 weeks of the new season, fire him and appoint his deputy as his successor. Odd.

Consider yourself awarded the Newell Booby Prize.

No Tugay's there as cover for when Beckham gets too old.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we will go in for Dunn and he will subject to the mother of all medicals. If he passes it, I'm sure everybody will be absolutely delighted. Sadly, its a big IF.

Mirror reporting that Brum are selling Upson and Dunn in January.

Two pieces of speculation on my part- Has the Crystal Palace Court case been settled? That might have thrown up some injudicious remarks by Dowie which were leaving Charlton looking down Simon Jordan's gun barrel metaphorically speaking. The Charlton board probably has a different composition now to the one which slumbered through donkey's years of Curbishley. The Spanish investors who are putting seriously big money into expanding the Valley to over 40,000 capacity are probably getting a bit nervous about the stats for Championship crowds. At the end of the day, any club that has a horrible end of season run in the preceding season usually ends up relegation fodder the next season. I thought Charlton's close season transfer activity looked pretty decent and I was a fan of Dowie as a Manager but it could just be that extremely dire performance from Charlton v Rovers at the end of last season in Curbs' send-off game (close to the worst performance by any Prem team I've seen) simply underlined the total lack of class in the Valley playing staff Dowie inherited. Of course by a strange coincidence, the Charlton v Rovers tickets went on sale today. We all know the script all too well....

Lasted fewer games than Curbishley had years. Was my marginal preference for the Ewood job last time round. Good job the Board made the choice and not me!

Manchester Evening News' verdict Just a shame that Benni's snap shot in the 95th minute was straight at van der saar rather than past him!

Neill has been pulled out of the Australian squad to face Ghana because of injury.

Interesting take by the Guardian on the differing reactions to Ronaldo from differing parts of Ewood. You could say the division is reflected in the posts on this thread as well. From an English football point of view, it is good to see that there is a real threat to Chelski and it is coming from a team that plays exhilerating football. When Ferguson signed Vidic and Evra blowing all his Glazered pocket money, I was rather puzzled but it has to be said they are excellent acquisitions which are giving a platform for the consistently brilliant performances the Mancs are producing. Now Chelsea have a real threat (and Arsenal will be in the mix for the title as well), it will be interesting to see Mourinho under pressure. The huge differences for the Mancs this season are: - Scholes back to something like his best - the fluidity Saha gives compared with RvN - above all the renaissance of Ryan Giggs who is playing better than he has done for at least five seasons. In Arsenal, the Mancs and Chelsea, the EPL probably have three of the four best club sides in the world at the moment. Good posts by YSB.

The Belgian lad won't be coming- he did his ankle ligaments late in the Cercle game this week-end and is out for several months.

One plus nobody mentioned. MGP's corners were all top class again.

We played damned well against an extremely good full strength Manc outfit considering the spine of our team was out injured. Shame we didn't nick a draw as nobody could have argued against it if we had done. There is a bit of a worrisome gap opening ahead of us but none of these 4 defeats have been of a nature which makes me worry about a relegation scrap.

I think you'll find non-travelling Season Ticket holders had a priority position but that period is now past. Feyernoord holds 51,000 and about 40,000 are expected for this game so I'd say you are pretty certain to get a ticket. If I go, it will be very much a last minute decision depending on business commitments.

The Hughes quotes make this something more than just paper talk- just! It would be a coup but so were Archibald and Ardilles. How many times have I got to write about the impact of next year's Sky deal? A top ten EPL finish and one half decent cup run will lift Rovers into about 25th place in the World Rich Club league even if supporters get in for £15.

Hugthes has said he won't loan out Matteo and Todd. However, the implication is there that they might move in January. Cannot see Gomaa for Matteo being anything other than a squad strengthening. If that leaves Nelsen, Ooijer, Gomaa, Zura and Todd (in that order probably) contesting the two central defender spots, that is exactly how it should be at a club with the target of European football every year.

Premiership Chairmen cannot block publication of Stevens' Report. I suppose the sneeking question is whether any of Souness' doings have netted Rovers in the list of 8 clubs/ 39 transfers under investigation. We should know next month.

Rovers apparently have bid £2m for Amr Zaki- the Egyptian forward. Man City, and two continental clubs are also reportedly interested. Also Reading have rejected Rovers' reported interest in Kevin Doyle.

The Stevens Enquiry presses on despite attempts by Bolton and Newcastle to stop it.

There is some real tosh being written here. Rovers did look to strengthen during the summer but not all targets came our way otherwise Gudjonsson would be leading the line. I suspect Dunn will be at Ewood in January (Brum confirmed w made a formal bid so there is no speculation about it) and that Hughes will be looking for a terrier-like back-up to Savage. He's also clearly signalling his determination to get Warlock from Liverpool as I suspect that avoiding Liverpool beating us to the £10m CL pot will be an academic issue so far as Neill leaving is concerned. Back to Ooijer- the lad is a class act and is the obvious partner for Nelsen when he returns.

"At the very highest level, strikers need to do more than just score every couple of games."

My hatred of the Mancs goes back to the early '60s. Coming from Darwen, Burnleh were not quite the object of hatred so much as the big city club at the other end of the A666. Since then we have had reffing decision after reffing decision from reffing Manc-loving referees. Cannot see us winning this one though- the Mancs will be desperate to get back to winning after the Copenhagen and Southend reverses. Rovers 2 Mancs 3 if we score from our chances.

I am not a scientist but in my view much as I hope they are right, the climate change-deniers are in the same camp as the Flat Earth Society. It is an undeniable fact that human beings have dramatically altered the face of the Earth in the last 150 years. About 50% of the tree coverage has gone, there are 10 times more of us and we are the first creature to create a deficit- about 50% of the planet's stored fossilised hydrocarbons have been consumed in the past 150 years. That's the equivalent of having a 600 million year long forest fire covering all of the Americas, Europe and Asia. The science of carbon dioxide trapping heat is very basic and unchallengeable. The figures for the composition of the troposphere and atmosphere are a matter of data records and historic fact. The climate warming-deniers have to explain why these two simple phenomena are not responsible for the shift in average sea and air temperatures which are also fact. Metatrends in global temperatures are also a fact so they have to explain why a meta rise in temperatures is conveniently happening now to mask the impact of industrial man as opposed to any other time. In a minimax regret scenario, Stern has to be taken seriously and acted upon. EVEN IF CLIMATE WARMING THEORY IS WRONG, the impact of implementing Stern would be worth it in terms of reduced disease from pollution, protection of bio-diversity and conservation of hydrocarbon reserves.

I know, lets replace the Riverside with a bus shed and call it Lancashire United!