There is little sign of the Stevens report but Newcastle are up to their eyes in the sticky stuff with the VAT man now that their case has gone to the Tribunal. The Sunday Mirror presumably calling their payments to agents the way that it is. If they were willing to slip an agent £660K to talk to himself, what else were FF and his mates willing to sanction? More details in the Guardian. It is fun trying to work out who each of these colourful players is! Just as pertinent is the prominence given to Paul Stretford... The Newcastle case was based on 21 transfers between 2001 and 2003 and focuses on the fact that agents cannot be employed by both the club and the player under FA and FIFA rules. Therefore to reclaim input VAT from invoices from agents employed by players was by definition not permissable and the VATman won his case. Newcastle are appealing. Arsenal are reported to be facing a £700,000 hit and Leeds are very nervous as a retroactive VAT claim from the publicity Pete era could upset their delicate recovery. No reference to Rovers or Souness in anything I have found.

So three of the four penalties and Todd's sending off were perfectly OK? All this gathering of refs to analyse games by the professional refs is all well and good but it seems to be leading to a levelling down of standards rather than improvements. In particular, they all seem to have decided that Rovers are fair game. The fact that we are not playing well doesn't detract from the awful refereeing we are suffering from. I am not saying we are angels. I am saying that I can see no reason why Rovers are conceding a penalty a game and are bottom of the fair play league in comparisson with at least half a dozen other Premiership clubs this season. Hughes obviously has an opinion on it.

Why?

Over half a million people a year get injured in the USA because they were drunk. 100,000 Britons a year get injured because they got themselves drunk. Drunkenness results in long lasting physical and mental impairment. And in Mickey Gray's case to Rooney's right hook. Frankly, what the hell are Rovers doing paying a professional athlete hundreds of thousands a year if he is a complete non-professional? OK he can get drunk but get paid like a drunk. Put him on a student's grant.

So here we are folks, four games into the new season and - conceded 4 penalties - two red cards - nine yellow cards I've not watched much Prem football this season so far but I simply cannot see any justification for those statistics other than the referees of the Prem have declared war on the Rovers. This is sheer victimisation by the officials pure and simple. Just imagine what we would be hearing if any of the media darlings had suffered such terrible officiating.

Complaints to Raffa Benitez- he turned that deal down.

There is every reason why a professional sportsman should NEVER drink to excess. If he were drunk, the club should fine hin the maximum allowed.

Sheff U a newly promoted side shooting for a win against a team that has made an unexpectedly poor start- they would have been massively up for this one. Chuck in Mike Dean hallucinating his way to three penalty awards. All hail hero Brad and I will wait to read what people who went to the game before telling a bunch of posters on here that they are writring total crap.

It is totally unacceptable in this day and age for a so-called professional athlete to have too much to drink.

It is not unusual for a top flight club to have the pick of five top flight central defenders. We are not exactly blessed with cover at full-back so that would seem to be a well-balanced set of options for Rovers. Ooijer should be Ok but has to prove himself in the Prem, Todd is tempramentally suspect whilst Nelsen''s season is beginning in November if we are all lucky. Definitely a positive move if Matteo goes to Leeds when Nelsen is fit again.

Wayne Rooney floored Michael Gray with one punch after the "sleazy" Blackburn full-back made unwelcoming advances to the England star's girlfriend Coleen in a trendy Manchester bar. (The Sun) ...according to the BBC

Sheff U will approach this one like their cup final. Rovers to come back from behind for a very nervy 2-1 win.

But we did get Bellamy so we do get the superstars. And now he's gone to fluffing Welsh chances, scouseland and a couple of high profile court cases. Now we've got Benni and Nonda, and if he didn't play for us, half the MB would be screaming for signing MGP. For all the people wanting a change in ownership, remember Rovers are receiving an average of £5.5m a year from the Walker interests- averaged since Jack became involved that number has remained remarkably similar over the past 15 years. It is producing some remarkable results set against the context of being by some distance the smallest place in the Premiership. It is working incredibly well for the Rovers and is the difference between the club being a Premiership fixture and a return to the neverlands. It would take a quite remarkable new investor to convince me that Rovers were getting something better. After all, were we to still be in the bottom three by January, does anyone doubt that the Trust would pull out all the stops in the transfer market to preserve the club's Premiership status?

OK I've been imbibing fine wine but... Nonda is one hell of a signing for Rovers. I am really excited by the prospect of Nonda and Benni together. Give it a few weeks and those two are going to dismember some unfortunate opponent at Ewood.

So is that why there was no proper football this week-end?

It is being reported that Rovers made a transfer deadline day offer of £2m for David Dunn. Assuming he stays fit and in form, I'd say it is inevitable he will be a Rovers player in January.

Roberts might have been "sussed" by the Prem opposition but I doubt Sparky would pick a poor forward. If he doesn't come good pdq and perhaps irrespective of his own form, he'll be watching Benni and Nonda from the bench. John, Dunn is in the last year of his contract so he can sign a pre-contract agreement with Rovers so he is metaphysically our's now perhaps. The only time Brum come into it is if we need to deal to get him out of St Andrews on Jan 1.

Not as ecstatic as a WHammer but if you look at it this way: Forwards Last season: Bellamy, Pongolle, Dickov, Kuqi with Johnson one for the future and Bentley if needed This season: Benni, Nonda, Roberts, Jeffers with Gally and Derbyshire for the future and Bentley if needed Midfied No change apart from Emerton being now only an emmergency option and Peter and Gally realistic covering options Defence Last season: Nelsen, Zura, Todd, Neill, Gray, Matteo, Amo, Vratty and a bunch of youngsters and the Axe This season: Nelsen, Zura, Ooijers, Todd, Gray, Neill, Emerton, Matteo and a bunch of youngsters and the Axe Keeper Added Jason Brown who looks like serious competition for Brad's place And we made a £2m profit! Compared with the wholesale personnel changes we might have faced, there is good continuity with the squad which came 6th and has reached two Cup semi-finals in two years and a general strengthening all round. In previous seasons, we would not have hung onto Savage, Nelsen, Neill, Emerton, Reid and MGP and to have all six of them at Ewood at the start of September is a major achievement by the Rovers management team. The crunch question is how we cope with losing the unique talent/threat that is Bellamy. I do expect Rovers to make a significant move in the market in January and that Dunn will be a Rover again if he proves himself this season.

James No 7 got there first. I am astonished that after years and years of top clubs having four international-class strikers, Rovers supporters have still not cottoned-on. Nonda is a risk but presumably the club spent enough time hanging around Roma to be impressed that his injuries are behind him. Will be interesting to see who will make the bigger impression in the Prem this season- Nonda or Mido. There's a decent chance we might have got the better end of the protracted Mido deal after all.

Henry Winter's Telegraph report is very upbeat about Rovers' performance.

First chance to see thyat incident. An absolutely sickening premeditated attack. After the Shanghai and Summerbee incidents, Thatcher should effectively be taken out of football for a very long time. What was the linesman on that side doing? - if I were Gallagher I'd be very angry that my lino missed that.

Let's not kid ourselves- we've drawn a very tough one in Salzburg.

Some worrying signs: Chelsea were there for the taking but we didn't have the nouse to do it. Ooijer oh dear- Let's hope this is Emo v Wolves in reverse. He was ripped apart today. MGP should have come back from his hols with all the positive sides to his game honed and having worked out how to deal with a heavy challenge. That's nought out of two- can we have Pedersen back and send Gamst back to the shirt printer in the sky? Reid has gone back 12 months as well. Roberts- we've got the Baggies' one rather than the Latics' Benni- needs introducing to the opposition's penalty area but he can play. A winning big ugly battle coming up at Bramall Lane if sanity is to be retained. Yet again we are going into a European campaign in terrble shape. For Rovers, if Cisse hadn't broken another leg is yet another great what might have been. PS We are a soft touch for refs- bookings, penalties, sending offs- they can do what they like against us and do. Sparky should bring Todd on to nut the next one that gives a bad decision against us- solve two problems at once.

FIFA have threatened FIGC with expulsion if Juve continue their case through the Civil Courts. Apparently there is an international agreement that associations cannot be subject to Civil cases in matters of sporting jurisdiction. This could get interesting. Juve case due in the Civil Courts on September 1st. If there is any verdict other than summary dismissal, the Italian season will be further delayed.

Good read chaps! You're all wrong. or maybe not We are getting a lot of posession but not using it anywhere nearly as well as last season. Don't know whether there is lack of confidence in the out ball to Roberts/Benni as opposed to Bellamy or the injuries have disjointed us more than they should have done. Everton's win at Spuds yesterday puts Wednesday in a better context. That said, our subs were dire and their's were not. Another five signing days until the window closes...