Just hope we don't suffer any injuries in this one (or against Sparta and that goes for our supporters as well). Plenty of clubs seem to be getting bad hits to key players. We're playing an outfit that would be at its level against Accy Stanley from Colin's description irrespective of their 1-1 at the Valley. That sounds like desperate tackling from our visitors.... Would be a nice bonus if Benni were to get the Rovers' faithful enthused. Report on Charlton v NZ, Nelsen's injury and NZ ARE going to ask for him to play for them at Ewood. Incidentally, JW has said Rovers are looking to make sure Nelsen is not disadvantaged in his wages by us turning down Pompey. So' Arry has bumped up our wages bill and still not signed anybody permanently except David Thompson.

What a surprise, Villa have enquired about Neil Lennon and Stilan Petrov.

Wooo! The gap is closing. The MB will be welcoming longsider and all his little chums any second now.

Jordan confusing the Axe and Agathe by all accounts! The Axe started at centre half. Aachen's previous game was a 1-1 draw away at PSV. First goal apparently a Benni volley from an MGP cross. Second, Benni muscled his way thru' to lay the ball off for Roberts to chip the keeper. Aachen's first was a 25 yard blast from Rosli. All from the Allemani Aachen thread on the official web site's Rovers massageboard!

Thanks. Olympiakos tubbed Real Socieadad 5-1 last night (the Real consolation coming deep into added time). I doubt there will be any official news about the game- on the official site, it is talking about playing a Dutch side whereas Aachen play in the Bundesliga in Germany!

We're not the only ones getting humbled pre-season. Mainz turned over Liverpool 5-0 last night and that IS embarassing. Anyone know if the Aachen game is going to be webcast? That was the only good thing about Olympiakos.

He took the Celtic dead beats to a UEFA Cup Final where he had the misfortune of facing Benni McCarthy or "the special one's Porto" depending on your point of view. Villa were already giving Roy Aitken a dead cat bounce in the friendly games being so glad to see the back of O'Leary. O'Neill is not inept even if you don't think he's a bit good (and I think he is very good) so Villa go straight into my list of potential Cup challengers/ UEFA place competitors which looks more substantial than last season's. Best hope is that jim is on a wind up.

Villa are "worth" around £60m but if you take the 2007/8 onwards TV deal into account, that rises to £100m ish less a discount of whatever percentage you want to give it for risk of relegation in any of the coming seasons. From what I've been reading, my guess is this management appointment is Deadly Doug's even though at least one of the bidding consortia have been talking about MO'N as a potential Manager for them. It could be a sale deal has been done. However, two of the consortia talking about merging their bids smells of Doug being very successful in playing the competing bids off against one another. A deal with an investor might have already been done. More likely DD has worked out: 1) He needs a good Manager as opposed to O'Dreary's dead hand to boost the team. 2) A good Manager boosts the stock market value pushing the price up. 3) The likely price increase gives him bankable borrowing power. 4) From within Villa's own resources, he can find an additional £20m or so transfer funds and recurring £5m+ wages. 5) That war chest was enough to attract MO'N to the only significant football club anywhere near his home base. DD always doubles the price whenever he's on the verge of "selling". The buying consortia haven't been moaning loudly enough about DD yet to signify that any of them have got close to buying. DD has driven away the one group with local cred- Nicholls. He's now poison pilled the Atholle Still/Sven consortium and Lerner from the States has been told he can only invest on DD's terms which surprisingly leaves DD in sole control. Anyone buying Villa has literally got to play dead man's shoes- get into a position where a grab is possible when DD has left for claret and blue heaven. Irrespective of whether DD is selling or not, the Villa sleeping giant is stirring and has a credible manager with £20m in his back pocket to be spent in the next 29 days. It is bad news for Rovers. It quite probably is terrible news for Celtic.

SG194 gets suckered by the press. Same interview, different heading and twist!

The Rovers contingent at BIG CLUB is depleted by one. Alex Bruce signs with Ipswich.

Lovely interview with Steven Reid in the Lancashire Telegraph yesterday. I find those sorts of comments very heart warming and again shows that Rovers have an excellent set-up at the moment.

Fifteen former Rovers at Premiership clubs. I think Andy Marriot who was at Rovers on loan before we signed Bobby Mimms is still keeping somewhere in the division Accy are in this season.

The UEFA statement Obviously UEFA were scared of the financial damages had they chucked them out and AC won on appeal. Come on Red Star!

Article on Hughes' plans for Jeffers

A couple of posters who didn't see Olympiakos goals 3 and 4.

A Niigerian (of all places) article on dirt in Spain. It doesn't suggest any impending match fixing scandal but it does point to some unsavoury owners but then we knew that already. Charlton run around with Llaneros on their shirts. Llaneros is the Spanish construction company that backs Valencia. Surprise, surprise, Charlton signed a co-operation agreement with Valencia yesterday giving each other first call on the other's players in the transfer market. Could be some interesting youngsters at The Valley this season as Charlton effectively become the first and only Prem club operating as a nursery for a foreign club.

Two part article going behind the scenes on the scandal. Has anyone read the precise details of what AC and Galliano got up to? I haven't yet.

Interesting divergence of opinions about the relative strengths of the second division next season. In terms of relative size of clubs, there are a lot of city clubs in there which should pull decent sized crowds. On that score, clubs like Rovers in the Prem will get embarassed again. I expect that Palace, Southampton and Norwich will put last season's embarassments behind them and mount a decent challenge, West brom look the best equipped of the relegated clubs whilst Sunderland are the archetypical yoyo outfit as well. The re-financed Derby might mount a challenge. Beyond that, Brum will have it all their own way irrespective of the shortcomings of the Manager.

Not for much longer. They should survive the 2nd Qualifting Round but third qualifying round defeat to AEK Athens will dump them into the bottom half of the UEFA First Round draw and a one in forty chance of playing the Rovers.

I agree that Zura was the only plus for Rovers from yesterday. I didn't think Todd looked fit when he was on. Seemed very ponderous.

The Osasuna v Hamburg and Red Star Belgrade v AC Milan (assuming no further action against AC) Champs League 3rd round qualifiers are going to dump a couple of toughies into the UEFA Cup. If Hamburg or Red Star, their co-efficients are so low, they will be in the other half of the draw to Rovers.

SHOCK REVELATION There is a club bigger than BIG CLUB: "The Birmingham chairman David Gold has defended the sale of the winger Jermaine Pennant to Liverpool and pledged the £7m transfer fee will be used to bring in players. "People have to be realistic," Gold said. "Did they want us to chain him to the fence? It was the chance for Jermaine to join one of the greatest clubs in the world. You can't say no." Taken from The Guardian. What makes this really funny is that Arsenal get 25% of the transfer through a sell-on clause from when they sold Pennant to Brum. So a bit tricky for Gold to give all £7m to the transfer kitty. Interestingly, West Ham get 15% of the Carrick transfer fee through a sell-on clause as well. That's a nice bonus for the WHammers.

"Rovers spending spree continues"!! according to the Guardian.

To be honest, the picture was increasingly pixilating in the second half so it was hard to tell although the commentators certainly mentioned his name quite a lot. I guess it might have been more a decision to give him a 20minute run more than anything else. McEvely had the twin problem of fair hair and being close to the camera which rather highlighted his shortcomings. One thing I noticed was his close control looks poor- he always seemed to be playing the ball with his legs outstretched and I kept waiting for a nippy forward to nick the ball off him. His positioning for goals 3 and 4 was not the best. Hughes is not taking it lightly: Hughes described the result as "alarming", adding that Olympiakos had given his side "a good hiding"... according to the Independent.

The shorts Rovers were wearing were borrowed from the local club as the Ref decided the two kits clashed too much. I rather think that we've seen the last of Matteo and McEveley even though it was a friendly. I guess the hunt for a left back and central defender have been stepped up.