I will reserve judgement until the real thing is seen. That red just slightly the wrong pan tone will look like vomited cherryade all over the shirt, shorts and socks with just a streak under the arms which was missed in the deluge. However, assuming the red is not so sickly, it is a massive improvement over last year's effort which was: - non-functional. It made the Fulham game impossible to watch when Rovers players had their backs towards us and was rightly ruled out of the White Hart Lane game - and disgustingly ugly. I'm all for going red and black halves every season.

That Birmingham Mail article (repeated here http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/mail/s...-name_page.html for anyone too lazy to scroll back to Dillo's post) seems to be very good news about David Dunn irrespective of where he is playing next season. However, looking great whilst banging 5 past Burton Albion pre-season is a bit different from Prem and UEFA football. The article does point towards Brum seeing Dunn as critical to their promotion push so I can only reiterate that any attempt to prise him away, particularly by Rovers, is going to cause a huge rumpus with the porn boys and girl. That said, so many people with reason to have inside knowledge are very convinced he's coming home and Rovers are very quiet about the inevitable mid-field strengthening signing they will make this summer. I really hope Dunn's return to health and to Rovers are both true.

Combination of things happening: 1) A desire not to deflate the World Cup win feel good factor too soon. 2) Behind the scenes attempted sentence bargaining with everyone having an opinion- FIFA, UEFA, media interests, Government, local politicians, the criminal investigators, the new management of Italian football, the four clubs involved, the four clubs who will get European places, the four clubs in Serie B that will get promoted, the club in Serie C that will get promoted, G14 etc. etc... Some will be listened to, some won't be. 3) No doubt the Italian League will want to have a ready answer for whether they will take advantage of the relegations (if it is all four) to return Serie A to 18 clubs. It only grew to 20 because of a previous mess up in Serie B a few years ago. The delay tends to point towards allowing the authorities to plan for a bigger shake-up and therefore towards guilty verdicts on all four. As I've said before, clubs have been relegated in Italian football for lesser demeanours than the charges laid against AC, Fiorentina and Lazio. The fall out from the anticipated verdicts is beginning- Juve to sell seven: http://wc2006.telegraph.co.uk/Document.asp...97-87405AF04CA7 The Times report that all of Real's £35m transfer budget will go on a Serie A clean-up of a different sort and that Ashley Cole won't find anyone willing to trigger his £16m release clause to leave Arsenal because of the glut of top flight players on the market.

Presumably he had a thorough medical like everyone else coming to Rovers but injuries/illnesses like that might have had a psychological contribution to his total loss of form. Evertonians have a fond hope he would get back to his peak like we had about Jansen. Everyone who has seen him in the last few years totally despair of him. At least Jansen's problems were physiological from the crash whereas presumably physically and reaction-wise, Jeffers is not impaired. If, and this is big IF, Sparky and co work a miracle for Jeffers, at least the press will be quick to remember his scoring exploits for the u-21s and on his debut and, thus far, one and only full cap. That alone will put Jeffers into the England frame quicker than say Kevin Davis would be if he has a good season at Bolton.

Isn't the World Cup minimum 30,000 with 40,000+ preferred? Obviously holding World Cups in large countries has its logistical drawbacks- South Africa is huge but Australia is another matter altogether. Including Perth as a venue in European terms would be like having the World Cup in Germany with a few games played in the Siberian cities with German-speaking populations.

The crunch in this world cup came with the coaches who fell into three categories- Those who organised and inspired their teams to out-perform: Italy Germany Portugal Ecuador Australia Those who organised and motivated their teams to under-perform: Argentina Brasil England The other managers neither excelled nor bombed and I include Domenech in that regard. I feel the French players suddenly found the inner strength to use their enormous ability to have a last hurrah and Domenech came along for the ride.

More on the Australian country v club problem here: http://www.fansfc.com/frontpage/frontpagen...p?newsid=154963 Might be another reason for shipping out Emo and getting Delaney in as cover if rumours are true.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup200...1817543,00.html The Guardian writers sum it all up.

A huge amount hangs on the nature of the verdicts. The Italians regularly cleanse and renew themselves of the inherent nepotism and corruption in the way their society is organised through having a powerful, independent and investigative judiciary. In this football case two completely independent judicial groups are at work- the sports tribunal and the criminal investigation with the criminal broken up into four teams in four completely different and very independent regional offices. From a judicial standpoint, that seems to be a recipe for optimising the chances of getting a guilty verdict as each of these groups knows that the others will be working flat out to get these high profile people convicted and that their reputation/promotion opportunities within the judicial system are dependent on doing at least as well as the other judicial groups on the case. Politically, Prodi and the rest of the old time Italian politicians now back in Government never want to see Berlusconi or his like ever to darken/enlighten the Italian political scene again. Everybody knows that Berlusconi shamelessly used his media control to drive his political party which then re-wrote the laws in favour of his business interests and latterly tried to set up immunity from prosecution for Berlusconi himself. In the Berlusconi political/commercial industry, AC Milan was a key element and Galliano sitting as head of AC and the Italian League was Berlusconi's number one henchman in football and in other aspects of Berlusconi's empire. The fact that Moggi is being publicly named and shamed yet Galliano is also in the dock but not so publicly fingered yet is probably all part of a bigger game to nail Berlusconi. The timing of the announcement of the first trial of Berlusconi for fraud last week is probably all part of a larger strategy which will include a sporting tribunal guilty verdict on Galliano this week which will open up the criminal processes on the AC Milan leg of the Berlusconi empire. The Sporting Tribunal might want to anticipate what might be coming out of the Berlusconi trials and do a deal so that AC only gets hit by punishment once so that whatever comes out later, they can point to AC having already been punished. Cascading Juve's titles onto AC would not be seen to be a punishment if AC are later seen to be part of a bigger and altogether murkier scandal. Prodi has been completely unwilling to do any deal with Berlusconi despite a wafer thin majority so he must be confident of nailing Berlusconi one way or another and the football revelations have come rather conveniently for him. When we look at sanctions, the Italians have not been backwards in relegating clubs including previous relegations for two of the clubs in the dock- both AC and Fiorentina. The misdemeanours ten (I think it is now) clubs have been relegated for in the past are all relatively minor compared with the wholesale sporting fraud now being alleged. An AC relegation because Berlusconi's man Galliano was demonstrably corrupt would again be good news for the present Government in separating the AC tifossi from their love affair with Berlusconi's politics. Looking at the global picture, UEFA and FIFA have just banned Greece- the current European Champions- because there is legislation which enables Government to have influence on the Greek football authorities in return for funding. The reason the supreme bodies have taken such an extreme action is they see political control in exchange for money as having the potential for reducing the sporting nature of the game. Were the Italian authorities not to act in a case of proven actual impairment of the sporting nature of the game, FIFA/UEFA would have no option but to intervene or else they would not have a leg to stand on when the Greeks contest their ban. There are millions at stake in the Italian game but there are billions at stake globally in terms of being able to offer a true sporting contest to the gambling industries (who rely on the public believing it is a sporting chance in order to take their money- operative word believing) and all the sponsorship moneys which undoubtedly go elsewhere if the sponsors perceive their customers associate them with outright corruption through football sponsorship. Rather like pregnancy, you cannot be seen as being just a little bit corrupt/tainted in terms of brand integrity never mind what the realities might be behind the scenes. If Italians can match fix through rigged referees and get away with it then the public might surmise it happens elsewhere with impunity. Besides which, this is too good a chance for the Spaniards not to kick Serie A whilst its down (there will be a lot of international TV rights which the Italians currently have as the second league after the Premiership going up for grabs) with the Bundeslega and French League probably anxious to advance their leagues' relative international standings as well. I suspect the calls for clemency if Italy won were a crude political calculation by a Justice Minister who knows he caught the pre-World Cup Final mood of the public to incentivise the players but who also knows the nature of the verdicts already. If there are straight guilties on match fixing through buying referees, he can say "I did my best but these are truly naughty boys". In voting terms, there are far more votes amongst the supporters of all the clubs not on trial than there are of the four clubs on trial. We will see.

The issues about the South African games are mind-boggling. Even if they get everything right, it is a vast country with somewhat limited public transport. The opportunity for having Group games moving around the country is therefore all but impossible. With luck, it will be like the World Cup in the USA... at best.

I have to say the second half incident was a nailed on penalty but the first half one looked like a spot of Dioufs.

The French blew that big time. Quite apart from ZZ Head Butt, Barthez was a fully at fault for Matterazzi's equaliser and never looked likely to get anywhere near the Italian penalties. The French substitutions were a bit odd. Anyway it is a night of car horns and air horns here.

I agree 1864 with your assessment. Militating against Brum are: - Bruce's managerial ability. - Brum have to build a promotion squad from the bottom up with the number of sackings they've had. - Very few relegated clubs back bounce at first time of asking; Sunderland and Baggies are the recent exceptions and they were BIG CLUB's fellow travellers in distress so have to be contenders again. - Southampton, Norwich and Palace will be desperate to go up as this is the last season of relegation parachute payments for them. Besides which we will have the entertaining thought of Simon Jordan and Gold/Sullivan making polite conversation before the Palace v Brum games.

Not playing as well for England as for Newcastle? That conjures up the thought of some truly horrific performances in the white jersey. Didn't SGE tell the fake sheikh Owen was unhappy at Newcastle? No doubt Owen had some explaining to do to FF after that came out. It might even have screwed up an Owen escape plot to get out of the loony Toons. THis whole episode is about Owen getting even and has very little to do with the deeper interpretations going on here in my view.

I thought that was Rebecca Loos (PS I'd forgotten her name so I typed Beckham's mistress into Google- there probably needs to be an allegedly in there somewhere)

There is a very interesting article in this morning's New York Times. As it is a registration site I have copied it out: Op-Ed Contributor A Soccer Scandal Made for Television By ALEXANDER STILLE Published: July 9, 2006 THROUGHOUT Italy's ride to the World Cup finals, the team has produced moments of beauty, grit and creativity before a cumulative worldwide television audience estimated at 30 billion or more. But lurking ominously behind the Italian team's exploits, and perhaps even driving a desire for redemption through victory, is the scandal that has engulfed Italian soccer for months. It's a scandal born of two elements certain to be on display in today's championship game: the competitor's drive to win and the power of television to shape commerce and culture. The scandal emerged from within the Italian leagues, where a handful of dominant teams are accused of trying to rig the national sport in order to ensure victory and, as a consequence, command a disproportionate share of television revenues. Indictments by prosecutors in Naples, based in part on thousands of wiretapped conversations, depict executives of the nation's most successful teams bullying and bribing referees to guarantee victory in key matches. In one alleged instance, Luciano Moggi, the former general director of Turin's team, Juventus, punished uncooperative referees by confining them in a locker room. An executive of A.C. Milan, the team owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, apparently had no such trouble; he can be heard on tape brazenly calling another referee "our man." That Berlusconi's name should appear prominently in this business is hardly happenstance. If Italian society and Italian soccer resemble each other, it's in part because both have been dominated so thoroughly by him. The richest man in Italy, Berlusconi oversees a vast empire that includes the biggest publishing and movie production companies in the country and a virtual monopoly on commercial television. When he took over A.C. Milan in 1986, he bought up the best players, then presented his new stars by landing them, via helicopter, in the Milan stadium, accompanied by the blaring strains of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie." Other teams went into debt trying to compete with Berlusconi's showmanship and deep pockets. While Berlusconi pauperized opponents with one hand, however, he enriched them — or some of them — with the other. He began using his private television company, Mediaset, to bring big money into the game. In the past, Italian soccer had rarely been seen on TV. The state-owned television network, worried that fans might not fill stadiums if they were able to watch matches at home, generally showed only one match per week — and only the second half of that. Berlusconi's network changed everything, eventually televising several matches a week. Stadiums indeed became emptier. But through rising television revenues, soccer was transformed into one of Italy's biggest businesses, worth about $6 billion a year. And Italian soccer teams now depend more on television revenue than teams in any other major European country. Television led to a winner-take-all economy. Indeed, a group of young Italian economists published a series of economic studies of Italian soccer on the Web site La Voce that more or less predicted the current disaster. Because networks are almost exclusively interested in broadcasting the matches of big-city teams with national followings (like Turin, Milan and Rome), smaller teams (Como, Brescia and Parma) have received a much smaller piece of the pie. With less revenue from television, these smaller teams have less money available to compete for star players. It probably didn't help matters that the league chose as its president Adriano Galliani, the head of Berlusconi's team. Not surprisingly, he negotiated a television contract with Berlusconi's network that mainly rewarded A.C. Milan and the other wealthy teams. Even in the throes of scandal, Italian soccer has resisted mechanisms like revenue sharing and salary caps that help to maintain the health of American sports leagues. Television not only provided incentive for corruption, but some of the venues, as well. Italy's soccer mania is fed by a seemingly endless supply of TV talk shows that dissect and analyze each match, including the behavior of referees. Some of this commentary was allegedly for sale. The host of one of the most popular shows was recently forced to resign after wiretaps revealed him seemingly taking orders from Moggi, the former head of Juventus, on how to talk about a match. In response to the scandal, there is talk of punishing four teams, including A.C. Milan, by demoting them to the minor leagues. Several important sports figures risk going to jail for their actions and 26 are under indictment. But whether any of this will lead to genuine change is far from certain. The Italian national team's marvelous World Cup play demonstrates that when players are freed from a corrupt system and allowed to compete fairly, the results can be truly exhilarating. Team Italy has had a beautiful run to the finals. Let's hope that, regardless of who triumphs today, the Italian players don't return home only to resume a tainted and ugly game. Alexander Stille is the author of "The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country With a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi."

I hope he stays at Mancs- the booing crscendo is going to be fun!

I know a bit premature but the Observer only publishes on Sundays- I liked this: http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup200...1816453,00.html I don't know why but this World Cup has left me remarkably unmoved. No highs, no lows, no surprises, no disappointments, no anger. It was better than OK- just.

Perhaps Owen is just making sure we remember who he is. The latest prognosis is that he will miss all of next season.

That is why Le Pen was moaning about the French team- another reason for wanting a French win.

For a footballing preview, this one by David Pleat in the Guardian this morning is the best I have read although I disagree with some of his player rating numbers: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/...1815722,00.html

Yes folks, it is the most eagerly awaited game of the year. The one we all hoped and prayed for, not. The Krauts are vanquished to play Christina's diving school in the 3rd place play-off (we'll all be watching that one won't we?), SGE and Walcott but a distant memory and South America's (where's that?) finest were no match for the colonial masters. That said the Brits' spin-offs were long gone- only Ghana and Australia surviving to the knock-out where they got knocked-out and America and Trinidad & Tobago proving to be each others' equals. So Frogs v Wops. Snail's and pasta and not a good time to be a clove of garlic in Berlin tomorrow night. Far more erudite and better footballers than me will cover column hectares in anticipation so I will just say this. FRANCE- Bartez left his clown's make-up behind but perhaps he's saving the outsized boots, spinning bow tie and shiny nose for the big top? The defence has been effective and Makelele has rolled back the years in midfield. Ribery went from overblown to downright dangerous in the course of the World Cup and he can always scare the Italians by just looking at them. We haven't yet seen a sublime Henry moment and he's not been as effective as he can be- yet. ITALY- Buffon looks impregnable, the defence are achieving miracles for such little guys and why did Materazzi let a class of four year olds draw on his arms? What I really admire about the midfield is that when it gets tight, the pace of the pinged passes safe in the knowledge that the recipient will instantly control the ball and ping it on. On that basis the Italians are the most technically gifted team at this World Cup. Up front, all the Italians are dangerous without a single stand-out player. A lot is made of age and fitness of the two teams but this is the World Cup Final so they'll go the distance. For the football purist, this should be a treat- the ref is a good one (boohoo Rooney) so the game should flow. Whether we will get exciting explosive goal mouth action I doubt as the defensive midfield/defences are just so good. Which alphabetically leaves us at Z or even better ZZ. Simply the most technically gifted player I've seen in my lifetime and to think if Uncle Jack had carried on spending in the summer of '95.... I'm going for France, for Zinadine Zidane and for a quiet night's sleep in Malta on Sunday night.

I'd love to see Dunny come back to Rovers but I think that comment is tempting fate USA! As for the invitation to Oklahoma to do the equivalent of an Alcoholics Anonymous confession, alcoholism is controllable but I don't think being Portuguese is.

Not surprised about Real going wholesale to the Italian clubs' scrapyard- they need half a dozen class players to live with Batca next season. The needs of the other mega clubs are nowhere near as great which is why Rovers should be in with as good a chance as the other vultures. That said, if Mido turns us down, it will not enhance the club's credibility. Knowing the way Rovers work, the way the Mido issue has gone quiet is slightly encouraging.

OK, the bigger vultures are Real, Barca, Arsenal, Mancs, Chelsea, Liverpool and Bayern. Do those seven have the vacancies to take Juve's 15 man first team squad? No, I don't think so either. Then there is AC's squad up for grabs- are the seven big vultures taking four super-paid super-ego'd players each? No Outside of those seven clubs, Rovers can broadly hold their own in terms of transfer attractiveness. That's why we are linked to the AC full back (makes a change to the Neill to AC stories anyway).