Going back to JW statement on the future shape of the club, I'd say Dunn is one of the few players around who (when fit and motivated) is both undoubtedly better than the first team squad and likely to be available at an affordable deal for Rovers. The way Sparky is handling the club, we could sign Best and Maradonna and there wouldn't be a squeak out of place from either of them.

I was about to type "bow down and grovel" but lets leave that sort of triumphalism for the end of season. £42m turnover at the BIG CLUB? Virtualy the same as our's

It was an undisclosed deal but there was no press speculation at the time that it was anything other than a stright transfer deal.

Let's look at this a bit dispassionately. Jack was a pretty straightforwards guy by all accounts- tough, good deal maker but not a duplicitous type. He chose to plough 25% of his wealth into the Rovers and died at a time when the club were in the second division and far from assured of getting promoted. I am sure his Will looked to Rovers' long and short term future. Only Jack's testators will have any legitimate right to know the content of his Will. Only the Trustees of the Jack Walker Trust have any legitimate right to know the contents of the Trust Deed I am equally certain that the club does NOT know the contents of the Will nor the Trust Settlement. The Trustees are legally obliged to operate the Trust according to the letter of the Trust Settlement so long as the requirements conform with law. My guess is that we can simply interpolate from the actions of the Trustees in the five years since Jack's death many of the provisions of the Trust. - the £3m donation a year is a known fact - they can make loans at non-commercial rates of interest particularly if the club's status is under threat (Andy Cole) - they can convert loans into share capital - they are averaging advancing an additional £3m a year After that it is speculation. But imagine you were Jack Walker- what would you do in your Will? In 100 years' time, the only thing which will keep the Jack Walker name in the forefront of people's attention would be Blackburn Rovers. My guess is that there would be provision for additional loans for offensive as well as defensive reasons and that there will be a clause with extremely strict safeguards for selling an interest in the club. I would also expect that the Trust will provide for a bail out from the club in the interests of the family but as the Trust was worth £680m at the last estimate, I doubt the family could plead in extremis even if they were so minded which it seems they certainly aren't. Mihir Bohse is a respected journalist but he has some bloops in his career. One thing I am absolutely certain of is that given the extreme professionalism the Trust has conducted itself with thus far, I doubt it would communicate offering Rovers for sale through the medium of that miserable little article.

Bentley profiled in the Daily Telegraph Verbatem the same story is in the Independent. Some journo is in the soup!

A very simple question. Each Premiership game sees 20,000 paying £13 each on average yielding £260,000. Who believes the Rovers' AVERAGE gate would rise to 30,000 if the average yield per seat were reduced to £8.50?

Well done Bob- absolutely brilliant!

I'm not dismissing the article out of hand but Rovers aren't the media darlings and putting that sort of negative stuff out is probably just what the Arsenal/Spuds ordered, especially if there are attempts to screw us on players. It's timing points to lack of authenticity: The Walker Trust have put a lot of development money as well as loss coverage into Rovers over the years since Jack died- if the intention were to get rid, the recent capital conversion would have been less likely (selling equity is one thing but debt is in theory reclaimable and so the WT would have a stronger hand in driving the cash amount realised with more debt on the books). The actions of the WT are not those of an owner preparing for sale. Also our low gates have been known all season- funny how they get mentioned now as we threaten the North London apple cart. Having said all that, our gates ARE our achilles heel. I keep repeating the point, we have had an AVERAGE of over 26,000 since we returned to the Premiership less than five years ago. In the intervening time, Rovers gate prices have not gone up disproportionately yet the Blackburn public have uniquely in the Premiership abandonned their football club. No other Prem club has suffered a 20%+ loss in attendance in the last four seasons. I repeat the point I made in my financial summary- why should the Jersey Trust financially back a project the town of Blackburn does not seem to cherish?

...If only he can play all games to the end of the season... Glad he came through last night unscathed playing for the John Tossack XI masquerading as Wales.

I have been away in North Africa so missed most of this tournament. I found out which hotel the Georgians were staying in but the security was blocking access to the players.

I didn't know Stuart Hall was a muslim.

Just seen that the ref last night for the England u-21 game was Mr Attard of Malta.

I wonder what odds on an Accy v Burnley league clash in 2007/8?

I see Spurs are doing a Mourinho on us and are talking about signing MGP in the summer- here's hoping they are as successful with these tactics as Mourinho was against Barca.

American Arsenal fans doing what we are doing here. One of them has even read our thread. Apart from saying Rovers have over-reached themselves, their comments definitely see us the dark horse but they have Bolton as favourites to finish 4th.

It is on the Bentley and England threads. One of those "strange but true" facts.

I think Liverpool are nicely raising their game to become a serious threat to the mega-star clubs like Chelsea and Barca. Arsenal in a year or so's time are going to be stunning if their youngsters achieve even only 50% of their promise. Only the Mancs seem to be stuffed and will struggle to keep pace with Chelsea. Having three of the best teams/squads in the world in the Prem will force the rest of the league to up its game level. Look at how 18th placed Boro have handled the UEFA so far this season- the relative strength in depth of the English top division seems to be returning.

If Sparky reckons Dunny is good enough for Rovers then - he will have passed his fitness tests - He will have convinced Sparky that he is manageable and responsible. In those circumstances all the anti-Dunn posters will comprehensively proved wrong. At the moment, Brum are not relegated and David Dunn could well save them single-handedly so it's a tad academic. PS blueboy, no way on earth should we have signed Savage and Bellamy by your criteria- at least Dunn would really want to play for Rovers.

At the moment 74% of the vote reckons that Dunny will go from BIG CLUB if they go down. This is an interesting post from their board: "I honestly believe that Rovers fans have ideas above their station if they believe that Dunn isn’t good enough to get your side. He’s a sensational player and as time is going by, he’s playing more and more games. He’ll be a force to be reckoned with next season." From what little I've seen of Dunny when fit this season, he is easily one of the best midfielders in the Prem. Come on you Baggies!!!!

This is asking for trouble but say Carrick to me and I remember his "performance" as a hot tip for the England squad picked later that week when Rovers won 7-1 against the Whammers. Guess his England and Hammers careers both effectively disappeared on a magical mystery tour of Ewood courtecy Mr Toogs. He got lots of exposure of all the sorts a young player doesn't want from TV replays and finally got to see the day's matchball when passing the Rovers' dressing room on his way to the coach home. If Carrick is a World Cup contender he will make us suffer on Sunday. I said if.....

Now Bolton are out of the UEFA and about to exit the FA Cup as well, I can see a titanic struggle developing between ourselves, Bolton, Arsenal and Spurs for the European places. My hunch is Bolton will come 4th and boy will that be as welcome as a wet fart to Sky, BBC, UEFA, FA,,,,etc. It would probably even be more unwelcome than us coming 4th. It would be sure to get Sam the England job of course.

This chap reckons we are goiing to finish 4th. Since when did the Welsh know anything about football?

Does anyone know whether the drummers know how to drum? Are they professionals? Are they learning? Any drummer should be able to support any rhythm as simple as that generated by a football crowd. Mind you having said that, I remember a mind blowingly complex syncopated version of "singing the blues" emerging from the Blackburn End on a few occasions in the early '80s. Incidentally, does Annie's Song get hummed any more? That used to create an ethereal atmosphere in the old Ewood. An old boy stood near me in the Darwen End Enclosure did his nut one balmy October Saturday afternoon. Nearly still weather conditions except for a few leaves doing an American Beauty (before Sam Menzies thought of filming it) along the redshale, a soporifically boring game of two inadequate forward lines and most of the 5,000 humming Annie's Song and having realised all four stands had miraculous got into unison were on at least the fifth repeat when a raucous voice exploded: "If you want to go to Church, its next door- this is supposed to be a ###### football match with a ###### football crowd singing ###### football songs for the ###### Rovers who are supposed to be playing ###### football (rising to a high pitched screech), what's ###### wrong with you lot? You all going ###### rigor mortis?

Completely agree Ricky. Anywhere between 4th and 16th is a possible finish for Rovers this season (3rd if one of the Mancs and Liverpool have a bad end of season). I think it will be very tight 4th to 11th - perhaps as little as 10 points covering those places. From what I have seen, West Ham are dangerous, Everton and Bolton effective, Arsenal still have flair but half the Prem knows how to handle them now and Rovers, Spurs, City and Charlton are in the mix whilst Wigan might continue to surprise and Roeder might prove to be the new Geordie Keegan. On current form, Wigan are losing it but there is very little to chose between the rest. I cannot enter these into dillo's spread sheet but here are the Bolton fixtures courtesy of the BBC (I think Wednesday 15 March is the 6th round date rather than West Ham in the FA Cup again): Saturday, 04 March 2006 Barclays Premiership Newcastle v Bolton, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, 07 March 2006 FA Cup West Ham v Bolton, 19:45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 11 March 2006 Barclays Premiership Bolton v West Ham, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, 15 March 2006 FA Cup West Ham v Bolton, 20:05 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 18 March 2006 Barclays Premiership Bolton v Sunderland, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 26 March 2006 Barclays Premiership Middlesbrough v Bolton, 13:30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 01 April 2006 Barclays Premiership Bolton v Man Utd, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 09 April 2006 Barclays Premiership Liverpool v Bolton, 14:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 15 April 2006 Barclays Premiership Bolton v Chelsea, 12:45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, 17 April 2006 Barclays Premiership West Brom v Bolton, 20:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 22 April 2006 Barclays Premiership Bolton v Charlton, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 29 April 2006 Barclays Premiership Tottenham v Bolton, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 07 May 2006 Barclays Premiership Bolton v Birmingham, 15:00

Notlob play the Whammers twice but the Whammers play Notlob once... With the odd little bugaboo sorted by a judicious edit or three that is a very useful table. Can I be a pedant and say if I were an Everton, City, Charlton or delusional Newcastle supporter (aren't they all?), I'd still have designs on 7th+ and a Europe slot. They are not that far behind and I suspect will all finish ahead of Wigan except Charlton whose fans know they will be lucky to escape relegation if they have the usual "Curbishley special" from now to the season end. Enough wishing bird flu on Robbins, my hunch is that with 4th to 7th all up for grabs between 10 clubs the Champs League hurdle will be appreciably higher this season- quite probably 65 points or more. Wigan will sink down the table.