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.

Are Spuds that good? I don't know... but the fact I have to ask the question means they have neither convinced me the odd time I've seen them on the big screen nor have they brought Fleet Street's "finest" to paroxisms of delight -which given half of Fleet Street are Spuds followers is a bit strange, n'est-ce pas? (eh? in drogese) Are Spurs a slightly more cultured effete version of Bolton or have I missed the reason for their existence? Going for mathematical symmetry. We 0-0'd Notlob home and away and I rather suspect Sunday's televised match will be an advertisement for Sunday afternoon shopping in B&Q as a stimulating sportive social occasion.

I am absolutely delighted that I an having to reassess my view that Andy Todd was a limited player. He still works his socks off but having seen bits of the Arsenal game now, all I can say is wow!!! about some of his tackles and positioning. If Sparky's team can do this for Todd; MGP, Bert and the rest have no excuse for sub-standard offerings.

Whereas Brum's fixtures are easy? Saturday, 04 March 2006 Middlesbrough v Birmingham, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 11 March 2006 Birmingham v West Brom, 12:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 18 March 2006 Birmingham v Tottenham, 17:15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, 21 March 2006 FA Cup Birmingham v Liverpool, 19:45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 26 March 2006 Man Utd v Birmingham, 16:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 01 April 2006 Birmingham v Chelsea, 12:45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 08 April 2006 Wigan v Birmingham, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 16 April 2006 Aston Villa v Birmingham, 12:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, 19 April 2006 Birmingham v Blackburn, 19:45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 22 April 2006 Everton v Birmingham, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 29 April 2006 Birmingham v Newcastle, 15:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 07 May 2006 Bolton v Birmingham, 15:00

Brum v Baggies next week will go a long way to determining whether Dunn is a Rover again come the summer. If the Baggies get a win, Dunn will be on his way back.

Come on Rev- and the last five years. The Blackburn public has comprehensively shown they do not turn out when ticket prices are dropped.

I haven't seen anything of Peter yet but I do remember Duff's debut against Leicester- if he is being mentioned in the same breath as that debut performance of Duff's he is one heck of a prospect. BUT Cercle Bruge thought Peter was an arrogant piece of rubbish. AND The people talking up Peter are also the ones talking down MGP. This makes me very deeply sceptical about Peter- hope I'm wrong on that count. However, I doubt anyone can contradict me when I say that MGP is a rather limited winger but utterly exceptional goal scorer. I have seen MGP getting better and better since we signed him and I don't see any reason to think that he is incapable of improving his out field consistency and learn how to take a big whack and not disappear from a game. If/when MGP goes, this message board will be full of comments moaning: "if MGP had been where Peter received the ball, it would have been smashed into the net."

I'll keep repeating this post!