Wigan will sell their 30,000. They love their big days out and the egg chasing fraternity haven't been doing so well and I bet they'll go down to Cardiff for this one! The novelty value alone will shift 10,000 tickets. Gav's bet at risk if we don't sort out the Mancs tonight- this will boost Wigan's ordinary gates as well.

Brilliant! Wigan have done something Real Madrid won't manage; knock Arsenal out over two legs. Come on Rovers, let's have the dream final for real football folks.

Greggy, if they go 2-1 up in extra time or the 2nd half, they'll go on to win 3-1.

You are confusing the FA Cup with the League Cup. Finalists qualify from the senior competition but don't from the other. Wigan to win tonight for me- no ifs buts or maybes.

Leave well alone. Rovers have got a great system going and players are proving more and more interchangeable. Start with Saturday's XI replacing Dickov with Bellamey and Kuqi with Bentley and we'll be OK. I think this rumour of RFW starting with Rooney, van Nistelrooyd and Saha is his mind game for this week. He knows as well as we do that we'll say ta very much for that line-up.

Premier League bungs enquiry

You see you twit, I've seen him as often as you have. And whilst he looks very exciting, I want to see him being just as outstanding in an Arsenal v Chelsea game before he could remotely be considered for this World Cup. If he scores a hattrick on his First Division debut like a teenage Shearer did, then we've got to take him. But as you have back tracked gracefully, I won't belabour my point.

This had me chuckling. The vacancy falls due when? After the World Cup in June and the first competitive match for England after that is when? September And when will the best candidates be likely to be available? After May domestically and after the World Cup internationally So we are advertising for a replacement when? January So the FA are confident Sven is going to last until when? I see the Charlton Chairman has as good as said "please take Curbishley off us". I am sticking by my guns- imagine the hopefuls as Manager of Blackburn Rovers then see if you want any of the English-born candidates.

I enjoy sparring with you shillito as you fall for every trap I leave for you. I didn't say I hadn't seen him play did I? Presumably you think Arsenal Academy, Reserves or subs bench is an appropriate place from which to pick the England World Cup squad? I guess he'll get a bit of a run for the Arse first team but he'll be in and out like Fabregas has been. Don't forget there's the Arsenal signings in Egypt at the moment.

My edit was a misspelling of dumbest which I decided was not the best adjective to use. My point is that the VAT man could have chosen any club to bring this case against- they chose Newcastle. Why, because they clearly did something which made the Excise believe they were the easiest club to get the judgement against. My glee is against Newcastle if you read my post. Yes Newcastle which - took Gordon Lee from us - bought Roger Jones then dumped him in the stiffs one game short of paying the transfer fee they should have done - the Newcastle whose Chairman Lord Westwood was also Chairman of the FA which twice blatantly made judgements against Rovers and in favour of Newcastle which stank as high as the Tynemouth fish docks - which took Shearer off us - whose Chairman FF has said numerous disgraceful things like wanting all the small clubs to go bust - who apply to join the G14 every year - etc - etc Now I think it is pay back time for us Rovers, don't you. Souness walked out on us (not that I am complaining) but that was a humiliation at the time considering Newcastle had been resisted by half the clubs in the land but the moment FF knocked on our door, our manager was out like a shot. I am hugely enjoying Newcastle's discomfiture and the fact there is a Rovers' connection makes it all the sweeter.

I look forwards to seeing Walcott playing in the Arsenal first team.

Souness finds loyal support at Newcastle. Oh boy, Freddie did some cracking deals didn't he? £1m each to Saunders and Murray to sack them as well! Add the cost of paying compensation to hire a replacement team and Newcastle are looking at £8m probably to get rid. Then Newcastle are also about to lose a case against the VAT man over the recovery of VAT on agents' bills where they charge the club that buys the player. (The Excise are arguing that the contractual relationship exists between player and agent and therefore the clubs have no basis for recovering VAT where they pay the agent as well- nice argument!) Of course, of all the football clubs around, the VAT man will have looked for the one who has made it easiest to win against- step forwards Newcastle!

The solution is obvious. Walcott to be appointed England player-coach when more dirt forces Sven out next Monday.

There is another semi-final second leg tonight but there is zero press coverage about it. Come on Wigan!!!!

The FA have taken decisive action and must believe/hope thay have stabilised the situation. Maybe they have. But the law of unintended consequences will ignore the fact that there are no fit candidates to take the England job. The best thing the press could do in the interest of the England football team is to start a campaign against the appointment of an English manager to run England. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4641972.stm is the running order. So far as I am concerned, I would have deep concerns (to say the least) if any of the English names on that list were to come to manage Blackburn Rovers. On that basis, they certainly are not fit to manage England. Going back to the dirty three who have banned Sven, Man United say its not us, gov. Incidentally, if Newcastle lose their Court case (see Souness thread), the Mancs owe the VAT man £400k for last year's payments to agents.

Hmm, change of tone on here now. As Sven is going there is bound to be a clamour to get rid now. Don't know whether its a good idea to get rid now but the issue could be forced without the NoTW doing fake Sheikh episode 3. Apparently the Prem clubs he named have told him he is not welcome and that he will have to go to matches as an ordinary supporter with no cooperation or hospitality from them. The relegation struggler is presumably not an issue unless they are at home to clubs with England players but if the other clubs include two from Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Man U and Newcastle, its going to be difficult for Sven to do his job properly before the World Cup Final.

I wonder how the NoW are going to react to their victory. Be happy or go for the kill now?

Neville in trouble. Unfortunately too late for this Wednesday but might be banned by the time we play the Mancs a week on Wednesday.

A bit of an over the top metaphor but I used it in the sense that interconnected treaties and interests can result in relatively small incidents triggering much larger and unenvisaged consequencies.

This is NOT a plea to bring Jansen back. But isn't it typical of his cruel footballing misfortune that he goes to Bolton and perhaps will get 30 minutes action as a sub spread across three games before the four Africans return and condemn him to the depths at precisely the time injuries and suspensions would have got him a run with the Rovers?

As things stand he stays- it depends whether the NoTW have a convincing part 3. I wonder if they got him to talk about the FA blazers? Incidentally, did you notice in the piece at the week-end, the affable avuncular Still actually did much of the spilling of beans. I am surprised that Sven allowed Still to put out his statement yesterday unless those two are so "in it together" in terms of what else they said.

Simon Jordan adds his name and Ian Dowie's onto the list of folks going to the compliance unit. And probably fataly damages whatever slim chance Vennables ever had of succeding Sven in the process. The FA begin toi think the "unthinkable" so they are ppreparing a contingency plan. And when you have one of those, you know what to do when/if the NoTW fake Sheikh runs into a third or fourth instalment. We may hate the NoTW, we want England to win the World Cup, but are we manning the barricades because we love Sven? I didn't think so and the NoTW and FA know that. Of course, if this is true, then besides casting the Premiership in a very bad light for wanting Sven out because of his naming clubs and managers, it puts Sven in a much less secure situation. A very fair assessment of SGE. It will be interesting to see if we can love the "dishwasher" and forgive him not giving us the Ferrari in the drive.

Scadenfreude (if that is spelt correctly) is probably why I am posting this piece which also says nice things about the Rovers. Elsewhere, the Guardian says definitively that Souness will be replaced by Roeder "assisted" by Shearer today. The Newcastle fans seem distinctly underwhelmed by the prospect- I wonder why?

I picked up that Bellars didn't train last week. But then again, how often have we found out that he did his hamstrings during training? Hopefully, the Mancs have got their soft last minute goal out of the way in that very low key encounter with Liverpool yesterday. The loss of Dickov is huge- the lazy Rio cannot stand his work rate. Not having Bellamy would be a massive loss. Still for all his detractors, Kuqi made yet another goal yesterday and there are certain circumstances in which even the best defenders cannot stop him- ask John Terry! If he had been fit, the starting line-up would have been Bentley and Bellamy but a Bentley/ Kuqi front line is a recipe for praying for miracles (or MGP/Kuqi). Otherwise I would go for the same back line and midfield we had against Newcastle. Incidentally, wasn't Neville a disgrace against the scousers? I hope the Rovers support get at him on Wednesday night!

Fleet Street facilitating the cover up then, jim?