So if we finish above Everton, we are on our European holidays in late July. Well, we also need to come above 8th although would UEFA ban all English clubs if neither Rovers or Everton came 8th or above? ...then there is a risk we might make it into the UEFA through the front door.

Hope you are right salothsar! Both Kyle and Stead looking for their first goal in aeons so we've got to score at least three.

No Joey- I've guessed a generous £6m ($10m) out of the £31m ($50m) total wage bill for everybody else.

The Wrexham fan will be enormous by now- Matt Derbyshire has scored twice in the first half against Rushden & Diamonds.

Since he made his debut, he seems to have been on every Brum team sheet I could be bothered to look at.

He's not- he's spending Gaydamuk's money and he's the guy who is rumbling to the press.

Milan Manderic is taking legal action for comments by Rupert Lowe whilst his soon to be successor is talking about sacking the "unimpressive" 'Arry. Shame we are playing the improving Sunderland and not Pompey tomorrow night.

Nicky Butt walked out when he found out that a Bruce had taken his place in midfield. Anyway, another product of the Academy is playing regular Premiership football for those doubting its worth.... (We'll get the sell-on when Bruce senior gets fired)

Yes the rest of them start their hols at the beginning of May- actually make that 31 January.

McClaren is a tactical genius... according to David Pleat.

What fantastic reads- how I wish I was taken to that Spurs game! As for Boxing Day 1963, ten First Division games produced over 60 goals. This is without checking but Fulham beat Ipswich 10-2, there was a 5-5 (Brum v Arsenal?) our 8-2 and Bolton played in a 1-0 so somethings never change!

It was on the day of the club's 120th birthday as well. Surely you remember the two superb strikes from Lars Bohinen?- Forest fans not very happy about that. They had their skipper sent off and Shearer smacked in the fourth from the resulting free kick. Forest had just gone 25 Premiership games unbeaten before that game as well! The return at Forest ended up 5-1 to Rovers making the 12-1 aggregate double the joint largest aggregate double in the 118 years since the football league was founded (Newcastle clocked 11-0 over two games against Barnsley in 1911).

Some guy called Saunders has offered me a load of scarcely used red and white traffic cones. He thinks facing them will have a bigger psychological effect on some of the old Rovers players than facing some scarcely used red and white Sunderland players. D Murphy plays for Spurs now- did he change sides?

Perhaps when they know who has qualified? http://www.uefa.com/competitions/intertoto...rmat/index.html

I think you'll find United almost halved the size of their youth set-up. Fortunately, we are not run by the Glazers.

Just seen that PHILIP WAS RIGHT AFTER ALL!!!! Never mind reading the posts above, I searched for INTERTOTO because the Rovers have just announced they are applying to enter the reformed Intertoto Competition this year.

Hope you find the road out of Wigan again by 3pm ozzie.

Profile of D'Allessandro

About 20 players are taking $40m between them. The entire Board of Directors was costing less than $600K.

John Williams in the LET

Can somebody watch it and let me know the score?- I can do something else tomorrow afternoon now.

A draw is long over due for both sides. Everton have also made a habit of winning this sort of game in adversity and doing doubles over us. That said, we are well capable of winning there and have a Manager who is capable of setting the team up to get it. Hughes and the team bungled at West Brom- I am trying to remember an occasion in the last twelve months when they have mucked up performance and tactics two games running (that is a different issue from losing two or more games on the run).

We are out of the FA Youth Cup courtesy of a howler by the England (and Rovers') keeper two minutes from full time. But for that we'd be in the next round and the Coach would be a genius for turning round a one goal deficit. In terms of economics, the Academy is long term. Downside is £2m+ out of the door every year. Upsides are: - Occasional Dunn/Duff transfer fees - Sell on clauses kicking in (Beattie and perhaps Danns, Bruce or Johnson from Brum to come) - Occasional fees for players sold (Johnson and perhaps Gally, Dougles and Harkins to come) - Savings on transfer fees payable (how much would we have to pay to buy Johnson and Peter or their equivalents as squad members?) - Savings on wages (they are probably earning half equivalent players would have been paid bought in but this is a temporary advantage until they command a new contract) Taken over a ten, fifteen or twenty year cycle (and that is how any R&D facility ought to be evaluated although you manage them very much for the here and now to keep them on their toes), the Academy and its predecessors wash their faces. JW has clearly told them what they have to do in future- produce a dozen Prem squad players for the Rovers over the next two to three seasons. It seems that it might fall short in that objective but it probably will continue to cover its costs in the overall scheme of things.

Hasn't Paul le Guen already been appointed at Ibrox? I have not followed it closely but I saw headlines to that effect two days ago.

Will he sign permanently for a Championship side? Seven points and goal difference to be bridged when you have recently been stuffed 5-0 by the team you have got to get ahead of BEFORE you start trying to overhaul teams in the safety zone. My feeling about 'Arry's January transfers is that he went native in the Championship. He's signed a side to get promoted from the lower division, not one to stay in the Prem. WBA know how to scrap as we found out to our cost. And I wouldn't take Pompey's post-January squad in preference to the squads of Boro, Fulham, Villa or Newcastle given the choice even if they were all starting on level points, which they are not. So we (and the rest of the Prem) can see how D'Alessandro takes to life in a Prem relegation struggle before looking in the summer piggy bank.