Psychopaths as a rule are pathetic maanagers. Souness is only decent when he is genuinely scared for himself but when he reverts to cro-magnum type, he is a competent pansy compared with what Keane would be as a manager. On second thoughts, perhaps Keane could take over when BIG CLUB sacks Bruce, Dunny would be back at Ewood no time flat.

The last two or three times I've seen Keane, he looked well past his best. Perhaps not motivated but certainly not the Keane of old. If Hughes wanted him and a deal were done I wouldn't be against it but I don't see it happening.

jim - I'll be delighted if you are right about Barcelona but I think you understate Hughes' profile. Look at Toshack getting the Real Madrid job! I know Murray and Souey have a love in but that would be a massive step backwards- even from Newcastle.

I believe a new record has just been set with November reached and no top division managerial casualties. Could it be that there is a new maturity regarding managerial appointments or is it that Prem Managers earning at least £1m a year on rolling or long fixed term contracts (sorry about my error on Mourinho and Wenger) are just too expensive to dispose of. There hasn't been a cavalier dismissal since Fat Freddie shot Bambie over twelve months ago. If these are indeed changed circumstances, the opportunities for a move for someone like Hughes might be seriously reduced. The Man U job will fall vacant but quite when RFW will hang up the hair dryer is anybody's guess. Souness now has a run of easier fixtures to consolidate the get out of jail fluke he got at Ewood. Bennitez has the European Cup and remember it took Liverpool donkey's years to sort out Houllier. O'Leary could be at risk from new ownership at Villa but apart from that I can see no job coming up in England that would attract Hughes. OK so Bruce gets fired after losing at Sunderland on 26 November- so what? However, given Hughes' experience in Spain as a player, he has to be an outside bet to go to Barcelona when they fail to pick up the pace in La Liga and get knocked out of the Champs League.

Does this work?

Brums next two games are the emminently losable fixtures away to Newcastle and home to Bolton before a bit of a tussle away to Sunderland on 26 November for who gets 20th. Lots of entertainment from the gobby clowns at BIG CLUB to look forwards to this month. Nothing to spend in January 'cos we'd go bust in the Chapionship- Sullivan. Bruce not allowed in the toy shop even in the January sales? I don't know whether anyone else spotted it but the BIG CLUB big mouths were spouting about a relegation battle even when they were still 14th and were not noticeably headed for trouble.

Gosh, do Charlton supporters always believe everything Mourinho and Wenger tell them? Don't they have eyes, ears and opinions of their own? Real benchmark game for Rovers- in many ways Charlton are achieving what Rovers hope to achieve: Unsung club developing its crowds and support base Excellent midfield supplying high quality balls into a fast breaking dangerous striker. It will be interesting to see how they make 4-5-1 work for them when we have failed to do so this season. I suspect that the difference is between the all round footballing quality of their wide men compared with the contributions of MGP and Emerton. They genuinely become 4-3-3 when breaking whereas we become 4-?-? and the 1 gets out-numbered dealing with a ball delivered at his throat if he's lucky. So lot's of man-for-man comparisons on show; Bellamy and Bent, Murphy and Tugay being two outstanding examples. Very hard to call this one. Charlton to win if Todd rather than Nelsen is facing Bent. A draw otherwise, perhaps high scoring. Going for 2-2.

Very much the standard style of contract for football managers and senior executives outside football. Ferguson, Mourinho and Wenger are on rolling one year contracts I believe.

That article was before Cally Thistle earned a routine draw at Ibrox. Looking at their fixture list, they'll be the best part of 20 points off the SPL Championship race and out of Europe by the start of December. What a shame... At least Zura won't want to go back.

If the agreement is watertight, why splash £1m (or whatever the value is) now when we can wait to the summer and spend whatever limited cash we have elsewhere in team strengthening in January? Only make the move now if the loan deal purchase option isn't strong enough or if Zura is itchy to go elsewhere- a pre-contract agreement signed with the player in the second half of the season would seem to be the most sensible thing to do.

Second defeat against a big city club in which I feel we lost to the referee as much as to the opposition. I can accept beatings from teams that are better on the day (or fluke it- Newcastle, or catch us on an off day- West Ham and Villa) but this just leaves me feeling exasperated and fed up with football.

From the BBC Gossip column: Newcastle boss Graeme Souness says Jean Alain Boumsong's frequent tumbles are because the St James' Park pitch is "treacherous for leggy players" (Mail on Sunday)

USA, Brown

Ideal time to play Chelski, Hughes had the lads well set up and good performances all round apart from MGP who was consistently bad and Bert who was consistently infuriating. Great fight back but unfortunately 2nd half we were against Mike Riley at his worst. Chelsea were lucky to win/ we were again exposed by lack of quality in key positions.

Bolton v Leicester Manchester United v West Brom Doncaster v Aston Villa Arsenal v Reading Wigan v Newcastle Charlton v Blackburn Middlesbrough v Crystal Palace Millwall v Birmingham All in all, a seriously bad draw. Apart from the prospect of BIG CLUB getting embarassed, few of the more powerful Prem clubs have been drawn against each other.

Diddums or hogwash?

Right now, Hughes seems to be harnessing the "edge" to Bellamy's personality to remarkably positive effect. Based on about 45 minutes of injury recovery playing time spread across two second halves against distinctly second rate opposition, Bellamy's performance is off the positive end of expectations and above anything I could have realistically hoped for. Chelsea's rearguard's discomfort at Darren Bent's pace last night only whets the anticipation for another Bellamy cameo on Saturday. Unfortunately, based on a dozen games, Dickov and Kuqi are disappointing and Jansen is way behind where I'd hoped him to be by now. Jemal finding his shooting boots for the Reserves is a ray of hope but its no wonder Hughes is putting the management of Bellamy's fitness ahead of all other concerns.

Bellamy's fitness regime.

Chelsea are out of super-human mode after slaughtering Liverpool, Notlob and Betis. Our task is to keep them human like Everton and Charlton just have done. That is not impossible and Rovers are the sort of club you DON'T want to be playing 64 hours after a match like the one Chelsea have just had this evening. Sparky also has an interesting option in terms of when he deploys Bellamy. Based on the 45 minutes of action Bellars has seen in the last two games, he is one of the very few players around for whom Chelsea/Mourinho are going to have to adjust their gameplan to cope with. Of course Mourinho won't know until 2pm whether Bellars is starting or not and if not, whether he's going to get the whole of the second half or just a run out at the end. So does Mourinho come the arrogant **** who tells his team to go out and play their game or does he hatch a plan to neutralise the threat Bellamy carries. If he does the latter, it could leave a lot of interesting options/space for Tugay to exploit if Hughes picks him.

Don't want to sound cocky but since the 60th minute, Chelsea have been pretty well at their first XI. Charlton in contrast have brought on the reserves (Jay Bothroyd is now playing) and are coping OK. All in all, everything Rovers could have asked for from tonight's game. Not that fussed about the result except a yellow for Drogba would be nice if it keeps him out of our game and a red card or two for Chelsea on the same grounds...

If we are posting requests for the next round, Arsenal home for me. OK there's a risk of a bunch of 16 year olds turning us over but it would be the ultimate put up or shut up to Rovers supporters to see if we got 31,000 in Ewood at £5 for adults and £1 for kids. PS with Brum going through, (Tiny og for Norwich incidentally) just have the feeling we are going to draw the BIG CLUB in the last 16. Reading would be a bit of a nightmare draw for any Prem club at this stage of the season. PPS looking at the surviving clubs, Man U and Arsenal might be looking at the League Cup as their best hope of silverware this season. Of the others, Charlton, Bolton, Rovers, Boro and Newcastle have every right to fancy their chances of winning the Cup.

Huddersfield Man U West Brom BIG CLUB Leeds. You're right its four - BIG CLUB were worse than rubbish.

Saturday lunchtime I believe.

Would love to see it Neekoy but a quick reminder- our five wins have been against rubbish teams (yes and that includes the Man U side we beat). Playing against good teams playing well will be the litmus test.

Just scooted through the press coverage- now we are a one man team- Bellamy Rovers (I'll get that in before the hacks use it). Only the Telegraph which go a wow on Emerton have anything like a balanced report.