philipl

Sky sports reporting its worth £6m over three years. Not quite the £100m Emirates are giving Arsenal but pretty good by Rovers' standards.

A very fair assessment in The Times.

A Baggies preview. One of those "we really ought to beat this lot" sort of games which we have so often come up short in. Sparky has generally made us of sterner stuff so it would be a real aberration to lose our 9th game of the season at The Hawthorns but we have had a few bad'uns in those eight defeats so far.

Dead right LDrover. I was just thinking to myself there's a bunch of folks here who enjoy frightening themselves watching fictitious horror movies! Lawrenson twists the knife of so slightly. Does a lot for the sales value of Boumsong and Babayaro as well.

Bitter, twisted, blinkered, ungracious, arrogant, stupid, naive, ignorant. Yes folks, it is one of those lovable Mancs writing on a Manc web site about last night's game.

This is a great move. Bet 24 are based in.... Wait for it.... MALTA!

Ruud baffled. Anyone else getting a sense of 1984 at OT? These guys are living in such a wierd world divorced from reality. According to Ruud, the Mancs controlled all the game. Well quite Ruud, and I am a Dutchman. They are all off to the nutty house together that lot although I really felt for Sparky wshen he said RFW's comments took a lot of the pleasure out of the game for him. The Mancs are utterly graceless. But then we've known that for decades and whilst I join in the derision for the comedy turn at t'Turf, I really hate the Mancs. Last night was so sweet and listening to them bleat is almost as good. No wonder they are incapable of getting their act together if they are so blandly spouting newspeak to each other.

Its a frightening thought but as this is POETS season for the Prem (or is that POEWC), twelve weeks will just about see them to the end of the season.

I guess that after paying Rovers £1.65m to get Souness and crew and paying out £5m to get rid of them, Newcastle are not really in the market for a new Manager and paying out compensation of at least £2m by the time he's assembled his new team. Even someone with hippo-hide like FS won't want to be publicly rejected by five managers again, will he? After all, why make Shearer the assistant and then ditch him when Allardyce and Lee walk in? Then again when did anything logical happen at Newcastle? The signs are firmly that the Roeder/Shearer combination is the one they will go with for the balance of this season and FS's ego will then bring in SGE/Tord Gripp sandwiched round Shearer. Remember the excellent job Roeder made of getting a far more talented West Ham side than this Newcastle outfit relegated ? I think Rovers have nothing to worry about. Unlike the Geordies....

Shearer will be the Manager if they stay up- they should make the FA Cup 6th Round as well. I'd be more concerned about Curbishley getting fired by Charlton or getting the England job (same thing in a way).

You can see it now- first game as player-coach, Shearer scores to break wor Jackie's record and the Geordies believe they're going to win the World Cup come Saturday 5pm. 'arry won't be pleased he's taking pompey up there to be the sacrificial lambs. Just looked at their fixtures- FF had to act as they have a run of winnable games now with a horror story end of season mix of top 5 clubs and local derbies.

What? Souness hasn't walked out on them to join a bigger club?

BIG CLUB are at it again- just missing a signing! At least they are finding their level in failing to sign QPR's Shittu.

Some pictures to savour on this Rovers web site. Love the sequence of Rio pics.

The question will have to be asked at some point, is joining the Mancs a sensible career move? If you read that financial analysis of the Mancs, the answer might well be no. Sparky is married to a very successful businesswoman and he will know that: - RFW has blown his entire transfer budget on two numpty nobodies, - In the sort term, the Mancs have to sell to buy to keep within the terms of the hedge funds' covenant. I still think the Mancs will look abroad for RFW's successor- there are signs that RFW's reign is imploding towards its end and there will be a bunch of big mouthed/egos players who would presumably find it difficult to play under one of their own. G Neville springs to mind. If we make it into Europe, I am sure Sparky will prefer to build his reputation in the relative peace and quiet of rural Lancashire so that he really will be in line for a massive job from anywhere in Europe. I have enough faith in the set up at the Rovers to believe that managing Rovers really is just about the best job in football outside the G14 or a big national side.

This press review on a Manc site makes wonderful reading!

dillo posted this on the Manc thread but I think it deserves a little airing here as well. If 'arry gets his Pompey millions working for him and BIG CLUB continue getting results like that one at Anfield tonight..... One thing is for sure, FF has obviously decided he's not up for the £5m compensation needed to sack Souness, Murray and Saunders. It's obvious from the press stories that were placed that those three have done a pact to make it difficult for FF to get rid of one and not all three.

West Ham's win at Arsenal (comfortably too) shows just how good the Hammers are now. Had it not been for our demolition of the Mancs, that result would have been the headline. Rovers are obviously looking at the clubs ahead of us but, I'm glad we don't have to play them again and have two points, three goals difference and a game in hand lead over the Hammers. They are looking at the same Euro places that we are.

Killer praises Hughes Although it will have been Williams and Flynn who will have negotiated the deals. But all-in-all, it looks like we've picked up Bentley for around a million without paying OTT wages, brought in possibly the best striker in the Prem who had been kicking his heels on the bench, given Gally an extended chance to really skin the Championship and reduced the wage bill. Not only are the Rovers in excellent shape for a push towards Europe- be it Intertoto, UEFA or Champs League- but we are in excellent shape to move up to the next level if the Trustees decide that is going to be a sensible investment. Just hope we don't have a cruel run of injury luck. That is probably the biggest risk for the remainder of the season thanks to the magic being worked by Hughes and co.

RFW in his own little dream world talking to nurse at the asylum. It shows how Ferguson's influence is at an all time low. Mourinho and Wenger moaned about us and the media declared open season on the Rovers. RFW has a go and the media treat it like an embarassing side show. If that was the Mancs "best performance", it shows how good Rovers were.

Big smile still! Florida is right about the penalty- the ref wasn't going to give it but to be fair from the Walker Stand camera angle it looked deeply suspicious but not conclusive. Well done linesman for having the balls to give a blatant handball which he easily saw from his angle. Kuqi was agricultural to say the least but he reduced Wes Brown to a physical wreck by the end and not many forwards will do that to one of the hardest defenders in the Prem. Emerton was just magnificent. I'd expected Rovers to be under the cosh at the start of the second half but instead we came out and totally bossed it. Reid's physical presence gave us control in the centre and Emerton showed Cristina what effective wing play is all about. One moment when he came away with the ball despite being cornered by three Mancs was fantastic. Huge grin!!!

Sparky is going to have some delicious selection problems for this game. Even if Bellamy is fit, Hughes has the luxury of introducing him from the bench. I'd go with the same line-up as started the second half except Pongolle for Kuqi although if Kisha deserved dropping, so does Todd for RvN's goals last night.

This is hilarious stuff; RFW's rant on Sky. He wanted 26 minutes of added time- serious!

Bad cut, precautionary cast on leg but all indications he's OK- you can listen to him on Radio Rovers.

REVENGE OF THE ROVERS! Oh I'm so happy- this is fantastic. HOW I HATE THE MANCS!!!! What to say? We were not really in it until that magnificent free kick by MGP and Bentley tucked away a really tricky rebound. Saha's goal saw 2 Mancs offside but what oh- the Ref had already given the Mancs six decisions incorrectly. Thankfully Rio was in a generous mood and well done that linesman spotting a very clear deliberate movement of hands to ball. And how cool was Lucas Neill. Then ecstasy with an absolutely sublime build up and perfect technique from Bentley. GOOD CROWD- that was the perfect advert for the Rovers. No more sub 20K crowds from here on in, please! Step forwards Andy Todd: stupidity on the goal line and then kick a guy going nowhere to set up the freekick for the Mancs 3rd. But after that we ran the show, even before Rio got sent off (that guy is no way an England player- never has been IMO). Kuqi- well the kindest thing I can say is that we won't be seeing him for a long while. Woohoo, we beat the Mancs with our top three forwards all out. Now let's take their Champs League place off them.