Or both Hearts and Hibs. Small man in a small club in a small league.

Certainly in the last two games against Arsenal, we never looked remotely like winning. That's got to change sometime although Saturday showed that our new effusive entertaining style comes and goes. Will Hughes look to kill the game (and the odd Arsenal player whilst we are about it) or attack them? A huge amount depends on his assessment of whether we can get hold of midfield or at least get 50% of possession. Rationality says Arsenal win but I'm plumping for a 2-2 draw.

As usual in debates with the 'drog, you are correct Colin. It was a record low number of points and record high number of defeats at the time but the Wearsiders relieved us of both unwanted records. Fortunately we came nowhere near Darwen's record of goals against. Unfortunately, the gates that season set the pattern for the next 25 years.

In that case Man U are struggling as Ballack was their "get out of jail with no transfer budget" option. Keane could be going to Juventus on a deal worth £7m over 18 months. A bit surprised but it would give Juve a Premiership engine room.

Ronaldinho is perhaps as close to Best as we will see in this era and I believe he has flexibility which is similar to Best but not the same. However, Best was the better dribbler- those six goals at Northampton on a cabbage patch were a prime example. It is fair to say that Ronaldinho either has the stronger shot or balls are lighter these days.

Those were the gates towards the end of the season when we were looking doomed. What a depressing time that was- defeat after defaet after defeat.

I lost a very close friend and colleague last month who went onto life support/ ventilation. The words being used- "lack of improvement is worrying" are bringing back bad memories. If it comes to the worse, it will be fascinating to watch the reruns of Best in his pomp and to see how the game has changed. Just as the footage of Brasil 1970 is still the most stunning football probably ever played and takes the breath away, I expect an hour of George Best will be as stunning. One fascinating aspect to watch for is that Best had exceptionally flexible ankles which enabled him to twist his boot to some extraordinary angles to his body. There is a goal against Sheffield United which illustrates that when he dribbles the ball across the box away from goal and smacked it in whilst still running towards the corner flag.

The capacity is good for a free account and it files in a different way to ordinary e-mail. I understand that new UK and German addresses have to be your.name@googlemail.com. However, since the change, I have issued invitations from Malta to people in the UK and they have got your.name@gmail.com addresses.

There were some chunky gates in the Third Division as well at Swansea, Forest and Huddersfield. I cannot see good news for Gav in the near term. Even if Wigan drop off in form, their games are entertaining and I bet Whelan/Jewell will go for the big signings in January they were frustrated from making in the Summer. The egg chasing pie eaters have found their way to the JJB for the round ball and are going to keep going. Their average will be aided and abetted by Rovers selling out their 5,000 allocation at New Year- that is exactly the sort of fixture (new venue close by and possible UEFA place at stake) which the Blackburn support gets excited about. In fact, don't be surprised to see 7,000 make the short trip. There is a ray of light in the current recovery in interest in going to away games which usually preceeds Rovers' home gates picking up- eventually. Going back to pre-Premiership days, Rovers had good seasons with dismal home crowds which then suddenly stepped up dramatically with a high profile game or two. I guess it is a similar scenario now... Well we have Bolton (without their five African players tee hee) and Man U in succession at Ewood in January- either side the FA Cup 4th round week-end. BUT, after 10 December, the next 3pm Saturday Premiership kick-off is Arsenal at the end of February and if Rovers have become interesting for the TV boys again, make that Villa on 10 March before a 3pm appointment! This means that lower clubs which always bring good followings- Sunderland and Pompey- will be bringing next to nobody because of the time shifts whilst the armchair brigade can watch the Bolton and Manc games... from their arm chairs. Whilst we on this board know we are doing pretty well, the casual supporter will look at 11th place (perhaps 12th) this afternoon and not notice there are as many points between us and 3rd as there are between us and 14th. We are going to have to make those "kind" fixtures in December produce lots of points to get the place buzzing again by pushing up the table well into the top half for my scenario to kick in. Its going to be a case of on your knees Gav in the hope we are going great guns for the Chelsea, Liverpool Citeh games at the season end to fill Ewood.

With Arsenal returning to something like form, those who predicted 4 points from these 4 tough games are looking good although Chesh's 5 points prediction could be right depending on the sort of performance we muster next week.

googlemail is being used in the UK and Germany because somebody got there with the gmail name first. However, I can invite people to gmail from my Maltese account.

One of the issues we have faced is not only the small population base but the extent to which our hinterland has been encroached upon. I genuinely want to see Accy Stanley do well but they went top of the Conference last night and surely their tiny crowds (1,500 last night) will grow if they keep their push towards automatic league promotion going. Not only that, but since our Championship win: Bolton have become an established Premiership club and have grown their gates having moved into an area which traditionally had good Rovers support and close to Chorley which was very much a Rovers town when I was a youngster. Wigan's rise must be hurting us in the Chorley/Wigan areas where we used to be strong. PNE have had some very good seasons. We still have exceptional support given the base we've got. The club has to be opportunistic and I wonder if any marketing effort is being directed towards Yorkshire given the poor state of football over there?

Spot on USA. Rovers being second in the betting is more a reflection on Keane's employability than anything else! (is that going to come back and haunt me?) Celtic indicating willingness to talk must point the road north of the border unless he emerges as player-manager at Pompey. Keane and Mandaric together- perhaps six weeks at most.

The BBC's view on Midlands clubs in the Premiership (at the moment). Forssel is now out for at least another three weeks with an injury picked up in training this morning. Couldn't happen to a nicer club really...

Outwards or through it in the case of Keane! Probably some smart deal doing by the Mancs to be honest. They realised Keane was way past his best and unlikely to recover and probably were able to use a clause in his contract re public utterances to get rid of him for next to nothing and siezed the opportunity. Keane was "only" on about £4m a year whereas Ballack would cost £6m a year in wages.

As a free agent without a contract, I think he can sign within the window. Otherwise the transfer window constitutes a restraint of trade and would be illegal under EU law. Looking at the Mancs, I am reminded of that old song; "Three wheels on my wagon but I'm still rolling along etc." Only problem is, the Cherokees (Glazers) got in a bit early.

In that case, wait another few years until some full Academy generations of players have been through the system before judging it.

Apparently Lucas was giving radio interviews from Manly Beach! Sensible decision by Hughes- 25,000+ miles in the air and two of the most emotionally stressed games in your career (chucking in ET and penalties) in the previous week is not the best preparation for a game on Saturday. Just as well Citeh are struggling to find some wingers to exploit the void down our right side. That said, no doubt two from Axe/ Reid/ Bentley will do a decent fill in job. Good to see Savage, Nelsen and Gray back if they are playing- that will make up for the absences.

I am getting confused now. Didn't Dunn and Duff get fed and housed, have training pitches, trainers, medics etc etc under "the old scouting network"? Weren't they signed by Rovers at 16 or younger? Didn't we run age group football teams (remember Rovers A and Rovers B in the old Lancashire Leagues)? The Academy is a fancy name for doing the scouting network in a more professional better structured way. The incremental cost of having an Academy over what we have always done to develop players is not a lot within that £2.5m figure. After all, Jack specifically wanted us to have the best youth set-up in Europe and invested his money accordingly so to that extent it was not an option for the club not to have an Academy. Dunn and Duff absorbed seven plus years' effort by the club before becoming sellable. Why should the current crop of youngsters be instantly sellable? Like any R&D effort, the Academy should be very closely monitored in terms of its current workings but results should be judged over five or ten year cycles. A five year cycle return for Rovers' youth development would read: Costs: £12.5m Return: Transfer income received £25m (Dunn, Duff, Taylor, Beattie sell-on, probably others I have forgotten) plus whatever value can be given to all the first team appearances and goals by players who came through the ranks. No doubt we'd be delighted if the rest of the club were so profitable.

Crikey, that's a good deal; only the cost of the VAT more than an ordinary ticket at Chelsea. Suggest everybody who hasn't got tickets go for that option and have a Rovers party!

Funny, my mind also went back to that 6-0 at Maine Road (plus a couple of very undeserved 2-1 defeats there as well) when I was walking yesterday. Despite some good victories against the Blue Mooners, we still haven't properly paid them back yet and I really hope we beat them humiliatingly. But I still think that this has banana skin written all over it looking at that Citeh injury list!

A question worth posing but really is a no brainer. Cost of Academy £2.5m pa (less cash outlay but allowing for depreciation of equipment and land and buildings etc.) Cost of wages £35m pa (at least £30m of that goes on the first team squad- many players are on over £1m a year) Cost of amortisation of transfer fees £11m pa in the the last two sets of accounts. So the Academy costs about 7% of the costs of running the first team squad. Translating that to normal business terms, Rovers are investing the equivalent of 7% of the costs of running its core business in research and development which is a healthy and not excessive ratio. This argument that x,y and z were before the Academy doesn't wash. R&D is a long term activity- the vast majority of businesses are in reality living on the fruits of R&D work done years if not decades ago- even in the high tech field. Therefore it is correct to take the transfer fees of the likes of Dunn, Duff, Taylor, Beattie (and the sell on transfer to Everton) into account. Just as it is right to count the dribbles of income from Johnson and the small fees paid by League clubs for transfers. Sales of the likes of Douglas, Gallagher, McEveley, Johnson (if Hughes decides to get rid) will bring in several hundred thousands if not the odd million which means the Academy would wash its face in current terms this year even if it hasn't produced a player for the starting eleven.

All Academies have a massive failure rate with most kids ending up at semi-pro level at best. The fact that we can point to having youngsters getting second and third division level experience (which might yet lead to Premiership places) is a big plus. How many players in the Prem starting line-ups this week-end will have come through from the clubs' own youth structures? 40 at most?

Going to adjust my forecast to a 3-0 defeat. That's what happened the last time we played a club with all its regular midfielders missing.

Perhaps good administrators in football clubs are like referees- you realise how good they are when you don't notice them. John Williams has been at the club seven years (?) and it is an astonishing achievement that I've heard virtually no criticism of him from within the club or those close to it. - The same goes for Tom Finn by the way. They are either Joe Stalin or very good at what they are doing. Contrast that with the recently appointed Secretary of Shrewsbury Town (whose blurb suggests he went there straight from Ewood and masterminded the Rovers' rise to the Premiership- at least he had the good grace never to admit he worked for the Dingles). Scarcely a month went by without some story circulating about the prowess and competence of John Howarth when he was Secretary of BRFC. Equally think of your own work situations and the respect and reputations of managers you know. There are four other points to consider: - apart from Peter Kenyon who has the global brand to build or Trevor Birch (deep in the mire others created), how many GOOD football chairmen or administrators are high profile? - the Walker Trust clearly prefer a low profile as indeed all Trusts do. They have a job of administration and good husbandry and that style extends to their commercial operations as well e.g. Flybe is a remarkable success story but that airline has a very different profile to Ryanair or Easyjet. - I'd far rather have a low profile JW and his track record of securing a very high percentage of the transfer targets identified by his Managers than the track records of the Chief Execs of Everton, Villa, Spuds (until recently) or worst of all, Karen Brady. - the Rovers are building a very effective presence behind the scenes in the broader corridors of power. We could only have joined the G14 in 1996 (and would have the embarassment of being kicked out for getting relegated in 1999!) but that organisation didn't start until after we were sliding out of contention. Apart from being a G14 member or Chelsea, probably no other single club wields as much influence as the Rovers do and have done down the years. A higher profile wouldn't help- better to be not noticed and effective than the other way round. At the end of the day, we are a football club and our fame comes from the team on the football pitch. And yes I will help if there is anything needed.