The bet looks a bit safer now- Wigan's gate against Spurs yesterday was almost identical to the gate we got against Spurs at the start of the season. With Wigan now slipping down the table, their gates will probably slide as well.

Their interest in Rovers is whatever Jack told them it should be. They are acting in trust to execute the wishes of Jack Walker. I think its therefore fair to say they are exercising both a financial and a sporting interest- the track record since 2000 would support that not least the way they released the best part of £20m to keep Rovers in the Prem the season we came up. That is the reason why I am allowing myself a hint of optimism about the transfer window but whether funds are available I am certain will be crucially dependent on the next six/seven league games. Lose the lot and they might dig deep to buy someone to keep us out of relegation trouble. Win enough of them and they might dig deep to secure a decent shot at Champs League qualification. A middling performance and I think they will be very careful. Does that bring us back on topic?

I have no idea and doubt BRISA will get an answer either as these sorts of documents are quite rightly kept very private. There is the capital sum and annuity we all know about plus the ability to distribute surplus funds made by Walker Trust businesses to beneficiaries which include Rovers- the proportions seems to be a tightly kept secret. We have seen that the Trustees are allowed to make loans and convert those into capital contributions as they have done that. Whether the Trustees are allowed to increase the share capital (Rovers have very nearly issued all the shares they are authorised to) or make part or total disposal of the club is completely hidden. If there is a clause in there requiring "Rovers to wash its face" as Jack had said on occasions, we are in trouble. On the other hand Jack might have inserted words telling the trustees to cough up if the Manager asks but that seems unlikely remembering Souness weeing with the willy he's got but I suspect such leeway would also be conditioned by the level of confidence the Rovers' Board had in its Manager's judgement. Of course, there maybe limits in Jack's Trust document- ratios and absolute numbers beyond which the Trustees cannot go in funding the Rovers in which case we could be stuffed already. The most likely scenario is that there is some broaqd directional wish to support the Rovers which is subject to interpretation by the Trustees. As such they are bound to listen to the opinions of the family in deciding how to interpret the document Jack left. If I were the family, I would have been much better pre-disposed to saying positive things about the Rovers if average attendances at Ewood hadn't fallen by 7,000 in a little under four years. But the ultimate decisions are made by the Trustees and the family can only offer their views and wishes. John Williams is probably mounting a massive charm offensive right now with the Trust, his fellow-board members and the family arguing that we've got a gem in Mark Hughes. Trustees should back Sparky with cash as Rovers have a fantastic opportunity to move up to a higher level right now both financially and in football success at a cost which is far less than would likely be needed in the future. To that extent, it is enormously beneficial to have a Chairman and a Managing Director who are so highly regarded and have the credibility to argue the case for the Trust advancing money to the Rovers. On the other hand, the Trust has not liquidated any assets to the best of my knowledge so whilst not hard up, it might not have the odd few million lying around looking for a home. But that is all pure guesswork. Jack would have been balancing his instructions between the interests of his two great loves- the future of his family (for generations to come) and the Rovers. What would you write into your Will if you had been Jack?

Agree about Thomo starting on Wednesday- would be hard to drop either Sav or Reid but remember we prospered against Charlton at Ewood with Emo having one of his best games for us. Nice problem for Sparky to have. Bellamy has a £6m release clause to any Champs League qualifying team which can be exercised this summer ONLY. Chelsea and Liverpool don't worry me but the Mancs and Arsenal (numerically replacing Berkamp) do give me concern as both are cash-constrained as would practically any other club disrupting the "big 4"- except Newcastle! I agree that based on yesterday's performance, Rovers are probably just one creative midfielder and a quality striker plus Zura's permanent signature away from being good enough to go away to Arsenal EXPECTING to come away with at least a point. Exciting times to be a Rover.

Man City apart, we've played excellent football in all our recent games from what I've seen and read so now there is no reason why we shouldn't give it a really good go in all the games coming up from now to the end of 2005 (add Wigan away and Pompey home on Jan 2 becomes a bonus- the way Wigan have started their run of fixtures against top half teams suggests they will not be looking anything special by the time we go there 31 December). This period is the one that will define our season as Rog has pointed out. The overhang of away games played gets evened out by a run of more home than away games so this is also a big challenge to the Rovers supporters who do turn up to forget the empty spaces and generate a great atmosphere at Ewood. In my view, West Ham is going to be the litmus test to see how far we have improved since that totally unexpected embarassment in the second half at Upton Park. Everton is a tricky one- local derby against a good team on paper that is badly misfiring is a one-off game which could go wrong without being a pointer for either side. Feeling optimistic so I am not going to suggest how many points we will get from this run. However, if we have designs on European qualification through our league position, par for the course to 31 December has to be set at 12 points- 3 wins and 3 draws- defeats against Boro, West Ham and Wigan have to be avoided. Opening the Transfer Deadline period on 30 points would hopefully give the Trustees sufficient confidence of a decent pay out from Sky with relegation a sufficiently remote possibility this season to be willing to back Sparky with a bit of investment in the transfer market if he finds some amenable targets.

Downright disloyal of Jack to go and die of throat cancer like that, wasn't it Vinjay?

Sorry- missed out the word 'away' when I typed that.

Feeling pretty flat apart from not being able to forget the rather dirty looking lady who anchored the French TV coverage of the game. The French have MGP and Toogs v Fulham as the Premiership's 3rd and 4th best goals of the season so far BTW. We didn't look like getting a point but 3-0 is a travesty of a scoreline- but not as outrageous a result as the Newcastle game. We had more attempts on goal and shots on target than the hosts. Good points: - we knocked it around really well and we certainly quietened the Arsenal supporters in the bar. - Bellamy again looked a class act - Best game for a while from Reid. - MGP, Savage, Emo had decent games - Thommo looked sharp when he came on. Bad points: - Todd should not be playing in place of Zura - We missed the class Tugay would have given us. - Gray is a bit vulnerable to lapses of concentration again - Was it 8 corners we had? Anyway 7 were rubbish - Kuqui isn't the guy to unpick a top class defence, particularly when Sol Campbell is even bigger and uglier than he is - Reid's shooting was a lot more adjacent than it sometimes is but did he actually get one on target? - Ref was a bit of a homer. Reid's booking was a nonsense and the Arse got freekicks for fouls which weren't given when Rovers were fouled. - We now have the joint worst against goals record in the Prem.

Perhaps this will put the legend that was George Best into context. I was travelling with my parents in Estern Europe in 1966 whilst the World Cup was happening. I lost count of the number of times the conversation went: "Where are you from?" "England" "Ah! George Best".

Thanks for posting that Flopsy. Left me breathless watching it (makes me almost thankful Rovers got relegated before colour TV!- a couple of shots of Blackpool chasing Best's shadow there).

Until the next footballer is charged with rape...

Sorry wrong country- is it Andorra which has a two club league? (They play each other 20 times a season and have a Cup Final as well if I remember correctly)

Isn't Liechenstein the only other country where the league title has been won by one of two clubs more than 85% of the times it has been contested? 90 League titles between Celtic and Rangers? Its almost the same as the Boat Race.

Obviously a generation gap here. To the babies, he's just another rich alcoholic. To those who saw him, the greatest player ever to grace our game in these islands and one huge loss when he threw it all in so young. It is fair to say that the buzz about Rooney is probably only 10% of the excitement Best generated when he was the same age. There were three mega-stars in the '60s- Eusebio, Pele and Best. That is the level of the player.

...and another one to track- Zak Jones is on a three month loan at Southampton.

No the Glazer Buccaneers are playing West Ham, you lot are playing Cheadle. Well played Thun last night by the way, they made the Arsenal work for their win which was good to see from the Rovers perspective. Villareal Reserves could only draw unfortunately.

Gary Harkins scored for Blackpool last night- the Beeb says so! Quick, sign him up!

Thanks guys. Clearly our loanee is doing very well at Blackpool in avoiding all the confusion....

Now here is an interesting dilemma. Do we want Benfica to defeat the Mancs and knock the Glazers out of the Champs League? There will be some delicious afters- the Manc purse strings are so tight that failure will immediately feed through to a reduced transfer fund, inability to sign the likes of Ballack, setting aside of £5m to pay-off Ferguson and buy-out his successor.... Of course, they might come to Ewood looking for the successor and get up to no good looking for new sources of funds for the Mancs at the expense of the rest of football. On balance, I'm cheering for Benfica.

Well Harkness scored for Blackpool in their LDV defeat at Carlisle last night and I think he is one of our's. The only one of our loan players in the Pepsi Challenge who is enhancing his chances at the moment is Matt Derbyshire by virtue of not being picked by one of football management's neanderthals.... At least we know we can safely flog the rest if anyone will offer anything more than discarded ring pulls for them.

It is reported in The Guardian this morning that Birmingham have signed an out-of-contract Faroe Island defender for the rest of the season. No, I didn't make it up.

Bruce hasn't got the foggiest idea about where he is....

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.