Good points there. Pompey look like soon being without Quashie, Faye, Yakubu. Unless they suddenly buy half a team, they are not going to get many more points before the season end. Saints, Palace, West Brom and Norwich are so weak that I cannot see any of Pompey, Fulham and Brum getting caught by them. All three of those lower mid table clubs are going backwards at the moment and it would be better for the Prem if they were caught in a full on relegation scare to shake them up. Of the clubs deep in trouble, I have a soft spot for Southampton but they need more than just Quashie to save them. Despite having bought some players who were very promising England u-21 internationals, the likes of Prutton and Higginbottom seem to have caught whatever Tiny Taylor got and are now not much use at all. Football-wise Norwich are the best of the strugglers but they have had a miserable time with injuries to their small squad. How West Brom could blow well over £10m and be so bad is quite amazing. Meanwhilst, Dowie works miracles at Palace and they will be the team the other three will have to try to get ahead of if they to avoid the drop. There was a telling comment on the Radio report of the Ipswich game on Saturday- "This Ipswich side are far worse than the Norwich side they are likely to replace". Only Wigan of the clubs in the second division are showing any pretence of Premiership style and even they are stuffed full of players who weren't good enough for the Prem. When you think PNE and the dingles are within toching distance of a play off spot, it shows how awful that division is and how poor the prospects are for the survival of whoever comes up.

We've got to take this competition seriously. I am looking for a close to full strength team similar to the one we fielded in Cardiff. Man U played a team of girls and look what Exeter did to them at OT. Quite right too.

I am picking up mention of two causes for delay: - Brum insisting on getting their quality replacement (if they'll take Diao, surely de Pedro is a natural for Gronkjaer's slot?) - Brum holding out for an extra £150K valuation. It seems there is no doubt about the deal being done and I guess we are OK with Brum paying Savage's wages until the registration deadline for the Bolton game. If it comes to it, we must have learnt a trick or two to play on Rangers but gracefully and with style.

That coach cannot go very fast with all those taffies on the roof! The official site is saying that the extra day of recovery time for next Monday's Bolton match will hopefully allow Ferguson and Bothroyd to come into the reckoning for that game which presumably means they are both ruled out of the replay with injuries. I'd like to see Matty given a run out against Cardiff- he did pretty well when he came on at Pompey from the highlights I saw. More of the same (if not even better) from MGP and Mokoena please. Try Thommo and Reid in the centre midfield or Thommo and Flitty? I would stick with Nissa at left back because the Bluebirds must have Matteo marked out as the Rovers' weak link. It would be nice not only to survive but to win by more than one goal, and in normal time as well! Rovers 3 Cardiff 1 High hopes deflated if Rovers do not prevail in this one. However, one of the Prem sides in this weeks replays and rearranged game will go out- odds on.

The orchestrated talk campaign by the gobby gers continues this morning. Another "failed in England"- Alex Rae today. They obviously think they need to keep working on Barry. A little speculation for you. We all know Souness and Murray are close. I wonder if Souness did a deal not to go for Barry in this window as part of the prising away of Boumsong? It is quite probable Souness told Murray a sob story of how cash was tight at Rovers and he couldn't have the transfer funds he needed. I have been trying to work out how on earth Murray thought he could conceivably succeed with a £440K cash offer and the only possible explanation would be inside information causing him to believe the Rovers would struggle to pay the £2.56m balance this week. In a nightmare scenario, he could be right Alternatively, probably the Rovers board cut Souness' spending powers having lost faith in him and as a result, started to budget spending between £2m and £3m to get rid of him. Instead that money was saved and Fat Freddie gave us some £0.5m for the pleasure of parting!

The Rovers were fined £25,000 for having six players yellow carded on Saturday- apparently its an automatic penalty and nothing to do with the hefty penalty we are almost certain to face at the end of the season when we are hauled up before the FA for our poor disciplinary record. In fact, at the same time as our results were improving, the number of yellow cards were going down over recent weeks. Until D'Urso. So after that ludicrous penalty at Southampton, D'Urso c'ost u's a'gain.

Rangers have set up some paid hack to recycle ancient history for them on SSN. Next headline, Hadrian to build Wall.

Cuidado, a bit of sports psychology for you: - Hughes was a player for Rovers only two and a half years ago. He HAD to establish his authority by creating distance from ALL the plavers, not just Morten. - It is the oldest trick in the game- good guy personal coach, bad guy team coach. Come on Morten, together we'll show Hughes how good you really are. That said I am so pleased to hear that Rovers have such an exceptional coach as Eddie on the staff. PS We were not AGAINST MGP. We all wanted him to come good but we were **** scared of our league position and we had faith in Mark Hughes' judgement.

It seems the Observer read this thread and kindly provided the answer. You're all correct about Scots! There are many different types- from the homesick wee bairns to the buccaneers who populate every Irish bar around the World! The Fergie story has gone quiet today from what I can see. Here's hoping that John Williams quote "that's the end of it", is prophetic. PS Somebody send this match report from a Rangers Fans site to Barry Ferguson.

I am really glad the Prem are doing this and recognising the problem. My view is they got the TV contract balance right until some misguided fool at the EU Commission intervened. Then they did nothing when a far more monopolistic deal was done for French football "because nobody complained".

Just seen the Lua Lua sending off. I have to say I hate seeing one professional footballer getting another dismissed from the field of play. But Lua Lua bought Andy's feint towards him hook, line and sinker!

You are joking! We got £250K for Yorke!!!!

Unfortunately he probably wants to go out on a high and add a chunk onto the transfer fee boosting his cut. Macabi Tel Aviv get 50%!!! of the sell-on fee and have a written requirement that the player HAS to be sold if an offer of more than £6m is received.

Sorry, try this- switch the sound off the advert!

Excellent comments by Mark Hughes- very well-judged in today's LET. If Ferguson does go, then Rovers can pride themselves in not putting a foot wrong. As it is, let's hope they are winning the game of hearts and minds.

"Nothing personal" Steve Bruce rant in the Daily Mail. Its almost worth the £3m transfer fee just for this!

This article suggests that Leeds could go into administration next week. Also it reports on a massive security operation for the visit of Cardiff.

Despite the conclusive tone of Nixon's Mirror article, Savage has still not actually signed. I will be on tenterhooks until he has given that David Moyes has moved in.

The worst thing that could happen would be for a few bitter Rovers fans or Lytham neighbours to get at the Fergusons for wanting to leave. If they become unhappy here, it could cost the Rovers millions.

Jan I am beginning to get the sinking feeling you are spot on. I initially felt that Viola had gone through a bad patch including exposees by Aberdeen and Hibs of "creative" deal making and was trying his luck with Barry. Use of the homesick story to induce a bid from Rangers then bingo with a move to Everton, Newcastle or even the Mancs. I've just seen a Rangers site post which claims that Viola has been telling the likes of Newcastle and Everton that Barry will only play at either Rovers or Rangers! The good news is that he is willing to play at Rovers, the bad news is that Rangers can play a long game with an increasingly unsettled Barry. Of course, it is possible for people to change their minds and the barrage of pieces coming from concerned Scots urging Barry to stick it out and realise his potential in England shows there is no shortage of volunteers willing to do so. I also wonder if the Fergusons are forgetting the goldfish bowl of bigotry they themselves openly talked about being glad to leave? If it was bad before, I am sure the green half will be reserving a special welcome home for the Fergusons. Sad to have to talk like that but that is probably the reality, especially after openly complaining about it so the bigots know they have a soft target.

No, he has actually made some very valid points and well put. OK he had a little dig and he got a couple of big ones back. I fell about laughing when my Everton-supporter sent me Karen Brady's riposte when Moyes bid for Savage. Guess.... "A derisory offer not worth the fax paper... " Perhaps she should buy a lexicon and a thesaurus for the office from the Savage transfer fee. Just goes to show, some clubs manage to conduct themselves with refinement and style (even when Souness was the Manager) and then there's Birmingham City.

That's the FOURTH such article to have come out of Scotland in the past 48 hours! Andy Gray was pretty to the point- if he stays at Rovers, Ferguson might become the replacement for Roy Keane; at Rangers he'll be forgotten. Only McAllistair (whose wife has been extremely ill and quit Coventry's management because of it) has understandably come out in favour of domestic over career considerations. There are still two huge differences between the Ferguson situation and the eventual Boumsong and Savage sales: - our player maybe quiet but he is showing no hostility towards Rovers, in fact he was quoted yesterday as being happy here but would be happier if a move to Rangers came about because of the family. Boumsong and Savage became very antagonistic towards their employers. - Rovers have not budged. "The player is not for sale". If Boumsong (who is Boumsong compared with the captain of Scotland?) could have a £10m sale price stuck on him, then Ferguson can also be worth £10m if Rovers decide that there could be circumstances under which they would sell and need to name a price? After all, the deal for Ferguson to come here could still be £7.5m if all contingencies occur (Rovers qualifying for Europe) and he is a much more experienced player now and closer to his peak- he is still 26 for another couple of weeks. So we are at least six rounds away from Ferguson leaving by my reckoning (Newcastle had to go back four times before they eventually got Boumsong). If the Premiership got a sniff of Ferguson being sold for £3m, I bet John Williams' telephone would get very busy indeed. I doubt John Williams, who is so careful with his press utterances, would have sounded so confident ("music to our ears") when Rangers announced they weren't upping their bid yesterday if he wasn't very secure in his ground. In fact Rangers now have to loose a heck of a lot of face even to make another bid now. I am beginning to think Barry will still be with us on his birthday (2nd February) but I am very confident that if he is not with us, he won't be at Rangers either.

It must be true because you read it here about 8 pages back!

Well we do have one insider unofficial quote that he is happy at Rovers and it is obvious that Rangers are going to play a psychological game because they don't have the wherewithall to do anything else. I am very happy with the examples given by McLeish- look at the prices extracted by the selling clubs! Offering to hand on the £8m from the Boumsong sale might have a loosening affect at Ewood as well.

No. Viola probably misinformed him or he is wilfully misleading the Rangers supporters who must be wondering why he has bid such a micky mouse number. Ferguson's contract expires June 2007. Obviously david murray is wishing his life away!