Whilst the statistics for Bob Crompton are overwhelming, I have no idea how we are going to rate some of the other players who powered the Rovers to two Championships before the First World War or achieved the five FA Cup wins in the 1880s/90s. Will Souter, Forbes or Forrest make it into the greatest ever team? In fact is there a case for Souter to be in the right back vote?

I think the Guardian are a bit soft on Fat Freddie here.

At last, a decent sensible perspective on the Matt Jansen situation. If Matt were iredeemably incapable of ever playing Prem football again, I am sure the medics and assessors would have concluded that to be the case and the club/insurers/agent/lawyers would have terminated Matt's relationship with the club by now. Perhaps there has been some negotiations and Matt is on a much reduced tolerance contract which gives him a last chance to establish himself. However news of that sort inevitably leaks out and I have read little to suggest such a deal to renegotiate his contract was done. What seems to have come from behind closed doors is that the physiological assessment of Matt is AOK. On that basis, the blockage between Matt headless chickening his way round Christie Park and the England squad is psychological. Faced with that dilemma, what do we Rovers' supporters want? What is the least worst outcome? Being patient and giving Matt every last chance to prove it again whilst a Rovers player? Or, squirming as we see a rejuvenated Matt scoring 20 plus in the Prem for someone else because the "hard headed realists" have called the situation too early? For once, saying the same things to Matt as he was saying to Yorke four weeks ago seems to me to be the most sensible approach for Souness to take.

Keith Newton oozed class. Hird and Price were very effective as well as being great entertainers and crowd-pleasers (a rare combination). But there was only one Bob Crompton. A double Championship winner.

There have been howls of protest about the Rovers not splashing the cash in the transfer market this summer. Below, I have simply taken the crude numbers from the BBC web site to compile the following league table of Premiership spenders this summer. By net expenditure reported (incoming player fees paid less outgoing player fees received): 1. Chelsea £88.95m 2. Man U £31.40m 3. Liverpool £26.70m (excludes Owen- not disclosed) 4. West Brom £ 9.47m 5. Charlton £ 7.57m 6. Brum £ 4.65m 7. Palace £ 4.55m 8=Spurs £ 4.35m (hides eight not disclosed inwards transfers) 8=Soton £ 4.35m 10. Pompey £ 4.05m 11. Boro £ 3.25m 12. Villa £ 2.45m 13. Rovers £ 1.65m 14. Norwich £ 1.50m 15. Bolton £ 0.50m 16. Arsenal £ 0.15m 17. Man City £ 0.50m profit 18. Fulham £ 1.75m profit 19. Newcastle £ 9.40m profit 20. Everton £17.60m profit

There are two colossi in that list- Newton and Crompton. Berg and May are no doubt also going to appear in the central defense list and super Atko in the central midfield list. Has to be Mr Blackburn Rovers, Bob Crompton.

So are we opening a poll on how long before Souey falls out with him? I like the fact that he has pace and touch but am concerned by the numeroous reports aboout his "attitude".

The BBC report Yorke's move to Birmingham City. Hopefully, Birmingham were forced to pay a premium to the Rovers to hijack the move to Celtic.

Looks like Brum tied Bruce down very tightly in his contract. He probably bought Yorke as a revenge for not being allowed to talk to Newcastle! If, as early press reports are indicating, Allardyce rejects Newcastle (and the Bolton Chairman has refused them permission to talk to him), Fat Freddie will have found that his first four choices have all rejected him. As he described himself as the man who shot bambi for sacking Sir Bobby, perhaps he should not be altogether surprised. However, Allardyce has slipped away to Spain for a short break. Whether he is anywhere near the "club" in Marbella where Fat Freddie made his famous comments about Toon supporters and Geordie lasses, no doubt jim's erstwhile colleagues will be sampling the Spanish sun to find out.

Perhaps Yorke read the Celtic boards and found their fans were every bit as delighted to be acquiring him as we had been at the prospect of him staying. In any event, assuming he can get from Glasgow to Brum in time to do his medical, looks like Yorke is joining the mission for the rehabilitation of fallen players savaged by Souness- also known as Birmingham City. Steve Bruce is becoming quite a soul-mate to the discerning Rovers fan.

Not exactly inspiring. Still, we'll see. Including cup goals, it looks like he scored 10 for Coventry in the first half of the 2002/3 season before being side lined by injury. Cup goals doubled his Perugia tally from that mentioned above- they were all against top sides (Wolfsburg in Europe; Chievo, Udinese, Bologna, Sienna in Serie A). If he is as bad as our last two striker signings- the relegated Dickov and the fourth division Stead, I will happily agree with Ossydave that this is a poor poor signing.

Bothroyd surprised a lot of people by his move to Serie A Perugia then by doing pretty well there. He ended up scoring 6 goals for the side which was eventually relegated (another player who went down last season now at Ewood). Probably will not win us any penalties though!

£500K for Yorke! Sounds like good business to me. Shame we spent £2m to bring him here but Souey, to his credit, has publicly regretted the signing. By and large, Souey's transfer dealings have been pretty good. I wonder if one of our prolific goal scoring teenagers has caught the eye of the management sufficiently to be considered if we have an injury or suspension crisis (either Stead getting injured or Dickov getting suspended). After all, Gally came through to the first team squad relatively unheralded from the youth team set up.

PGM 1) Talk out of your derriere 2) Get signed as a left winger but play anywhere but on the left wing and don't ever dribble pas your opponent. 3) Miss a sitter. The lad is a bit screwed up. Bring back de Pedro!

Brilliant AESF. Absolutely spot on. Why has Newcastle United had such an odious set of Chairmen. From one-eyed Lord Westwood through Hall to the utterly unsavoury FF, they have dragged the toon army through more dirt than Bowyer, Dyer, Bellamy and Woodgate are collectively capable of imagining. The seedy end of the Bigg Market ends in the St James' Boardroom.

Given Newcastle's propensity for Rovers' managers (Lee, Dalglish) for a maliscious moment I imagined Souness walking into the bad boys' dressing room. Newcastle behaving as shoddily as always. No wonder nobody likes them.

Jim Arnold was a huge favourite but Brad gets the vote. A lot more of Saturday's form please- I think we will need it this season.

Cannot see us winning this one- the best we can hope for is a draw. However, I have a horrible feeling the Newcastle midfield and forwards will click and this will be more like two seasons ago than last season. Newcastle 4 Rovers 1

I am still sitting on the fence although Brad's superstar show yesterday nearly got me to vote for him. When does the voting close?

One of the papers have run a story this morning that Rovers will let Jansen leave if a club comes in for him.

Ice cold shower moment. If we lose today, we go rock bottom. Bubble bath moment. If we win today, we go above the Mancs. Souage moment. Today's line-up is could be anything but my guess is he will opt for: Friedel Emerton, Short, Nissa, Gresko Thompson, Matteo, Ferguson, MGP Stead, Yorke ...and make two half time substitutions replacing Emerton and MGP.

Just like the WBA and Southampton gmes, the matches against Man U and Newcastle can and should be won. Rovers have very close to a full squad available and the opponents are in turmoil. However, Souness will probably engineer defeats in both games. I desperately hope I am wrong but I expect the Mancs to beat us 0-2.

Thus far this season, there is precious little to be said in Souey's defence. Touch line antics, continuing referee antipathy and nobody on this MB at least wholeheartedly supporting his selection or tactics. Two obvious howlers- the Leeds manger blames having to play Matteo in midfield as a major contributory factor in their demise last season so Souness persists in playing him there. Gallagher was on fire scoring goals pre-season but has not yet featured. Madness! There are many more. It cannot be argued that there are not any decent contenders if Souey were to go. LDrover assembles a nice list of realistic targets. Strachan and Dowie would be my favourites- I believe that both would be as close to certainties to produce good results and great football from the talented squad (yes I mean that) Souness has assembled. Hughes would be very interesting, I believe could do the job but the transition to Prem Management is a big one. Newell and Shearer would be too big a risk but enormously popular if either were to be appointed. Who knows what lessons Sturrock has learnt from his 13 gmes at Southampton but we could do worse than interview him. Have to say I am relieved Colin Hendry is not available- I never saw him as managerial material. One name from left field (as our American posters might say) - Glenn Keeley.

After two "easy" games (I see Bolton won at Southampton) and one difficult one, this is the verdict: 16 Norwich 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 3 4 -1 2 17 Portsmouth 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 1 18 Man City 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 1 3 -2 1 19 Blackburn 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 6 -4 1 20 Crystal Palace 3 0 0 2 1 5 0 1 0 1 1 -4 1

A defeat by 4 goals or more will leave Rovers rock bottom of the table. Just thought I'd cheer us all up.