philipl

A considered review of Mark Hughes' achievements with Wales. There is no doubt that Sparky turned them from a rabble to a team to be respected. Towards the end his luck ran out. I still have a niggling worry about his tactical approach. I suspect introducing 4-5-1 at Ewood means he has the same reservations about the Rovers' limitations as he had about Wales.

Where was MGP playing? Perhaps Hughes will persist with 4411 which would give an opening for him on Saturday.

They have half a team returnng from injury!... and they got a draw against Man U without that lot?

...and yet another encouraging interview with Rovers' and Scotland's skipper. Here's hoping his hamstring is as fit as his larynx.

Tried to post this in the Away Travel Section but I don't have permission! I think they have got this pretty accurate although I rather liked the pre re-development Priestfield because it was so antiquated- even back in 1990 the last time I was there. Glad to see Palace, Pompey and Stamford Bridge make the list.

I don't think anyone else has posted this first. An interesting insight into Ferguson but also life at Ewood under Sparky. Great to read of the emphasis on getting the fitness levels right and that Ferguson feels good about the formation used against Villa. Hughes not communicating with the players could become a problem but I would imagine he is using the strong silent approach to ensure there is distance between himself and the players- many of whom he was playing alongside just over two years ago.

The silence was after the anthems. Must confess the booing of the Welsh Anthem was so bad, I turned to watching the Scotland game. When are the English going to grow up? Some cracking results tonight= Leichenstein coming back to draw 2-2 with a Portuguese side with arguably more big star names than any other nation playing today. Slovenia have beaten Italy 1-0 and the Republic are 0-0 with France in the dying minutes. I read that Gresko played well for Slovenia. Coming back from 0-1 t half time to beat Latvia 4-1 was some result.

Djorkaeff playing for fun. Good to see the Rovers took a pragmatic approach.

I can see MGP becoming one of the most frustrating player at Ewood. When he came on as sub he was doing nothing until a bit of magic, worked himself into a one-on-one on the keeper and blasted miles over. But that was just a sighter, the free kick he took after a very clever dummy routine was a classic. It probably cleared the corner flag at 30,000 ft and climbing! He looked a lot more dangerous than he has yet done for the Rovers but at the end of the game had not added that much to the Norwegian side. Incidentally, Andreasen (remember him from last season's loan spell) looked very good when he came on. Had he stayed at Ewood this season, he would probably have been the tackling midfielder playing behind Ferguson.

Did anybody go and how did Stead perfoorm?

Ferguson talking to a Glasgow rag. Sounds good to me.

This is a wonderfully rambling thread! The charming gentleman who would be the kinng of Old Trafford.

That's great news. Come on and back Steady!

Quite often. Bolton Wanderers Oldham Athletic Derby County Man City Bristol Rovers Chesterfield Sheffield Wednesday Burnley Stoke City Port Vale Aston Villa Liverpool Everton ...are all grounds in addition to Carlisle on which I havee been with more than 6,000 Rovers' supporters. There are probably others I have forgotten about. In recent times, didn't we take 7,000 to OT for the first leg of the League Cup semi against Man U?

An American view on Glazier and Abramovich

Completely agree. It was totally hypothetical based on my assessment of the best balance of the most gifted players at the club all playing at the top of their form. Many are way short of producing what they are capable of.

Chelsea boss Peter Kenyonn has recently announced Chelsea will be moving way from Emirates to a more universal brand as sponsors. As a traditionalist, it is a shame that Highbury will be replaced by the Emirates Stadium. Still for £100m in the Rovers' transfer fund, I am sure we would be happy enough to go to the Holland Pies Bowl rather than Ewood Park = if only!

1864, technically true. But The Sun headlines never lie or mislead

The Rovers have taken The Scottish Sun sufficiently seriously to issue a rebuttal. At least our friends north of the border have provided a £10m starting price in case Souness or Moyes decide to attempt to use their reported £20m January transfer budgets with a raid on ewood.

herbegeehh, I am first in the queue to take you up on that bet! OK second then. There is a hint halfway down this article. tcj and Tris, interesting to see how Souness divides Rovers supporters even after he left! I am not knocking his past achievements, just recognising that his last fifteen months in charge at Ewood were going terribly wrong.

PhillipL I don't think all the time in the world would make it worth beginning with to deal your inability to read. please go and read page 3 where Paul tells us that the interest we were liable for was £750k then tell me more about my 'stabs' I have the club's last set of audited accounts open in front of me. Total interest liability incurred for the financial year £412,088. Interest paid net of interest income earned £388,745 (I was pretty close on the number I remembered). However, I was £10m short on he mount of debt the club had. Borrowings at 30 June 2003 were from Banks £12.4m and from the Walker Trust £14m. On that basis I would say the Rovers got an incredibly good deal from the Walker Trust on the interest rate it pays to them. Yes I can read, thank you for asking. However, I wonder about your abilities judging by your comments on the qualities of John Williams and the people managing the Walker Trust. In my opinion, Williams is of the very highest quality.

That brings back memories AESF! Will be watching this one to see if Hughes can inspire the Welsh squad more effectively than he has been doing in the last six games or so. Sticking with England thrashing them but for the Welsh to get a surprisee result against Poland.

Oh boy, Mattyboy, where to begin? First of all are you speaking with the benefit of inside knowledge or supposition? The last published accounts show an interest charge of £370,000 on £15m debt if that helps you to work out the effective gross interest rate. Hint, its not 5%. I very much doubt that there is any truth whatsoever in your stab at £750K unless we are talking about different years which is unlikely s the club's debt was more than halved by the sales of Duff and Dunn even after before the inwards purchases. The money was partly lent by the banks and partly from the Walker Trust. I have to admit that the marketing side of Rovers has been the one disappointment of the JW period as CEO. Apart from that, there can be little doubt that he is one of the best CEOs around in the Premiership if not the best. I don't know where you are coming from and on what basis you are making your comments about him.

I didn't know that Savage has a "history" with Souness. Perhaps he was simply getting a word in on behalf of Dunn, Johnson and Yorke! The person who comes off worse in this story is Souness. Fancy chasing Savage into the Birmingham dressing room! Savage was on an obvious wind up (no doubt one of the ex-Blackburn trio had tipped him off to make the jibe which would get Souness shouting about his medals) and by all accounts Souness fell for it hook line and sinker. I bet the Brum dressing room were in hysterics after Souness had left. Would be interesting to hear Steve Bruce's views on what happened Despite the success he had at Ewood and the good run Newcastle have put together under Souness, I have absolutely zero regrets about his leaving and am delighted by the manner of it. Souness and Fat Freddie- made for each other even though it took FF five fumbling prods to find him

Oklahoma, love it! An American report, presumably based on watching TV footage. A good read apart from his confusing left and right (well they drive on the wrong side of the road!) He likes Amo! Have a sinking feeling about that Titannic description though.