I hope Eddie doesn't mind, but I'll put a preface on here, to explain what happens this season. At the end of the season, we'll have a vote for the best preview of the season. That will be down to all the members to decide exactly what makes their best preview. It might be the most factful, or the funniest preview. It will be whatever you people decide. Also, The Gull is running a prediction league table, that will be taken from the match previews. Here is how the scoring will work: Rovers score correct = 2 points Other teams score = 2 points Full Result Bonus = 1 point If The Gull wants to add any comments of his own, that's fine. Sorry for the interruption Eddie. So it's time to start it all again. After a successful and enjoyable campaign last season we can look forward to a season of European football and fighting to keep our place in the upper echelons of the Premiership. It has been a difficult summer, disappointment for most in the in the World Cup was followed by weeks of having just about every one of our players linked with a move away from Ewood Park. Will Neill and Nelsen still be there by the time this match comes around? Will someone pay over the odds for Emo the Emu? Bellamy's transfer saga was worthy of an inclusion in the script of a soap opera. While Dickov was our only other exit, choosing not to sign a new contract and return to his old haunt. Bellamy was often our only creative spark last season and travelling back to Portsmouth will no doubt bring back memories of his fantastic double in the 2-2 draw towards the end of last season. We took 4 points from our two encounters with Portsmouth last year, with Dickov scoring the winner in the 2-1 win at Ewood Park after Taylor and MGP had put in almost identical free kicks. Pomspki have struggled in this close season to bring in the calibre and number of players that they would like. With their own Russian sugar daddy they haven't turned into a South Coast Chelsea. Their only additions have been James, Campbell, Thompson and Johnson in on loan, this despite being rumoured to have a budget of around 20 million they have only spent 1.2 million so far. On the other hand, the exodus has been quite something, Priske, Viafara, Vignal, Foxe, Pericard, Silk, Cisse, Guatelle and Westerveld have all left, all have either left on frees or been released. It is quite possible that by the time this match comes around both teams will have brought in more players by the time Saturday comes around, but if not you would expect all four of Pompeys new players to feature, so we can look forward to welcoming Thompson to his new club. We should see Roberts and McCarthy make their debuts, while Neill could well be playing his new position in the centre. Pompey are proof of the fact that money isn't everything, despite all of their financial backing they start this season to 750-1 to win the title, we on the other hand are 200-1, worth a little bet surely? Since they made it to the Premiership we have only lost to Portsmouth once, but are undefeated at Fratton Park. I'm feeling mildy optimistic about this season. Roberts and McCarthy seem to have formed a good position, but if no new faces are brought in and if the Neill saga goes sour this could turn out to be quite a difficult few months we all have ahead. My personal prediction for the game is a 2-0 for the Rovers. This is the sort of game that we have to win if we want to challenge for Europe again and with a good set of fixtures to start the season off with it would be good to take advantage of it and pick up a decent number of points in the first 5-10 games.

I wouldn't have dropped Beckham myself. I think it is a sad attempt to distance the new coaching staff from the old regime and it isn't really on merit. I think Beckham at least deserves his place in the squad, even if Gerrard or Lennon are going to take his place in the starting line-up.

3-0 Rovers

True, but you don't see many top teams sell players who were integral to their success the season before. Not unless the player has either fallen out with the manager, seen to be getting on a bit or they have highlighted a replacement who is as good or better and it is partially being used to fund the move.

I apologise for posting this as more than one post, but the awful internet connection that I am on limits the size of what I am able to post. Shillito, in the end you might be right, but until Hughes shows himself to be as good in the transfer market as Wenger then I will have my doubts as to whether or not that should be a tactic we should follow. Wenger is probably in a class of his own when it comes to finding players from around Europe who are able to find their feet at his club despite previous failures or looking unimpressive in the past. Hughes has shown that he is pretty good at finding players at good prices, Nelsen, Bellamy and even Mokoena are proof of that, but he is still yet to really be tested in the transfer market. Now comes the time when he has to maintain the high standards he has set, it isn't easy to continue to find these cheap players who can keep a club in the top 6 in the Premiership. I would like to think that he could do it, but if Nelsen leaves, especially with a good chance that Neill might leave as well, it puts a strain on any manager to have to replace 3 of his best players in a single summer, especially for a club like us. At the moment I am pretty optimistic about the upcoming season, as long as we don't lose anymore of our key players and we are able to bring in about 3 more I will be very happy. If we want to look at managers to follow, Wenger, despite being brilliant, isn't the plan to take in my opinion. You look at the majority of clubs their success has come from building a squad over a period of time and continually improving it while hanging out to the key players. Even at Arsenal this has been the case, it is only when some of those players were seen as being past it that they were moved on. It is fine to take advantage of a good opportunity to turn a profit, but you can't do it every time to present itself. Arsenal didn't sell Henry this season even when there was a reputed offer of 50 million. That would have represented a huge financial gain, the largest in history, but they knew that the player was more important than the money. It is only in situations when you can identify players to fill the gap at a lower cost that you should take the money, I don't see that many quality centre backs of 28 or less, on relatively low wages who will come in and perform the way that Nelsen has for us. Huth is a possibilty, but there are still doubts about how good he is, I don't have many Chelsea friends who think highly of him. Distin would be the one I would turn to, but with Pompey bidding 4 million for him it would seem unlikely that we would be able to get him, he must also be on higher wages than Nelsen, even if we offer him an improved deal.

Thank you. Good joke as well. I'll have to think of a harder topic for you.

Nice one cocker. Now, does anyone know if a baseball game will be released on the 360? Let's see you turn that one into a funny cocker.

Anyone know when the new Tiger Woods usually comes out?

All about the money.

Problem he may see is our improvement. He'll see the top 4 as looking secure and then if they slip up he has to fight it out with us, Spurs, Newcastle and probably one or two other clubs and you wouldn't see them (or us) as favourites to win that. I think we have a better squad, first 11 and manager, but I wouldn't be happy to hear Hughes saying that.

What I was saying is that personally I find lyrics to be the most important part of a song, with a few exceptions. For me the quality of the song writing for Oasis is excellent. They may not be masters of their instruments who will be forever remember for this guitar or drum solo, but the lyrics and the overall quality of the song is very good. M use may be better when it comes to their instruments, but Oasis have written the better lyrics and that is why I was I consider them to be a better band. I think it is doing a disservice to musicianship to not take into consideration the writing process and to instead simply focus on the individual instrument. That's my two lines on this topic.

Yes, but Reid wasn't the player he is now, Emerton didn't (big error there!) deliver the goods often enough and Ferguson was a big baby. If these two can form a good partnership than that is better than just having Bellamy up there. Don't underestimate the skills of Benni, while Roberts showed last year that he can cause anyone trouble. If we can also add another striker as well as some other things I would be very pleased. We can also now play balls into the box and someone just might be able to head it!

Great, I really do hope we bring in another striker still though.

Jealous are you pleasure? I sit at home, glued to any tv, radio or at least the brfc chat room.

I've never seen either live, so in that respect I can't comment, but for me one area where Oasis are certainly better than M.use is in the song writing. They have written songs of the quality M.use can only dream of, and for me that is the most important part.

Now that you've said that it's going to happen.

I think there's a topic on this somewhere.

I get a green light, still no video or audio. I've emailed microsoft and if they don't come up with anything it will be into the shop tomorrow or Saturday for a replacement, and I'm not being messed around by good old fnac.

Sorry, it was just a comment as a result of an earlier post, I didn't actually think it was a name change.

You sure...I thought this was an official name change?!?

The rules haven't changed, they just aren't very consistent. It's like Zurab not being allowed to put Zurab on his shirt when Stelios is.

I've noticed now that when I turn the xbox on the little green lights don't go round in a circle like they usually do and I'm unable to connect any wireless controllers.

I'm totally at a loss as to how to fix this problem.

No carpets, wood floors.

Problem is then I have to make it look nice!