The Rovers Return

Matt Jansen, left, with Leigh manager Gary Flitcroft

A story that made me smile. Matt Jansen, a Rovers legend, has been signed by Gary Flitcroft, another former Rover (a good servant and player but wouldn’t call him a legend).

Flitcroft is currently manager of Leigh Geneses, who play in the Unibond League Division One North, and has signed his former teammate in a player-coach role.

It’s been heartbreaking to see the decline of 31-year-old Jansen who, when on the brink of the England team while playing the best football of his career at Rovers, fell of a motorbike in Italy, threatening to curtail his career altogether.

He managed to come back from that injury and work his way back into the Rovers first team, but could never recapture his form and was released. Since then he’s been on the football scrapheap and it’s great to see him getting back into the game, even if it is at a low level of the football pyramid.

Another one that made me laugh is the report that Rovers are trapping feline trespassers to our Ewood Park ground who may soil the surface of the newly relaid pitch or the stands.

If you click the link and look at the story, my favourite part is the response of some readers who really seem ridiculous. A Midas, from Burnley, sums it up:

“Under what legislation are they trapping someones property and sending it to Colne? Whose checking up on thier actions to ensure they aren’t just bagged and dumped in the canal?”

I forgot we’d been taken over by Don Corleone!