I'm not sure what you we watching! There was a lot of movement around (as all strikers do), not one coveringeither side. The first peanlty came from Benni on the left, and the South African did drop off a fair bit. The one change seemd to be that when Stoke gained possession it was Roberts who would drop back and defend while mcCarthy would stay up front (previously when they have played together it has usually been the other way round). For a guy who is not really a "target man" Benni did a very good job of holding up the ball against a a big set of defenders, and it did mean he would more regularly be playing off the back line. I just can't see how Cruz and McCarthy will work, they bring too much of the same stuff to the party. We shall see though, I am sure Cruz will get a chance from the bench against Sunderland. But when it happens watch how they move off each other. It is just never convincing. If we could upgrade Roberts to a big powerful striker, who is good in the air and has pace, and good technique and finishing we would be laughing. But then I think his name is either Eto'o or Drogba...

I would love for Benni and Cruz to be an effective pairing but I just can't see how it will work. Both of them want to be the focus, they drop into the same areas. Sam would need to get Cruz to change his game - run the channels, play right up against the back line, play a very physical role - while McCarthy drops off. It is hard to make a leopard change it spots. I am sure Sam will be giving it some thought though.

Carragher just sounds like a self important tosser.

Thats what I would do I think. McCarthy seems a little delusional....? He must know he is out of shape.

Hmm. I don't know what we can do about Benni. He appears to have given up the ghost. Unless someone desperate comes in it is hard to see how we can move Benni and get in enough for someone like Ollic or Pinto (both quoted at circa 5m). I think there is a real chance given his shape and his attitude that he will just mug it out on the bench until we sell him for a massively reduced fee to someone or other in January. The only way I can see him recovering as a force for us up front is if Cruz is unavailable, and therfore McCarthy gets a shot with Roberts. Those two can work together imo. That said he will get a crack against Grimsby.... I am sure Cruz will be rested so maybe Benni can show us he still has something.

I think he was very fired up for last season with Rovers, but after we got the stuffing knocked out of us in November a little unexpectantly it seemed Hughes decided that he had had enough. The vibe appeared to be that Hughes felt we had the best squad we could possibly have under him and it still did not really cut it. Everybody needs to move on and I guess Sparky looked at it rationally and asked "how can I improve my repuatiation if I stay?". Fact is he would have to either win a trophy or finish in the top four to get more serious Kudos from being Rovers manager, whereas a modicum of success with City - with the advatage of (perhaps only percieved....) transfer funds - could seriously enhance his prospects. Ince has the desire which is crucial, he has ambition with his signings, and he seems to have an interestng way to make us play. I would like him to be as devoted to preperation as Sparky was, I hope he keeps it up with fitness and pro zone and everything. I am looking forward to his first season in charge.

He says what it required I guess, thats part of the way he approaches things. From his point of view when all the talk is of City etc the thing with the most value in the present tense and showing commitment to the new position. When he joined Rovers he didn't spend much time eulogising about managing the Welsh national team. I wouldn't do it the way he has gone about it, but he isn't acting any differently to how he has conducted himself as a manager since he started his career.

He's actually said quite a lot of good things about the club and the chairman. The only bad thing he has said as far as I understand is that we don't have much money. That is accurate. I do think working for someone like Thaiksin is more than questionable, but he hasn't said anything out of order. He is a robust guy who says what he needs to say for the best sort of outcome - for example when Rovers play poorly but Sparky claims that Rovers were the better side, or claiming that one of our players who clearly should have been sent off was not guilty, or - most ludicrously of all - claiming that he was never interested in the Chelsea job at the unveiling conferance at City! Its an effective approach, it worked for us so he will continue to use it at City. Ferguson, Mourinho, Benitez and Wenger are all precisely the same. If we get Ten Cate for example I would imagine a similar approach.

Christ! Only five decent players in that lot: Freidel, Niell, Emerton, Tugay, Dickov. I can't believe there are 4 left backs on the pitch!

The one thing that worries me is that Grant was a bit of a rogue appointment. No real pedigree etc. So Abramovich, especially as he will be working on his own and not by committee, might decide Hughes is the man and thats it. In a way that is better show of judgement than just getting in the recent top name. However seeing as we have not played particularly attractive footie this season, Hughes hasn't won anything, and any sort of "Chairman Intervention" or "Double Team management" is going to be met with a dim view by the Welshman it has to be a bit of a longshot. It's hard to see he Hughes can capture Abramovich's imagination.

Well thats sort of my point. He is a very good player who was frozen out by Newcastle. Once he was out of there he was back on track for a while. On that list up there I would say, given the right coaching and support, all of those players are still very good (with the possible exception of Dyer). It just requires stability and a bit of managerial talent to get the best out of them. Bellamy got that with Hughes and then threw it away at Liverpool and West Ham. Bramble is getting that to an extent at Birmingham City. I have no doubt Parker would be back in the England squad but for making a stupid decision to transfer to another highly unstable club in West Ham. I think people and some clubs have an idea of a players either being intrinsically "promising", "good", "bad" or "past it". Life doesn't really work like that - in reality how the club uses and manages the players is as important as the "quality" of the player involved. The enviroment is as important as the players "form" - how settled and focussed they are, how secure they feel in the team, loads of stuff. There is a fantastic trade to be made in rehabilitating these players. Alongside that players are often labled "crocks". But that has as much to do with the manager and the training regeime and motivation levels as much as the players own physical state. Hughes has shown the ability to get in "crocks" and massively improve the number of games they play each season. Incidentally if Parker is on the way out of West Ham (not sure if he is) I would say we should have a look at that. Pretty much precisely the type of player we need. Wages etc. are probably a stumbling block. Players play best (and mangers manage best) when they feel 1) confident, secure 2) Relaxed 3) Focussed 4) Aware of what is expected of them and how to achieve these targets. Blackburn Rovers are an excellent provider of those four things. Spurs, West Ham and Newcastle United are extraordinarily poor at it. This is why I am confident about our future. The most important thing about us is our stability and careful planning.

I wonder if Newcastle will hold onto him. Easy grounds for sacking him without compensation, the fans hate him, he has been poor under allerdyce and average under Keegan this season, awful PR, Keegan didn't buy him. Loads going against him. For his own good it would probably be better for him to get sacked, take a step back and then pull himself together.

Alot - width, the ability to beat a man, good crossing ability, a goal threat from the left. All depending on whether the coaching/physio staff feel they can get him back to his best. It is hard from our positions in front of our computer screens to make that judgement. Incidentally as a side topic - how many careers have been destroyed at St James' park? There are quite a lot of good players who have gone in there decent and come out pretty terrible. This is just a taster list I am sure: Dyer Bramble Parker Smith That French defender guy... Emre Luque Bellamy What is it they do to the players? Beat them with night sticks upon ariival? Chain them in cells? Put morphine in their squash? Such a waste of talent. If I was an up and coming player I would look at that place and think "hmmm... maybe not such a good idea to rock up there and lose all credibility as well as my fitness" Imagine if they had bought Rooney instead of united as they were threatening to do. England would be screwed.... Seems a couple have caught on by electing to go the (only) slightly smaller circus at White Hart Lane.

I doubt that will happen. He still has three or so years on his contract! I am sure he would rather pick up the 70k a week left in the reserves than get paid 20k to turn out for Sheffield Wednesday or QPR. I wouldn't be so quick to write him off, I am not sure why so many people are. Players often have huge downturns in their career to again at least partially rescale the heights - Santa Cruz would be a fine example, as would Frank Lampard or Teddy Sheringham. Sure Duff's game is more about pace, but that's not everything. As I have said before the only way we can get our hands on top class players is if 1) no one knows about them or 2) They are percieved to be "past it". So Duff warrents a look, even if it is only to ultimately discard the option. It comes down to whether Sparky and the team think they can rehabilitate him. If we went around saying we would take nobody who was in bad form or had injury problems in the past we would have very few options in the transfer market and be missing quite a few of our best players right now. Our future as a successful club depends on nurturing a reputation of getting "past it" international performers back to their best.

I would take Duff back. He has had injury problems but we need cover in that left sided area. Plus I think Hughes would be someone who could rehabilitate the Irish winger. If Newcastle were prepared to let him go for 1m and he took a wages cut I would say we should be seriously interested, get him in for a medical at least. He is a class player. It would have to mean no one else would have to be interested to get him that cheap though. We certainly shouldn't spend serious money on him.

It would be a disaster to take him back. He is a reasonable guy I think, nothign wrong in the way he decided to go (thats his choice, its his life), and was a very good right back for us. However why invite problems by bringing someone in who is not that much better than what we have (Emerton) and will have a problematic relationship with the fans and possibly the players? I could easily see it turning in to a complete farce of him being booed by his own fans, being distracted, etc etc. Better to leave it. The only former players I think would be worth taking back are Bellamy (same problems as Niell but so exceptionally talented and precisely the sort of player we need so it would be worth the risk) and Duff (that would just be one giant love in- even if he may not perform as well as he used to).

i would be extraordinarily suprised by that. I think Emerton has done well at right back, especially in terms of overlapping Bentley and giving him the room he needs. I can understand the current arrangement - the Emerton and Vogel combination sheilds back four exceptionally well - but really Emerton should relocate back to the defence once we get a signing in the summer. Reid has little experience at right back. And whilst he is enormously strong he offeres little in terms of positioning sense or crossing ability going forward. It has to be a short term thing....

Yup he came as a winger and was awful. When he moved to the middle he rapidly grew into an excellent player. Hopefully he will return to form. Although we have already got Vogel in and we will sign at least one CM in the summer so he will be up against some stiff opposition. What occurs to me is that if you are going to play a defensive midfielder and a more attacking one then Dunn seems a much better bet going forward although he lack Reid's engine.

I'd agree with that. De Pedro was a funny one too. A great motivator, agressive on the football pitch which was good because we were an attacking side. But he was not full of ideas when plan A didn't work (thats here, Liverpool and Newcastle). He tried a variety of tactics and the only one that worked was the diamond formation he used in 2004. He liked to spend his way out of trouble generally speaking which wouldn't be much use to us now! Overall a good manager but, although Hughes hasn't won any trophies (yet), not on a par with the Welshman in my opinion. But then I guess if we start next year terribly everyone will have a different opinion about Sparky.

Just shows how much talent is wasted in the Premiership. Rovers would take six or seven of those players in a shot. A lot of them are used badly by their clubs and not looked after. I wonder if Bellamy feels that a move back to Rovers would have been a wiser choice.

I would say we could easly get 1m for Mokoena although I think 2m is a stretch. No one in the Prem would be interested in him as anything more than a squad player. The Championship do not have any money. 1m would be good business though. i am excited about Vogel because he allows us to rotate the midfield. Particularly it could allow Dunn to have a crack at left wing and put some pressure on Pedersen. Vogel is a tidy player so pairing him up with Reid could make things quite solid and energetic in the middle of the park, giving Bentley and Dunn good freedom to get forward. One of those buys that could turn out extremely well for us. We should however be looking for a central midfielder in the summer too though.

THeres something vaguely amusing about the thought of a bunch of 50 year olds pileing into each other...

I usually disagree with AESF on most things - and that piece he wrote is more than a little hysterical - but I think he is right about Hughes. First off he shouldn't have been released early - he killed somebody - and secondly he shouldn't play a high profile sport like football after leaving prison. You should pay for your mistakes. I am all for rehabilitation but it just seems a bit perverse that he is now out playing in front of thousands. By all means let him rebuild his life, but not so soon in the public eye.

Ooijer is the sort of player i could see doing well for us for a number of seasons, as long as he is played at centre back alongside another defender with pace. I doubt he will offer much more than cover at right back next season though, so we probabaly need to strengthen there. If Nelsen can recover we are looking at an outstanding array of centre back options: Nelsen, Samba, Ooijer and Zurab. That is pretty impressive. Shame we have the injury problems.

I just wouldn't agree with that. He is a much more consistent defender than bentley or Dunn. He gets his foot in and closes players right down. What will be interesting is that if Pedersen has more licence to get forward Warnock might struggle a bit. He is a very attacking full back so may find the change of approach difficult. One other thing that is worth considering also is that bolton are not a great attacking team post Anelka, and we were at home, so we could afford to throw players forward. It will be interesting to see how Pedersen plays against a decent right winger like Milner, albeit with a rubbish defence behind him.