I think he has got to be dropped. We have quality replcements on the bench who can add a lot to the team. By all means bring him on in the last half hour, but whats the point of having 4 good strikers if you are not going to use them when one is not cuttting the mustard. First priority on Sunday is getting the energy and tempo up. Roberts and, to a lesser extent, Derbyshire offer that.

The crucial factor for me is Hughes. If a manager of Hughes' quality had managed him from youth I am sure the whole Birmingham debacle would never of happend. Perhaps he could even be an england regual or at a CL club? Good man mangers are crucial for certain tyes of player: joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Bentley, Gascoigne etc. If Newcastle get frustrated with Duff then why not bring him back too? I am sure Sparky would get the best out of him, injuries permitting. I wonder when Sparky leaves, or if these players get bought, whether they will be able to have the same high level of performance under lesser managers? I doubt it. Hughes really has picked up RFW gift in this regard.

Hughes is in the best position to make the decision obviously but I would imagine an offer of 12m+ would be tempting if Sparky had identified high quality players that he wanted to bring in that the money could fund. I rate Benni as a player but I just have this feeling he's not really up for it this season. Hope I am wrong but I suspect he might leave in the next four days. We shall see.

repeat post

Look I fully accept he is a player who isn't going to run all day, and one who isn't going to make a lot of challenges, or even get that many shots in a game, but is going to put a highly proportional amounts of chances away. THats his style and it was ruthlessly effective last season. However when your side completely dominates the first half yet to not even have a shot off target does not reflect well on Benni. In a team such as ours where everybody fights for everything and tries to put in the statistical appropriate work on the pitch it does not tally. Derbyshire may scuff shots but also, like McCarthy, picks up good positions has more pace than the South African and fights from the front. I expect Hughes will drop him. He has done it before and i imagine will do it now. Its up to benni to respond to that. If he is left in the side when we have 4 Premiership quality strikers available it implies that sort of underperformance is acceptable. It isn't. If we had credible alternatives to Gamst and Bentley perhaps they would be looking over their shoulders, but we don't and at any rate they did manage half decent performances yesterday, and Bentley has has a couple of good games already this season. McCarthy is a quality player, but we have a very competitive squad up front. He needs to cut the mustard.

Bizzarely McCarthy made an outstanding block in the box after an Everton cross. Not really what you expect from Benni. But apart from that and the back heel he did nothing. He did not even have a shot all game I think. He could be dropped next game. He is essentially an extraordinarily good finisher and a bit part linkup man and thats about it. If he isn't scoring then having Roberts or Derbyshire on the field who will defend from the front could be more use. If we do get a big offer maybe we will sell?

Exactly, in both Bellamy's and Benni's case there were a large number of clubs trying to sign the player. In order to make ourselves more attractive we would have to have accepted demands for a clause. We could try hard bargaining with the player but we were in a situation of West Ham, Birmingham, Spurs etc being able to just come in and take the player off us. A current case in point would be Mido. He just refused to sign for birmingham without having his terms. All the power is centred in a top players hand. We just have to hope that they are not complete @#/?s and demand too much, or 'make' a player from a position where this club is bigger than they are. Its sad really but there is very little that could stop Bentley, pedersen, Samba etc. from also demanding clauses in the future. Players in good form get what they want. I think Sparky has handled it excellently- we look like coming out of this summer intact.

This seems like an almost suicidal act by the G14. while CL money makes up a large amount for the big clubs they really depend upon their domestic leagues and cups to keep them ticking over. The rest of the clubs in the Prem are already hacked off its so uncompetitive. If they try to force the issue on this there will be a mighty backlash.

If everyone was fit I would say we could field 8 or 9 world class players, including two of the biggest talents in Rooney and Gerrard. The great shame is that those eight or nine don't really work together as a team.

Utterly bizarre. Surely Nolan deserves the spot on the bench more than him. Or Barry.

I agree: Decent players in the Prem who have come from MLS: Nelsen, Convey, Reina, McBride, Freidel, Tim Howard, Oneywu (is that his name?). quality player in the Prem who have come from conference: Phillips? A while back... Clearly the MLS is reasonable. But as far as Beckham goes, hmmmm. iam against it as it seems a bit daft to bring him back after throwing him out. THe whole reason he was excluded was so wecould build a team. Mcclaren has miserably failed at that though... We have an abundance of decent right sided players, its probably the one are where we are well equipped. Anyhow, my team: ----------------Owen----Smith Joe Cole---Gerrard---Hargreaves---Bentley ---Shorey-----Ferdinand---Terry---W Brown -----------------------Robinson

Not sure how you work that one out. Reading will have virtually identical income to us (probably slightly more as their tickets cost more and they finished higher, perhaps offset by our cup runs) and a wage bill that must be considerably less than ours. I would say Reading have more fluid cash than ourselves at the moment. The vast majority of our and Readings money will come from the Premiership TV deal which will be virtually identical for both of us.

Jason was not offered the money he wanted at Wigan and had decided to move on. He was also arguably not their first choice striker as they had just bought Heskey, and also have Camara on the books. Doyle is one of the hottest properties in the Premiership and is not going to lose his place at Reading whichever way you look at it.

Well, you suggesting that we sign Doyle is entirely the same as a Reading fan suggesting that they could sign Bentley, McCarthy or MGP. Of course we could sign Reading players if we had something to offer them (CL football, first team football if they are not getting it where they are, more money, playing in front of more fans etc). All we can realistically give Doyle is intertoto cup footie, and I don't think its an outrageous statement to say I severely doubt he will give a toss about that. If Reading got into the intertoto and we didn't can you imagine pedersen bashing down the door of the Mad-jet-ski stadium? When was the last time we signed one of the top players of another Prem club which had not been relegated or come to the end of their career where they were? That would be Robbie Savage who only came because he loves Hughes. We are not in a position to sign other Prem team's key players. If we want quality we have to wait for them to either be upset/thrown out (Roberts/Bellamy) or ignored (Freidel/Tugay/Bentley/Warnock), or we look abroad (Prem offers much more money- mcCarthy) or down the divisions (Reid). The only clubs that can buy out of other Prem teams first XIs are the 4 CL clubs, and (far more worryingly for Rovers) Spurs, Newcastle and increasingly West Ham, Portsmouth, Aston Villa who have wadges of cash to spread around like there is no tomorrow and in Villa, Newcastle and tottenham's case can point to large fanbases and theoretical long term potential. Hughes' will look for more delightfully random purchases. And why not with his bizarre track record?

Um, Reading finished above us in the league, have similar supportand doyle is their star striker. Dream on! Bellamy and kewell are worth a look though.

I would be suprised if Mourinho or whoever hasn't been speaking to McCarthy. But then we are just as guilty of that as anyone else. The Tapping up rule is completely daft.

I think Bentley is a bit wasted in the centre. He is a fantastic crosser and dribbler but not really up to the same standard passing wise. lightweight as well... hope he gets some time out wide to impress.

Well after reading that article, and that comment from Wiggy, it does really look like McCarthy is the sort of person they are looking for. I guess it will be interesting as the whole point for Chelsea buying mcCarthy is that they reckon they will be able to get him 'cheap' (say six or seven million) while clearly if we are forced to sell we will want 10+ mill. Its going to be a battle of wills. Im sure hughes will stress to Benni that if he goes to Chelsea he will be 3rd or 4th choice striker (after Drogba, Shevchenko and maybe Kalou) playing for a team that often elect to play only one up top. Even if he impresses he is unikely to play more than 50-60% of the minutes he did for Rovers this season. Ultimately though he is clearly a bright bloke and knows what his position is but still about as eager to leave as its possible to be. If we could get enough money to sign both Mido and Bellamy then this could turn out okay.

Um, lovely idea that but as he is not our slave we can't deny him his wages. He has signed a contract and any fine has to be shown to be a) proportional to the 'crime' not over the maximum term of four (or eight. But i think its four) weeks. Much as I am peed off about this really he hasn't done that much wrong. He has not said he won't play for us and has merely stated that he would like a move to a CL club. We might be able to fine him a couple of weeks wages but thenall that would do is make him more desirous of a move which in turn reduces our chances of getting a decent fee. If we treat him badly then rather than looking for a CL club he could start considering any transfer (spure, west Ham etc). Lets be fair here, he has come along and done a good job for us. If he moves on thats fine, all part of a footballers career. Whats a bitch is the way he is broadcasting it. There is no value in the club fighting McCarthy, what we need to do is work with him so we get the best outcome. Him rotting away in the reserves while his value rapidly diminishes does nothing for us whatsoever. We do not have money to burn.

As good as gone. Ho hum. I just hope we don't get forced into a position of letting him go for less than he is worth. 10 millionish would be reasonable in light of the new transfer money and his outstanding record. I wonder who Hughes will pull out of the bag this summer?

I have to agree with that, there is absolutely no value in booing him. All its going to do is make him want to leave more which in turn is going to make it more difficult for sparky to either get a decent transfer fee or persuade Benni to stay. I think substantial booing woul be a very substaintial blow to Hughes' position. If we want voice our displeasure then we can do that after he, if he, leaves.

I thought that...

Pretty extensive quotes in the sun about him wanting to play CL football, i don't think its been made up. Hey ho, if he does really want to go and a CL club does want him then there is little we can do apart from make sure we get a good fee. 10m isn't out of the question. Keeping him would be better though, but we cannot do that against his will as the Ferguson fiasco showed.

I have been critical of Benni's workrate in the past but i today I have just given up. He is in unstoppable scoring form, unbelievable. Also i though he really put the yards in at Spurs too. If bentley had taken the sensible option of crossing instead of chipping he could have got a second as well. The man is a genius finisher and has some of the best off the ball movement I have ever seen on a football pitch. Space seems to find him as much as he finds it. We have to keep him.

Awesome, simply awesome. Looks like we might be able to get through the summer holding on to all our players