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

I have to say I am a bit suprised. Does this mean that we definately do have the money for a big summer striker signing? Or does it mean that we are just going to stick with what we have? He has done okay for us, and I am not opposed to him staying, but just a little worried we might miss the boat on someone like Bellamy.

I love Benni's positivity, its great to hear someone willing to come out and lift the spirits. I would take it with a pinch of salt though, he has clearly stated that he would like to play for one of the big four if they are interested, and there's no reason why he shouldn't either being an ambitious individual. What we have to hope for is that no one comes in with a serious offer for him and that he recognises that if he did go he would become a bench player.

I can see somebody putting bids for him. He is third top scorer in the Prem for God's sake. The thing that worries me too is that he has a career on the continent so, unlike Pedersen and Bentley, will attract serious attention from clubs overseas. The one thing in our favor is that at 29 he is too old to really justify massive bids, so he will probably stay. Unless he has a clause I'm certain Hughes will not be tempted for less than 8-10 million and I don't think anyone will go that high.

He has been okay, deserves a new contract. Next season is going to be tough for Gallagher and Peter. We have significant numbers in midfield so opportunities are going to be at a premium. Even if Pedersen leaves I would expect we would look to replace him. Plus Warnock, Dunn, Bentley can all play on the left if needs be.

Whats even more bizarre is tha tI meet Rangers fans up here who seem entire non plussed and unbothered about TUgay leaving. I tell them that Tugay is the greatest foreign player ever to have graced Rovers (and one of the greatest in the Prem's history), and nothing short of a bona fide genius. Infinately better than Ferguson. If he had arrived at Rovers five years earlier I have little doubt we would have been fielding offers of many millions for him. Yet they just shrug their shoulders. If they held onto him maybe they would have had more luck in the SPL and in europe. But their loss was certainly our gain!

Looks like he is staying. Wahey!!! He is getting older but still can think of few better to bring on to dictate a game. We will have a large amount of midfield options next season if everyone stays fit and we don't sell, but Tugay will still make a major contribution. Mark my words! ANybody thought about making him honorary president of BRISA?

While i always thought Dunn would represent good value for money at around a million (pennies for a decent premiership player, especially an English one) i was very ambivalent about how much of an overall imact he would make, especially in CM where he always seemed a bit of a liability in his first stint here. 5 games left to go and I have to say he is doing us proud. No Joe Cole, or even really in the same league as reid last season (or the some of his own games before he went to Brum), but you have to say that he is doing very well in the context of his fee and looks like he is improving all the time. And, without wishing to tempt fate, I am sure everybody would be suprised he has made 13 games without injury, and for a traditionally unfit player his work rate has been sensational. Could form the heart of the side next season. If I was Savage (Reid will be all right imo) I would be begining to wonder whether a place is certain upon returning from injury. Certainly when you consider the strides Mokoena has made too. I never thought we would be in a position where Savage could lose his place... Congrats to Aaron and David who were never really bought as anything else but cover!

Just to temper that a bit, while Tris went much too far in his post Dunn had under performed since the Bolton game and deserved some milder criticism. He was excellent yesterday though, and what really impressed me is that Dunn has always been about skill but in his second term at Rovers he has tansformed into this all action midfielder. Once he gets his touch and range of passing back to his former standard he is going to be an outstanding player for us. As an aside, and assuming we hold on to them all, who would you play in the midfield next year? We have: Dunn, Reid, Mokoena, Bentley, Pedersen, Tugay, Savage, Peter and Gallagher. All of those are Premiership quality save maybe Peter and Gally who the jury are out on. At present I would go for: MGP---Dunn---Reid---Bentley But you can make excellent cases for the inclusion of both Savage and Mokoena, and it will be nice to roll out Tugay in the second half if we need a bit of creativity. Real competition there.

Nelsen was world class last season, Todd couldn't touch him. I am a bit confused as to what happend to our captian, not only has he lost a bit of pace (to be expected from a hamsting injury) but also seems a little lost out there sometimes and out of positon. Its nice to have Todd back. THat man is a survivor. Hughes has signed Henchoz, Samba, Nesen, Mokoena and Zurab since taking over as manager, clearly with the intention of replacing the hardman but somehow he has stuck in there!

Exactly right. A consistent injury free Dunn player would be at least 7m, probably a lot more.

I did actually address that at the end of the post. We desperately needed a midfielder in the January window so we bought him. Without a midfielder we would seriously be in the poo as we only have two proper CMs in Tugay and Mokoena. There is also the fact that if we hadn't have signed him then he definately would have gone to Bolton. Everybody will go "oh, but if hes a true rover he would have waited for them to come in at the end of the season" but in all fairness I believe that Dunnie would have been entirely entitled to sign for Bolton as, quite rightly, he would be apprahensive of finding himself in a position of being without a club. He needs to protect himself: Hughes could leave, or the board could have a change of heart or a better player become available and Dunn would be left high and dry. A million pounds is not a huge outlay in the greater scheme of things.

While Dunn hasn't been great he hasn't been terrible either. Before getting too righteous I would like to point out a couple of things: 1. Roberts cost twice as much and has hardly played. 2. When we first signed Reid, for more money, he was atrocious. Then he came good. One of our best players now. 3. Bentley was supremely average until the start of this season. All in all Dunnie for the (in football terms) paltry sum of a million quid has been okay. No worse than many of our signings in recent years. To illustrate: Players we have signed for that sort of money or less who have instantly performed: Nelsen, Samba, Tugay, Warnock, Freidel, Zurab Players, including on more money, who have not: Reid, Mokoena, Bentley, Pedersen, Roberts, Emerton, Nonda, Ooijer. Obviously you can go back to Grabbi etc. too It is the exception rather than the rule that a player comes in and instantly fits right in at bargan prices. As for the point about we could have left signing him to the end of the season on a free there is a major issue. With the injuries we have we desperately needed a central midfielder, in several games we have had one of our only two other fit CMs (Mokoena and Tugay) injured or suspended. As average as Dunn has been we would have been screwed without him. Of course we could have signed someone else but in the January window I did not see any other CM move of more quality for a similar amount of money.

To be fair MGP got similar sort of stick a few months back and he is lily white. And the English argument doesn't really wash either. Dunn and Andy Cole have got huge amounts of stick in the past for being lazy. Another comparison to make is that the fans and this MB love Samba who is also an African. I suppose a few might not want to praise him due to his skin colour but mainly its the plain fact that he is not putting too much effort in at the moment. People raised ther expectaitons very high when he was on fire before Christmas. We are now suffering somewhat of a comedown.

I dont know, I think people would have warmed to himif he just managed to match Svens record at the start and made us look like we were developing as a team. All in all he probably would have had a more sypathetic public than Sven did. The fact is Sven, especially at the start, managed to get decent results against good sides and beat poor sides. McClaren is just getting attacked for getting porr results with a side with a lot of quality players albeit with weaknesses in certain areas.

Personally Lennon is much the more dangerous player for me. Bentley could be outstanding in time but Lennon offers a lot more right now imo. I think Bentley exclusion from the England squad this time round was quite understandable. Next time however he should get in if he continues in the same vein.

I wouldn't agree with that. While not nearly as skillful as Bentley and less proficient at crossing Reid has attributes that Bentley lacks- pace and power. Honestly in many of the grittier games we were playing this season (West Ham, Watford anyone) we really missed Reid. His scoring record is comparable to Bentley's also. While I think Bentley is a better player than Reid, but not by that long a chalk at the moment, my point was if Reid comes back and we go out and buy and absolutely first rate striker to partner Benni with the cash might we have a better overall team? Idle speculation, but this summer is going to be full of it!

I would say in the context of the Carrick and SWP fees in recent years that we are probably going to get a bid for around 12m this summer from one of the big four for Bentley. In that light would anyone accept it? My personal opinion would be with Sparky's outstanding transfer record is that we probably would come out of it better than we are now (look at the Neill-Warnock situation), especially if we managed to get in a top class partner for McCarthy. In Reid we have a very good right winger coming back from injury. Dunn can also perform out there. Providing both of them progress I am not actually sure that we would be that much worse equipped on the right. We might well be losing an excellent Tugay replacement though in the longer term. But can we realistically hope to keep him in the longer term? Nonetheless outstanding performance from him today. Great to see a Rover succeed, and obviously I would be delighted if he stayed.

Bellamy has recently been Liverpool's best striker. THey would be insane to let him go. The only way we would get him is if he has another barny! I do have a lot of faith in Sparky to turn up another gem though over the summer. His transfer record has to be one of the best since the Premiership began. We've got McCarthy (2.5m), Savage (3.3m), Roberts (3m) and Ooijer (2m), Nelsen (Free), Warnock (1.5m), Samba (400k), Zurab (500k), Bentley (1m), Henchoz (free), Dunn (1m), Mokoena (500k), Nonda (free), bought and sold Kuqi (-2.5) and Bellamy (-2.5), Sold Neill (-2m), sold Ferguson (-3.5m) all for a grand total of 5.2m net! That any way you look at it is an outstanding couple of years of business. Perhaps we paid over the odds for Savage, Ooijer and Roberts but nothing really that bad compared to other teams in the Prem. The board should back Hughes with big money in the summer with the new TV deal too. Looking forward to see how he spends that cash. And really (if we manage to hold onto everyone and presuming Reid, Sav and Ooijer make full recoveries) it is hard to see where we need to strengthen save a striker. We have good players in every position, a bench that will hold a lot of quality, and promising talents like Brown, Peter, Derbyshire and Gallagher.