We are in an odd situation as all the fit regular starters don't seem to be captain material: MGP, McCarthy, Bentley, Emerton, Warnock, Henchoz. Personally it has to be Tugay or Freidel. The only players who will carry authority.

To be fair to him you have to say that he would more than likely have been paid better at Chelsea. WHat made him stay more than anything else imo was the CL win.

Correct. 2003 was Tugay and Flitcroft, Dunn was a substitute most of the time, or rightwing.

While I still say that Neill has every right to plya for whoever he likes, that there is a load of, as Colin would say, tummy rubbish. Whichever way you look at it, despite WH being a seemingly decent side with backing and so on, there is no way you can cast the move as a jump forward. At best it is a step down in football terms at present. In the longer time only time will tell.

--> QUOTE(Ste B @ Jan 21 2007, 17:43 ) 481886[/snapback] Against Bolton. I can see Big Fat Sam being spiteful enough to get a young player to knobble him, so potentially not a good move. I can't agree with that at all. I have never seen anything to suggest BFS is sort of manager to do that, which is a pretty nasty accusation. Nor are any of the managers I think of in the Premiership. Well, except maybe for Warnock...

Cmpletely agree with that. I think Niell has every right to move on if he likes to where he likes, but the relegation release clause just shows a lack of commitment and a lack of belief in the club. If it's accurate it is absolutely astonishing that West Ham have written it in. Surely the kind of players they are looking for are ones who are absolutely behind the cause. It just occured to me that the reason WH might have offered such massive wages is in the expectation that Rovers would take a reduced fee once they are resigned to losing him. We could effectively be engaged in a game of chicken until the window closes wating to see who crumbles first. This would be bad for us, but makes a lot of sense from a West Ham perspective. If thats the position then it is going to be very hard to get the money in for Warnock or whoever else.

Incidentally something that hasn't been mentioned: Surely Dunn's arrival means the end of Gallagher's career at Rovers? Gally plays right wing and striker. We now have have Dunn, Reid, Bentley, Emerton and Pedersen who can feature out wide. The striker list is even longer. I would suggest that McCarthy, Nonda, Roberts, Derbyshire, Dunn and Jeffers would all be favored over Gallagher up top. Maybe even Bentley. I know he scored the last game he played, but does he really have any chance of climbing back into the sixteen? And if we are as brassic as we seem mabe we will shift him out the door?

The only logic I can see in playing Niell is to show West Ham that we are willing to keep him if they don't provide the cash. Sensible move if we really are in the position where we simply cannot afford a replacement without adequate funds. If he got injured we would be in trougble though.

Thats actually very funny! However, it does only go to show that the support at Bolton is hurt by his decision. He is a quality player and the guy who wrote that article must have appreciated that. Can't wait to see him make a cameo on saturday, but I have to say I will wathc every challenge he goes into with trepidation.

I just don't understand that attitude. What in God's name does he owe us? He signed a contract, he honored that contract, we have made a bit of money. It's a free country, he has not done anything wrong. I was annoyed with Bellamy because he actually lied to the support, but Lucas has been the model of professionalism. He is not Rover's property, just in the same way your employer does not own you.

Virtually never as far as I can remember. Dunn played for them mostly on the wings or as second striker.

Fantastic news. We might now be able to get Nesmanchyi in with a bit of cash to spare. If we do that then in all honesty I would say the only player we would need is another tough tackling midfielder. Sidewell? There has been talk of strikers but I would say we are well set at the moment - McCarthy, Nonda, Derbyshire and Roberts all have something to offer - and especially if you consider Dunn can be very effective up front. Him and Benni would actually make quite an interesting partnership, defenders would find it difficult to work out how to handle them as they drop off so much.

It's Dunn for Christsake Drog! No e! To be honest I'm with you in that I think Dunn is far more likely to play on the wings and as a second striker than as a central midifielder. Of course he will get a chance there from time to time but you have to say that it is unlikely that if other more defensively stable midfielders are available he will play there. If he wants to make central midfield his own he is going to need to not just be fit but ultra fit, as savage and Reid are. Tugay has the luxery of beinga bona fide genius to allow him to play without real pace and power.

Not neccessarily true, he couldbe going for a change of scenary and a new challenge. Money will play a part too of course. It's his life, all the best to him. I wonder if a certain Ukrainian international could be at Ewood by the weekend?

To be fair to Dunny that is asking for him to play with his career. He will want to get things sorted. The longer he waits the more chance there is that he could get injured or interest wane in him and he has to stay on in uncertain circumstances at birmingham. I can easily understand the attraction in taking the Bolton offer, in his situation I would seriously consider it. They are looking like outside bets for the CL this season. The concern of being left adrift at Brum will weigh heavily on his mind. That said it really does seem like Bruce is forcing him toward Bolton. THe reason for this can only be either a) to get one over Hughes, Provoke Rovers into exceeding the Bolton bid.

Did we get a sell on for Duff? I don't remember mention of it. And I think Stead went for 1.25m rather than 3m.

I guess it depends if Rovers have got anyone else lined up. If not then we have to sign Dunn, simple as that.

Seconded, while Derbs wsn't fantastic and missed some sitters he certainly wan't poor. The qualit of his performance matched that of McCarthy who, while being much better on the ball, did not find it as often as the blackburn lad. No complaints from me if Nonda starts the next game but I will be amazed if Derbyshire doesn't make quite a few more appearences as the season progresses.

45k a week? That can't be right, or he is seriously deluded. I cannot see any club paying him that. Even if Liverpool do come in I would guess themost he could hope for is 30k, and really its much more likely to be near the 20k mark.

To be fair from his position he knows he might have another injury before the summer or that Hughes could leave or whatever and he would be high and dry. It's his decision, remember we got rid of him once, if he doesn't want to come here I don't mind. Such is life. From a completely objective point of view he would be a decent signing for the nature of the fee that Bolton are offering to pay and would be quality cover fro the whole midfield. But if we don't get him thats fine, hardly any sort of disaster

He might have signed for them as a result of us turning him down on the medical. Or the wages could be significantly higher than the pay as you play deal we might have offered. It's hard to say. Also while the fee has been agreed it has not mentioned personal terms so Dunny might delay to see if Rovers match the bid. It will be interesting. You sir have an excellent memory. Probably wouldn't change back despite my current name being ridiculous, Dunn was England quality player when he left, now I am not so sure.

Thats how this messageboard, and many others, goes. Its daft. Loads of people (although not all by any stretch of the imagination) getting their jollies by casually abusing people who they know nothing about. It's like a playground sometimes. To answer TND- I'm not sure those figures really do occur to the average fan of Rovers.Obviously I realised the club took far far less than the big four, but the size of the difference is quite staggering. I'm not sure have neccessarily proved your pointthough as in actuality a few hundred thousand pounds lost through lower ticket prices is not actually going to make us less competitive in the transfer market due to the enormous size of the TV deal. To answer EIT- while these are guesses, they are not unreasonable ones and while I don't doubt they are some large inaccuracies it does illustrate a huge divergent trend in terms of available revenue. I'm quite willing to read your own figures, and will look into it myself.

Wow. That puts it in perspective.

Intresting question here: How much proportionally is gate revenue of total takings now? And how much will it be after the new TV deal? It has to shrink consderably, paving the way for clubs to drop ticket prices. It would mean us dropping further behind the big clubs in terms of available revenue, but the magnitude of the lost financial ground has to propotionally reduce considerably. Hughes himself has said he expects prices to go down next season on a general Premiership level.

I wouldn't want that to happen really, big club are paying him and he should play for them if they want him too. Be professional and all that. As much as I rate Savage he did treat Brum poorly in that regard. Wanting Dunn to do that is sort of justfying what Ferguson did to us.