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.

Seconded. We just have to play the waiting game. 1 million ia juat about justifiable, if he does pass the medical, 2 mlllion is ridiculous. Brum don't need him but do need some cash so will eventually break. Even Sullivan isn't daft enough to throw away money for the sake of a 2 year old dispute over Savage. Only thing that could screw us over is if another club in the NW decides to take a gamble.

Has anyones career fallen so utterly from grace as De Pedro- he used to be a Spanish international and world cup player for god's sake! He now plays in the Spanish second division...

Any news on this? After the quote from Brum I sort of assumed the move was almost a formality yet things have gone quiet. No real rush as the team is playing well and have nearly a full weeks rest before the FA cup game, yet I expected that it would be in everybody's (including Brum's) interest to get him signed up as quick as possible.

Whoops, of course I meant the first of january. And Haestad will be eligable to play for Wigan too I think.

Dunn is match fit now and could theoretically feature on the second of january against Wigan if he is signed.

To be fair he is a good passer and finisher (I suppose might come under vision) too which are not attributes you have listed there. But apart from that your about right I suppose. If a championship team do get him then they will have a fine asset in their league, his time at Stoke showed that he could not only cut it there but also be one of the better players. Hey ho. Also his championship pedigree does suggest we could look for upwards of a million for him and I would be suprised if they aren't at least three or four clubs interested in taking him off us.

David Dunn's old girldfriend and, i think, they were engaged for a while. Interesting to see that the rumour that Dunn has been fit but Brum are not playing him is true! I have to eat some humble pie. Apologies to whomever I lambasted for such a situation being ridiculous! It looks already sorted tbh, but the 2 million fee being bandied about has to be way out. I simply can't see how it could be more than a million.

Just trying to avoid turning a thread about the Ewood gate into a long ardous attritition of political argument which 90% of the board will find deathly dull. You could start a thread in ICBINF.

I'm not a cynic myself either, far from it, I always believe it is neccessary to approach all the situations and problems in your life in a positive manner. But on the messageboard it is hard to seperate fact from fiction as there is little accountability so I try to shy away from making decisions (as utterly inconcequential as they are beyond my own opinion) upon that basis. Anyhow I think your one of the best posters on the board here anyway. A bit of measure and sanity in the malestrom of self righteousness and provacativity that seems to be the order of the day from time to time.

Come on the guy has only had 2 posts, he could be Sammy Winward's dad! The best arbitrator of lifestyle decsions at the moment is Hughes and his scouts. I'm all for accepting arguments about his performance on the pitch and his massive injury problems but I don't think the fact a poster has said, without proof, Dunn has been pissing it up in blackburn 3 nights in a week is really evidence suitable for appraisal.

Very true. Liverpool are not going to hold anything against him at all if he plays well. From both their perspectives it will bode much better if he puts in an outstanding performance. Respect from his future teamates, assurance to the manager he has got quality, professionalism and fight. If he goes out and plays badly it will only leave Benitez and the Anfield locker room asking questions.

That quote is hard to contextualise. couldn't he mean there are not many available players rather than available money?

We need cover now, the fee will be small and waiting would increase the chances of him being snaffled by other clubs. I'm not sure I buy the idea that just because he's from Blackburn he will neccesarily turn down more lucrative offers from our competitors in the Prem. If he was available on a free loads of people would be having a look, it would be very messy IMO. All that said if the fee demanded rises beyond a million then we should walk away for now. ps. Really good point about heskey. Brum got 6 million for him and managed to make us part with 3.3 million for Savage, Pennant went for seven million. They drive a hard bargain. But in this case I'm reasonably sure that 1 million is pretty much the absolute maximum they can hope for in light of injuries and his contract status.

Tris I think you are living in dreamland a little bit. Clearly we need creative midfield players now, we have struggled to carve out chances as the season has progressed, and when one of our starting four has been injured or suspended the replacements seem inadequate. Man City have enquired about Dunn. I am certian if the terms that you suggest were on the table (free transfer and a grand a week wage) then every single club outsie the top four would have a look. That would represent almost zero risk for a potentially excellent player, you would have to be insane not to give it a shot. But Dunn realises this and commesurately will ask for more money. That is how market value is set, supply and demand. he knows, or his agent will, that clubs will be happy to give him ten grand a week (this is my guess but i feel an accurate one), the average wage of a footballer in the premiership. This will represent a third of what he is on at birmingham, so if you want him to suffer then he will as much as the mega rich can. You do have a point about waiting till the summer so we don't have to pay a fee but i would say 1) we need him now, we need a little quality on the bench at the moment, we have no one ot bring on to scare the opposition, dunn is a different sort of player to what we have. 2) he can provide cover for both midfield and up front. This season has shown how thin our squad is. 3) City are sniffing around, I'm sure others will be interested, we could lose the opportunity if we wait. i suppose it all comes down to our assessment of Dunn's potential, and i think relative to the modern transfer market 500k-1m is good value (despite in a 'real sense' it being an obscene amount of money) to acquire it.

You cannot exploit him because he is a fan. While he has a passion for blackburn rovers he is not going to work for a club for nothing, just as you would not work for nothing. It is entirely reasonable for him to expect a wage at his market level (as said massively reduced at present), if we don't offer it to him someone else will and he is entitled to take it. while a crock and so forth he is clearly a very talented player so there a number of clubs who will be interested at a low price which is the case at the moment.

We would not get him for nothing and earnng nothing except when he plays. He would go to a different club. Clearly we have to pay a fee and pay him a wage, that is the way the world works. Both are massively reduced and, IMO, represent good value. he is a high quality creative player, name another player of his standard we could hope to sign for around a millionquid, perhaps less? It's a gamble lke bellamy.

Just on a statistical level McCarthy is clearly doing a great job for us. He is matching bellamy's strike rater and seems to have the massive added advantage of not getting injured regularly. If we can find a partner for McCarthy with a bit of pace to scare opposition defences into sitting deep then he will imprvoe also. It's a real shame we don't still have Bellamy AND McCarthy, thye would be a dynamite combination.

Sadly wrong that really. If things were only that simple.

Very very long! I honestly think once Reid, Emerton and Nelsen are fit, Roberts is available, we have Dunn (if he comes)as an option on the bench and a left back, and perhaps another striker once Nonda is packed off (has to almost be a certainty now?) we will not only be a decent side but a really good one. In the meantime we are treading water though. We shouldn't be dispirited if lose at the Emirates providing we put the effort in.

Man Utd have the virtue of posessing some of the worlds best players so can afford to blood youngsters far more than we can as the quality can cover for mistakes. That is a crucial problem for us. When we were in the Championship we had a similar advantage with Dunn and Duff tbh. Now it is incredibly hard for us to put someone in as if we go a goal down it is difficult for us to turn the game around, today was the exception rather than the rule. As someone who really wants the youngsters to succeed it is hard for me to say, but really McEverley, Gallagher and even Peter have had quite a decent amount of time on the pitch now and don't look like they are going to meet the standard of the players we already have. I was suprised Derbyshire didn't make an appearence today, he would of been a better shot than Nonda, but we are kidding ourselves if he would even get a sniff if Jeffers or Roberts were fit.

I'm a little suprised, I take it the Axe is unfit or he would certianly start in a 451. Bizzare lineup. i can't quite believe McEverley is playing. Maybe: -------------McCarthy ---Gray--------------------Bentley ---------Pedersen Tugay ----------------Savage ----McEverly Todd Ooijer Neill ------------------Freidal This is a bit of a slap in the face for Peter if it is 451

I would take issue with this on the basis that I have loosely follwed him since his time at Brum and in a reasonable amount of the games he has actually played for them he has been described as their best player (including four or five last season in the prem), and that in a number of positions including up front. I certainly wouldn't say that there is a problem with him producing the quality on the pitch, rather its getting him out there in the first place. I think really you have to come down to the analysis that we are not going to get a player of his standard for the fee that is being bandied about. Injuries are a massive problem, but really I cannot see how it is going to make us weaker as a team than we are now. Worth the gamble for 500k-1m, even if he manages only ten to twelve games throughout the rest of the season.

I'm not sure that's true because France, for example, have an excellent coaching setup for the last 20 years and consistently produce a higher average standard of player than we do. It does have an influence. What I would say is a massive issue is that the physical demands of the premeirship, much much larger than continental football, make it hard for young players to be allowed to develop in the way they are over the channel. Pl;ayers like Peter, Gallagher, Pedersen, Derbyshire would all be afforded a little more room and subjected to less bullying than they get on these shores.