Quite pathetic to have a go at a foreigner for not speaking perfect English. Although if that's one of your main gripes with him then he must really be doing something right. I would assume, since you seem to enjoy making fun of his English, that your grasp of your second language, whatever that may be, is better than his? Likewise with your third language.

I think he will. We need to shape up defensively and Ooijer is better at defending than Brett is. I thought Bert did a good job in central midfield as well, so until we sign another midfielder he could perhaps be used there when needed?

To get back to the topic of where former Rovers players are; Former loan player Martin Andresen has been appointed manager of Norwegian club Vålerenga.

"quoted for truth"

Just wondering what you're arguing for or against really? My point was simply to say that it's stupid to, based on solely the fact that a woman has pressed rape charges against a footballer, automatically come to the conclusion that it's "definitely" a gold digger. Convictions for actual rapes are shockingly low as they are and , contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, making up a rape allegation isn't very common. Which is exactly why it gets to much publicity the few times it does happen. Rape trials are usually very tough on the victims, especially in countries with rather antiquated views of women (i.e most countries), so not really something you want to put yourself through. If it's money you're after there are far better ways than accusing someone of a crime he's unlikely to get convicted of even if he's guilty, and where you run the risk of going to prison yourself if it fails. Equally, one shouldn't automatically assume he's guilty either just because footballers are often percieved as thick, priviledged and not used to the word "no". Don't really think we disagree on that do we? If not I'd rather be doing something more productive right now

Was found guilty in the civil trial though. My point would be valid without any examples either (Hughes and Vick were guilty tho); I find it ridiculous how a lot of people automatically assume that anyone who accuses a famous person of a crime is just a gold-digger. Without hearing any details whatsoever. It's hard enough (Especially on the victim) to get a conviction when there's an actual rape, so it's not usually an accusation made lightly. To which someone will no doubt bring up the recent(ish) story of a case with false accusations, and from that draw the conclusion that they are indeed right to make the assumption that she's obviously lying. To which I can't really do much but laugh. Anyhow, not saying he is guilty, or that she's lying, just that it's stupid to draw conclusions based on little to no information.

Yes, "no doubt" Let's skip the whole thing with the judges and just decide cases based on our instinct when first reading about it! Anyone accusing a sports star of a crime is just a gold-digger (Because they can't possibly be guilty, can they? Lee Hughes, Michael Vick, O.J Simpson say hi), unless of course the accused is a Burnley player, in which case he's probably guilty.

I quite like Ooijer, but he's 33 and not first choice. Meaning that both the club and Andre himself may well benefit from a transfer in January. That being said though, I believe he's very useful to us as backup for both Samba/Nelsen and Emerton, and did a good job at both RB and CB this season when asked to step in, so we should only sell if we have someone of similar quality or better lined up, or if Hughes believes one of the youngsters can step up. And I quite doubt that really. Not many players of Ooijers quality around for £1m.

The Turkish Maestro turns 37 today. Hoping to see him celebrate his birthday by scoring a screamer from 35 yards tomorrow! Happy birthday, son of Kerim!

Acks?

I'm with Eddie on this. You can find similar comments from pretty much any European Cup or International game. Scottish journalists asks what the South Africans think about Scotland, when a Belgian and a Czech team meet they'll do the same. There's not much to it. Nothing wrong with the comments either is there? Maybe Moko will stay here for the rest of his career, but most likely he won't. Whether it's due to him wanting to leave or Rovers not needing him anymore. Either way he'll want to move on then, and not burn his bridges. Thus he says some positive things about two CL clubs. I won't lose any sleep over it.

It's not a strange thing to say at all. You again assume that JW just said "Ok, so we've agreed a fee, wages and everything. But now instead of signing this I'm gonna add this release clause in the contract. [adds the clause] Now we can finish the deal". Which doesn't seem very plausible to me, as I'm sure JW and MH would do everything to keep such a clause out of the contract. The clause is only there because without it there wouldn't have been a contract in the first place. There might be some players who'd drop a clause if they got a crapload more in wages, but most wouldn't, as it's not there because of greed; it's there because of ambition and flexibility (for the player).

Indeed, I remember hearing that Benni and Pienaar were close friends back when we were interested in signing him? If he had been at Stamford Bridge I would've been worried, but he has nothing to gain by going to Everton. Not even financially as IIRC they're sensible about their finances.

Good luck Andy. I like what he says in the LT piece there, and I think he means it too as he really would have no other reason to say it if he didn't.

Yes but the article says that he makes $8m NZ per year, which would be ~$154,000 NZD / week. Which, in turn, is ~£60k.

Actually, that article puts his salary at £60,000 / week! $1 NZ = £0.4, which would make the $8m NZ / year, which is ~£3.12m /year , or £60k / week. I think it's just an error in the article though, and not what he actually makes, as I can't see a club like Rovers paying him that kind of money.

I believe this, or something similar to it, is the reason as well. It also signals that both Nelsen and Rovers intends for Nelsen to finish his career here. I see nothing wrong with the contract length. Assuming he doesn't suffer from bad luck with regards to injuries he can be a top player still at 34. Henrik Larsson broke his leg twice and he decided a CL final for Barcelona, played in the WC for Sweden and then played for Man United, all aged 34-35. And he's a striker. Nelsen's age doesn't worry me at all. His tackling, positioning and ability to read the game means he can still do a good job even if (And he may not) he loses some of his speed at that age. I'd even argue that he's a real positive influence on the club, or at least the younger defenders, even when not playing. In some sports, such as athletics and cycling, athletes are still in their prime in their early 30s. Merlene Ottey won medals aged 40, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France (Even if you're on EPO or whatever it might be, a 3-week cycling tour is quite possibly the most grueling event in sports. Excluding extreme sports like Sahara marathon etc). Now the reason I mention this is that despite the differences between the sports, there's nothing stopping a footballer who takes care of his body to play on for a long time. Maldini, Zola, Sheringham and Tugay are a few modern examples of that.

Well £2m for a young keeper who's first choice for a rather good national team (Sweden) is a pretty decent deal. And he was quite good once he became the city #1. But yeah, wouldn't have him as a top 10 signing, just pointing out that it's not as if it was a poor signing by any means.

Yeah, that was my initial reaction too before my paranoia set in. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, a lot depends on what questions he was asked and how the interviewer acted. A good (Or rather manipulative, but that's seen as "good" I suppose) interviewer can get pretty much the answers they want, and then spin them further when selecting what to quote. And they can do this without printing any false information. I mean does anyone expect any professional footballer to answer "no" when asked if they want to play in the CL, or if they miss the CL? Likewise, who wouldn't want to move to a club like Chelsea, working under a manager they have a good relationship, play in the CL and get a pay raise? The questions could've been "Do you miss the CL?", "If the club accepted a bid from Chelsea, how would you feel about that?" and similar. In those cases, his answers don't feel all that strange. Maybe he's simply not very media-savvy, and doesn't always realise that the things he say can be interpreted in ways other than he intended them to be? Then there's also another possibility, that even if he would want to leave he'd still be professional enough to just get on with it and give 100% even if he was denied a move. Like (And some would disagree with this, but it's my firm belief anyway) Lucas did. And booing him in that situation wouldn't help at all then.

I'd really like to see what questions he was asked. If he went off like this on a rather broad question like "What about the future?" then I'd be really worried. If he instead was asked things like "Do you miss the CL?" or "If given the chance, what would you say about working with José again?" then I'd be slightly less worried. Of course even then he could've insisted more on staying, but in the light of that it seems less like he *wants* to move and more like he isn't actively looking, but wouldn't turn it down if he got the opportunity. EDIT: After reading it again, let me rephrase that. I don't think he'll try to engineer a move, and so long as a CL club doesn't make a bid I think we'll be fine. But if Chelsea make a bid, he'd be gone straight away. Even if we firmly reject the first bid(s). Can't blame him if that's the case, just a bit annoyed that he sounded rather differently last week only.

Well it depends on the player really doesn't it? If a player is equally proficient in both positions, then why not. No England player springs to mind, but Ljungberg has played on the left for Sweden for the past 9 years while at the same time playing on the right for Arsenal, and done well for both teams.

That depends on whether the rule states Noon the day before, or 24 hours before kickoff. I believe it's noon, but I'm not 100% sure.

Found on YouTube, from the warmup before the Newcastle game.

Well at least it was spectacular, unlike his Rovers career.

It's quite late I know, but Javi De Pedros spell at IFK Göteborg wasn't the most successful Just a few minutes after coming on as a substitute for the reserves, he punched an opponent and got sent off. And that was the end of his IFK career.