Lovely article. I'd stopped buying The Independent as frequently as I did, but that restores my faith in it somewhat. The word 'indie' now really just means guitar-pop. So many bands obviously saw the commercial success of Busted and McFly and decided they wanted some of that, so now we have hundreds of the little @#/?s. I swear, if I hear that bloody "she's so lovely" line (think it's Scouting for Girls?) one more time I will burn the face off of the next skinny-jeaned git I find with their own hair straighteners. The world would have been a much better place if someone had Hiroshima'd this monstrosity of a 'festival' last weekend. Pretty much everyone and everything wrong with music together on the same day, in the same place, at the same time. Opportunity missed.

I think I'll just give up for today. Although...I thought Lucas had announced his intentions to leave on a Bosman, but I've probably got that wrong. I just think Bentley is getting undeserved amounts of abuse. He's only ever said excellent things about us, but he's stated he needs to move on to a club playing European football...which, in my opinion, is fair enough. On the other hand, I can't recall Neill saying anything positive about us...in fact, I do remember plenty of distasteful comments about Rovers that he made whilst on international duty with Australia (something about it being nice to play with a higher quality of player). This was actually whilst he was with us too, not after he'd left.

Lucas went purely for the money. Do really think Bentley would pick West Ham over Liverpool if he had the choice? Would he balls, you can tell he genuinely wants to take his talent to this highest level possible. You also completely ignore in your twisted scenarios how Neill's actions resulted in us getting a severely reduced fee because he decided to let his contract run down. Bentley has 3 years left on his so it puts us in a much stronger position to get the biggest fee possible, if he wanted to screw us over he could have refused to sign the last contract that was presented to him. Neill went for money, Bentley wants to move for success...yet you're making Neill sound like a saint. Nice manipulation of the facts...

I had no idea Nickelback were still going, I thought they were a one-hit-wonder with that one from years ago. Aren't they a Christian rock band? How on earth have they become cool?

What?! Maybe the sarcasm passed you. When I said he 'wanted the Chelsea job', I meant it in a way that he wants to be at Man Utd, Barcelona, AC Milan etc etc. It's all well and good wanting to go there, but they have to want you back...Chelsea didn't. I don't for a second think he wanted to speak to Man City to try and force Chelsea to want him. I think he wanted to speak to Man City because they're offering him an insanely large budget to improve a side that finished 3 points behind us last year.

Hmm... My point is he genuinely wants the Man City job because there are massive funds available and the potential is there to far exceed where we are now. Your 'point' is that he's ended up in a job he doesn't want because he was trying to force Chelsea to employ him through jealousy tactics, or however you want to word it. I'd love you to take those two arguments to neutral fans and get their opinions, I think I know which would win by a landslide.

Of course Chelsea was his first choice...actually no, I think Man Utd would have been his first choice...he had about the same chance of getting each. Chelsea could have had him a second if they were serious, it was obvious that they wanted a top manager with a top pedigree from the off. Man City is the potential stepping-stone between where we are and the very top jobs, he could never achieve enough to reach those top jobs whilst with ourselves because of the lack of budget.

Only the most intense Rovers-spin could twist that preference conference in to what you described. He wanted a club that matched his ambitions, we clearly didn't, and City are offering him £30-£50 million (depending on who you believe) to build a squad. Sven was given free-reign over who he bought last summer, so I'm sure Hughes will be afforded the same luxury. Even if he does have to put Ronaldinho in his team, I'm sure he won't complain. Alright he has to finish sixth next season, but if Hughes wants his career to progress then he had to take a risk like this. He couldn't just keep playing the 'over achievement card' with us every year because top clubs won't give a damn about that. The rational few of us on here know he was never truly in the running for Chelsea manager, despite all the press hype, and would never be in line for such jobs without building more success. I can't believe how many people on here have taken leave of their senses over this, is it to try and convince yourselves that we're not less attractive than City in managerial terms?

I really don't understand why everyone is making this wild assumption that being interested in the City job is a ploy to get the Chelsea job. Hughes is a sensible and intelligent man, he wouldn't behave in such a rash and irrational way. I posted around the time of the Newcastle rumours that Hughes would be interested in a lot of jobs outside the big four, simply because of the transfer funds available. Everton/Villa/Portsmouth/West Ham/City/Tottenham/Newcastle...I'm absolutely certain he would have taken any of those this summer because we've hit a brick-wall as far as achievement goes, until more money is available. Perhaps it's easier for people to stomach that idea, instead of facing the truth that City are a far more attractive proposition than ourselves for a manager, and will be until we find investment.

Broomes and Matteo looking for new clubs this summer.

That's a bit unfair, if he'd have come out of St. James' terrible then he wouldn't have been so fantastic for us. Wasn't he successful at Celtic too? I think Liverpool will have to be blamed for Bellamy's demise.

Well said Andy. I'm not sure why anyone on here things a mere football manager can sort Barton out, he clearly has far more problems than that. He's spent time with professionals at the Sporting Chance Clinic who deal with people like him for a living, and those people have failed to get him under control. He's obviously in with a very bad crowd, and I don't think a few months away from them will be enough for him to make a clean break and get his life back on track. I can't believe anyone would want him at our club.

Ahh, I hadn't heard that song before*, that does sound very similar. I think I'd use the term 'rip-off' instead of 'sound-like' though. I actually don't associate The Cure with a sound like Lovecats anyway, so that's probably why I couldn't hear it to begin with. I love the Boys Don't Cry album (actually listening to it as we speak), it's far more 'raw' (almost punk at times) than things like Lovecats. Jumping Someone Else's Train and So What are brilliant tracks off that, and the version of Boys Don't Cry is far better than the one released as a single, and the one that appears on best ofs/greatest hits type things. *Edit: When I say 'that song', I mean The Hooisers one obviously. The only one I know is the one that's played on TV all the time for some reason, it has a lyric like "I'm starting to worry about..." in the chorus, or something along those lines.

I can't hear any relation between The Hooisers and The Cure to be honest. At a stretch the lead singer might sound a little bit like Robert Smith, but it's a big stretch. Musically there isn't any resemblance at all though.

I'm trying to find a link to that story, but I'm not finding anything. Someone please tell me I haven't been making things up again.

The badge kissing thing has become so cliché now that it barely means a thing. Rather than concentrating on that one incident, done in the heat of the moment, I'd rather remember the letter he wrote to the fans saying how he'd loved his time here. He didn't have to go to the effort to do that, very few players would, and for that reason I'd gladly welcome him back. On the playing side, he's obviously not what he was, but he can't have lost all of his talent, he was just too good for that. Maybe familiar surroundings, less pressure and a manager with a proven record of getting the best from injury-ridden players could be enough to get him back on track.

I'm also one of the few in that case. They're just one of 3,785,000 indie-pop bands who sound exactly the bloody same. Ruining guitar music they are, the lot of 'em.

A 'meow' at the end of the sentence would have gone down well.

Not like you to generalise TND. And, as usual, you're way off.

You were on a roll until that one. What happened to Lorenzo anyway?

Now that's a name I forgot about completely. I saw them live years ago supporting British Sea Power (first album tour, so 2004 probably) and they were brilliant. They didn't have anything on CD or online at that point though, I remember trying to get hold of stuff and falling short, and they must have fallen out of my mind until I read that. Four years on I'll re-start my quest to listen to the Mystery Jets! Cheers Oz. Edit: Well, that was a bit of an anti-climax. I remember them being far more experimental than that, wasn't keen on the song in the video, I'll listen to a few other things though before giving up.

Well my decision has been made for me, they've cancelled the gig. No surprise there really.

Deliberating whether to go and see The Fall in Salford on Friday or not. I haven't heard a thing from the new album though, anyone know if it's any good? £20 seems a bit steep to see them if it's not all that great, because they never play old stuff apart from at festivals.

Classic stuff. I'm not fond of Lee Hughes in the slightest, but he's not the first person to have fled the scene of an accident (probably due to panic) then turn himself in the next day. I don't understand what your complaint is about Hughes in all of that to be honest. Do you not believe he should have been allowed to resume his career even after he'd finished his sentence?

The only thing despicable and repulsive is the quality of that article. It's attack basically boiled down to two points, both of which are not creditable enough to warranty writing a story: "Chimbonda started making noises about an exit a couple of weeks ago when Spurs signed 17-year-old right-back Chris Gunter from Cardiff. The fact that Chimbonda would still be first choice did not deter him from voicing his feelings." No, the noises started coming when Tottenham spent £8 million on Hutton (who plays in his favoured right back position) and £2 million on Brazilian left-back (his secondary position) Gilberto. I think he was quite right to start asking questions about his place in the team. "On Friday The Sun has reported him as bragging to mates: "Kevin Keegan has approached me and they've offered me more money. I am definitely leaving Spurs. "It's all about the money. I don't care about the final, I don't care about the cup." I think the quality of the source (or sources) there speaks for itself. I'm amazed you're back on your high horse already after spending a month sniping at the African Cup of Nations because of the colour of the players' skin 'lack of quality football' on display.