I thought this as well. Distin and Campbell are excellent defenders, but they do rely on their physical attributes rather than positioning and awareness. I think Benni will be able to find space in the box against both of them if we get decent service in there. I actually Santa Cruz might struggle in this one, he's playing against two centre backs who can match him for both power and pace...not something he'll come across very often this season.

I agree and disagree with what you're saying there. I would have liked Roberts to start today, but only because of the state of the pitch. Otherwise, McCarthy should start against inferior sides because he'll (usually) get chances and score goals. Roberts would be more useful against teams like Chelsea, because we require more of a target man and need to defend from the front more.

Why do you always drop needless and tasteless comments like this in to virtually every post? Maybe more to the point, why do you constantly get away with it?

Ginger people aren't a race theno, it's a bleeding hair colour. They're no more a race than people with mousy hair, grey hair, dark hair, blonde hair, big noses, large feet, sharp finger-nails...need I go on? Ginger people have never been forced into slavery or segrated because of how they look. At worst what you mentioned is a stereotype, like all short men are angry, all people with glasses are geeks and anyone who likes football is a hooligan. It's not racism FFS, or anything close to it. And what's more annoying is you damn well that it's not, it's just controversial for the sake of argument. You do make some very good points sometimes theno, but when you sprinkle in ###### like that then it just undermines it completely.

Bloody hell Jan. The only person on here who's taking skin colour into consideration is yourself. All those players have been tarred with different brushes. No-one has ever accused Roberts of being lazy. Nonda was never accused of it either, he was just accused of being plain useless. Yorke was accused of a bit of both, and being happy to take the money. McCarthy is being accused of having his head elsewhere. Cole didn't receive much criticism, but laziness was thrown his way a few times. All justifiable accusations in truth. The only reason you're grouping those players together is because of their skin colour. I'm sure if Jeffers was black you would have added him to that list as well. And Matteo. And Dino Baggio. And Grabbi.

Every time Mark Hughes has spoken about Benni he's said that he's a very popular member of the squad, he's also said he's an excellent trainer. I'm sure the players know his worth to the team and why he doesn't waste his energy chasing things, he wouldn't be a 20 goal a season striker if he did.

This may sound like an odd thing to say after we've just drawn and kept a clean sheet at Stamford Bridge, but...maybe Hughes made a tactical error by playing McCarthy. He will never, ever run channels, chase lost causes or hurry defenders. He keeps every ounce of energy in reserve for being able to pounce on any half chances that may come around on the box, or using that energy to lose his marker for a split second in the area. That's his game, it always has been and always will be, all this complaint about 'lack of effort' is futile. His game works excellently for us when we play teams other than the top four, because we see far more of the ball, allowing McCarthy to use his impressive link-up play, and we create chances as well, so chances McCarthy will get a goal. Against teams like Chelsea though, we don't see enough or the ball or create enough chances for McCarthy to make any sort of impression. We'd be much be suited having Derbyshire run the channels to try hassle defenders, or even Roberts to hold up the ball and offer us an outlet. We've seen in the past (Arsenal F.A. Cup) that Benni can still be lethal coming from the bench if needs be, but he's not a 90 minute man in these types of games. Maybe Hughes will realise we need to look at tinkering the squad depending on the opposition, rather than simply putting out what he perceives as the strongest eleven if everyone is fit, because it was quite obvious to most of us that we played with ten men for an hour on Saturday. The over-reaction to his performance isn't needed though, and probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for summer events. He never hurried defenders or chased things last season, it's not his game and it's not why he's picked in the team. I don't believe for a second that anyone honestly thinks he's deliberately being lazy to try and move to Chelsea, or another Champion's League side. We've got a nice looking set of fixtures coming up, and I expect Benni to grab quite a few in the next week, because he excels when given goal-scoring opportunities. If we want running and effort than those players are available, if we want deadly finishing and decent link-up play, we have Benni. If we had a striker that did everything, they'd be off to a top four team in a second...like Bellamy did.

Won't everybody be able to edit the wiki? As long as info is posted in here then it only takes one person to transfer it over. Surely the idea of a wiki is to have a collective responsibility to update and edit things, rather than lump it on to one individual.

I never realised that he was once on our books. How did we end up letting him go? He seems a very promising young player, certainly one that would be on the fringes of our first team.

Or just imagine a rip-off of Interpol.

Peter Kenyon is on Sky Sports News, he says once Chelsea have tied up a deal for Malouda they won't be looking to sign anyone else this summer. So, with them signing Pizarro and Malouda, Liverpool signing Torres, Arsenal signing Da Silva and Man Utd probably signing Tevez, it looks certain we won't be getting any offers for McCarthy from a Champion's League side. The only slight threat that remains now is West Ham, but they should be easy to fend off in comparison to Chelsea.

USA's right. You've knowingly taken money of someone by cheating. The fact that you think it's fine because they're new makes it even worse.

Edit: Ignore, misread the post I quoted.

I have no interest in this item, I just cringe every time I see "Wanted Well Bad" on the list of forums, so I wanted removed from the top.

Or, how about Wrexham?

You certainly didn't dream it USA, here's the quote for you: Pearce, while still in charge of City, had said about Richards: "He had to look after himself and be fit for preseason training and put himself first, then club and then country.". I guess the only difference is that Pearce was talking about an 18 year old, whereas Bentley is nearly 23. That's quite a big difference in terms of physical development, but Pearce still should have realised how hypocritical he'd sound when making those comments about Bentley. A thought occured to me earlier (it may have already been said by others, I haven't read every post) that will probably run through the mind of McClaren (if he's still there); if Bentley is too tired to play a European Championship this summer, why will he be any better equiped to play one next summer?

I hope people take notice of this when on about the 'media bias'. That's a very positive article from our point of view (it makes a very good comment regarding Pearce's thoughts on Micah Richards) from a paper I usually detest.

There's just been a nice little clip of Pearce on Sky Sports which sounds far less angry than what was reported in written press. He basically said: "If he goes and has a fantastic season next year and makes the full squad for Euro 2008 then next time he bumps into me he can say 'I was right'". He did then ramble on about how he'd reply they were both right, something about Bentley being right for his personal gain and Pearce being right for trying to have his strongest squad, he didn't word that bit terrificly well though. Still, there didn't appear to be the resentment that was coming over in other reports. Edit: Having said that, Merson is now saying what a stupid decision it was and that he'll have to have an absolutely outstanding season to have any chance of playing in the full squad. Peter Taylor isn't impressed either. Bentley has made a huge cock-up by the sound of it, there isn't one person involved with football that has said it was definitely the right decision for his career. Another edit: Apparently the U21 squad themselves feel Bentley has let them down and dropped them in it by dropping out of the squad at the last minute. I hope any resentment doesn't carry over to Derbyshire.

He missed the run-in to Arsenal's season after having a shoulder operation. At least check your facts if you're going to be needlessly cynical.

Mr Walker thinks big and, as he himself stresses: "This is not a small club. We are a big club." That should be pinned somewhere on here.

So Football Manager is biased against Rovers too? Right...

Oh absolutely, I was meant to write something about McClaren but I forgot. In fact, the whole scenario of him being called into the U21's whilst being with the senior side is strange to begin with, I can't think of another player being in the two squads at the same time.

Is no-one else slightly embarrassed by Bentley's actions? I certainly am. Don't get me wrong, if it benefits us next season then I'm all for it. However, a player pulling out of an international tournament for England because they are 'tired' is unheard of. If this was such a concern then they both (Hughes and Bentley) should have pleaded their case with Pearce, by the sound of his reactions it sounds like neither have done so properly. For all Pearce's faults, dishonesty isn't one of them, and if he's upset and hurt by the decision then it can't be one he was expecting. Why didn't Bentley make this decision the day the squad was announced? It's too late for a replacement to be called up now so the U21's go in a man shorter than everyone else. I'm sure if he had done it then and given Pearce chance to call in a replacement then we could have saved all this hassle. Either way, Bentley has served a massive blow to his international career...and if the decision was made with a view to being fitter for senior internationals next season, then he's been very badly advised by someone. As much as I'd like to think Bentley is putting his Rovers career before his international aspirations, I very much doubt that was the main motivation for doing what he did. I've looked at a few other forums to see what the general view is, and there is very little support for Bentley. Even from clubs who you'd expect to have nothing against Rovers, and from sets of fans who are generally fair in their opinions, it doesn't make good reading. I think this could just be one of those situations where it's going to be difficult seeing this situation without the blue and white specs. I guess, at the end of the day, we get our best midfielder fully fit and raring to go for the start of next season, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. It is a shame though that poor planning/communication and bad advice has all-but ended the international career (in the short term at the very least) of the first Rover in years to look like breaking into the national side. I know a lot of people are claiming they don't care for U21 games or even the national side, but the pride expressed by many of us at Derbyshire and Bentley playing at the new Wembley etc. suggests to me otherwise, and I suspect quite a few people share my feeling of disappointment that we're unlikely to see Bentley in an England squad for some time.

I had a think about this, that would never work. Beckham would always want to be whipping in early crosses, and so would Bentley. There would be very little link up play and they're just too similar to be effective.

We really were awfully poor at left back looking at it now, wasn't it even during Eriksson's reign that Powell was playing because there was simply no-one else? Makes you think really, if Warnock was around a few years earlier then he'd probably have 40 England caps by now.