People seem to be forgetting that possibly Dyer's best game for England came at right back, although admittedly that came a few years ago. He's unlikely to be called upon much defensively though, and his pace and stamina would allow him to overlap Beckham on the wing. Personally I think it's one of the few things McClaren has got right, I don't see the point of having Carragher there when he contributes little going forward. Beckham at right-back and Bentley at right-midfield isn't a bad shout, but they're probably too similar to play together and Beckham's world class form has come from midfield, not defence.

Just in case anyone hasn't noticed, this reply was to a post that was two years old. I'm not too sure why... Having said that, I always enjoy the fixtures topics because at least one person always makes a fool out of themselves by claiming they know the fixtures before they're announced.

I can't understand why Chelsea need McCarthy. They already have Drogba, Shevchenko, Pizarro and Kalou, you could even include Robben as he plays the second striker role more often now since they went to a midfield diamond. If they are still seriously chasing McCarthy then I guess Shevchenko could be off, Mourinho doens't seem to rotate his side enough to keep five strikers happy.

Probably because he's not on the pitch? Beckham's been excellent in the second half. As good as our DB is, he's still got some way to go to be as good as the original. I would have liked to have seen him on the left hand side instead of Downing though, surely McClaren knows what he's getting with him by now? Like tcj, I don't think he's a bad player, but McClaren managed him for several years and he's been involved with England for a while now. Edit: Jenas for Beckham? Now that is taking the ###### a little.

Unless I'm badly mistaken, hasn't Upson only ever been relegated once?

The sponsorship with Bet 24 will be worth a small fraction of a.) Pedersen's transfer value, and b.) Pedersen's value as a player on the field. There is absolutely no way the sponsorship deal with have any bearing on Rovers' decision should a bid for Pedersen come in.

1. Everything that has ever come from England players is that Beckham is an immensely popular member of the side. Why shouldn't he be? For all his fame and fortune, he seems a genuinely nice man and I can't see why anyone would dislike him for reasons other than jealousy. What has ever suggested to you that Beckham would try and pick the team? 2. Have you watched Real Madrid recently? Have you heard some of the biggest managers in Europe saying he's one of the performing players in Europe at the moment?

England B line-up. Looks like Bentley will be starting on the left. I'm not sure what McClaren gets out of seeing Lennon on the right, but at least Bentley is starting.

I fully believe that McCarthy has enough confidence in himself to think he can hold down a regular starting spot in the Chelsea team, in his mind I doubt he's thinking he'd be going there to warm the bench. It's clear he's also very fond of Mourinho, quite a few of his pre-Chelsea players have remained loyal to him so that's not really a surprise. Whereas Lucash Neill obviously transfered to line his pocket, I really don't think the same can be levelled at McCarthy.

I'm all in favour of performance related pay; the higher Hughes finishes in the league and the further he goes in cups, the more money he gets. Selling our best players is not included. Why would you want any potential conflict of interest between what's best for the club and what's best for the manager's pockets? If Hughes ever bought a player thinking "I could make a few quid out of him" then it's completely the wrong thing to do. That's not to mention the FA and FIFA would probably look into it in great detail, managers simply don't recieve 'commission' from player sales. How is that different to a bung? The way to keep Hughes is back him in the transfer market. He'd never cite "well they didn't give me any money from the McCarthy sale" as a reason for jumping ship.

That's the daftest idea I've heard in a long time. What benefits would that have for Rovers? If you can name any, I bet I can name three negatives for every positive.

Okay? That would be bloody fantastic! McCarthy owes a lot of his goals to the superb quality he has recieved from Pedersen and Bentley. I think a striker of Mido's quality would get 15 or so goals if we kept hold of those two...add Bellamy to that (with Roberts and Derbyshire in reserve) and we'd have a hell of a front line. It would probably cost between £10-£12 million to pick up both of them (or players of similar quality), so a lot rests on us getting big money for McCarthy.

Your sensationalist tabloid roots are showing Jim.

Hopefully they'll do absolutely nothing about it. Players can't win with fans, can they? Bellamy said he wanted to stay with us then moves to Liverpool and gets blasted by everyone for lying. McCarthy says he's very happy at Rovers but would find an English Champion's League team hard to turn down and gets blasted for being honest. Every single one of our players would find a move to a Champion's League side almost impossible to turn down, any of them who say otherwise are just being 'diplomatic' like Bellamy. I don't have a problem with McCarthy's comments at all.

Is he? I can't recall a situation this season of him moaning and he always comes across as one of the most upbeat individuals in interviews etc, Hughes has also said the rest of the players love having him around at training. What makes you think he's moody? Because he doesn't run around like Dickov?

I was thinking about something the other day, so I'd like to pose a similar question to yours Neekoy. If you could pick any striker in the league to be on the end of a great cross, can you think of anyone better than McCarthy in the entire league? The only person that comes close is Drogba, but he does miss a hell of a lot of chances. I'm not suggesting McCarthy is better, Drogba has far more to his game, but in terms of finishing I can't think of anyone better in the league.

Bentley called up to England 'B' squad. It's quite a strong looking squad we've named there so it's nice to see Bentley included. I hope McClaren uses this game to experiment and gives him enough time to impress, instead of replacing Lennon with 10 minutes to go.

I really do find it strange that Nonda seems set to stay. I can't see why we'd want five strikers on the books next season, so Nonda staying permanently would suggest one of four things; 1) We're not signing any strikers this summer 2) McCarthy is leaving 3) Roberts is leaving 4) Derbyshire is leaving Number 4 seems the most unlikely out of all those. Should I be wrong and we do sign a quality striker (Hughes has rightly said he'll only sign players for the first XI), then signing Nonda permanently would just surely push Derbyshire down to fifth choice striker. I can't see Hughes paying £2 million and relatively big wages for Nonda to be fifth choice, so any potential deal for Nonda could hold Derbyshire's progress back, which would be a huge shame. The £2 million would be better spent budgeted towards a top quality striker in my opinion. Then we'd have the new boy, McCarthy, Roberts and Derbyshire...with Jeffers/Garner/De Vita etc. in reserve in case of an injury crisis. I fail to see what Nonda brings to the team that Roberts doesn't anyway.

...

I only joined this messageboard in 2003... ...so fortunately for everyone, my clothes are staying on.

I'll run onto the Ewood pitch naked if Peter ever becomes a £10 million player.

That does sound logical. The other idea I came up with is that they're not counting the early games as part of the series, so the new one will be the fourth in 3D. However, that would cause confusion when trying to refer to GTA 3, so your theory sounds better than mine.

Looks great...but one thing puzzles me. Maybe I'm just being really thick: GTA 1 + GTA 2 + GTA 3 + GTA: VC + GTA: SA + NEW GTA = GTA: VI? So how come it's GTA IV?

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, I just can't find it: Bentley blasts England flops. Can't really argue with anything he says there. I think The Sun have sensationalised it by saying he has put his own England career in jeopardy though - he didn't criticise the management as such, just the effort of the players. I like listening to Bentley's interviews, his confidence is very apparent but he's always very honest with opinions. It's obvious he just wants England to do well when he says he'd put Beckham back in the starting eleven even though that's the position he is competing for. Edit: There was also a quick interview with him in the Mirror a few days ago. One of the questions asked was along the lines of "who is the best prospect at the moment", his answer was Matty Derbyshire and he was complementing his work rate.

Or, alternatively, just seek help ASAP.