I was talking more about him being in the starting eleven. I wouldn't be bothered if he took Crouch's place in the squad to be the man that came in the final 10 minutes if plan A is failing. I agree entirely about the range of substitutes we have at the moment, bringing on Defoe for either striker achieves very little.

After tonights England game surely Gerrard will play in the middle in the next fixture. Lennon hasn't covered himself in glory, Wright-Phillips is out of favour...a gap for Bentley to get in perhaps? I hope so.

How about Boston v Manchester United?

Davies would be a disaster for England. Bolton used to base their ENTIRE game around lumping it to Davies and feeding off the scraps...even then, in a team that orientated entirely around him, he struggled to get 10 a season. I'm not doubting he was effective for Bolton before Anelka arrived, but for him to do that with England we'd have to adopt the same tactics. What then would be the point of having Gerrard/Lennon etc in midfield when their primary job would be trying to pick up scraps and flick-ons from Davies? I don't deny would could do with a physical presence up front, but quality has to be the priority over sheer size and weight.

That's daft though. Turn that question round; Henry aside, who else would England put in their starting 11 from the French team? Thuram of a few years ago would have been useful instead of Neville, but as a centre back he's no better than what we have already. Malouda or Ribery would probably take the left side, but that's still only two players.

Like it Fife.

I don't think Sheff Utd were in the Premiership when Colin made that list.

It looks like Kieron Dyer is the player keeping Bentley out of the squad at the moment. It doesn't look like Warnock will feature as Carragher is set to start at left back. I don't really agree with that at all, but it will give the Lennon the chance to play further up the pitch as Carragher won't overlap often. Johnson is set to start instead of Crouch as well, which can only be good. This is what is being reported as McClaren's first choice XI: Robinson Neville Ferdinand Terry Carragher Gerrard Hargreaves Lampard Lennon Rooney Johnson Apart from Carragher I'd agree with every decision there. Lennon and Gerrard will probably switch on the odd occassion as they have been doing for their clubs recently. I guess, with the games being qualifiers, McClaren wanted experience in the back four, otherwise Barry or Warnock may have got a chance.

Oh absolutely. I actually completely overlooked that somehow, I've been so accustomed to him being a first team player that I temporarily forgot how quickly he had risen. I just had a quick look at the U21 squad and it looks quite likely he might start. David Nugent will probably be the first choice, but he does like to play off another striker, so he can't really play with Agbanlahor or Young...so that probably leaves Derbyshire battling it out with Lita to partner Nugent. With Bentley, Huddlestone and Milner in the team he could expect very good service as well. What an amazing few months it would be for him if he did score the first goal at Wembley.

Gerrard has been playing wide right for Liverpool again recently, with Hargreaves returning I'd expect McClaren to revert to 4-4-2 with Hargreaves and Lampard in the middle. That would mean Gerrard and Lennon going as the right sided midfielders, so I'm not surprised Bentley hasn't been included really. For me, he stands a better chance of going as a left sided player, someone involved with the U21's mentioned this recently too. He has far less competition on the side, and has a better left foot than any other right footed player we've played out there. Personally I'd have taken him ahead of either Downing or Barry to play on the left side, but as he rarely plays there for us I'm not surpirsed McClaren has opted not to. Warnock will definitely be an interesting one. He's settled in brilliantly, it just depends whether a couple of months of first team football are enough to convince McClaren. Someone mentioned Nick Shorey earlier in the topic, if you take the blue and white tinted specs off for a moment, you'll realise he probably deserves the chance more at the moment; he's been performing brilliantly all season whereas Warnock has only started playing regularly just over a month ago. Had Warnock been with us all season I'd be massively disappointed for him to miss out though.

PLEASE don't go to 5th Avenue. The Late Room isn't bad but it is very cramped at Weekends (specials nights Club Biscuit and Plastic Surgery). MEN Arena/Apollo etc aren't really part of the Manchester music scene, they just play bands that are touring the country. There are plenty of other places bands play too (Jabex Clegg etc) but it's difficult to recommend those without knowing dates. Night & Day Café is a must though.

Definitely visit the Night & Day Café in Manchester, they have bands on virtually every night, I'm sure you'll hear something you like. It's situated about 5-10 minutes walk from Piccadilly station, right in the centre of town, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it. It's a small place but a really cool venue. If you do go here you could also pop into the Dry Bar next door, it is/was (I forget now) owned by New Order. From what I remember it has pieces of 'Madchester' memorabilia around the place, worth stopping in for a drink at least. If you have time you could also check out The Roadhouse. They don't play bands as often so you'd have to check on the website to see if there were any playing around the time you were in Manchester, but that's also a good place for local/unknown bands. This one is also right in the centre of town, so again no trouble to find. If you could provide a rough estimate for dates I'll try and help more, I'll probably be checking for myself anyway.

Was it? I could have sworn it was Dickov and Kuqi. I was actually at that one as well...my memory really is going.

The Mars comment is completely irrelevant. You said yourself that CO2 traps heat...Mars is freezing because there isn't heat there to trap, it's just too far away from the sun.

We went to Old Trafford and won without Bellamy, I think you're doing the team a massive injustice with the 'well rounded' comments. Without Bellamy we were a good team, with Bellamy we were a very good team...hence why we finished sixth. This season we're still a good team, but we don't have an oustanding player anymore, which is why we will finish lower in the table. Alright, injuries have played a part in this season, but the general opinion is that Ooijer would be on the bench and Mokoena may possibly displace Savage, so we can't complain too much. I don't wish to criticise McCarthy, he's been superb for us (I think there's another McCarthy topic around where I was singing his praises), but he's simply not good enough to be compared to Bellamy. I know he's been an arrogant little sod wherever else he's been, but for us he was absolutely no trouble and produced some of the best football in the Premiership week in, week out. As others have said, there's a damn good reason why the board were prepared to break the bank to keep Bellamy.

How many opportunities can you remember him squandering for us last season? His finishing was nothing short of superb. Don't let a settling in period at Liverpool cloud your judgement, Bellamy was unbelievably good in front of goal last year.

McCarthy has been a terrific buy but he's nowhere near the standard Bellamy was for us. It was only a few weeks ago that people were calling for McCarthy to have a spell on the bench. When Bellamy was fit there wasn't even the slightest doubt about whether he would be the first name on the team sheet. In fact, when he was at his best, I'd argue there was no-one better in the league than him. McCarthy has scored some good goals (Arsenal and Everton spring to mind) but his performances over 90 minutes are incomparable to those that Bellamy was putting in. Bellamy rightly deserves to be labelled 'the best since Shearer', McCarthy has a long way to go before he can put be in that category. In fact, as good as he is, I don't think he has the ability to. Bellamy's all round game was brilliant, the only flaw you could find was his heading ability (which would be a job with that neck)...it's quite easy to pick out a number of flaws in McCarthy's game. As long as he keeps banging them in though, none of us will have any complaints.

I don't see the point of us having both Nonda and Roberts, they do very similar jobs but neither are more than bench players. Keeping Pongolle instead of signing one of those two would have given us more options, despite his lack of goals he always impressed for us...it's no surprise he's doing well in Spain.

As good as Sparky is, he hasn't achieved anything near what he needs to have done to be considered for the Man Utd and Chelsea jobs. The only thing that possibly makes him a candidate for the Old Trafford hot seat is his past connection with the club, but I doubt the Glazers would let sentiment come into their decision. Taking the blue and white tinted specs off for a moment, what has Sparky done to elevate himself above Big Sam? Nothing in my opinion. If we finish mid-table and get defeated by one of the big two in the semi's of the FA Cup, it will be an acceptable season...not one that puts you in frame for the biggest jobs in football.

Why do people still care about Neill? We've got a better left back now. The best Neill can now hope for is a stint at Newcastle, no 'bigger' club than them will touch him.

I can't see how we can have Jeffers and Derbyshire in the first team picture next season. Realistically we're going to have four strikers in the side, with Gallagher possible acting as a fifth but doubling as midfielder. I don't think we could afford to have two of the four (or three of the five including Gally) as lightweight strikers. If we want to add a quality player to the side then one of Nonda or Roberts also has to leave in my opinion as they do quite similar jobs. On the basis of what we have seen so far this season, Nonda has been the most impressive...but he is only on loan and we shelled out a fair amount for Roberts, so it would be a tough one to call over who would stay. For next season I'm expecting us to have something like; McCarthy, New Addition, Nonda/Roberts, Derbyshire, Gallagher. If that new player was a quick one (say a poorer version of Bellamy) then I think we'd have a good mix of players there. I see no possibilty how Jeffers can stay though, we have too many strikers on the books and he's easily the most dispensable.

Sir Alex Ferguson seems to like his wide players to have pace and, for all Bentley's qualities, pace certainly isn't one. I'd be extremely surprised if he did move for him, they've had a lot of success this season using pacey wide men, I can't see why he'd try something different now.

There's a new one AS, came out this month. I'm as surprised as I imagine you are, I felt I was still getting to know Fall Heads Roll so I wasn't expecting one now. For what it's worth, I think Blindness is easily the best track from that album (also sounds amazing live), What About Us? is probably next for me.

Lampard seems to be taking a lot stick for last night when, in fact, he was no worse than most. It'll be interesting to see what McClaren does when the majority of players are fit, the only hope of an excuse he has is that he was forced into that team last night by absentees. I don't think he had it too far wrong in his first game in charge, if everyone was fit then I'd go for... Robinson Neville Ferdinand Terry A. Cole Gerrard Hargreaves Lampard J. Cole Rooney Johnson Having Crouch up top just encourages needless long balls from the back. Johnson's pace and ability to lead the line would let Rooney drop deep, as well as giving Gerrard and Lampard the option of playing balls in behind instead of into feet. Lennon and Crouch would be good impact players to bring from the bench should we need something different, but niether play with enough consistency to justify a starting place.

If he was really that desperate not to sign for Bolton, he'd have sat out the final six months of his contract at Birmingham then had his pick of clubs in the summer (of which we'd have almost certainly been one).