Oh it's incredibly strange, I'm shocked as well. I don't see the point in bringing back a 37 year old for a friendly. I know France brought Makelele, Zidane and Thuram back last year, but that was because they were struggling to qualify for the World Cup. If Tugay is willing to do it though there's not much we can do.

It was Makelele. There doesn't seem to be much point debating whether he's being forced to play, if you read what Hughes says about it, it sounds like Tugay will agree to do it anyway because he's proud of playing for Turkey.

Like father like son?

As good as Bentley is, he's in competition with a lot of players for the right side of midfield. Gerrard is probably still first choice there, then there's Lennon and Wright-Phillips...Pennant is also in the mix. Still having said that, Bentley can't be far off, the three behind Gerrard are all very similar, Bentley would offer something different to those.

It's all looking ominously like the career of Jon Stead, isn't it?

My God, 'happy days' is now a profanity?!

Whatever you think of Gray's footballing ability, there is no doubt he would be stood on a post if that is what Hughes told him to do. You honestly think these kind of things are left to do decision of the player on the day of the game? They will have be rehearsed on the training pitch, it's Hughes opting not to have a player on both posts that is costing us, not one of your less-favoured players wandering off.

For all this talk of £500,000, it's worth considering one point: If Dunn can produce one piece of magic to influence the outcome of one game (which we all know he is capable of), then that alone could boost us at least one place up the table come the end of the season.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not... If you are, Dunn was championed in that position by many people whilst playing for the U21s (remember the wonder goal versus the Dutch?). Zidane/Ronaldinho and other players in his position usually get put out on the left side, but with license to roam, I think it could work well for us, especially as Pedersen doesn't do anything that you'd expect a traditional winger to do. On the other hand, if I've wrongly assumed sarcasm then I apologise.

Nancy boys tight at the back?

I've always believed that the initial scouting of players is by far the most important aspect of youth teams. We can have as many expensive facilities and top coaches as we want, but if the kids aren't good enough to start with then it's pointless. This unfortunately seems to be the case with ourselves in the last eight years or so, we just aren't spotting talent early enough. Hopefully Eddie Niedzwiecki picked up something from Wenger in his time at Arsenal, their record of spotting talent earlier than the competition (at least domestically) is excellent.

Not at all. If we were paying his wages in full then it probably wouldn't be a wise move, but on a pay-as-you-play deal, what have we got to lose? It's a bit like the Jeffers transfer, just with potentially far greater rewards.

Personally I think the most likely position Dunn will fill is the left wing slot. He has played there a fair bit and I don't think Sparky will put him in the centre of the park because he'll then not be able to use Savage in the way he was bought for. Pedersen provides very little in terms of creativity out there, I'm sure Dunn playing a free-ish role, drifting in the from the left will be more productuve. It was the role he was pencilled in for by many people when he was being talked about as a future England international, and one he played regularly for the U21s. I'm actually quite excited by the thought of potentially having Warnock and Dunn on the left side.

Hah, no, I'm not a referee. I agree that Premiership referees are @#/?, mainly because of the clowns who write the rules in the first place. I just think the idea that it's a conspiracy against Rovers is laughable, and if our fans (or, God forbid, our manager) constantly spout it to cover up terrible performances, we'll become a laughing stock...and rightly so.

Has anyone considered that Hughes has made the situation several times worse for Neill by making him captain? I'm sure there wouldn't be anywhere near the level of resentment towards him if he hadn't been handed the armband.

Maybe Matteo will play? Centre back is his best position, after all. I'd rather see him on McEveley at centre back alongside Ooijer, with Neill and Gray at full back. Friedel Neill Ooijer Matteo Gray Bentley Tugay Savage Pedersen McCarthy Nonda Still not convinced Derbyshire is worth a start yet, but if Nonda is still ineffective then he could be taken off at half time again.

Which is entirely true. This is the view of us at the moment from everyone outside Ewood, which is why it's so cringeworthy to read the utter tosh on here about conspiracies and such like.

The thing about Reading is that you are a good team as you have been pretty much unchanged for around two years now. Individually, none of those players would improve our starting eleven (I'd take Sidwell over Savage, but Sparky wouldn't) as no-one really stands out*...and yes, I include Doyle in this - he just happens to be the one putting the ball in the net, there's always one striker from a promoted club who bangs them in for a while (Marcus Stewart etc). Coppell has done brilliantly to mould a team a Premiership from the transfers he has done, it's certainly a refreshing approach to managers gambling on washed-up bigger names from big clubs. Reading remind me a lot of that Ipswich team that qualified for the UEFA cup in it's promoted season, actually. They had been together for ages and it showed in the quality of their football and how organised they were - but few (if any, I can't come up with any off the top of my head) went on to do anything in the Premiership elsewhere as, individually, they were nothing special. I see a similar fate for everyone in the current Reading team, with the possible exception of Sidwell. Edit: *This is not a criticism in the slightest. Football is about building a team, Reading are a better team than ourselves. Individually our players are better, but it's useless when they can't work together very well.

Claudio Ranieri could be a good bet at 12/1. I can't see a new, foreign ownership giving the job to an up-and-coming English manager. I'm fairly sure they'll go for a relatively big name with a decent pedigree...Ranieri fits that bill, is unattatched and would probably jump at the chance.

That would be Dickov of Manchester City reserves and Kuqi of the Crystal Palace substitues bench, yes? We're not rueing anything, we're well rid of those two. People are very correct in saying that if our current players put in the effort of those two we wouldn't be in this mess. However, that is because our current players actually have talent, they just need to add hard work to it. Kuqi and Dickov are relatively useless, they can run around as much as they want but it wouldn't do any good. Hell, I could go on the pitch and try my hardest for 90 minutes, wouldn't win us many matches though.

The pace thing certainly is worrying. Man Utd are all about pace - Ronaldo and Giggs on the wings, Rooney and Saha up top. It's probably the reason Van Nistelrooy was deemed surpluss to requirements. Arsenal are all about pace, that seems to be the key thing Wenger looks for in his attacking signings (except Adebayor). The Chelsea side of the last two seasons were all about Pace in wide areas, although that seems to have been replaced with brute force in the midfield, but we don't have that either. Even so, Drogba and Shevchenko are no slouches. As Bobby G said, in a league where pace and power are the two features of the league, it's strange that very few of our players possess either of these qualities.

Oh come off it. We put in a terrible performance (on the back of several poor performances) and all you can do is criticise the officials/laws of the game. We're in the position we are now because some players are not playing well enough. These are the same officials and rules of the game that we used when we finished sixth last season. Interesting that you didn't dig up that 'transfer window' topic last season when we were doing well, isn't it? Stop whining about everything else. If you have to play the blame game then at least aim it in the right direction - the players and the management. If they were doing the jobs they are capable of doing then you wouldn't be moaning about the rest.

No it is not. This phrase is being thrown around all the time now, it's just becoming a meaningless cliché. If we lose against Newcastle it is not the end of our season, nor will it define it. A win will help a lot, undoubtedly, but it is not a 'must win'.

I don't know whether Shay Given would count or not given the time he came through the ranks. Equally, I'm not sure if Douglas qualifies as it's arguable whether he has 'made it'. Keith Treacy appears to be the brightest hope of the next one.