It's a great use because it makes the lower gate revenue less significant. In fact, it's only the TV money that allows us to compete at this level, if we were left to fend off gate reciepts alone, we'd have no chance.

Possibly the finest endorsment you will get that PES6 is a far superior game to FIFA 07. Cheers RTM WSR. Edit: Oh, I missed this beauty; What an unbelievable reason for preferring a game.

I originally thought that myself, but I figured he'd still be on his original contract, which will have relatively low wages (at least compared to Savage and Reid) . I think we'd be able to hold on to him for a season if we did go down. There's also the problem that I'd have no-one else to put there if Bentley was to leave.

I'm trying to picture what team we could realistically put out after relegation, maybe something like... Brown Kane Zurab Henchoz McEveley Gallagher Mokoena Bentley Peter Jeffers Derbyshire Not fantastic but you'd expect it to compete with at the top end of the Championship with Sparky in charge... Relegation isn't a complete disaster if you can manage to return to the Premiership within two years. £7 millon parachute payments are made to relegated clubs for two seasons after they go down, that is still a massive advantage over the rest of the division. If we did go down and failed to return within two years, it would probably be a long time before we ever made it back.

FIFA 100 greatest players. Not actually in any order, I'm not sure how you could possibly go about doing that after the top 10.

Rev, why the fascination with Newcastle's result? You're not suggesting that they might go down, are you? There is absolutely no chance of them doing so, even if they had lost tonight.

Why are you comparing us to Liverpool? What a ludicrous comparison, of course they can afford to have better back-up players than we have. That said, I agree with IHB's post, especially about people defending him just because he's ours. If he played for anyone else there wouldn't be a single person saying he should be a Rovers player. People are massively exagerating his success in a 4-5-1 as well. He made some decent tackles, but his positioning and distribution were woeful. Looking back now he appears to have been a great success because there are a few big tackles that stick in the mind...but that's not what that position is about. Can anyone pinpoint a game in which Makelele made a terrific tackle? I doubt it...he quitely goes about constantly breaking up play and keeping it simple, niether of which Mokoena did on a regular basis.

Backs up a point a made a few pages back. Putting the new designs up this side of Christmas is terrible marketing (as appears to be the norm at the moment), I bet many people SR's view and hold back on buying the new one as they already feel 'old'.

They definitely could not play together, I'm on about Bentley playing in Tugay's role long term. Tugay isn't great at tackling and he's certainly no more robust than Bentley, the holding role is more about positioning and spotting which passes to intercept. Players like Fabregas/Makelele/Scholes aren't phsyically imposing either.

The problem Hughes now faces is what does he consider Bentley's primary position? He's at an age now where that needs to be decided as soon as possible, if he switches between right midfield and holding midfield he'll probably become a useful squad player without mastering a specific role. Personally I see a brighter future for him in the Tugay role, he has all the basics you need to play there. He'll obviously need to learn the defensive side of it more, but learning when to move to intercept passes etc would could with time (as indeed they did with Tugay). His lack of real pace will always hold him back on the wing I feel, he'd always need an overlapping full-back to be able to cause problems from out there.

We have Bentley, Reid, Emerton and Gallagher all capable of playing out there, as well as Pedersen and Peter if needs be. I can't see how Hughes would justify a right sided midfielder unless he sold one of the aforementioned players.

Oops, I do apologise. Sorry.

How pathetic. Gray handled the ball and McCarthy was susiciously offside (although I have only seen it once).

No he isn't, Mokoena is the type of player who will get us involved in a relegation scrap if he spends too much time on the pitch. If we want a central midfielder, why don't we get a central midfielder instead of a poor defender? Even a journyman would be better than Mokoena, players like Matt Holland and Graham Kavanagh (to name two) would do a far superior job to what Mokoena is capable of. Clearly not good enough to take Tugay's role, equally clearly not capable of playing in Savage's position, I don't see why the club feel the need to keep him longer.

If Nonda fails to start scoring on a regular basis, how about a cheeky bid for James Beattie (there are rumours Everton are willing to loan him out)? He's been terrible at Everton, but their horrible style of play and 4-5-1 formation do not suit him at all. Maybe a move back to his hometown club would get his career back on track. There's no doubt a fit and confident Beattie would be a useful weapon for us.

Why on Earth is this being voted for now? It makes the 'new' kit (it's only a few months old for crying out loud) feel outdated already. What a ridiculous idea given that Christmas is around the corner.

It doesn't even imply Chelsea have made a bid. It simply states that, due to the contract expiring in the summer, a bid of £3 million should force our hand as £2 million was rejected in the last transfer window. Apart from speculating on a price, it's nothing that hasn't been reported elsewhere - Chelsea may be taking an interest in Neill. Nothing to get excited over.

You're possibly the most horribly patronising person I've ever come across. As you brought up the teacher/student comparison, I'm going to continue along that theme. A teacher/tutor suggests reading material that their student should read. Would you be so kind as to tell us what we should go and read to become as educated as your good self? Please don't talk about Google or any other type of searching, titles and/or website addresses please. (I fully expect you not to reply to this by the way, just like everything else that has been put to you).

No Jack, they didn't. Although, when I was at school the teachers did educate us on topics they talked about, especially ones which they believed were to be of great importance.

But why not share what you have found on here? Obvously the feeling of not being one of the sheep is more important to you than educating people on the 'facts' of global warming. Like I said, at the moment you're no more credible than conspiracy theorists because you reply to everyone in the same manner as they do when asked to backup their alternative opinions.

Every single reply you have used have been identical to those used by crackpot conspiracy theorists from 9/11 etc, the patronising tone of it instantly makes you appear to be more interested in having a "I know more than you" feeling, rather than being on a quest for truth. If you really do have concrete evidence to disprove the government's global warming theories then I can't for one second understand why you would want to keep it to yourself.

Den is correct, Wright-Phillips stood out in a poor Man City team, but I wouldn't expect to see too many more of these 25 yard screamers he did, I think that season was a one off (it was only one season). He is a head-down dribbler, he also has such an awkward dribbling style that it makes me cringe. He seems to scoop the ball from behind him with every step. I prefer Bentley as the long-term prospect to be honest, Wright-Phillips is all about pace and defenders will soon learn how to deal with him, if they haven't already. Bentley is just discovering what he can do with his talent and is certainly more useful to us with Emerton overlapping, who would become anonymous again should SWP come in. Edit: Which, of course, is as likely to happen as Henry arriving at Ewood.

Turning down £2 million for him now looks incredibly stupid given that statement, as many thought at the time. We'd be in no worse position now had we sold Neill.

Why though? He can play badly in several positions, but not a whole lot else. The only position he can realistically play is Tugay's position, I guess he does as a decent sub to bring on for him if we're holding on to a lead. He's never a Savage replacement though, he can't pass (anyone remember that shocking ball against Spurs?), shoot or run so asking him to move far over the half way line is out of the question. I hope it isn't true about the contract, I'm sure we can put whatever wages he is on to better use. Ultimately he is going to leave us and disappear of the footballing map completely, as a midfielder he's little more than a poor man's Salif Diao.

I don't think this is what Sparky will go with, but due to a mixture of injuries and bad form I'd like to see... Friedel Neill Zurab Ooijer Gray Emerton Bentley Savage Gallagher Jeffers McCarthy However, I think we will persevere with Pedersen and Nonda for the time being. The rest should be the same though, unless we play Mokoena in the middle.