I'd never have thought this but I really hope Big Mac scores a couple on his debut this weekend!

If he plays. Carlton Cole (if fully fit) is a definite starter...so it's a battle between fatty, Mido, Ilan, Franco, Nouble and Hines to partner him. I fancy Ilan out of that lot, followed by Mido if he's motivated.

Been here before though haven't we? Ferguson, Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Bentley...all left under a cloud.

Bit harsh on Bellamy. He negotiated a buy-out clause when he signed, everyone at the club knew the score. He didn't once bad mouth us in the press or kick up a fuss to get a move, in fact I'm sure he's only ever said good things.

I'm just concerned that if Niko is out then it means we have to rely on Roberts or Franco. Roberts is an impact sub at best not a starter and there are a lot of question marks over Franco.

I admit it's not ideal, but it's so hard to sign anyone at this stage of the transfer window. I'd hate for us to panic buy a striker who will just end up eating up resources as their contract runs down. Ok I'll reword that...I'm terrified of signing Beattie on a 2 1/2 year deal.

McCarthy has been playing almost as an attacking midfielder anyway, so we do have Basturk as an extra body now. We went through a good run with Di Santo playing earlier on the in the season...hopefully he's just like Kalinic and needs a goal to set him on his way. The rest of his game is certainly good enough.

Sam Confirms that Benni set to complete West Ham transfer

Interestingly, Sam suggests that the money may not be used to bring in a forward but to strengthen another area of the team!

I do think that quality is more important than the position of the player at the moment. I'd much rather us bring in a quality winger (Ibricic?) than getting a Beattie-type striker just for the sake of numbers.

Now if this isn't the best newspaper headline ever, I don't know what is:

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/mps-call-for-jobs-blow.5919884.jp

Still to think we could have got close to ten times what we have received two years ago is a little depressing.

If that was true there is no way we would have held on to him, Chelsea were trying to get him on the cheap to bulk their squad out a bit. If Chelsea had got near double figures (in millions) then he'd have been off like a shot.

A better man manager would have got the maximum out of this talented player, using the World Cup situation positively to the benefit of Blackburn Rovers, rather than allowing a situation to develop where he might join a rival for whatever pittance they now choose to offer - and no doubt bag a hatful of goals for them to prove a point to his ex-manager.

Tugay, then Warnock, now maybe McCarthy, good players who didn't need to be forced out or sold. Rumblings that Dunn, Pedersen and Hoilett don't like what's happening.

A lot of twist being put on that.

As I have already mentioned, Hughes was starting Roberts ahead of McCarthy in his last season..obviously McCarthy's attitude and work rate isn't just a problem for Sam.

Do you genuinely believe Tugay should still be playing for us? He's nearly 40. I'd hate for his memories to be tarnished by playing past his sell by date. If he was still a Premier League player, another club would have picked him up...that he has remained retired speaks volumes.

As for Warnock...Williams said his sale 'plugged a hole in the budget'. Sounds to me like pressure would have been put on Sam to let him go.

I've probably twisted this a bit the other way now...the truth probably lies halfway between our posts.

In Hughes' last season in charge he was picking Roberts ahead of McCarthy nearly every week, and McCarthy looks more out of shape now than he did back then.

I just can't wait for him to go now, hopefully it's far enough away from the deadline to give us time to get someone else in. I hope we're looking at a loan deal for Gudjohnsen or something like that.

Got to ask, why does Dunny not want to sign a contract?

why does Hoilett not want to sign a new contract ?

why is MGP looking elsewhere?

Who says we want to offer Dunn and MGP new contracts? Both have to do more before now and the end of the season to earn that right, especially if either are trying to get a wage rise.

Hoilett is a strange one. If he's got his heart set on going back to Germany then there is not much we can do about that.

If West Ham get Benni, Rovers will go down and dissapear off into oblivion forever.

Really? I had no idea selling one of your substitutes could have such a devastating effect.

Not sure he will. Dunny was rested for this game tonight, i think its likely Kalinic will start with Dunny just behind him.

My gut feeling is Benni and Di Santo.

If that money would be enough to bring Gudjohnsen here them I'm all for it.

Just got Delphic's album, very good definetley the best album I've er, heard this year (and maybe last year as well)

Just had a listen to this and I'm actually very disappointed. I've been waiting for this for a long time since hearing tales of gigs turning into all night basement raves around Manchester, plus Counterpoint is a great song. My girlfriend saw them play The Warehouse Project a few months back and said they were brilliant as well.

The album is very bland though, it's got no edge to it at all. I don't know who produced it but I think they've gone way too far in making it commercial. I'll give it another go but I feel really let down by it at the moment.

Dont know what to make of this anymore?

More of the same booing bullshyte!

Isn't that exactly the same interview?

Surprised at the anger towards Sam, my reaction to that article was to be angry with Benni.

He talks about how important this season is to him and how he needs to be playing regular football, yet he can't be arsed to get himself into shape? He's taking the ###### - a professional athlete earning millions per year shouldn't have a problem with keeping in shape.

By all accounts, it sounds like Jase is more likely to leave than Benni. I think Benni may reconsider his desire to leave now that he's getting games again.

Good. Roberts is infuriating. Every so often he'll come off the bench and play a blinder, which means he starts the next two or three games...then he's invariably useless. He'll then go back on the bench for a few weeks, come off the bench eventually, have another good game and start the whole process over again. His whole career with us has been that way.

At least when Benni starts he plays as well as he does in his cameos.

Sorry mate, no chance! No way you can have Diouf, Dunn, McCarthy and Di Santo in the same team. If we were going to play both Dunn and McCarthy (which I doubt will really happen) then the only real way to do it imo is:-

------Di Santo------McCarthy

---------------Dunn

----Grella---NZonzi----Emerton

Givet--Nelsen---Samba---Chimbonda

-------------Robinson

Its fair enough having a lot of attacking players but we need to keep defensive solidarity which means having the fitness and the workrate on the pitch. Also I could see McCarthy and Dunn crowding each other as they operate in the same areas. I personally would go for one or the other in the hole and Kalinic and Di Santo up front running the channels and the back line.

I'm not sure that is more solid though, I think we'd get hammered down the flanks using that kind of formation. It worked against Chelsea because they play a diamond, but against other teams our full backs would be really exposed.

Diouf is very good defensively and retains the ball well. Having Dunn and McCarthy behind Di Santo means we can go 4-5-1 in defence (McCarthy did some good defensive work on Saturday). Emerton and Diouf could be defensive wide players, tucking in sometimes where necessary if McCarthy and Dunn get caught too far up.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Dunn returns, it would be hard to drop Benni after that.

.................... Robbo

Chimbonda Samba Nelsen Givet

.................. N'Zonzi

..Emerton ..................... Diouf

........... Dunn .. McCarthy

................. Di Santo

That could work? A bit harsh on Grella maybe as he was excellent too, although I guess we have to work on the presumption that he's going to be injured again soon.

Looking for a place to take my girlfriend for a birthday so I'm wondering if any foodies here can think of a place that might tick the following criteria. I want an English restaurant in or around Manchester City Centre/South Manchester with a good selection of vegetarian meals (as a guide...cauliflower cheese is her favourite), but it must be a restaurant and not a pub/restaurant (if possible).

Greens in Didsbury is my obvious choice but we've been there before so I'm hoping there is somewhere different to go.

Grella, Dunn, Diouf and Pedersen is a very static midfield. Sadly Dunn doesn't have the legs to play centre mid effectively anymore.

I think I'd go with

Emerton Dunn N'Zonzi Van Heerden

At least we'd have two wide players with some pace and at least one central player who isn't likely to break down.

I'm not sure why people are picking Grella ahead of N'Zonzi, he's done nothing in his 15/16 months with us to suggest he's anything more than a backup player.

Craig Short now a manager in Hungary

Interesting. Not just any club in Hungary either, but Ferencvaros.

He definitely had that 'management potential aura' as a player, it sounds like he's done his coaching badges too. He's one of my favourite defenders that we've had, I'd love to see him come back as manager one day.

4-5-1 doesn't give us a chance, particularly at home.

How can you say that given our home form this year? Your statement is factually incorrect.

For some reason the first 45 minutes against Portsmouth are worth more than 270 minutes against Wolves, Aston Villa and the Dingles for a lot of people on here. I don't understand it at all.

Hang on...weren't Samba and McCarthy playing together last season? We did try McCarthy on his own up there (when all our other strikers were injured) and he was rubbish, so we put Samba up there for him to play off. I don't see the problem with that, it got us out of trouble.

Ciaran Donnelly has been reduced to playing Sunday League football in Blackpool.

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sports-news/Veteran-Gouck-sees-off-Seniors.4666977.jp

You on about the games against Burnley, Villa and Wolves? Wolves and Burnley with there fantastic squads and great away form and for a hour a dire performance against villa which changed when we had a man sent off .

4-5-1/4-4-1-1 or whatever it is/ment to be doesn't work because we don't have the players to make it work.

Well you've just brushed aside three wins and three good performances as if they don't mean anything.

We've shown numerous times that when we apply 4-4-1-1 in a positive fashion that we can make it work, it's when we sit deep and don't get the midfield forward that it gets exposed. I don't understand what logic you're using that tells you we don't have the players to make Dunn playing off a front man work, but we do have the players available to do it with McCarthy.

We have been bummed dry playing the ultra defencive 4-5-1 ###### tho?

The only time we've played an ultra-defensive 4-5-1 with Dunn and Di Santo playing was against Man Utd. I hope we don't play that way again as well. The 4-4-1-1 we were using pre-Chelsea was working fine, and it certainly wasn't lacking going forward.