I think the only team that plays with an attacking midfielder behind a front two is Chelsea, and that's because they've got the best selection of central midfielders to choose from to protect behind. Other Premier League teams don't play that way, we'd get absolutely murdered doing it. I'm not saying Dunn can't play a midfield four, but it wouldn't be in a position anything like what he's been playing at the moment. If anything it would have to be a deep-lying play maker role, because he doesn't have the legs to support both attack and defence.

Of course it's one sided, it's a British team against a foreign team. Why would it be neutral? Cracking goal from Babel.

I was thinking something similar, especially if Givet is playing at left back because we all know he's great defensively but won't venture forward much. If we played Emerton left-of-centre he would have the legs to cover that area if needs be as well. Chimbonda Nelsen Samba Givet ............ N'Zonzi Emerton .. Diouf .... McCarthy ... Dunn ................ Di Santo Something like that? It's worth a try I think.

http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/tm_method=full%26objectID=21788988%26siteID=93463-name_page.html No quotes or anything though. I wonder if it's one of Nicko's?

It depends who he managed to bring in, obviously it would be to create space on the wage bill for a new arrival. I'd happily swap McCarthy for a quality central midfielder.

We probably would have done if we could have afforded him, Kalinic was right on the limit of our budget and Cardozo would have cost a hell of a lot more than that.

Very brave Paul, running the risk of bringing up your nice meal all over the theatre.

Dunn in the centre of a 4-4-2 would be totally different to the Dunn we're seeing now though. Teams who play 4-4-2 don't play with attacking midfielders in the centre, it's usually a holding player and a box-to-box player. Asking Dunn to do either would either result in him breaking down again or just playing poorly. Dunn playing behind Di Santo is probably the one area of the team that is working at the moment, I don't see why people think we need to change it.

Dunn is easily our best player at the moment, and his performances are far better than anything McCarthy has produced for years, yet you'd reduce him to 30 minute cameos to include Benni? I don't follow the logic at all.

Reading the match reports, it seems like he's starting regularly but not scoring many at all, despite some high scoring games. In fact I haven't found another goal, so he might still only have one. Sounds like he's involved quite a lot though, he's won a few penalties and free-kicks with bits of skill that have resulted in goals. He's certainly not taking the league by storm or anything though unfortunately.

Don't believe everything you read on Wiki, that just means no-one has been arsed to update it. He plays on a regular basis, he has scored at least one goal (probably more). I haven't checked Leigh's website for a while though so I'm not sure how he's been doing recently.

More Rovers-related things in Gray's blog. He has named his best XI from players he has played with, Friedel and Tugay are included. He actually goes on to describe Tugay as the best player he's ever played with, and includes a little story which confirms his infamous smoking habit (if it even needed confirming). Interesting that he has Yorke on the bench given that I think they only time he played with him was during his stay here.

Well...kind of. They were put in the fourth tier and won promotion, but completely skipped the third tier and went into Serie B. Isn't Italian football great?

Well that's the thing...I haven't seen that many recently. [rec] was the last one I saw that made me scared. I don't know whether that's a good example though.

Has anyone got any recommendations for genuinely scary films? By that I mean ones that really get into your head and frighten you...not things like Saw or ones that just rely on moments that make you jump.

I honestly think we can do without his 8 appearances per season, the money saved on wages will be far more important. He seems to make mistakes whenever he plays nowadays as well. With Samba, Nelsen, Givet and Chimbonda all here, it would take a pretty terrible injury crisis for him to get a look in. Jacobsen looks like he could play there in an emergency too.

Thank f*** for that!

Of all the headlines you've ever written AESF, this is definitely my favourite.

That place is too big for my liking, from what I've read about their live shows, a lot will go missing from playing in a big place. I really wish I'd been at the Night & Day gig, it sounded amazing. It'll be a very rigid set playing as support for orbital, no raves in the basement there I suspect.

I'm pretty sure it was an U16 game, although I think officially called 'England Schoolboys'. 27 is definitely too old, unfortunately. The oldest player I've been able to find in that England side is 25 and the youngest 24, so I would assume the same applies to the Brazilians. It's possible they could be younger if they were a wonderkid, but definitely not older.

I honestly thought he was going to be brilliant. England Schoolboys used to be on TV a fair bit back then, I used to watch them whenever they were on. I even went to a game at the Stadium of Light to see England play Brazil, I managed to dig out the line-up from that day: England: Pidgeley, Welsh, McKie, Schumacher (capt), Johnson, Taylor, Westcarr, Beck (Bell 62), Samba, Donnelly, Lambu Brazil: Marcelo, Ferdandes, Wendel (capt), Wescley, Alberoni, Bruno (Vinicius 62), Leandro, Tavares, Marcio, Ricardo, Rafael Donnelly was brilliant that day. Interesting to see how many of those have actually forged top flight careers though. Glen Johnson is the only one who has become a regular top flight player. I thought the Taylor might have been Steven, but it's Kris. None of the others have gone on to be regular Premier League footballers, and Donnelly isn't the only one to slip into obscurity. It's very odd how players can go from being the best in their position in the country for their age to not being good enough for the football league. Does anyone recognise any of the Brazilian names? Bear in mind they'll be about 24 now, I know many Brazilian players tend to share the same name.

Been meaning to see them for a while, they played as part of that Manchester International Festival thing, it was only £3 in but a friend had put on a mini festival so I was there instead. Sounds like they put on a great show, I heard after they played the Night & Day Café about a year ago, the gig ended up turning into an impromptu rave. Just looking at their tour dates and it seems they're playing bigger venues now (supporting Orbital by the looks of it) which is a real shame, I think I've missed the boat on seeing them in an intimate venue.

One of incredibly few people who managed to be a genuinely successful manager whilst being a very warm human being too. RIP Bobby.

There's a good deal on for vegetarians (or people just fancying something different) at the moment. Greens in Didsbury Manchester (run by TV celebrity chef Simon Rimmer) is offering 3 courses plus a glass of wine for a little over £15 on Sundays and Mondays. I've been there before and the food was amazing, the mains are usually about £11.95 so it's an excellent offer.

Look who's coming back to the Premier League. I wonder if he'll be able to stick it away from home for longer this time? I hope he gets the loudest booing of any player at Ewood this year. Edit: Apologies, I have just noticed this in another thread.