If his action results in the FA never calling him up for the England squad again I for one will not lose any sleep over that. Probably improves Rovers chances of keeping him; at least a bit longer.

What's he doing playing in the U21 squad? He will be 23 in August!

All I can say at this point is: England had better qualify!! (Especially if Scotland DO!!) Because if they don't?...... I will probably need to find a house back down in England. I have only just got over the effects of England's "failure" in Euro '96. My life at work was sheer hell for ages after that. The day after losing on pen's to Germany I came in to find my office decorated with a huge German flag and messages of "congratulation" for weeks afterwards on my internal messaging system. Thank God I am retired now, but we still have a very active social life. (fingers crossed and everything else).

Didn't Shorey play most, if not all his games for Reading at RB? Just looked at my records and found out the answer is "NO!" I was confusing him with Murty....Sorry!

Read my post again; especially the last sentence. I fully agree that Bentley should be given his chance in a non-important friendly and that he is the first choice for the No.7 shirt after Beckham. In the match against Brazil he should have come on sooner (about the 60 min mark) and as a direct sub for Beckham to play the same role and then we could get a direct comparison. THAT is what I was saying above.

Does anyone actually think that Bentley should get Englands No.7 shirt ahead of Beckham? No, neither do I! It's not that I don't think Bentley would do a good job in that position, I think he would, but Beckham has the experience, the charisma, and the hopes and support of the Nation that Bentley understandably would not have. His time will come very soon; in fact as soon as golden balls clears off to LA. So all we need is a little more patience. I do believe however that Bentley should be the first choice as a sub for Beckham.

Only if you convinced him that you are the English rep for the mafia and you own a meat processing factory.

I don't want to inject any more negativity into the discussion other than what has already been said, apart from saying that I agree with the general trend. However there seems to me to be one glaring omission that nobody has mentioned so far; that is Michael Owen! I only saw the last 5 mins of the first half and all of the second half, but from what I did see, I can't remember anything at all that Owen contributed to England's cause. And before anybody gets the wrong idea; I am NOT anti-Owen in any way, shape or form. It's just that he did not seem to do anything of note (he was not alone in that) but nobody seems to have noticed that, and whilst they are busy slating the likes of Smith, Dyer, Jenas and Lampard (correctly) they don't mention Owen at all.

Hmmm......Got me thinking there 92er! I think you could well be right; I can't think of anybody who left us in recent years who has gone on to greater things than they ever had with Rovers. Even Shearer never hit the heights with Newcastle that he did with Rovers, and although he became England captain, that is not much in comparison to what he had at Rovers. Duff, Dunn, Bellamy, Cole, Yorke, Lucash, Hendry, Sutton, etc.....all big names at Rovers but not one of them or the many others not mentioned in my list can be said to have set the heather alight after they left "little old Rovers". They may have gone to bigger clubs, but they did not achieve anything they had not achieved already at Rovers.

I don't expect to get much loyalty from players these days, but neither do I want to see players signing for Rovers and before they have even kicked a ball for us witness them making it blatantly obvious that they see themselves as far too good for us and are just using us as a means to display their talents for the world to see and admire. Obviously there is an unspoken desire to move on as soon as possible to a bigger club.

Excuse me! When did I say that? I did not say it, and I did not mean anything like that. Where you get that interpretation from I have no idea. What I did mean in my post was that I suspected Benni from the start because of the blatently obvious insincerity in the tone of his first interview and this was borne out in several succeeding interviews in various places. The man has an absolutely huge ego and unashamed lack of modesty. He does not hesitate to tell us all how good he is and what he will do for the team and club. He comes across as bordering on being an egomaniac. That is what I meant by saying I did not trust or like his attitude. Nothing at all wrong with his ability as a player, but there certainly is with his attitude, and has been since he joined Rovers, which became abundantly clear to me from his first interview.

And to think some people on here have criticised me for having the temerity to say that I did not like Benni's attitude, not his playing form or ability, just his attitude. I have always suspected his attitude right from day one when I saw his first interview, and I have been proved right. Believe me people, I have seen it all before so many times; the symptons are easily recognisable when you know what to look for. Having said that; I take no pleasure at all in this situation. It makes me both very angry and very sad to see our beloved Rovers once again being treated with such utter contempt by an overpaid and ungrateful footballer with a huge ego. I have already said in earlier posts some time ago what I believe Rovers and MH should do about it, and I am gratified to read now that MH has taken a very similar approach to the situation that I would have done in his position.

To all those who say "let Benni go, Sparky will find a suitable replacement" I say just consider this. If benni or indeed any of our best players do go this close season, what is MH going to think? He has worked so hard and at last has got together a very good team, that just needs a cople of tweaks to make it into a top 4 challenging team. If he now has to suffer the loss of one or more of his best performers he is bound to think "what's the use?, I am wasting my time here, this club is never going to get any higher" Next thing, MH and his coaching team are offski! Is that what any of us wants to see? Think about it!!!

OK Tris. I am one of those that have been on his case as you put it. BUT, I have never criticised his play at all. I acknowledge that he is a top class striker and we are lucky to have him. My only beef with Benni has been about what I saw as a poor attitude, nothing to do with his performance on the pitch, and now he has said he will only leave if Rovers want to sell him, that will do for me. I am both confused and worried though by the latest developments i.e. the alleged interview in the Sun. I still think MH needs to get that clarified in no uncertain terms and there should be a full and unambiguous statement from the club to make crystal clear what the real situation is.

And therein lies the problem! Empty lifes, and empty heads!

If, as MH says in the LT article, the Sun has simply "cherry picked" quotes from an article in a Portugese newspaper, and Benni has not spoken to the Sun directly, but the Sun is claiming an "exclusive" from Benni, then surely both Benni and the Rovers have a cast iron case to sue the Sun for very considerable damages. How can the Sun possibly claim an exclusive interview with anybody if they have not spoken to them personally? No, there is definitely something very fishy going on here. MH needs to get the truth out of Benni ASAP and if it is as claimed by MH in the LT, then both Rovers and Benni should be starting an action against the Sun for damages and a complete and full appology and retraction of the story in the Sun.

Whilst I don't know what MH will make of all this, I do know what I would do if I was MH. First off I would get Benni in for a little chat, and find out the real truth of what Benni actually said and why. Then if it appears that Benni really does want to leave I would drop him from the squad for tomorrow, and point out that he has got 3 years remaining on his contract and that he is not going anywhere at any price until I feel it right to let him go. That gets us into the close season and he is not for sale. If he or his agent creates about this and insists on leaving, I would still oppose all offers from any source, and insist on Benni fulfilling his contract. He would have to play as well as he can in order to maintain any interest from any other club, and he could be dropped again if he showed any signs of sulking or not trying etc. He would soon realise that kind of thing gets him nowhere as no other team would be able to see his form and all the time he is not getting any younger. He would sooner or later see sense and settle down to be a good player for Rovers again. Alternatively Rovers could wait until the end of August and then list him as available for transfer at £15m (non negotiable).That way Benni would be in the shop window as it were and would have to play out of his skin to attract a buyer until at least January. By which time either some team would make an offer which Rovers could accept or refuse, and so on. Either way Rovers stay in control and will either have the benefit of a fully functional Benni or will have had half a season and hopefully a good goal tally from him before cashing in for a very lucrative sum, and hopefully the means to sign a very good replacement for Benni.

Absolutely right MR! You beat me to it. I had intended posting virtually the same as you but with the addition of a few more names. Let's see now; how many Rovers players in the last 12 months or so have had a very vociferous and prolonged attack on their abilities and/or usefulness to the team, and suddenly this seaon,as if by magic, they are all A1 OK. 1. MGP: He hides! Cant defend, Cant cross a ball, Cant be arsed, etc,etc. .....Different story now, eh? 2. Emerton: Ditto , but now he has emerged from his crysalis state Bert Mk1 to become Bert Mk2. 3. Mokoena: "The Axe" Cant tackle, cant pass, cant read the game etc..... All changed now eh? I could go on in this vein but it would take too much time and become very repetitive, so I will simply list a few more that have been well attacked and dismissed as useless by more than just a few on here. OOijer, Zurab, Neil, Gray, Bentley, Roberts, Benni, Nonda, Gally. There now that just about covers it, and when you look at that list it almost covers our entire squad. It makes you wonder what the players themselves think about it all?

I really feel that Nonda is worth a gamble and obviously Sparky must think the same. He obviously must still have his football brain in there and he will still have the natural striker's instincts. What he needs badly is match practice and a large dose of self-belief, which hopefully will come with games and MH and Co coaching. Got to be worth a shot at £1m to £2m. If we don't sign him, you can bet that one of our rivals e.g Everton, Bolton, Villa etc will.

More likely to be subconcious fear than anything physical. How do you overcome that? Hynosis? Or patient re-building by playing games at the top level? Or is there no way back? Who knows?

To all those that doubted what I and others have been trying to get them to understand about the excitement, atmosphere and sheer feeling of belonging attached to lower league football:- Just watch this vid clip!! That is absolutely typical of the feeling you get from watching any of the teams I mentioned earlier on the Rovers Sold thread earlier today. And I would go so far as to say it is absolutely typical of virtually any lower or non-league game.

Well done Stanley! But boy, did you make hard work of it? Still you got there in the end; Fantastic performance.

Either have the grace to admit your mistake, like most reasonable people would do. Or if that is beyond you at least dont try to be condescending to someone who is old enough to be your Grandfather and then some.

Who said anything about dropping Samba? Read my post in it's entireity. What I added to the quote I used was perfectly clear.

Plus todd can demonstrate the "steel" effect for Samba to learn.