Talk about delusion .

30 is no age these days . McCarthy can't keep up with the "top dogs" because he doesn't have their application and dedication to his profession . To a large degree he has wasted his talent .

Thankfully he has competition this season . Otherwise , if he had remained first choice striker we'd be fighting it out with the Dingles at the bottom of the league.

what a load of sh1te - first choice striker despite starting only half of the games?? people with this familiar attitude see what they wanna see and ignore the facts:

18 starts, 10 as sub, 10 goals (in the league)

better than 1 in 3 despite not starting over a third of the games, what more do you want from a striker??!

the reason he hasn't equalled his first season total is simply because he hasn't been given enough games in the last two season. look at the facts man. benni haters haven't a friggin leg to stand on.

MIDO !!!!!!!!!!! Do not mention this player again in the same breath as Blackburn Rovers, I'd rather play with 10 men ! You have been warned !

why not? do you know something we dont? he impressed alot last season and hasn't featured this season because of berbatov, keane and defoe - no shame in that.

mido and bellamy sounds like a class front line to me, i think they would form a very effective premiership partnership. bellamy's pace and finishing alongside mido's strength and skill are very welcome down at ewood for me.

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.

If you are so concerned by his alledged 'poor attitude', then why are you so 'worried' about speculation he may be sold?

It doesn't add up. I don't follow why those who are keen to criticise benni are also those up in arms about the inevitable speculation over his future. Either stop complainiong about out his contribuiton, or wave him on.

Tris is spot on. IMHO, benni bashers are lunatics.

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.

c'mon fife, the sun print trash every day. readers want rumours - we have whole threads based on rumours - imagine if every player in question sued when there was a dodgy quote printed, Britain doesn't have enough solicitors! rumours are part and parcel of football.

hughes on benni: "It is not a situation I am worried about", "I am as confident as I can be he will be here next season"

Now that sounds very encouraging - but the snippets are cherry picked....

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=4...+off+Benni+talk

well true or not it can't come as a surprise to us that arguably the best player to grace ewood in a decade has champions league aspirations, but after what he has said recently I doubt whether the quotes are accurate.

whatever happens, i will be very disappointed if i here any boo's tomo. let's not forget that it's only a rumour at this stage.

I honestly think that if McCarthy were given the opportunity to join Chelsea, he would turn them down. He must realise that he is not going to be first choice at Chelsea and that, even if he were, he'd likely be replaced within a season as soon as a better striker became available.

He hated not being first choice at Porto and regretted not joining the Premiership when he was younger. I doubt he'd waste his peak years on the bench at Chelsea.

Money might come into it, but his attitude is fantastic and he seems more interested in the playing side of things. He has ambition, but that seems to lie in getting our small club into Europe.

For the record, I don't think Chelsea will go for him.

tcj, i pray your right!

Interesting that despite hitting 5 goals in 6 league games we still can't bring ourselves to praise benni

to his critics (lazy lazy blah blah), why don't you stick his 21 goals up your @rse?

And what else (neither did anybody else really) - one pass does not constitute an improvement.

He has the ability and has played at a higher level - so why the less than convincing performances?

dip in form?

The reason Benni and Nonda take a lot of flak on these boards isn't due to their colour, surprisingly. It's down to the fact that both show questionable workrates.

Perhaps so, but Benni is our most successful premiership striker since shearer and some posters still try to tear him to shreds. To me that is completely insane.

Surely we can recognise that forwards have different styles, no? And if benni's style leads to 18 goals I'm not friggin' complaining! Whatsmore, the man has come across better than any other Rovers player in interview and is still adjusting to the premiership. Another thing that we forget to consider is a dip in form - this happens to the best of them and doesn't require knee jerk reactions and accusations. These factors do lead me to wonder why the minority of fans that are on his case can't cut him some slack...

Perhaps Jan's comments are wide of the mark, perhaps not - we'll never know. What we can be sure of is the worrying trend to brand a number (not all) of our black players lazy, both past and present.

Third top Premiership striker. Yeah, let's get rid...

FFS!!! Is it any wonder football fans have a reputation for being @rseholes? Some posters comments really wind me up at times. As someone else mnentioned, they are completely irrational and bull headed.

I haven't had a chance to see this kid in action... how good a prospect does he look?

Also, has there been any word on how long MGP's out for?

Sorry but i'm in the Riverside, but you get the picture all that grey interior can be transformed into blue and white, plus anything else like the nationality flags of every player representing Rovers - surely that would look good to the overseas viewer.

Anything other than that dull uninspiring interior grey paint, Ewood should be a gallery of colour linked to the club and other nationalities.

356174[/snapback]

JAL you've made two excellent suggenations, the atmosphere would improve for sure and the flags idea is innovative and unique.

Ewood would sound and look better for your suggestions.

I hope you take these suggestions to BRISA, good work.

credit must go to bellamy for not rising to souey's petty parting swipe. its been like a breath of fresh air on the board since his arrival, lets hope its the same on the pitch this season!

how much do lyn want for mikel?

Oh, and I'm sorry for starting a non-Rovers topic. Please continue to discuss Arsenals 7-0 defeat of Everton and Terry Venables' carreer.....

hahahah, brilliant.

far to much bitchin and point scoring on the board. top marks rainmaker

survival is as good as assured now - would i be right in saying we were scrapping for another game or two under souness last year? i cant quite remember.

hows fergie doing back at rangers?

Excellent, marvellous.

Another thread about Matt Jansen.

not sure its too out of place. thread is for discussing 'lineup next sesaon, possible ins/ out'. we're debating reasons for/against matt. fair enough.

9 points out of 15 with him at the back. impressive.

(appologies if this has already been posted)

Wow, youth and class! What wonerful quantifiable advantages those are.

Dickov is our top scorer, give hime some credit. I hate hate hate reading tripe about how penalties somehow don't count as goals - he gets criticised for missing one against Chelsea and then gets no credit for scoring the other three.

missed the point. he DOES have youth and class over dickov, dont know why you question that.

as for the penalties, never suggested they dont count, rather that jansen would also have netted 3 of the four.

this would have left jansen the modest task of 5 outfiield goals in 25 matches to be ahead dickov in the goals/games stake.

i believe radagast, you feel free to doubt.

He's NOT as good as any of the other current strikers, he can't concentrate on a game for 90 minutes, has no positional sense and finds it difficult to cope.

vogue, bandwagon criticisms based on little first hand evidence and frustration at our lack of goals! before we can judge he needs a decent run in the team!

dickov has only 6 outfield goals this season from 27 games (25 starts); jansen has 2 goals (one as a sub) from 7 games, only 3 were starts.

if matty had started (had he been fit) a further 25 games he would have found more than additional 4 goals. simple as. and doubtless he'd have put away at least 3 of the pens.

can anyone with more time than me find minutes to goals ratio - that would silence some critics who regard PAUL DICKOV as a hero!

writing him of demonstrates how fickle fans can be because the facts prove he has not had a fair crack!

remember his goal against liverpool last year? he has youth, class and stats over dickov, how can he be justifiably written off?

does anybody know if there will be any tickets left over to buy tonight?

if not is it on the tele? i cant see it on the listings

FC Porto cos theyve played in blue and white halves the odd season. desperately want that kit, anyone know the last season they played in halves (Oklahoma...)

Clitheroe FC (grew up their)

Accy Stanley (born their)

R.O.I (got some blood)

Luton (Newell)

Blackpool (Hendry)

I think its reasonable to have a mild affection for other clubs RIB. Can't but admire the wasy the gunners knock it about either (BUT i dont like em!), and if duff scores for chelsea im always chuffed (BUT dont like em)

a few sub appearances would do no harm. last seasons goal against liverpool shows he still got something.

he deserves one last crack in the close season, especially now we have some breathing space between relegation.