Spring 2004, Craven Cottage, Monday. Still in the relegation battle, needed a win. 0-1 Cole, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2 Douglas, 2-3 Amoruso drills a free kick in, 3-3, 3-4 Stead. My pulse was close to 200 for the whole two hours.

There will be a large booing noise the next time Benni turns up at Ewood to play.

It's more probable that I) West Ham has been relegated (and Benni's gone on strike), II) by the time of the fixture Benni has been released and gone to Spain or III) Benni's on strike.

Good stalling tactics by Rovers. It would be a suicide to let him play against us.

Hammer time for training-dodger Benni McCarthy after West Ham-bound striker is blasted by Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has slammed striker Benni McCarthy, a West Ham transfer target, for going AWOL.

The South African forward, whom the club believe is in Spain, missed training sessions on Monday and last Friday and is keen to quit Ewood Park after falling out with Allardyce over his fitness.

Now West Ham plan to take advantage by tabling a reduced offer of £1.5million for the 32-year-old, with the move expected to be completed this week.

Allardyce feels he has little option but to agree a deal and plans to use the cash to sign Stoke’s James Beattie.

The Flying Finn, Shefki Kuqi, has returned to Britain from Germany and signed for Swansea for free. Promotion is looming..

That article is hilarious.

A player that would have "the utmost respect" towards Allardyce and the board wouldn't be calling to the SSN with half a Big Mac in his mouth bragging about not being in the training and refusing to play..

HSV Hamburg confirms van Nistelrooy -signing

Wasn't sure which thread would be the best, but this'll do since West Ham didn't get the Dutch.

But if I was the manager I wouldn't be happy if after 12 months a player still hadn't reached his target weight.

I find that unbelievable and can only occur if the player doesn't give a ######.

Seconded. If he has already been fined twice, what the hell the manager is supposed to do? Keep on fining him? Or arrange personal sessions with the fitness coach? And if the player goes to the press instead of the manager about his unhappiness, get rid.

Shefki Kuqi will be spearheading the TuS Koblenz's attack with his younger brother, Njazi, tomorrow in the first league game in the season. Yelldell is still at the club too.

Benni McCarthy is considering his future at Blackburn Rovers.

The Sun says the South Africa striker is eyeing a move to Spain or Portugal.

But team-mate Roque Santa Cruz is also keen to leave, so Rovers may hang on to him for now.

http://www.tribalfootball.com/blackburn-st...l-return-246896

TribalFootball, yes, I know. Anyone have The Sun?

I might be alone here, but I'd sell Benni for £8M. There's absolutely no way he'll score as much as last season (mostly due to the change of unbelievably poor Nonda to Santa Cruz) and he really seems to have lost all motivation (despite few odd good moments against Everton). After lacklustre season and ~10 goals, he'll be worth the £2,5M we spent on him next summer and we've "lost" £5,5M. I really hope he proves me wrong, but ..

budha, are you a kimi fan because I am and I was really pleased that he won today.

A bit off topic?

Not really, I don't follow F1 that much. And due to my malicious nature, I'd rather see him lose so I can rant to his fans

"COME AND GET ME"

.. or I'll go on strike.

Do we take academy players into consideration too? Former Rovers academy (2004-05) player, Finnish U19-midfielder Toni Kolehmainen plays for AZ Alkmaar in Dutch Eredivisie. Or most probably in the youth / reserve / second team setup (or whatever it's called there).

I can't see us getting anything over £10M, but even that's a huge profit for the £1.8-2.5M he cost us.

Hopefully the transfer happens in early summer and Hughes has time to find a suitable replacement(s). We'd be in serious trouble if he'd stay with us until CL registration end and Mourinho making a late minute bid. Then our hands would be tied and we'd have to pay a huge fee for some last minute panic buy.

Hopefully so, few odd goals here and there doesn't justify the lacklustre performances, lack of skill and ability and the fact that he really doesn't compliment our #1 striker McCarthy in any way. Agree with joey that Roberts and Derbs would be good choices for #3 and #4, all we need is a starting partner for Benni.

Bitter? Surely, but nevertheless, I wonder where were AC Milan's and Barcelona's who Harrison(?) leaked to be battling for his signature since summer?

Obviously it's impossible to know what Lucas actually is thinking, but somehow the quotes of it not being about the money seem absurd - we would've offered 40k, Liverpool probably 30k and Hammers apparently 60k. The quote "I might've not gotten a game if I would've joined Liverpool" doesn't really sound like an ambitious player - if he really would've wanted to achieve trophies and play CL, I would imagine taking the RB position from Finnan at Liverpool wouldn't feel like mission impossible.

And on the "blew me away" quotes, blah. So, the Icelander has thrown some Tottenham-alike names at him and suddenly he sees Hammers to be a more prominent club than Liverpool? The likes of Quashie and Davenport have blown him away? Undoubtedly Hammers will splash more cash before end of the window and should they stay up, in the summer, but I can't imagine them signing anyone blowing anyone away.

Even thou Lucas has been a good servant and surely I would've liked to see him sign a new deal, part of me looks forward of summer interview with Lucas after Hammers have been relegated, the Icelanders have left and the earmarked signings of Danny Cadamarteri and Frank Sinclair have been unveiled.

Comes live at Canal+ in Finland and they've drawn the formation as 4-1-4-1

McEveley seems to be playing at LB and Gray above him. Otherwise the suggested 4-1-4-1 seems accurate .. for now

Comes live at Canal+ in Finland and they've drawn the formation as 4-1-4-1

Friedel

Neill-Ooijer-Todd-Gray

Tugay

Bentley-Savage-Gamst-McEveley

McCarthy

But I guess we'll just need to wait and see what it actually is.

Damn, M'boro equalized, but Charlton are being hammered at WHL. Rovers goal would make my day, week and year.

Edit: M'boro, not Wigan

Silver lining is that Charlton and M'boro are losing and hopefully Liverpool and Reading can beat Fulham and Watford respectively. That would mean only Newcastle go past us in the table.

Hopefully Hughes can do something about this bunch of uninterested "footballers" and make the team to fight for their faces on the second half. Scoring twice seems impossible, but good performance would perhaps create something towards the Reading game.

No reason to get involved in the bidding war. Even if Hughes and Williams could scrap the needed 8 figure sum somewhere, we could use the sum far more wisely. Not that it's going to happen either, but I'd take Becks over SWP any day.

We really should concentrate on the left back, central midfield and striker issues rather than trying to get involved in SWP saga. The Neill <-> Bridge swap sounds really good, hopefully Hughes can fool Mouninho & Arnesen to swallow the bait.

We're really missing in Savage and Reid. Mokoena can't play football and Tugay is suffering too much from that. Looks like a really important run at December when we face Fulham, Charlton, Newcastle and Reading - if we can't beat Man Utd and/or Tottenham.

Commentators claiming that Gamst's freekick was blocked with hand? Anyone saw it, I partly missed it, Petrov was it? Commentators saying that it was more a penalty than the Ooijer's.

Edit: Thanks Dan