Take the armband off him and let him sit in the reserves. Simple as that. How long is Hughes gonna keep him as captain? Right up until he leaves? Surely that has to have a negative effect on the team. He needs to do it now, regardless of how well he's playing.

Bolton 0 - 1 Birmingham

4 Tottenham Hotspur 32 15 10 07 46 32 14 55

5 Arsenal 31 16 05 10 53 23 30 53

6 Blackburn Rovers 32 16 05 11 43 37 06 53

7 Bolton Wanderers 31 13 09 09 43 35 08 48

Big 3 points on Saturday and Bolton will find themselves struggling to keep up

I thought Savage's comment the other day was very good. "Me and Tugay are complete opposites - He has skill and ability, and I'm pretty good looking"

Very true. As much as I like Robbie Keane, I wish he would stop scoring for Spurs!!

I would be very wary of selling him. Whatever his value on the Market is, what are the chances of getting a player as good as him for the same money? Very little I think.

The only way I could see it happening is

a) we get a massive bid

AND

he wants to leave

I doubt it will happen. Still it's a good sign to have 2 players linked with moves to United. Shows we are on the up. If we can keep the squad together and make a couple of Sparky Special Signings in the Summer we'll Sorted.

Say that with a few pints on ya!

We really need another top striker in the summer I think. Ok we wont have the cash for another Bellamy but we need another consistent striker. Dunno bout anyone else but the more goals Bellamy scores the more worried I get about what will happen if we lose him for a few months (or permanantly).

Glass is half empty today

Liverpool fans singing "going down, going down, going down" - Brum fans retorted with "so are we, so are we, so are we".

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hahahaha brilliant!

This reminds me of the time we went to West Ham after they hadn't won a home game all season, they eventually got relegated but still managed to beat us that night.

I'd love us to win it, but I have grave concerns.... Sunderland have recently got rid of their manager and although there has not really been an upturn in performance I feel there will have to be one soon. I just hope it doesn't come against us.

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I travelled over from Ireland for that game

Have to agree about the potential banana skin, Sunderland always worry me. In saying that, if Tugay is fit then himself, bellars and ped could run amok. The glass is half full today

4-0 Rovers

Pongolle (x2)

Reid

Bellamy

I know that Rovers agreed instantly to the change of time for the kick-off when requested to do so by Liverpool F.C. Unfortunately I cant remember exactly where I read it, but it was certainly not just on this MB. Could well have been the Rovers official website.

Can anyone else help out?

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Yeah Im 99% sure I read that on the official site. I also seem to recall Liverpool expressing that they were delighted at how accomodating Rovers had been.

Banana skin written all over it. Hope Im wrong...

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Yep. I always have a horrible feeling when we play Villa. We need to be careful but the points are there for the taking

I think 6th or 7th. Arsenal and/or Bolton will possibly end up above us. Still wide open though, the next 2 games will give us a much better idea.

If we get a result on Sunday I'd be disappointed to see us finish below 5th.

I'll take 4th though

Agreed. That 2nd article is ridiculous. Hughes deserves nothing but credit for being able to deal with Bellamy and is getting the best out of him. Something most other managers couldnt do.

1st article is very good though.

a team full of young british talent like jenas, lennon, carrick, king, defoe and KEANE

Ahem...

Sorry, cudnt let that one go

I'm a long-time Rovers supporter who nows works for Sky Sports.

One thing that I'm sure will interest you all was the reason for the lack of comments from Sparky post-match.

As some of you have already said, Jim Proudfoot, the Sky commentator was fishing when he asked Arsene Wenger three times to comment about Rovers 'physical' style. Each time Wenger didn't take the bait, so to speak, so the interviewer persisted.

Hughes had heard this and off the air laid into Proudfoot and refused to be interviewed by Sky and, in fact, threatened to boycott interviews with the company altogether.

To paraphrase Hughes claimed that he had had to put up with that kind of rubbish for over a year and made Proudfoot apologise for attempting to open up a whole new can of worms - good on ya Sparky!

To be fair to Wenger on this occasion, he was quite gracious and didn't actually choose to blame Rovers for their 'robust' approach.

I write a lot of Rovers' news and a fair few of our match reports for the website so, have faith, the mis-representation of the club in the national media is now on the wane - hopefully.

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Do you still have a job at Sky after posting that??

Personally I'm glad everyone is arguing about this kind of rubbish. If this is all we can find to give out about then the future looks bright

Absolutely fantastic result! The only dissappointment was the attendance. 5th place in the Premier League, beating Arsenal, 22,000 attendance?! There's been enough threads on that I suppose though.

Even bigger game on Sunday, a tougher one imo. Badly need to get a result though, even if just to consolidate 5th.

On the Peter issue, he is still young. He needs games, he wont play well in all of them. If Pederson doesnt make it I wouldnt see a problem playing him. I'm sure Sparky has the answer though...