Wondering if anything came of this...did anyone get any clips uploaded, or could they? I'd love to see the man in action.

He played in 20 games this season - but accept that this possibly wasn't the reason. Possibly, more likely that they were future-proofing his contract. At the end of this season he would enter the third year of a four year deal, at which point he would be able to buy his way out of it under the new FIFA regulation.

No, he wouldn't. He would enter the second year of a four year deal. However, the rules as I remember state that players can buy themselves out in the 2nd year of a 3 year deal, or the 3rd year of a 5 year deal. Bizarrely the article I read never said anything about a four year deal. But assuming it takes a 5th year to make it last three years, this contract makes sense. Otherwise it doesn't, as we would still have had two years before he could buy himself out. He probably got a wage bump too. Short might have been doing a job for us at 37, but it wasn't a 20k a week job. Mind, I expect if the Admiral stops performing well enough to warrant his wage he'll be off.

Incidentally, Henchoz contract has ran out. And we haven't heard anything about whether it will be extended? If it's not going to be we'd probably be advised to get a new centre half in.

I also agree we should future proof Samba's contract. I have a feeling he will really grow this year (Not physically...that would be scary) and turn into a highly coveted player. It would be wise to avoid having to bump his wage to 30k a week or something in a year, and just put him on 12-15k or whatever now on a 5 year deal.

Bents isnt even on the bench They could have given him a couple of weeks off but no, now he has to meet up with the under 21's then when thats done he will be back with us. He will be wrecked by xmas

From all the England games he's not playing? Ridiculous that he's not on the bench, what was the bloody point of calling the poor lad up. Knew he wouldn't get a shot against Estonia, just astonished he never got a chance in the friendly. Cruel thing to do to a player on his first call up. Especially with Lennon out. He's not going to get anymore chances until he's had some Premiership games, and even then he's going to have to play like a man possessed.

Dunno, signing serial relegatee Upson didn't get Wham relegated. Besides, the lad saved us from relegation let us not forget.

I laugh at the people on there who would rather have Pennant

Really? I prefer to laugh at almost all of them. The most amusing suggestions are:

1. That we would possibly sell Bentley for £6 million. Anything less than 10 I would personally find insulting.

2. At least two of them seem to think Pedersen would be better. Any Rovers fan could tell them that Bentley has easily been the better player this season. They need to stop judging based on pretty goals on MOTD.

3. Of course, suggestions that Pennant is better than Bentley, or even that Bentley is a similar option/level to Pennant.

My God! One report from a red top without quotes and you're already slagging him off!!!!!

Link needed to Extras series 2 when Andy "assaults Down Syndrome kid and his mother in restaurant rage"

"But it must be true, it's written...."

Hope you noticed I said 'if true'...I'm not assuming any truth in it, just expressing my opinion in the case that it is true.

If they offer him more money then I don't see why he wouldn't go there. It's unlikely that he'll be in our starting line-up, especially if we bring in another striker this summer, so I can understand why he would consider all of his options.

If they offer more money then maybe. But that isn't what that little article suggests when it says he might 'turn his nose up' at the prospect of playing for us permanently. That kind of arrogance from an average player would (if true) be unacceptable in my book.

If he even considers turning his nose up at us to go to Newcastle, then bugger him.

Wow, I'm quite surprised Lawro predicted Wigan would get 54 points

Is that based on weekly predictions too? That means he kept on backing them, despite their naffness.

Pretty pleased with my joint fourteenth placed finish in my first season. Steered well clear of relegation and hoping to kick on next year

Got two of the three relegated teams, and Fulham could have easily gone down too...I never felt Reading were going to be in severe trouble, but boy did they outperform my expectations! Overestimated Wigan too. Looking forward to next season's predictions!

Well, you suggesting that we sign Doyle is entirely the same as a Reading fan suggesting that they could sign Bentley, McCarthy or MGP.

Of course we could sign Reading players if we had something to offer them (CL football, first team football if they are not getting it where they are, more money, playing in front of more fans etc). All we can realistically give Doyle is intertoto cup footie, and I don't think its an outrageous statement to say I severely doubt he will give a toss about that. If Reading got into the intertoto and we didn't can you imagine pedersen bashing down the door of the Mad-jet-ski stadium?

Though I agree with most of the rest of what you said, it really isn't quite like this. Reading are in their first season up, whilst we've had fairly consistent European football since we came back up. We haven't already lost our key player. Benni McCarthy is a champions league winner who just finished second top scorer in the league and is apparently wanted by Chelsea. MGP has long since been linked with most of the biggest clubs in the country. Bentley has played for one of those clubs. All three are players who, if they should leave us, will almost certainly be doing so for a top four team. I haven't heard anything about anyone wanting Doyle. The reason being most are still wondering whether he is a flash in the pan. He was playing for Cork City until two years ago. I rate Doyle, but he's not at the same level as those three yet. And intertoto footy in itself is of course useless, but the rather likely UEFA Cup footy we stand to get isn't. Meanwhile, as has been stated, Reading are likely to be finishing below us next season.

I can't imagine Pedersen banging down their door no, but that would largely be because A: he has been linked with the top sides and B: he has already had European football with us.

(Edit: Cheers Daren ...also, I didn't mean to infer Doyle IS a flash in the pan, just that many seem to be thinking he could be...personally I feel he looks a good player and would be delighted to have him here at the right price if it ever became possible)

Sorry to depress everyone but I take the noise coming out of Chelsea as very bad news indeed.

Chelsea are saying:

1) we want McCarthy (they haven't done before)

2) we are openly inviting Benni to be a rebel at Rovers so

3) we can get away with paying sub £10m if we are lucky.

Where you getting this from?

It seemed obvious to me from Steve Mclaren's press conference that Bentley will start on the right with Lennon on the left. He appeared to name both his defence and midfield from right to left. He was also very complimentary about Bentley

What, with Barry in the centre?

I really hope they play Bentley on the right, all game, or McClaren isn't going to see what he can do.

Still can't see anybody else bar Chelski coming in for him unless Owen leaves Newcastle or the Hammers relight their interest or their is another clause in some form or another , especially at the amount I would expect us to be looking for

If either of those try and sign him, I'll just be amused. He wants Champions League football. Here we have a good shot at the next best thing, UEFA Cup football. At West Ham and Newcastle they have no European competition at all.

As far as other UEFA cup teams go...Bolton can just outright forget it, Spurs have two thousand strikers, Everton...vaguely possible if it weren't for the fact that none of them have much chance anyway given that we're likely to be in it too, he gets good service here and has a progressive manager. From the Champions League lot, expect Arsenal to lack transfer funds again, Man United to not be especially interested (Looking at Villa and the like for a lot more cash and already have quite a few good forwards), and Liverpool also to be looking for bigger fish. Chelsea is the real threat, but it now seems they're not one either.

However, if he's not off we might want to try and get him on a new contract. From what I understand, players on 3 year contracts in his age bracket can buy their contract out after the second year, and players on 5 year contracts can buy it out after the third year, in order to move to foreign clubs. I don't know where that leaves Benni, who signed four year deal, but the inference seems to be that after two years he could buy it out.

Id say £10 million is the absolute minimum. At the end of the day he is hitting 30, he is due the 2nd season (where he will be marked alot more closely) and we only paid a quarter of that amount!

Anything less then no thanks!

Everything except the first sentence and the conclusion there seems to suggest get shut!

He gave two interviews.

That seems to be the general impression, but I can't find the date of the Nuts awards. Interestingly though they will be broadcast on 23rd May, so maybe we'll all get to see exactly what Benni said.

Um, lovely idea that but as he is not our slave we can't deny him his wages. He has signed a contract and any fine has to be shown to be a) proportional to the 'crime' not over the maximum term of four (or eight. But i think its four) weeks.

Well, surely every time he refuses to play, or refuses to train, he is blatantly not honouring his contract and is eligible for a fine. You don't pay someone for doing nothing. So fine him every time he refuses. But he won't. Someone mentioned how he honoured his contract at Porto. Unfortunately, he also played considerably crapper there that season, scoring only three goals in the league and one in Europe compared with 14 in a similar amount of games the year before. That's what worries me. That and that we just might be mugs enough to sell for way less than he's worth...if he goes for £6 million though I think we should hold a protest.

Extraordinary remarks from McCarthy that must infuriate Hughes and are surely deserving of a fine.

Good idea. The way to deal with this is to fine him, making him want to leave the club.

Firstly, he has been wonderful to watch this season and his goals have been both regular and at times sublime. At £2.5 million he was a bargain. The club can not lose. We either have a 20 goal a season striker playing for us next season or we get £8 million plus for a 29 year old facing a difficult second season in the PL. Whether anyone will pay good money for Benni I do not know.

Alternatively, we could keep a 29 yr old facing a difficult second season in the PL, or sell a 20-goal a season striker for £8 million, is the flipside. So, we can lose. As for cash...I should think 8 mill is the minimum we could and should expect from a club like Chelsea. Personally I'll be angry if we sell any of our best three attacking players (Bents, Benni, Pedersen) for less than 15 million. Or in Bentley's case, less than 25.

I don't see the point in England B games if he's going to include Phil Neville, Lennon, Dyer, Robinson,Downing etc - what exactly is he going to find out about them that he didn't already know??? Very strange.

Well, maybe he'll finally find out that Phil Neville is a crock of crap and shouldn't be anywhere near the England setup.

In my opinion he is never going to be a Premiership player. The contract is to make sure we get a fee for him when he goes.

For christ's sakes, he's 20 years old! And you can't say he hasn't shown flashes of quality. He's done some fantastic crossing. There's time for him to develop. To me, it was ludicrous he never got a real run when Pedersen was playing awfully, and it's also a reason he isn't playing consistently. Pedersen was USELESS when he first showed up don't forget. We give foreign buys chances all the time.

And like Eddie implies, if Peter isn't going to make it, I struggle to see which of our other youthies is likely to!

They did it,

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=4...entley+to+shine

they wrote a story about bentley and not once do they mention the "former arsenal trainee"

The last one they did about him didn't say that either. But either way, I don't expect this to be the last time we hear that phrase attached to him. Could be a couple of years before it drops, if ever. Even nowadays, I still see Savage referred to as the former Manchester United trainee. The guy's 32 and was there when he was a teenager.

I don't think it matters how long ago his injury was. It was SAVAGE, and a lot of injuries like that, you never really heal from. I got a much gentler toe injury over two years ago now. I didn't play for over a year and a half, and I don't think it's ever going to fully heal. In the meantime I picked up an ankle injury just because I tripped over something while kicking around. And that seems even less likely to heal completely, and very likely to cause me future problems. What didn't happen to me in either case was my toe or my leg get slammed to a ridiculous angle like what happened to Shabani.

But do I think we should keep him around for 2 million? Nope. Oh and I see very little similarity, apart from being African, between Benni and Nonda.

Err no it doesn't: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Flitcroft - "Place of birth Bolton, Lancashire, England"

Don't believe everything Wikipedia says anyway

Er, that's Garry Flitcroft...weren't we talking about Matt Derbyshire? And I don't believe everything it says...my lecturers won't let me!

I'm sure he was born in Horwich, which as you know comes under Bolton.

*Shrug* Wikipedia says born Blackburn.

He ain't "local" - he's from Bolton isn't he?

Er, no? Born Blackburn