Not turned up for training yesterday according to Radio 5.

The bloke is an arrogant idiot

Full story here (BBC)

This is why Wiganers are called pie-eaters:

...snip...

In fairness they do eat a lot of pies, too. I've wandered round Wigan on a Saturday afternoon and seen em

"I'm bound for't'shop for't'get some pies. Baat ate."

The actor playing one of the main characters in the TV family, Zak Dingle, lives in Burnley.

The first time I heard the Burnley fans described as 'Dingles' was by Preston fans and then it seemed to be adopted by the Rovers fans. The nickname has proved an irritant to some of the Clarets as it is connected with Yorkshire and a particularly dumb family.

As an aside some of the Bolton fans use the same term for us but others call us the Clampetts. Never bothered me what they say though as they make Burnley fans appear intelligent

To confuse matters further some supporters of West Midlands clubs call Wolves fans Dingles as well.

It's mentioned on this MB somewhere.

Who cares about his attitude, I want a striker who scores 20+ every season, not a son in law.

Nice to see a sensible contribution to the Benni Mac debate. Nice one herb!

Take the word 'journeyman' out of that quote and it sums up football. Practically every player at Ewood would jump at the chance of signing for Chelsea if they were good enough and wanted.

Well said Hasta. Folks carping on about loyalty should realise that footballers' loyalty to their clubs only goes so far, same as most folks with their employers in fact.

Yup. Great news for Rovers, terrible news for Bentley's England career. It'll take a miracle (or for the cynics, a move to a top 4 side) to stop him becoming another "nearly man".

Fab Rav booted Dunny up in the air-it was down near us, you could here Dunn scream as he got wacked.

Ravioli scored from a great free kick, (on Derby debut), I think Malcolm Christe poached a second. Blakey then notched, and we would have got a draw if the ref had not disallowed a perfectly legit Jansen goal in the last minute. Not much has changed then eh?

Loads of Rovers fans went, and it got a bit tasty outside too with the Derby fans after the match. Funny ground PP, a bit like St Marys it is round and can be a bit dis-orientating from the outside.

Ref gesturing "get up" at Dunn, as if he'd dived. Bloody shambles that.

Missed the aggro I'm happy to say.

As far as I'm aware, nobody has been injured and we have Jamie Carragher, Nick Shorey, Phil Neville and Wayne Bridge all available as cover?...

Surely that should read "Jamie Carragher, Nick Shorey, and Wayne Bridge"?

My 2p is Carragher did a decent job and should get the nod if not needed at centre half.

Edit: my 2p, then a typo

28 weeks later didn't do it for me..why was Robert Carlyle's character made intelligent when clearly all the other rage victims had no ounce of intelligence or self-awareness whatsoever.

Even so, roll on 28 months later, i'm sure to go watch it.

Saw it last night and agree 100% on Robert Carlyle popping up at every opportunity.

It doesn't hold a candle to the 1st film but was still great fun.

I especially enjoyed loathsome Canary Wharf going up in smoke!

It's great to see a couple of Rovers players in the England teams. Maybe we won't be ignored by everyone so much now.

Hopefully the people of Blackburn won't ignore us and a few more might bother to show up on matchday!

I think you under estimate Villas spending power, rumour has it they have a warchest of going on £40m this summer. Anyway, All Benni has been saying through all this saga is that he wants chamions league football. Why would he go to villa, Newcastle or Boro when they aren't even in the intertoto never mind the uefa cup and a million miles away from the CL.

I can see West ham making a cheeky bid, but again, nothing to attract Benni, he's come out recently and said money is not an issue for him.

I honestly believe the only clubs we have to worry about are

Chelsea

Man U

Valencia

Seville

Liverpool

Arsenal

Barcelona

R Madrid

purely because they are in the CL next season and in the best leagues.

Using your logic above, that rules out Chelsea (although the rumours refuse to go away). I cant see Man U buying Benni now as you say (hes too old and would cost what they would consider to be to much for a 29 yr old). Is he really the type of player that Liverpool are after, especially after all the bullish talk of having to spend over £15m on top drawer midfielders and even more for strikers. Wenger would baulk at the price we would ask, plus I dont think he fits into their plans or style of play.

As for the Spanish clubs, it all depends on whether he's willing to move back to Spain now that hes finally realised his dream of playing in the premiership. Lets assume for arguments sake that he would be willing to move back. Madrid and Barcelona forget it, they are after bigger fish. That leaves Seville and Valencia. Hmmm, its not beyond the realms of possibility that one of those clubs will try and lure him back after all his talk of wanting CL football. Even so, i'm not convinced that they will bid and think the prospects of Benni leaving this Summer are slim and all Benni is doing is dreaming of playing in the CL again. If the worst does happen and we do sell him, I believe we will be £15m richer at least.

Of your list I can really only see Chelsea going for him. He's available for "silly money" (can't remember if that's a direct quote or something I've imagined), which in the light of the new Sky deal would be too silly for any but the largest foreign clubs, clubs who would be more likely to be in the market for someone younger.

I agree Man U won't be paying silly money on him after their current spending spree, which leaves Liverpool and Chelsea. Liverpool are talking about the likes of Villa and Eto'o. With the greatest of respect to Benni, signing him after such talk would be almost as disappointing as signing Heskey (or me for that matter). I think only Chelsea can afford the silly money we're (hopefully) after.

My 2p: Benni's a terrific striker and the best possible result of all this is him getting another 20-odd goals for us next season!

i honestly think matt derbyshire will suprise a few next season,if he notched 20 goals for us,and say manure came in for him,would'nt it be great if he turned round and said,i'm more than happy to stay at ewood,i can realise my ambitions here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!sorry thats me just dreaming

I have a similar dreams - like the roof going off when he scores his 195th goal for the club!

Who wil be the No:7 on Friday, Bentley or Beckham??

I expect Beckham to start (good form plus nobody else puts so many bums on seats) and Bentley to finish (Becks all tired out; an agreement with LA Galaxy not to play the whole game or even a plain old good call from the manager)

Either way the chance to watchs Bentley in a senior England makes this a friendly to bother watching.

Did you know that Shabani Nonda is an anagram of HANNA SAID NOB ?

Also ABANDON A SHIN

NO, PLEASE NO!!

i have just had a very nice conversation with a swedish girl, to make me grin like a cheshire cat and then i come on here, and now reading this and being told by my mate in blackburn....it is like being hit with a ###### brick!!!

i know that sparky is very rarely wrong...but 99% of rovers fans if you asked them would say that we don't want nonda at rovers anymore.

It's great that you speak for 99% of supporters. I'm part of the 1% that want him to stay. Not to start every week, but to stay on as cover for Benni and Roberts.

For Sale: Blackburn Rovers An Illustrated History

Note this is not the book with the results of every game in it but is a very nice and well-researched history of the club.

I'm surprised Sergio has re-signed with the club. He's not getting a sniff, rightly or wrongly, behind Pedersen.

If I had Sergio behind me, I'd rather he wasn't sniffing

Not to worry folks, the Yanks have found its cause:

You can't make this stuff up!

Yes, all you hear when you go to france is people talking about them. Oui this and Oui that :ph34r:

All I ever heard from French lasses was "non"

As Colin mentioned 'One hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez on another thread I will recommend it on here. An awesome book by one of the greatest writers in the world. It is in a genre described as 'magical realism' and is a pleasure to read.

Huge Marquez fan. I finished "Strange Pilgrims" just last night.

I'd also recommend another Latin American titan: Mario Vargas Llosa. Personally I prefer his books to GGM, especially his more recent works.

To follow "Strange Pilgrims" I borrowed "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman off the lodger for a bit of light relief.

Hold on a minute, that's like saying take Van Nistelrooy's finishing away and he would be very average! Of course he would - it's his main attribute. Lennon doesn't just have pace, he has pace that in my opinion only a few players on the world stage can match. Yes, there are areas of his play that can be improved upon, but like Bentley he is still developing. Remember though, Lennon is only NINETEEN.

If I were to give Bentley a chance it wouldn't be at the expense of Lennon. I would perhaps try J Cole on the left, Bentley and Gerrard in the middle, and Lennon on the right.

But hey....it will NEVER happen. McClaren does not have the balls to drop any of Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Ferdinand etc for an extended period of time.

Joe Cole's out for the season My vote for the left would be Downing. Not that impressive so far for England but at least he's got a left foot.

We had a striker in Dickov who ran all day long for you, anyone really want to go back to that? It's often a fact that some of the most skilfull strikers can also be quite lazy at times, Anelka, Yorke even Henry has been criticised. You either accept them for the qualities they have or you don't but very rarely do you change them.

When Benni gets good service he is outstanding, when he doesn't he doesn't do much. We had striker in Bellamy who could create plenty but was a poor finisher and now we have one who doesn't create a lot but is a fantastic finisher. Anyone want one who does both? Stump up the £30m for Drogba.

Agree with every word of that.

We can have Dickov-like graft or Benni-like class. If a striker offers both, we can't afford him.

Try em with offering £32 but promising to leave after 80 mins.

ManUre would never go for that when half their home fans leave early for free

Not sure about this. He hasn't really pulled up any trees this season and Rovers aren't exactly falling over themselves to secure his services. I suspect an agent at work with the Pompey/Fulham link.

The Fiver mentioned Pompey's interest a few days ago. He fulfils all of 'Arry's criteria, i.e. he'll be cheap.

Personally I like Nonda and hope he stays with us. He's not had the most prolific season, tis true, but he's been in Benni's shadow.

Nonda seems to be a complete enigma; he scores extremely difficult goals that nobody would ever expect him to, and completely misses the easiest chances that I am sure even I at my present age could convert.

Beamo!