I guess, at the end of the day, we get our best midfielder fully fit and raring to go for the start of next season, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. It is a shame though that poor planning/communication and bad advice has all-but ended the international career (in the short term at the very least) of the first Rover in years to look like breaking into the national side. I know a lot of people are claiming they don't care for U21 games or even the national side, but the pride expressed by many of us at Derbyshire and Bentley playing at the new Wembley etc. suggests to me otherwise, and I suspect quite a few people share my feeling of disappointment that we're unlikely to see Bentley in an England squad for some time.

To be sure he may be fully fit and raring to go ........and if he does have another good season he may well have to make the decision that the only way he'll be allowed back into the England fold is by moving away to a top club where it will become more easy for the England management (whoever that is at the time) to pick him again .

The bottom line is that every player aspires to play for their country in a major competition and Bentley is no different . His actions have been counterproductive and not only have been a slap in the face to the current England management team - they have been a slap in the face to ANY management team . A player cannot simply dictate to those who pick the team when he plays and where he plays . Bentley is not Maradona - he is expendable . We all know McClaren isn't the greatest ever England manager but he is in charge like it or not ; and whatever Pearce's limitations as a manager his honesty and integrity is massively respected by supporters in general and some of the comments made on here about him are embarrassing .

The vast majority who have posted on here in Bentley's favour and against Pearce would not have done so if it had been a non Rovers player involved ....and it's no good blaming the red tops for the stick he's getting ; it's more widespread than that if people care to look around .

Which leaves us with those with the opinion of "couldn't care less about England ....only Rovers matter " . That's a valid opinion although it's one which personally I've only contempt for ....but such posters should not complain if ever Derbyshire is overlooked in the future - in fact they should be glad . Nor should they ever complain about the lack of loyalty in the game ; If a player can so easily turn on his back on his country at any level then be sure he'll have no qualms at turning his back on a club like Blackburn when he feels the need.......

One final point - what were the views of those who believe the under 21's to be a "running joke" when Bentley scored at Wembley or when Derbyshire first pulled on the shirt ? I can't remember them posting that at the time .........and as for Billy Castell's moronic comments further up the thread I just wonder the reaction if he had posted such cretinous utterings on any other nation than England !

Well let's hope Pearce picks up the phone and tells McClaren on the other end that he has a player on his hands who's obviously not willing to sweat sweat for his country never mind blood .

Hopefully McClaren and Pearce will decide to give him a long , long , long rest from playing for England again ......

People seem to be forgetting that possibly Dyer's best game for England came at right back, although admittedly that came a few years ago.

I must admit it had slipped my mind.......

The name of his source: The Honorable Mr. Bull Turd

Nah....it's Tooting Rover ...

The England team cannot pass the ball around like the continentals or south americans. We cannot do the neat inter-play thing with the long periods of effortless possession. Yet, because others can, we are trying to do so and failing quite miserably at it (think last world cup). We have players who are excellent at long passes and crosses. We have a big man who can win headers. Why don't we give-up on continental style and ideals that pundits repeat religiously? We might not have Allardyce in charge but surely seeing as we can't compete at the passing game we should play to our strengths?

We might attract ridicule and criticism for being boring and rudimentary (like Bolton) but if it's effective - why not? We're hardly playing delightful football now.

The reason why we are failing is that we are falling between two worlds - playing at an unaturally slow pace against technically superior players (at the highest level that is )

The way to beat the Brazils of this world is to pick our best footballers (obviously) and to ask them very politely to play at full pelt for 90 minutes ; passing and moving and closing down incessantly . If they can't or won't do that then they should move aside .

Rover6 implies that this would make for boring football . I disagree ; it's the kind of football we like to see week in , week out . What it mustn't mean is that we resort to the long ball , aiming at Crouch's head ; this is both stupid because Crouch is about the most skillful forward we have , aand , of course , at the top level it will be dealt with easily by defenders .

I remain convinced that the most consistent exponent of the best means by which English football could and should be taken forward is none other than Sir Alex Ferguson himself . Man Utd have been playing fast moving football on the ground by hard working players for years now .

Rovers hold the ace card in that the player is on a contract and can hold on to what they have. The plusses for them are that they can hold Chelsea or anyone ot the price they want or as near as dam it, they can also slam Benni in the reserves, make his life uncomfortable and fine him if he decides he aint playing as he then does not fulfill his side of the contract.

It's not entirely true to say that Rovers hold the ace card ; thses days the players have the upper hand - even if there aren't escape clauses hidden away . We saw with Barry Ferguson that it's no good sticking them in the reserves or trying to hang on to them......the price tag's only going to go one way if they're not even kicking a ball in anger and the only sensible thing to do is sell .

With BMc - IF he wants to go - then the best thing would be for more than one club to come in for him . The more I think about it the less I think we'd get for him at this stage in his career...

....not that we would get anywhere near the silly £30 m mentioned . Probably only half that if we're realistic - which some of us on here patently aren't .

So whilst Man U prepare a £40m bid for Berbatov (£27.5m plus Saha), I guess Rovers will not shift on their more than £30m number suggested by Mark Hughes for Benni- the most recent and only public comment the club has made on the matter as far as I can tell.

An offer remotely approaching the sum of £30m for someone who has made it perfectly clear he would like to move to a bigger club would be snatched up immediately . It would be daft not to .

As for kicking the G14 out, not sure about that. I would probably get more satisfaction out of seeing us finish in a Champions League spot with the three G14 clubs and Chelsea in than winning a League without them. Where's the satisfaction to be gained from that? You almost might as well be playing Burnley.

It would have been a nice day out at Wembley winning the FA cup though , Rev

The Glazers have already turned down an £850m takeover bid from a Chinese consortium according to The Sunday Times .

Disagree, I thought Fatherland was brilliant (and more good fodder for an anti-Kennedy living in Mass).

I remember reading a book by the young President Kennedy when I was a lad (Why England Slept) . Years later it turned out he never wrote a word of it ........somebody did the job for him - paid for , no doubt , by his daddy

So how would you put it Phil, oh expert on child abduction matters, she either wandered away or she was taken, therefore she got herself lost or was stolen.

I thought even you might have been able to work that out.

Obviously not

I think all of us had worked it out she's either lost or stolen , Inspector FlopMod .......

Pompeii by Robert Harris - 200 pages of information about how to design, build and repair a large aqueduct, followed by less than 200 pages about a somewhat weedy eruption, a bit of intrigue and loads of 2D characters. Easily Harris's worst book "by a country mile" as some members of this board are wont to say. Read it in a couple of days and still fell asleep

This bloke only got going IMO because of the generous reviews given by his fellow hacks . Fatherland and Archangel are the two I've read ; both very put-downable . A half decent columnist on the Sunday Times though in his time .....

For those wanting very light holiday reading they could do worse than the old James Herriot books . Picked up one the other day and re-read it for the umpteenth time - still made me laugh ...

3) What chances Maddy woke up, and went looking for her parents and then got a) Lost b ) stolen?

Lost or stolen eh ...?

Sounds like you'd make a great Portuguese detective , Flops ....

That's right , Billy - there was a piece on the radio yesterday about it . The lad was called Ben Needham and disappeared on Kos in 1989 at the age of two .

Why do you say England has never been your country BTW ....?

No doubt my country has disappeared (can't remember what it was called now).

England ? :ph34r:

I can't believe I put Liverpool to win the league

I can .....

If her abductor is caught, what will realistically happen to him ? Short term 'indoors' then a transfer to some bloody clinic with a counsellor and a bag full of medication ?

Hopefully the Portugese have a legal system that is different from ours

Nonda in is prime was probably more deadly then Benni, I dont think most people realise how serious his injury was, yet they still bash Nonda.

To be fair , they bash McCarthy as well ....

"Feel free to post my e-mail address on

the board if anyone wishes to discuss confidential details with me."

The details can't be too confidential if they're up for discussion ..

If they're not then let them be published on here for all to see

I cant stand that whiny voiced, weedy Jock. Second only to Stephen "Piggy" Lee on the list of people I wouldnt want to win it.

No need to worry then ....they're both out !

Can't see anyone beating Ronnie - unbelievably talented bloke despite his strange personality . Anyone who saw him reduce Ding Dong to tears in the Masters would be daft to bet against him .

I'm undecided on Dunn. When he plays as he did yesterday I think he has lost the plot with no hope of a return. Jesus, he could not have tried harder to give them the ball for the second goal - he gave them it once, they messed it up and he stumbled into the ball again and gave them it straight back!!

With regard to yesterday I felt it was right to bring him on simply because Tugay and the Axe play too deep - there's nothing linking the midfield with the attack . Yes the pass that led to the goal wasn't good but it would have helped if one or two of his team mates actually gave him a few options by moving around and wanting the ball . Our off the ball movement (except for the odd half a game ) is poor , and the signals we send out by our deep defending is similar . Yesterday at times , against an average team at home , we had all the outfield players in the last third of the field - that's the kind of thing we should never do . Never .

Dunny might still be an option in the future but only if surrounded by Reid and Savage . Maybe only if we have a 5 man midfield ....which as someone pointed out in another thread should be the only option next week .

He's black. If he was white, he'd be god. Anyone who thinks the criticism isn't based on this is extremely naive.

Start a thread on Samba , Mrs Woman ....and if he gets the same stick you may well have a point .

Until then you're talking nonsense .

For Bucky it was.....

Anything can happen in the next 5 years .

Except Ferguson leaving UTD .........