I agree, Sherwood would walk into the current side and then take it up a level. He and Tugay were/are our best midfielders for 20 years...

He used to get some stick (from myself included) but with hindsight I'd have him back in a flash. I never saw him lose form for 12 months like Pedersen has for the last 9-12 months.

What I will say for Pedersen is he always works hard and I think helps Warnocks game a great deal. I'd still be tempted to cash in in January for good money and have Dunn and Keith Treacy battle it out for the left wing spot. We could use the money for a good central midfielder and a right back.

Central Midfielders: Any from Huddlestone, Sidwell or Cattermole.

Right back: Justin Hoyte.

I really liked Mokoena when he signed with Nelsen and felt he was nearly as important as us for Nelsen when we were playing 451 in that season. I remember him playing very well against Norwich at home. It was when we signed Bellamy and went 442 the next season he was poor but glad to see he's improving. I like him.

We've had three black Champions League winners in our team and apparently all of them were lazy! I'll bet all of them cover more yards than Simon Garner ever did. Perhaps players who have scaled the heights have a different playing style than the more mundane whitey's we've had up front. Cole, Yorke and Benni would have been found out long ago if they were deliberately not trying. Hughes of all people with his own playing style and the wonders of Prozone would be first on the case.

Quoted for Truth. Didn't see the game on Saturday and can imagine how Benni played but he's absolute quality and the best finisher we've had since Shearer. Hughes would/will bomb him out when/if there's ever a problem.

It comes back to this, we are definately never going to get a better striker for 2.5-3 million and would you rather go back to Dickov and Ward who missed every one on one they got?

He hasn't anyway imo!!

Are you serious?

I REALLY hope West Ham get sent back down. He obviously thinks he will get 90k a week there which is why he mentions them. If it was a footballing decision he wouldn't go because of Curbishley (Bent turning him down after having played for him despite being offered 70k a week says it all. It was Tevez, not Curbishley who kept them up.)

They even offered 18mil and 90,000K a week for Andy Johnson!!! HA HA HA HA HA.

If Benni goes it's gotta be for what they offered for Bent.

What did Andreas Isaksson do to get in the list?!

I hope he doesn't play for England. Who'd want to play for a dead country full of socially inept drunks who have the intellectual capacity of a wheelie bin? F_ck England, Rovers is all I care about, and if Bentley blazes through next season, and McClown pick J-Anus and Dire ahead of him, he'll lose his job after another failed tournament. Then we can all laugh..............especially when McClown is replaced by Alan Pardew or Stan Ternant.

Bentley is too good for England, the media and the mass of drooling twerps who support the two of them.

I agree, couldn't give a toss about England....

I do believe there is some truth to that statement. I am sure if it was one of the big boys "stars" it would have been smoothed over a lot better and with some commitment, you'd have medical experts on backing the players claims and all that. Yeah I think there is something to it being us. I have not heard much furor regarding Abgonlewalkabout who plays for Villa. Did Martin O'Neill not make similar claims of fatigue? how many games has that lad played?

i think Agbonlahot played every minute of every game last season...

Some people still want a right back though. I don't get it. The general rule is if you have an attacking right back he will have defensive lapses, as Emerton does. I'd rather that than play with an average defensive full back. Emerton had a great season. I also like the way that despite coming here with a big reputation and never quite living up to it in the first 3 years he never moaned, made excuses or tried to leave. He's a good lad I think...

Goal of the season contender from him today, watch it on The Championship tomorrow.

Good lad, do you think he could do it in the Premiership?

The Dunn signing is worse than Roberts because it was absolutely obvious that he wouldn't do the business when we signed him, at least with Roberts is was debateable. Dunn ceased to be fit for Premiership football along time since and was the one who instigated leaving in the 1st place by thinking he should play central midfield despite his best performances coming from elsewhere. He was great the 1st time round, we should have left it at that. It's obvious that burst of pace he used to have is long gone and it ain't coming back. Get rid, oh sorry, we can't...

I like Bilic. He was an excellent player and looks like becoming a good manager...

I'd go for Gabriel Clarke myself. An absolute fanny and deffo a Man Utd fan. Remember every time Van Nistelrooy scored he used to be on with "Ruud. Van. Nistelrooy. does. it again. and again and again" Shut up! Tyldsley is also deffo a Utd fan.

I rate Charlie Nicholas, Jeff Stelling, James Richardson, Guillem Ballague.

I heard Welsby had it off with Dario Gradi (allegedly).

Peter Reid's a moron, pretty much only ever talks about "they need to get the tackles in etc". Re coaching badges on Soccer Saturday; something along the lines of: "You gotta do em but you don't learn too much on them, you learn more in the bar with the boys afterwards..." Jeff Stelling: "Maybe that's why your sat here on a Saturday afternoon..."

Class....

Don't know why we'd want Pearce in charge. Think the only reason people ever advocate him is because he went mental after he scored a penalty in Euro 96. He's a decent, honest guy but he's no Hiddink, Scolari or even a Glenn Hoddle. Having passion for your country is not reason alone to be the manager of it, managerial ability is and the evidence suggests he's as clueless as McLaren.

Our players are nowhere near the technical level of the Spanish, Brazil, Holland, Argies, Portuguese and the French but someone like Hiddink would have got us working within our scope and maximised it. Look what he did with South Korea, Aussies and now Russia (who are said to be improving noticably). Our talents are someway between the first group I mentioned and the second group. Ive no doubt that under Hiddink our performances would be rapidly improving by now and we would be able to compete with the more technically gifted teams. Also, wouldn't be standing for any of Lampard's whingeing and whatever else goes on with that bunch of clowns.

Unfortunately, the FA mugged it yet again. Crozier, Palios and now Barwick. What a joke! Aside from McLaren and the first team coach situation the FA consistently do nothing about the real long term issue of youth development. They hired Brooking a man with lots of integrity and knowledge on the game but he is said to be frustrated with the lack of support he gets in doing something about our failing youth system. Our 5-14 year olds are said to be miles behind pretty much everyone in Europe's, nevermind South America. This needs to be dealt with. 5 years ago we had a great crop of youngsters which a good coach could still do something with but even if we get a good coach now (like Hiddink) then we are going to be truly screwed for 10 - 15 years after any short term success if Brooking's findings are true.

Let's get real football men into the FA.

I've been watching football for 28 years - You?

You may consider that point "bloody obvious", but I consider it "bloody ridiculous".

Thank God you made clear that you don't rate Todd as highly as Hendry, but even mentioning them in the same sentence made the tapioca rise in my gullet...

Henchoz isn't brilliant - Todd is hopeless. Neither of them are first choices, and next season with Emerton, Nelson, Ooijer and Warnock across the back four we'll be as solid as a rock.

Im not disputing Emerton, Nelsen, Ooijer and Warnock should be our back four next season. Ooijer is out though so Todd should be in. Todd is hopeless? That's absolute rubbish. Ive had a season ticket since I was 5 in 1987 by the way, it's all that "#### off Todd" stuff you write that makes you seem like a nine year old. My apologies if you have been watching footy for 28 years...

Well i'm really looking forward to seeing Dunny back tomorrow as well.

Shame some people seem to have the knives sharpened for him before he starts.

No pressure at all then then lad, mom performance, a minimum of two 30 yard screamers, couple of goal saving challenges and a clearance or two off the line the minimum required...............

I didn't want us to resign him but here's here now and could come back so i'll be supporting him like I used to...

This simply has to be a wind-up.

How can anyone mention pace as a reason to pick Todd over Henchoz!?! I'm not suggesting that Henchoz is speedy by any stretch of the imagination, but I still reckon he'd outpace Todd. Does no-one notice Todd's clumsy nature on the pitch? Or the amount of mistakes he makes? Granted he recovers sometimes, but more often than not he makes what should be straightforward tackles seem spectacular and last-ditch.

Nelsen won the player of the year in 2006 did he not? Or Bellamy?

How long have you been watching footbal for? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Both Todd and Henchoz are slow but, as is bloody obvious from what I wrote, Todd's reading of the game means he gets caught out for it much less than Henchoz. He ain't the most elegant player no but neither was Hendry, did you ever see him play? (FAO Todd haters: that doesn't mean I rate Todd as highly as Hendry)

Todd won player of the Season in 2004/5 and the following I think...

Because we finished 15th in both those two seasons.

Obviously the whole team wasn't playing well, and Todd's (only) redeeming qualities of agression and battling were important at that time. Now we've improved as a team, we have better players, are setting higher targets and can do without scrappers like Todd.

Sell sell sell.

What about when we finished 6th last year?

Is Henchoz some ball playing centre half or something? I can't think of anything Henchoz does better than Todd. Todd is tougher, reads the game better better (which is why Henchoz constantly gets done for pace) and also passes the ball better...

That man Souness, who didn't he rub up the wrong way.

Todd,Gilespie, Mcateer, Dunny.Could anybody suit the needs of Souness's self inflated ego.Would Dunny of come back to Ewood if he was still in charge.Even Andy Cole was considering coming back to us not so long ago, but he said the only reason he left was because of Souness....Mark Hughes is a far better manager, and he doesn't let personal issues cloud his judgement,and he seems to bring out the best in the players.

I thought when Todd made his comeback , he was playing better than I'd ever seen him play, and whatever had gone on in past was all behind him.

I for one won't be griping if Todd is in the squad tomorrow.,until Sparky decides otherwise,I'll still be behind him...he's the gaffer,after all

Souness even fell out with Berg. Todd maybe shouldn't have "spat the dummy" when he wasn't picked against Leeds but he was right to be very annoyed at the decision. He had been playing excellently for a long period in the lead up to that game. If I remember rightly, he was dropped for bloody Amoruso as soon as he was back from a long standing injury.

I usually support Hughes but, after dropping Todd at the start of the season, he persevered (sp?) with Zura and Ooijer for too long. I like Zura but that partnership has usually been shaky. Ooijer would have settled much more quickly had he played with Todd.

fair enough - he let us down twice under two managers - get rid

Flopsy, do you prefer Henchoz as a player right now?

Henchoz has 71 international caps, and around five years experience of playing regularly in the UEFA competitions with Liverpool and Celtic.

Todd has zero international caps, a history of spitting the dummy, violent behaviour, and an illustrious C.V. including spells at Middlesborough, Charlton, Bolton and Burnley.

I really don't see where the argument is coming from here.

Im talking about them both as current Blackburn players. Henchoz was a good player but lost drastically towards the end of his Liverpool career. He was bobbins for Celtic, good for a bit at Wigan before losing it again and is creaking now for us.

Todd has rarely had a bad game for us, has often been man of the match, and has been one of the main reasons we have stayed up despite Souness losing his head in two seasons. Even though Henchoz was decent the first time round with us, we still went down with him at centre half. Todd's done miles more for BRFC than Henchoz has or will ever do. He does spit the dummy out sometimes but whenever he has come back into the side after being dropped by Souness or Hughes he has come in and done the business.

He should be playing with Nelsen and if not it should be Zurab, we can think about Ooijer v Todd next season.

James Milner has been playing exceptionally well recently. A slightly better player than Bentley due to his extra pace?

I like Milner. Think they are at a similair level but Bentley is a better passer and has a better first touch... Ive never really seen Milner as being particularly fast though...

Haha, the usual ridiculous hyperbole generated in responses when anybody says anything even slightly out of order about Saint Todd. It's a tiny bit tiresome, don't you think?

So Todd is a better centre-half than Nelsen, Ooijer, Henchoz, Zurab, or even Mokoena? Then why isn't he playing? Or in the squad for that matter?

I will!

Kind of thought that was what message boards were for, but a number of people seem to think that it's okay to have your own opinions....as long as they're the same as their's.

Hyperbolic? It was you who came on with the massive statement about Todd being rubbish. You wanted a reaction. Todd is undoubtably better than Henchoz or Mokoena, better than Zurab (although that could be debated) and Ooijer is injured so Todd should be in and around the team. He does the business on the pitch and our run at xmas coincided with his return to the side.

Tell me, what is better about Henchoz than Todd?

Grow up you idiot.

Todd has won Fans Player of the Season twice, worn the armband with distinction and hardly put a foot wrong on the field in years.

Where do you work out this has been a drain on the wage bill ?

Stop it with the big letters, dramatised tantrums and cleverly disguised bad language and do your homework.

Well said, Todd is easily one of our best players...

On Radio Lancs they said he was there and wasnt injured. Also said 'make of that what you will'...

I hope that doesn't mean a falling out. Henchoz was brought in as 5th choice and now he seems to be 2nd. He ain't good enough which is why even Wigan got rid. If Todd is out of favour it has to be Zura and Ryan at centre half...