No of course he hasn't, and you won't find me defending him over this method of forcing a move.

But he gives (gave) us another dimension, and has been misused by a manager intent on relying on percentages rather than flair, in a season when he should have been given the platform to perform to his maximum.

You gain a little credibility back with admitting the first statement. You've lost so much over this particular incident because you've used this to bash Allardyce when he isn't at fault. He might have upset Benni but Benni's reaction (if it a reaction) is indefensible.

He gave us an option in his first season. He hasn't done since.

He's scored 52 goals in the 3 1/2 years he's been here. Not bad for a fat waster.

And if his record at BRFC is "underachieving" then heaven help the strikers Allardyce has brought to the club.

24 in his first year. 24 in the NEXT TWO YEARS. Then just 4 in half a season this season. Is that achieving his potential? Hughes couldn't get Benni to perfom like he did in his first season, Ince couldn't and Allardyce is now getting the blame.

You really do like to use anything to Allardyce bash don't you?

Benni has lived off that first season for two and a half years. He is an under-achiever and that is not Allardyce's fault, or Hughes, or Ince but it is Benni's.

Tris, straight question. Has Benni behaved professionally with Rovers over this?

Utterly, unprofessional from Benni. It can't be seen any other way and Tris, even you must admit that.

Let him rot in the reserves for all I care. If he truly wants to play in the world-cup, he'll soon pull his finger out. Most likely thing is he'll get sold. Let him go to Turkey.

This really has brought out the people with the Anti-Sam agenda. Anyone with a modicum of sense would understand that Benni has not been the model professional since the Chelsea head turning. We can all see that. I'm sure Sam can with the information he has at his finger tips. One player, like Benni, is not going to be representative of the entire playing staff and his opinon of himself will be completely different from theirs. I'm sure the rest of the playing staff can also see what Benni is like on the pitch and in training which is something we all can not see. They'll have their own opinions and I'll bet they won't be far removed from your average fan.

Everything at Rovers is going pear shaped, not just Dunn.

And everything at the DingleDome is peachy is it? :wstu:

I understand more about football than every member of this silly little forum (bar myself) put together. This is mainly down to my excellent contacts within the game (past and present) sharing their knowlege with me, as well as my excessively high IQ.

Ah, the genius speaks! You are, at least, mildy amusing at times.

Are the cracks beginning to apppear under Sam Allardyces watch ?

I'm sure he can get a cream for that...

I like Benni as a player and think he is one of the most skillful players in our squad. However, he hasn't created as much as you would expect from a player of his calibre and certainly hasn't scored as many goals as he should in the last couple of years. His best appears to be behind him now. Whether that is a state of mind or reality makes little difference because, one way or another, he hasn't produced and won't while he is here. I would rather he went abroad than stayed in the Premier League because I think a change of scenery may well buck him up a bit and I would rather not see him play against us with a point to prove because that Benni is very dangerous. Benni for Beattie? Both players need a change but how long will the new club/proving a point last with either of them? I'd much rather trade Benni for someone else younger and hungrier. I'd much, much rather see a Bennie with a point to prove for us.

Now that Kalinic is finding his feet up top Benny is the perfect partner in the supporting role. Di santo isn't, Roberts isn't and Beattie isn't. They are all centre forwards with not a hint of creativity about them, in fact there's more support in a pair of tights than in that lot put together.

Lazy / frustrating / overweight yep but the other side of the coin is that Benny will always make chances for others and is lethal if he gets them for himself. With Dunne knackered there is no proven replacement for that role.

Why do you insist on spelling Dunn with an 'e'?

9 Rovers fans charged following the derby match

Most are named too...

A moaning manager moans about another moaning manager....

LINK HERE

Personally I'm not a fan of Mr Pulis. I don't like his ugly style of football with Stoke and I was disgusted with his attack on Blackburn Rovers last season when we sacked Paul Ince. Pulis said that it was a disgrace that Ince was given just 17 Premier League games before he was sacked by Rovers.

Pulis has been the manager of Stoke on two different occasions and in my eyes he's a hypocrite, because when he took the Stoke job for the first time in 2002, two of the managers that had preceded him at Stoke were Chris Kamara who had been given just 14 games before he was shown the door having gained just one win in 14 games for Stoke and after that Gary Megson who was given five months and 22 games before he was sacked by Stoke.

Did Mr Pulis moan and say how disgraceful it was that Megson had been sacked after five months by Stoke's then Icelandic owners who appointed Pulis in 2002? No. He kept his mouth shut and was happy to get his grubby hands on the Stoke job when he was appointed the manager by the owners from Iceland.

Pulis was formely the manager of Bristol City and took that job in 1999 taking over from Benny Lennartsson, who had again been given only a short period of time in charge of Bristol City before he was sacked. Did Pulis moan about how disgraceful it was that Lennartsson had been sacked? No. He was happy to get his grubby hands on the Bristol City job.

So I think that Pulis should frankly keep his mouth shut about what happens at Blackburn Rovers. The length of time that the inept Paul Ince was given at Ewood Park (too long in my view) had nothing to do with moaning Mr Pulis.

I have to say that often I find your posts interesting and at least debate worthy but this is, to be frank, puerile and not worthy of you.

We do our bit in N02

Yep, we certainly do. I think the reason N01 think they are the only ones singing is because they're standing up...

Is there a Hooligan problem in Blackburn? Many casuals?

I was at the Stoke City away game this year. Even though there are many idiots among the Rovers fans (Smoking Joe in the bathrooms, very drunk) etc I didnt see them making any trouble at all.

That report was from 1967...

RIP to one of footballs true gentlemen.

From here, I was always under the impression that Neill wanted to maximise his income so that he could get into team ownership here.

How could he have "spurned" Liverpool, they didn't offer him what he wanted. They wanted him on their terms, he would go on his. The Spammers dangled a carrot, he took it, where's the problem?

He did nothing wrong by the contract he had with the rovers, they had the chance to sell him earlier, they didn't. Where's the problem from Neill?

Whether he bettered himself is debateable, but it was his choice, not unlike anyone choosing their employer.

As my post says the situation as I've described it is how it is perceived by many people. It doesn't make it right or wrong but a matter of perception and personal intepretation.

What are you talking about, he said he wanted to leave. The club didn't sell him, he got on with and it and gave his best season in the blue and white halves.

He handled it very professionally.

I can't believe still wanting to vilify him for wanting a pay rise? His employer couldn't give it to him, another employer could, he left. How long do you expect players to hang around (loyalty) for giving them a chance in the PL?

The problem with Lucas (as perceived by many) is that he said it was NOTHING to do with money and all to do with ambition, bettering himself and wanting to play in the Champions League. He then basically spurned Liverpool who were in the Champions League to go to West Ham who narrowly avoided relegation by cheating the system with Tevez. Some ambition, some betterment.

Good luck to him. He's been an honest and commited professional and in that he is a top player.

I agree with all of those points but what if he was on some sort of pay as you play deal ? i.e. if he is that stupid and does get sent down again or if he is sent of we wouldn't pay him a penny.

Whould you take that gamble ?

I think so if it weren't for the amount of bad press that follows him around. I've said before that this place might well be the best place for him. Still undecided to be honest...

No LC that is not the case at all. If you take the trouble to read back about 24 hrs on this thread you will see that I was very specific in stating that if Barton had shown any signs whatsoever to the general public that he was genuinely sorry for ANY of the crimes he has committed on or off the field, then that would be a completely different case than where we are at present. Sadly there is absolutely no evidence anywhere that he has shown the slightest remorse for any of his actions, and conversely there is plenty that points to the opposite case.

I re-iterate that IF Barton shows genuine remorse (not just empty words) that he is sorry for his actions and wants to make amends then I would accept him at face value.

This is the thing that gets me, I haven't seen anything from Barton about what he has done other than an apology and we are talking AFTER his jail sentence. He hasn't been involved in any fights at his club or in public. A dressing down from Shearer where he had a few words back? While that might not be ideal behaviour at all it isn't a crime and we've all seen a lot worse happen on the sides of pitches. This moralising on how Barton behaves is frankly ludicrous because nobody has seen him do anything wrong SINCE his conviction (I'm talking outside football here) and, as far as I know, nobody actually knows the man personally. His tackle was poor; we've seen many, many tackles like that. They happen every weekend at least once in the top flight and much more in the lower leagues. To castigate a player this much for that tackle is silly.

Best of all, I'm not in favour of us signing Barton. I just don't see the reason for the moralising going on here. As for his actual crimes (not 'crimes on the pitch', which are actually called fouls...), he has paid his debt to society so why should society continue to punish him for them?

Because the shallow thinkers only use the collection of silverware to measure success. If I was an Arsenal shareholder concerned with the financial aspect equally then I'd deem him God given and miles in front of his other 3 managerial rivals in this country.

If Arsenal gain consistent success as judged by winning the League/Champions League etc. a number of times, i.e. domination in the next few years, the way Arsene Wenger has gone about building this team will be praised to the heavens and deservedly so. It will be interesting to see if his long term planning pays off.

Watching last night I said penalty straight away for two reasons, first off was the fact Fletcher reaches out and pulls Fabregas back before he makes the tackle, not much of a tug but the ref would have seen the arm go out. The second is that he makes contact with the player BEFORE the ball. It was a great tackle though and one I'd love to have seen let go. Unfortunately, the ref didn't and he followed the letter of the law.

Watch it here.

Well as far as I am aware he hasn't shown remorse for what he has done. I may have just missed it though. He made a rash tackle, which I think most of us agree wasn't as bad as it was made out to be, but he can't afford to be making rash tackles like that (in that area of the pitch etc). If the reports are true, and who knows apart from the people in the dressing room, then he 'blew up' at his manager.

Granted the above arguments are pretty weak, but I'm not just looking at what he has done since he came out of prison. He had anger management help in the past and said he wanted to change before he went to prison, but it didn't help. I just personally think that he needs to learn a lesson, and he will only learn that lesson when he stops getting chances handed to him on a plate. What motivation has he got to change if clubs keep employing him and he keeps getting paid huge sums of money?

The converse applies in that if he has indeed learned his lesson, clubs NOT giving him the chance could set him back. I'd hope that the lesson learned would be one that would last that kind of set-back and he would prove his detractors wrong. Giving him the chance at a club like Rovers, where the emphasis is on family, would surely help to consolidate the changes he may have made (big question mark over may of course). The truth is that a person who has done what he has done is always going to have that hanging over him (or hanging over him for a very long time at the least) and the press will be waiting for any kind of indication of a return to prior behaviour, like the weekend.

Having said all that, I'm still of two minds whether he should be given the chance. I guess that sounds a bit contradictory but I'd like my club to have a decent image in the press and it annoys me when it doesn't happen but I'm used to it. Having a player like Barton play for Rovers isn't likely to do the club image any good.