Damned if you do and damned if you dont eh? Last summer Bellamy was widely criticised for lying about his future before the season ended and leading our supporters up the garden path and now Benni is getting stick for doing the opposite.

1. McCarthy wanted some of the money swilling aroound in the Prem. 2. We were the best club willing to take a risk on him. 3. He's done his bit and we've done ours. 4. Sell him for big money, give Hughes 10% commision as I have suggested previously and let him do it again. Players may come and go but Mark Hughes is the person that we do NOT want to see leave to go to our rivals, if one of the big 4 comes for him then OK but for goodness sake lets ring fence him from the likes of Spurs, Newcastle and Villa. We've rescued the careers of and added value to so many players since Hughes came that he really should be the best paid manager out of the big 4. I'm sure that many Agents will nowadays actually be recommending to their charges that they sign for Blackburn instead of similarly placed rivals. They will recognise the value of a season under Hughes's team and want their players to progress to the best of their ability. imo there is little difference in value in the Prem squads outside of the top 4 and the bottom 1 or two. The big difference is in the management team and we have one hell of a good one. Proof of this will be clear next season when I think Bolton will drop like a stone from their current lofty and regular position.

You'r kidding are'nt you? 1. Champions league money is not worth more than that. 2. They've had him all season and not made the CL so what makes you think that they will break the cartell next season? 3. And anyway what say have Spurs got in all this? There is prob a sell clause over 15 mill or so and anyway if Berbatov wants to go then Berbatov will go! Simple as, we've seen suchlike time and again since Bosman.

Ring MU and tell em that 39 mill will seal a bid for Benny! We could have Bellamy, Saha and a white elephant next to the River Darwen in one fell swoop!

1. Thats a ridiculous valuation. 2. He would say that anyway. 3. Anyway what has Jol got to do with Berbatov's destiny? He's only the spurs manager not their chairman or chief accountant.

Might even be a 'she' or a 'they'. A rope would ensure that they never repeat the offence.

This suggests that Bellamy is more comparable to Shabani Nonda this season.... and Nonda has by far the least pace of the 3.

I see there's no return date for Todd....Must be a really bad knee injury.

You mean how the hell could he NOT get into the Rangers first team?! Now that is weird. btw now that he's thinning he looks miles better with his hair cut shorter. Lesson to all balding men.

Can't see Nonda staying if we keep McCarthy. There are better players out there and his pace is awful. Hughes appears to like having options up front and if we keep the current 3 then the best improvement for a 4th striker would be someone with genuine pace. Can anybody think of anyone coming up for sale that could fit the bill?

Why? There are open threads about just about every other player.

His ability is still evident but worryingly he appears to have lost both pace and stamina! Unless he gets at least one of em back then thats both the wings and midfield that he can't be considered for...... and that certainly doesn't leave anywhere else for him does it ?

Liverpool will only be interested if there is a way they can sign him on the cheap. Unless this Gillette chappy's dollars have altered their outlook they only 'sing when they are stealing' other teams players.

imo it was a penalty but not for the first challenge but for the second one which was a basic lunge and which decked Marcus Bent. I guess that really is the nub of the debate, we have both seen the incident in slo-mo and yet we disagree.

Some mighty perplexing handball incidents this week. Penalties given and denied with no apparent consistency. Do the referees read from the same rule book?

I agree Capt! ....... our current set of ball boys are piggin useless! btw "I have said it before about our laboured atttacking style." There was nothing laboured about our goal yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/i...als/6515243.stm But McClaren told the News of the World: "I won't let some hateful mob drive me out of this job. "I have work to do and I'm not leaving until I've done it. I did not consider walking away - not for a moment." Judging by the polls that have 80% wanting him out that 'hate filled mob' is about 45 million strong!

We need his physical presence solely to rough up the Chelsea centre halves and hold the ball up. Otherwise they will have our usual two in their back pockets from the off.

Maybe I've not woken up properly yet.

Points... 1. How long is Maclarens contract and how much is it worth in remuneration? 2. If the answer to either is very long or very much the the FA are absloute fools and have learned nothing from the Sven fiasco. Is it not worth considering that ANY (English) manager worth employing would accept the England managers job on a performance related basis. Remember it really is supposed to be an honour to manage your own country! I'd do it for nowt AND whilst I do not purport to be any good I could have done as well as Maclaren to date. btw the press conference last week would more likely have been cut off the air rather than cut short by the manager.

Smith? Always strikes me as a useful player who has never become top drawer because he is simply not good enough in any one particuler position.

Correct. In fact I bet in situations like this the player and his agent probably set the amount. It wouldn't even suprise me to find that the player also has a %age of the 'profit' built into his contract. I would certainly angle for that if I were a players agent on the basis that it's a win win situation for all. Please rem not to confuse the business of professional football with sport! But look at it positively. If the release clause is triggered it means they have done well for us, in other words a release clause is an incentive and far more productive than a straight forward contract that attracts players with attitudes like of Dahlin, Amoruso, Sukor, Baggio etc etc etc ... and we've had bloody loads. The important bit is that Sparky has to insist privately that he is informed asap that a player is likely to move and then he can line up the next Gudjonnsen / Mido / a n other before the deadline blocks transfers. The sh1t in the past was simply caused by poor managers not finding adequate replacements for the likes of Shearer, Duff, Le saux etc. Given some imagination when Shearer went we were still basically a top team and classed as big hitters so Hughes might well have brought in Thierry Henry from Monaco! Who would have cared about Newcastle then? This mboard was in a state of suicidal angst when Bellamy was sold. There was an almost audible gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes BUT Hughes more than adequately replaced him didnt he?

You can't say that he'd be a disaster with conviction. Such a player would at least be an option on the bench. All we've got up front with Crouch out is midgets. To me it's a straight choice between Davies and Crouch for that position in the squad. Replacing Owen with Defoe / Johnson during a match offers nothing different. BTW Now we've hopefully sidelined Lampard until he gets his arse in gear what the hell does Dyer offer? In the past I've seen occasional flashes from him for Newcastke BUT I have never seen him have a good 90 minute game in his entire career. Has anyone else? He simply has too little to offer the England set up other than a few Geordie bums on seats. Maclaren is now a dead man walking after that interview. The press will savage him! Musing here..... BUT is it beyond the realms of possibility that Maclaren has been angling for a pay-off in the shortest possible time from day 1? Fantasy? Maybe but it would certainly explain a lot.

This is impossible and goes against the forward thinking of our glorious leader! Nobody is playing out of position!