Not strictly the case Gordon, I'm sure it was specifically reported in summer that although there was already an existing offer for him on the table he was offered another new deal in light of the World Cup. Unless my memory is failing me or I read it wrong.

It's also reported in the LT today. Had a scan in Leeds last night, results of which due in today.

Unfortunately, if that is correct, we're in a much weaker bargaining position than previously now Reidy looks to be out for the season.

Either he or the Club are telling porkies on that one then. As I recall it was clearly reported in the summer in the aftermath of the World Cup that at least one new deal had been put to him. IF (and personally I don't believe it) that was the case he might have a right to feel slightly aggrieved. Of course it depends what "the same money" is. If for the sake of argument he was on 30k p.w. already I don't think the Club would have anywhere else to go with that.

Don't be silly. Many thanks for the confirmation Brownie. Best wishes to Reidy for a full recovery asap. Fate really hasn't smiled kindly on him since he decided to stay loyal to us and sign a new contract.

If this is true (Pleasure's never been right in the past, but I doubt he would make this up about something so serious) it makes the apparent decision not to go for Dunn even more unfortunate and ill timed.

Ta, thought it was but there was some confusion about that above.

Yes but is that 13 quid per seat sold or x 31468 etc

As I understood it from what den said it was an overall average of 13 quid per head and it was 13 quid per seat filled. Does 30m divided by 30 not suggest that senior players will be on 1m p.a. upwards given that there are a number of youngsters included in the squad who bring the average down?

You obviously didn't read a word I was saying. We're obviously at a huge disadvantage financially with the "big four" and a much smaller one with some of the other Premiership Clubs but then again we're at an equally huge advantage as against seventy two League Clubs and countless more clubs European and world wide because of the TV money. There's only a relatively minute percentage of players worldwide who can play for clubs with more dosh than us. Plenty more good un's to go round surely. P.S. Sorry for being so rude Lee, must not post after a couple of gallons of ale. :ph34r: I stand by my original point though, 1.2 or 1.3m on the bottom line is all very nice and a pound is a pound and all that but I can't see that it would transform our fortunes. We must have to allow for more flexibility than that at the start of the season when budgeting where we're going to finish in the League for a start.

Garbage Lee, please don't insult everyone's intelligence on here. Ballpark figures, before the proposed increase in TV money, and before the recent drop in attendances, gate money formed roughly 6m of a 40m turnover. Are you seriously trying to suggest that despite a relatively small decrease in gate revenue, we'll be worse off next season than before, or even that we're in a worse position than the vast majority of European Clubs who don't get anything like the amount of TV money we do. Only 44 players can play for the "Big 4" And only a further 176 can play for the other 16 Premiership sides as opposed to most European sides and worldwide sides with far less income than us. 5000 extra fans every fortnight (x 19) at an apparently accepted average 13 quid per head = 1 235 000 Hardly enough to make a "huge difference to the coffers! It's not even as much as you get for moving up 3 places in the table! A few seasons under Uncle Jack aside we've never had it so good. And we probably never will again once if the TV bubble bursts. Whether there's an average 20k or 30k in the ground.

We carry on with the current pricing policy and have fun counting the minimum 37m TV money next year!

Where else are we going to find a potentially (if he stays fit) top class midfielder 27 years of age, with the ability to step into Tugay's shoes when he retires for as little as 1m? If you want someone of the same quality with an unblemished injury record, fine, but we'd have to be prepared to spend 5m upwards to land him imo.

Interesting that for all the whinging about our attendances, our average gate is under 1800 less than Bolton's who have been doing much much better in the League than we have, prior to the last week or so.

I think wsr sums up the situation perfectly there and I think in this particular instance den is being churlish and is completely wide of the mark. Derbyshire has imo exceeded expectations. Hands up all those who thought in August that he would be an integral part of the squad by Christmas? I certainly didn't. Mind you it has been quite a godsend with Roberts injured, imo Jeffers having predictably been a complete flop, Gallagher seemingly completely out of favour and with Nonda having been very inconsistent. He isn't the next Alan Shearer, no-one is. And he's missed a couple of chances. However he's shown pace, a great eye for a pass and an ability to deliver that pass, the ability to get on the end of chances in the first place and above all his willingness and enthusiasm is a breath of fresh air. He's certainly done enough in my book to suggest that Hughes need have no fears whatsoever about throwing him in from the start if required because of injury or to give one of the senior strikers a rest. The FA Cup tie against Everton would be an ideal case in point imo. Arguably also, unless there's someone VERY good coming in, he might well have removed the need to spend a large chunk of our transfer budget on striker number seven. Seriously what do people expect of him? Three goals a game off the bench? Well done Matty, keep it up. I disagree with that as well. You only had to see the look on the face of that young 19 year old Edgar who scored the second for Newcastle against Man Ure to see that. Just couldn't resist the opportunity to have a completely pointless dig at wsr, could you?

I just caught the end of some Football League initiative on Talksport tonight, the catchphrase being something like "real football for real people" I think it said tickets were 2 quid and 5 quid and by way of example the first time it was done at Oldham the gate was 9500 and the second time 12000 - which I suspect is 2-3 times the normal gate. Like I say I only caught the end of it, does anyone know anything definite about it? With Rovers also having to do what they're doing, looks like a sense of reality is creeping back into football?

I agree with all that, I just don't think Nonda is as bad as is being portrayed. He could work a lot harder (so could McCarthy) but imo is certainly nowhere near being in the Grabbi category and imo is a marginal improvement on the likes of workhorses with no talent such as Kuqi and Dickov. That said, ideally would I like someone better brought in? - yes. To me our needs this window are becoming quite clear: One quality striker (possibly on loan) Assuming Dunn signs one other central midfielder as well - again possibly on loan. Assuming Neill leaves a full back - possibly the guy who's been on trial. Did Okkas never arrive at Ewood for a trial?

Nonda hasn't been great but you have to give him a bit of credit where it's due. The goal against Fulham was an exceptional piece of skill. He made the keeper look daft because he took the chance so early when it didn't look possible to get any sort of effort in. Thereby throwing the keeper totally. And the second v Arsenal was a difficult chance which he made look extremely easy. Nine times out of ten it wouldn't have occurred to players to attempt an overhead kick , they'd have tried to turn and it would have been blocked. Four League goals so far, a slight improvement in the second half of the season and it will be ten in total. It seems Nonda can do no right now, when he first joined nearly everyone was absolutely raving about him when he hadn't really been that good, now people are calling him to high heaven when he hasn't been quite that bad. Arguably also, as with Yorke and Cole, both McCarthy and Nonda have shown up better when the other hasn't been on the pitch. Neither have been particularly good in terms of overall play despite Benni's impressive goals ratio. As for Jeffers the situation seems a little odd, I haven't been impressed by him but he seems to have disappeared completely off the radar. I wonder if it's a combination of him not impressing on a daily basis and some sort of bonus kicking in if he plays again? And going back to the original topic for some reason Hughes really does seem loath to give Gallagher a fair crack of the whip. It's starting to look as if it would be better for him to move on sadly. So overall despite having six strikers on the books, until Roberts returns, as in midfield we're in a Savage/Tugay type situation whereby we need to wrap up the main two in cotton wool as we've no viable looking alternatives. I think we need another striker in the window unless the manager thinks he can kick start one of Gallagher/Jeffers/Derbyshire into making a significant contribution.

1) Always have done.................. and as a result the horse has now bolted! 2) Apologies if I'm wrong, thought the home leg was circa the 22nd of Feb!

It's a dead give away! He knows exactly where he's going (i.e. somewhere local so he can continue to live at his footballer's wives eyesore) and so does Hughes. All this stuff about him leaving "if we think it's right" is just a face saving exercise from Sparky imo to justify the ultimately futile step of giving him the captain's armband. If it's not already a done deal and he's not in a Liverpool shirt by the end of January I'll be amazed.

It was 3 p.m. boxing day, always a one off, always decent crowds nationwide, always lots of exiled fans from other parts of the country home for christmas, always lots of occasional attenders being taken along. And at best still only 22,000 home fans in due to our policy of giving up one side of the ground to away fans. I don't think there's likely to be any correlation at all with an 8p.m. Thursday night match in the middle of February. It all proves one thing, we can get away with charging category A+ prices for either Liverpool or ManUre on boxing day, the other 364 days of the year it doesn't work!

You mean Ooijer is older by two months. We just think of Henchoz as being a lot older because it's so long since his first spell here.

I think Ooijer is actually a couple of months older than Henchoz.

1) No 2) Arguably, but Todd has had a long period of enforced inactivity and is probably just reaching peak match fitness 3) I think he's done better than Ooijer when he's been on the pitch. 4) Can Billy Sharp play centre back?

Exactly right, was right at the front of The Riverside today, so got a really close look at him in the first half. Body language was appalling, clearly didn't want to be on the pitch, and let's just say he did the minimum consistent without actually throwing the game whilst not wanting to do anything to harm his new team either. The difference in commitment between him and Emerton, who was on the same side in the second half, couldn't have been more noticeable.