That's nice article and it's good to hear a player talking about loyality to the fans and how he can develop further at Rovers. By all reports he is an extremely nice fella, with no footballers ego. He'll be crucial in our success this season and if he could score 6-10 Premership goals a season (which he is capable of) we'd have a seriously goo player in our team.

A couple of years ago when he came onto the scene, Jay was seen as a real star for the future. It doesn't seem like he has developed much from then, but I still like him and would like to see him used this season.

I finished Frederick Forsyth's 'Fist Of God' last week and it was excellent. I'm now reading 'Great Expectations' by Dickens and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. You have to stick with it for the first couple of chapters, with the old English writing, but once you get past that, it's a great story. The movie follows the book quite closely and even though it didn't get great reviews, I really like the movie.

I'm delighted that we have signed Benni as he is a quality player. We'll have to wait and see if he can replace Bellamy and score regularly for us. You'd think that he would be able to do such. In a perfect world we would have been able to pair Bellamy and McCarthy together. There were doubts last year about Bellamy and he showed us how what he could do. A partnership of McCarthy and Roberts looks very potent, great speed, size, strength and the ability to finish. I presume that we are no longer persuing Mido or other potential strikers?

Well done to Italy on winning the World Cup, they have been the most consistent team at the competition. As for the game itself, I felt that France were the better side overall, but couldn't create many chances through their dominance and that is testament to how strong the Italians have been at the back. I really wanted France to win, because of my connections with the country and because I wanted Zidane, who's been the greatest player in the last decade and is one of the all time greats to retire at the top of the game. I also wanted to see Thuram, who has been such a dominant defender in the world to retire from international football with a World Cup medal. However, you could say that these players already have a World Cup medal and players like Cannavaro, Nesta and Zambrotta deserve their place in history. I think that the Malouda incident was a penalty and he should have had another after that. As for the Zidane incident, what a terrible way to end your football career. There's no doubt that he deserved to go, it was totally out of order and could over shadowed what he has achieved. I'm not sure if his sending off changed the outcome, yes he would have taken a penalty, but so would Trezeguet. The Italians were cool under pressure and have every reason to celebrate.

Both teams have done well to get to the final, they certainly didn't start well but have improved as the tournament goes on. There are players on both sides that I'd like to see win the World Cup, Cannavaro and Zambrotta for Italy and Zidane and Thuram for France. I think that Italy are slight favourites to win, but I hope that France win, with Zidane going out on top.

If Rooney had smashed that one in, it would have been a belter. Cole's against Sweden was a belter but Isaksson should have done better, but that doesn't detract from what a good strike it was.

Terry deserves to be in the squad, but so do a lot of players that haven't been selected, like Lucas Neill and Rafael Marquez. I certainly wouldn't have Totti in the team, especially over Fernando Torres.

There have been a number of players that have stood out for me at this World Cup: Goalkeepers: Buffon Abbondanzairi Pletikosa Ricardo Defenders: Marquez Terry Ayala Lahm Zambrotta Cannavaro Meira Miguel Grosso Gusiev Thuram Salcido Sagnol Midfielders: Ballack Maxi Rodriguez Mascherano Zidane Maniche Ronaldo Tymoschuk Pirlo Gattuso Appiah Muntari Valencia Kaka Rosicky Strikers: Klose Podolski Henry Villa Torres Saviola However from that list my team would have to be: Buffon Zambrotta Cannavaro Marquez Grosso Maxi Rodriguez Mascherano Kaka Zidane Klose Torres

Maybe someone has mentioned it already, but before the World Cup in a warm up game, Steven Gerrard committed a dive that was just as bad as anything that was seen at this tournament and people weren't all that bothered.

It was a pretty dire match and one that neither team really deserved to win. Ronaldo was the best player on the pitch IMO. At first I thought Henry dived for the penalty, but on second look, Carvalho kicked him with his trailing foot and that's all it takes for it to be a penalty. Some of the Portugese diving last night was awful and should have been stamped out, but what offended me more was the smuggness of the BBC pundits when Portugal lost.

I'm going for a France win. I've been quite lucky with my predictions from the quarter finals and semi finals, the only one I've gotten wrong so far is Argentina and Germany. Even though I want France to win, I always have mixed feelings when it comes to this stage of the competition. I've always liked France and have spent all my summers apart from one in France. Added to this I'd love to see great players like Thuram and Zidane go out with another World Cup medal. However, at the same time I'd like to see a player like Figo win something with his national team to make up for Euro 2004. Moreover, players like Cannavaro and Zambrotta deserve a World Cup. In the end, only won team can win it and I think France will tonight.

That was one of the best matches at this World Cup by a mile. Both teams went for it, playing attacking football and even though there weren't many chances, it was end to end stuff. The two goals were exceptional finishes. I've got to agree with people's assessment of Zambrotta, the guy is just an unbelievably good player. He's a world class left back for Juventus, but for Italy at right back he has been great.

What's Scolari's obsession with Pauleta? He plays well for PSG and scores a bundle of goals. Statistically he is good for Portugal, but at the last two tournaments, he has been woeful. with Portugal only playing one man up front, with two wingers, you'd think a player like Nuno Gomes would be more suited to the lone striker role because of his size. However, it seems that Postiga is even ahead of Nuno Gomes in the pecking order. I know what you mean, but Brazil were well beaten by France and Argentina were unlucky to lose to Germany.

England got as far as their football at this tournament and a favourable draw allowed them. Their overall performances meant that they simply weren't good enough, which must be disappointing for English fans when they look at some of the players they have. As Chris Waddle and Terry Butcher said on the radio and on the internet respectively after the game, even though England have wonderful talents like Gerrard, Rooney, Lampard and Terry, England have failed to consistently impress in all types of internationals, from qualification, to friendlies and in tournaments, under Sven (and even before his reign, 1 World Cup final and 2 World Cup semi-finals in their history) to have been considered genuine World Cup contenders. Very rarely under Sven have England played the type of football, that has set the likes of France, Brazil and Argentina apart from other good national teams over the past couple of years. Again, this must be a huge disappointment to English fans. The media frenzy before each tournament hypes the team up to impossible heights and you'd think that they'd learn just to keep quiet, not say daft things and see how the tournament progresses England did well on Saturday with 10 men. Up until Rooney's justified sending off, it had been the same old England from the rest of the tournament. After this incident England played with real passion and heart, because they needed to. Portugal were totally inept in trying to break them down, but you must give credit to the back four which was immense. Again penalties seem to be the downfall of England and it's hard to understand why. When you hear Sven and Beckham talking about England deserving to be in the semi-final and the final, I'm not sure what they mean, because from their World Cup performances, this is the last place they deserve to be. There's no doubt that there are some special players in the team and they should do better, but as a team they aren't anything special.

I'm delighted with the signing of Jason Roberts, I thought that he was excellent last season and was a player I hoped we'd sign. I've admired him from his days at Bristol Rovers and would have liked us to have made a bid for him back then, but on reflection he probably wasn't ready for the Premiership at the time. He struggled with WBA, but at Wigan he showed that he was good enough for the league. He has great power and pace, is good in the air and can hold the ball up well and is far better option than Kuqi in the target man role. However, I would have liked him instead of Jeffers, with two other strikers to follow. Now I see Roberts being our starting striker with hopefully a better player to come in and partner him.

What an uninspiring signing. The guy's career has been in freefall for a number of years and Hughes is going to have to use some serious magic to get him planning well, let alone scoring goals regularly. This better not get in the way of two bigger and better strikers joining the club.

I had a sneaking feeling for France before this game and they certainly produced. Zidane roled back the years and put one of the best performances seen at the World Cup. I think France could go on and win it. (Amazing how things can change in football)

Stephen Appiah is a quality player and is one that has definately caught the eye at the World Cup. He'd be a terrific signing, but Fenerbache play in the Champions League on a regular basis.

It certainly would throw the competition wide open, although I only really see an upset in Ukraine and England matches.

Allez les bleus! One more big day out for Zidane and company. It's a shame that the second goal came from Henry diving and clutching his face. I fancied France for this one and now the prospect of France against Brazil in the 1/4 final is mouth-watering. Spain have been far more impressive than England have been, even without the 4-0 drubbing of Ukraine and I think that says something about how poor England have been. Fair enough, you said that England would get further than Spain and they have, but lets remember who England played and who Spain played. I don't think that Spain have failed to perform, they've just been beaten by a side that are better than people give them credit for.

They played well in the 2nd half against Portugal. I'm going to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond VA. I can't wait.

Before the World Cup started, there was a belief that England would go into it and show the world what they were able to do, blowing aside the the likes of Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago and over coming a decent Sweden team, on the path to inevitable World Cup glory. Ever since the first game we saw furious attempts at back tracking, telling us how it was only the result that matter and so far it has been. As I said, I agree with the Guardian's match report (which was probably written by an English man) which talks about England's 'undeserved good fortune' which has made life easier for them. Would you not agree? But as the saying goes, you can only beat what's put infront of you. As I also said, it's hardly England's fault that the draw has been so good to them and other teams like Germany and Spain have had relatively easy passages to the latter stages. When you see how well teams like the Ivory Coast and Mexico have played and going out before the 1/4 finals, it puts my point into a bit of perspective. But then again, if all teams that played well went through then there would be a very different make up to the second round. As for being jealous of England, how wrong you are, I have enough to worry about in my life, namely spending a year studying in America, than having that to deal with that as well.

Of course it was. The guy only contolled a cross field pass on his chest, turned on the corner of the box and lashed a volley with his weaker left foot into the opposite top corner of the net. That was one of the best games of football I have seen in some time. It wasn't like there were many chances, it was just that it was so enthralling. Mexico were excellent and even though I don't agree with them being the fourth best team in the world according to FIFA, they are certainly in the top 10. Rafael Marquez was the best player on the pitch by a mile IMO. I've always thought that this guy was a class apart and on Saturday he showed how good he was and what it means to be a captain. Argentina's ability to bring on Messi, Tevez and Aimar is what made the difference. If Mexico had at least one of these class options up front or on the bench they could have won. Messi or Tevez should start the next game, because they looked unreal.

I think that the Guardian match report is a fair reflection of what happened yesterday. England failed to convince yet again and this idea that the positive thing to take out of these games that England can play better is becoming quite old. This was said after the Paraguay match and there has been little improvement. You can't just suddenly start to play well, especially when there has been no real sign of it in the previous four matches. I think the Guardian is right when it says that England have an undeserved stay in the competition and it's only the draw that's been handed to them, which has keep them in the competition, but that's hardly England's fault.