I'm normally quite supportive of the manager/club relenting to a player when they want away. But I will be very disappointed if the club let Benni go. I'm mostly supportive of Allardyce, but he's made a mistake with his handling up until this point, in so far as he's almost encouraged clubs to come in for Benni. I'd be especially cricitcal of Sam if he lets Benni go on the cheap, because of the following. Sure there is a risk that we'll being paying wages for a player who we cannot play, but it is a calculated risk. As another post has stated it, Benni will be desperate to stay in the World Cup frame. If we refuse to sell it would seem likely that at some point, he'll "come to". He'll realise that he'll have to make or break, so to speak, at Rovers. Even if he doesn't "come to", is selected for SA and has a decent World Cup anyway, we can sell him in what's left of the window before next season. Unfortunately, we cannot take the slight risk of Benni calling our bluff and refusing to focus on his football with Rovers. That means we will have to take the double whammy on cost and actually bring in a replacement for him in this window anyway. I hope the club are strong willed enough to take this financial risk, but I can understand if they relent and offload.

Thanks roversmum :-)

Anyone know why Derbyshire didn't play for Olympiakos??? Is he injured, or dropped by the new coach? EDIT I should say, he wasn't even in the squad according to http://www.skysports.com/football/match_fa...3190164,00.html

First of all, I too would like to express my appreciation of Hughes tenure. However, I posted on the next manager thread that either Hughes wanted to speak with City to coax Chelsea to chase him, or he was not as ambitious as being made out, and he was not ready for the Chelsea job, and the City deal seemed a good way to avert having to reject Chelsea. Well, now that he has gone to City, I'd like to express my feelings on Hughes supposed ambitions. IMO, the Chelsea job would be impossible to refuse for any manager at a similar stage in their careers as Hughes. They have a strong squad, just missing out on two major titles. If you believe yourself to be an even slightly better manager than Avram Grant, you would think it possible to take them one step further. At worst, you don't, and you get heavily compensated for your failure when Chelsea pay out your contract. So, given all the speculation that Chelsea were considering Hughes, it has to be asked why Hughes jumped at the City chance, instead of stalling or perhaps risking City's offer waiting for Chelsea. That tells me one of two things: a) Hughes is ambitious enough to have taken the Chelsea job if it was offered. However, he didn't really believe himself to be in with a chance. This would apply even if a perhaps unreported approach by Chelsea was knocked back by Hughes, his haste to take the City job tells me that his ambitions are not yet as lofty as managing a top four club. Anyway I read how the situations played out, I really get the impression of . Reports were that Hughes and Ancelloti were the last remaining candidates on the short list. Given that Ancelloti seems well out of Chelsea reach, stating he didn't want the job, I really can't believe that as in a), Hughes didn't believe himself a chance. He must have preferred City to Chelsea. It's a cop out really. Anyway, good luck to you Hughesy. I don't mind you finish your team above Rovers next season, so long as Rovers have finished no lower than 7th again, and your team has replaced one of those most despised "top four" clubs.

Just picked up on this. I put my hands up. I was completely wrong. Am happy with Hughes, and have been pretty much soon after he joined.

I don't see the big deal with that miss really. He'd just come on, and has had little to no time on the pitch. Bit harsh to judge him on 5-10 mins that he was on (he was on for that little wasn't he?).

Disillusionment with the sheer negativity of the comments that get posted. My fault... I'll take a hiatus away from this message board. Hopefully this thread will be dead and buried by the time I come back. Later.

(Please don't use that word again) off and don't tell me how to try to see it.

What surprises me about this whole saga is how quick a lot of Rovers supporters have been to criticise Neill for choosing West Ham over Liverpool, whilst totally missing Liverpool's sheer arrogance in the whole thing. They wanted to screw MH over the transfer fee... and having tried to pull a fast one that would have given them extra money to entice Neill with wages, offered him what I consider would be a comparatively (to the rest of the Liverpool back line) measly 30k a week. Anyone care to speculate how much Liverpool would have offered if Lucas had been playing for one of the media darlings? Furthermore, and although Neill was in a win situation too, I consider it a last act of compassion that he chose the club willing to pay a reasonable transfer. To this end, I equate it much with Souness going to Newcastle when the writing was on the Ewood Park walls that his tenure was coming to an end.

One of the biggest problems a relegated team faces is cutting back on player wages. If they are getting Neill fairly cheap, in terms of transfer, they've little to lose if they are relegated and 50k a week Neill relieves them of that wage commitment. I knew I should have waited until after reading the entire thread to make the above post.

Spot on RB. I am very much an admirer of Lucas, but I have to say, I simply do not believe him. Unless there is a complete breakdown of communication between Hughes and him, either one of them had cause to question the going ons of the board and the agent. Very simple really. Something along the lines of: LN: You said an new contract went of last week. Why have I not yet seen it? (calling Hughes integrity into question) MH: The board assured me they sent it. I'll ask them again. In the mean-time, you get onto your agent. The only possibility is that perhaps they consider the "new contract", same as the previous contract offer... in which case Neill is being disingenious. Regardless of all this, I don't think he should be jeered.

I've done my research. Vinjay posted this, jumping to the Chelsea manager's defense, and deriding Rovers in comparison. My response at the time.

As much as it is others to criticise this post, it is my right to say that Vinjay is not a genuine Rovers supporter. I vaguely recall one particular post where he/she all but gave him/herself up.

Some posts indicating that the poster wants Gray out of the Man Utd match. Personally, I am looking forward to Gray coming up against Rooney again Seriously

Bob, your endings need a bit of work