It needs to be stressed that is an oipinion piece and does not include any new Benni quotes. I am watching the Drogba injury with concern though. Another Chelsea forward getting crocked before 31 August and we will be sweating. I guess a lot is going to hang on Rovers making a bright start to the campaign and then going for the new contract in September

Sparky hits absolutely the right note in setting the targets for 07/8 in these comments in the LT. And more on the same lines from the LT Incidentally, plaudits to the LT for having vastly improved their Rovers' coverage of late.

Platini's gallic take on the takeover of English football He sees the road to ruin in the over-heating of the player market. For all the capital flooding in, 62% of clubs have increased their overdraft facilities. To be honest, beginning of June was the ideal time to chat to the bank manager if you were a football FD- always best to talk overdraft increases when you don't actually need it, have a revenue surge just round the corner and good reasons to "invest" speculatively/react to opportunities. I am sure Rovers had done the same whilst stalking Bellamy.

Times story Good news: whopping big new contract for Benni Good news: no mention of clauses Total destruction of credibility: picture of Eastlands (or is that our new home when DW closes Ewood?)

The Mail still on its own with the story about the £5m release clause Irrespective of the release clause, Rovers are bound to look to renegotiate with Benni this season: - reward for last season locked in plus an element of relativity - he is of an age where 5 year contracts are becoming the norm because of the players' contract buy-out rights a year from the end of the deal.

Let's forget the fact that the Press are not interested in Rovers. Two days have elapsed since Chelsea target and runner-up in the Golden Boot refused to sign a new contract and a release clause was exposed. Has nobody in the press bothered to follow up this story?

Just scanned the papers and as yet I have not seen anybody else has picked up the Daily Mail story. That is a statement of fact, not an optimistic comment.

Season ticket sales resistance at Old Trafford Of course the Glazers are only half way through a four year plan of rolling ticket price increases.

The Guardian this morning is reporting that because of the state of the global debt market, Man U have been unable to restructure/ re-finance the £660m debt. As you know, there is a crisis in the sub-prime market and the rates Man U are paying suggests they are sub-sub-prime. The Telegraph report David Gill's comments. What he doesn't say is more than 30% of that £200m turnover is going in interest payments.

Sparky and Benni have had a chat To be honest, I have never been that worried about this one. We were always going to have Benni or a wadge north of £20m. Having Benni is much better though. No bids were ever tabled by the way. Just another six weeks of bored media oiks stirring the pot left....

More likely the result of a firm Sparky talking to with little scope for future histrionics.

The daily Mail currently have two Rovers stories on their web site- Rigters not signing for us and Benni not turning up. Obviously the rest of the paper is as accurate and objective.

Sorry tcj but that is risible. Benni is worth whatever Rovers ask for him- simple as that. Tell me, next season (and given the average Prem Manager lasts about 3 of them in one job) would you chose McCarthy or Bent to spearhead your front line (hint one of them scored about twice as many goals as the other in all competitions)? So which player would most Managers prefer to see in their side? On that basis, if Rovers won't lift an eyelid under £20m, what is McCarthy's price? In the same way some people would sell Todd and Jeffers for well under half of Rovers' asking price, I guess Rovers will leave Hughes' speculation that Benni is more valuable than Berbatov as the benchmark in case anyone is even thinking about making a bid in the £12m region. In all these cases, Rovers will get their price or keep their man. They might be a bit more flexible on 31 August if all the club's shopping has been successfully completed. No doubt Sparky has an appropriate welcome back to Brockhall waiting for Benni. PS I didn't mention Mido I would have edited out the word risible but on reflection, we were extremely fortunate the Egyptian was such a ditherer with Rovers last summer.

Must admit this is an unpleasant development. The club is negotiating with essentially foreign investors (who read headlines and don't neccessarily understand who to take seriously and who not) to take it to another level and the top scorer is dreaming of playing for a bunch of relegation scrubbers! The scenario for Benni surely is Rovers sign Bellamy and Benni signs a lucrative extension giving him parity. So what is he whittering about?

Even better in that article, Rovers have stated offers are not welcome and have communicated this through Benni's agent.

I am watching the Bent saga- WHam and Charlton agreed £17m so I wonder what he will eventually go to Spuds for. Relevance is that WHam are bound to be bidding big for Benni. Which should set the benchmark high for the probable Chelski bid when it comes. For all his mouthiness, Benni doesn't exactly have an effective track record in getting the moves he wants. I would tend to back Sparky too if there is any player reaction from Benni- Benni is not getting any younger and a failure to have a great second season will knock him off the radar of any CL club.

The concept of "buy" is a tricky one in the context of Mascherano. 40/1 odds on Benni being top scorer are very generous. Unlikely to be Henry around to challenge. Rovers midfield will be stronger with injury-returnees so in theory he will get better service. Plus he will have a fully fit Roberts and some transfer record breaking forward alternating as his partner. And if Man U or Chelsea snaffle him the odds will drop tenfold.

Because criminalisation is not working- simple as that. Besides if you rank all substances by addictiveness, harm to the user, harm to society you will see there is no correlation between risk and whether you can obtain a substance legally or not. Tobacco and alcohol are far more dangerous than ecstasy. Junk food is causing more deaths than cocaine. Why obesity is a matter of public concern. What is legal and illegal are conditioned by society fashion and has virtually no basis in any science whatsoever. My argument is that using the criminal law to regulate the user is the most ineffective and damaging way society can go about it. There are far more effective ways of discouraging people from abusing dangerous substances without turning over roughly 10% of global GDP to criminal gangs. In the final analysis, altering state of consciousness seems to be a basic human need as old as humans themselves. Virtually every primitive society discovered in the last millenia has had its own wacky baccy equivalent or some trance/hallucenagenic inducing substance.

He might also be calculating that a long run in the UEFA Cup with a few peaches from him against European opposition will enhance his chances of selection for Euro 2008. If Rovers have to go the Intertoto route again next summer, I doubt Hughes will be disturbing Bentley's belated summer holiday. It is usual for players involved in a major summer tournament such as EC or WC to be given a later start to pre-season by their clubs. Who knows but MGP, Ooijer, Berner, Warnock, Bentley and perhaps even Henchoz or Reid might be late back next summer.

Reported is the operable word. At the end of the day business fundamentals come into play. Man U have a debt to turnover ratio of 3 and last year's cost of servicing the debt was pushing 50% of turnover. I am not saying the Man U global brand is not extremely valuable but a couple of season's coming 5th in the Premiership are as unsustainable for the Mancs as one was for Ridsdale's Leeds - that's why we are seeing relatively free wheeling Manc spending (probably Rooney-esque deals with a huge amount backended and very contingent for the two youngsters). Its all a huge gamble by the Glazers which is working because Ferguson is a genius (unlike Benitez). Abramovich has the real estate value of Stamford Bridge to fall back on. It seems the Glazers are banking on the Manc followers swallowing a near 100% increase in costs over 5 years to pay for their chancing.

Meanwhilst, there is an Arsenal pressure group preparing to fight the possible American take-over of their club. This analysis of the financial state of Man U does not make comfortable reading.

Now do folk understand why I called the England management a running joke?

Brett Emerton is the fittest Australian athlete. I guess that is a compliment.

How can you belittle a running joke?

You can read- Hughes said he did not want Bentley in the u-21 squad before it was selected and again complained about Bentley being in the under-21 squad the day it was announced.