Sack the team Why not get rid of most of the current England players as well as the Manager?

Ignore the editorialising and read what Berbatov has actually said. Am I being paranoid or has Berbatov come straight out with at least as overt a paeon of praise for Man U and statement about wanting to play for them than Benni has said about Chelsea? Of course Sky put all the spin on the few nice words he says about Spuds whereas the reporting of Benni's ramble was 100% about wanting out of Rovers. So Bung the Agent, Spurs are part of the Big 5? They are in the same bowl of soup as the Rovers.

I may have lost the plot but I think the fool in question is the same poster who claims to have inside knowledge that Benni has already signed for Chelsea for £7m. Anyway, two weeks from now we can start getting excited about a truly hypothetical set of fixtures- assuming the West Ham scandal is still rumbling on.

Anelka has done a Benni and started talking about CL football. Can only be good news for Rovers. In all the analysis of how Liverpool have been left behind in the transfer market by Chelsea's freebies and Man U's £50m spree, there is no mention of Benni nor any assumption Bellamy will still be at Anfield.

1 Croatia 6 5 1 0 16 4 12 16 2 Israel 7 4 2 1 15 7 8 14 3 Russia 6 4 2 0 11 1 10 14 4 England 6 3 2 1 9 2 7 11 There are only 12 games and England are 5 points and 5 goals behind Croatia having already played one "goal fest" fixture with Andorra. I cannot see England winning all three home games against Croatia, Israel and Russia the way they are playing at the moment. The away game in Russia will be the crunch and winning that would be against the odds on current form.

England are not going to qualify for Swaustria- end of. It would need a very good squad playing very well for each other taking its chances and not gifting at the other end to go through from where we are now. England fail on all four counts and that is without being handicapped by a rubbish Manager. Playing Jenas ahead of Bentley actually makes McLaren worse than rubbish. Bentley and Derbyshire could make quite an impact in the under-21 tournament were it not for the fact that Pearce is even more clueless than McLaren.

Platinnin has made a plea for the G14 to disband itself and drop the Charleroi/Lyons cases for compensation for injured players. He has offered a football strategy board within UEFA at which the big clubs would have their say. The G14 was/is planning to expand itself. Chelsea, Celtic, Rangers and Accrington Stanley are amongst the clubs being invited to join.

Drog really enjoys playing the pantomime baddie doesn't he? Everything simplistically black and white ignoring the realities- its all grey. OK so I hate the Beckhams and everything they represent BUT watch any one of Real Madrid's recent games and the uber tatooed one is inky kneck and shoulders the best English-born player playing in the world today. Far from being the end of McLaren its the second decision he's got right (dropping Beckham was the first). Incidentally nobody has picked up the fact that Rovers were/are deadly serious about getting Beckham in on loan. Where would that leave David Bentley? Learning from the master, that's where.

Slightly closer to Benni, but the latest coming out of Stamford bridge is that Abramovich has told Kenyon and Mourinho to run Chelski on operating capital and forget about hand outs from his pockets. This seems to tie-in with Chesh's tale in the £115K a week thread. So next signing at Chelsea is Pizarro from Bayern via PSV on a free to go along with free Sidwell. I guess if Chelsea really do sell Lampard, that will be the proof. So whilst Man U prepare a £40m bid for Berbatov (£27.5m plus Saha), I guess Rovers will not shift on their more than £30m number suggested by Mark Hughes for Benni- the most recent and only public comment the club has made on the matter as far as I can tell.

Great step forwards for David Bentley. I suspect he is the sort of player who will really shine on the international stage. I hope his international debut is more than a two minute cameo to allow Beckham to get cheered off.

It's Nuts re-cycled. If Rovers make a signing or two that signal realistic CL ambition, the chances of keeping Benni would increase a bit.

Benni currently joint 9th in the UEFA Golden Shoe award rankings.

A very unreliable newspaper quoted by a very unreliable web site

Sorry to depress everyone but I take the noise coming out of Chelsea as very bad news indeed. Chelsea are saying: 1) we want McCarthy (they haven't done before) 2) we are openly inviting Benni to be a rebel at Rovers so 3) we can get away with paying sub £10m if we are lucky.

Everyone has rights in this situation. Benni has the right to spout Rovers have the right to talk about Benni being more valuable than another player (Berbatov) widely valued at £30m (Hughes has already said it) And Chelsea have the right to hand over the dosh. However, as West Ham have taught us, he who holds the player's registration can do what he wants... I have noticed in the past that some of the less glamorous clubs in Europe have had storming seasons after having a couple of close seasons when they have seemingly sold their best players and lost the chance of advancement.

From what I can see, there is lots of press coverage about a Yorkshire Terrier and Chelsea but nothing about Benni and transfers this morning. He is not even in the compendium of possible big moves section in The Times. Every summer in his time at Porto, Benni tried to talk his way to a transfer. He got lucky third time with a year left on his contract. Given Rovers were on the other side of the fence on more than one occasion, Williams and co presumably know the game and how to play it whichever way they like. If he has indeed met Peter Kenyon, what is the difference between Benni's meeting and a certain infamous meeting between Peter Kenyon and Ashley Cole? Aren't Kenyon and Chelsea on a warning as to future conduct in this regard? I get the feeling that Rovers are giving Benni and Chelsea all the rope they need. Rovers will decide whether they hang together, rope Benni back in when everyone including Chelsea get tired of this or rope in the Chelsea cash which I would be pretty confident will be a bigger number than £6m. The season is over for Benni but all this "Chelsea come and get me" spouting is ignoring the fact that Chelsea's season doesn't end until Saturday. I cannot see anything happening very quickly. Until/unless we hear anything official out of Chelsea or Man U, I am pretty certain Benni will be a Rovers player next season.

The numbers behind the Glazer take over.

Charlton signed Bent for £2.5m rising to £3m from Ipswich some time ago. Pardew is rumoured to have rejected a £7m offer as inadequate this January.

Was there any booing of McCarthy yesterday? The Reading fans were incensed by his goal standing after Nonda's clash with their keeper but it seems that the Rovers fans got behind our man. From the BBC- Blackburn boss Mark Hughes on Benni McCarthy: "I am as confident as I can be he will be here next season. "I keep trying to emphasise we are not a selling club. If we allowed Benni McCarthy to leave we would be weaker. "He has had a fantastic season and it could not have gone better for him." In his interview for Radio Rovers, Benni talked about playing more beautiful football for us next season. Down Under Rover should look at these statistics- EPL players scoring more than 20 goals in all competitions this season are: (Player Team League Cup EuropeTotal) 1 Drogba Chelsea 20 6 6 32 2 McCarthy Blackburn Rovers 18 3 3 24 (4 pen) 3 Ronaldo Manchester United 17 3 3 23 (5 pen) 4 Rooney Manchester United 14 5 4 23 5 Berbatov Tottenham Hotspur 12 4 7 23 6 Keane Tottenham Hotspur 11 6 5 22 (4 pen) 7 Lampard Chelsea 11 9 1 21 (4 pen) All the other players in that list have cost mega-transfer fees. Of course, there is the nightmare Cup Final still to come.

Just read through the Benni thread. Except for the 'drog who has used this morning's Sun story to rehash his 10% of transfer fee income to the Manager codswallop, there is a remarkable correlation between those posters who call Benni lazy and those who are howling about the "reported" "comments" in the "Sun" ?*!article;-) Which of course we all believe to be the Gospel truth as that is the Sun's strong point. I have watched Benni's reactions on being subbed recently and to say he looked totally unhappy would be an under-statement. I know he was supposed to have been kicked in the back at Spuds on Thursday but that was a fit of pique when he got subbed if ever I saw one. To stir the pot a little, given Bellamy, Roberts, McCarthy, a rejuvenated Nonda and Derbyshire kicking on without second season syndrome, who would be first choice up front next season at Ewood? Despite being a Golden Boot contender and Champs League winner, Benni knows that Hughes is way ahead of him in terms of footballing achievement and will pick the best irrespective of reputation and ego. Perhaps the blah blah was for domestic consumption at Ewood more than a realistic invitation to Abramovich's cheque book?

Brilliant - yes the President of Sevilla has uncontrollable urges thinking about Roberts and McCarthy leading his front line next season. (Probably to lock the cheque book away). And as for Zaragoza- anyone been there? Blackburn any day compared with that desicated dump. And they will be left grovelling in the hot dust compared with Rovers' economic power if we have a half decent season next year.

The decision to sign Nonda makes good sense in the light of the Sun's story this morning.

Just hope the Rovers boo boys do not start exercising their vocal chords against Benni tomorrow. My guess is that this is all a controlled exercise with Rovers playing their part- certainly if you re-read Mark Hughes' comments of last week you can see exactly where the club is coming from. Benni does not seem to be the sort who operates with much subterfuge/subtelty. Rovers will be aware he practically went on strike at Porto to engineer a move so I would expect there has been a tacit agreement to put him in a shop window now in exchange for peace later and a harmonious 07/08 season.

Of course the press will be up to their old tricks in selling off our players. So on the basis it was going to happen anyway, this is as good a start as it gets from a Rovers' perspective- A week ago Hughes in saying Benni (and all other players) not for sale, no contract release clauses and we'll repel all attempts did set a benchmark by saying Benni is better than another player being mooted as being worth £30m, here? Chelsea spent £30m on another 30-ish striker last summer, I guess this is a case of smoking out a bid from Chelsea (or Man U- they get a mention in The Sun) as early in the summer as possible setting a CL benchmark and price range. Far better to get the business done now and the cash in the bank. If there is no business to be done with Chelsea or the Mancs then Rovers can get on with planning reasonably secure in anticipating Benni will still be at Ewood. Having said that, if Drogba breaks a leg in late August, we are stuffed.

Well he got a hattrick of offside goals at Reading in the reverse fixture... Reading been none too convincing of late either so provided we don't get dumb flag happy linesmen, he might do it. It would be just incredible if Benni gets the Golden Boot. But I'd willingly give it to Ronaldo if he sends West Ham down.