Other than Nugent who is seemingly already in the about to be off-loaded list at Pompey, Derbyshire's only young English striker competition at present is Lita at even less fashionable Reading. Therefore if Matty keeps getting amongst the goals at Rovers and England u-21 level, the absence of strikers who can score at senior level will heighten the press interest irrespective of playing for Blackburn.

Nobody has picked up on the fact that he is described as a striker.

More fuel for the debate

It was not just the first half either. After Chelsea had scored their second, he effectively closed out the game for them with decision after decision going against the Rovers.

Alan Wiley once again showed how difficult it is going to be for any non-Big 4 club to break into the Big 4's monompoly of the first four places.

Police warn Blackburn Pubs about illegal screenings I guess it will be an easy job to ring up all the usual suspects and ask if they are showing it and visit the ones that say yes.

Click on Hughes the Daddy to see Sparky showing Roque a trick or two.

The Santa Cruz song is both quick and irregular beat. So it will either shut the drummers up or they will ruin it.

McClown- the rake bit. To be honest I haven't followed the who is in/out sagas but McClaren comes out of that Guardian blog terribly.

Derbyshire tipped as England's future hope

Wow that was wide of the mark!!!! (except of course to help persuade players to sign). Precisely At the very least we should insist that the amounts required to invoke release clauses actually reflect footballing reality. By judicious use of clauses we acquired Bellamy for £3.7m and Benni (if a clause exists...) for £2.5m- of course the purchase prices were market reality... when has a release clause actually benefitted Rovers? Getting £17m from Chelski plus remember Rovers have a history of activating far more release clauses with players at other clubs going back to the purchase of Bohinen If you transfer at below market rate as a player, your cut of the transfer fee is correspondingly lower. So typically Agents negotiate some compensating benefit.

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?