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.

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.