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.

Youth players not to be fiven a chance at the season end. Interesting to read the comments about Keith Treacy though.

It is great to read that Benni is so happy at Rovers. He looked a bit miffedwhen he came off after 60 minutes at Newcastle but apparently his back was so bruised he very nearly didn't come out for the second half at all. As for the rest of the article, looks like another Andy Neill pot stirrer- interest from Liverpool and Man U?- first I've heard that. Certainly there are Chelsea rumours. I'll be both surprised and disappointed if Benni is not at Ewood next season. The EPL is pretty well pricing most continental clubs out of contention and Man U and Liverpool are looking elsewhere by all accounts. After they sign Tevez, Villa, Eto'o and Messi, Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool are bound to need a few more reserve forwards...

That link to Tugay's goal v Spurs in the Goal of the Season thread lead me to this PS I think we'd all like some of that nothing Jon Stead cost!

There is no doubt that League 2, Scottish Premier and Unibond level football is cracking good entertainment. As was watching Rovers in Div 2 and Div 3 of old (I rewatched that Chelsea v Rovers game from 76/7 posted on the Youtube thread which reminded me just what a good player Tony Parkes was). However, Premiership football is astonishing for the speed and skill and even quite mundane EPL games have the capacity for leaving me sitting open mouthed at the levels of ball control that all the clubs except Watford have shown themselves capable of when building moves out of defence through midfield. It is a different world and as the viewing figures suggest, just about the best in the world. I see some Bundesliga most weeks which is quite slow and lacking in physical pressure in comparisson with the EPL but the crowd atmosphere is much better most. Really bad Spanish and Italian games are off the scale for awfulness and there are quite a lot of them. That coverage of Accy Stanley beating Macclesfield didn't make me think anything other than why were they wasting their time watching that stuff rather than getting down to Ewood?

The Italian Moggi scandal rumbles into the criminal courts Moggi and pals used "untappable" sim cards. 42 more games in 2004 and 2005 are now "suspect". Gatusto's amazement at a ref's decision in a Milan v Juve game echos mine in quite a few games involving Rovers.

Well done to Accy Stanley for squeezing out a 3-2 win and securing football league football next season.

An interesting comparisson made by the Guardian: 51 players with more goals than Shevchenko Premiership scorers 2006-07 19 Didier Drogba (Chelsea) 16 Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) 15 Benni McCarthy (Blackburn) 13 Wayne Rooney (Man Utd) 12 Kevin Doyle (Reading), Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Middlesbrough), Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool) 11 Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Nicolas Anelka (Bolton), Obafemi Martins (Newcastle), Darren Bent (Charlton), Bobby Zamora (West Ham), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Andrew Johnson (Everton) 10 Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough), Nwankwo Kanu (Portsmouth) 9 Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Brian McBride (Fulham), Emile Heskey (Wigan), Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham) 8 Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), Louis Saha (Man United), Robbie Keane (Tottenham), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Matthew Taylor (Portsmouth), Mikel Arteta (Everton), Rob Hulse (Sheff Utd), Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham) 7 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Man Utd), Shabani Nonda (Blackburn), Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Leroy Lita (Reading), Craig Bellamy (Liverpool) 6 Paul Scholes (Man Utd), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Gary Speed (Bolton), Henri Camara (Wigan), Hameur Bouazza (Watford), Joey Barton (Man City), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham), Kevin Davies (Bolton), Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn) 5 Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham), Michael Ballack (Chelsea), El Hadji Diouf (Bolton), Benjani Mwaruwari (Portsmouth), Park Ji-sung (Man Utd), Tim Cahill (Everton) Incidentally, the following is in the Sun so is DEFINITELY NOT TRUE: Meanwhile, Rovers boss Mark Hughes says he is not interested in using Morten Gamst Pedersen as bait to re-sign striker Craig Bellamy from Liverpool. He said: “I won’t be letting Morten go, that’s for sure. He is not going anywhere.”

The thought of the semi-final Dunn and end of last season Reid operating in midfield together (with Sav, Tugay and Mokoena as options) just raised the hairs on the back of my neck in anticipation. Should be a fantastic combination and a daunting proposition for most oppositions. David was clearly tiring as we got into Extra Time - otherwise he was a very reliable penalty taker if you remember his first spell at Ewood. Really pleased for the lad coming good in such a big match.

I enjoyed reading this profile of Mark Hughess. No doubt the sinks at Brockhall are being scrubbed by Andy Todd at this very moment.

Dunn's fee was undisclosed. I think you can be pretty sure that the amount actually paid reflected the contractual circumstances and that Big Sam had done a good job in nailing BIG CLUB before we exploited the situation. All this £1.5m and £2m talk is the bluenoses covering their embarassment- sure we will pay it if I make my debut as centre forward in the Cup Final and other equally unlikely things come to pass. We'd have been a bit stuck had we waited until summer given the Reid and Savage injuries.

Rovers say Benni not for sale or somebody close to Rovers said something like it in such a way that Andy Neild could quote the Man U programme notes which first hit the press days ago. Quality journalism!

A hattrick each in the semi-final and the final will silence those who doubt if he's be good enough to play for the Mancs. I think Rovers are in a win win on Benni in the last eight or nine games of this season.

We are playing Man U so this is inevitable. Here's hoping this story gets recycled in May (and twice next season and the season after and.....) Sparky knows he is going to have to do something spectacular at Ewood to push the claims of Queroz and Keane off the OT succession planning agenda.

There is only one interesting question about McLaren. When will he be sacked?

Guardian calls for Bentley to replace Lampard

At the risk of the little'un ripping us apart in the SF, I think SWP now is mostly good news for the opposition when he is on the team sheet. Lennon has not developed the way he could and should have this season. Bentley is much the better footballer of the three- the other two would be pretty ordinary if you took their blistering pace away. I am not much of a fan of Jenas- name any England squad over the past 40 years that Jenas would get into other than the current set-up. Dyer would get into some of the squads provided he had a lobotomy. I think the criticism of Derbyshire's pass is way over the top. Typical "he's only a Blackburn lad" thinking.

Not annoying, just dull and boring

It was an inch perfect pass threaded through at exactly the correct pace. I must admit I was surprised that Derbs was capable of playing such a great ball. I didn't say he was world class but I am not going back on what I said about the pass.