Mowen

Personally I'd say 60/40 that he'll stay. If you'd asked me in December or January I'd have said 90/10 he'd be off! He's a very level headed lad but at the start of the season he certainly appeared to have had his head turned by transfer rumours, his England debut and the chance at a big pay rise. To be honest he's not looked his normal self for a lot of this season but the noises coming out of the club are that he's close to signing a new deal. If he's continued his form from last season I'm sure someone would come in with a very good offer for him. As it is I'm not sure the offers will be quite so forthcoming. His left foot is exceptional though and so much of our attacking play starts or goes through him. Defensively he's pretty sound, although he's not got the pace of the likes of Ashley Cole and he's never going to be the best in the air, but he's a clever little defender who isn't often beaten. I think we need to put as much pressure on him as possible to be honest, from what I've seen he starts a lot of your moves. If we can get Oba to pin him back as much as possible you may struggle to break free.

Me too. I think SBR NOT using him ruined the lad though. He looked brilliant his first couple of games But SBR took the "I'll not rush him" to ridiculous extremes That's not really accepting you were wrong though is it? It's more like blaming someone else for you being wrong when in reality you should have been right

I've been very impressed with Harper's distribution, he looks to throw the ball a lot more than Shay seems to.

Pleat's commentary for the 4th

Just saw his goal on ITV, fucking brilliant!

Why would you say what you thought was going to happen if you didn't care whether or not you could accurately predict the future?

An indication of how little faith Ramos has Lennon's ability to deliver a half decent cross once in a while. I do like Ramos' attitude to anyone who isn't performing for whatever reason. Irrespective of whether it is a leading light or a squad player, JR's reaction is the same, They won't play if they don't match up to what Ramos wants. Lennon has to improve his final ball, doing extra training, Gilberto has some weight to lose and I won't even begin to tell you why JJ has been absent for the past couple of matches. MAybe this is the reason why you havent been climibing up the league like you should be in my opinion, we had a similar approach with SA and the team changed every week for whatever statistcal reason. It's notall its cracked up to be. I think it might be a factor. Whilst Spurs were struggling when Ramos came, and it is good to see underperformers not in the side, this is a team that came 5th the previous two seasons. You were shit this year under Jol, but you haven't done that well in the league under Ramos either. Talk of a complete overhaul this summer. Should that really be necessary 12 months on from a clubs two highest ever finishes in the premier league?

I'd be surprised if Lennon went for as much as £12m given that he isn't a starter these days.

Did the same myself.

I thought Luque, Pistone, Maric, Viana and Boumsong would all be good signings. Crimes of optimism really.

Better performances will lead to better results though. It's pretty simple.

In what way? Malbranque had too much time and space on the ball, but then he put in a brilliant cross and Bent's finish was outstanding.

It might be a sideways step, but like I said, being a club like Spurs or Newcastle or even Everton's big money signing to elevate them to the next level will mean the spotlight, and massive pressure, is going to be on him. It's unlikely, but not infeasible.

I concur. I'd be right fucked off if he ended up at Villa though

Yeah, I know. What I'm saying is that the money might impress him enough, and just earning more money with a bigger profile will keep all eyes on him. He might be at Newcastle, but if he's Newcastle's £16m signing who's going to propel them up the table and he delivers to the level that is expected he will be in the England team for some time to come. If it doesn't look like a CL team would come in for him that could well sway him imo.

Even more reason to go abroad then. I'm sure it would impress Capello. Probably sounds like a bit too much hard work... especially when he'll have English teams throwing money at him.

He'll be looking for the £££ and a high profile imo, neither of which Blackburn can offer. If he's still cutting the mustard with a higher level of pressure and a number of quality players around him, he'll be starting for England.

Exactamundo

What would you be happy with? If he's allowed to spend the money on whoever he wants how much do you think will be necessary? I can see him going for about 4 first teamers and a couple of squad players, probably spending somewhere in the region of £50m.

Julian Dicks

Dunne isn't as slow as some would have you believe. He very rarely gets done for pace, partly because of his excellent positional sense. Very good defender.

Assuming we're not signing Chimbonda we'll need someone who's happy to play second fiddle to Beye, Volz would be a decent signing for that role. I've always thought he's looked decent when I've seen him. The young lad who played there against us, Omozusi, looked like he had some potential as well. As has been mentioned we'll only be getting squad players from these clubs. I'd take a punt on Barnes as well, doesn't look the most refined but could come on and change a game with his pace.

Brown and SWP are two I'd fully expect KK to go for. Dunne would be a pleasing addition, and I wouldn't be overly surprised with a bid for Crouch. Hopefully he'll have some aces up his sleeve.

Charming Thanks KaKa, I'd missed that.

Volz would be an acceptable second choice RB to replace Carr.