The gloves are off in the latest installment of the Robbie Savage saga. Blues have rejected a £2.2m bid from Blackburn, which is £2.2m in name only: apparently it's a 500K downpayment with the rest spread over FIVE years dependant on Rovers staying the Premiership. Thankfully David Gold has said the obvious thing: "But even if they offer us a lot more we would not sell Savage to them," he told the Guardian. "Like us, they are involved in a relegation dogfight, so it would be madness to sell one of our best players to a competitor."

The Mirror, which has been unsettling Savage since the summer of 2003 with its constant "Savage to Everton" transfer stories (just in case you didn't get that from my previous posts), claims he's had a tearful showdown with Bruce, and wants to leave because the Blues fans have been "bullying" him - these will be the same fans who gave him a standing ovation last Saturday.

If I was manager, I'd tell him that he would not be sold to a team below us in the league before next summer. He then has two choices: either knuckle down and give his all for this club between now and then, or rot in the reserves. There would be no third option, unless Everton were to offer seriously silly money (as in £4m, half of which would be upfront), which they won't do.