Hol-ding on to super Chris

I've had an enjoyable week so far chuckling at other peoples misfortunes.

Targets of my mirth have included the scummers, mired as they are deep in the relegation zone; Liverpool, for putting themselves in a position where their only striking options not named Torres are David Ngog or Andrei Voronin; Newcastle, for coming up with a worse name for their ground than the Trade Recruitment Stadium; and Histon for, er, well, where do you start. I fear that some kind of footballing karma is going to come and bite me in the ass this weekend when United make a pigs ear of dispatching Ilkeston.

And even if we do get past the Blue Square Norf'ers, bad times are surely just around the corner, as the clock is ticking down to the opening of the transfer window when Chrissy Holroyd will surely be hot footing it towards pastures new.

"I’ve got no concerns about it. We’re still two months away from the window opening, so at this moment in time it hasn’t really entered my head," the cool, calm, and collected sounding Linguist said of his top scorer, who has today been linked with a move to Bournemouth or Norwich. Admittedly this link has been made up unearthed by that bastion of investigative journalism The Daily Star, but you would assume there must be a fair bit of interest in our 14-goal hitman.

Personally I can't see him being a United player come February 1. Our over-budgetness is well publicised, and while it would be nice to think that if we're still in with a shout of the play-offs after Christmas we could keep hold of him until the end of the season, any decent offer will surely see the board cash in. I'm sure the player himself would welcome a move back to the north, given that he stated in his programme interview earlier this season that his favourite place in the world to be is "driving down the M6 on my way home."

In terms of cash, I guess we can expect £50k - £80k in total. I'd be happy with the latter, but suspect any fee will be nearer the former. What is for certain is that if he stays till the summer and any move goes to a tribunal, we are unlikely be looked upon favourably. It's all very well for Ling to talk about the "protection" afforded to us by Chrissy being under-24, but seeing as we essentially brought him as fully grown player I'm sure we'd be looking at a rerun of the Robbie Simpson situation.