Surely Bradfords purchase of Carbone+Petrescu is one of the biggest club management cock ups in a long time. Why did they sign them in the 1st place????...............................................

But the Romanian insists he wants to stay and will happily see out the remainder of his £20,000-a-week deal - worth £2.5m - on the bench or in the reserves.

Petrescu, 33, also stressed neither he nor Carbone will consider joining other clubs unless their lucrative contracts are matched or paid up in full.

"I want to make it clear that my Bradford contract expires in the summer of 2003 and I have no reason not to respect it," said Petrescu.

"I want to stay and fight for a place in the team. When I sign for a club my purpose is to respect my contract and give my best for the good of the team.

"I know Jefferies has put me, Beni and others on the transfer list, but it's clear the intention of the club is to eliminate players with high salaries.

"The problem is that most of us don't want to go and, in this case, our contracts and other financial rights which come from the deals continue to function.

"So if they accept the luxury of keeping us on the bench but pay us, we will accept.

"If the club still want to sell me, I will only say 'Yes' if they find me a team which accepts my financial requests."

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001

Answers

An astonishing display of club loyalty in these days of tarts masquerading as professional footballers ...

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001

Not so sure about that Loony - call me a cynic, but it sounds more like a severe case of 'Lionel Perez Syndrome' to me!!

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001