Alright?

So, the transfer window has been and gone, and Pharrell Bell remains where he is. I'm pretty glad, all things considered. I've had a few moves in my career but I feel settled here.

I'm on a sweet contract, I've got a nice pad in the city centre and a good bunch of lads around me making training a good laugh.

Okay, so I'm not at one of the "Big Four", and we hardly set the Premier League on fire last season, but we survived - and that's better than winning some tin-pot trophy like the League Cup in my eyes.

And obviously, it's fair to say that my England chances are being done loads of harm by staying at a little club like this. I reckon had I been playing for a bigger club, I would easily have caught Senor Capello's eye by now.

Although, that said, I do have a bit of a gripe with the media calling us an "unfashionable" club. I actually think that's well harsh. It is just another example of the media sticking an unfair label on someone.

Of course the media are going to call us "an unfashionable club". They only ever see us when we're in our club tracksuits - it's no wonder they don't think we like decent clothes.

Actually, some of the lads are well into their fashion, especially a couple of the foreign boys. They love their designer gear. Big sunglasses, tight-fitting suits, white open-necked shirts and shiny, pointed shoes - all that sort of clobber.

We've got a couple of African lads, too. Some of the gear they show up in is incredible. All these bright colours and random patterns on baggy shirts that look like tents. Each to their own, but not the sort of stuff I could wear as a teenager growing up on the mean streets of Leeds.

Pharrell Bell is more into a bit of "urban chic", you know? I like my over-sized jeans, designer boxer-shorts, baseball cap, bit of bling around the neck. Classic stuff.

Like I said, it's totally unfair to say we're an unfashionable club. Small, poorly-supported, out-dated, unambitous - fair enough. But not unfashionable.

Anyway, I'm just happy to be settled at a club that appreciates my talents and rewards me with a contract that I deserve. What I'm trying to say is that I'm here for the next four years, and no-one but me can do anything about it.

On another matter, it was great to see the big fuss being kicked up about players diving this week. I loved that. If there is one thing that pisses me off in the Premier League it is nancy boys throwing themselves on the ground, trying to win a free-kick or a penalty. It's cheating. Nothing more, nothing less.

They are cheating the referee, they are cheating their fellow professionals, they are cheating the fans. If I see someone breaking away through the middle and I am giving chase, I do not expect that player to unexpectedly throw himself six feet in the air and land on the turf clutching his knee-cap like he has been the victim of some gangsta-style shooting, just to try and get me yellow-carded - or worse.

It's so frustrating and annoying to see players diving like that. Even more so when you haven't actually touched them. What these lads need to realise is that even if I do give them a little tap on the ankles to bring them down, I am only doing it so that my team-mates can get back and get themselves into position.

It's all in the spirit of the game. If I give someone a little kick on the ankle, I'm not doing it to hurt them, I'm doing it to put them off, just letting them know I am around. It is a bit of gamesmanship.

If someone throws himself to the ground, trying to con the referee - that's cheating. There is a big difference.

And I think it is absolutely wrong to just blame the foreign boys for this culture of diving. I'm going to stick up for them here.
Sure, it was Jurgen Klinsmann and David Ginola and those lads who introduced it to our game when they arrived in the early 1990s, but if you look around the Premier League now you'll see as many British boys throwing themselves around as the foreign lads.

And for Wayne Rooney to get on his high horse about diving just makes me laugh. Him and Steven Gerrard are as bad as anyone. I find it all a bit embarrassing, actually. What happened to football being a man's sport?

Until next week,

PB