[Archived] Hughes Challenges Board

[S15]

  Hughesy said:

Our team is already capable of finishing 6th - 8th

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Not on a consitant basis it isn't.

Our team is playing very well, but once the performences drop, we can easily lose 2-3 games on the trot, seeing us plummet down into the 10th-14th positions.

The ''next level'' as I see it is having a team good enough to be between 6th to 8th every season, as the team is good enough to beat teams like West Ham, Fulham, Everton even when we are playing badly, safe-guarding our challenge for Europe season in season out.

[OJRovers]

I know people are goin on about what can be achieved with £10million - lets not forget how far Hughes has taken us with (net) spending of next to nothing.

The money's only useful if the players are available to buy.

[Paul Mellelieu]

For me the next level is having a team which is expected to finish in the top half of the league each season - and not to be banded in with the usual suspects at the foot of the table.

[waggy]

i think sparky has been very clever with his statement,if he is using rovers as a stepping stone in his career,he's letting other premiership chairman know he is a tad unhappy with his financial restriants.

he is also giving the purse string holders at ewood a timely reminder,that they better slacken them.either way i think we will be very lucky to hold on to sparky

[chris]

problem i have is, how are we in a position to spend more then Bolton and they spend nothing.

I can't see us getting 10 million, but we could risk £5 million and get a top top striker, when you have a player of Bemmamy's pace what i think we need is a Sutton type player as a target man.

We could probably get a decent aging target man dead cheap(fee wise), or spend a few million to get a 27-28 year old target man, obviously missed out big time on Sutton for reasons i'm not sure about, but there has got to be someone else out there.

I would think Hughes has an eye on Hartson as he's from Wales, would likely be free and a target man

Edited January 23, 2006 by chris

[S15]

To be honest, I'm not as worried with this talk of Hughes possibly leaving as I was when Souness was linked with Spurs just after wefinished 6th.

Managers nowadays do seem to have a short life span, and we know how quickly things can change (it seemed almost overnight with Souness), s if I were Hughes, I'd just be worrying myself with ensuring Rovers progress before he starts worrying about other jobs.

If he does this, when (if) he does leave, this will leave Rovers in a very strong position to attract another very good manager, who can further Rovers progress.

After all, Premiership jobs rarely come along at teams who are in healthy positions, so Rovers could be very attractive if they come along after finishing in europe.

All very hypothetical, I can't see many jobs popping up any time soon which may attract Hughes.

[waggy]

i think the next rovers manager is written in stone already

[chris]

really, i think next weeks lottery numbers are obvious

Edited January 23, 2006 by chris

[EIEIEIO]

  waggy said:

i think the next rovers manager is written in stone already

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  chris said:

really, i think next weeks lottery numbers are obvious

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Care to enlighten us?

[S15]

I think Mike Newell probably, dunno if that's who Waggy is insinuating towards.

[herbergeehh]

I think he means our next manager is dead.

[Fife Rover]

  chris said:

problem i have is, how are we in a position to spend more then Bolton and they spend nothing.

I can't see us getting 10 million, but we could risk £5 million and get a top top striker, when you have a player of Bemmamy's pace what i think we need is a Sutton type player as a target man.

We could probably get a decent aging target man dead cheap(fee wise), or spend a few million to get a 27-28 year old target man, obviously missed out big time on Sutton for reasons i'm not sure about, but there has got to be someone else out there.

I would think Hughes has an eye on Hartson as he's from Wales, would likely be free and a target man

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To all those who advocate going for Hartson, I would ask them to consider the following questions:

1) Is the SPL a better standard than the Championship?

2) How many goals did Kuqi score in the Championship as compared to how many does Hartson score in the SPL. Perhaps better to compare their relative goal ratios.

When you have the answeres to both questions, ask yourself : is Hartson likely to be a better player for Rovers than Kuqi?

Edited January 23, 2006 by Fife Rover

[AxesFirstTouch]

is Hartson a better finisher then Kuqi? I think we all know the answer is yes. So yes he is better. Plus Bellamy and Hartson know each others game, it wouldnt take them time to form a partnership.

Edited January 23, 2006 by wakefieldrawks

[krislu]

The transfer budget some people on here think Hughes should get is nothing short of ridiculous. If we can sign a couple of quality players a season while getting rid of some deadwood, then surely we would move in the right direction.

What we need is a steady progress, and I'm sure if we can keep Hughes while giving him around £5m to spent each year, then we might challange for a 5th - 6th spot every season.

Looking back at our two last PL campains, I would say being where we are today is a HUGE step in the right direction!

[herbergeehh]

I agree, we don't need a lot of money to improve our squad - one striker will do at the moment actually. Our defence is solid, our goalkeeper is 4 out of 5 matches one of the best in the Prem, our midfield has a lot of quality (Tugay especially, and Savage/Reid/MGP chips in with hard work/athletism and occasional good runs/goals respectively) - whilst Bellamy is a quality forward.

Long term; a quality replacement for Tugay and Friedel, and hopefully bring through Peter and a few more good players from the academy.

We've got the most important part imo, a solid foundation - 7 or 8 good Premier League footballers who work well together!

[EIEIEIO]

Any news on those lottery numbers?

[LDRover]

  EIEIEIO said:

Any news on those lottery numbers?

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Got it on good authority that it will be 6 numbers between 1 and 49.

Get on pal, you can thank me later.

[chris]

  Fife Rover said:

To all those who advocate going for Hartson, I would ask them to consider the following questions:

1) Is the SPL a better standard than the Championship?

2) How many goals did Kuqi score in the Championship as compared to how many does Hartson score in the SPL. Perhaps better to compare their relative  goal ratios.

When you have the answeres to both questions, ask yourself : is Hartson likely to be a better player for Rovers than Kuqi?

377219[/snapback]

These are about right, ofcourse Hartson scored against Blackburn in Europe, that might not be included only league i think

ok Hartson's stats:

Appearances: 160

Goals: 105

Kuqi stats:

Appearances: 110

Goals: 39

[bellamy11]

  chris said:

These are about right, ofcourse Hartson scored against Blackburn in Europe

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Are you sure?

I thought it was his header that Brad parried to Larsson in the first leg, and Larsson/Sutton who scored at Ewood. Hartson did score a cracker against Liverpool though.

[chris]

no, not sure could have been Sutton come to think of it, infact ithink Sutton, Larrson and Hartson played together, well i think the stats are about right anyway i stole them from another website.

[SuperStella]

Good article on Hughes here; shame he's linked with United.

http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/News/Stor..._972865,00.html

[Jan]

Brad parried Hartson's header to Larsson.

Hartson had been waiting to come on when Sourmess did his ridiculous victory gesture to the fans (We sang Souness give us a wave and he stood up and shook his fists directly at the Celtic fans behind him so I don't think the gesture was to us). Hartson and O'Neill looked at Sourmess as if he was dogdirt and Hartson's first touch was the header above.