[Archived] Summer Transfer Window

[Kai]

Just wanted to add my view (not that it's worth anything, but it's about time I started contributing a bit more!)

Mido, Roque Santa Cruz or Alan Smith? All for around the same kind of money more or less.

To be honest, I wouldn't be exactly over the moon with any of them.

With Mido, his commitment and temperment are questionable - his commitment especially considering the shenanigans last year. However, his record for a striker is the best of all three. He also has a bit of a reputation and at just 24, he's already been at 7 clubs!

Roque Santa Cruz is a bit of an unknown quantity - his record is extremely questionable and from the brief media reports, it seems that he's not quite up to it. It's also unknown if he can adapt to England and the Premiership.

Alan Smith has bags of 'commitment' but not a lot else. I don't buy this 'he's been a sub a lot' or 'played in midfield a lot' to excuse his record. If he was good enough to be a striker then he would have played there and started there.

If it were a choice of those above (I'm sure it's not as we are probably looking at other options) I'm not sure who I'd have - they all seem much the same gamble if you ask me - although Smith would provide the least amount of hassle in terms of adapting and moaning.

[ihateburnley]

Alan Smith....If he was good enough to be a striker then he would have played there and started there.

Woooah. Hold on.

So now if he's not good enough for United, he's not good enough for the Rovers?

[trs]

Did someone say we should have gone for Kevin nolan?

This is super Kev at his best this morning against Seongnam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWrOvCIZkS0

[mjs]

Hope that is a sign of things to come this season for the winky wanderers

[RoversFanUSA]

Whatever happened to the santa cruz thing did we get him or did citeh?

[Eddie]

Nothing has happened yet.

[JAL]

His goal to game ration isn't brilliant but I think what we are looking for is someone Hughes can turn around and get the best out of. We can't compete in terms of wages or transfer fees for proven Premiership strikers. We have to gamble on players like Bellamy, Rigters, Roberts. Essentially the reason I feel he would be a decent signing is that I think Hughes could coach and alter his game and maximise those assets he does have to make him into a very good forward for us.

All of the players who play in our very good team did not have steller records when we got them in with the exception of McCarthy- from Freidal to Nelsen to Reid to Bentley to Roberts. The game we play is reconditioning those who are out of sorts or unearthing unheralded talents. And, at the right price, Smith could imo do well for us.

Here, here 'jbn', Smith has potential for me... lots of it, his goal ratio isnt that great but he definitely seems a very good team player to me even if he might not be scoring too many goals. For Rovers to dismiss Alan Smith or rule him out of contention if he was to become available would in my humble opinion be very foolish, its attitudes like Smiths that would endear most Rovers fans to him.

As for Santa Cruz if hes good why dont we sign both of them (Smith &Cruz) surely its manageable debt that Rovers could sustain and lead to a potential payback in twelve months time.

[modes98]

That all happened in slow motion! He's still a good player

[LWX]

As for Santa Cruz if hes good why dont we sign both of them (Smith &Cruz) surely its manageable debt that Rovers could sustain and lead to a potential payback in twelve months time.

ooooohh.....lets not start talking about managable debt............RE Leeds United.....we wouldnt want that now would we??!?!?!

[thenodrog]

That all happened in slow motion! He's still a good player

Correct! Derbyshire missed one as easy v Liverpool.... if my memory serves me correctly.

[Kai]

Compared to Mido, Roque Santa Cruz and (possibly) Alan Smith... I'd personally take Henri Camara over the lot of them if the fee is around £2m.

He offers more pace than any of the others and has shown that he can cut it in the Premiership. A few question marks over attitude, but still less of a gamble than the others. He also knows Roberts quite well and so it would hopefully take less time to form a partnership.

[92er]

MH in today's LT said he is not going to panic buy and is prepared to leave any signings to the last day if he gets who he wants.

I imagine he wants the supporters to have something to speculate on for quite a long time.

[Pinch]

Add Jeffers into the fold (if he stays) and I dont think its too bad at all. I will add again, Jeffers looked lively in the last friendly. If he can keep fit I wouldnt mind us keeping hold of him. He gives us something different up front.

I really hope Jeffers finds a way out. He should not take up any more minutes now that he is 5th (at best) in his position. I think we could use another creative midfielder, not another striker.

[Teemu]

I agree with Kai on this. He'd be a good quick player to have in the ranks.

Here's the link to the story in Senegalese website:

http://www.lobservateur.sn/articles/showit...&cat=sports

Don't understand too much of French but at least it mentions Blackburn,Pompey,Fulham and H Camara.

Fulham have offered 4 millions (in what is probably Senegalese currency)?

[daren]

Agree entirely, Kai - Camara has the natural ability and has blistering pace, something we lack. I'd prefer to see Sparky working his particular magic on him than any of the others mentioned. Also, Samba thinks very highly of him, saying that he's one of the players he likes defending against least. High praise indeed!

[daren]

FFS! lazy players do not score 24 goals. He is an intelligent football player that's not about chasing dead balls. Would you rather a Dickov esqu battering ram in place?

P!sses me off that so many people sl@g off the biggest talent we've had in years

Berbatov is exactly the same. His style was described on Sky as "languid, he drifts around, doesn't get involved, and suddenly BANG! He does something and there's a goal". Sounds very like Benni to me. My only objection to Benni's style of play is that he tends to look for the difficult when the easy is a better option (and lose the ball). He also does have a tendency to slow counter attacks at times, which I find frustrating.

Smith is, for me, a very poor option for anything over £2.5 or so. He's a journeyman without the skill to make to to a master. His temperament on the pitch can also be questionable and his pace isn't good, but he has bags of commitment and a generally high workrate which could help make up for it. His finishing is appalling though, or at least it was last season.

Camara's been mentioned in another thread (and from an unreliable source - not you ffan, I mean vital football!) and if he was going for that £2.5-3.5 I'd take him. He's very fast, very skilful and playing in a decent team would be a real handful. Definitely one to be looked at in my opinion.

[Lathund]

I agree with Kai on this. He'd be a good quick player to have in the ranks.

Here's the link to the story in Senegalese website:

http://www.lobservateur.sn/articles/showit...&cat=sports

Don't understand too much of French but at least it mentions Blackburn,Pompey,Fulham and H Camara.

Fulham have offered 4 millions (in what is probably Senegalese currency)?

My french isn't great, but it says, among other things that his agent, Mamadou Cherif, is in contact with Portsmouth and Blackburn. If I understand correctly, it also says that Fulham have made an offer but that either the player or Wigan aren't happy with it, and the agent says it's between Blackburn and Portsmouth. Discussions are proceeding (Could possibly be that they are advanced, rather than proceeding/going forward, but I doubt it). It also mentions things like an injury restricting his appearances last season, scoring only 6 goals, and he spent his vacation in France working on recovering from his injury aiming to start the season firing from all cylinders.

So, what I learned from this is that my French isn't as good as I thought it was I'm sure Eddie or someone else will come along and offer a better translation soon.

Oh, and I don't want him at Ewood. Still can't get over the way he scored the golden goal against Sweden in the 2002 WC, especially after we were so ridiculously close to winning with Anders Svensson's shot hitting the post soon before that.

.

[Daremz]

We don't need any more strikers. We need a decent and injury-free central midfielder with pace.

Steven Gerrard?

[daren]

Translation is (more or less)

Mamadou Cherif, the agent of Henri Camara, is known to be in contact with Blackburn and Portsmouth about the availability of the Sengalese international from Wigan. This is after Fulham had offered 4 billion francs (CFA, which is West African currency) for him.

After Fulham, it's the turn of Blackburn and Portsmouth to try and get Henri Camara. These two english teams officially contacted the agent of the Sengalese International. They contacted him yesterday on the phone. Mamadou Cherif announced that he is "in contact with Blackburn and Portsmouth" and the negotiations are advancing. These two teams occupied 10th and 9th place respectively in the premiership, far ahead of Wigan who were in 17th. Concerning the offer from Fulham, the agent "recognizes that the club actually lodged an offer with Wigan who did not answer but we were not enchanted by this offer. We never thought of this option. We work on two options, Portsmouth and Blackburn" affirms Mamadou Cherif.

Selected by the local sports press as the best Senegalese player for 2005/2006, Camara received the award last Saturday. Last season was less productive because of injury. He scored 6 goals, half of the 2005/2006 total. To gain full recovery, Camara sacrificed his holidays this year to get treatment in France. Also, his agent is negotiating with Wigan to allow him 2 more weeks in the Saint Raphaël rehabilitation center. The player intends to return in force this season.

Don't feel too bad, my french is also worse than I thought, but I'm pretty sure that it's also badly written and punctuated, and in a senegalese dialect of french.

The exchange rate is fixed to the euro at 655.957 CFA to 1 euro, which makes 4 billion CFA around €6 million (a little more) which is about £4.15 million

[Eddie]

That's a pretty good translation. It basically just says what the article in English covers; saying that his agent has had contact with Blackburn and Portsmouth and that although Fulham have made a bid for him, Wigan have yet to respond to it and he isn't interested in a move there.

[Roar of the Rover]

Camara would be a decent signing, we really haven't had anyone with pace in our squad since Bellamy left, not sure on his finishing though but we have got Benni , for now.

[RevidgeBlue]

I note Sparky was trying to pre-empt fans concerns in the LT this morning claiming he wouldn't panic buy etc.

Personally I don't feel the situation will be any different to what has probably been forced upon him he took over. i.e there won't be any high profile signings unless there is an equally high profile departure.

Presumably beyond his control but that policy will inevitably cause us difficulties if repeated long term with other clubs now seemingly prepared to raise the bar as regards their transfer activities.

Back to the coming season we have a fairly strong looking squad overall and all we really need to kick on imo is a second top drawer striker to partner Benni.

(assuming he stays)

What we needed as a statement of intent, and to make everyone sit up and take notice, was to land Bellamy, or alternatively someone of the calibre of Defoe, or at the reported 9m, even lodge a serious bid for Michael Owen. (Regardless of whether he would ever come - the positive intent is there for all to see.)

The only other position in the squad which causes me slight concern is centre half. Nelsen and Samba looks a potentially outstanding combination but I worry we lack quality if either of those two get a long term injury. I actually think we sold our next best centre back - i.e.Todd.

[RevidgeBlue]

In other transfer news yesterday Fulham spent a further 3m on Chris Baird, who was linked with us at one time.

Again I would imagine, fairly over priced compared to the money he would have fetched prior to the new TV deal.

[daren]

Still, £3m is not an outrageous price, although I suspect they could guarantee him more football at Fulham and of course he should know Laurie Sanchez.

Rev, I have to say, a lot of your posts are very much the doomsaying (or at least very critical) kind. Hughes has said that his budget isn't massive, but do you really want "statement of intent" public bids? It's more than well known that Rovers have been doing their transfer dealings on the quiet, and the board/trustees have pushed the boat out before for Souness. Even if they were not willing to do it at the start of Sparky's reign, I see no reason at all that they would not trust him now. I have complete faith that if Sparky felt underappreciated in the transfer market that he'd walk out - City were mentioned, and plenty of premiership clubs with good resources were looking for managers at the end of last year. For crying out loud, he renewed his contract last year. Doesn't sound like an unhappy manager to me! Sure we'd all love if we knew that he had £40 million to spend, but inevitably we'd need £50 million. And the money is there for wages - £60,000 p/w offered to Bellamy is more than just about any club outside the top 4 and WHU/Spuds are paying. And I reckon we're still a whole lot better than WHU, and close to par with Spuds (they've a slightly better strikeforce, and we're better in midfield/wings in my opinion. Our defenses are equivalent, I wouldn't swap ours for theirs).

I'm confident that we're in for players, and that if Sparky says "we need this player" that the money will appear. What I believe (and it's faith, sure, but then so is the naysaying) is that he has not felt the need to stretch his financial muscle yet. The money has been there for all his apparent targets - Mido, Nonda, Bellamy (the first time), Benni, Warnock - but Bellamy the second time was a clear decision that he wasn't worth that kind of cash to the club (which I have to admit I agree with) and that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

If Sparky comes out next week railing against the board and quits due to lack of transfer funds, I will be incandescent in my rage, until then, I'll trust that he just doesn't want to splash out for the sake of it. Just had to get that off my chest.

[Texan Rover]

Rev is a one-trick pony. Don't expect the slightest shred of evidence that transfer targets have been missed because of lack of support for the board; merely asserting as much is enough to make the point.

Bid 9m pounds for Owen as a "statement of intent"? What absolutely inane nonsense! The club doesn't need to prove its ambitions to anyone, certainly not by making desultory bids for oft-injured, big-name players who would never come to Blackburn in any event.

What is there to be upset about? Where's the gaping hole that hasn't been filled? Where are all the piles of cash that the board are tucking away into their pockets instead of re-investing in the squad? Better question: why can't we put more than 19k supporters in the stand for a team that qualified for Europe? Wait, let me guess: the board didn't spend enough money to inspire the fans!

I've had just about enough of the complaining. Sparky hasn't made ONE SINGLE prominent mistake in the transfer market, nor has he identified a single player that he could've brought to the club if only he'd had a few more pounds. If he can live with it, why can't you?

I think that not having grown up in the northwest, not being a Rovers supporter from birth, has given me the perspective that some of you don't have. Rovers are not a big club. We will never be a top four club, not without some bolt from the blue. You have a side that plays good football, a decent ground, some real quality players to watch in a team that seems to have comfortably settled in the top division. What's so bad about all that?

Look at the bright side: you could easily be from Leeds.