[Archived] Nicko's Thread

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Do Dundee Utd want them on a perm or just to loan?

[nicko]

Do Dundee Utd want them on a perm or just to loan?

Either or...I don't think they would let Kane go, perhaps Judge could be surplus.

[ffan]

Either or...I don't think they would let Kane go, perhaps Judge could be surplus.

Nicko psst, Rob Green to Arsenal psst.

Heard anything?

[nicko]

Nicko psst, Rob Green to Arsenal psst.

Heard anything?

I think their list of keeper targets starts with Boruc at Celtic, then Jaaskelainen at Bolton.

Green is not as good as people make out. Had a shocker when he stepped up to England level.

[ffan]

I think their list of keeper targets starts with Boruc at Celtic, then Jaaskelainen at Bolton.

Green is not as good as people make out. Had a shocker when he stepped up to England level.

Hamer fans seem to think he's going to them some anyway.

[nicko]

I might have said before that I didn't think Paul Jewell would go back to Wigan - but there is possibly a chance now.

From what I hear Dave Whelan will ask the big question in the next 24 hours or so. McLeish and Pearce don't want it, so there is nowhere else to go.

If Jewell fancies it, then it will happen. Personally I think he would be crazy. But I'm sure the cash would be good.

After watching Bolton v Middlesbrough today it's going to be the biggest and poorest relegation fight ever.

If football does not take a look at itself the crowds are going to stop going to games like that. I wanted my money back and I hadn' t even paid.

[rover6]

If you don't have a sugar daddy and/or a top notch manager, you are destined for a season-long war of dire attrition. Do the Premier League care about this? Nope. Until the sponsorship decreases, nothing'll be done.

[philipl]

But Nicko, OK Bolton and Reading didn't splash the cash this summer but surely the millions spent by Derby, Wigan, Boro, Brum, Sunderland etc etc should have bought a darned sight better than they have done?

It isn't as though the boardrooms padlocked the cheque books is it?

It seems there is a massive crisis in quality of management and coaching in the Premiership. It is difficult to fathom why there is only failed managerial tat swilling around for clubs like Bolton and Wigan to chose from when the Prem is supposedly the most glamorous and is the richest league in the world.

It is not just the ominous five point gap that has opened already between 11th where the battle for Euro qualification ends and 12th where the relegation battle begins but I saw the second half of Pompey v Man City and it was light years behind the basic quality of skill on display from both sides in the Man U v Rovers game.

[cn174]

I might have said before that I didn't think Paul Jewell would go back to Wigan - but there is possibly a chance now.

From what I hear Dave Whelan will ask the big question in the next 24 hours or so. McLeish and Pearce don't want it, so there is nowhere else to go.

If Jewell fancies it, then it will happen. Personally I think he would be crazy. But I'm sure the cash would be good.

After watching Bolton v Middlesbrough today it's going to be the biggest and poorest relegation fight ever.

If football does not take a look at itself the crowds are going to stop going to games like that. I wanted my money back and I hadn' t even paid.

On the radio coming home today there was a Wigan fan who said he'd been in the directors boxes for the game.

He said that Wigan had already offered Jewell the job, who had agreed as well as Hutchings returning as no2, and put in his pay demands. However Wigan don't want to pay what Jewell wants, and so nothing has yet happened.

His other comment was that from all directors at Wigan only 2 bothered to turn up, 1 left at half time...so how many people really care!

Didn't seem a happy chappy!

[nicko]

On the radio coming home today there was a Wigan fan who said he'd been in the directors boxes for the game.

He said that Wigan had already offered Jewell the job, who had agreed as well as Hutchings returning as no2, and put in his pay demands. However Wigan don't want to pay what Jewell wants, and so nothing has yet happened.

His other comment was that from all directors at Wigan only 2 bothered to turn up, 1 left at half time...so how many people really care!

Didn't seem a happy chappy!

Wigan is like the Marie Celeste right now. Whelan is away for another week and most of the board are in Barbados with him.

Shocking.

Jewell only has to say yes - and agree terms - but Hutchings won't go back. That was in a paper on Sunday but is wrong.

I would give it a wide one if I was Jewell.

It needs someone to go in and start afresh. He signed some of the poor players currently in their team.

[nicko]

But Nicko, OK Bolton and Reading didn't splash the cash this summer but surely the millions spent by Derby, Wigan, Boro, Brum, Sunderland etc etc should have bought a darned sight better than they have done?

It isn't as though the boardrooms padlocked the cheque books is it?

It seems there is a massive crisis in quality of management and coaching in the Premiership. It is difficult to fathom why there is only failed managerial tat swilling around for clubs like Bolton and Wigan to chose from when the Prem is supposedly the most glamorous and is the richest league in the world.

It is not just the ominous five point gap that has opened already between 11th where the battle for Euro qualification ends and 12th where the relegation battle begins but I saw the second half of Pompey v Man City and it was light years behind the basic quality of skill on display from both sides in the Man U v Rovers game.

There are not enough good players to go round just now. It is a growing crisis.

I said repeatedly in the summer that it was a good time to avoid buying players and over-paying for them.

It spreads to the Championship where there are few talents worth buying. I can only think of Dyer at Southampton and obviously Bostock at Palace as stand-outs.

There are very few reserve players in the Premier League either. Simpson at Man U, some of the Chelsea kids and Arsenal's next lot. The trouble is too many good prospects are stuck in the stiffs with the big clubs. It's going to get worse.

[Mozzer]

After watching Bolton v Middlesbrough today it's going to be the biggest and poorest relegation fight ever.

If football does not take a look at itself the crowds are going to stop going to games like that. I wanted my money back and I hadn' t even paid.

yeh i also think middlesbrough will struggle this season...other then downing there's no real players with that quality..

as for bolton-gary megson looks to be turning things around...that danny guthrie looks a real good player-on loan from liverpool, we should definatly go for him before bolton do..

[nicko]

yeh i also think middlesbrough will struggle this season...other then downing there's no real players with that quality..

as for bolton-gary megson looks to be turning things around...that danny guthrie looks a real good player-on loan from liverpool, we should definatly go for him before bolton do..

Guthrie is OK but he wouldn't even get on your bench.

Bolton have won just ONE game so far this season. It's a good job for them there is so much garbage about. If they sell Anelka they want locking up.

[Mozzer]

anything in kenny miller to rangers in january???

[thenodrog]

The trouble is too many good prospects are stuck in the stiffs with the big clubs. It's going to get worse.

A point that I made yonks ages ago. The only answer is to limit squad numbers imo.

[thenodrog]

If you don't have a sugar daddy and/or a top notch manager, you are destined for a season-long war of dire attrition. Do the Premier League care about this? Nope. Until the sponsorship decreases, nothing'll be done.

But if there were 20 Alex Fergusons 3 would still get relegated.

[philipl]

But if there were 20 Alex Fergusons 3 would still get relegated.

But all games would last at least 120 minutes so punters couldn't claim they didn't get their money's worth.

[Blueboy Downunder]

A point that I made yonks ages ago. The only answer is to limit squad numbers imo.

theno, i would also say taht possibly needs to be a minimum of home grown players in the match-day squad of every team in the league. they might not get a run, but it would give them the experiance of going through what the first team do every match day.i said long ago that i was fed up with the club (rovers) contin ually saying we have some real prospects in the youth/reserve teams....then 3 years or so down the track...these so-called promising young lads are still playing at that level and we never get to see them play for the first team.

[nicko]

theno, i would also say taht possibly needs to be a minimum of home grown players in the match-day squad of every team in the league. they might not get a run, but it would give them the experiance of going through what the first team do every match day.i said long ago that i was fed up with the club (rovers) contin ually saying we have some real prospects in the youth/reserve teams....then 3 years or so down the track...these so-called promising young lads are still playing at that level and we never get to see them play for the first team.

It's a good idea in theory, but the problem is there is a lack of English talent everywhere.

The best kids in Rovers youth set-up are probably the foreigners. The Irish winger, the young Congolese lad and the German keeper and midfielder are arguably the stand-outs...

[Cheshireblue]

theno, i would also say taht possibly needs to be a minimum of home grown players in the match-day squad of every team in the league. they might not get a run, but it would give them the experiance of going through what the first team do every match day.i said long ago that i was fed up with the club (rovers) contin ually saying we have some real prospects in the youth/reserve teams....then 3 years or so down the track...these so-called promising young lads are still playing at that level and we never get to see them play for the first team.

That rule is sort of coming in from next season (I think). Clubs will have to field at least one player that has come through an English clubs academy. The number will grow over time. It hasn't got to be your own academy - any English academy will do. Unfortunately, the likes of Febregas count as they came through Arsenals academy, but it is a step in the right direction in my view.

[Blueboy Downunder]

i think nicko, it all comes down to the fact that too many foreigners are allowed to ply their trade in our leagues, which has a bad effect on the whole youth system up and down the country for british youngsters trying to make there way in the game. with the european union as it is, this become s a double edged sword in that we all want our british kids to be given the best opportunities to make it in our game, but on the other side...the is no way we can stop a lad from the continent, wanting to come over to england and ply his own trade. and it is here, that we have and are going to continue to have problems at international level for years to come until a solution is found...what that will be, i have not a clue.

nicko, you are a closet rovers fan...go on, admit it..

[stuwilky]

Can someone let me have the evidence that the influx of international players is having on the game? I hear it often, but the national team is still as mediocre as it always has been.

[nicko]

nicko, you are a closet rovers fan...go on, admit it..

No, but I take an interest...

The sad bottom line is that domestic kids do not have the appetite or talent - and that applies at all levels and probably not just football.

I see reserve football when I can and Man U, Liverpool and even Bolton are swamped with foreign youngsters. Can you imagine any British kids going abroad to try and make a living?

It affects Scotland, Wales and Ireland too. The home nations used to have lots of kids coming through, now it is a trickle there too.

[thenodrog]

Can someone let me have the evidence that the influx of international players is having on the game? I hear it often, but the national team is still as mediocre as it always has been.

I'm with you in the main there Stu. imo cream will always rise to the top. Why waste our national academies recources on 2nd rate kids? Development of home grown talent? Apart from a vast minority of cases the old saying that you cannot make a silk purse out of a pigs ear springs to mind. Forcing home grown kids through our academy will ultimately only benefit the likes of Blackpool , Carlise, or a few of the lesser scottish clubs etc.

Many might not realise this BUT we are privileged beyond belief to see at our own local club a level of football and football players that are among the worlds best! The first touches and skill of so many players now absolutely astounds me.

Why hand stuff on a plate to the next generation of 'our' kids? The best will still always prosper whilst the best of the rest of home nation prospects can either end up in the lower leagues or playing abroad and personally I can see no wrong with that.

Just as a silly point ............. but anybody who saw the 'Crossbar challenge' v Liverpool has got to realise that no amount of money / coaching / effort could make decent players (never mind professionals) out of that lot. Not one of them could even reach the crossbar!

[dave birch]

nicko, got to agree with you to a certain extent..

There is the talent in the UK, but where is the willingness to promote it. Not just in football, but cricket, netball etc.

It seems that the UK wants to be everything to everyone when it should be doing it's best for its own.

It's all very well having "the best league in the world" but if it means having a mediocre national team, well where's the benefit?