[Archived] Nicko's Thread

[Dunnfc]

Here is a question for you all whos going to go apart from Jassy?

OUT

Roberts

Gallagher

Peter

Savage

Rigters - loan

And i hear yound De vita may go out on loan ;g

[Sandiway Blue]

Personally i just don`t think Benni and RSC work as a partnership,but for some reason Benni and Jason play well together.

Similar to Schevchenko and Rebrov when they played together they looked fantastic as a pairing.Then Rebrov went to spuds and looked nowhere near the same player.

For some reason certain players just can`t play as well together as they can with other players.

[joey_big_nose]

Benni was by far and away our best outfield player on sunday. Several times better than Roque who missed two good chances and really offered little. The midfield aren't creating chances, so I do feel sorry for anyone playing up front, but at least with Benni you'll know that he is almost certain to score a chance you create for him. If we're doing this on form rather than popularity then there is no way that yuo can drop Benni ahead of RSC at the moment.

Sort of true but the fact of the matter is that Cruz is a target man who the whole midfield can play off. McCarthy is not. Curz is pretty fundamental to everything we do going forward. Losing Cruz would much damage our options much more.

[thenodrog]

Personally i just don`t think Benni and RSC work as a partnership,but for some reason Benni and Jason play well together.

We haven't seen them play together too much but from what I have seen in the Newcastle match Cruz and Roberts link up well too.

It IS good to have options don't forget.

[b12_simon]

We haven't seen them play together too much but from what I have seen in the Newcastle match Cruz and Roberts link up well too.

It IS good to have options don't forget.

Cruz and Roberts would be my first choice.

[Eddie]

Sort of true but the fact of the matter is that Cruz is a target man who the whole midfield can play off. McCarthy is not. Curz is pretty fundamental to everything we do going forward. Losing Cruz would much damage our options much more.

RSC coming along seems to have made people forget that we did quite well (well, the same) without him last season. Benni and Roberts were a good partnership last year, no reason why they can't be this year. Benni is playing better and so deserves to keep his place, if you drop Benni instead then in my mind he has every right to throw his toys around.

[thenodrog]

Cruz and Roberts would be my first choice.

Much depends on who we are playing against.

[92er]

I can't remember PNE or the Dingles finishing anywhere but below us for endless seasons. In fact Baz is 30 and he reckons he's never seen either of those teams above rovers.

You're correct, but if Uncle Jack had not come in, we would have gone into free fall.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Cruz and Roberts would be my first choice.

Then we could look fowards to 8 goals a season from that pair. I think they both have good attributes, but look at the sitters they have both missed in the last few games.

Benni is the best goal poacher we have ever had, Shearer included. Last season he was playing off the last man, getting offside 25 times a game, but could be guaranteed to finish 90% of the chances presented to him. Look at his denied goal against Villa and the piledriver that almost decapitated the defender - he can finish. The problem is not his attitude or his workrate, but that, for some reason best known to the manager and coaching staff, he's now playing 30 yards in front of the last man, with another 8 men inbetween.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Sorry, you're just making most of this up as you go along.

As regards point one, the 3m donation from the Trust is not a guaranteed amount. The Directors of the Club have to state their case each year, and the Trustees decide the level to which they contribute. The 3m is not guaranteed, could be more, could be less but that happens to be the amount for the last few seasons.

As regards your second point, the annual contribution from the Trustees has been 3m for the last few years and the way that 3m figure was originally arrived at was by calculating the difference in revenue between having a full stadium of 31000 every week and the gates as they then were. (About an average of 25000.)

That figure has remained constant since even though average attendances subsequently dipped sharply.

Rev, could you do us a favour at the next Fans Forum and settle this for once and for all by asking Williams/Finn is it 3m/year or 7m?

[John]

God forbid that we have a bad Xmas (results wise).

You would think the club is in serious decline with some of the posts flying about.

[Eddie]

We do have the possibilty of going into a serious decline.

We appear to have little money.

We're midtable, out of Europe and out of form.

We have a squad where several key members are old to very old (Savage, Tugay, Ooijer and Friedel) and yet we have no replacements waiting in the wings.

We are up against sides who are mostly from bigger cities, more attractive areas and who can spend and offer players more money.

Now I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom, as we do have a good squad, good manager and are pretty well placed in the league, but you have to see both sides of it and realise that while this is a season full of promise, it is also a season where we could lose any of the ground we have made over the past couple of seasons.

[Cocker]

We do have the possibilty of going into a serious decline.

We appear to have little money.

We're midtable, out of Europe and out of form.

We have a squad where several key members are old to very old (Savage, Tugay, Ooijer and Friedel) and yet we have no replacements waiting in the wings.

We are up against sides who are mostly from bigger cities, more attractive areas and who can spend and offer players more money.

Now I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom, as we do have a good squad, good manager and are pretty well placed in the league, but you have to see both sides of it and realise that while this is a season full of promise, it is also a season where we could lose any of the ground we have made over the past couple of seasons.

Hell Fire mate, how do you manage to get through the day without reaching for the whiskey

[Eddie]

[philipl]

Eddie,

We are playing very disappointingly,

our midfield is confused and collectively off form,

all three strikers are not striking

the defence gives stupid soft goals away

our manager might be a notch less than a tactical and strategic genius we are just discovering after he's been with us three years

forget the seven wins running, lets bitch about the three defeats, two draws and a win that have followed

we are only 13 points above a relegation place

if we drop another 5 points relative to Newcastle we are in the bottom half of the table

we are a humungous 5 points away from going 4th

we are an unimaginably tough 2 points from sitting in a probable UEFA slot

we are bound to lose to Coventry in the FA Cup and Wenger's kids will run all round us in the Carling Cup- both draws at home where we lose three times as often as we do away which is just typical of our bad luck

only five players have been linked by the Mirror to moves away next month

we might be signing a reject from the team hanging off the bottom of the French League

we have a board and owner which takes a strategic view and doesn't kneejerk the way the fans want when it comes to managing the club for long term top half of the Premiership performance

Properly miserable now?

[Hasta]

I think Drog has come up with the post that most sums up my take on our situation.

As I have said before we WILL find our own true level down amongst the dead men one day.... it's inevitable... but until that day comes just enjoy the ride and stop whingeing.

We are an unattractive club who is punching above their weight. We have held this position thanks to , in my opinion, a good board and good manager. With this combination in place we can still challenge for Europe and have realistic hopes of reaching, and even winning, cup finals.

Therefore have opinions, be disappointed and get annoyed when you think the players and management are letting us down. However never forget that we are in a position that a hell of a lot of clubs who are 'potentially' bigger than us would love to be in.

Next Tuesday we have a chance of reaching the Semi Final of a major cup competition. Just because it would be our 6th semi in 7 years don't take it for granted. After 1960 we went 33 years without reaching one. You never know how long the next one might be.

[Grabbi Graeme]

We are currently going through a bad patch which all teams suffer during the season, The key to attracting players is not the area or the money especially when we are going for players who are not big names looking for big money moves, Hughes has the knack and the scouting network to bring in players the other teams have not even looked at, maybe the exceptions would be Benni and Santa Cruz.

Let's face it we have had the best start in the Prem for a long time, last few seasons at this time we have been just pulling ourselves up to the halfway point, now we hit a bad patch some people seem to think it's all down hill from here maybe a couple of bad results is what we need to wake up and stop us getting too complacent.

[Eddie]

Let's face it we have had the best start in the Prem for a long time, last few seasons at this time we have been just pulling ourselves up to the halfway point, now we hit a bad patch some people seem to think it's all down hill from here maybe a couple of bad results is what we need to wake up and stop us getting too complacent.

The reason why some of us may be a bit concerned is that you can't alway rely on a fantastic second half. Yes, the last two seasons we've climbed the table thanks to nearly top four form (particularly two season ago), now you can't expect fantastic form, the day you do that when you aren't a fantastic team you are in for big trouble. We've dropped a lot of points recently and there are a good number of teams around us who aren't dropping quite as many. Now sure, some of those will fade away, but at least one or two of them are going to keep up this kind of form all year, so catching them if we fall any further behind in the coming weeks will become virtually impossible.

Maybe I'm over-reacting. Maybe I shouldn't worry about this close-to-worst-case scenario, but at the moment it seems a lot more likely than the close-to-best-case scenario that many seem to think is just around the corner. As I said, there's a lot to be positive about, but there are some very important and pressing issues that are of great concern and I'm not that sure that we are going to manage to cope with them all.

[savage90]

Just to back up what i said about Huddlestone and how reliable my source is. Jason Roberts has handed in a transfer request , pretty soon after the team talk at full time against west ham. Lets just say Hughes didnt hold back on telling the lads how he felt.

[Grabbi Graeme]

I think we have more positive's that negatives, on the money front we don't know if the takeover will happen or not but we have a chairman who does back his manager to a certain point obviously.

On the age front we don't really have an old team

Friedel- Still got some time left in him yet, although Brown has not been given a chance to show what he can do although he did impress against Wigan last season.

Ooijer- Not ready for the knackers yard yet and I think of him more as a cover player who can play across the back four when injuries or suspensions occur.

Tugay- He is going to come to an end one day and I agree that we should be looking for his replacement sooner rather than later.

Savage- Certainly not over the hill yet and is still in Hughes plans.

A starting 11 would be

Friedel

Emerton Nelsen Samba Warnock

Bentley Dunn Reid Pedersen/Peter

Benni Cruz

There are variations but what I'm getting at is that we have a side that is not ready to retire, we will have to make signings over the next 12 months especially midfield but I can't see that we are in any kind of trouble at the moment.

[modes98]

Lets just say Hughes didnt hold back on telling the lads how he felt.

I would expect no less.

[neekoy]

Maybe I'm over-reacting.

Doesn't sound like you

Are Blackburn fans the most negative group in the Premier League or what?

[Mc Love]

Hey Nicko. i have heard that Williams is over this week hoping to tie up the rovers deal, any truth in this blatant rumour??

[USABlue]

As I have said before we WILL find our own true level down amongst the dead men one day.... it's inevitable... but until that day comes just enjoy the ride and stop whingeing.

I bet the biggest whingers will not even have seen the club in the 3rd Div and so potless that the milkman stopped delivering milk!

Sad but oh so true, it's something that is often in the back of my mind. Enjoy it while we can. Hopefully it will be many many years until that day. If it can happen to the Forests of the world it can certainley happen to us.(again)

[USABlue]

any truth in this blatant rumour??

Trying to figure that one out.