[Archived] Nickos Thread

[Rathbone Market]

whats going on with Ashton? Has curbs started playing him?

Ashton is playing and looking like he is geting back to something like his form pre-ankle break. The problem is that he is often playing up front on his own and that just isn't his game. All down to our ridiculous injury list. It is so frustrating to watch a talent being wasted. It is made worse in the knowledge that he has battled so hard to get back after such a serious knock. I worry that he could just get fed up with it all. When the young boy Sears plays with him (he has been coming off the bench of late) Ashton seems to really come alive and revel in having a decent partner. As stated before, I sincerely hope to see Ashton playing with Bellamy up front for us next year. If we don't beat Derby good and proper today I will burn my season ticket and eat my own head. I just want to see some goals! I expect to see Sears start for the first time at home alongside Ashton. Here's hoping anyway.

Have a good weekend yourselves.

[awhom111]

I was watching the Club America - Universidad Catolica Copa Libertadores match on Thursday and the announcer said that Francisco Guillermo Ochoa, the America keeper, had been linked to us that day. I checked a few sites to see if there were any rumors out there, but didn't find anything. He is considered a pretty bright prospect and has quite a few caps for Mexico, but he was linked with United in December and would be pretty expensive for us. Has anyone heard anything like this?

Also in Copa Libertadores action this week, Nelson Cuevas started for Libertad and bagged a goal before coming off, so maybe he is approaching full fitness.

[nicko]

I was watching the Club America - Universidad Catolica Copa Libertadores match on Thursday and the announcer said that Francisco Guillermo Ochoa, the America keeper, had been linked to us that day. I checked a few sites to see if there were any rumors out there, but didn't find anything. He is considered a pretty bright prospect and has quite a few caps for Mexico, but he was linked with United in December and would be pretty expensive for us. Has anyone heard anything like this?

Also in Copa Libertadores action this week, Nelson Cuevas started for Libertad and bagged a goal before coming off, so maybe he is approaching full fitness.

Ochoa was offered around at the start of the season but there were no takers. I will check that one out again. I think there are other clubs more likely to want a top young keeper like him.

Cuevas's improving fitness is interesting too.

Cheers.

[nicko]

There was an interesting vote at the Premier League last week - on the 39th game.

It seems, despite all of the fans protests, that they are pushing ahead with looking into the idea.

The vote went 18-2 in favour of carrying on with their research.

You should know that Rovers were among the 18...Dave Whelan stood up for the opposition. But obviously did not get much support. I like him.

[Fife Rover]

Whilst a great player, the way Scholes tackles he'll be off every other game. Without the red shirt of invisibility and wearing the blue and white yellow card attraction kit he'd have no chance...

That is probably the one and only argument against signing him on a short term contract. It is surely not an an obstacle that cannot be overcome though.

[ABBEY]

well if they dont want to listen to the fans the death bells doth toll for football and before anyone says to me about the nfl im against that as well being played out of town too ...its a naff idea to get the fat cats fatter

[RibbleValleyRover]

There was an interesting vote at the Premier League last week - on the 39th game.

It seems, despite all of the fans protests, that they are pushing ahead with looking into the idea.

The vote went 18-2 in favour of carrying on with their research.

You should know that Rovers were among the 18...Dave Whelan stood up for the opposition. But obviously did not get much support. I like him.

I just can’t see UEFA or FIFA allowing it to happen.

It’s just another money grabbing idea by the greedy premier league. The only teams that will truly benefit from it are the top four clubs in terms of merchandising, publicity etc. Also there is the serious issue of the fact that top four won’t want to play each other for this 39th game, in other words fixing it so that they won’t face each other. Then there is also the serious point that some sides could be relegated from the league as a result of this extra game, if points are available from it.

The premier league don’t care about the fans, they should have dropped the idea after such a vocal backlash towards it.

[Fife Rover]

Have a good weekend yourselves.

Not very likely, but thanks for the sentiment.

[den]

I just can’t see UEFA or FIFA allowing it to happen.

It’s just another money grabbing idea by the greedy premier league. The only teams that will truly benefit from it are the top four clubs in terms of merchandising, publicity etc. Also there is the serious issue of the fact that top four won’t want to play each other for this 39th game, in other words fixing it so that they won’t face each other. Then there is also the serious point that some sides could be relegated from the league as a result of this extra game, if points are available from it.

The premier league don’t care about the fans, they should have dropped the idea after such a vocal backlash towards it.

Well.........

If it were true that rovers, for example were to benefit by £5m for one game, it could be argued that the club wouldn't be doing their duty to the fans by turning this down. 5 Million, is 5 Million - a heck of a lot of money even in todays game. There's a lot of clubs outside the Prem that would grab that offer, fair or unfair as the extra game would be.

Don't be fooled by the noises coming from the FIFA officials either. If it was clubs from their own leagues that were going global, they might see the whole affair differently. That's not to say that I agree with the proposal, but the clubs would be wrong to reject it completely, without looking into all aspects of the idea. The Premier league have handled it all very badly and that's caused them a lot of unnecessary problems.

[only2garners]

There was an interesting vote at the Premier League last week - on the 39th game.

It seems, despite all of the fans protests, that they are pushing ahead with looking into the idea.

The vote went 18-2 in favour of carrying on with their research.

You should know that Rovers were among the 18...Dave Whelan stood up for the opposition. But obviously did not get much support. I like him.

That would fit in with Tom Finn's comments at the last two Fans' Forums. The PL will not be making a final decision on the 39th game until next January. The idea was floated early to see what the reaction was and the PL were surprised by the hostility they received, but they are continuing to look at it. In truth this vote was just to carry on researching something they have started rather than a final commitment.

Tom suggested asking the PL if they would send a rep to talk to us at a future meeting but no response yet....

[RibbleValleyRover]

Well.........

If it were true that rovers, for example were to benefit by £5m for one game, it could be argued that the club wouldn't be doing their duty to the fans by turning this down. 5 Million, is 5 Million - a heck of a lot of money even in todays game. There's a lot of clubs outside the Prem that would grab that offer, fair or unfair as the extra game would be.

Don't be fooled by the noises coming from the FIFA officials either. If it was clubs from their own leagues that were going global, they might see the whole affair differently. That's not to say that I agree with the proposal, but the clubs would be wrong to reject it completely, without looking into all aspects of the idea. The Premier league have handled it all very badly and that's caused them a lot of unnecessary problems.

Yeah but if we and some similar size clubs get £5 million, the bigger clubs will get far more than that especially through merchandising. It won't bridge the gap at all between those at the top section of the league and those below it, i would argue it would further increase the gap.

[Fife Rover]

That would fit in with Tom Finn's comments at the last two Fans' Forums. The PL will not be making a final decision on the 39th game until next January. The idea was floated early to see what the reaction was and the PL were surprised by the hostility they received, but they are continuing to look at it. In truth this vote was just to carry on researching something they have started rather than a final commitment.

Tom suggested asking the PL if they would send a rep to talk to us at a future meeting but no response yet....

Maybe because they don't fancy the embarassment of their rep being booed out of the meeting.

[den]

Yeah but if we and some similar size clubs get £5 million, the bigger clubs will get far more than that especially through merchandising. It won't bridge the gap at all between those at the top section of the league and those below it, i would argue it would further increase the gap.

It doesn't matter what anyone else gets, it's £5m in rovers pockets.

[RibbleValleyRover]

It doesn't matter what anyone else gets, it's £5m in rovers pockets.

Which will make no difference, if other clubs are getting far more. If clubs have more cash to spend the average price of players will go up, so our £5 million whilst it might help from an adminstration point of view it won't help that much in terms of buying players.

I just cannot see from a financial standpoint how this 39th game will help us in the long run.

[roversmum]

Well, we'll not get much from merchandising, as we don't have any

[den]

Which will make no difference, if other clubs are getting far more. If clubs have more cash to spend the average price of players will go up, so our £5 million whilst it might help from an adminstration point of view it won't help that much in terms of buying players.

I just cannot see from a financial standpoint how this 39th game will help us in the long run.

Well the money could be used to redevelop some of the facilities at Ewood. It could be put towards the academy and scouting networks, or many other projects that could benefit the team in the long run.

It's a silly argument to say that £5m makes no difference to a club like ours. and don't forget, the implications are that if the clubs don't do this together, then the top four will. So in that sense, the present 39th game plan would help to, at least, keep the rising gap between the top four and everyone else, to a minimum.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Which will make no difference, if other clubs are getting far more. If clubs have more cash to spend the average price of players will go up, so our £5 million whilst it might help from an adminstration point of view it won't help that much in terms of buying players.

I just cannot see from a financial standpoint how this 39th game will help us in the long run.

Whilst I agree that it doesn’t bridge the gap on a national level, it obviously doesn’t. However Rovers are competing financially at a worldwide stage, look at Santa Cruz last summer, he had the choice to go to some pretty big European clubs Betis, Zaragoza & Porto spring to mind; yet he chose little old rovers. I’d hazard a guess that come next season there will probably only be around a dozen mainland European clubs with a higher turnover than rovers , due to the massively increased TV revenue currently flooding the Premiership.

This is where we need to exploit our newly found wealth by trying to compete with mainland European clubs for new players rather than the top 4.

[tony gale's mic]

It doesn't matter what anyone else gets, it's £5m in rovers pockets.

No, most of it will go straight into the players' pockets.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

No, most of it will go straight into the players' pockets.

That would indicate sloppy management. As ive said what we should be doing is cometing with mainland european clubs rather than going up against the likes of the top 4 in terms of transfers and wages.

[tony gale's mic]

That would indicate sloppy management. As ive said what we should be doing is cometing with mainland european clubs rather than going up against the likes of the top 4 in terms of transfers and wages.

But these same players are available to the Evertons, Man Citys, Villas of this world too. And while we might be competing for players with some of these European sides ultimately it's still the English sides we're competing against...not the top 4 but the ones immediately below.

The players WILL demand a sizeable cut of this extra money. Why shouldn't they? They're having to jet halfway across the world, add a game to their season and aside from that they'll want a slice of the money they've played a major part in generating. Clubs will have more money to hang onto their best players and this will lead to wage inflation.

If the clubs around us are paying higher wages to their players, we'll have to pay our players more to hang onto ours too and once you add on the wage increases among the top players it will take the majority of this £5 million.

Even the clubs that don't spend so much on wages will have more to spend on transfers so we'd possibly have to spend more to keep up with them.

It's nice to think we can spend the money on new facilities but really I doubt we'd have that much spare money. And even if it works out we do, chances are the other clubs would be able to do the same too and we're just back where we started.

That's even before I get into selling the soul of our game etc which is the main reason why any right-thinking football fan should be vehemently against these proposals.

[den]

The money could be put into the academy and scouting networks. It's up to the club where they spend the cash, but whichever way you look at it, it's a fortune - for one game.

[tony gale's mic]

The money could be put into the academy and scouting networks. It's up to the club where they spend the cash, but whichever way you look at it, it's a fortune - for one game.

...but then we'd even further open up the gap between the amount we spend on wages/transfer fees between us and our competitors. Whichever way you look at it, it puts us exactly where we started.

[den]

So if you were John Williams, would you let the top clubs go it alone and deny the £5m windfall to our club?

[nicko]

Just before I take in the delights of Stoke City v Bristol City...

There is some interesting news on the takeover front.

A new bidder - backed by a consortium - is in town and wanting to buy.

I would tell you where all the details will be on this in the morning, but some would call that advertising.

And I suppose they would be right.

[brian_gallagher85]

Nicko...Burnley aren't getting promoted, so you won't get your backing from PaddyPower for it

Back in the real world...step forward Tom Hicks