[Archived] Nickos Thread

[nicko]

In case you didn't believe the Benjani flight delay story...this is from the Manchester Evening News.

CITY'S bid to sign Benjani from Portsmouth failed at the eleventh hour after it emerged the striker missed two planes to Manchester leaving insufficient time to complete routine checks.

Despite rushing the 29-year-old Zimbabwe captain to Carrington at around 11.10pm there was not enough time to complete the formalities of an £8m switch from the south coast as the Blues quite rightly refused to be rushed while Pompey waited to complete their own deal to bring Jermain Defoe from Spurs which finally went through after midnight.

Sources in Portsmouth reported that Benjani had missed two late afternoon flights and that a third was believed to be cancelled before the one he finally boarded was then delayed.

He didn't arrive in the North West until less than two hours before the deadline was shut.

"Due to the late arrival of the player in Manchester we were unable to complete the transfer," confirmed head of communications Paul Tyrrell. When asked by the MEN, he refused to confirm whether any flights had been missed.

[1864roverite]

Judging by Harry Redknapps comments, it appears some documents were not faxed through with the paperwork required to seal the transfer of Benjani.

Now then.....theories...

1. City failed to send ALL the docs through in order to complete a full medical.

2. City found an old injury during his medical and thought it more serious than imagined causing them to renage on the deal set in place, which in turn caused them to NOT send all the required docs.

3. City went to the bank and found that there was no money in their account.

4. Harry pulled off a masterstroke and now has Benjani, Defoe, Baros, Kanu, Nugent as his striking options.

I still think that the transfer will go ahead later today.

[nicko]

Judging by Harry Redknapps comments, it appears some documents were not faxed through with the paperwork required to seal the transfer of Benjani.

Now then.....theories...

1. City failed to send ALL the docs through in order to complete a full medical.

2. City found an old injury during his medical and thought it more serious than imagined causing them to renage on the deal set in place, which in turn caused them to NOT send all the required docs.

3. City went to the bank and found that there was no money in their account.

4. Harry pulled off a masterstroke and now has Benjani, Defoe, Baros, Kanu, Nugent as his striking options.

I still think that the transfer will go ahead later today.

2...only perhaps that was not found until after midnight.

[Ronin]

I see a certain agent has recieved libel damages from a certain paper and 'reporter'

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2250916,00.html

[nicko]

I see a certain agent has recieved libel damages from a certain paper and 'reporter'

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2250916,00.html

Well, you were told.

And remember the Quest inquiry was based on tip-offs from some newspaper reporters.

[EwoodGlory]

I remember you telling us about that.

Saw an interview with McKay after his house was raided by the Police, sounded like terrible treatment. He was awoken early in the morning to find the law surrounding his property. Not like the guy was ever going to harm anyone, it was way over the top.

Glad he has received some compensation, those responsible should be made to pay.

Don't know much about the bloke but he came across really well in the interview.

[Boz]

I see a certain agent has recieved libel damages from a certain paper and 'reporter'

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2250916,00.html

That Harry Harris appears to keep costing his employer in these libel claims, you'd think he'd learn!!

[nicko]

That Harry Harris appears to keep costing his employer in these libel claims, you'd think he'd learn!!

Obviously not. Any time he wants to libel me again he should. Mind you, you can only have so many Sunday Express extensions on your house.

[they_think_its_all_rover]

None. Their window is shut. For a week.

sly...

Know of any for when it opens?

[krislu]

About time someone put a sock in this thread. Transfer window is closed and the forum is short on bandwith..

[Fylde Coast Fan]

Judging by Harry Redknapps comments, it appears some documents were not faxed through with the paperwork required to seal the transfer of Benjani.

Now then.....theories...

1. City failed to send ALL the docs through in order to complete a full medical.

2. City found an old injury during his medical and thought it more serious than imagined causing them to renage on the deal set in place, which in turn caused them to NOT send all the required docs.

3. City went to the bank and found that there was no money in their account.

4. Harry pulled off a masterstroke and now has Benjani, Defoe, Baros, Kanu, Nugent as his striking options.

I still think that the transfer will go ahead later today.

My money was on a version of 2... Benjani (and probably 'Arry) was fully aware that a comprehensive medical would send up a red flag so deliberately arrived late hoping that Citeh were so desperate for striking options that they'd skip the tests and send the papers, and this plan has now backfired spectacularly on Redknapp.

[Yorick]

Plenty of that from John Williams in todays LT who indicated we had received enquiries about five of our players.

We could have sold four or five of our players and brought in another five or six but that's not the direction in which we want to go."

(That indicates there are at least five or six players out there we could sign)

Indeed not. We sold a key member of the first team squad and didn't replace him.

Also from JW:

"We've got 14 games to go and if we have a bit of luck with injuries then we believe we've got a great chance."

Should we be gambling the outcome of the rest of the season on luck?

Lets look at this purely from a business point of view. We are out of every cup competition, we have sold as many full and half season tickets as we are going to, we have no chance of getting CL qualification, we have no chance of getting relegated, we are unlikely to lose much place money as we can reallistically only drop two places to Portsmouth and West ham with the next club Spurs 10 points back on 28. So why would we want to throw away a million in wages and another million in player depreciation in the next 3 months? Also signing somebody in summer might just prove a better boost to ST sales than signing the same player the previous January. A deadly dull but very sensible policy in my opinion.

[philipl]

Lets look at this purely from a business point of view. We are out of every cup competition, we have sold as many full and half season tickets as we are going to, we have no chance of getting CL qualification, we have no chance of getting relegated, we are unlikely to lose much place money as we can reallistically only drop two places to Portsmouth and West ham with the next club Spurs 10 points back on 28. So why would we want to throw away a million in wages and another million in player depreciation in the next 3 months? Also signing somebody in summer might just prove a better boost to ST sales than signing the same player the previous January. A deadly dull but very sensible policy in my opinion.

And that is exactly how the Trustees will have seen it when it came to a gamble on a player or players who were probably not good enough if we are honest- step forwards (or rather don't) Mr Koumas.

There is another aspect - the Trustees are bound to have looked at the spending by other clubs and concluded it was unsustainable and probably represented spending the three year Sky bonus in one big splurge. There is a distinct possibility that some of the spending froth will come off the top of the market and that transfer fees and wages will get reigned back in again. So Rovers' limited (relative) funds might buy more when it really is time to spend.

The final financial point to make is that 4th place in the EPL means an unseeded ball in the CL 3rd round qualification competition and a seriously tough opponent before we'd get anywhere near the only pot of European money worth having- the CL Group stages. So gambling now would be against the remotest possibility of a return in financial terms.

[den]

I don't think it's a policy to ensure a better outcome for rovers. It's a policy of them being uninterested in funding the club any more.

[Alan75]

I don't think it's a policy to ensure a better outcome for rovers. It's a policy of them being uninterested in funding the club any more.

And wasnt it Jack's aim, that at some stage Rovers would be self financing.

[den]

And wasnt it Jack's aim, that at some stage Rovers would be self financing.

Yes, but we don't know how he would have judged the right time for that, or even how he would have gone about it. Doubt he would have stood there and simply withdrew funding, leaving the club in debt.

[USABlue]

Looks like there is trouble at boro as well : http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,1...3099800,00.html

This has been a messy tranfer window !!

Why has this just come up now, was there any rumblings of discontent prior to the sale? If not why not, I did not hear anything you would think that might have come up sooner the whole world knew Boro wanted this fella several weeks ago. Did I just miss AZ crying foul or have they only just complained? They looking to make something here?

[nicko]

Why has this just come up now, was there any rumblings of discontent prior to the sale? If not why not, I did not hear anything you would think that might have come up sooner the whole world knew Boro wanted this fella several weeks ago. Did I just miss AZ crying foul or have they only just complained? They looking to make something here?

Check back three or four weeks...on Part One...think you will find the whole tale there.

Alves signed a contract with AZ in late December but then pulled out and went to Boro for talks instead. So AZ have a reason for being upset.

[John]

Nicko, any team news ahead of the big game tomorrow?

Who do you fancy?

[AlanK]

About time someone put a sock in this thread. Transfer window is closed and the forum is short on bandwith..

This thread is " Nicko`s " thread. Not transfer gossip.

Stop moaning, go and play with Rover6 and let the rest of us enjoy some inside info.

[daren]

And that is exactly how the Trustees will have seen it when it came to a gamble on a player or players who were probably not good enough if we are honest- step forwards (or rather don't) Mr Koumas.

There is another aspect - the Trustees are bound to have looked at the spending by other clubs and concluded it was unsustainable and probably represented spending the three year Sky bonus in one big splurge. There is a distinct possibility that some of the spending froth will come off the top of the market and that transfer fees and wages will get reigned back in again. So Rovers' limited (relative) funds might buy more when it really is time to spend.

The final financial point to make is that 4th place in the EPL means an unseeded ball in the CL 3rd round qualification competition and a seriously tough opponent before we'd get anywhere near the only pot of European money worth having- the CL Group stages. So gambling now would be against the remotest possibility of a return in financial terms.

Actually, the second paragraph makes good sense - wages and transfer fees were trending downwards before Abrimovich took over Chelsea. This created a chain reaction with the result that although top players get paid roughly the same across Europe, mid-level players in England get paid a lot more. And, as we've seen, the transfer value of players internally in England seems to be really inflated with the secondary result being more foreign players because they're cheaper.

The height of the transfer madness internally was Bent, and externally was Shevchenko. Both of those were overvalued by a staggering amount. Chelsea have stripped their squad down quite a bit and elsewhere players like Wes Brown are being told they're not worth as much in wages as they thought they were. This will probably continue over the next few years, at least until some other unexpected event makes the big boys feel they need to spend to keep up!

[USABlue]

Check back three or four weeks...on Part One...think you will find the whole tale there.

Alves signed a contract with AZ in late December but then pulled out and went to Boro for talks instead. So AZ have a reason for being upset.

Ah so it did not just come up. thanks for clearing that up

[jny]

Nicko are we still chasing that free agent you were talking about a couple of days ago?

[herbergeehh]

And what was that idea of yours?

[nicko]

Nicko are we still chasing that free agent you were talking about a couple of days ago?

I think I've found it out - or something very similar.

The guy in question has been injured but claims to be in talks with Rovers about joining...but it wouldn't be until [a] he proves his fitness, he is a completely free agent and [c] he won't be coming before the end of the season.

I'm going to do the story on Sunday, it's not earth-shattering but it's interesting.

If it is not properly used I will fill in the gaps...

There could be another player in identical circumstances but I think it is this guy.