[Archived] Realistic Summer Moves

[thenodrog]

If Roque goes to the Gooners, after they sack an pack Adey then we should be asking for Bendtner at min on loan plus a lot more cash than the 10M being quoted, Walcott on loan would also appeal to me.

Good grief! 30m in Arsenals bank with the ink still wet and you want to swop or loan players as part of the deal! I despair.

[thenodrog]

Well, I'd like you to actually name them, tell me their price, and what chance we have of signing them and then tell me how they'll settle and fit into our country(if they are from abroad) and our team. I'm not a Roberts fan but i am very tired of people saying that there is better out there without naming them or listing what they would realistically give us that Roberts doesn't.

Thanks gumboots. Thats perfect and you've saved me the trouble of replying.

[thenodrog]

Well thats your ambition. Mine and the clubs is to improve on last season and try to finish higher.

We are obviously going to stay in the league - there are some much, much weaker teams than us in the league.

If our current squad doesnt finish top 10, then we will of been dissapointing!

Well I'll take a quick stab. I'm no good at odds so in %age terms ....

1. Finishing higher than 7th a 5% chance / Finishing lower than 7th an 85% chance.

2. Finishing top half a 25% chance. / Finishing in the bottom half a 75% chance

2. Relegation a 20% chance.

[Mr Creosote]

Well I'll take a quick stab. I'm no good at odds so in %age terms ....

1. Finishing higher than 7th a 5% chance / Finishing lower than 7th an 85% chance.

2. Finishing top half a 25% chance. / Finishing in the bottom half a 75% chance

2. Relegation a 20% chance.

Sadly, I'd agree.

[Eddie]

Well, I'd like you to actually name them, tell me their price, and what chance we have of signing them and then tell me how they'll settle and fit into our country(if they are from abroad) and our team. I'm not a Roberts fan but i am very tired of people saying that there is better out there without naming them or listing what they would realistically give us that Roberts doesn't.

There's no point in me doing that for several reasons:

1) I could name players that none of you will have either heard of or watched, so there's no way you could know whether or not he would be a good signing, is too good for us, would settle well or, possibly, even exist.

2) If I do it I'll get half the messageboard having a go at me for simply listing names and they'll tell me to go back to playing FM.

I think we can all agree that there would be good strikers out there for 2ish million. In the past three summers we've signed Bellamy, Benni and Santa Cruz and haven't broken the bank on any of them.

Interestingly enough, theno has just argued on another thread that there ARE deals out there to be had. That we should cash in on Santa Cruz and then look to find one of those deals. All well and good, but provide us with names please.

[Eddie]

Well I'll take a quick stab. I'm no good at odds so in %age terms ....

1. Finishing higher than 7th a 5% chance / Finishing lower than 7th an 85% chance.

2. Finishing top half a 25% chance. / Finishing in the bottom half a 75% chance

2. Relegation a 20% chance.

1. What happened to that extra 10%?

If the current squad stays together, stays relatively healthy, is happy and we are able to add two or three players to it then I would say.

1. Finishing higher than 7th is 50/50.

2. Finishing top half is 75/25

3. Relegation is 5/95

[BRFC95]

1. What happened to that extra 10%?

Even I can work that out Eddie

[Mr Creosote]

Even I can work that out Eddie

Can we spice things up with unrealistic summer moves as no moves at all appear to be happening?

I'd like Senna of Spain please! Jeez, what a player!

[gumboots]

There's no point in me doing that for several reasons:

1) I could name players that none of you will have either heard of or watched, so there's no way you could know whether or not he would be a good signing, is too good for us, would settle well or, possibly, even exist.

2) If I do it I'll get half the messageboard having a go at me for simply listing names and they'll tell me to go back to playing FM.

I think we can all agree that there would be good strikers out there for 2ish million. In the past three summers we've signed Bellamy, Benni and Santa Cruz and haven't broken the bank on any of them.

Interestingly enough, theno has just argued on another thread that there ARE deals out there to be had. That we should cash in on Santa Cruz and then look to find one of those deals. All well and good, but provide us with names please.

Patronising Eddie. How do you know what football I watch? I didn't ask if I'd know how good they'd be anyway, nor did I ask you just to list players. i asked you to answer some questions. Players like Bellamy, Mccarthy and santa Cruz were on everybody's radar anyway. Doubt we'd get that same quality again.

[Eddie]

On everybody's radar?

Not a word was mentioned of Bellamy until the day before he signed.

Benni only because he had been linked with the premiership for years.

Santa Cruz only really because of Nicko.

I don't know what football you watch and I am sure that you can name plenty of players that I will never heard of, but seeing as I live in Paris and am subjected to a huge amount of pointless French and European football as one of my jobs is in a bar, I very much doubt that you see as much continental football as I do, certainly not French league. That makes me no better a judge of talent, more qualified or anything of that sort, but as much as us oversea supporters have no right to fully comment on Blackburn (according to quite a few on here) as we don't physically make it to that many games, we usually tend to know more about leagues abroad.

[gumboots]

On everybody's radar?

Not a word was mentioned of Bellamy until the day before he signed.

Benni only because he had been linked with the premiership for years.

Santa Cruz only really because of Nicko.

I don't know what football you watch and I am sure that you can name plenty of players that I will never heard of, but seeing as I live in Paris and am subjected to a huge amount of pointless French and European football as one of my jobs is in a bar, I very much doubt that you see as much continental football as I do, certainly not French league. That makes me no better a judge of talent, more qualified or anything of that sort, but as much as us oversea supporters have no right to fully comment on Blackburn (according to quite a few on here) as we don't physically make it to that many games, we usually tend to know more about leagues abroad.

By on everyone's radar I mean he's a player who everyone knew was good and available. Don't think anyone knew we'd sign him. that was the surprise. And since I teach both french and german and make a point of watching football whenever i travel, I've probably seen as much as you have. I too can read L'équipe in french . I too know how Marama Vahirua got the injury that kept him out for the last months of the season. Stop being patronising and just answer the questions. Who could we get who would be younger, cheaper than Roberts, able to fit into our team and our country? Which French teams did you manage to watch live last season? I saw Marseille, Valenciennes, Lyon, Monaco and L'Orient.

[Eddie]

Got friends with season tickets at PSG so I sometimes tag along when I'm not working and season tickets at Rennes. I see at least two games a week on TV as well.

I'm not going to just list names, it's never really been something that I've done and I don't see a point to it. Once a player has had some sort of a link with us I'll happily pass judgement, but seeing as the club will, quite rightly, not act on what I say writing John Doe or Joe Blog isn't going to make my posts all that much better or achieve anything.

I'll simply return to the concrete fact that for the last three summers we have signed three top line strikers, all for 5ish (Bellamy) or less, all of whom were younger, at the time, than Roberts is now, so why would it suddenly be impossible to replace our third string striker for roughly the same price as we paid for two of those players?

[gumboots]

Got friends with season tickets at PSG so I sometimes tag along when I'm not working and season tickets at Rennes. I see at least two games a week on TV as well.

I'm not going to just list names, it's never really been something that I've done and I don't see a point to it. Once a player has had some sort of a link with us I'll happily pass judgement, but seeing as the club will, quite rightly, not act on what I say writing John Doe or Joe Blog isn't going to make my posts all that much better or achieve anything.

I'll simply return to the concrete fact that for the last three summers we have signed three top line strikers, all for 5ish (Bellamy) or less, all of whom were younger, at the time, than Roberts is now, so why would it suddenly be impossible to replace our third string striker for roughly the same price as we paid for two of those players?

We all watch french football on Setanta too nowadays, live matches and highlights. also get plenty of the Bundesliga and the there's La liga etc. Think the words here eddie are "Cop out" You haven't named one player. I'm not asking for a list as long as your arm. Nor am I suggesting the club would look at any of the players you might mention. as I said I'm not a Roberts fan so I'm quite open to suggestions as to who might be younger, cheaper, available and willing to come to England who would fit our country and our team. Doesn't have to be French. Could be an English player you think might do a job. Nobody's saying it's impossible to replace any player but you can't just say I could name loads of players and then not come up with one.

[Eddie]

You can view it that way if you like. I just generally don't like when the discussions go into "we should sign player A or B" and so I'm choosing to stay out of that.

[gumboots]

You can view it that way if you like. I just generally don't like when the discussions go into "we should sign player A or B" and so I'm choosing to stay out of that.

But I didn't ask who we should sign just who we could. Definite cop out.

[Eddie]

As this will make for poor reading, this will be my last point. I understand what you are asking for, I just have no interest in going into a purely hypothetical discussion about players. My simply opinion is that we could and should sell Roberts and that we could replace him with someone more effective.

[Blue blood]

To me I think the most important thing this close season is keeping the team together. Yes things did look a little stale last season but hopefully a new manager, methods and the like will reinvigorate what is a very talented bunch of players. (Personally I'm not too optimistic on this but we'll see.)

Brad, Warnock, Nelsen, Emerton, Samba, Bentley, Reid, Dunn, McCarthy, MGP, Santa Cruz - get all of them playing like they can play, at the top of their game and that's a darn good team. In fact on paper if they're all playing well it's certainly a top 6 side. And on their day Roberts, Ooijer, Zurab, Derbyshire are more than useful and hopefully Vogel will improve a lot having played a fair bit of football. If we can keep pretty much the nuclius of this squad together and performing at the levels capable of - we've a good chance of doing well.

However' it is a squad game and the liklihood of the central midfield positions in particular performing at the levels capable of is not great. I'd ideally see one or two midfielders added, and a bit of cover for right back. If it was FM and continuity and time resources weren't there, I'd probably replace both Ooijer and Roberts but this isn't FM and Ince needs to focus his time, resources and effort on the positions we really need to improve on - namely central midfield, a right back for cover, and the replacement if any of our 1st team go.

My biggest worry this season is loosing our main striker - i.e. santa cruz and having to replace him. Eddie's comment that we'd replaced/improved our no 1 striker each year for the past 3 running on the cheap reminded me a bit ovf the coventry situation where strachen brought in and sold on for bigger money the likes of Dublin, Whelan, Huckerby and Keane, but eventually there were no more top strikers at Coventry's prices and the team got relegated. A top on form striker is utterly vital at this level, and it'd be a big ask finding yet another class striker who'll fit in, even if we did have a bit more money to spend off the back of selling Santa Cruz.

[gumboots]

Speak for yourself.

I'll come to Eddie's defence here and agree that he is exposed to more continental football than the rest of us here in the UK, so would appreciate any players he might know of that I don't.

Yes, but that's the point exactly. He says there are loads but hasn't named one and he hasn't seen much more than I have over the last few years. I don't claim that I know of any players we could, if we were so inclined, look at. I ask a question and he won't reply, making all kinds of excuses. I wouldn't hold him to it if any of the suggested players was looked at and rejected/ came and failed or whatever. I just wanted to know who, in his opinion, could be within the realms of possibility. I'll say no more but if you read the last few posts you'll see I'm right and it's a cop out on his part.

[Lurid Coat]

OK, I guess it's time for part one of my annual list of players I'd like to see at Ewood, players I feel could be tempted to Rovers at a fair and affordable price. Apart from Vogel, I don't think I've ever named a player who actually went on to sign for Rovers (only been doing this the past two summers, mind) - but it's all just a bit of fun, and might cause some discussion. All of the players mentioned in this instalment are ones who impressed me during the European Championships (and yes, I watched all of the matches, however sad that might sound )

Stephan Lichtsteiner, SUI (right back; currently at Lille)

Gökhan Inler, SUI (holding midfielder; Udinese)

Valon Behrami, SUI (right back and right winger; Lazio)

Ludovic Magnin, SUI (left back; Stuttgart)

Libor Sionko, CZE (right winger; FC Copenhagen)

Arda Turan, TUR (left and right winger; Galatasaray)

Semih Sentürk, TUR (forward; Fenerbache)

Ümit Korkmaz, AUT (left winger; Rapid Wien)

György Garics, AUT (right back; Napoli)

Darijo Srna, CRO (right back and right winger; Shaktar Donetsk)

Danijel Pranjic, CRO (left back; Heerenveen)

Joris Mathijsen, HOL (centre and left back, Hamburg)

Edit: Nice one, Presty

[Presty On Tour]

which world cup were you watching

[bennyboyt11]

i would love to see Arda Turan at Rovers... versatile little player

[gumboots]

i would love to see Arda Turan at Rovers... versatile little player

Cue all the euro jokes if he comes on as sub about us trying Arda etc.

[thenodrog]

There's no point in me doing that for several reasons:

1) I could name players that none of you will have either heard of or watched, so there's no way you could know whether or not he would be a good signing, is too good for us, would settle well or, possibly, even exist.

2) If I do it I'll get half the messageboard having a go at me for simply listing names and they'll tell me to go back to playing FM.

I think we can all agree that there would be good strikers out there for 2ish million. In the past three summers we've signed Bellamy, Benni and Santa Cruz and haven't broken the bank on any of them.

Interestingly enough, theno has just argued on another thread that there ARE deals out there to be had. That we should cash in on Santa Cruz and then look to find one of those deals. All well and good, but provide us with names please.

Quite right I've pointed that out many times BUT eddie as I have also said many times that we can only allow players to leave when we have a replacement of equal ability or better either lined up or ideally already signed on. You are suggesting putting the cart before the horse and that is simply NOT ON if the greater good of the club is taken into consideration. I have seen that policy disadvantage BRFC time and again in the past and ususually to our ultimate cost.

Whether ince can emulate Hughes I don't know but my instinct is that he will not have that ability.... it appears to be a very rare commodity.

[thenodrog]

Even I can work that out Eddie

Whilst not totally accurate it's a task that I'm sure the average 11 year old could work out too BRFC95.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Not Sure if this already been mentioned- not seen much of this player