[Archived] Roque Santa Cruz Thread

[T4E]

Cheerio big lad, it was nice having you around. Thanks for staying longer than Bellamy.

[AndyC]

anyone who think we can hold onto a player if man city or chelsea actually want them is living in cuckoo land.

get 20 mill and find another!

it's the rovers way.

get used to it folks and stop whinging about it as if its new news!

[2PAC 4 Blackburn]

The same quality of player we got to replace Bentley, I imagine Billy.

Unfortunately i agree. The problem is our club can't attracting the big 20mill players plus the problem of the board spending the money. Santa has just gone down in my books for his comments regarding City. Not very professional when he has a job to do at Rovers!

[Hughesy]

Its going to happen, whether its January or Summer - Roque did us a favour by securing us a big deal by signing that new contract. I praise him for not taking the first possible ship out like Bentley & Bellamy did. You cant blame the lad to want to play for a team that in a few years time could be challenging for major honours (Makes you sick doesnt it!).

IF he does go then its got to be £25m - £30m or No sale. They have the money, so milk them!

[den]

Early days as to whether there's any distance in this story, - but IF it's true, it will be interesting to see Ince's reaction. Will it be ala Bentley "get him out now whatever the consequences", or will he actually fight to keep hold of Rocky?

If it's the first, then hello relegation and if it's the second, why let Bentley go so quickly? Hmmm, interesting to see the reaction of the members on that one.

[Head Rover Heels]

if it's the second, why let Bentley go so quickly?

I think it would simply show the difference between professionalism and petulance.

[gumboots]

Early days as to whether there's any distance in this story, - but IF it's true, it will be interesting to see Ince's reaction. Will it be ala Bentley "get him out now whatever the consequences", or will he actually fight to keep hold of Rocky?

If it's the first, then hello relegation and if it's the second, why let Bentley go so quickly? Hmmm, interesting to see the reaction of the members on that one.

difficult to imagine Roque spitting his dummy out in quite the way David did though. Can you imagine him giving a drunken interview on SSN He wouldn't demean himself. How do you fight to keep players anyway. In the end if they want to go you have to look at what gives the best to the club. If he does want to go and they are prepared to pay through the nose for him then, as Spurs found, it's better to do the deal quickly or you could be left on the last day of the transfer window with a striker leaving and no chance to replace him.

[BuckyRover]

Early days as to whether there's any distance in this story, - but IF it's true, it will be interesting to see Ince's reaction. Will it be ala Bentley "get him out now whatever the consequences", or will he actually fight to keep hold of Rocky?

If it's the first, then hello relegation and if it's the second, why let Bentley go so quickly? Hmmm, interesting to see the reaction of the members on that one.

I see, so whatever action he takes, you can criticise him for it.

Excellent work den

[den]

I see, so whatever action he takes, you can criticise him for it.

Excellent work den

Players - keep them or sell them? It's what keeps fans involved. It's a straight question Bucky, you have no opinions then? Apparently not.

difficult to imagine Roque spitting his dummy out in quite the way David did though. Can you imagine him giving a drunken interview on SSN He wouldn't demean himself.

So as long as your best players spit their dummy out, you would sell them? When does that stop GB?

What should Ince do, sell him or try his best to keep him?

Selling your best players always comes back to bite you on your arse. No doubt Rocky noticed how easy it was for Bentley to move on.

[Billy Castell]

You'd have kept Bentley then Den?

[1864roverite]

Rovers have done NOTHING positive with the squad to make RSC believe that quality signings are on the way.

The signings of Fowler and Andrews will haunt the club.

The failure to sign a decent right sided midfielder will cost us 14-20 goals this season.

The failure to make a decent addition to the squad in both a defender and central midfielder will cost us in January, both in terms of points and cash if spending is actually made.

RSC will go, the club simply cannot give him any ambition other than to survive especially with the current squad and that will not be enough for him.

£20m is certainly going to be a prize pot of dosh, the problem is/are that Rovers will find a player that is suitable for a replacement. Should Rovers ever decree that McCarthy is slim again and worthy of a place in the starting 11 and that Roberts is going to be the mainstay of our attack we are facing a serious shortage of goals becasue we have NO back up from the midfield in the scoring department.

It is no good having banked the best part of £40m in sales and spending NOTHING but odds and sods to replace the players who have gone.

[Parsonblue]

The sad fact is that apart from the early year's of Jack's time at Ewood the Rovers have always been a selling club. The really good players want the opportunity to compete at the highest level and win things. Unfortunately, the Rovers are not in a position to offer players those opportunities. Like the majority of the Premier League we know that the top four places in the League are beyond us before a ball is ever kicked. The way that the League is developing, with regard to finances, even the UEFA Cup places are going to be beyond us in future years.

With the top players wanting to play on the European stage it means that the Rovers will struggle to both hold onto our better players and attract top players to the club. Thus we will be faced with the situtation where we pick up the likes of Bellamy, Bents, Benni and Roque Santa Cruz and provide them with the opportunity to get their careers back on track before they move on.

I honestly don't believe that it is just down to wages anymore but more a case of players wanting to perform at the highest level. If Roque leaves, and I suspect most fans know that he will go in January or next summer, all the Rovers can do is get as much money as possible for him and then hope they can pick up some promising unknown who they can turn into a 'star' player or sign another established player who is looking to kick-start their career.

Like Mark Hughes before him, I suspect that Paul Ince will find that the problem is not building a decent squad but keeping it.

[den]

The sad fact is that apart from the early year's of Jack's time at Ewood the Rovers have always been a selling club.

After the abolition of the max wage in the early sixties, we sold the best players because we desperately needed the money and felt we couldn't keep them here when they could earn more money elsewhere.. That relegated us.

Later, in the lower leagues we sold the best players because we needed the cash and the players also went to a higher league, which would have been wrong to deny them.

That's totally different to today PB. There is no reason to let players move on, without at least a "quality" replacement in place.

[Hughesy]

If we are to sell, then the £25m or whatever should already be allocated to, two top signings and both should be in place prior to Roque being allowed to leave.

Its up to the club, we dont need the money, we have hardly any debt, probably some cash already available for playeers and the player is stuck on a 4 year contract so we hold all the keys.

Maybe Nicko could shed some light on our finances/ transfer kitty?

[Oklahoma]

I understand that Rovers can't compete with big teams and some "new" big teams that have a lot of money.

But I expect, like I did before, that the players don't offer themselves to the other teams.

[Bennisfromheaven]

Well, all we need to do is look at the bottom of the table & see a team which got rid of 2 of their best players (let alone 3 - friedel) without adequetely replacing them!!

[Eddie]

I'll stick to what I said going into the summer: Santa Cruz performed above his ability last season and now is probably the right time to sell. There is no way that a 27 year old who has been plagued by injuries, particularly to his knees, throughout his career is going to avoid being out for long periods of time at some point, so it is probably best to sell when his value is high and reinvest. I like the guy and he's a good player, but I think already we can see this season that he isn't quite as good as he was last year and, although he will be difficult to replace, I think the team could benefit from the amount of money that he could bring in. He will start missing more games, particularly with important world cup qualifiers to travel and play in. If Hughes and co decide to bid 20+ million for him in January then I'd give him a pat on the back and a smile and start looking for a replacement.

[den]

How can anyone play above their ability Eddie?

[trueblue]

I think already we can see this season that he isn't quite as good as he was last year

He isn't as good as last year because he's got nowhere near the service he received last season !!

[Eddie]

How can anyone play above their ability Eddie?

I think you can hit a level of form that you can't possibly sustain over the course of a few seasons or your career. In my opinion, and I may turn out to be wrong, Santa Cruz had something of a career season last year in terms of form and avoiding any serious injuries. I think the smart option is to sell him when his value is high. In a way, it is similar to what we had with Bellamy, although this time we can maximise his value.

[den]

I think you can hit a level of form that you can't possibly sustain over the course of a few seasons or your career. In my opinion, and I may turn out to be wrong, Santa Cruz had something of a career season last year in terms of form and avoiding any serious injuries.

You mean he's a one season wonder, - for the want of a better phrase? Hmmm, the man is class Eddie. That's permanent isn't it?

As for injuries, well you can't sell someone because you think he's going to struggle with injuries, when in fact he has done extremely well injury wise.

[Eddie]

I don't think he's a one season wonder, I think he'll always be a good player, simply not as good as he was last season. Almost every player will have one season that stands out a bit from the rest, I think we've just seen it for Santa Cruz. Extremely well injury wise? He barely played for about 6 years of his career due to injuries, you think our medical team is so good that he's overcome that? Or that as people get older their knees, backs and hamstrings improve, even when they are exposed to a more physical style of play? I can understand why people will disagree with me, but I'm fairly sure that we will end up regretting not selling him if a big bid comes in and we hang on to him.

[1864roverite]

You beat me to it TB

RSC has had nowhere near the amount of crosses/passes as he did this time last season. We simply do not have a supply line.

The quality of some of the crossing this season has been simply awful.

The lack of creativity through the middle is mindnumbing because if we had it we would comfortably be sitting in the top 5 on around 15 points or even more.

We would surely have beaten Hull.

We would almost certainly not lost at Wham.

We may have even took a point against Arsenal.

Thats the difference that might be crucial especially of we lose against Bolton and Boro, because for me taking 20 points at such an early stage of the season would really have set Rovers up for a top 7 finish.

Our pre Christmas games are as follows:

Home Away

Boro Bolton

Sunderland Villa

Chelsea WBA

Liverpool Spurs

Stoke Portsmouth

M City Wigan

Sunderland

Looking at the list, we as Rovers should be taking at least 11 points from the home games and at least 11 points from the away games, and I base that on our performances last season PLUS weighing it up against our player losses and purchases.

As it stands Rovers will be lucky to get 9 points from the home games and maybe 9 from the away games. Some will say, yes its only a four point difference but then you add that to the 5 points already lost this season and it tallies up. The stepping stone to Europe becomes a slippery slope to the mid table battle.

If Rovers had spent a little more money on creativity then we would have taken at least 22 points from games before Christmas which would have been a fantastic effort. I just dont see a way of achieving such a haul with the current squad of players and if we lost RSC second half of the season, you have to ask where the goals are going to come from ?

[ABBEY]

1.f him and anyone else who doesnt want to be a rover(if its true)

2 f journo if its not.

How much does $50m euros work out in pounds? I had a drunken bet with a german stutgard fan(a bronco before you ask) and i said we would sell him for that amount in guinness induced stupor.

[BuckyRover]

It is great that Manchester City are involved.

When Chelsea were throwing the cash around, Marseille held out for £30m for Drogba.

We should do the same. I expect after what went on with Hughes/Roque in the summer, John Williams will be thinking exactly the same thing.

Everybody knows how much money they have, that is the situation they find themselves. There is no way we should sell him for any less than an "astronomical" amount.