[Archived] Roque Santa Cruz Thread

[Ray-Von]

I must admit I was ambivalent about Santa staying or going, provided a suitable replacement was found. However, his performance in the Bolton game convinced me he must stay for the greater good. He was unplayable at times.

Sam must find a way of getting Santa and Benni in tandem and both firing on all cylinders.

[gumboots]

I must admit I was ambivalent about Santa staying or going, provided a suitable replacement was found. However, his performance in the Bolton game convinced me he must stay for the greater good. He was unplayable at times.

Sam must find a way of getting Santa and Benni in tandem and both firing on all cylinders.

He was good against the Boro too.

[Guest Kamy100]

Roque gave an interview to the telegraph last week. In that interview he talked about his desire to leave for a bigger club, but didn't want to disrespect Blackburn Rovers or the fans in the process, which is why he hasn't spoken to the English press. He talked about not being unhappy to stay and understood the club needed to get a certain price before he could leave. He also added that the interview supposedly given in Paraguay was rubbish.

He went up in my estimations after that to be honest, although he was never in the bad books, as I think he's conducted himself admirably over the past 9 months.

It’s also great that we’ve turned down all bids and not let Hughes and City just walk all over us.

Well done JW and board.

Well Done Gav, sums up the situation perfectly.

Even Sam said on Friday Roque was a pleasure to deal with and very professional so that made things easier.

Many might not agree with what he said about leaving etc but there is no doubt in my mind that once he crosses the white line he is as commited and passionate as the rest of the players.

[waggy]

very brave decesion to keep a unhappy player,will he give 100%

[JC4LAB]

Sunderland thought best to keep hold of their main man inspite of a similiar offer from Spurs...Basically we have no replacement striker and are right not to let him go...

[waggy]

Sunderland thought best to keep hold of their main man inspite of a similiar offer from Spurs...Basically we have no replacement striker and are right not to let him go...

denise never asked for a move,keeping unhappy players is a recipe for diasaster

[Gav]

very brave decesion to keep a unhappy player,will he give 100%

I think he knows that if he performs well from now until the summer he'll get his move, and all parties will be happy with that.

[thenodrog]

very brave decesion to keep a unhappy player,will he give 100%?

keeping unhappy players is a recipe for diasaster

Can we assume from your posts in the past that you'd have sold him and plucked some kid out of the youth team to replace him for our relegation run-in waggy?

[DeadlyDirk]

I think he knows that if he performs well from now until the summer he'll get his move, and all parties will be happy with that.

I think that's the key here, nobody s going to want Roque in the summer unless he is scoring goals and playing well. You can make allowances for him early in the season with his fitness problems and the whole team being out of form but I don't thin too many clubs will be after him if he has been playing like that for a year.

We have without doubt made the right decision, for me considering no replacement materialised it was the only possible decision especially once BFS decided he didn't fancy Derbyshire anymore. A relegation battle depending on only Benni and Roberts for goals would have been suicidal in the case of injuries and loss of form.

I hold nothing against him, call me naive but I actually think he is quite happy here but was just being honest when he said if given the chance he would like to play for a better club. This is a striker who has played internationally as well as for Bayern Munich, one of the top clubs in Europe. The fact that he played for them for so long and his vast amount of caps tell you that there has never been a question over his ability, its simply been a case of injury problems throughout his career. Hopefully he can now put this behind him. A lot of people can come up with the stats that he only had 5 or so goals each year in 20 or 30 games, what these stats don't show you is that most of them are sub appearances and he has been playing second fiddle to some world class strikers.

You can argue that City are not a big club but you'd be foolish not to think that they can only get better and given the right manager then their funding can help turn them into a force. (No doubt in my mind that give them Mourinho and £200m to spend and they would be in the top 4 no question, probably second only to Manchester United.) There is also the fact that Hughes got the best out of him and he wanted to link up with him again, at Roque's age he doesn't have a lot of time left to play at many other clubs.

He has my complete support and I have every faith in him to work hard for the club and get us the goals which keep us in the league. We can wait and see at the end of the season to see what happens then

[RoyRover]

Couldn't agree more. Even though Roberts has done well recently, we have seen that he can't be relied on to score goals. We have seen him have two chances to win games, in the last minute against Sunderland and Middlesbrough and he missed both of them. That is six points that we missed out on. We need someone to convert those chances and Santa Cruz is a better bet to do that. If we stay up, he will probably move and maybe for less than what we could have gotten for him now, but that money can't compare to what we would lose if we go down. That is the money which the club survives on, the £20 million for Roque would have just been a nice bonus, that wasn't budgeted for.

[Wild Irish Rover]

That is six points that we missed out on.

Four points, since we drew both games, but it is a point well made.

Come on Santa - time for a renaissance methinks

[BuckyRover]

Four points, since we drew both games, but it is a point well made.

Come on Santa - time for a renaissance methinks

Two points! Two draws!!

[BigJackWalker]

2 points Gained

[philipl]

Roque has to save 45% of Rovers' staff from the sack if we get relegated.

So no pressure there then...

[roversmum]

That's slightly economical with the truth, Philip. The whole article is on the back page of the LT today, I just skimmed through it on my way past the paper stand and the gist of it is that Sam has told the players that it is their (collective) fault that we are in the situation we are in which is why he wouldn't let them go in the transfer window (although there were chances for a few to go) because they can jolly well stay and fight to save the club from relegation. Not sure if the article is online yet - can't see it, but I couldn't have put it better myself.

[T4E]

Roque has to save 45% of Rovers' staff from the sack if we get relegated.

So no pressure there then...

Wow. Interesting tactic.

I wonder if we'll see RSC tonight. He is second string after all.

(*Repost - this was deleted last time without explanation)

[nicko]

Just as a little bit of background...

Roque's agent spent the weekend - and Monday - camped at or around Ewood.

He was not granted an audience until the Monday.

The agent then told Rovers that Roque wanted to go...at which point Roque was summoned and failed to back up the agent.

The last chance of a 'let me go or else' ultimatum turned into a very pointed silence.

I don't know what would have happened if he had stamped his feet and yelled 'I want, I want, I want' but it is a [relatively] interesting insight into how these things happen.

[67splitscreen]

Just as a little bit of background...

Roque's agent spent the weekend - and Monday - camped at or around Ewood.

He was not granted an audience until the Monday.

The agent then told Rovers that Roque wanted to go...at which point Roque was summoned and failed to back up the agent.

The last chance of a 'let me go or else' ultimatum turned into a very pointed silence.

I don't know what would have happened if he had stamped his feet and yelled 'I want, I want, I want' but it is a [relatively] interesting insight into how these things happen.

Maybe he realized. the grass at Eastlands is not quite as green as it is in the summer months, well at least 5m quids worth

[CrazyIvan]

Just as a little bit of background...

Roque's agent spent the weekend - and Monday - camped at or around Ewood.

He was not granted an audience until the Monday.

The agent then told Rovers that Roque wanted to go...at which point Roque was summoned and failed to back up the agent.

The last chance of a 'let me go or else' ultimatum turned into a very pointed silence.

I don't know what would have happened if he had stamped his feet and yelled 'I want, I want, I want' but it is a [relatively] interesting insight into how these things happen.

Roque's agent for the sack maybe? Tell you all you need to know about his motivations doesn't it? Big money move = big money for the agent and f@ck the club and what Roque actually wants.

[T4E]

To be fair it sounds as though Roque and his agent want the same thing, except the boy had a bit too much class to stamp his feet. A bit of humility goes a long way, I've immense respect for Roque if this is true.

[CrazyIvan]

To be fair it sounds as though Roque and his agent want the same thing, except the boy had a bit too much class to stamp his feet. A bit of humility goes a long way, I've immense respect for Roque if this is true.

I guess if Roque cans his agent we'll know some more about how Roque feels about the situation. It'd have been interesting to be a fly on the wall when it comes to the conversation between Roque and his agent following that meeting and the inevitable conversation the agent had with Sparky/City people.

[LeChuck]

To be fair it sounds as though Roque and his agent want the same thing, except the boy had a bit too much class to stamp his feet. A bit of humility goes a long way, I've immense respect for Roque if this is true.

Pretty much my reading of the situation too. Roque said when he joined that Hughes was one of the main reasons he came, so it's no wonder he wants to follow him to City, especially with all the money flowing round there at moment.

If I were in his shoes I think I'd rather be partnering Robinho each week instead of Jason Roberts, and getting paid a lot more to do it. If he plays a big part in keeping us up and moves on in the summer I can't imagine many people will have bad feelings towards him.

[philipl]

I keep saying Roque is a class act and we are very very fortunate to have him at Ewood.

[Mc Love]

yep he is a class act, but we all know we would prefer to see him scoring goals phil

[JAL]

Just as a little bit of background...

Roque's agent spent the weekend - and Monday - camped at or around Ewood.

He was not granted an audience until the Monday.

The agent then told Rovers that Roque wanted to go...at which point Roque was summoned and failed to back up the agent.

The last chance of a 'let me go or else' ultimatum turned into a very pointed silence.

I don't know what would have happened if he had stamped his feet and yelled 'I want, I want, I want' but it is a [relatively] interesting insight into how these things happen.

Is this a bit of spin to keep everyone onside !

Whoever invented this story its certainly a very good one look forward to seeing it in the Manchester Mirror.