[Archived] Roque Santa Cruz Thread

[broadsword]

God, we don't half need him back scoring goals for teh team, it would make such an enormous difference.

It could even be the difference between going down and staying up.

Think we need a top bombing Sam Allardyce forward-thinking combo of chinese medicine, witch doctors, a trip to Lourdes and a sacrficial goat at half-time with ken Beamish doing the honours.

[Hughesy]

  Bryan said:

God, we don't half need him back scoring goals for teh team, it would make such an enormous difference.

It could even be the difference between going down and staying up.

We have needed him back scoring goals all season. We are still waiting!!

[67splitscreen]

  Hughesy said:

We have needed him back scoring goals all season. We are still waiting!!

I don't think sam will risk him until after the Liverpool game, Spuds game is to soon for him, Sam say's he is responding to treatment slower than expected.

Sam will probably treat the Pool game same as the l'arse game. I would love a point but can't see it.

Bring him in when he can do the most damage. Stoke, Wigan, City and hope he finishes the season out from there.

PS. Can we have a Emoticon for squeaky bum time.

[gillibrand]

We certainly need some one to start scoring before the "Fat Lady sings" !

[gumboots]

  gillibrand said:

We certainly need some one to start scoring before the "Fat Lady sings" !

I'm planning to wait till the last minute of time added on at the end of the last game of the season to give us maximum chance of staying up!

[Guest Kamy100]

The Lancashire Telegraph is carrying an interview with RSC today. Roque says that he missed the Paraguay games in order to ensure that he is fit and ready for the Tottenham game.

[Hughesy]

Good on him if true - however would the Paraguayan doctors allow him to stay if he had a chance to play for them??

Manchester City are setting their sights high, with Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribery, Barcelona striker Thierry Henry, Chelsea skipper John Terry and Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz all transfer targets. (The Times)

Will be interesting once more in the summer. I think its obvious he will move on, however I really do hope we get the deal in place early and stop the messing about all summer long. We need to move him on and then we need to move on and replace him & others before the season starts.

[thenodrog]

  Hughesy said:

Good on him if true - however would the Paraguayan doctors allow him to stay if he had a chance to play for them??

Manchester City are setting their sights high, with Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribery, Barcelona striker Thierry Henry, Chelsea skipper John Terry and Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz all transfer targets. (The Times)

Will be interesting once more in the summer. I think its obvious he will move on, however I really do hope we get the deal in place early and stop the messing about all summer long. We need to move him on and then we need to move on and replace him & others before the season starts.

Likely to be paper fill. Henry and RSC would not complement each other imo.

[Hughesy]

I know - I dont think City will come back in for Roque in the summer anyway - I think they will move onto bigger things than him - or if they do want him, they will probably play us all summer long for him like they did in January.

If he doesnt move on, then we have no money to improve!!

Henry wont re-join the prem unless its with Arsenal as he has said in the past.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

  Hughesy said:

I know - I dont think City will come back in for Roque in the summer anyway - I think they will move onto bigger things than him - or if they do want him, they will probably play us all summer long for him like they did in January.

If he doesnt move on, then we have no money to improve!!

Henry wont re-join the prem unless its with Arsenal as he has said in the past.

Depends if the Tafia have still got jobs at City in the summer. Need RSC fit and scoring goals to make him worth the release clause and keep Rovers in the Premiership.

[Hughesy]

There are alot of noises coming from Eastlands that suggest Hughes will get a new deal - although that could depend on where they finish and how they end up in the UEFA cup.

I really do hope City stump up the cash for Roque - its the only way we can rebuild our squad.

[T4E]

  dingles staying down 4ever said:

Depends if the Tafia have still got jobs at City in the summer. Need RSC fit and scoring goals to make him worth the release clause and keep Rovers in the Premiership.

I hope they win the UEFA Cup so that they stay in a job, as thats the only way we'll be able to get Roque off the wage bill (and treatment table) and still get a decent whack for him.

If he goes to City we can probably still get £15m, anywhere else it'll be single figures.

[Hughesy]

How about a deal with Tottenham - Taking Bentley back from them and say £7m - Would people do that?

Huddlestone has also admitted he will probably have to leave in the summer. As will Bent.

[T4E]

Depends - we need Roque and Bentley for them both to be at their best. I guess I would take that deal but Sam would need to have a replacement in the Roque mould lined up for Bentley to target.

[Ozz]

  Tugay4England said:

If he goes to City we can probably still get £15m, anywhere else it'll be single figures.

He's got to be worth at least a tenner, surely?

[waggy]

out again tomorrow,what was the point of keeping him

[LWX]

Really think we need to draw a line under Bentley, although if he came back I'd be happy enough to know we'd have quality delivery for 12 months...

[DanLad]

  elwaxo said:

Really think we need to draw a line under Bentley

Spurs and England have so we should, too.

[thenodrog]

  waggy said:

out again tomorrow,what was the point of keeping him

Cos he is a dmaned good player and our best striker by a mile for one and for two you obviously have the only crystal ball in existence!

Tell you what waggy your powers of prediction are so strong so why don't you tell us all who will win the Grand National tomorrow?

btw "a horse with a bloke on it's back " will not suffice.

[Eddie]

Whilst we all would have hoped for him to be fit more, I think any sensible prediction would have been that, given his injury troubles in the first half of the season and every other season of his career apart from last year, he was likely to sit out much of the remainder of the season. In my view it continues to be a baffling piece of business on our part.

[92er]

  Eddie said:

Whilst we all would have hoped for him to be fit more, I think any sensible prediction would have been that, given his injury troubles in the first half of the season and every other season of his career apart from last year, he was likely to sit out much of the remainder of the season. In my view it continues to be a baffling piece of business on our part.

There has been an explication elsewhere on the site that was given by Allardyce last night as to why he wasn't sold.

What I find rather baffling is that Allardyce allowed us to carry on with only 3 strikers and that he didn't bring anybody in on loan, especially with all his contacts.

[Amo]

  waggy said:

out again tomorrow,what was the point of keeping him

To avoid selling another one of our star players without replacing them.

[Eddie]

Of course Allardyce will try and justify it, but I wanted him sold at the time and it's a position I stick with. If we keep him in the summer and he can get healthy and back to his best then it will have been a smart move (although I'm not sure even at his best that he's a 20 million pound striker), but he'll certainly need to score a few goals between now and when he leaves the club to justify what the management and the club did (either that or they have to sell him for a similar fee, which is looking increasingly unlikely happen). All water under the bridge now really though and we just have to do with the position that we are in now.

  Topman said:

To avoid selling another one of our star players without replacing them.

There were replacements available. If the papers are to be believed the our top two targets as replacements this summer were both available in January for a price well under what Santa Cruz would have been sold for and, certainly in the case of one, his fee will probably have increase between now and when the window reopens.

[RevidgeBlue]

  Eddie said:

Whilst we all would have hoped for him to be fit more, I think any sensible prediction would have been that, given his injury troubles in the first half of the season and every other season of his career apart from last year, he was likely to sit out much of the remainder of the season. In my view it continues to be a baffling piece of business on our part.

Sam said last night that it was a huge ask for a Club our size to turn down the sort of money that was on offer for RSC in Jan but it was felt at the time we needed all our best players for the relegation struggle ahead. I really don't think you can criticise that stance.

Sam also indicated that we "maybe" wouldn't resist if similar money was offered in the summer - again sensible I think.

Re: Roque's injury prognosis I thought that sounded extremely gloomy last night, he isn't responding anywhere near as quickly as hoped and it sounds very possible he will need a "clean up" operation to clear the rubbish out of his knee. Unfortunate, but there you go, without a crystal ball it's a difficuilt decision.

We'll probably just end up getting him fully fit and raring to go for for someone else.

[Amo]

  "Eddie" said:

There were replacements available. If the papers are to be believed the our top two targets as replacements this summer were both available in January for a price well under what Santa Cruz would have been sold for and, certainly in the case of one, his fee will probably have increase between now and when the window reopens.

You can't really build an argument on the tabloids.

Sam obviously thought we were better off keeping Roque over his other targets. I don't think he was expecting him to have such a prolonged injury either. It's alright for people like waggy to criticize the decision in hindsight...