[Archived] Nicko's Thread Part 3

[nicko]

Nicko,better not be stroke boy!

Remember him?He was on this board at the end

of the transfer window!

Could we ever forget? I still have a giggle about that one.

Sky Sports News show back pages saying Chelsea may want Sparky and Man City have 48 hours to decide.

Oh my...

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Big Dick Advocaat seems the best option for me - especially if he can bring his star man. Bilic or Houllier is also two other good options.

Must agree with you there Hughsey. Those would be my 3 choices, in that order - possibly with Michael Laudrup on the list in 4th. Before people say they would never come to Rovers, Why not? 7th best team in the Premier, supposedly the best league in the world. I bet Advocaat would love a crack at the premiership, Bilic has already said as much. Houllier would surely consider it. As for Laudrup, Getafe are hardly heavyweights of the game.

We need to be setting our sights higher than also rans like Mcclaren, Allardyce etc.

[gbax]

I've been watching Rovers for 40 years not much plain sailing in there Mate. I'm gonna hazard a guess you happened along sometime AFTER uncle Jack. And yes I am probably over reacting. BTW, I said I was gonna support Burnley so not only do I not prefer plain sailing I clearly have a masochistic streak.

Any on here that know me also know that's not gonna happen

Then why say it mate? Or at least inject a little humour as to not confuse us 'young' ones!

As with your judgement on your earlier post, 'you guess' wrong. 31 years man and boy behind the Blackburn End, more bad football than good - but thats the burden and joy I've carried! Plus, if you ever go on a ground tour I'm on several photos in the ground taken in the late 70s early 80s, oh and I was a mascot in 1983.

Why am I justifying myself to a Burnley's newest fan? :-)

[nicko]

The Daily Mail, Kia Joorabchian's favourite newspaper, claim Sparky is going to Man City along with Ronaldinho and Jo.

Oh dear.

[brian_gallagher85]

How can a paper go from breaking the story first (regarding Hughes approached by City)...to reporting what SSN said at 1pm today/yesterday?

[nicko]

You can get The Times take on this on-line. If you want.

Bizarrely they say Rovers want £5 million for Sparky which was a figure I plucked out of the air on here this morning.

This is all becoming a bit scary.

[nicko]

And The Guardian think it may be a plan to get Chelsea to come in for the manager...such original thinking.

[Torgeir]

This is all becoming a bit scary.

Yes. Make it disappear please.

[gbax]

You can get The Times take on this on-line. If you want.

Bizarrely they say Rovers want £5 million for Sparky which was a figure I plucked out of the air on here this morning.

This is all becoming a bit scary.

The morning Sun going with that story PLUS...

...MANCHESTER UNITED are planning to hit Blackburn with a £15million bid for towering striker Roque Santa Cruz!!!!

Anything in this Nicko?

[Hughesy]

Nicko - must say your coverage of this for us has been top notch. Keep up the good work and make sure we end up with a good manager.

[RovertheHill]

I don't want to pull the old 'I've been around the block and know a good boss when I see one' line...but.

I've been around the block and know a good manager when I see one. And Coppell is that man.

You just know at times when someone is real. He is.

If anyone wants him please feel free to contact and I will do some tapping. Don't know the geezer but I think he is worth chasing.

Well if the alternative is BFS or Barry Gibb then I'm all for it. You couldn't tap Bilic up at the same time though could you

[tony gale's mic]

Nicko - must say your coverage of this for us has been top notch. Keep up the good work and make sure we end up with a good manager.

Hear hear....for days all the papers and SSN would feed us the same bull about Riijkaard, Ancelotti and Mancini when we all knew the truth.

The City thing was a complete curveball but if Hughes or Scolari go to Chelsea at least a lot of the board will have made some good money at excellent odds from them thanks to nicko.

Do you expect your coverage of the next Rovers manager to be as good?

[The1mattjansen]

Sparky is now favourite to be the next boss of the richest club in the world. He's favourite to be the next boss of one of the richest and most ambitous clubs in the country and is also second favourite to become the next top man at the worlds biggest football club.

And all from a rundown mill town in east lancashire, with no fans, no history, no money and no style. Incredible.

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£15m for Rocky & £15m for Bentley.

£30m for Big Sam to spend on various over-priced rejects to line his sky rocket, and off we trot to the boo boo league...splendid.

[dj54nna]

If he goes to City, he's no better than Lucas Neill. I'm hoping he's got more backbone.

[Brownie]

Nicko, how happy/settled is Roy Keane ?

Be a great appointment.

[RevidgeBlue]

Rovers take a moral stand and axe Hughes nonetheless, appointing Coppell and Coyley on a dream ticket.

With all due respect nicko, from what I saw of Reading last season, their brand of football made Bolton under BFS look like Brazil.

Coppell and Coyle might be your dream ticket, it would only be marginally ahead of a Bryan Robson/Peter Reid nightmare for me!

[Eddie]

He was fairly limited with his squad. First season when he had players in form and actually a slightly better team he got them to play some good stuff. Perfect tactics for his team and he brought in players that suited his style, something Hughes has never managed. He'd do a good job. Remember, this a guy who last saeson was being heavily touted as the next United boss, 10 months later we're going to really turn our noses up at him? You shouldn't be able to undo years of good work in one season, not with a team like Reading at least.

[RevidgeBlue]

Sparky is now favourite to be the next boss of the richest club in the world. He's favourite to be the next boss of one of the richest and most ambitous clubs in the country and is also second favourite to become the next top man at the worlds biggest football club.

And all from a rundown mill town in east lancashire, with no fans, no history, no money and no style. Incredible.

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No history, what on earth are you talking about, founder members of the football League, three League titles, 6 FA Cups and one League Cup over a 133 year period!

[RevidgeBlue]

He was fairly limited with his squad. First season when he had players in form and actually a slightly better team he got them to play some good stuff. Perfect tactics for his team and he brought in players that suited his style, something Hughes has never managed. He'd do a good job. Remember, this a guy who last saeson was being heavily touted as the next United boss, 10 months later we're going to really turn our noses up at him? You shouldn't be able to undo years of good work in one season, not with a team like Reading at least.

I'd be really really disappointed if we ended up with Coppell and would anticipate a season of struggle similar to what Reading have just endured.

Conversely, I think Allardyce would keep us trouble free for the forseeable future, albeit we might not be the most attractive team to watch.

Then again, we weren't really this season anyway.

[philipl]

Fascinating past dozen pages to have read.

My view you won't be surprised to learn is that JW and the Walker Trustees will always have had thoughts about MH successors- the guy was commuting from Cheshire to Brockhall; not the safest stretch of road.

The current betting on the next Rovers manager reflects the media's perception of the Rovers, not what JW/WT think (don't think anyone other than JW/WT are aware of what they are thinking- they are too professional to leak on a subject like that) nor on what phone calls/sms have arrived in the JW inbox.

All too early but that list of runners and riders does include some pretty big names so it is clear the world out there takes the michael out of Rovers but when push comes to shove recognise Rovers are a real force in football.

To Hughes-

The guy is ambitious and decided on a calculated risk of going for the Chelsea opportunity reasoning if he did nothing, his chances would be much less than if he actively sought it. In doing so he has used City which is a high risk thing to do viz a viz Rovers, City and his own reputation BUT marginally improves his chances with Chelsea. He probably thought City was not a bad fall back but might not be thinking that this morning.

Sparky faces two risks in staying with Rovers which are forever being the bridesmaid and never the bride when it comes to Top 4 type jobs and so being pigeon-holed as a nearly man, AND

knowing that he might win things with Rovers but the money situation makes it a bit too much of a lucky dip and he would always have the problem that he could have a bit of a downer season the year the OT vacancy comes up.

My guess is that the middle band of clubs that could seriously expect to challenge for 5th will grow to 11 clubs so one of that lot (including Rovers) is going to come 15th and still be a very good team.

To Rovers-

JW has played it with a very straight bat and that statement yesterday says it exactly as it is; Hughes wants to talk to City and Rovers want the Bank Guarantee before they let him. In doing that, Rovers are doing 75% of Hughes' negotiations with City for him as the question over City is to what extent are they a football club funded by a rich investor and to what extent a pawn in Thai politics. There are plenty of indications that the parting with SGE has (quite rightly) been anything but smooth and the the peremptory note and silence over the actual parting yesterday screams of Atholle Still taking them to the cleaners on compensation and severance terms. If Nicko is right about Thaksin shoe-stringing the cash, I would imagine SGE's cheque yesterday plus Rovers' not unreasonable cash down pre-condition has broken the Eastlands piggy bank.

It would seem JW knew that and has caused maximum discomfort at Eastlands. For one thing, the cleft between Thaksin's Thais running round with wadges buying glamour names (or trying to) and the reality of day-to-day existance on the ground in Manchester appears to be cruelly exposed.

As I've said before, there is no dishonour in Rovers losing Sparky to Chelski but there is dishonour in losing him to City.

Rovers are playing their part in Sparky's bold gamble on getting the Chelski job.

The situation now is the odds of Hughes still being at Rovers (NOT the best outcome for Rovers now by the way- getting him to Chelsea is easily the best) have gone from 0% at 10.00am yesterday to something above 0% now.

As Nicko has pointed out, it is beginning to look like Rovers might have called Citeh's bluff. More to the point, it won't have escaped Thaksin's notice reading this morning's papers that he is being used by Hughes as a pawn in his Chelsea bid- as a proud Thai, he will find that utterly offensive. If BFS has indeed jetted back to be around Eastlands when the Hughes deal collapses then a sudden appointment of BFS at Citeh could be a realistic scenario and they won't even bother returning JW's phone calls.

If Abramovich spent 9 hours with that nest of vipers yesterday and Hughes was still not the chosen one, I suspect the high watermark for Hughes' chances at Chelsea has passed as well.

Does Hughes have another bold move like the Citeh coup in his back pocket to try to make the Stamford Bridge dream come true?= unlikely.

Has Abramovich read the Citeh move and Rovers statement that "Mark has said he wants to talk to City" like a book and said wtf?= likely.

In the Abramovich ego, does he see City/Thaksin as worthy competitors to be seen publicly fighting against for his Manager?= very, very unlikely.

If BOTH Hughes' moves collapse, Rovers are going to be in a strong position relative to their Manager but he will be severely damaged goods in terms of managing the players and Rovers' shop window for attracting investment.

Final point to RB, if your top guy says he wants out, you reason with him but if he still wants to go, you cut your losses irrespective of what the contract says. JW/WT were clearly put in that position by Sparky whose signature I am sure is sitting on a copy of that statement issued yesterday morning as having agreed its exact wording.

[leftfooter]

Heidi from the Sugababes (Insert joke here about going down...)

Or taking us up...

[USABlue]

I'd be really really disappointed if we ended up with Coppell and would anticipate a season of struggle similar to what Reading have just endured.

Conversely, I think Allardyce would keep us trouble free for the forseeable future, albeit we might not be the most attractive team to watch.

Then again, we weren't really this season anyway.

Rev, I think you need to seperate Bolton's later acheivements from Allardyce. They were getting results but he took time to get them there too. He would be in a similar situation here as he was at Newcastle. He would need time to get us into the sort of shape he had Bolton in. We saw how that went at Newcastle, I can see much the same thing here. I fear we would suffer immensely, relegation possibly. No Allardyce not for me.

[philipl]

It cannot be said the press are goading Hughes to leave Rovers (for once):

Guardian - think twice

Tlegraph- last ex-Man U player to manage City lasted 33 days. As the Telegraph grudgingly puts it, at least City aren't going bust... this time.

Times basically says Hughes won't talk to City before the Chelsea situation is clear.

Independent suggest City are rushing to appoint Hughes and Rovers are being tough in the negotiations

[MCMC1875]

It cannot be said the press are goading Hughes to leave Rovers (for once):

Guardian - think twice

Tlegraph- last ex-Man U player to manage City lasted 33 days. As the Telegraph grudgingly puts it, at least City aren't going bust... this time.

Times basically says Hughes won't talk to City before the Chelsea situation is clear.

Independent suggest City are rushing to appoint Hughes and Rovers are being tough in the negotiations

Are you short of summat to do?

[philipl]

Far from it, but reading the international press is part of what I have to do for keeping myself and others in a crust.

Are you short of natural curiosity?