[Archived] Nickos (newer) Thread

[The Gull]

If Brad leaves I see who could be seen as good enough to replace him.

None are likely to be as good as him in his prime, so what do people want to do? Hope his natural decline doesn't happen? Not to plan for the future? Deny him one last big pay day?

Does Robinson have the potential to be worthy of the Rovers faithful? I think he does, as keepers peak much later than other players, just look at Brad who was vilified when he joined us.

Tugay was struggling to get in to the Rangers team, Santa Cruz was a crock who couldn't hit a barn door, Bentley had potential but was deemed not good enough for Arsenal, Nelsen was a MLS player, Samba couldn't get a game, Warnock couldn't get a game, club after club decided against McCarthy even with his record, Derbyshire was playing for Great Harwood!!!

Going back through history, I remember the dissapointment at Newell being signed after all the other names such as Lineker were being linked to us, Speedie became a hero after not having the best reputation when he joined us. Tim Sherwood couldn't get a game for two years and ended up lifting the Premiership.

I and many others can compare whatever we like to try and back up our views, but I like to stick to facts.

If we get beaten at Everton on the opening day, I fully expect people on here to be calling for his head if they haven't managed to hound him out before then. Let the records decide the future of our club, like points gained, goals scored and conceeded and stupid insignificant things like that as I will be the first to want poor performaing players and managers out of the door.

We are not the kind of club that is going to pick up ready made stars, we have to take a gamble once in a while and hope it pays off. Plenty have come and gone, most have made us money

[Iceman]

The number 9 squad number?jeez,hasta i just said i needed sum good news.lol i would of thought that,he wouldnt get any squad number.they could have given him an old berner jersey,to train in.

[Iceman]

We could go for kasper schmeichel(sp),actualy where is that guy?

[cn174]

The number 9 squad number?jeez,hasta i just said i needed sum good news.lol i would of thought that,he wouldnt get any squad number.they could have given him an old berner jersey,to train in.

I think you need to check out the smiley at the end of his post

[Rovers in America]

Ffs,Robbie Fowler has only been invited to train with the 1st team.he hasnt signed anything.if i dont hear any good news this coming week,then im going to go mad! Lol

Exactly, and a lot were belly-aching about Vogel coming in and trainign with the team, then belly-aching when he was signed, but it seems that one worked out. If he's signed, hopefully that means he is up to snuff and helps this team.

[John]

Nicko, I know our chief scout was named today, but you also mentioned that we are close to appointing reserve team manager, who is?

[bob fleming]

if i dont hear any good news this coming week,then im going to go mad! Lol

The club shop is nice.

[des]

why do we have to let Brad go, he still has two years on his current deal at rovers

[American Rover12]

Go on then, name them all.

Santa, Brad, Tugay, Bentley - and that's just the ones in the current squad (as of now!).

Cheers American. I will also add Samba onto that, Matty Derbs just for the sake of argument (him not even being a player at the time of signing), and even the Admiral who had to be flown in from MLS which was in worse shape than it was in now at the time. All from just the current squad.

Agree or not my point is far from specific to any one player. It is just that when you go through a rough spell and have some of your worst days, sometimes all one needs is a change of scenery, some new energy instilled and a bit of confidence.

[leftfooter]

Some people on here are ridiculous, the season has not started, we have not sold ONE player, we have not bought ONE player yet the hysetria...

Paul Ince- Young up and coming manager, judge 2 trophies in 2 years and saving Macc from relegation.

Mathias- Good bloke by all accounts Nicko says he has a high standing in the game.

Knox- any body name a better number 2, how many trophies has he won as number 2? Bowen- give him a chance.

The rest of the staff come highly recommended, HOW can you judge BEFORE they start!

Fowler- has NOT signed, he is the best striker of his generation on a potential pay as you play- costing us what?

I mean that Ince is daft, what can Derbyshire, Cruz, Roberts, our youth team players learn from this guy-grow a brain.

Big Brad- he is NOT being forced out, he is willing to leave for MONEY, how is this different from Lucash? How can you blame Ince? Why should we pay him DOUBLE, he has a two year deal!!

Robinson was England number 1, is 28 years old and potentially a great keeper, can anyone remember Big Brad at Liverpool? He was the same age and blundering for them, could be a good signing...

Bentley was going even if Hughes was here.

Ince has said we WILL play ATTACKING football, did we see much of that last year under Hughes?

Tell me if I have missed anything... but I think we should have this conversation once the first ball is kicked.

Here here...

[Lathund]

Brad Friedel has scored one career goal, Paul Robinson has scored two.

I rest my case.

[Sandiway Blue]

Brad Friedel has scored one career goal, Paul Robinson has scored two.

I rest my case.

[AlanSheppard]

I wonder where this leaves Jason Brown? Would Ince give him a crack in Germany in pre-season or try to rush Robinson through before that? Brown seems to have done ok on the rare times he's been called in and is young still.

[leftfooter]

I'm happy with Robinson if he does come in. It would be a very similar situation to the one we found ourselves in when we signed Friedel. I'd love to read back and see what people said at that stage as I'm sure 90% of posters were against it. We had a decent keeper in Filan and people felt Friedel wasn't needed and he certainly wasn't wanted. His confidence was low and he looked very questionable in all areas at Liverpool. He'd become something of a laughing stock between their fans at that stage and they certainly didn't want him anywhere near their team.

It's all very similar now, I don't think it would be a bad thing at all, Brad wasn't quite so solid last year (He was still very very good but not the Superman of previous seasons) I started to worry more on Free Kicks as he had a knack of taking a step across his goal (towards the side the wall was covering) and then found himself stranded and not able to get back across to make the save. Villa away rtings a bell but it certainly wasn't the only time.

Players come and go and I cant believe the over reaction of some on here. Reterning Season Tickets before a ball has been kicked... get a grip for goodness sake. Back the manager and back the players. Lets not get on their backs before the season has even started.

Don't forget, Football ls a game of two halves....... blue and white!!!!!

Here here...

[modes98]

We've seen more than enough of Robinson over the years to know hes not good enough.

You've also seen him made 41 appearances for england, which says there is obviously something about him, either that or the state of english football needs improving.

We could go for kasper schmeichel(sp),actualy where is that guy?

I wouldn't go near him at the moment. He could be good in a fair few years but at the moment he is a ticking time bomb on crosses.

I wonder where this leaves Jason Brown? Would Ince give him a crack in Germany in pre-season or try to rush Robinson through before that? Brown seems to have done ok on the rare times he's been called in and is young still.

Nicko seems to be saying it'll be sorted sooner rather than later, so he can join up with the germany tour.

Also Spurs are in Europe so i wonder if they will have come back into pre-season training before us or if he would be on the same level.

All keepers have ups and downs. The good thing about Friedel is that his lows normally are a single game blip, IMO he cost us 2 goals last season, Arsenal and Brum and saved countless, especially in the Man Utd game.

Our new Goalkeeping coach has worked very closely with Robinson before and will know all about him. So that's not a bad starting block, if we do go for him. It'll go really well or really badly and we'll make a good profit on him or he'll fade away, in this case Brown gets a run at top spot.

Watching his youtube reel from the past few seasons he can pull off some amazing saves. Although I don't want to lose Brad I personally think that Robinson would do a good job and is better than some of the very average keepers being touted around on here. All players make mistakes, the problem as a keeper is that a mistake normally results in a goal.

[den]

American Rover12:

The negative nancys are in full force, aren't they? Here's the deal:

Big Brad is a legend -- Fact

Brad's getting old -- Fact

We (maybe) get 2.5 mil for him -- Genius

Robinson IMO would not be a bad move. Think of all the other "terrible" and "washed up" players we've made great again. We know he has the skill, he just needs the confidence. I'd perfer not to be all doom and gloom until the season gets underway; then we'll be able to see how good or poor Ince has made his squad.

den:

Go on then, name them all.

American:

Santa, Brad, Tugay, Bentley - and that's just the ones in the current squad (as of now!).

American rover12:

Cheers American. I will also add Samba onto that, Matty Derbs just for the sake of argument (him not even being a player at the time of signing), and even the Admiral who had to be flown in from MLS which was in worse shape than it was in now at the time. All from just the current squad.

Agree or not my point is far from specific to any one player. It is just that when you go through a rough spell and have some of your worst days, sometimes all one needs is a change of scenery, some new energy instilled and a bit of confidence.

............................................................

Whoa guys, don't get carried away.

We're talking about "terrible" and "washed up" here.

Santa, Brad, Tugay, Bentley, Samba, Matty Derbs, the Admiral.

You reckon they were all terrible and washed up? Honestly?

[roverfanuk]

So we are effectively handing over Brad Friedel (best goalkeeper we have ever had) + 2 million for a goalkeeper who was kept out of the Spurs team by a future QPR goalkeeper...

[modes98]

Santa, Brad, Tugay, Bentley, Samba, Matty Derbs, the Admiral.

You reckon they were all terrible and washed up? Honestly?

I think he means their careers were stalling and then we made them into better players.

So we are effectively handing over Brad Friedel (best goalkeeper we have ever had) + 2 million for a goalkeeper who was kept out of the Spurs team by a future QPR goalkeeper...

As someone mentioned, You are not taking into account the extra wages we would have to pay to keep brad here.

Cerny was awful and that was more of a statement by Ramos to try and encoruage Robinson. It didn't really work though.

[The Prof.]

I don't know but, without sounding like I'm being a bit funny, it's not my job to. Thats why managers have scouts. I know I would rather have the lad at Bolton (Al Habsi) than Robinson but he's probably not available now they've stopped up.

Last year when looking for a striker no-one on here even mentioned Santa Cruz because we either didn't know who he was or didn't know he was available.

By then Hughes had pulled of some masterstrokes to be fair though and in ssome ways you can't knock what you don't know. I think the 'known' factors are the issues here- Fat, Fick, Fubmbling, and F£$%"d. It's a media management thing - time to get Wendy moved upstairs.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Robinson has never been a great goalkeeper his shot stopping in particular has always been suspect. He got so many caps for England because he played for Spurs and that he was the best of a bad bunch. English keepers are way behind in terms of ability and class than their foreign counterparts.

I have to laugh when we will have to pay £4 million + for a clearly inferior goalkeeper than our present one.

I feel we are in for a very rocky ride this season. I hope Ince can prove me wrong.

On the washed up/out of favour players coming here, keep in mind that was down to Hughes and his backroom staff. Ince very well might not have that same impact on players.

[leftfooter]

If Brad leaves I see who could be seen as good enough to replace him.

None are likely to be as good as him in his prime, so what do people want to do? Hope his natural decline doesn't happen? Not to plan for the future? Deny him one last big pay day?

Does Robinson have the potential to be worthy of the Rovers faithful? I think he does, as keepers peak much later than other players, just look at Brad who was vilified when he joined us.

Tugay was struggling to get in to the Rangers team, Santa Cruz was a crock who couldn't hit a barn door, Bentley had potential but was deemed not good enough for Arsenal, Nelsen was a MLS player, Samba couldn't get a game, Warnock couldn't get a game, club after club decided against McCarthy even with his record, Derbyshire was playing for Great Harwood!!!

Going back through history, I remember the dissapointment at Newell being signed after all the other names such as Lineker were being linked to us, Speedie became a hero after not having the best reputation when he joined us. Tim Sherwood couldn't get a game for two years and ended up lifting the Premiership.

I and many others can compare whatever we like to try and back up our views, but I like to stick to facts.

If we get beaten at Everton on the opening day, I fully expect people on here to be calling for his head if they haven't managed to hound him out before then. Let the records decide the future of our club, like points gained, goals scored and conceeded and stupid insignificant things like that as I will be the first to want poor performaing players and managers out of the door.

We are not the kind of club that is going to pick up ready made stars, we have to take a gamble once in a while and hope it pays off. Plenty have come and gone, most have made us money

You've hit the nail on the head Gull.

Remember Seaman at Arsenal?

One minute his position was unchallengable. Then he was surplus. Keegan signed him for Man City. How long did he last at Ci'eh in the absence of a rock solid defence - 6 months?

City fans I know reckoned the ball would come towards him and he would just fall over.

It's amazing how quickly the inevitable decline sets in.

Anyone over 40 reading this will know exactly what I mean

[Sandiway Blue]

You've hit the nail on the head Gull.

Remember Seaman at Arsenal?

One minute his position was unchallengable. Then he was surplus. Keegan signed him for Man City. How long did he last at Ci'eh in the absence of a rock solid defence - 6 months?

City fans I know reckoned the ball would come towards him and he would just fall over.

It's amazing how quickly the inevitable decline sets in.

Anyone over 40 reading this will know exactly what I mean

Bugger i`m 38 this year! only 2 years left until i`m doomed!

[leftfooter]

Bugger i`m 38 this year! only 2 years left until i`m doomed!

You live in Bacup; doomed is a fait accompli

[Manchester Blue]

He did play for England Shillitto. The word is "did". He doesn't any more. He doesn't play for Spurs any more. Spurs want rid of him because they don't think it's just a dip in form. They don't think they can get him back to being England's No 1.

He is a poor goalkeeper. He isn't as good as Brad. We don't have to sell Brad. It will cost us to weaken the goalkeepers position. We need that money spending on other positions. Can I clarify anything else?

David James had a similar loss of form and was pilloried by many and allowed to go to Pompey. He has probably been their best player for the past two seasons and to everyone other than some in blue and white tinted specs was the best keeper in the Premiership last season.

To suggest Robinson has been woeful for ages or that is a poor keeper is plan daft. He has his faults, as Brad does, one the main issues at present is a lack of confidence and his fitness, both of which can be worked on. He has 41 England caps and is not even 30, you seriously think that succesive England managers are that stupid to pick a woeful keeper 41 times?

[chocky]

You live in Bacup; doomed is a fait accompli

I must be mega doomed then...