[Archived] Keith Andrews - Rovers Newest Signing

[Drakefyre]

I'm going to out on a (not very big) limb here and say that Andrews outperforms Castillo over the course of the season.

[67splitscreen]

One thing is for sure, with KA.

It is one hell of a step up, as he himself admits.

He will probably be the most self motivated player in the squad, he has so much to prove.

This will be his one and only chance in the big time, of the PL.

What role he will play, I think as a previous poster said, two CM's in a Five with one of the two holding.(away games, Chelsea Etc. at home)

Ince knows exactly what he has bought, and what's in his locker.

Is it good enough for the Prem, time will tell.

Come the New Year he will be either the most astute signing, or the most embarrassing for Mr Ince.

Many questions still to be answered, on JW's appointment of Ince, and in turn Inces signings. All are under the microscope.

I hope for Rovers they all prove a success.

[The Harwood Yankee]

One thing is for sure, with KA.

It is one hell of a step up, as he himself admits.

He will probably be the most self motivated player in the squad, he has so much to prove.

This will be his one and only chance in the big time, of the PL.

What role he will play, I think as a previous poster said, two CM's in a Five with one of the two holding.(away games, Chelsea Etc. at home)

Ince knows exactly what he has bought, and what's in his locker.

Is it good enough for the Prem, time will tell.

Come the New Year he will be either the most astute signing, or the most embarrassing for Mr Ince.

Many questions still to be answered, on JW's appointment of Ince, and in turn Inces signings. All are under the microscope.

I hope for Rovers they all prove a success.

This poem doesnt scan.

[LeChuck]

I'm going to out on a (not very big) limb here and say that Andrews outperforms Castillo over the course of the season.

Only a Rovers fan would ever come to that conclusion, I don't think neutral fans would think the same. Casillo has over 30 international caps for a half decent team, and has European experience. The only positive we can really clutch at for Andrews is that Ince has played with him and managed him, so has hopefully seen something.

Personally I think Casillo might turn out to be a bit of steal, he seems to have all the attributes to play the Carsley role.

[Flopsy]

This poem doesnt scan.

[Drakefyre]

Only a Rovers fan would ever come to that conclusion, I don't think neutral fans would think the same. Casillo has over 30 international caps for a half decent team, and has European experience. The only positive we can really clutch at for Andrews is that Ince has played with him and managed him, so has hopefully seen something.

Personally I think Casillo might turn out to be a bit of steal, he seems to have all the attributes to play the Carsley role.

We'll see - I think Ince had good reasons for passing on him in July.

As for Andrews, I don't see him as a holding player at all - I think he'll be surging forward and provide energy in the middle of the field, linking up with both Grella sitting back and Dunn or Villanueva up front.

[T4E]

"All we are saying is give Keith a chance"

Superb, and with no drummer it's got a chance.

[CrazyIvan]

http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...1379071,00.html

This is what Ince thinks of Andrews and why he is here. He thinks Andrews is good enough and he knows better than any of us having played with him and then managed him.

[AussieinUk]

Another for the welcome wagon. Hope this one proves to be a success, but I do have my doubts.

[67splitscreen]

This poem doesnt scan.

[Tris]

http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...1379071,00.html

This is what Ince thinks of Andrews and why he is here. He thinks Andrews is good enough and he knows better than any of us having played with him and then managed him.

I was going to post the link earlier but decided it wasn't worth the effort for the doom and gloom brigade.

Half of them are still desperately hoping Ince messes up and are looking at any opportunity to take a swipe at him, and the other half don't understand that to deserve a crack in the Premier League you don't need to cost 3 million quid and hail from a side which has played Champions League football.

Good luck to Andrews, I hope he shines here and proves that the lower leagues in England can still prepare players to play in the top flight.

[tony gale's mic]

I was going to post the link earlier but decided it wasn't worth the effort for the doom and gloom brigade.

Half of them are still desperately hoping Ince messes up and are looking at any opportunity to take a swipe at him, and the other half don't understand that to deserve a crack in the Premier League you don't need to cost 3 million quid and hail from a side which has played Champions League football.

Good luck to Andrews, I hope he shines here and proves that the lower leagues in England can still prepare players to play in the top flight.

Broken. Record.

And I don't mean in the Usain Bolt sense.

[imy9]

I agree you have sounded like one for a while now...

[Tris]

Broken. Record.

And I don't mean in the Usain Bolt sense.

says the person who before leaving the country was posting over 30 times per day just in the Paul Ince thread telling the world what a disaster the new regime was going to be. I doubt I've even managed 30 posts on the subject all summer!

Don't worry, I'm off round the world for a good few months on Saturday so you won't need to hear my "tiresome" posts. Hasve a good time in East Lancs

Thank Christ for that. Maybe by the time you come back we'll have played a few games and can have a disussion based on real facts as opposed to the rabid outputs of your self-proclaimed intelligence.

That was too much to hope for wasn't it. What's up tgm - is the world already bored of your pointless ranting, so you've had to get back to the MB to find out what's going on in East Lancs?

[tony gale's mic]

says the person who before leaving the country was posting over 30 times per day just in the Paul Ince thread telling the world what a disaster the new regime was going to be. I doubt I've even managed 30 posts on the subject all summer!

That was too much to hope for wasn't it. What's up tgm - is the world already bored of your pointless ranting, so you've had to get back to the MB to find out what's going on in East Lancs?

Nope Qantas moved my flight from Singapore to Bali back a day so I'm sat here in Malaysia with time to burn. Hows East Lancashire going Tris? Tired of PMing members about your links with REMOVED yet?

And I had posted quite a lot of posts in that particular day I think you'll find, unless you'd actually counted all the posts I'd made in a few days and done some kind of calculation...in which case you really need to get out more.

Can't you just accept that people are unhappy with some of Ince's moves? I have said I'm happy with the signing of Bunn, most people on here are reasonable folk, there's a few doom mongers but there's a few brainless optimists like yourself. People who go along with everything Ince does and blindly defend everything are no better than the doom mongers, you've both got blinkered views. We've got every right to be worried about some of Ince's moves, this is a discussion board after all, but accusing people of wanting the club to fail as you have repeatedly is childish in the extreme.

[joey_big_nose]

Nope Qantas moved my flight from Singapore to Bali back a day so I'm sat here in Malaysia with time to burn. Hows East Lancashire going Tris? Tired of PMing members about your links with god yet?

And I had posted quite a lot of posts in that particular day I think you'll find, unless you'd actually counted all the posts I'd made in a few days and done some kind of calculation...in which case you really need to get out more.

Can't you just accept that people are unhappy with some of Ince's moves? I have said I'm happy with the signing of Bunn, most people on here are reasonable folk, there's a few doom mongers but there's a few brainless optimists like yourself. People who go along with everything Ince does and blindly defend everything are no better than the doom mongers, you've both got blinkered views. We've got every right to be worried about some of Ince's moves, this is a discussion board after all, but accusing people of wanting the club to fail as you have repeatedly is childish in the extreme.

I think the point is you haven't afforded Ince - a man of far more knowledge and access to football than any of us on a message board, with access to vast resources and opinions to select his signings and train his players, a man who has played at the highest level and so posseses a pool of experience that far exceeds anything we have - a few weeks to show what he can do.

You have assumed he will be rubbish, and that his signings will be mostly rubbish on what is essentially a first impression. You have little basis to ground that on. Give him six games minimum then make your points. You don't even know what your criticising. Its a pointless, futile, uniformed exercise.

[tony gale's mic]

I think the point is you haven't afforded Ince - a man of far more knowledge and access to football than any of us on a message board, with access to vast resources and opinions to select his signings and train his players, a man who has played at the highest level and so posseses a pool of experience that far exceeds anything we have - a few weeks to show what he can do.

You have assumed he will be rubbish, and that his signings will be mostly rubbish on what is essentially a first impression. You have little basis to ground that on. Give him six games minimum then make your points. You don't even know what your criticising. Its a pointless, futile, uniformed exercise.

I would say assuming Andrews will be a poor signing isnt an unreasonable assumption, surely all the combined great minds of football would have spotted something Premier League worthy in him so far? People (including me) got really excited about Villaneuva based on a Youtube video and practically declared him to be the next Maradona, why aren't you getting on their backs?

I, or most people for that matter haven't said we're not prepared to give him a chance. I've said several times that the real decision will be when the games start, and theres been slightly more good signs than bad so far.

The attitude amongst many has been they're not particularly confident of our prospects. When Hughes arrived, I wasn't on this board but I was making assumptions he'd make an excellent manager, and I think the overall mood about him was a lot more positive. How is that any more wrong than what people are assuming about Ince? Logically speaking that's just as wrong, we didn't have anything to go on there either. Just because it's something you and Tris disagree with this time it doesn't make it any different.

What would be bad would be if these fans got on Ince's back during games and didn't cheer on the team. But I can guarantee most of the people making these posts you have a problem with will cheer on the team just as loud as you do come matchday, and get behind the team just as much, regardless of their feelings on here. Just accept that other people have a different opinion, it's really not that hard. If Ince turns out to be a great manager for us then fair enough, I'll be delighted and so will most. We all get football predictions wrong.

[Sandiway Blue]

2 players that immediately spring to mind of players in their mid-late 20`s doing well in the prem from lower leagues were Kevin Phillips and Marcus Stewart.Both were the wrong side of 25 before their first taste of top flight footy.

Who`s to say Andrews won`t do the same?

I think there are some people who want Ince to fail so badly that everything he does is open to immediate scrutiny which leads to the sceptics criticising him in everything he does.

What if Hughes had signed Andrews? i have no doubt whatsoever that Hughes wouldn`t have received the criticism that Ince is getting.And yet Hughes signed the likes of Berner,Enckleman etc without so much of a hint of criticism.

If Andrews is nowhere near the first team by xmas then by all means Ince will deserve the criticism he will get in the future,but to lay into Andrews without us seeing him at first hand is very unfair to the lad.If worse comes to the worse and he doesn`t do well we will still get more or less what we paid for him.

[tony gale's mic]

2 players that immediately spring to mind of players in their mid-late 20`s doing well in the prem from lower leagues were Kevin Phillips and Marcus Stewart.Both were the wrong side of 25 before their first taste of top flight footy.

Who`s to say Andrews won`t do the same?

I think there are some people who want Ince to fail so badly that everything he does is open to immediate scrutiny which leads to the sceptics criticising him in everything he does.

What if Hughes had signed Andrews? i have no doubt whatsoever that Hughes wouldn`t have received the criticism that Ince is getting.And yet Hughes signed the likes of Berner,Enckleman etc without so much of a hint of criticism.

If Andrews is nowhere near the first team by xmas then by all means Ince will deserve the criticism he will get in the future,but to lay into Andrews without us seeing him at first hand is very unfair to the lad.If worse comes to the worse and he doesn`t do well we will still get more or less what we paid for him.

There is literally no comparison you can draw.

Phillips and Stewart had done very well in the leagues directly below. If we signed a 28 year old midfielder who had lit up the Championship then the reaction wouldnt have been anything like this.

Berner was an international, Enckelman had done alright enough at the top level apart from THAT mistake vs Birmingham.

Saying that people want Ince to fail is out of order IMO and shows a total lack of respect for other peoples opinion. We're all Rovers fans for christs sakes, why would we want Ince to fail?

IF Andrews succeeds it will be a massive turn up for the books. The odds are massively on him not being a successful buy or making any sort of significant contribution to our team.

[imy9]

Bruno Berner joined us aged 30, having been a SQUAD player for his club Basle in Switzerland, he had 16 caps from 2001-4 when the country was going through a horrendous period, and he won 16 caps in FOUR years. Swiss football is ridiculously poor and he was a squad player! TWO appearances in TWO years- great investment.

To put it into perspective we have paid £500K for a player, the same cost of Castillo on loan for a season, financially (football perspective) the risk is as low as you are probably going to get. If he is great fantastic, if not then we sell him, we will get most of our money back.

Can anyone remember a 31 year old who took the premier league by storm called Neil Redfearn? Average journeyman, til then.

Ince is not getting the same chance as Hughes- why? We have signed a midfield player who is clearly going to be a first team player and I guarrantee 100% he will make more appearances than Henchoz, Enkleman, Berner combined in one season.

Who was hughes' first signing? The great Axe, signed from a Belgium club, again another top league

It is bordering on a snobbish attitude IMO, there are the posters who felt Mathias will not be any good because he has not been with a premier league club, every comment he makes is ridiculed and he is told to shut up.

[Ste B]

There is literally no comparison you can draw.

Give you another one. Ryan Nelsen. 27 when we signed him from a very poor US league. Perhaps we should sell him.

Doesn't mean Andrews will turn out as well, or indeed that he wont do better. We can find out for ourselves soon.

[LeChuck]

http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...1379071,00.html

"I don't care what anybody says, if you score 13 or 14 goals from midfield in League One there is no reason why you can't do it in the Premier League with better players alongside you."

Very good Paul, except you weren't in League One, were you? If people are wanting ammunition to have a pop, then he's being quite generous there.

[Elegia]

And just because a player comes from a lower league doesn't mean he is or won't ever be a good player. Let's give the guy a chance, if it doesn't work then in the grand scheme Rovers won't lose much. It's not as if he is an unknown to our manager and if it does go wrong it won't be as bad as the waste of money that were the likes of Grabbi, Davies, Dino Baggio etc

I have played in the same teams as and against some guys who had more skill in their little finger than half of the players in the premiership.

One lad in particular I knew in the early nineties was from Middlesbrough and had fantastic control, great vision and the ball always seemed glued to his foot. He was the best footballer I have ever played against. I would even go as far as saying he reminded me of Glenn Hoddle at his best, he was that good. The only reason he never made it into professional football was that he did have a trial at Middlesbrough as a teenager but was so tall they put him in goal. And that was the day he gave up his dream as he was so devastated, not being a keeper he obviously didn't impress and wasn't asked back again. He was by far the best player at his school and his best mate from that school team was at the same trial but was played in his normal position and he went on to be a pro.

Becoming a pro footballer is a lot like winning the lottery, the chances of making it are very slim. And it is not a given that those that do are necessarily the best.

My Dad (god rest his soul) was a fantastic footballer as a kid and and grew up in Sale, he was consistently his schools leading goalscorer and usually the top scorer in the whole area. Joe Corrigan went to the same school around the same time as my Dad. My Dad didn't become a pro footballer, the scouts always picked the games he was injured for to watch, he just slipped through the net and joined the army instead. Even when I was a teenager and could play a bit myself he would run rings round me.

[imy9]

"I don't care what anybody says, if you score 13 or 14 goals from midfield in League One there is no reason why you can't do it in the Premier League with better players alongside you."

Very good Paul, except you weren't in League One, were you? If people are wanting ammunition to have a pop, then he's being quite generous there.

No mention of Andrews was there in that comment, it was a generic point about midfielders from lower leagues, a direct quote from LET:

"Keith’s a good player. He scored 14 goals for me at Milton Keynes last year.

"I don’t care what level you’re playing at, if you’re scoring goals from midfield it’s a very good thing.”

[OscarRaven]

Can't say I'm overjoyed... but ultimatley he's the managers choice.

Thing is he has 1 or if he's lucky 2 chances to make this work so pressure is really on him to perform. I suspect he will be eased in very very gentley. I don't expect to see much of him before Christmas.