[Archived] Nicko's Thread

[thenodrog]

I didn't think it was possible to find a negative in this but you managed it. Well done!

Good news from Ewood. You must be gutted.

It's not neagtivity it's realism. As you reach adulthood you will understand that money is only spent once. Fact remains that if you two go out and spend your pocket money on Friday night that you'll have to stay in on Saturday night.

[Veevs]

In a strange way you can't lose right now.

1 - you don't spend too much and have enough to be mid-table in January...and then know what you want.

2 - you spend - maybe over the odds - and should be around 7th to 10th in January...then you decide whether to go again.

I would be pretty relaxed about this just now. Roque staying is huge, the defence looked good last week, a midfielder MUST be signed, probably a right winger too...but if you look at the opposition you don't have any fears for the campaign.

Very true and although I am disappointed at us only spending such a small ammount of available funds, it will certainly give Ince time to see who he wants to keep from the current squad and really nail down the players we need.

Sadly I dont think we can push for the top 6 with the current squad.. but Ince does have a reputation for getting the best out of his players.. and we have not seen Emerton on the right in a competitive match yet.. and I dont think many of us would complain if MGP, Dunn and the Axe continued to play like they did last week.

I think allot of us myself included would be eating humble pie if we are top 6 at christmas with the squad we have and a 16m war chest ready to be spent to keep us there.

[thenodrog]

Next summer by the way, the window will be against a backdrop of fears of a fall in TV money for the Premier League. In current economic circumstances, both Sky and Setanta will miss their projected revenue figures and unless Disney fancy entering the fight, clubs will be thinking in terms of 25% less coming from the paymaster in the sky.

So if we've enough points on the board by then January would be a good time to cash in on him. I wonder if we flog him for 20m how much we'll have to give to Bayern?

[Bazzanotsogreat]

With the financial maestros on this MB, I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but Rovers will be holding back money for the Jan transfer window. Not only to, probably, sign Villaneuva, but as a contingency in case we need to call on Christophe Duggary/Jon Stead to save us from relegation....

If you go back to JW announcement in regards to the trust re-instating there 3million funding a few months back- he also mentions that more trust money will become available come Jan . This additional money is that which is set-aside for Carlos V- not the 25 million we currenly have to spend.

If we dont sign any ( in this i dont even include Fowler/andrews) I will be seriously worried about the clubs short-term & long-term future. It's almost as though we have gone for such a long time without having the ability to spend large sums of money, we have forgot what to do with it. Thus, the scrathing round after freebies, bargains & loans. Sign two top quality players and we are away- their are plenty to be had. Look at the amount of top players in euro's

[thenodrog]

Slowly but surely sustained success can be acheived but not by blowing all the cash in one go with a new manager who you feel still has to prove himself.

Certainly not. They wouldn't give any money to the old one who had proved himself would they?

[Torgeir]

RESERVE KEEPER - Israeli [if he does well] or Gueret [if the price is ok].

RIGHT WING - Up in the air right now.

MIDFIELD [2] - Andrews [probably], Grella [maybe].

STRIKER [1 maybe 2] - Fowler [if he likes the deal], Zigic [loan - possible], Pinto [if he impresses].

That list won't improve our first team at all unfortunately, except maybe the new keeper if Robinson keeps playing poorly. Do you have any idea why we are looking at bigger strikers right now rather than faster ones? Both Pinto and Zigic seem quite big and not that mobile.

[Eddie]

In a strange way you can't lose right now.

1 - you don't spend too much and have enough to be mid-table in January...and then know what you want.

2 - you spend - maybe over the odds - and should be around 7th to 10th in January...then you decide whether to go again.

I would be pretty relaxed about this just now. Roque staying is huge, the defence looked good last week, a midfielder MUST be signed, probably a right winger too...but if you look at the opposition you don't have any fears for the campaign.

I don't entirely disagree, but I think it is important that we show a bit of intent this summer.

[my_name_is_Earl]

I'm going to shy away from the doom mongers on this one I think. Rovers have a very capable squad and i'm very pleased that Ince doesn't appear to be rushing out to splash the cash. We do have the numbers and quality to assure a top ten place with the current squad, which in a transitional season (new manager), would be a solid achievement.

Ince needs time to work out exactly how he can improve the squad and that is difficult to do in a month. Besides which, we can actually look forward to some incomings either in January or next summer. We have the cash, lets just keep it until we know we can bring in a quality player for the right amount who will improve the squad. I have no qualms with Ince there.

[Veevs]

It's not neagtivity it's realism. As you reach adulthood you will understand that money is only spent once. Fact remains that if you two go out and spend your pocket money on Friday night that you'll have to stay in on Saturday night.

But the only thing it will effect is the wage budget.. clubs are run like a business (A wage and HR budget, a budget to purchase things, a budget for marketing, a budget for maintaining and improving facilities etc etc...)

I doubt it will have the slightest impact on the transfer budget, we will warn other teams off roque (if they sign him they will have to offer him an increase on his new wage), Roque will be a happy chap, it shows other players that our wage cap is a little higher so we may be able to attract better players, it shows we have ambition keeping hold of our best player and the money was available anyway as we saved a small fortune on Bentleys wage.

[DingleBaiter]

We could do allot worse then Ireland you know... Would rather him the Andrews anyway!?

I have a weird feeling Ireland will go to Boro though!

Isn't that like saying you'd rather 'bump uglies' with Rustie Lee over Fern Britton, knowing Anne Hathaway might be up for some jiggy jiggy with you?

[QOTSA]

That list won't improve our first team at all unfortunately, except maybe the new keeper if Robinson keeps playing poorly. Do you have any idea why we are looking at bigger strikers right now rather than faster ones? Both Pinto and Zigic seem quite big and not that mobile.

If you think of Grella as a replacement for Mokoena then he would be an improvement on what we've got, even if the Axe did have a very good game against Everton. We need a holding midfielder and Grella may be the best option we've got.

According to the player, there's still been no direct contact with Rovers...

[nicko]

Do you have any idea why we are looking at bigger strikers right now rather than faster ones? Both Pinto and Zigic seem quite big and not that mobile.

Fair point - I think both are/were being considered in case Benni went. Roque is big but not a brute, so a strong partner would be ideal either as a starter or as a sub.

I know they would like pace as well, but I see what you mean on Zigic or Pinto.

[philipl]

OK, I'll own up about why I am pushing for a major summer acquisition.

The more I read and see of Joaquin, the more I think this guy could be a massive signing for us. He would take pressure off Carlos to be the club superstar and give the Rovers a completely new attacking dimension. If as seems likely we are going with Benni as one of our strike options, it will need a Joaqin type of player to provide the sort of supply Benni thrives on.

I could see Joaquin being as dangerous as Bellamy was and need the opposition to deploy two against him. When that happens the rest of the field opens up to the Rovers.

[Veevs]

That list won't improve our first team at all unfortunately, except maybe the new keeper if Robinson keeps playing poorly. Do you have any idea why we are looking at bigger strikers right now rather than faster ones? Both Pinto and Zigic seem quite big and not that mobile.

Maybe Ince wants to give us more options up front.. Getting Roque to play off a target man and giving us more options especially against teams with shorter central defenders.

The idea of having Roque and a big fella up front holding the ball up or knocking it back for attacking midfielders who can score goals like Carlos, Dunn and MGP sounds quite appealing to me. We know from seasons gone by that MGP and Dunn when allowed to can score half a dozen each and Carlos had a 1 in 2 ratio at his club.. plus it would be quite exciting to watch

[thenodrog]

If that's what happens...I'll be fairly ######.

So will lots but to the board the following applies:

Rule 1 Stay in the Prem

Rules 2 - 10 Ditto

Fact 1. We cannot get near the top four no matter how much less than £100m we spend. So Champions League income is ONLY a reallistic goal through selling our best players i.e. Bentley and RSC to clubs who have benefitted from that income, directly or indirectly.

Fact 2. No matter how much fun we had the club made diddly squat from our UEFA adventures.

Fact 3. The commendable decision to reduce Season Ticket prices has backfired as I predicted it always would do, so it's obvious that the board at BRFC will not feel the need consider reaction from supporters too much. Without research I doubt income from ticket sales will amount to a tenth of overall income.

That means treading water in mid table and trading in the black is the future. It'll change of course but till then we can only work the system to our advantage..... and that's what makes our apparent lack of effort in keeping Hughes as manager all the more baffling.

[joey_big_nose]

RESERVE KEEPER - Israeli [if he does well] or Gueret [if the price is ok].

RIGHT WING - Up in the air right now.

MIDFIELD [2] - Andrews [probably], Grella [maybe].

STRIKER [1 maybe 2] - Fowler [if he likes the deal], Zigic [loan - possible], Pinto [if he impresses].

So, probably four but maybe up to six.

I am suprised that we are being so low key about our signings. Mokoena did well last week and Dunn looked good but we really need quality in the holding role and a good right winger.

If we have run out of targets on the right and Grella is our midfiled answer that is pretty poor. I gess we won't know the whole story till August 30th.

Fact is we have 15m to spend - fair enough there is an argument to hold onto some of that in Jan - but then we do need a couple of good players.

[thenodrog]

In a strange way you can't lose right now.

1 - you don't spend too much and have enough to be mid-table in January...and then know what you want.

2 - you spend - maybe over the odds - and should be around 7th to 10th in January...then you decide whether to go again.

I would be pretty relaxed about this just now. Roque staying is huge, the defence looked good last week, a midfielder MUST be signed, probably a right winger too...but if you look at the opposition you don't have any fears for the campaign.

We do still need to address the cm weakness AND I dohn't know enough about the Chilean but after selling Bentley we are down on creativity which is a must have against the massed and resolute defenders of the bottom 4 clubs. We dare not lose to them.

[joey_big_nose]

We do still need to address the cm weakness AND I dohn't know enough about the Chilean but after selling Bentley we are down on creativity which is a must have against the massed and resolute defenders of the bottom 4 clubs. We dare not lost to them.

Today will be a good test of that.

It is hard to see how we will break down Hull if they lay up two banks of four or five. A lot is going to rest on Dunn having a good game and Cruz dropping deep to creat something.

[Roar of the Rover]

Fair point - I think both are/were being considered in case Benni went. Roque is big but not a brute, so a strong partner would be ideal either as a starter or as a sub.

I know they would like pace as well, but I see what you mean on Zigic or Pinto.

So where does that leave Roberts?

[thenodrog]

Thank God that we dont't have that Cook guy,

His powers of persuasion must be strong. I'd have expected Hughes to have quit a month ago when he could have got away with his principles. When he does go it will now be a black mark of failure on his record.

Isn't that like saying you'd rather 'bump uglies' with Rustie Lee over Fern Britton, knowing Anne Hathaway might be up for some jiggy jiggy with you?

Is that Mr Drysdales secretary from the Beverly Hillbillies?

[nicko]

So where does that leave Roberts?

Fighting for his place as usual and looking over his shoulder. Not a bad thing.

[S15]

His powers of persuasion must be strong. I'd have expected Hughes to have quit a month ago when he could have got away with his principles. When he does go it will now be a black mark of failure on his record.

The first sentence sums it up. I have no idea what this guy told Hughes, but I'm still convinced Hughes played poker with Roman and lost. I also saw Hughes as a vastly intelligent bloke, but if he genuinely bought into all the lies he was fed, he is a fool like no other I have seen to swap what he had for the shambles he has entered.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

I am suprised that we are being so low key about our signings. Mokoena did well last week and Dunn looked good but we really need quality in the holding role and a good right winger.

If we have run out of targets on the right and Grella is our midfiled answer that is pretty poor. I gess we won't know the whole story till August 30th.

Fact is we have 15m to spend - fair enough there is an argument to hold onto some of that in Jan - but then we do need a couple of good players.

Just out curiosity ; how did you arrive at the 15 million figure?

[Veevs]

Just out curiosity ; how did you arrive at the 15 million figure?

15m is at the low end of what our transfer budget was expected to be this pre-season.. and has been discussed many times.

5m Hughes (Well advertised figure)

10m Transfer budget (Quoted prior to the season starting)

6m Bentley sale (Well advertised figure)

3m from the trust (As per press release)

2.5m Brad

Total: 26.5m

-?m Ince

-0.5m For Carlos loan

-?m Simpson loan

-3.5m Robinson

Total: -4m *excluding simpson and Ince which won't be more than 2m in total

Overall total: 22.5m

So we can say somewhere between 15-22m in total waiting to be spent.

[RevidgeBlue]

Fact 2. No matter how much fun we had the club made diddly squat from our UEFA adventures.

Fact 3. The commendable decision to reduce Season Ticket prices has backfired as I predicted it always would do, so it's obvious that the board at BRFC will not feel the need consider reaction from supporters too much. Without research I doubt income from ticket sales will amount to a tenth of overall income.

Disagree, don't think we lost money and the successful(ish) run we had was great for the profile of the club. We soon lost Bentley when we weren't even in the UEFA didn't we?

Strongly disagree. Reducing ticket prices proved a huge success imo. Reversed quite a long term decline in attendances. With the benefit of hindsight it was a godsend we maintained the strategy as well with the credit crunch and Hughes leaving.