[Archived] Vince Grella Signs

[imy9]

Excellent news, welcome onboard mate!

Any idea of the fee?

[JAL]

I agree with the examples you have given JAL BUT...

Hargreaves cost... £18 million

Essien cost... £24 million

Vieria cost... £14 million

Roy Keane.. would have cost the above if he was ever sold!

Where do we get that sort of money?

The other examples given are defensive midfield players though...

Toulalan, Inler, Senna, Albidol, Benaga, Flamini, Frings, Dunga, Gattuso, Mascherano, Cambiasso, de Rossi

Imy9, when they all started out, they all cost relatively little, thats the key, finding them in their early stages of their careers.

Mark Hughes proved this point beautifully with the signing of David Bentley, now the baton has been handed over to Paul Ince and its his opportunity to prove his worth with some shrewd accuisitions for relatively modest sums.

The players nicko links us with for me come nowhere near to the standard expected.

Can Ince do it - I like many others have my doubts but we do hope to be proved wrong.

[Bobby G]

So there is the defensive midfielder.

Now sign a right winger and we can all be reasonably happy with the squad.

I hope we didnt pay 4 million pounds for Vince though!

Welcome to the club...

[imy9]

JAL that is what FOUR players that can both roles. There are players who can play both roles, ironically enough Andrews' profile suggests that he can, BUT they are difficult to find at the standard required at the VERY highest level.

[sparkspakespoke]

Happy with that. I think he offers an improvement on what we have. Come ont he Vince!

[RibbleValleyRover]

Hard working, bit of a battler and can pass a bit by the sounds of it. Not being afraid to get his foot stick in obviously won't help with the FA bias against us but we have in my opinion missed that battler/nuisance against opposition in midfield since Sav went.

He sounds like a big improvement on Mokoena. I look forward to seeing him play.

[Bobby G]

Makes you wonder about Vogel. No point having two specialist defensive midfielders with international reputations. Maybe Ince considers Vogel too small for the role?!

[JAL]

JAL that is what FOUR players that can both roles. There are players who can play both roles, ironically enough Andrews' profile suggests that he can, BUT they are difficult to find at the standard required at the VERY highest level.

Well Imy9 i'm afraid we are playing at the highest level so that has to be the level required.

[Veevs]

Are you having a laugh?

Hargreaves can attack score goals, Essien does the attack bit very well, Roy Keane and Patrick Viera were the complete midfielders in their time Gattuso another excellent allrounder.

Please read what I said, carefully.

Well we keep running off subject..

Sure they are/where complete midfielders.. the same could be said for allot of defensive midfielders as they have to be able to pass the ball around as well.

But the main role they played for their clubs was defensive midfielder especially against strong opposition.. allowing the other more attack focused central midfielder(s) to push further forward.

Being a defensive midfielder does not mean you stay in your own half for the whole match, they push forward and tidy up loose balls and cut out counter attacks before they start.. the best defensive midfielders also have good passing skills to prompt play from deep lying roles.

Take a good example of this, Senna in the Euros he sat in front of the defense when the opposition had the ball and during an attack he sat roughly in the middle of the oppositions half allowing the more attack minded midfielders to rove around the edge of the area.. when the ball broke to him he then would spray to the ball out wide or try straight down the middle for his attack minded fellows.

[Beta Ray Bill]

Welcome to Rovers, Vince.

[imy9]

Well Imy9 i'm afraid we are playing at the highest level so that has to be the level required.

I said the VERY highest level that would be Champions league football, we dont play there.

[brfc_jonesy]

Go on the Grella!!! Seen him play a few times as i've said before and i do rate him! Tidy player

[Veevs]

Confirmed: http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...1375618,00.html

Judging by the timing of this one the guys are working pretty late tonight.. suprised andrews was not announced at the same time though.. if the only reason he has not signed yet is for PR reasons then hopefully that means Ince reckons someone more exciting than Grella may also be on his way in..

Welcome aboard Mr Grella.. at least you will already have a fellow Ausy here

Wonder if that signing will affect out support down in Oz, may be difficult given we also have a NZ lad in the side as our el capitan.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Obviously he'll be missing from tomorrows team but does anyone know anything regarding his fitness and possibly making his debut against WHU?

The Italian season starts after ours so his fitness might not be up to scratch yet.

[JAL]

Well we keep running off subject..

Sure they are/where complete midfielders.. the same could be said for allot of defensive midfielders as they have to be able to pass the ball around as well.

But the main role they played for their clubs was defensive midfielder especially against strong opposition.. allowing the other more attack focused central midfielder(s) to push further forward.

Being a defensive midfielder does not mean you stay in your own half for the whole match, they push forward and tidy up loose balls and cut out counter attacks before they start.. the best defensive midfielders also have good passing skills to prompt play from deep lying roles.

Take a good example of this, Senna in the Euros he sat in front of the defense when the opposition had the ball and during an attack he sat roughly in the middle of the oppositions half allowing the more attack minded midfielders to rove around the edge of the area.. when the ball broke to him he then would spray to the ball out wide or try straight down the middle for his attack minded fellows.

The point I make is, we dont have enough attacking options or quality attacking options, so to start going down this line of we need a defensive midfielder is just misguided judgement for me when the priority is in increasing the teams attacking possibilities = goals win games!

We have just lost one major attacking possibility in Bentley, Why are people talking about defensive midfielders,why ?

Their focus of the team is wrong for me, but Rovers looking at another goalkeper isnt for me .

[rover6]

Blimey, just realised that Johann Vogel is on a two year and a half year contract. Will we be stuck with him?

As for Grella, I think he'll be good. You don't play in Serie A midfield if you don't have good technical ability (do you Paul Okon...!?). Maybe not the ideal signing but I guess we could have done a lot worse.

Not much of a goal scorer, is he? [6 goals in 12 years, from what I read]. Could be the new Steffen Freund then.

[Valois]

Welcome to rovers Vince, i can see us bringing in a rm, and poss either fowler or pinto on loan.

Judging by the timing of this one the guys are working pretty late tonight.. suprised andrews was not announced at the same time though.. if the only reason he has not signed yet is for PR reasons then hopefully that means Ince reckons someone more exciting than Grella may also be on his way in..

Welcome aboard Mr Grella.. at least you will already have a fellow Ausy here

Wonder if that signing will affect out support down in Oz, may be difficult given we also have a NZ lad in the side as our el capitan.

im goinb to oz and nz for 6 months next week, hopefully they will show a few blackburn games over there given that we now hav 2 aussies

[Drakefyre]

We're talking about DM's so that we can keep possession and stop conceding which will help spring our creative players (Dunn, Carlos, Benni) and score goals.

[Doaksie]

Excellent news, welcome onboard mate!

Any idea of the fee?

£4m - that is according to Setanta. It could well be an educated guess though. Let's see what Nicko says, £3.5m was hinted at earlier.

Grella for £4m? At the bottom

[Valois]

The point I make is, we dont have enough attacking options or quality attacking options, so to start going down this line of we need a defensive midfielder is just misguided judgement for me when the priority is in increasing the teams attacking possibilities = goals win games!

We have just lost one major attacking possibility in Bentley, Why are people talking about defensive midfielders,why ?

Their focus of the team is wrong for me, but Rovers looking at another goalkeper isnt for me .

jal get your head out of #. we have been lacking a midfielder who can break down attacks since savage brokw his leg against Watford 2 seasons ago. clearly we do also need a creative rm also, but 1 thing at a time sunshine.goals do win games however yo cant win games if you concede more goals than you score, and defensive minded midfielder is what we need, i have no doubt grella has the ability to pass and bring the ball forward, however im sure his main roll will be protect the back four, and and allow dunn,carlos etc to push on.

As for us signing another keeper, we need some competition for robbo as his form isnt the best at the moment.

[Stuart]

The signing of Grella sounds good. Looking forward to seeing his head photoshopped onto Bert's body for the profile pic!

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Blimey, just realised that Johann Vogel is on a two year and a half year contract. Will we be stuck with him?

As for Grella, I think he'll be good. You don't play in Serie A midfield if you don't have good technical ability (do you Paul Okon...!?). Maybe not the ideal signing but I guess we could have done a lot worse.

Not much of a goal scorer, is he? [6 goals in 12 years, from what I read]. Could be the new Steffen Freund then.

I could see a 5 man midfield being deployed for some matches this season. Brazil have already shown that two defensive midfield players can give a good platform for more attack minded players to do their stuff.

Robinson

Simpson Samba Nelsen Warnock

Vogel Grella

Emerton Dunn Villaneuve

Roque

Before anyone says it - no you couldn't drop Roberts on current form - but against the likes of Arsenal or United - this could have potential

[JAL]

jal get your head out of #. we have been lacking a midfielder who can break down attacks since savage brokw his leg against Watford 2 seasons ago. clearly we do also need a creative rm also, but 1 thing at a time sunshine.goals do win games however yo cant win games if you concede more goals than you score, and defensive minded midfielder is what we need, i have no doubt grella has the ability to pass and bring the ball forward, however im sure his main roll will be protect the back four, and and allow dunn,carlos etc to push on.

As for us signing another keeper, we need some competition for robbo as his form isnt the best at the moment.

'We've been lacking a midfielder who breaks down attacks' so what does Vogel, axe, Reid, Emerton do then?

If you said Grella or Andrews are better players than what we've currently got i'd take that, though not necessarily agree with it.

[Valois]

'We've been lacking a midfielder who breaks down attacks' so what does Vogel, axe, Reid, Emerton do then?

If you said Grella or Andrews are better players than what we've currently got i'd take that, though not necessarily agree with it.

Vogel - has hardly played any football for the last 2 years

Axe - no coment

Reid - just hasnt been the same since his injuries, and i fear he will never get back to the same level of form

Emerton - is right winger/makeshift right back

Grella is therefore better than all our current options in the holding midfield role.

[Mr. E]

That does sound like a good move. Hopefully he'll be ready for the hammers. The #1 priority though remains a right midfielder.