[Archived] Big Fat Sam's Shopping List

[LeChuck]

WHO THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Someone who's annoyed at the seemingly constant digs from every single angle at a manager who (barring a disaster) has saved the club from relegation.

Very constructive reply by the way.

[Hughesy]

WHO THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

He says! What's your problem?

I agree with Le Chuck, Sam hasnt done anything wrong (except maybe target specific games to get the points). He was given a job of 'keep us up', like Le Chuck said, barring a disaster He has done his job. Next season his job will probably be to finish in the top 10, which he will probably do again too.

[Blue n White Rover]

WHO THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Save that for the game tommorow

Agree with Chuck though. Allardyce has done a great job at Rovers THIS season. He has worked wonders with the group of players that were low on confidence, hadn't won a game in 9 attempts and we're 5 points adrift from safety!

Wait till next season to judge him on what he does at Rovers, because right now, he deserves every single bit of credit.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

What more could Sam of done when he inherited a central midfield consisting of Andrews/Mokeona a right back/wing-back playing right wing, an ageing CB as a right-full-back, a want-away “star” striker (who has played in about 6 games) and a defence that has the speed of a tortoise. (this is without going into MGP’s performances).

He has done this without receiving hardly any backing from board during the January transfer window & had to offload Derbyshire in order to bring in another loan player.

He has done a sound job so far. The style of football has been poor; but that is as much down to the quality of the players as it has the manager.

[BPF]

What more could Sam of done when he inherited a central midfield consisting of Andrews/Mokeona a right back/wing-back playing right wing, an ageing CB as a right-full-back, a want-away “star” striker (who has played in about 6 games) and a defence that has the speed of a tortoise. (this is without going into MGP’s performances).

He has done this without receiving hardly any backing from board during the January transfer window & had to offload Derbyshire in order to bring in another loan player.

He has done a sound job so far. The style of football has been poor; but that is as much down to the quality of the players as it has the manager.

Totally agree with this. If Sam was there from the start of the season and could match the first half to the second half then relegation would not even be an after thought for us and we could enjoy Newcastle's imminent relegation from a safe distance.

[Hughesy]

What more could Sam of done when he inherited a central midfield consisting of Andrews/Mokeona a right back/wing-back playing right wing, an ageing CB as a right-full-back, a want-away “star” striker (who has played in about 6 games) and a defence that has the speed of a tortoise. (this is without going into MGP’s performances).

He has done this without receiving hardly any backing from board during the January transfer window & had to offload Derbyshire in order to bring in another loan player.

He has done a sound job so far. The style of football has been poor; but that is as much down to the quality of the players as it has the manager.

Spot on

[Blue blood]

Agree with Bazza, Le Chuck, Hughsy and the rest.

Add in only having one fit striker and NO money to spend it begins to look rather even dafter to criticise Sam. Yes there has been the odd dire performance, but fewer than under Ince, and against stronger teams.

The only possible criticism of Sam is saying that he should keep us up given the dire nature of most of the teams in the bottom half of the table.

Am excited to see what we look like after Sam has a summer of making the adjustments he wants to.

[riverside returns]

Good post Bazza, Sam has worked a miracle seeing where we were at the beginning of December, as others have said, add to that the loss of our strikers, midfield being missing and having to play players out of position. A thoroughly good job. I have seen fewer total losses since he came, probably more entertainment than this time last season when we were 7th.

Am now hoping to put this season to bed tomorrow and let Sam work on his plans for next season.

[tcj_jones]

I've heard Andy Lonergan's name mentioned here as a possible no. 2 / replacement for Robbo. Well he played for Preston tonight (the first time I've seen him play) and he impressed me a lot. He looked excellent in the air and made a few fine stops as well - a very assured performance.

I think he'd be better off staying at Preston though, because he is guaranteed first team football and needs that at his age and I can't see Robbo being dislodged or sold any time soon.

[jny]

IMO Robbo is a very good keeper not Brad standard but if we are to improve areas of our team keeper is not really an area we need to concentrate on.

Adam JO

Johnson RM please Sam

[Eddie]

What more could Sam of done when he inherited a central midfield consisting of Andrews/Mokeona a right back/wing-back playing right wing, an ageing CB as a right-full-back, a want-away “star” striker (who has played in about 6 games) and a defence that has the speed of a tortoise. (this is without going into MGP’s performances).

He has done this without receiving hardly any backing from board during the January transfer window & had to offload Derbyshire in order to bring in another loan player.

He has done a sound job so far. The style of football has been poor; but that is as much down to the quality of the players as it has the manager.

Sold Santa Cruz, brought in another striker and a central midfielder with the money? Bought someone else instead of Diouf? I'm not trying to start a huge discussion, just pointing out that options were there.

Givet has turned out to be a great loan signing though.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Sold Santa Cruz, brought in another striker and a central midfielder with the money? Bought someone else instead of Diouf? I'm not trying to start a huge discussion, just pointing out that options were there.

Givet has turned out to be a great loan signing though.

And if he had sold Santa; do you know for sure that he would have been given the whole of the funds to spend? Look at the sales of Duff & Bentley- the respective managers where only given a fraction of the recouped fees to spend on a replacement.

Sam’s logic could have been this; I sell Roque for 18-20 million and only get half of the sum to replace him or I keep him & he bangs in the goals, thus easing the threat of relegation. He is been asked to manage a premier league club with one hand tied behind his back.

[tcj_jones]

People are reading history backwards. Sam couldn't have known that Roque would be perenially injured and presumably thought he was key to our chances of survival.

[evukovic]

Sold Santa Cruz, brought in another striker and a central midfielder with the money? Bought someone else instead of Diouf? I'm not trying to start a huge discussion, just pointing out that options were there.

Am I the only one in thinking that Diouf has actually been decent for Rovers? He provides more options out wide than anyone else we've got.

[Eddie]

And if he had sold Santa; do you know for sure that he would have been given the whole of the funds to spend? Look at the sales of Duff & Bentley- the respective managers where only given a fraction of the recouped fees to spend on a replacement.

Sam’s logic could have been this; I sell Roque for 18-20 million and only get half of the sum to replace him or I keep him & he bangs in the goals, thus easing the threat of relegation. He is been asked to manage a premier league club with one hand tied behind his back.

Certainly a rather reasonable about of the Duff and Bentley sales were made available to the managers at the time and I am in no doubt that Allardyce would have been given access to the money raised from the transfer.

People are reading history backwards. Sam couldn't have known that Roque would be perenially injured and presumably thought he was key to our chances of survival.

I'm not, a season like this for him was on the cards for him at some point in the near future and given how things went in the first half of the season, when you combine that with his history of injuries, there was no real reason for great optimism. There was always a decent chance that he would be injured and, if nothing else, he clearly wanted the move, so in my view that is reason enough to look to sell him.

[philipl]

Eddie, your memory is failing you. Selling Santa was never an option in January as the first decent offer did not arrive until 27th.

You have to chalk that one off your list of Sam's failings.

[47er]

"I am in no doubt that that Allardyce would have been access to the money raised from the transfer". Good old Eddie. Yet another assertion you make without any attempt to offer any evidence. Just because you believe it does not make it so. I doubt it because its happened so many times before.

[nicko]

It's about four months after the Mirror broke it, but good to see this story all of the same...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...icle2419876.ece

[The Rover of Finland]

Am I the only one in thinking that Diouf has actually been decent for Rovers? He provides more options out wide than anyone else we've got.

No you are not. Diouf has been a good buy. We still need a winger though. MGP should be on bench.

[gumboots]

No you are not. Diouf has been a good buy. We still need a winger though. MGP should be on bench.

In his first few games he looked like an accident waiting to happen, he was so wound up. Since then he has not really influenced games. I expected, reading what others on here had to say, that he would be more pacy than anyone else we had, not lightning fast just better than what we had before. He's shown nothing of that. He's not done anything wrong but he's not really made a huge difference and isn't as good as some here would have you believe. Whether we are not playing the correct system with the correct players for him to show what he can do I don't know but I don't feel he's going to do anything when he gets the ball and he is too slow to make anything happen.

[tcj_jones]

I'm not, a season like this for him was on the cards for him at some point in the near future and given how things went in the first half of the season, when you combine that with his history of injuries, there was no real reason for great optimism. There was always a decent chance that he would be injured and, if nothing else, he clearly wanted the move, so in my view that is reason enough to look to sell him.

I don't buy that Eddie, you're clutching at straws somewhat! Selling a player one relatively injury free season after he was first signed on the basis that he has a bad injury record? That's quite a contradiction. By this logic, Hughes never should have brought him to the club and made a big cock up. UNless of course his plan was to get one good season out of him and then ship him out? Except he wanted to bring him to City just a few months ago...

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

In his first few games he looked like an accident waiting to happen, he was so wound up. Since then he has not really influenced games. I expected, reading what others on here had to say, that he would be more pacy than anyone else we had, not lightning fast just better than what we had before. He's shown nothing of that. He's not done anything wrong but he's not really made a huge difference and isn't as good as some here would have you believe. Whether we are not playing the correct system with the correct players for him to show what he can do I don't know but I don't feel he's going to do anything when he gets the ball and he is too slow to make anything happen.

I've got to say I agree with you on this, I expected more from Diouf. If you're going to play with two wingers they've got to come up with more end product. Now we're playing Samba up front neither Diouf or Pedersen are getting enough balls into the middle.

[Eddie]

Eddie, your memory is failing you. Selling Santa was never an option in January as the first decent offer did not arrive until 27th.

You have to chalk that one off your list of Sam's failings.

Why couldn't we have brought someone in between the 27th and the end of the window? We could, even should, have had a deal lined up and ready to go.

It's about four months after the Mirror broke it, but good to see this story all of the same...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...icle2419876.ece

Totally uninspiring.

I don't buy that Eddie, you're clutching at straws somewhat! Selling a player one relatively injury free season after he was first signed on the basis that he has a bad injury record? That's quite a contradiction. By this logic, Hughes never should have brought him to the club and made a big cock up. UNless of course his plan was to get one good season out of him and then ship him out? Except he wanted to bring him to City just a few months ago...

For 3.5 million he was worth a gamble and it paid off, but it was a gamble. Hughes obviously thinks he can win that gamble twice. I thought we should have sold him in the summer, so I'm not clutching at straws, I'm just living by what I've said all along. I was in favour of the signing when he came in, I thought he would do well, but I also thought we should have cashed in.

[tcj_jones]

For 3.5 million he was worth a gamble and it paid off, but it was a gamble. Hughes obviously thinks he can win that gamble twice. I thought we should have sold him in the summer, so I'm not clutching at straws, I'm just living by what I've said all along. I was in favour of the signing when he came in, I thought he would do well, but I also thought we should have cashed in.

And that's fair enough. But the point remains that Sam couldn't have known that he would be out for the remainder of the season and obviously considered him vital to our hopes of staying in the league. Consequently, it would be extremely harsh to criticize him for this decision.

In any case, he was prepared to let him go for the right price, and had the likes of Crouch and Beattie lined up as replacements, but we didn't get an acceptable fee until it was too late.

There's not a whole lot more he could have done, especially when you consider that John Williams was presumably the man responsible for accepting and rejecting bids and negotiating a decent fee.

[tony gale's mic]

I thought we shouldve sold him in January too. The guy had scored 3 goals all season so we had nothing to lose from our side by selling him, and a great deal of money to gain.