[Archived] Nicko's January Rumour Mill

[my_name_is_Earl]

  spencey7 said:

Or Wigan or Bolton or Hull etc...

I imagine you know that our wage bill is ludicrously high for the size of our club. Unfortunately, we have to pay good wages for good players and that means less funds for transfers. Bolton's, Wigan's and Hull's squads do not have the same general overall quality. As a guess, I would imagine that they don't pay their players as much as we do either which would explain why they can carry bigger squads as well.

[deftangel]

In that case, Crouch plus center-mid is an improvement on Roque and no centre-mid. I've no beef with Cruz, in my opinion he's a classy player desperately missing the service from Bentley as opposed to a sulking one hit wonder but the midfield of our team has needed addressing for quite some time and if a decent player is available, it needs to get done.

That said, I'm not too happy with paying 90k a week mind...surely some sort of compromise can be reached on the wages if the lad accepts Pompey were just paying him silly money?

[rovers1995]

  nicko said:

For anyone who thinks the Spurs interest in Roque is a wee makie-uppie...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/footbal...al-1520260.html

Wallace gets his Spurs info from a source quite close to the horse...maybe the pony, if you know what I mean.

Interesting take on it - if you can decode some of the copy.

So basically Spurs won't pay what we want for Roque

[nicko]

Spurs don't want to pay £22 million...

But they would pay £20 million.

Obviously Darren Bent's name has come up - but seems to have been dismissed as an idea.

[leftfooter]

  spencey7 said:

Or Wigan or Bolton or Hull etc...

Hull have spent relatively little money. They signed Man City misfit Geovanni in the summer - a free transfer. I imagine you would have been miffed if we'd have gone for him.

[my_name_is_Earl]

  nicko said:

Spurs don't want to pay £22 million...

But they would pay £20 million.

Obviously Darren Bent's name has come up - but seems to have been dismissed as an idea.

How about ten million pounds and Sandra Redknapp?

[EwoodGlory]

  nicko said:

For anyone who thinks the Spurs interest in Roque is a wee makie-uppie...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/footbal...al-1520260.html

Wallace gets his Spurs info from a source quite close to the horse...maybe the pony, if you know what I mean.

Interesting take on it - if you can decode some of the copy.

We always want more. Either good a getting what we want, or we don't want to sell.

[Exiled_Rover]

  nicko said:

Spurs don't want to pay £22 million...

But they would pay £20 million.

Obviously Darren Bent's name has come up - but seems to have been dismissed as an idea.

I'd take Bent and £15m in a heartbeat. No idea why he's so lowly rated.

[Eddie]

If Bent's wages are reasonable I'd much prefer him to Crouch. Would give us a bit of pace and I think he'd work well with Benni.

[DeadlyDirk]

nicko do you know roughly how much were paying for Diouf's wages? May give a hint at how much were prepared to offer players at the moment, my guess is he must be on at least 30k.

I still can't see us getting anywhere near 90k if Crouch is actually on that, 50-60k tops.

[nicko]

  DeadlyDirk said:

nicko do you know roughly how much were paying for Diouf's wages? May give a hint at how much were prepared to offer players at the moment, my guess is he must be on at least 30k.

I still can't see us getting anywhere near 90k if Crouch is actually on that, 50-60k tops.

I don't know about Diouf, but there are many ways to skin a cat with Crouch.

I would imagine that Crouch's money includes wages and 'loyalty' cash.

So you pick up the 'loyalty' money in his contract and then you pay Pompey over the top to give to him for the wages he might have to drop at Rovers...keeps the dressing room happy.

It can be done.

[budha]

  Exiled_Rover said:

I'd take Bent and £15m in a heartbeat. No idea why he's so lowly rated.

So you rate him at £5M? If Bent would be included, I'm sure Spurs would be offering more like £8M and Bent.

[T4E]

Their manager has just said in public that his wife is better than Darren Bent. They'll take what we're willing to offer or forget about the idea.

[VillaSimon]

  my_name_is_Earl said:

The candidates seem to be, for me, Diouf, Smith and Harewood.

Come on Villasimon, get digging........no news is good news

Harewood is out of the villa squad for tomorrows game with wigan, He has a foot injury hmmmm

[LeftWinger]

Does know one else think it's funny that £45m seemed too much for anyone to buy the club - yet one of our players is seemingly worth almost half of that? It just worries me that one day someone would realise this and come in and buy the club and sell off our best assets and just let the club slip into the abyss.

[leftfooter]

  LeftWinger said:

Does know one else think it's funny that £45m seemed too much for anyone to buy the club - yet one of our players is seemingly worth almost half of that? It just worries me that one day someone would realise this and come in and buy the club and sell off our best assets and just let the club slip into the abyss.

We don't need to worry that much about someone coming in and letting us slip into the abyss.

The present incumbents are making a half-decent stab at it.

[blue and whites]

it is not understandable that sam allows nolan to go to n'castle for 4mill when he is clearly the sort of player we urgently need right now. it is a unbelivable!

[rebelmswar]

  blue'n white said:

it is not understandeble that sam allows nolan to go to n'castle for 4mill when he is clearly the sort of player we urgently need right now. it is a unbelivable!

Nolan is pish at best.

[blue and whites]

if you think that you clearly have a lack of common football knowledge!

[dinglebasher]

  blue'n white said:

it is not understandeble that sam allows nolan to go to n'castle for 4mill when he is clearly the sort of player we urgently need right now. it is a unbelivable!

Nolan is one of the most overrated players in the PL. He has consistently been talked up as a good midfielder, yet no England manager has ever selected him, even when players like Joey Barton, Beattie, Seth Johnson, Dunny have all managed at least one cap.

He'll just be another overrated, 'name' player snapped up by Newcastle who ultimately fails to deliver. See further Joey Barton, Scott Parker, Emre, Butt.

[gumboots]

  blue'n white said:

if you think that you clearly have a lack of common football knowledge!

did you notice him on wednesday night? I didn't. that shows how well he's currently playing. Perhaps that's why we're not interested. Hopefully there's someone else in the pipeline for CM.

[philipl]

Nolan = another MGP.

Every club can probably benefit from one but we have MGP and Carlos the MGP apprentice already!.

[colbert]

it really bugs me when a club says they have signed a player for a undissclosed fee.

Why cant they just tell us?

Do you know Nicko?

[Lathund]

  philipl said:

Nolan = another MGP.

Indeed. At least in the sense that fans of other clubs seem to rate them a lot higher than they really deserve. I wouldn't go as far as to call Nolan pish, but like Pedersen he's a solid player who does a job, but not much more. And not worth signing for £5m + presumably rather high wages.

[rebelmswar]

  blue'n white said:

if you think that you clearly have a lack of common football knowledge!

If you think Nolan is better than who we have in midfield as it stands neither do you.

*Disclaimer*

Moko is not included in my previous statement.