[Archived] Nicko's January Rumour Mill

[nicko]

FA Community Shield is not an official game?

No, outside the official calendar.

[Iceman]

With no midfielder lined up, i cant see anybody leaving. We might now see Villanueva or Vogel play more, even Mokoena. The news about Bert has made this next few hours crucial. Again while others look to be strengthening, we playing with fire and we could end up as a club, paying the price for our failure to sort ourselves out!

[T4E]

FA Community Shield is not an official game?

Classed as a friendly.

BTW - How reliable is the Spurs - Keane medical story? Also Nicko, to save a PM - any more from the Bar on Jenas?

[cn174]

I hope they all text him at once I reckon his head would explode.

Is there any way to watch SSN online????

If you subscribe to sky, you can sign up for skyplayer - http://skyplayer.sky.com - you can watch sky sports news for free.

I'm not too sure what you can watch if you don't have sky, but worth a try.

[mattyboy6000]

With no midfielder lined up, i cant see anybody leaving. We might now see Villanueva or Vogel play more, even Mokoena. The news about Bert has made this next few hours crucial. Again while others look to be strengthening, we playing with fire and we could end up as a club, paying the price for our failure to sort ourselves out!

absolutely- tho i would like to have rid of the axe. bert is a good influence on the team, works hard, keeps his head. not having him is a nightmare

[Presty On Tour]

The Emerton injury has surely forced the trusties to open the checkbook.

The next 11 hours or so is crucial.

Oh and if we sell Santa Cruz today, it's suicide.

[nicko]

Nicko,

if BFS gave you a call and said "Nicko my chap, we need to sort out our centre midfield, now you know that the trust is tight, who would you recommend to me?"

who would you say could do the job, apart from Stroke Boy that is!!!!

I would go through the list...

No-one in the Champions League teams or contenders is going to let you have a player.

No-one in the relegation fight is going to let you have a player.

No-one in the Championship is worth buying.

No-one from abroad can get here.

I would then give him the number of Samaritans.

[gumboots]

None of those players are good enough in our current situation. If we had the luxury of points on the board we might get away with Villanueva in some games. the other 2 have either proved they are not premiership standard or for some reason the manager doesn't trust them. we need a new player. If it costs 40 million if we go down and is the end of Blackburn rovers as we currently know them at least in the short term, then we need to buy and buy well. we've let this santa cruz thing get in the way of everything else we needed to do this window.

[mattyboy6000]

bet the trust feel a bit daft about bullard now

we could always get a loan outside the window though, couldn't we?

[Ewood and I Would]

Nicko,

if BFS gave you a call and said "Nicko my chap, we need to sort out our centre midfield, now you know that the trust is tight, who would you recommend to me?"

If that happened I'd be very worried we have a manager that trust a journalist's opinion over his scouts

[Majiball]

If you subscribe to sky, you can sign up for skyplayer - http://skyplayer.sky.com - you can watch sky sports news for free.

I'm not too sure what you can watch if you don't have sky, but worth a try.

Just tried that, they want £10.00 more a month, %$"!&$!^%. Comes up saying please up-grade?????????

Christ they already get £45.00.

After 4 days away I'm gobsmacked this thread has grown by some 100 pages, I have enough work to catch up on as it is.

Congrats to all involved on getting the site sorted, nice one!

[hawkiiz]

only solution i can see is play diouf and pray to god he stay fit, and put givet on RB. or put givet on LB and push warnock up to the wing, then place gamst on the right and hope we never meet any quick wingers again.

this spring will be long!

[cn174]

bet the trust feel a bit daft about bullard now

we could always get a loan outside the window though, couldn't we?

Yes, I'm sure they'd have felt daft about signing an injury prone player, who now currently injured, for £5m!

[joey_big_nose]

bet the trust feel a bit daft about bullard now

we could always get a loan outside the window though, couldn't we?

Vogel all over again....

If we don't sign anyone the only option in all seriousness is to move Warnock back to midfield. He can fill in for Dunn, provide high energy and decent tackling and get forward. I just hope Givet is a good left back.

I simply cannot believe we have not signed a right back and a central player.... Huge mistake.

[Ewood and I Would]

I would go through the list...

No-one in the Champions League teams or contenders is going to let you have a player.

No-one in the relegation fight is going to let you have a player.

No-one in the Championship is worth buying.

No-one from abroad can get here.

I would then give him the number of Samaritans.

No offense but I'd assume BFS would be looking for a little more than common sense; I'd like to think he already has that. That advice would have been useful to Ince though

P.S Why do you have the Samaritians number out of interest?

[LeftWinger]

bet the trust feel a bit daft about bullard now

Hasn't the same knee caused him problems at Hull already? I'd be feeling pretty smug if I was them.

[LeChuck]

we could always get a loan outside the window though, couldn't we?

Err...no. Why do you think teams are trying to rush through deals today?

[nicko]

bet the trust feel a bit daft about bullard now

we could always get a loan outside the window though, couldn't we?

Bullard is 30...has a bad knee...cost £5 million-ish...and signed a four-and-half year deal at Hull City worth over £10 million.

I don't blame Rovers for giving that one a body swerve.

[Iceman]

I think mrs gumboots(apologies if it was not you) have previously indicated, that every season there are positions that everybody can see needs strengthening except the coaching staff. This is worrying, because members of this board, the official or any other board have noticed a lack of a creative midfielder, right back another striker and to a certain extent a left winger. Right wing was a problem for ages to sort, out after Bentley left and its kind of sorted now with Diouf playing there. My point is that bert is injured, so why cant Sam see the need for a replacement when he doesnt fancy Vogel, Villanueva and has Dunn, Reid being constantly injured. Add Tugay's age, and we are in desperate trouble in midfield!

[John]

1305: BBC Radio 5 Live is reporting that Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz is staying at Ewood Park.

[dellinsert]

I think mrs gumboots(apologies if it was not you) have previously indicated, that every season there are positions that everybody can see needs strengthening except the coaching staff. This is worrying, because members of this board, the official or any other board have noticed a lack of a creative midfielder, right back another striker and to a certain extent a left winger. Right wing was a problem for ages to sort, out after Bentley left and its kind of sorted now with Diouf playing there. My point is that bert is injured, so why cant Sam see the need for a replacement when he doesnt fancy Vogel, Villanueva and has Dunn, Reid being constantly injured. Add Tugay's age, and we are in desperate trouble in midfield!

Maybe with BS's tactics (hit front men early), we'll just miss out the midfield altogether...

[begresko]

Nicko, any ideas who the clubs are who have had bids for dos santos accepted? SSN. Thought may possibly be rovers related due to crouchie

[jim mk2]

If that happened I'd be very worried we have a manager that trust a journalist's opinion over his scouts

You'd be amazed : managers ask journalists' opinions on players all the time.

[spencey7]

Our midfield needs a major overhaul which obviously isn't going to happen until the summer at the earliest, but we certainly need to bring in some quality and some CREATIVITY.

Without wanting to irritate all the Allardyce "style" apologists - The need for midfield creativity is lessened if you set your stall out to be direct. Indeed Allardyce's teams in the past have been known to bypass midfield quite often. <-- Complain about that statement if you like, but it's a fact.

Hopefully the midfield crisis will see Carlos play some more games, and he'll be the Messiah we all hoped he would be since we first saw him on YouTube!

[Bobby G]

We will have our backs to the wall for the rest of the season and Roque Santa Cruz will fight for the cause if he knows he will stay. God I hope we get someone in now to replace Emo.