[Archived] Nicko's January Rumour Mill

[hawkiiz]

i dont get this. its no fun if deadlines are not deadlines and rules are not rules. damn clown camp!

its impossible to keep up with this. best is have a sleeping pill and check back tomorrow to see what heppened.

[Inta Beaver]

Write to john williams expressing your concerns, I hear he invites fans in for a chat and a cuppa!

My brother often writes emails to John Williams complaining about anything and everything, he has had alot of responses, he sent a email at the start of the season saying the club had no ambition anymore this was mainly about the signing of Fowler, me and my brother got invited for a cuppa, we expected a 10 min chat, we were in there for just over an hour, he was a top bloke, he talked alot about the club history, Souey and Dunns arguing, Jack Walker paying well over the odds for the likes of Ashley Ward etc, he went on saying Friedel left for money only.

Send him a email that is constructive and criticises the club not just slagging the club off and he might offer you a brew!

He also said Bentleys head was being turned by poor advisers!

[cn174]

i dont get this. its no fun if deadlines are not deadlines and rules are not rules. damn clown camp!

its impossible to keep up with this. best is have a sleeping pill and check back tomorrow to see what heppened.

I doubt they'll all be sorted by the morning

[Ewood and I Would]

Seems like Redknapp got the idea of selling your players and buying them back from the business he set up at Pompey

http://norfolk.citysearch.com/profile/1062..._pawn_shop.html

[hawkiiz]

Just like last time.

Damn and blast. Maybe we need a new negotiating team? One that results in us signing a decent player?

i think we need to wake Al Capone from the dead to be able to get £10m players in with our £3m budget...

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Players wages cost nothing then do they? When will Rovers fans realise that as long as we can't fill our stadium, large portions of transfer fee profis will have to go and cover player wages. Assuming all the money that comes in through fees like Bentley should go straight back into buying players in a little naive and short sighted....

The fact is, our board want to sell so I can understand why they wouldn't want to pump millions in they won't see again. We are NOT a popular team with a huge fan base which makes selling us harder and our empty stadium means we can't cover wages so until we get a rich Arab to buy us or we get 30k every week at Ewwod, the fact is we will always have to buy cheap and sell high....

Hmm,.... yet we have still managed to make an 8 million pound profit- excluding any money from the Bentley deal.

The vast majority of any clubs income is now tv money ( around 40 million on average)- not income from crowds. Look at the money that the likes of bolton are prepared to spend on players.

[Ewood and I Would]

My brother often writes emails to John Williams complaining about anything and everything, he has had alot of responses, he sent a email at the start of the season saying the club had no ambition anymore this was mainly about the signing of Fowler, me and my brother got invited for a cuppa, we expected a 10 min chat, we were in there for just over an hour, he was a top bloke, he talked alot about the club history, Souey and Dunns arguing, Jack Walker paying well over the odds for the likes of Ashley Ward etc, he went on saying Friedel left for money only.

Send him a email that is constructive and criticises the club not just slagging the club off and he might offer you a brew!

He also said Bentleys head was being turned by poor advisers!

What did he say about Fowler then? I hope you gave him a Paxman style grilling on that one!

[spencey7]

Assuming all the money that comes in through fees like Bentley should go straight back into buying players in a little naive and short sighted....

What's naive and short-sighted is failing to invest in the playing staff during a relegation battle.

Especially at a time when every sane man and his dog can see that we desperately need midfielders.

[Helmshore blue]

To be honest I am quite dissapointed with the transfer window for the club as a whole. Before the transfer window the three main right sided players were Emo, Derbs and Judge. We have lost all three of these and brought in a Diouf who has split the fans. I am worried that we now have no cover on the right hand side. Taking into account the injury to Emo, which is upredictable and unfortunate, I still think letting Derbs go was a bad decision.

Even though Derbs hasnt been playing too well of late, he is a good option on either wing or up front. He isnt a world beater by all accounts, but definately better than the back up we had for either wing.

We knew from the start of the window that there would be a lot of speculation about RSC, and I am fairly sure that quite a numbr of fans were expecting him to be gone by this stage. I think that we should have kept hold of derbs untill we were sure RSC was going to stay, and then we could have let him have the loan move he wanted. I just feel that the 15-20m which man city have obviously bid for santa is too good to turn down giving his performances so far this season, and Derbs would be an adiquate replacement in the short term, if we didnt manage to bring anyone in by the end of the window.

Saying all that, lets hope Roque, Givet and Diouf all make a big impression in the second half of the season, and keep us where we belong.

[blue/white]

My brother often writes emails to John Williams complaining about anything and everything, he has had alot of responses, he sent a email at the start of the season saying the club had no ambition anymore this was mainly about the signing of Fowler, me and my brother got invited for a cuppa, we expected a 10 min chat, we were in there for just over an hour, he was a top bloke, he talked alot about the club history, Souey and Dunns arguing, Jack Walker paying well over the odds for the likes of Ashley Ward etc, he went on saying Friedel left for money only.

Send him a email that is constructive and criticises the club not just slagging the club off and he might offer you a brew!

He also said Bentleys head was being turned by poor advisers!

Surely you did not introduce yourself to JW as 'Inta Beaver', did you?

Shameful

[Ewood and I Would]

Hmm,.... yet we have still managed to make an 8 million pound profit- excluding any money from the Bentley deal.

The vast majority of any clubs income is now tv money ( around 40 million on average)- not income from crowds. Look at the money that the likes of bolton are prepared to spend on players.

Man U make £2.8m every game from filling up old trafford, so it only takes them 7 home games before they surpass the £20m TV money. I grant they are a big club with a big following but I diagree that "the vast majority" of ANY club's income comes from TV money. Tottenham, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Newcastle all make far more in ticket sales, let alone merchandising (another thing we don't really have due to a lack of following)...

To show my point a little better consider this, Rovers average attendance is 23,089 from a possible 31,367 with an average ticket price of £22. Therefore every home game we are losing (or not gaining) 8,287 extra ticket sales, or over £182,000. That is roughly £3.4m a season just from the Premier league. Throw in cup games and the lost revenue on the pies, programmes and coffee that these 8000 missing fans would buy and our poor attendance is probably costing us £5m a year or so.

I don't think you can blame the board for being unambitious when our crowd number imply the fans are just as devoid in supporting it.

[Fylde Coast Fan]

With the window slowly sliding shut and no sign of a big Rovers story I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Nicko for his insights over the last month. He may not always be right but he's kept us informed and entertained this month and I think the majority of posters love having him around. Whether the admins appreciate the server bills for all the extra traffic is another story...

Cheers Alan.

[philipl]

Quaresma loan to Chelsea confirmed.

So two windows running on the last day, Spurs have had a player not end up where they had thought he was going! (Berbatov to United not City and Queresma by-passing them to go to Chelsea).

Bentley a lucky boy as he would have been frozen out had either Hunt been signed or Queresma arrived. Spurs a bit screwed on that one!

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Man U make £2.8m every game from filling up old trafford, so it only takes them 7 home games before they surpass the £20m TV money. I grant they are a big club with a big following but I diagree that "the vast majority" of ANY club's income comes from TV money. Tottenham, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Newcastle all make far more in ticket sales...

To show my point a little better consider this, Rovers average attendance is 23,089 from a possible 31,367 with an average ticket price of £22. Therefore every home game we are losing (or not gaining) 8,287 extra ticket sales, or over £182,000. That is roughly £3.4m a season just from the Premier league. Throw in cup games and the lost revenue on the pies, programmes and coffee that these 8000 missing fans would buy and our poor attendance is probably costing us £5m a year or so.

I don't think you can blame the board for being unambitious when our crowd number imply the fans are just as devoid in supporting it.

Rubbish- Tottenham, Man City, nor Newcastle do make anwhere near £40-50 million a season on gates alone.

Min figure for a club finishing last is 35 million.

As for your Man utd 20 million- where has that figure come from 2003? With TV money from the champs league Man Utd will be raking in anything between 60-70m a season from TV rev

[hawkiiz]

haha! looks like arhavin is off after all. well some reports are saying...

this will be a weird night.

[Inta Beaver]

What did he say about Fowler then? I hope you gave him a Paxman style grilling on that one!

He didnt seem to be overly impressed about Fowler, he said if we signed him after his trial it would be only ever on a play as you play, I think he took him on because he was trying to back Ince without spending any cash.

My brother asked him if we were to be in a bad position come the transfer window would money be availible for players, his answer was it would be in the Jersey owners interest to put up the money as a team in the championship would be worth alot less as they are looking to sell! He obviously didnt beg them hard enough today!

[Ewood and I Would]

Rubbish- Tottenham, Man City, nor Newcastle do make anwhere near £40-50 million a season on gates alone.

Spurs average ticket price = £55

Average attendance = 35,918

Revenue from 19 Prem games = £38m

...throw in match day extras and cup games and they easily surpass £40m in ticket sales. Besides why would they be willing to spend millions and millions of a new stadium if they didn't think the extra revenue was worth it.

[wandel77]

Ben Haim to Sunderland !!

Are we sleeping ?

[LDRover]

A very disappointing and possibly defining moment in Rovers' history. I hope our inability to pull in a couple more midfielders doesn't spell the end of the line for our top flight days.

Quite right, playing Russian roulette with the very future of the club at this level.

Very disappointing.

[67splitscreen]

Le arse, get there man.

Arshavin

[jannerman]

Spurs average ticket price = £55

Average attendance = 35,918

Revenue from 19 Prem games = £38m

...throw in match day extras and cup games and they easily surpass £40m in ticket sales. Besides why would they be willing to spend millions and millions of a new stadium if they didn't think the extra revenue was worth it.

And the min for finishing bottom was £25m, the winner of the Prem got £50m as confirmed here http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/e...rem/6183791.stm, hasn't gone up that much since then has it?

There must be a underlying cost to putting on a game tho? Cost of hiring outside help (rozzers etc), staff wages, utility bills, even if you discount players wages there's going to have to be an overhead.

Granted it's not as much as what should be coming in, nothing like, but I'd assume the larger the number of people in the easier that cost to offset.

Still, vicious circle ain't it? Don't spend money, bring in known players, create a buzz, people just won't come....

I've been pondering all day if Rovers are just simply punching above their weight - maybe a league above?

Don't want to think that way - but the evidence is there - three managers who have struggled now to sign players, of course the board/trustees might be keen to avoid spending money on tat - but in the case of this window a couple of short-term deals (maybe with a view) would have filled the holes we have in the team - better that than what we have now?

Slightly depressed - just hope Roque will bang in the goals we need to stay up.

And also because of the weather I'm not sure if I'm going to be up on Friday....

[Stuart]

To be honest I am quite dissapointed with the transfer window for the club as a whole. Before the transfer window the three main right sided players were Emo, Derbs and Judge. We have lost all three of these and brought in a Diouf who has split the fans. I am worried that we now have no cover on the right hand side. Taking into account the injury to Emo, which is upredictable and unfortunate, I still think letting Derbs go was a bad decision.

Even though Derbs hasnt been playing too well of late, he is a good option on either wing or up front. He isnt a world beater by all accounts, but definately better than the back up we had for either wing.

We knew from the start of the window that there would be a lot of speculation about RSC, and I am fairly sure that quite a numbr of fans were expecting him to be gone by this stage. I think that we should have kept hold of derbs untill we were sure RSC was going to stay, and then we could have let him have the loan move he wanted. I just feel that the 15-20m which man city have obviously bid for santa is too good to turn down giving his performances so far this season, and Derbs would be an adiquate replacement in the short term, if we didnt manage to bring anyone in by the end of the window.

Saying all that, lets hope Roque, Givet and Diouf all make a big impression in the second half of the season, and keep us where we belong.

I disagree that they were our 3 'main right sided players'. Judge? Not close to a first teamer yet. Derbs? Have you actually seen him play on the right? Completely ineffective and a waste of his strengths as a striker.

Despite that we now have a poor midfield and we are a striker down. Does not make any sense to me. Granted, we apparently had all of our targets fall through but we had the same tale in the summer when a right winger was being looked at. We can't go back in time but if we'd done with Bentley what we've done with Roque (i.e. try to sign a replacement first) we would be a lot stronger now.

As it stands now, I'm very concerned about the rest of the season. Another injury or two are we are down to the bones.

Reid - injured and way past his best

Emo - our most industrious player out for the rest of the season

Andrews - the best I can say is that he is 'hit-and-miss' and lurches from slightly-above-average to anonymous

Dunn - our shining light but playing on pain killers and a perennial crock

Grella - always one game away from another injury

Tugay - can only manage 30-40 minutes a game

Pedersen - been better since Sam arrived but again inconsistent

Carlos - too lightweight and way behind the pace

Treacy - see Andrews

Mokoena - when he comes on, you know you're struggling

Vogel - out in the cold, unproven

If we lose one of Roque, Benni and Roberts to injury we are well short up front. Presumably Derbs can be called back during the season.

Very worried.

[67splitscreen]

Ben Haim to Sunderland !!

Are we sleeping ?

No but he often does on a Saturday afternoon.

[nicko]

Presumably Derbs can be called back during the season.

No, he can't...international transfer...no coming back.

[Bobby G]

Cant believe we lose Emerton for the season and have question marks over Dunn's fitness, yet we sign no one in midfield. I am shocked and even a squad man would have sufficed on loan.

Nicko, can you confirm we didnt sign anyone?