[Archived] Nicko's January Rumour Mill

[nicko]

Who have you got your dough on for the drop Nicko?

I went for West Brom, Stoke and Newcastle last time I was asked about a month ago.

Of those three only Stoke have perked up since.

I like the Geordies as a race, but that club is diseased right now...think they are in real trouble.

Middlesbrough and Bolton are now at risk...and I have to say Rovers have got a job on too.

So no monitoring or verification required. The inmates are definitely running the asylum.

Nobody is running the asylum. That is the problem.

[Mr Creosote]

The longer The Trust have stewardship of the club the quicker and more inevitable our eventual relegation will be. We have now had three consecutive deeply depressing and worrying transfer windows which have coincided with our fall from European contenders to very realistic relegation candidates. In addition The Trust's fantasy transfer budget has cost us the services of Mark Hughes who was frustrated out of the club.

They have betrayed Jack Walker's memory, his legacy, the club and it's supporters.

[tony gale's mic]

I went for West Brom, Stoke and Newcastle last time I was asked about a month ago.

Of those three only Stoke have perked up since.

I like the Geordies as a race, but that club is diseased right now...think they are in real trouble.

Middlesbrough and Bolton are now at risk...and I have to say Rovers have got a job on too.

Pompey?

[LeChuck]

I think now the best result is that we stay up with the current squad, Roque plays a blinder, Man City come back with £20+ million in the summer, Allardyce spends around half on a top quality replacement and the other half on plugging the midfield holes we currently have.

Warnock will probably find himself involved a lot more in central midfield when Givet is match fit, I can't imagine he joined us to warm the bench and we certainly need someone to replace the energy in midfield that is lost with Emerton's injury.

[Kelbo]

Emile Heskey was good value for money and could pay his way with a Champions League finish.

Not one team in the bottom half has bought well.

Disagree, Shay Given was a good signing, as was the midfielder Wigan to Spurs 'Palacias' or whatever.

Wrong prices maybe but good signings!!

Until these lads actually strut their stuff its hard to say, Maybe Spit may do the job and be a gem!!!

I bloody hope so

[Billy Castell]

We are going to be in the relegation mix this season. The trustees don't care, and should sell up ASAP to someone with the ambition to give a budget of £10-20m per season. Someone who wants to lead their team to European qualification.

[RevidgeBlue]

I don't know why, but that made me laugh...

Good that Roque stays...but Rovers will NEVER see £20 million for him again.

That's the way it goes.

We never saw 20m for him this window did we?

Wasn't Citeh's best offer 18m?

[BuckyRover]

I think now the best result is that we stay up with the current squad, Roque plays a blinder, Man City come back with £20+ million in the summer, Allardyce spends around half on a top quality replacement and the other half on plugging the midfield holes we currently have.

Warnock will probably find himself involved a lot more in central midfield when Givet is match fit, I can't imagine he joined us to warm the bench and we certainly need someone to replace the energy in midfield that is lost with Emerton's injury.

It isn't it ironic...don't you think?

[krypton]

Disagree, Shay Given was a good signing, as was the midfielder Wigan to Spurs 'Palacias' or whatever.

Never really rated Given. £8m for Given or £2.5m for Friedel?

Palacios good player but surely massively over priced!

I'd probably agree with Heskey.

[nicko]

We never saw 20m for him this window did we?

Wasn't Citeh's best offer 18m?

Spurs would haave paid £20 million if you had found a replacement.

Man City probably would have gone there too.

That deal faltered because no-one was found to fill his boots.

[thenodrog]

We are going to be in the relegation mix this season. The trustees don't care, and should sell up ASAP to someone with the ambition to give a budget of £10-20m per season. Someone who wants to lead their team to European qualification.

Billy have you ever heard of the term global recession? 'The trustees don't care'? Really? So why have the club replaced the manager and warded off all and sundry for our best player..... even with 20m involved?

They would have sold already no doubt if the right buyer who satisfied the requirements of the trust had turned up. Simple as that. Maybe you know someone or do you think we should just stick the club on ebay and hope for the best?

If we can stay up I think we may well be stronger than a lot of others in the Prem. Apart from 2 or 3 exceptionally funded clubs every other club appears to be either borassic or up to their ears in debt. How will they fare as the recession deepens?

btw I really hate knee-jerk posts.

[cn174]

We are going to be in the relegation mix this season. The trustees don't care, and should sell up ASAP to someone with the ambition to give a budget of £10-20m per season. Someone who wants to lead their team to European qualification.

Sell to whom?? We hardly have a queue of people willing to buy us.

[LeChuck]

It isn't it ironic...don't you think?

It is or isn't? Either way, I'm not sure what you mean sorry.

[47er]

i think its very unfair to blame JW and the board for not signing anyone. bert got injured on saturday. you cant just turn around and sign whoever just because we need more midfielders. in reality we already signed his replacement in diouf. players are very very expencieve, and in january we need someone that would walk straight into the team. who would that be at a price of <£5m?

Come on---we knew at the start of the season that we were under-manned in mid-field. We hoped we were alright at right-back because we signed Simpson but it was not to be.

[bob fleming]

Does anyone actually run football?

Of course there is nicko. Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs.

It only gives the big spenders advantages.

Indeed. Funny that. Still it saves creating a European Super League doesn't it?

A game run by buffoons.

Now come on nicko, that's no way to talk about Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs. Don't bite the hand that feeds you and all that.

As for Rovers. Is all that money really going on wages? Doesn't ring true does it.

Still I think we have enough about the squad to stay up. 23 games = 5 wins. 6 more wins needed from 15 games. It's going to be tight. I take heart from our goal difference, Sam has steadied the ship.

I agree with those that say we should have added a midfielder. We'll miss Bert but I think Ooijer will do a good defensive job for us at right back whilst adding little attacking wise - that's not his fault. Happy with Warnock, Samba and Nelsen. Zurab can do a steady job when / if called upon.

Andrews is average at best. Th'Axe is limited in that he's only ever good in front of the centre halves in a 5 man midfield (do not play him at centre half!), Vogel may as have well been paid up. We need Morten to find some form, and quickly, and Diouffer to hit the ground running. We also need Dunny to play in every game. Same with Grella. Tugay can do a great job for us from the bench but it's asking too much surely for him to play 90 minutes these days.

Benni and Roberts have done well and it's great news that Roque stays. He's still our best forward by a country mile. Goals required please gentlemen.

All IMO of course.

Sorry about all that - back to who we should have signed from Egypt or Russia or wherever. Whoever they are. Credit to those that know Al-Mohammed Whatsisface and Pogykanagram are good players. I've never heard of 'em. That might just be me.

[The Prof.]

Emile Heskey was good value for money and could pay his way with a Champions League finish.

Not one team in the bottom half has bought well.

Have to agree Nicko - they all seem to have put their head in the sand or decided to let the wheel spin and accept their fate. What a bunch of no hopers. It Russian Roulette.

[rebelmswar]

Credit to those that know Al-Mohammed Whatsisface and Pogykanagram are good players. I've never heard of 'em. That might just be me.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction for most.

[hawkiiz]

I really wish I had your optimism - even more I hope the team have your optimism! I just hope the old adage "too good to go down" does not haunt us in relation to your list.

So I accept other teams are also struggling but over the past few transfer windows clubs we (used to) rub shoulders with, Everton, Villa, Spurs, have strengthened (okay it's possible to laugh at Tottenham at the moment but no doubt they will pull clear) meanwhile we have not, and have started to lose ground.

Even mid-table teams like Fulham, Wigan and West Ham have improved their squad consistently.

As I've said, I hope you are right come the end of the season but for me (and no disrespect intended) many of the posters who come on here with genuine concerns are the ones who, like me, sit in the stands on these cold afternoons watching some of the poor football we've had to see and it's friends like you, from further afield, who are the ones saying 'sit tight', 'keep the faith', etc. By some miracle, we are unbeaten under Allardyce and could and should even have won several more of those games but this cannot continue forever (can it?) particularly as we keep losing players to injury and, inevitibly, suspension as we see out this season. Maybe we can get dispensation from the FA if we lose any more of our midfield - or maybe there are still some gems out of there who have been overlooked by clubs and are out of contract. Here's hoping!

i agree that i may be one of the "we are too good to go down" people, but i have a genuine good feeling ever since sam joined. i always wanted ince to be good - because it would be the fairy-tale... but it was not to be, and i have to admit i played "Redemption songs" by Bob Marley all day when he was asked to return his key to the office, and i finally got my dream with allardyce. mind you i wanted him at rovers long before hughes left. i really do think he will pull us out. and i am confident that we do have a good squad. yes we have some problem areas, but one of our main complaints is Ooijer at right back, and i do believe i played there for Holland during the euros last summer (?) so he cant be a total mess. and our cover is a hot prospect for man utd - probably the best team in the world. even though he is not pushing for a place in that team, fergie is reluctant to let him go, and he did play in the testimonal for Solskjær. he cant be the worst cover in the prem? and to be fair we have not conceded a lot since sam arrived. and thats the same team that had a habit of letting 2-3 goals in every game before that. now gamst is showing some good spirit and potential, lets hope diouf can get back to his best also. we might hate him, but he is a legend at bolton, and that was during the time they were pushing for europe with us. our two best strikers have each had around 20 goals in the prem when they are on fire. the third choice is also putting a good number when he is on form. our team really is not that bad, but we have to keep the rest of them fit. thats the main issue. as long as we can keep the best 11 fit we will be ok.

i also admire you guys that show up every week to see them play, and i wish i could be there too, but in fact i have not missed a lot of matches for the last few seasons myself. through the telly or via the web. (yes i admit i try as best as i can to find those streams. i deserve to see them play, and if the TV people wont show them, how else am i going to do it?) so i know what its like, and that why i feel pretty optimistic since Sam arrived. there has been major improvements since he came. beating newcastle 3-0 on a bad day is very good no matter how you put it.

So, the difference to the team since december is we now have a real cover for warnock, and diouf instead of bert. god knows who is best of the two, but i dont think we are weaker than before. + the spirit in the team is very good. when did you last see benni run around with a smile and saying he will do whatever it takes to score goals for the club? i think he even said he wanted to end his career here. thats what we need! the barcodes have people go on strike and their best players either sold or injured. pompey are having crisis meeting at the final day of january, way after we had ours + they already lost one manager this season. many clubs ARE worse off than we are, so there is every reason to push on and keep believing.

[waynerovers]

Never really rated Given. £8m for Given or £2.5m for Friedel?

Palacios good player but surely massively over priced!

I'd probably agree with Heskey.

Given has been as good for Newcastle as Friedel was for us, he is undeniably in the top 3 keepers in the prem, just look at his save from McCarthy's freekick a couple of weeks ago

[thenodrog]

Given has been as good for Newcastle as Friedel was for us, he is undeniably in the top 3 keepers in the prem, just look at his save from McCarthy's freekick a couple of weeks ago

Brad would have caught it!

[krypton]

Given has been as good for Newcastle as Friedel was for us, he is undeniably in the top 3 keepers in the prem, just look at his save from McCarthy's freekick a couple of weeks ago

Just seems to me to carry a lot of hype. He has been at newcastle for so many years, yet I have never seen him command his defence. The Toon have had awful defences and he has to take his share of blame for that.

Friedel, Van Der Saar, Cech, Reina, Howard all mean he does not even make my top 5!

[Billy Castell]

Billy have you ever heard of the term global recession? 'The trustees don't care'? Really? So why have the club replaced the manager and warded off all and sundry for our best player..... even with 20m involved?

They would have sold already no doubt if the right buyer who satisfied the requirements of the trust had turned up. Simple as that. Maybe you know someone or do you think we should just stick the club on ebay and hope for the best?

If we can stay up I think we may well be stronger than a lot of others in the Prem. Apart from 2 or 3 exceptionally funded clubs every other club appears to be either borassic or up to their ears in debt. How will they fare as the recession deepens?

btw I really hate knee-jerk posts.

Can a person not show their frustration? Or is that only reserved for those who want to pick petty fights with each other, whinge about immigration or whatever? I was irrational, frustrated and increasingly worried about our future.

Btw, I hate humanity.

[DE.]

Just seems to me to carry a lot of hype. He has been at newcastle for so many years, yet I have never seen him command his defence. The Toon have had awful defences and he has to take his share of blame for that.

Friedel, Van Der Saar, Cech, Reina, Howard all mean he does not even make my top 5!

You rate Tim Howard over Given??

[Ewood and I Would]

Given has been as good for Newcastle as Friedel was for us, he is undeniably in the top 3 keepers in the prem, just look at his save from McCarthy's freekick a couple of weeks ago

I wouldn't say that, Friedel, Reina and Van Der Sar could arguably be described as the best three. Until a few months ago, Cech would have been in there too. He is good but the top 3 keeprs changes monthly based on form (except for Brad who has always been there )

[Brfcrule1]

Nicko one last one what happened to the deals Zoro defender Benfica, Tschite the striker from Africa, Progrebnayk the russian striker & Al Muhammaddi the Egyptian winger thought the Egyptian guy was going to be flown in on a loan deal could that still happen as it is only a loan? thought also the russian striker was to be a loan as well did they just not complete it in time? or if they are to be loans could they still come in is anything still being worked on?

cheers for the nicko see you in here in the summer