[Archived] Sam's January Targets

[imy9]

Question:

Would the reaction on here be more positive if Rovers unveiled Basturk and the French lad today rather than a day/ a week ago?

We have signed two new players and should be getting back Dunn and Grella in the next game and Reid is getting fitter all the time, lots of positives heading into the final thrid of the season. We are also saving £30K in wages and another £30K when MGP leaves, and money saved from Treacy, all of which should help Sam in the summer, Rome was not built in a day.

[mellison24]

Perhaps your right...I agree he was lazy and better rid of a bad apple but Sam if reports were right wanted Dindane so why was a deal left till today... that then fell through????

Well we got the Benni money yesterday, when it was confirmed he'd actually GO there. 24hours to sign a player is quite a deadline. I'm happy we didn't sign anyone in his. Money saved for summer. 2million plus about 500k in wages til the season's end.

[rovers1995]

Nicko, I don't know whether this has been answered but is there any chance that Pedersen will sign a new contract with us?

[oakdaleblue]

We can always get Nonda back. Beggars cant be choosers.

[mellison24]

To me Pafell, Sams policy was to find a replacement 1st, then sell. He has said, he will only allow a player to leave, if he has a replacement lined up.

link? I thought he just said he'd sell at the right price. don't recall anything about 'replacement first' where Benni was concerned....not havin a go btw, genuinely can't remember him saying owt...

[Iceman]

So West Ham, has Benni, Illan, Cole, Mido, Nouble, Noble, Diamanti and Parker. That, despite the laziness of Benni is certainly a strong attack.

[imy9]

Nicko- Is the Brazilian still around, he is a free transfer now and as he has not signed for West Ham is he still on our radar?

[den]

link? I thought he just said he'd sell at the right price. don't recall anything about 'replacement first' where Benni was concerned....not havin a go btw, genuinely can't remember him saying owt...

He said it on Radio Rovers.

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Anyone got a list of freebies?

[Bobby G]

Very disappointing.

For people who stress Basturk and Lingazi coming. Firstly they are midfielders. Secondly both will need 3-4 weeks at the best to get to match fitness, and secondly big question markets over whether they can make it at this level. For the former, its a question of rediscovering his best form, gone by 3-4 years, and for the latter, its a question of slotting into a higher level of football on a regular basis which is even a bigger ask. So both will miss the crucial February period which could decide our fate in the division.

I have no problems with not strengthening but where is the sense is depleting our strike force? It was a mistake. Whoever says we couldnt move till Benni left, stop deluding yourselves. We should have had a deal tied up cause we knew he was leaving, if not for the last few weeks, at the very least for the last 7 days. It was worth a gamble to get anyone on loan even to cover the strike force.

Its obvious we will play with 1 up front from now on anyway and Dunn's fitness is also key now.

Too much pressure is on the side now and you can bet yourself Sam would have wanted someone in.

Big big cockup on selling one of our most creative players and a proven goal scorer and NOT directly replacing him. Please stop saying he has scored one goal this season or he is fat or whatever, cause there is no sense in not signing a striker. At the same time, Messers Beattie, Dindane and Benjani were not, contrary to popular belief the only 3 strikers in world football who were available. I would have liked even a gamble for someone like Marcelo Moreno.

Wigan and West Ham have strengthened, and Id say Bolton will and should improve their league position. We are lucky that Pompey, Hull, Wolves and maybe Burnley havent really improved. Its a gamble by the club, but I guess they have set the bar on just safety this season.

Bear in mind a few things. Di Santo is on loan, MGP's contract will run out this season, Junior is 40-60 to sign up with us and that means we effectively have 3-4 positions to fill up in the summer. Will there be money to do so? If we look at our recent history then the answer will be no.

Not happy at all.

[Iceman]

link? I thought he just said he'd sell at the right price. don't recall anything about 'replacement first' where Benni was concerned....not havin a go btw, genuinely can't remember him saying owt...

Not talking about Benni, i seem to remember previously where it was mentioned that, he would only sell if he had a player lined up 1st.

[nicko]

Nicko, I don't know whether this has been answered but is there any chance that Pedersen will sign a new contract with us?

Morten has obviously not been too impressed with the rival interest so far - Olympiacos, Fenerbahce and Celtic. So he will play out the season. There is obviously scope to keep him, but my gut feeling is that he will go.

[Kelbo]

I am not saying that the are adequate replacements (although Dindane's pace would have given us something different), what I am saying is that Benni should not have been sold until we had signed a replacement. We are now weaker in upfront. What really surprises me is that I thought that Sam had a replacement lined up when he kept saying that Benni would be sold if an adequate offer was received.

For me personally Rovers have dropped the ball on this one.

At the expense of a bad egg in the dressing room?

Am I the only one who saw a much more spirited and committed display at West Ham?

[nicko]

Nicko- Is the Brazilian still around, he is a free transfer now and as he has not signed for West Ham is he still on our radar?

Ilan has signed for West Ham. No loss.

[alexanders]

I dont think anyone of the players going in this window would have been anything other than a loss for Rovers.

[G Somerset Rover]

I have no problems with not strengthening but where is the sense is depleting our strike force? It was a mistake. Whoever says we couldnt move till Benni left, stop deluding yourselves. We should have had a deal tied up cause we knew he was leaving, if not for the last few weeks, at the very least for the last 7 days. It was worth a gamble to get anyone on loan even to cover the strike force.

Bear in mind a few things. Di Santo is on loan, MGP's contract will run out this season, Junior is 40-60 to sign up with us and that means we effectively have 3-4 positions to fill up in the summer. Will there be money to do so? If we look at our recent history then the answer will be no.

Not happy at all.

Great post Bobby.

I'm pretty furious tonight. I knew it'd happen but still, when it does it isn't any less annoying.

Firstly as Bobby said, why haven't we tied up a deal/loan for Benni's replacement before he left? Just because he scored one all season doesn't mean Benni wouldn't have got more in the second half. Who would we have preferred up front in a game that we had to win? Benni? Or Di Santo/Roberts? I know who I'd choose. Extremely amateurish from top to bottom today from our club.

Also, as pointed out above, we have just two recognised forwards on our books at the moment that are ours. For all his promise a guy who has one league goal, and our number two is a man who wouldn't get into about 17 teams in this league. We're now left to rely on Niko, Dunn staying fit (highly unlikely) and Basturk recapturing form of years gone by and also defying injury. It's too much of a gamble.

I can assure you now that this supposed cash that we have left from January will have evaporated as per usual by the time summer comes around and anybody who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

So West Ham, has Benni, Illan, Cole, Mido, Nouble, Noble, Diamanti and Parker. That, despite the laziness of Benni is certainly a strong attack.

We have Kalinic, Dunn, Di Santo, Hoilett, Pedersen, Basturk, Roberts, Emerton, Olsson and Diouf.

Not much between them. Diamanti and Cole are useful but the rest are average. Parker isnt much of an attacking player anyway.

All these overreactions are a bit much. You can either just accept that down to a combination of factors we werent able to replace McCarthy, maybe down to bad luck, a lack of funds or a lack of decent targets - or you can choose to use this as an opportunity to blame this all on the board and the manager.

I personally dont see how the past 12 hours have turned our reasonable squad into a bad one. In an ideal world yes i would have loved us to have captured a great striker but realistically that was never going to happen.

If the options available (Im not saying that these were the ONLY options, just the options which we were linked to) were Benjani, Beattie and Dindane, then its no loss to have missed out on any of them.

[Fife Rover]

At least 4 points (scored at Wigan and his delivery from set pieces played a huge part in the 2 goals that we scored against Fulham). Sam had decided that he had to go, that is fair enough, but he should have signed found a replacement before selling him.

[DE.]

We really had no choice but to sell Benni. He'd stopped coming to training, and said he'd never play for the club again. What else can you do in that situation? Even if he did crawl back after that, I can't see that his heart would have been in it.

2M for an extremely unprofessional 32 year old who didn't want to be at the club is a good deal.

It's a shame we haven't got anybody else in, but it isn't the catastrophe some on here are making it out to be. We have 3 strikers competing for one position, and a few midfielders (and one defender) who can play up front if we get unlucky with injuries.

Not signing a striker in this window has undoubtedly increased the pressure to buy a few players in the summer, but until then we'll be okay.

[BPF]

I've heard that Vieri is available....

[den]

All these overreactions are a bit much. You can either just accept that down to a combination of factors we werent able to replace McCarthy, maybe down to bad luck, a lack of funds or a lack of decent targets - or you can choose to use this as an opportunity to blame this all on the board and the manager.

Well,in two seasons we've gone from 7th in the league with talent such as Tugay, RSC, Bentley to not being able to attract the likes of Benjani, Dindane or Beattie. Is that down to bad luck?

Unfortunately, when you sell your best players so often and so readilly, the rest see you as also rans and the outcome is inevitable. At times it seemed as though half of this m/b were in favour of reaping the cash as well.

[Bobby G]

I dont know how much of the blame for today I would lay at Sam's hands to be honest. No manager would want to WEAKEN his side. Not even one who doesnt get along with Benni.

[Jackson]

Morten has obviously not been too impressed with the rival interest so far - Olympiacos, Fenerbahce and Celtic. So he will play out the season. There is obviously scope to keep him, but my gut feeling is that he will go.

My gut feeling is that we will renew the contract, along with the perennially out-of-action Dunn, and probably Grella, Andrews and Rigters too -just as long as we can keep the powder dry for the next time.

The scouts can go on holiday and we can sign a couple of kids and past-its.

It's all good.

[accyrover]

Apparently the Dindane fell through at the last minute because Lens wanted us to guarantee we'd buy him at the end of the season for £4 mill. Thats the stipulation in the loan deal they have with Portsmouth.

On Dunn and Basturk - both will take at least 3 or 4 weeks to get fit. Dunn's fitness is always in doubt anyway. Pedersen will run his danglies off until someone offers him a contract (more likely another club)then he'll give up again. Kalinic and Di Santo are raw, leaving us with Jason Roberts as our only experienced striker. Di Santo, Bovine Behind and Deep South String Plucking Instrument comes to mind. 66% of our strike force misfiring. Oh dear.

We should have had a cast iron deal lined up. We've known Belly was going for at least two weeks.

Not happy, worried and thinking we are significantly weaker up front.

Accyrover

[Dufflite]

Well,in two seasons we've gone from 7th in the league with talent such as Tugay, RSC, Bentley to not being able to attract the likes of Benjani, Dindane or Beattie. Is that down to bad luck?

How do you know we couldn't attract them - I don't think we wanted them!