[Archived] Potential Summer Transfers (2010)

[Mr. E]

I really don't understand why anyone would think we need strikers and not creative midfielders. Unless we have the money to buy Milito, Kalinic and Roberts do as good a job as anyone in the 4-5-1 striker-on-island formation. This position simply cannot be realistically improved. What we need is someone of real quality who can sit well in the 4-5-1 and create chances. And since we do not have the money to buy a young world-class player, we'll buy an old one, and hope that BFS can get him fit - which is one of his specialties. It's a risk, but it's a calculated risk, and we usually pull those off.

[gumboots]

I'm not often with Eddie in his opinions, but to some extent I am here. If the Guti thing puts everything else on hold than it's wrong. If we are preparing plans b,c, d and e whilst we are taking our time over Guti, then fair enough. What must not happen is that we get towards preseason and are still hopeful over Guti but have signed nobody else or have missed other good targets because of him. That leads to either panic buys or to missing out on players and ending up with nobody.

[PAFELL]

Agree about the wages, but he would give us some great quality in midfield. I would stay away from Ledley, he was poor again today, he scored but was poor, his distribution was woeful.

I thought chopra was better than Ledley v Blackpool yesterday, which surprised me a bit.

[imy9]

Wait wait...so because we have no money we are going to offer 40k+ to a midfielder the wrong side of 30? This when we were all told that signing a striker was "the priority". I'm not expecting us to spend millions, it just appears to be clear that we have no a plan here, not one that was thought up weeks or months ago at least. We should have come into this summer with a clear plan in mind and several affordable targets for each position and pursued them in an order of greatest need. Instead of this we had a go at a couple of strikers, found out one was a bit too expensive and weren't sure on a couple others we'd been messing around with and have now turned our attention towards a midfielder who's form has been slightly inconsistent and questionable for probably the last 5 seasons.

If this club wants to consistently get sympathy for having no money then it is has to start acting like a club with no money. Sign young players, look to make a profit and try and reduce the wage bill. We say that is what we are going to do, but it appears that we've drifted far away from that plan this summer.

The Guti transfer makes ZERO sense for this club. The fact that we seem unclear has to who we should be going for striker-wise is laughable. Even more to the point, the fact that a striker was the priority this summer when we spent 6 million on a striker last summer and have obvious short-comings in the midfield, short-comings that Guti is unlikely to address, is seriously questionable.

For a few seasons now poor transfer windows have been accepted and forgotten. What people need to realise is that it is in these three months that the long-term future of the club is often decided. A wrong transfer or contract and that is millions gone for the club and it takes several windows for us to address the problem again.

Maybe all this speculation will be wrong and we won't waste all of our budget on an aged midfielder who probably isn't up to the challenge and a striker who certainly isn't (see Dindane, Benjani, Beattie, etc.), but sadly all roads point to disaster at the moment.

1. Who says that there is no plan? Speculation on who we are going to sign? Maybe wait until the end of the transfer window and then make a judgement. This is the same Sam who sold Benni and chose not to sign another striker and we ended up... 10th.

2. How can you make a plan months ago when the final league position was decided on the final day? Three places is worth over £2 million pounds, thats the difference between signing a "priority striker" and signing a "priority striker" AND a "central midfielder too.

3. Sign young players? We will have next year in the first team squad: Kalinic (22) Jones (18), Hanley (18), Olsson (22), Hoilett (20), Nzonzi (21), Linganzi (20), SEVEN players under 22, FOUR 20 or under- we need experience in the team now to go alongside these players- that costs money, we cannot have an entire team of young players.

4. Guti is currently Vice Captain of Real Madrid the biggest team in the world, he has played for them his entire career. If you have seen him this year you would see someone who is an outstanding passer of a football and someone who would not look out of place for Arsenal, Man Utd etc let alone Blackburn. Question: How many goals would we have scored this year with Guti providing the passing rather than Andrews or Grella? Needless signing? Have we not been crying out for a creative midfield player this season? Will the likes of Nzonzi, Linganzi, Olsson, Kalinic etc not learn from his experiences?

5. Finally IF we had signed Dindane LAST summer or Frederic then we would have been better this year- compare their striker rates to others in our squad and they stand up to scrutiny, especially Dindane for £2.7 million is a snip for what he provides to team.

[Waggy76]

I have seen Ledley a few times recently ...True he has been injured this season , but to be honest ,I cannot see what all the fuss is about ...

Not a player , we should be targeting in my view ....Championship player at best ....

[philipl]

I agree we should not be considering Ledley and disagree with Eddie's latest offering which is fine in theory but ignores reality including the ages of seven players who will be in the named squad next season and two or three more quite likely to come through in the next year or so from the youngsters already at the club.

We have been crying out for a world class presence in the middle of the park, have one in range on a free and we are still moaning on here.

OK Guti will require mega wages but we are probably talking at worst about £1m a year more in wages than it would cost us to pay in wages to a run of the mill 30 year old midfielder who'd probably cost us £5m in transfer fees.

Here's hoping the Williams/Allardyce/Salgado combination work the oracle on Guti.

[47er]

I agree we should not be considering Ledley.

We have been crying out for a world class presence in the middle of the park, have one in range on a free and we are still moaning on here.

OK Guti will require mega wages but we are probably talking at worst about £1m a year more in wages than it would cost us to pay in wages to a run of the mill 30 year old midfielder who'd probably cost us £5m in transfer fees.

Here's hoping the Williams/Allardyce/Salgado combination work the oracle on Guti.

Quite right . There are probably hundreds of posts on this messageboard bewailing the fact that we have never replaced Bentley

Very few are moaning, most of us are thrilled at the possibility of signing Guti. We won't hear that from Mr "I'd prefer Ince,I really would" Eddie though.

[Majiball]

1. Who says that there is no plan? Speculation on who we are going to sign? Maybe wait until the end of the transfer window and then make a judgement. This is the same Sam who sold Benni and chose not to sign another striker and we ended up... 10th.

2. How can you make a plan months ago when the final league position was decided on the final day? Three places is worth over £2 million pounds, thats the difference between signing a "priority striker" and signing a "priority striker" AND a "central midfielder too.

3. Sign young players? We will have next year in the first team squad: Kalinic (22) Jones (18), Hanley (18), Olsson (22), Hoilett (20), Nzonzi (21), Linganzi (20), SEVEN players under 22, FOUR 20 or under- we need experience in the team now to go alongside these players- that costs money, we cannot have an entire team of young players.

4. Guti is currently Vice Captain of Real Madrid the biggest team in the world, he has played for them his entire career. If you have seen him this year you would see someone who is an outstanding passer of a football and someone who would not look out of place for Arsenal, Man Utd etc let alone Blackburn. Question: How many goals would we have scored this year with Guti providing the passing rather than Andrews or Grella? Needless signing? Have we not been crying out for a creative midfield player this season? Will the likes of Nzonzi, Linganzi, Olsson, Kalinic etc not learn from his experiences?

5. Finally IF we had signed Dindane LAST summer or Frederic then we would have been better this year- compare their striker rates to others in our squad and they stand up to scrutiny, especially Dindane for £2.7 million is a snip for what he provides to team.

1.) did we not try and sign Dindane? Even gave him a medical and the such back in Jan, sam certainly tried to replace Benni. Holding up the Benni sale and then saying we finished 10th doesn't necessarily mean a plan is in place. I agree we need to wait and see who actually comes in as hopefully its just lazy journalism on some parts as Benjani is PANTS.

2.) Hang on, so we finish 10th and we can sign both. So why wasn't option A (striker) done and sorted as he was always on the list. The extra place money means we can sign a bonus yes, but we don't seem to have done our homework very well on the position we always intended to sign. The Dindane saga highlights the point that we seem not to know what we want. You don't give players medicals etc if your not going to sign them?

3.) agree we have a few good ones, but experience wise we have a lot too. Robbo, Salgado, Nelsen, Givet, Samba, Ped's, Diouf, Roberts, Emerton, Dunn, so we're hardly short in that area.

4.) Guti, great player is exactly what we need in midfield for me. However if it means no "top striker" as was stated by Sam because of his wages and signing fee, then you could say thats a deviation from the plan. Our strikers have proved that they need several chances to score and who's to say Kalinic won't continue in the same vein. We need a goal-scorer, I thought Guti was on top of the striker not taking money from the funds set aside for one. I don't really understand because we have several players out of contract on reasonable money plus Benni's and a new TV deal, and a better than budgeted finish, yet we can't afford both, strange. Yes the kids will grow, but we need goals first, as they'll just as likely grow with good coaching and pitch time.

5.) But we didn't. We signed a 6 million pound kid who will hopefully blossom, but hasn't yet. We do need a striker, we cannot go into the season even playing 1 up top with only 2, one injury and we have no reserve, also are they going to score goals, debatable. Dindane is all pace and muscle and is lacking technically half his goals have been mis-hits, I'd far rather someone else bought him.

All this talk of an experienced striker who's scored goals in the premiership is absolute bobbins. Hughes signed three good ones who all banged in 20 or so and only one had played here before, so its not necessary. What we need is for the staff to pull there fingers out and find the RSC or Benni's that are kicking about and persuade them to come here, something Sam is very good at. Adriano fits the bill perfectly, no fee, big strong, quick, scores goals, and a freebie. For the 2+ million and 30K odd a week that a Benjani or a Dindane would cost, we could be getting a fallen great, albeit on high wages.

[Guest Kamy100]

Sam was proved right with Salagado and signing Guti would be superb, we have been crying out for someone in the middle of the park who has technical ability. I am sure that the club are working on 2 fronts as earlier this week John Williams said that the summer priority is to sign a striker.

[trueblue]

This does NOT make good reading from Mr Nixon in today's Sunday People...

Guti Warning

[The Rover of Finland]

This does NOT make good reading from Mr Nixon in today's Sunday People...

Guti Warning

Nicko, why would we bring Kameni in? Is Robbo going to Arsenal?

[Bobby G]

It says we are linked with Kameni, the Cameroon number 1. I dont believe it. He is a world class keeper certainly, but I doubt we are looking for a keeper right now.

[Amo]

MGP is not on 50k a week...put that one to bed now! Its gets boring hearing the same old moans.....hes signed and thats the end of it!!

You forgot to grab your pompoms and say 'the future's blue & white' or some such.

Hello!!

When Souness signed Pedersen it was because the globe had been scoured and MGP had a glint in his eye. Rovers took a chance on a player who has since PROVEN to be worth his weight in gold - 6 years and hundreds of games, great ratio of goals and assists.

Yup, find young stars like Pedersen and when they peak move them on. That's how it should work. You don't reward them with mega pay-days when they're well past their prime.

Why do you hate him so much??? Is it because he's not an inspiring catch on a computer game?

Yes, that'll be it...

[imy9]

1.) did we not try and sign Dindane? Even gave him a medical and the such back in Jan, sam certainly tried to replace Benni. Holding up the Benni sale and then saying we finished 10th doesn't necessarily mean a plan is in place. I agree we need to wait and see who actually comes in as hopefully its just lazy journalism on some parts as Benjani is PANTS.

2.) Hang on, so we finish 10th and we can sign both. So why wasn't option A (striker) done and sorted as he was always on the list. The extra place money means we can sign a bonus yes, but we don't seem to have done our homework very well on the position we always intended to sign. The Dindane saga highlights the point that we seem not to know what we want. You don't give players medicals etc if your not going to sign them?

3.) agree we have a few good ones, but experience wise we have a lot too. Robbo, Salgado, Nelsen, Givet, Samba, Ped's, Diouf, Roberts, Emerton, Dunn, so we're hardly short in that area.

4.) Guti, great player is exactly what we need in midfield for me. However if it means no "top striker" as was stated by Sam because of his wages and signing fee, then you could say thats a deviation from the plan. Our strikers have proved that they need several chances to score and who's to say Kalinic won't continue in the same vein. We need a goal-scorer, I thought Guti was on top of the striker not taking money from the funds set aside for one. I don't really understand because we have several players out of contract on reasonable money plus Benni's and a new TV deal, and a better than budgeted finish, yet we can't afford both, strange. Yes the kids will grow, but we need goals first, as they'll just as likely grow with good coaching and pitch time.

5.) But we didn't. We signed a 6 million pound kid who will hopefully blossom, but hasn't yet. We do need a striker, we cannot go into the season even playing 1 up top with only 2, one injury and we have no reserve, also are they going to score goals, debatable. Dindane is all pace and muscle and is lacking technically half his goals have been mis-hits, I'd far rather someone else bought him.

All this talk of an experienced striker who's scored goals in the premiership is absolute bobbins. Hughes signed three good ones who all banged in 20 or so and only one had played here before, so its not necessary. What we need is for the staff to pull there fingers out and find the RSC or Benni's that are kicking about and persuade them to come here, something Sam is very good at. Adriano fits the bill perfectly, no fee, big strong, quick, scores goals, and a freebie. For the 2+ million and 30K odd a week that a Benjani or a Dindane would cost, we could be getting a fallen great, albeit on high wages.

1. We did try to sign Dindane but Lens wanted £4 million in January and Sam chose not to invest the Benni once this became clear. I also remember Beattie being available but Sam chose not to sign him as he would have cost too much. We need to see who we sign by the end of the window but Benjani is not a bad player, especially on a free transfer.

2. Signing a striker was plan A but at that time it was £2 million, now I think we can safely assume we have a lot more to spend as we have been looking at the Pole (over £4 million) and the Argentinian (£6 million plus), I hope to be right- I think that IF we sign Guti we will still spend money on a striker but that will be Plan A again.

3. 6 players on your list are over 30 years old, I think we need players who are between 25-30, players with enough experience but would have a resale value too- you could argue that the blend is about right too- in that case it doesnt really matter what the age of the player is, it would be about what they could bring to the table.

4. Cant disagree with what you say here, we'll have to see (and hope) we sign the right players by the end of the window.

5. Hughes signed top strikers but those gems are few and far between. Looking at EVERY club in the premier club- they are ALL struggling to sign strikers Robinho and Berbatov to name but two players who have been flops and cost £60 million plus. I personally dont think we need a goal scoring striker (controversial!), what we need is a striker who can hold the ball up and bring others into play, e.g. Frederic. P.

Adriano is a wonderful dream, there is more chance of Rooney joining Blackburn Rovers than Adriano. As an example Cacau (a very average Brazilian) was looking for £75K a week, Adriano is on about double that, even if Rovers offer that, would he join us having played most of his career at the biggest clubs in the world, he is not even 30 so no way near past it! Henry would be better, may accept £75K a week!!

[Majiball]

Sam was proved right with Salagado and signing Guti would be superb, we have been crying out for someone in the middle of the park who has technical ability. I am sure that the club are working on 2 fronts as earlier this week John Williams said that the summer priority is to sign a striker.

Salgado came good eventually, but I can just as easily see the point that some have raised that he cost 200K odd a game. I hope he can maintain his form into and for the whole of next season, but at present both sides of the arguement have merit.

Guti as I've said already is a great player and I agree he is exactly what our midfield needs. But yet again both sides have merit, chances are great and I too believe Guti would create more for us. But just as Salgado took 6+ months to adapt so could Guti. Even if he does create and extra 2-3 chances a game our strikers based on their performances to date have shown that they can be lacking at times. Despite the promise that Kalinic has shown we're yet to see that promise, blossom. I'm not trying to be negative, but as I've said already both sides have merit. Personnaly I think he will come good, but thats just a guess based on what I know and have seen.

As always we get linked with some right dross, it was the same last year. Same players always hit the headlines and yet never seem to transpire, so we have to hope thats the case again. But we budgeted for 12th and a striker to come in, so why weren't we planning to wards that eventuality despite what could have happened in reality.

The extra place money is a bonus and should lead to another signing, but we were always going to get the striker and with the intent of getting him on board before the WC commences. We seem to have missed out on three of our targets to date, but all could have been negotiated whilst the season was going on. Dindane's been available all year, The Pole has been as well, Piquionne was always up for grabs as well. So why not get in early get as much done as possible and then sign and seal or drop out once the reality is decided? It could just as easily be said that we've got more money so now we're having a gander at what else we could get.

Both sides have merit is the point I'm trying to make, we are not all robots and do not all think alike. Football is all about opinions always has been always will be but certain opinions are not allowed or even given consideration, these days. The points raised have as much basis as the others regardless of the perception of their "charge"

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

People scream for Sam to show some ambition. He goes for Guti. He then gets abuse for not investing the cash into half a dozen unproven youngsters or a striker or two. The only strikers available seem to be Dindane/Benjani/Piquionne, who wouldnt improve the squad at all in my opinion, and yet people would rather we go for them instead of the type of player we have been desperate for all season, a creative midfield player..

If we get Guti then i'll consider this transfer window a success regardless of anything else. Kalinic/Roberts were the only two strikers we had for the last 4 months of the season and we coped pretty damn well. With a bit of extra quality in midfield I reckon Kalinic could really come on next seaosn.

[Hughesy]

What would people rather have:

Guti & a cheap option like Benjani?

or A striker like Dindane & a cheap midfielder?

[Ricky]

The point is that those 3 strikers are not the only ones available.

[MeanGreenMachine]

It says we are linked with Kameni, the Cameroon number 1. I dont believe it. He is a world class keeper certainly, but I doubt we are looking for a keeper right now.

Im pretty sure Kameni was on a free last summer, anyway he is pretty much David James. The ability to pull off amazing saves but then the ability to be a complete boob.

The Guti news is promising, we really need to pull this one off, big time. He is a matchwinner, somthing this side really lacks.

On the striker front im still shocked we never bothered with Pizzaro last summer, but anyway id be sniffing around City for Felipe Caicedo. He is 21, massive bloke and has the raw ability to mould into the sort of striker we need.

Also worth a look at Altidore on loan? Again another player with the right attributes for our game.

[Hughesy]

Caciedo....Vela....Sturridge....Altidore....Macheda - any of those on loan wouldnt be a bad option to give us a few more options in attack.

[John]

Striker wise, ideally, Sam wants someone with Premier League experience. He suggested he would not enter the loan market again and the aim is to buy someone who can make an immediate impact.

Also, we only have £2/3 million to spend.

Narrows the field a bit...

[AggyBlue]

The point is that those 3 strikers are not the only ones available.

Exactly, we will have the feelers out for more options but the cost to the club has to fit within the budget.

JW does not play fantasy football.

[nicko]

I have no idea where the Kameni thing has come from...if that's been stuck at the end of a story of mine that's someone else's problem.

Total nonsense as far as I am aware.

[1864roverite]

earlier on this morning (much earlier) I went fishing for

a while on a local pit, the prize carp my ambition. Having sat there for an hour or two using small worms I got bite after bite but could only hook the smaller ones. I then decided to go the whole hog and launched a massive worm in the hope of at least getting a double figure beast, hey preton, after 10 minutes a 15 pounder came out.

It appears to me that Mr Nixons worm baiting is working with some our members !!

Rovers do have money, it is as clear as daylight. It is how much they are wkilling to spend that is in question.

For me, this next season will see Rovers add at least £9m EXTRA into the coffers. Now please, you cannot tell me that our own operating costs have gone up that much. That is aside to the money from sales, wages saved and other sundries.

Our % outgoings for next season will be similar to this past season if not lower, so again do the maths and you will see extra cash in the pot.

wait and see and stop stressing. I dont think the Guti thing is right for Rovers, were lowering the ages of the team so why go for a plodder ?

[modes98]

Caciedo....Vela....Sturridge....Altidore....Macheda - any of those on loan wouldnt be a bad option to give us a few more options in attack.

I'd take any of the first 3. I'm not sure Chelsea would let us have Sturridge after it went sour with Di Santo.