[Archived] Phil Jones

[47er]

What happened to the "it would take a bigger fee than Blackburn have ever received to get Jones"? (or words to that effect).

We were lied to by the manager.

[Kennys Magic Hat]

A few points to make:

1 Phil Jones is not a Rovers fan in the way we are, he's a professional footballer and ultimately he's going to do whats best for his career. Unfortunately years of underfunding from the previous owners and the failure of the current ones to put any serious money where their mouth is as yet is not likely to make one of the best young players in the country want to hang around!

2 Leading on from the last point people are underestimating just how good Phil Jones actually is. He's not just a player with potential, he's awesome already and a future England captain - you could see that as soon as he went in hard on Lampard and marked Drogba out of the game on his PL debut. The fact that all of the top clubs were in for him says it all - Harry Redknapps summary of him was particularly glowing as was Rooneys who decribed him as one of his toughest opponents this season.

3 He's not just going to warm the bench. As other people have said, Smalling has made plenty of appearances this season and Jones is a better player than him and commanded a bigger fee. He'll be at the 2nd best club in the world, the Premier League champions, under the greatest British manager of all time who has proved himself time and time again at knowing exactly how to nurture young talent. Look at Ronaldo and Nani for example, they didnt play all the time and hardly set the world on fire in their first couple of seasons but now one is one of the best players in the world and the other was one of the best in the PL last season. He's also going to be playing with the best players in the league, who have massive experience of winning trophies season after season. To say he would learn more at Rovers from an inexperienced manager and at best midtable players is laughable. United are light years ahead of us, let's face facts.

Good luck to Phil Jones, I will be gutted but also proud when I see a former Rovers playing for one of the worlds top clubs. No doubt the brainless morons who increasingly populate Ewood these days will boo him on his return but I for one will give him a good reception. Top class player and future England captain, he deserves to be playing at a top club and that isnt us any more!

[BangkokRover]

I can see him playing as a defensive midfielder next season with Vidic and Rio still there. Once one of them moves on he will slot in at the back.

Where BFS played him and everyone slated him for it?

[Kennys Magic Hat]

Where BFS played him and everyone slated him for it?

Exactly. He was doing a job there, thats it. He did ok but slightly out of his depth. As a centre back he's a world beater but midfield not so much! After what happened to Rio when we beat them 4-3 I can't see Fergie trying that one again!!

[Sasman]

Brett Emerton turned down Manchester United, many many years ago!

Look how his career turned out, 10 years Rovers Veteran this year!

You don't turn down a United move

Sadly I think he will just warm the bench he will not be in class of the current United back two for years maybe could take him 3 or 4 years to play regularly if ever, still very green.

I was much more sad to see the likes of Shearer, Bellamy, Duff, Sutton, Sherwood go then I am Jones because I think he is replaceable. Only a defender after all and not Hendry class yet.

[waggy]

great move for pj,going to the best club side in england and he will get plenty of games,watched the utd game in a bar in town and a utd fan said that jones is a great player,seems fergie felt the same.at this rate VENKYS will have earned there stake money back by the start of july,hopefully they will take the money and run,plenty of decent centre halves around to replace pj,mills from reading will do for me

[BangkokRover]

I'm gutted too, but I don't know what people are trying to achieve by directing bitter and angry tweets at him. won't achieve anything.

It shows the small town mentality of most Rovers fans. For we know PJ could be back playing for Rovers in a few years.

[Mattyblue]

Small town mentality? Don't be stupid. Rooney flgot death threats when peope thought he could go to City.

[broadsword]

It shows the small town mentality of most Rovers fans. For we know PJ could be back playing for Rovers in a few years.

I'd be very surprised if Jones was back playing for us in a few years! Bloody hell, not very likely, is it?

He's gone on the cheap, and we didn't even get a full season out of him. We've been done over.

[Ricky]

A lot of people slating Kean for his comments, I'm wondering if he was being a little canny and hoping the clause wouldn't become public. By saying what he said he was letting clubs know it would need a big offer to sell.

Kamy has reported that the club offered jones a new contract last weekend which would have made him our highest paid player ever.... At 19 years old!!! Could we have really done more, I don't think so.

[BangkokRover]

I'd be very surprised if Jones was back playing for us in a few years! Bloody hell, not very likely, is it?

He's gone on the cheap, and we didn't even get a full season out of him. We've been done over.

I don't see how we can say he has gone on the cheap.

I am also not happy that he gone but its a fact of life unless we are challenging for trophies or in Europe every year we are always going to loose players.

Anything can happen in football, personally I would welcome him back. In the same I would have welcomed back Duffer if he was younger.

[Mike Graham]

A higher release clause may have helped. Which idiot agreed to £16m? Finn, Williams, Kean ....does anyone know, as if it still matters!

[BangkokRover]

A lot of people slating Kean for his comments, I'm wondering if he was being a little canny and hoping the clause wouldn't become public. By saying what he said he was letting clubs know it would need a big offer to sell.

Kamy has reported that the club offered jones a new contract last weekend which would have made him our highest paid player ever.... At 19 years old!!! Could we have really done more, I don't think so.

Completely agree, now it's up to the club to show us what it can do in the transfer market.

A higher release clause may have helped. Which idiot agreed to £16m? Finn, Williams, Kean ....does anyone know, as if it still matters!

Or may have meant he would not sign a new contract.

[DP]

How is this Venky's and Steve Kean's fault? That is just plain wrong.

The lad is going to the biggest club in the world, he will win lots, earn lots and be a somebody! His life will change - think he will have to cancel his lads holoday now as well, can't be smashed round Zante. Good luck to him and i am pretty sure we will see him in blue and white halves again.

We will move on and the money could well set us up for the next few seasons. I am excited to see Formica, Rochina, Olsson, Hoilett and other academy players next season. Robbie Cotton training with the first team at 16 is big news, he is the next "Phil Jones".

It is not that important to have a players of Phil Jones's level at thw back in a mid table team.

Lets splash the cash on a quality striker.

I don't trust Venky's or Steve Kean. This 'clause' materialising just adds to the dodgy dealings that appear to be going on at our club. There's something rotten in Denmark (or Preston) alright!

Now they have the summer to spend the cash, keep all our other players and prove me wrong. But I don't trust them to do that.

I just wonder how much of a kickback Kean and the Rao brothers are getting from this transfer, not to mention the new contract signed 5 months ago....

[Kamy100]

I don't know what more the club could've done, they sat down with Jones once it became clear that United were going to activate the £16 million clause in his contract, they offered to make him the best player at the club, but at the end of the day Jones wanted to leave and with the clause in his contract there was nothing that Rovers could do. To be honest regardless of who the owners/manager is, when United come in for a player then almost all of the time the player will want to move, they are the biggest club in the country and Phil thinks that he has the ability to go there and make an impact. I have no problems with that.

The downside is the £16 million clause in his contract, again no problems with a player having this in his contract but it should've been higher. I can tell you that it was NOT John Williams decision to have a clause in his contract that was at that level, unfortunately I can't say more because I have to respect confidences.

We all have to accept that Jones is moving on, wish him all the best and hope that Kean/Jerome Anderson can find an adequate replacement. Taking what Venky's are saying at face value then Kean has a transfer budget of around £26 million (with the Jones money included). I am also convinced that Samba will also want to move on, no idea if he has any clauses in his contract, seen as he signed a new contract at the same time as Jones you can't rule out him also having such a release clause, the hope is that if there is one then it isn't at a ridiculous low level.

[Mike Graham]

Cracking post Kamy, I do worry that when (not if) Samba goes it will also be on the cheap.

BTW how did MrBean gett on with Junior's Dad in Canada, any word on a new contract or is the lad waiting for a move?

[Kamy100]

Nothing on any contact with Junior's dad. One thing is for sure is that regardless of what Junior wants, Kean/Rovers will need to convince his dad that signing an extension to his contract is in Junior's best interest, I don't know Junior but from all that I have heard is that he will always go with the advice of his father, the only reason he signed the contract last season was because Sam managed to convince his dad that this would in Junior's best interest.

[Ferrit]

Samba will be going, you can cast iron guarantee it. He will see it as a perfect opportunity to cite the clubs lack of ambition, I can read the headlines now.

The question is, who are we going to bring in to replace these 2? The likes of James Collins and Matthew Upson genuinely sends a chill down my spine, if they're anywhere near our back 4 next season be worried, very worried.

[Rover Down Under]

Obituary: Loyalty in Football, 1888 - 2011.

Some 20 years ago a newly born baby took it's first gasps of air opened it's eyes and began crying. Today, that baby made the, apparently rather easy, decision to kill off Loyalty in football forever. Loyalty was a tough old fella, although wounded in the mid-1960's, Loyalty was with us for the best part of a hundred years. In a huge twist of irony, Loyalty was dealt the mortal blow on 20th February 1992, the day before an, as yet unnamed, Phillip Jones entered the world. It was at that time that the lifelong partner of Loyalty was hung out to dry, drawn and quartered and this triggered a slow but inevitable decline in the health and respect for Loyalty.

One-quarter of that "quartered" part thrived in a new money-saturated environment, although four areas increasingly took the lions share of this and poached promising resources from other parts. Yet, over the last 20 years Loyalty fought on through the likes of Le Tissier, Jansen, Harper and others who still remembered and respected Loyalty. And it seemed that it would live on despite the best efforts of specialists from Manchester, Knightsbridge, Merseyside and North London who insisted that Loyalty be euthanised. Their financial clout (although mostly all with borrowed money) along with tacit support from the FA, and the implied notion that those that preferred Loyalty would be ineligible for the, supposedly prestigious yet overhyped, Three Lions club, meant Loyalty had fewer and fewer proponents.

Deadly Agents and viruses also took their toll on Loyalty. Using hypnotic bright stadium lights, big cities and the soothing sound of cash registers and credit-card swipes, the greedy, cancerous Agent shrouded any notion of Loyalty in a haze of cigar smoke and hollow notions that it was all done "in their best interests."

The vile and common WAG virus also helped accelerate the demise of Loyalty. The virus is known for an insatiable appetite for Cartier, Vuitton and Choo and has a powerful ability to smother any sense of Loyalty with the WAGina whoremoan - a stimulant that causes the smaller head of any male to dominate the larger head in any decision making process.

Many had claimed Loyalty had been dead for some time yet there were some who clung on in the hope it would live on in some. It was said that Loyalty would truly die when a local player, signed by the club he supported and who was nurtured through to maturity, would succumb to the diseases that crippled Loyalty. This, of course, has happened before but previously Loyalty had been shown some respect for a few years before being abandoned. In this case it was less than a year and that is why today, Loyalty in football took it's last gasps of air and closed it's eyes and why loyal football fans will shed a tear, as they will do every January and July when they are reminded again and again of what once was.

[Mattyblue]

Phil Jones was not a 'fan' in the sense I understand it, but he probably had a soft spot for Rovers and he probably did enjoy playing for the club.

However, when I read on this message board, dyed in the wool Rovers fans who spend every hour of every day on this website, living and breathing BRFC saying 'well I'd go, you've got to, you HAVE to go to Manchester United'.

Eh? No you don't! I would find it the greatest honour to play for Blackburn Rovers- MY club, especially if I was earning over £60000 a flaming week! I would NOT be leaving at 19 after playing a few dozen games for my own club.

Football really is screwed in this country, if even our most passionate fans would buger off at the first sniff of a 'big move'.

[BangkokRover]

Samba will be going, you can cast iron guarantee it. He will see it as a perfect opportunity to cite the clubs lack of ambition, I can read the headlines now.

The question is, who are we going to bring in to replace these 2? The likes of James Collins and Matthew Upson genuinely sends a chill down my spine, if they're anywhere near our back 4 next season be worried, very worried.

neither of those players are anyway near EPL standard.

[Ferrit]

Phil Jones was not a 'fan' in the sense I understand it, but he probably had a soft spot for Rovers and he probably did enjoy playing for the club.

However, when I read on this message board, dyed in the wool Rovers fans who spend every hour of every day on this website, living and breathing BRFC saying 'well I'd go, you've got to, you HAVE to go to Manchester United'.

Eh? No you don't! I would find it the greatest honour to play for Blackburn Rovers- MY club, especially if I was earning over £60000 a flaming week! I would NOT be leaving at 19 after playing a few dozen games for my own club.

Football really is screwed in this country, if even our most passionate fans would buger off at the first sniff of a 'big move'.

Difference being, we'll never know if you would, or wouldn't go. It's easy to say, "oh i'd stay as i'm a Rovers fan" but when that chance comes knocking, and you're actually in the hot seat with a chance to go .... i'd hazard a guess to say few (when I say few I mean basically none) would turn it down.

[Kamy100]

Football really is screwed in this country, if even our most passionate fans would buger off at the first sniff of a 'big move'.

Most professional footballers view things very dispassionately. A few weeks ago I was reading something written by a current professional player, playing in the Premier League where he said most players hate interacting with fans, he went on to say that most players see playing the game as a "job" and make decisions about their career in terms of moving onto bigger and better things, very much like all of us do in our current roles (eg you work for a small company, the market leader in your sector comes and offers you more money and chance to progress yourself to a higer level), 99.9% of people would be off like a shot. Footballers are no different. This footballer went on to say that players resent fans telling them what to do (on the pitch), again his view was that they are professionals but are treated differently to other so called professionals, the example he gave was no one would ever dream of going to a doctor and advising them on what they should be doing.

While I may not agree with what the player was saying, it did give a very good insight into the way that the majority of players think. Jones may or may not have been a Rovers fan, but when making this decision to leave he will have been thinking as "professional", he would have seen that in terms of career progression (moving to a bigger club, increase chances of winning silverware and playing at a higher level) then for him the decision to leave Rovers was a relatively easy one.

I see where you are coming from Matty and to some extent I agree, but footballers do not think like us fans.

[Hughesy]

£16.5m the LT are reporting the fee at, even though I believe it is £16m – of which Kean will receive ALL of it! With £10m summer budget also given....Thats £26m so far!

So we offered to pay Phil Jones over £65k a week….at 19, with just 34 league games experience under his belt – yet he turned us down, and would rather be a bit part player from the bench at United!!! Shame on him….we have invested in him from 9 years old, he leaves us within 2 years of playing in the big league, shows there is Zero loyalty there.

Forget him now - £26m to spend (without the sale of Samba) – get looking for talent, and don’t make rash decisions.

[Mattyblue]

That's my point Kamy, I know Jones doesn't feel like us, yes he had an affinity with the club, but that was probably about it.

My issue is with fans like us, you know the ones that spend far too much of their time, money and emotion on Blackburn Rovers feeling that they wold have no choice but to go to Man Utd at 19, very, very sad that it has come to this.