[Archived] Summer 2011 Transfer Window Part One

[RevidgeBlue]

Whether you want to accept it or not, we have been landed with a complete amateur of a manager and we are only still in the Premiership by the grace of God.

Rubbish. We stayed up because we accumulated 43 points from 38 games. Which was enough to keep us up fairly comfortably in the end and was only about 3-4 points shy of the likely mark we were headed for under Sam.

The manager you despise so much also managed 8 points from the last four games under the most intense pressure and the players appeared to give him their all in the last five games.

[Iceman]

Mixed information on weather the owners have money or not.

Why make statements such as, we dont have to sell our best players, we are not a selling club.. IF, they dont have any money..

However, why now suddenly decide to sell Jones when they have money? I dont have a problem with selling Samba, he wants to leave , but a talented youngster like Jones, who at the age of 19, should still be playing a few more seasons for us before moving.

Something just doesnt quite add up, and i have a feeling that its due to Kean being in charge.

[neophox]

We must not sell Phil Jones!!!

But we do need to put all of this into perspective and be realistic about what we can achieve in terms of value with the players we have that could be sold. There are definitely a number of players that we can sell to help add to the £5m that we are supposed to have.

The list that I propose as saleable assets are not just players that (in my opinion) we don't need, but also players that either want to leave or the club want rid of.

Chris Samba (£10/12m)

Nikola Kalanic (£4m)

Gael Givet (£3m)

Keith Andrews (£1m)

Vince Grella (£1m)

El Hadji Diouf (£2m)

This would give us a total available to spend (including the £5m) of £26/28m!!!!!! (If the owners stay true to their word about putting the money back in the pot!?!?!)

There are others that could be sold, Jason Roberts, Morten Gamst Pedersen... maybe more, but these could well be decent (albeit very expensive, due to wage size) squaddies next season, and would need replacing for what we'd get if we sold them I doubt if it would be worth it?

Players I would be looking at...

Jermaine Jones or Alou Diarra (£3m)

Darron Gibson (£2.5)

Sebastien Bassong (£4m)

Jermaine Defoe (£10m)

Stephen Warnock (£3.5m)

Vicente (free)

Larsson (free)

I'm only snatching at the prices here, I could be well out, but I reckon Fergie played Gibson more towards the end of the season to put him in the shop window, he looks mediocre at Old Trafford, but I bet he'd look a different player at Rovers, not to mention that he was trying to get rid of him last year. Bassong would directly replace Givet, but I think there is need to address the left fullback position, either stick Olsson there (which I don't agree with) or get him further forward and sign a more orthodox left back, Stevie Warnock???

We are crying out for a natural finisher, and if what I've read is to be believed and Jermaine Defoe really is available we need to stick our hat in the ring & see what he says. There are plenty of strikers out there but he's is proven in the PL, and a fit Jermaine Defoe is also an England regular.

We have no need to sell Phil Jones, and I don't think he will want to go if he is given the option. My fear is that the owners want him sold and have made their minds up already!!!???

There's a decent window out there if the people involved at the club pull their fingers out and put some work in to make it happen.

It's been too long since we had saleable assets that are worth good money, with either cover if they were to leave, or good replacements available in the market at reasonable prices.

This is the most important window in recent times and in my opinion will define where we are as a club, and where the owners see our future.

I'm excited about it, blind faith tell's me that we will get all the players we need and we'll be challenging for Europe next season... Reality however may bring me back to earth with a bump & have me sobbing into a pint glass at the end of next season???!!!

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!!!

No way for Warnock, he's past it.

[PAFELL]

Rubbish. We stayed up because we accumulated 43 points from 38 games. Which was enough to keep us up fairly comfortably in the end and was only about 3-4 points shy of the likely mark we were headed for under Sam.

The manager you despise so much also managed 8 points from the last four games under the most intense pressure and the players appeared to give him their all in the last five games.

How can you say Rovers stayed up fairly comfortable. It went to the last match of the season. Thankfully rovers were 3 nil up at ht. But at that point wolves were in the bottom 3. If it wasn't for Blackpool losing, brum losing and Rovers beating Wolves - rovers would have been relegated. I bet not many, if any saw a 3 0 to rovers scoreline prior to kick off.

Going into the last match of the season, dependant on a victory and or other results going in Rovers favour, is not escaping relegation comfortable.

[AggyBlue]

However, why now suddenly decide to sell Jones when they have money? I dont have a problem with selling Samba, he wants to leave , but a talented youngster like Jones, who at the age of 19, should still be playing a few more seasons for us before moving.

Exactly, the club should be looking at another two or three seasons from Jones before/if he leaves.

[Inta Beaver]

My mate is a Stoke fan and has told me that Stoke have had a massive bid for Huth from a London club and have had to accept. If true this could only be good for us with Jones and Samba.

Huth will be a huge loss for Stoke.

[RevidgeBlue]

There's bound to be an immense amount of speculation around Jones generated by the red tops as he is one of if not the most marketable player around this summer.

The Club have already said we don't have to sell him. (Unlike the last few windows) If Jones is such a Rovers fans as people are making out (which I doubt) he should see no problem in staying at Ewood for another season or two at least to further enhance his burgeoning reputation. If he leaves it will be entirely down to him.

Samba is in a somewhat different position. Agewise he is probably at his absolute peak as regards ability and transfer value so if the likes of ManUre/Arsenal/Chelsea came in for him this summer that might not happen again and it would be quite hard to begrudge him that sort of move. Equally though it would be desperately disappointing if he took a sideways move purely for a bit more money such as the Villa swap which was being mooted 12 months or so ago.

Bottom line as always though is that if we have any serious ambitions of improving and moving forwards as a Club we need to keep all our best players and build round them.

[alexanders]

I think I would be happy if Sebbe Larsson came on a free as he would adress our right wing problem.

[savage8]

I just hope that Phil Jones doesn't have a £16 million release clause. Otherwise, he is gone. And whoever made the deal with him, is to blame.

One of the best prospects in England cannot have such a low release clause.

Didn't Kean say something like it would take a bid higher than we have ever had for our one of our players to be enough for Jonesy? So that's got to be at least £18 million?

Surely it'd even be hard for Kean to get that one wrong?!

[beanie]

Its people who give their opinions as 'the truth' that gets me. A lot of people are very selective with what they choose to believe and what they deem to be facts.

I believe the posters who have now stated that P.Jones wants away are the same people who said that Hoilett was faking an injury in order to engineer a move.

These same posters stated that the squad were all unhappy with Kean during the end of the season and key players wanted out, most of whom have now signed new deals and played as passionately under Kean as they had done under any other manager.

I dont pay much attention to people who claim to have insider information, give us a list of reasons with which to panic regarding Venky's/Kean etc but to then fail to respond when said information turns out not to be accurate at all.

From my point of view, Venky's have until the end of this transfer window before I consider them to have failed or succeeded. So far they've veered towards the former but still have time to gain credit. Right now Kean being in the job isn't as important as the quality of player we have out on the pitch.

If P.Jones decides to go then I wouldnt hold it against him but I would hardly blame Venky's or Kean for his departure. If he's as much of a fan as he says he is then Id hope to see him here come next season.

Good post some of theses people also told us about Rafa signing a contract with us then when it never happend used their rumour to blast the owners and kean with. I'm not keans biggest fan but he tried to change the style of play mid season so i'm willing to see if with a pre season behind him he can do so.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

I love how certain members of this message board have taken the 16m release clause as gospel. Not surprising but still.

I think in relation to how comfortably we stayed up, Kean did a lot better than most of us thought he'd do in the last 2 months of the season. Under pressure he got results which is not easy. Doesn't mean he's the right man for the job, far from it, but it does show that he has an idea of how to manage. I'd still argue that the timing of Allardyce's departure played as big a role in our midseason slump as Kean's introduction.

[Hughesy]

Rubbish. We stayed up because we accumulated 43 points from 38 games. Which was enough to keep us up fairly comfortably in the end and was only about 3-4 points shy of the likely mark we were headed for under Sam.

The manager you despise so much also managed 8 points from the last four games under the most intense pressure and the players appeared to give him their all in the last five games.

Spot on - we had a rough patch but he seems to have come out of it.....no doubt thats because the players took control and ignored him, despite going to him several times when we scored in the last few games

However, why now suddenly decide to sell Jones when they have money? I dont have a problem with selling Samba, he wants to leave , but a talented youngster like Jones, who at the age of 19, should still be playing a few more seasons for us before moving.

So in your mind we should hold a player at Ewood, regardless of the fee and regardless of the players feelings? If he wants to go we should tell him to pipe down and tell him he will stay regardless?

How can you say Rovers stayed up fairly comfortable. It went to the last match of the season. Thankfully rovers were 3 nil up at ht. But at that point wolves were in the bottom 3. If it wasn't for Blackpool losing, brum losing and Rovers beating Wolves - rovers would have been relegated.

Paf - Regardless of what you say - we were NEVER in the bottom 3 in the ENTIRE season. All ifs buts and maybe. End of the day we stayed up in a superb way on the last day.

[RevidgeBlue]

How can you say Rovers stayed up fairly comfortable.

We ended up on 43 points. Teams on 39 went down. 40 would have been safe.

That is escaping relatively comfortably in my book. Additionally we were not in the bottom three at any point, our future was always in our own hands and we made the most of that fact by winning on the last day.

[Blue n White Rover]

Exactly, the club should be looking at another two or three seasons from Jones before/if he leaves.

Agree with that. However, do we not run the risk that in a few seasons, he'll have somewhat 2 years left on his contract and big clubs may not be willing to pay £20m plus?

I think Jones needs to look at the situation of his fellow U21 Centre Half Chris Smalling. He is an outstanding prospect and has spent majority of this season on the bench, when he could have been playing 1st team football under Sparky.

Personally, I would keep him for a season, or I'd be happy to get £22m+ for him and at the same time have him loaned back to us if he is not guaranteed 1st team football.

It's not going to be dull, that's for sure.

[jim mk2]

Rubbish. We stayed up because we accumulated 43 points from 38 games. Which was enough to keep us up fairly comfortably in the end and was only about 3-4 points shy of the likely mark we were headed for under Sam.

The manager you despise so much also managed 8 points from the last four games under the most intense pressure and the players appeared to give him their all in the last five games.

We stayed up by the skin of our teeth on the last day of the season thanks to desperately-needed win at Wolves and other results going our way. Three to four points is the difference between a relegation battle and mid-table safety - which do you prefer ?

Rovers did improve in the last few games but how much of that is down to the manager is open debate and does not make up up for the dross performances and poor results of the previous 3 months.

Want me to keep spinning like your post ?

Back on topic, I notice many clubs are moving now to improve their squads. I just hope Rovers haven't locked up the shop for the holidays and are actively pursuing potential targets. It would be good to get a few new players in before pre-season training starts and we do not want last-minute panic signings just before the first league match of the new season.

This is all presuming Venky's are true to their word and will actually spend some money.

[roversmum]

And, - don't want to keep on about this but it is as relevant as keeping on about Sam - don't forget the points we were cheated from by dubious decisions. If you add the Manchester United penalty one (about which opinion is divided but when you hear United fans saying it wasn't a penalty you have to wonder) that comes up to at least eight points.

[Hughesy]

This is all presuming Venky's are true to their word and will actually spend some money.

Dont see why not - we got told £5m a window, they spent at least £4.5m in fees from January alone on Formica & Rochina....that ignores any wages + the wages of RSC & JJ

[jim mk2]

And, - don't want to keep on about this but it is as relevant as keeping on about Sam - don't forget the points we were cheated from by dubious decisions. If you add the Manchester United penalty one (about which opinion is divided but when you hear United fans saying it wasn't a penalty you have to wonder) that comes up to at least eight points.

Should I mention the number of times we got lucky when the opposition smacked the Rovers woodwork ?

[TimmyJimmy]

Firstly welcome back Nicko good to hear from you again.

On Larsson - his last match (or several) were really poor, it was as if he couldn't care whether his team went down or not. His work rate and crossing and corners were so bad in the last game that it's the first time I've ever heard a TV commentator saying that he should be taken off if they were to stand any chance in the match. We aren't that good that we can carry a guy who goes missing in the big games.

On Jones - my information was that it wasn't so much that he was upset with being sold in the last window just that it appeared to be to a southern club. He's young and enjoys home and friends and family, London wouldn't have been a good choice for him at that time. If Liverpool come in for him and the price is right then he's gone IMO. If ManU or Citeh come in for him then the answer is maybe but it would have to be accompanied with a lot of stroking and good words or else he's likely to stay with us for a while longer. This isn't from any source it's just my opinion and is based on something I believe to have been fact in January. Right now I have no idea and this is just an extrapolation.

On Hoilett - I think he'll sign if and only if we show ambition. That translates to keeping our best players and attracting the odd stand out player to take us to 'the next level'. I guess that comes down to Kean's pulling power or the good offices of Kentaro.

[roversmum]

Should I mention the number of times we got lucky when the opposition smacked the Rovers woodwork ?

No, because ours smacked their woodwork on a number of occasions, so they got lucky too.

[beanie]

We stayed up by the skin of our teeth on the last day of the season thanks to desperately-needed win at Wolves and other results going our way. Three to four points is the difference between a relegation battle and mid-table safety - which do you prefer ?

Rovers did improve in the last few games but how much of that is down to the manager is open debate and does not make up up for the dross performances and poor results of the previous 3 months.

Want me to keep spinning like your post ?

Back on topic, I notice many clubs are moving now to improve their squads. I just hope Rovers haven't locked up the shop for the holidays and are actively pursuing potential targets. It would be good to get a few new players in before pre-season training starts and we do not want last-minute panic signings just before the first league match of the new season.

This is all presuming Venky's are true to their word and will actually spend some money.

Do you not feel its a bit unfair to blast the manager for any defeats we pick up but to then take any credit for wins away how can he possibly win in this situation.

[alexanders]

We stayed up by the skin of our teeth on the last day of the season thanks to desperately-needed win at Wolves and other results going our way.

100% wrong. Other results going our way had nothing to do with it. I would probably say that other results NOT going our way made it more difficult.

[jim mk2]

Dont see why not - we got told £5m a window, they spent at least £4.5m in fees from January alone on Formica & Rochina....that ignores any wages + the wages of RSC & JJ

Jermaine Jones has done well and should probably be signed but are Venky's willing to spend the serious money that will probably be needed to secure him. I'm afraid we are not going to get through another season if this summer we sign only a few more cheap foreign kids none of whom are ready for the first team.

[roversmum]

I'm not comfortable about Larsson. I've got a feeling he might have an attitude problem.

[Blue n White Rover]

Should I mention the number of times we got lucky when the opposition smacked the Rovers woodwork ?

You can't pin the blame on anyone if they hit the woodwork. However, when you get an unfair decision against you, then you blame the ref.

Big difference.