Transfer Window Chat Thread

[glen9mullan]

The bids/Enquiries are there, The players we want have been highlighted, Why it is taking so long is anyone's guess.

Everyone was really excited by this window and that excitement has at times been tested by bad press, slow progress and what appear shallow promises.

Do we really have things that bad though?

If we comfortably retain our Prem status this season that will be deemed a great success, from where was was last season.

Aston Villa have lost their best 2 players and have although they have brought in N'Zogbia they are worse off,

Everton- Can't remember them buying anyone, much be frustrating be a Toffee's fan.

Arsenal- They are classed as a team who should be challenging for the league/European honours, but have lost Clichy, Fabregasc and Nasri about to leave too and their sigings have not set to many pulses racing around the Emirates

Many other teams are in the same boat where players have yet to arrive in this window and they have also seen players leave.

Its difficult for us all to remain positive, and sometimes you have to wonder if you have recieved a bang on the head when you remain optimistic.

When you read in the papers we are chasing multi million pound superstars only to later find out all bets are off, it comes as a bomb shell, But hey we have always had a great scouting network which has seen us bring in value for money and turn an OK player into a household name, I.e Samba, Cruz, Bentley, Berg, the list is endless.

When we won the league we bought many players who where deemed surplas to requirments at other clubs, and we built a team, and not just a squad of players.

So far we have Rochina and Formica from January, they are like new players as they was not rushed into action when they arrived. Both are skillful exciting and the type of player we have not had at Rovers for many a year.

Goodwillie has arrived, and I don't know much about him, he is young and highly rated in Scotland, he was not expensive and is a gamble worth taking seeing he cost a third of what we got for Kalinic before add'ons

Petrovic- I have followed him since he was 18 and i'm really pleased he has come to rovers, In fact i'm still pinching myself cos I expected him to be wearing Manchester United or Juventus colours this year, I rate him that highly. We are all in for a treat with him and i'm thrilled.

I'm aware of players we went for this summer which fell through, because frankly they were unrealistic but I'm also aware of players who are still live, and if we can grab just a couple of those Rovers is going to be an exciting place to be this season.

The brand of football which we could potentialy play makes having a season ticket to witness it like a Wonka golden ticket.

This window has not closed, and ideally we wanted to see our signings here now, but that has not happened for one reason or another,

Do we dwell on it?

Its all history all we can do is look to the future, get behind the team and trust what we are told will bare fruit,

Our business this window is far from over, and with the good young players we already have this is the start of something special

I appologise for my grammer, its not one of my strongest points, but i'm working on it

[Exiled_Rover]

I would warmly welcome this- ticks all the boxes in terms of what we are missing at the moment..

It's a shame you're just a wind up merchant these days. You used to contribute something meaningful to this message board.

[philipl]

Let me get my head around this.

Compared with last season we have said bye bye to

Phil Jones

Kalinic

Jermaine Jones

RSC

Diouf

Diouf

Andrews

Gunning

Benjani

With some unlicensed agent trying to hawk off Grella as well.

and said hello to

Anderson

Ribeiro

Goodwillie

Petrovic

On a simple numeric basis, we are 5 down compared with the second half of last season. We are also £16m up on net transfer income and the £10m the Venky's promised to put in has disappeared as surely as all the other numbers that were being bandied around.

But we "hope" to sign 2 to 3 and at the time of writing all our previous hoped for named targets are now dead leads.

Have I missed something?

But we get yelled at if we post the relegation word.

[Tom]

Let me get my head around this.

Compared with last season we have said bye bye to

Phil Jones

Kalinic

Jermaine Jones

RSC

Diouf

Diouf

Andrews

Gunning

Benjani

With some unlicensed agent trying to hawk off Grella as well.

and said hello to

Anderson

Ribeiro

Goodwillie

Petrovic

On a simple numeric basis, we are 5 down compared with the second half of last season. We are also £16m up on net transfer income and the £10m the Venky's promised to put in has disappeared as surely as all the other numbers that were being bandied around.

But we "hope" to sign 2 to 3 and at the time of writing all our previous hoped for named targets are now dead leads.

Have I missed something?

But we get yelled at if we post the relegation word.

From that list:

RSC

Diouf

Diouf

Andrews

Gunning

Benjani

Grella

Will not be missed. Kalinic is replaced by Goodwillie, J Jones by Petrovic but Phil Jones still needs replacing. Also Formica now looks up to pace and we have some promising youngsters to make up squad numbers.

More signings are needed but it's not quite as bad as you make out. Also you said yourself that the £16m for Jones went to the bank.

I would target a main striker and a CB as a priority (Onuhua for that position for me) and then maybe another midfielder as a luxury.

Also throw into the mix:

Swansea

Norwich

QPR

Wigan

And relegation whilst a threat is far from the certainty you seem to predict.

[pancini]

this unlicensed agent stuff is bull it is someone Rovers have brought into get the best deal for the club on players that are deemed suplus to requirements. The person hailed by many people on here as god JW (that was not a dig at him he did do a great job for us) is doing exactly the same thing at City and was reported as doing so by the same person who is telling us about this but that was perfectly ok because it wasnt Venkys doing it

[philipl]

Sorry Tom, that doesn't wash.

J Jones and P Jones were two of our four best players (alongside Samba who wants out and Hoilett not yet signed to a new contract).

Formica and Rochina were available for many of our last 16 games so it doesn't necessarilly follow they will suddenly become top level PL players simply because we are desperate for them to become so.

EH Diouf was our best player in the first half of last season whilst the others on your not missed list were hardly stars but did give us something of PL level when they played.

I look forwards to watching the £16m signing Mr Barclays Bank- probably about as much use as Myles Anderson.

[A cup of beans]

Yeah we realy need a 33 year old, slow, penalty waiting to happen right back

he can play anywhere across the back 4. brilliant player in his 1st spell at rovers// whether he would be now, and whether he will be welcomed back is another thing.

be a seen as a bizarre move, and treated with hostility by some..

but im told not to rule it out..

[roverandout]

while there are 6 or 7 clubs who could be relegation trouble at the end of the season, we cannot rule oursleves out of that with our current squad, there is always a surprise package or 2 of the promoted teams, like west brom last season, i beleive we, bolton, wigan, norwich, swansea, qpr and wolves are likely to be involved in that at the end of this season UNLESS we bring in a proven striker, these players make all the difference. Look at villa last season, fighting near the bottom, they brought in darren bent, he made a HUGE difference to their season, same with daniel sturridge at bolon. We cannot go into the new season with the pitiful strikeforce we have now.

[Vintage95]

What we'd lose in grella, we'd gain in a physio with free time.

Glad I don't have to watch mb diouf anymore to be fair and I can only say about Andrews what's already been said.

[Brownie]

Bring back Lukey !! World class at centre half.

[Mattyblue]

The brand of football which we could potentialy play makes having a season ticket to witness it like a Wonka golden ticket.

Club needs you in the marketing team...

[roverandout]

johnleigh, let me go into more detail why i told malk to do one, he has been on here for 2 mins and the first thing he says is rovers supporters on here are t*ts, thats getting peoples backs up already, there is no need for him to say that, when nicko was on here everybody hounded him out for giving people info in his spare time and yet people told him to get lost, so whats the differnce? why is it ok for people to hound out a guy giving us information and yet its not alright for someone to tell a guy slagging off members on here to go away? i dont think you should be calling people pricks either.

[A cup of beans]

while there are 6 or 7 clubs who could be relegation trouble at the end of the season, we cannot rule oursleves out of that

sums up the summer transfer window, in many ways.

nothing can be ruled in or ruled out!

we are light in defence and upfront.. and need to add more pace IMO (we are 1 of the slowest squads in the premier league.. junior and olsen aside..).

if we address ALL OR MOST OF THAT in the window- with quality- then i'll be a happy man.

im trying to be positive and thinking we could be a surprise package.. which also cant be ruled in or out..

Bring back Lukey !! World class at centre half.

he was.. i agree! id take him back.

BUT..

i'm desperately trying not to think about his comments after joining west ham though!

his brown-nosing was sickening!

[Eddie]

Let me get my head around this.

Compared with last season we have said bye bye to

Phil Jones

Kalinic

Jermaine Jones

RSC

Diouf

Diouf

Andrews

Gunning

Benjani

With some unlicensed agent trying to hawk off Grella as well.

You can't seriously argue that we will miss RSC, MB Diouf, Gunning, Andrews or Benjani? They were all squad players who contributed very little last year. RSC was constantly injured. MB Diouf had only one good game that I can remember (against Arsenal). Benjani had one starring moment against Liverpool and scored against Chelsea, but apart from that was mostly useless. Andrews was a decent squad player, but barring a massive injury crisis we won't get deep enough into our options at central midfield to reach a point where we would have heavily relied on him.

Rochina and Formica can really be seen as signings for this season. You have Petrovic in who looks a very good player to who should be capable of replacing Jermaine Jones. Kalinic has yet to leave, but I would be very surprised to see him go and no replacement brought in.

We have lost bodies and we certainly need to bring in another midfielder, a defender to replace Phil Jones and, in my opinion, a first choice leftback. The big problem is up front, but hopefully we will address that within the next couple of weeks.

[malk]

Let me get my head around this.

Compared with last season we have said bye bye to

Phil Jones (fair enough)

Kalinic (replaced by Goodwillie)

Jermaine Jones (replaced by Petrovic)

RSC (9 games, 0 goals)

Diouf (20 games, 0 goals. Replaceable by Rochina/Formica)

Diouf (27 games, 3 goals. Replaceable by Rochina/Formica)

Andrews (5 games, 0 goals).

Gunning (never played a senior game)

Benjani (18 games, 3 goals)

With some unlicensed agent trying to hawk off Grella as well. (5 games, 0 goals).

and said hello to

Anderson

Ribeiro

Goodwillie

Petrovic

On a simple numeric basis, we are 5 down compared with the second half of last season. We are also £16m up on net transfer income and the £10m the Venky's promised to put in has disappeared as surely as all the other numbers that were being bandied around.

But we "hope" to sign 2 to 3 and at the time of writing all our previous hoped for named targets are now dead leads.

Have I missed something?

But we get yelled at if we post the relegation word.

Erm.

Phil Jones (26 games, 0 goals. Requires replacement)

Kalinic (18 games, 5 goals. Replaced by Goodwillie)

Jermaine Jones (15 games, 0 goals. Replaced by Petrovic)

RSC (9 games, 0 goals)

Diouf (20 games, 0 goals. Replaceable by Rochina/Formica)

Diouf (27 games, 3 goals. Replaceable by Rochina/Formica)

Andrews (5 games, 0 goals).

Gunning (never played a senior game)

Benjani (18 games, 3 goals)

Grella (5 games, 0 goals).

So where we really are is that Jones needs to be replaced (or keep Nelsen fit), replace the 3 goals from Santa Cruz and Benjani combined, and get someone to equal the massive contribution made in midfield by Grella and Andrews (erm, Petrovic perhaps?).

Can Goodwillie replace Kalinic's goals? Can even Blackman replace Benjani's? Can Formica and Rochina put in similar performances to the Diouf's? I think this is eminently possible. Petrovic needs to play very well to replace Jermaine Jones but a young international is surely your best bet to do so.

Phil Jones is much more difficult to replace but if Samba, Nelsen and Givet play a lot of the season the drop off isn't great. Hanley at least doesn't look like a donkey and must have *something* to be a full international at 19.

And I'll say this again. I'd much rather give a chance to our promising youngsters when injuries bite than have a squad full of high waged journeymen. Would Blackman (coupled with more games played by Kalinic) have been much worse than Santa Cruz or Benjani this year? Would Morris or Lowe been that different to Andrews (who isn't that poor a player) or Grella? We're not talking about them playing 15-20 games each put plugging the odd gap. I remember Jay McEveley putting in some decent performances as a kid and whilst he didn't amount to a first team regular, I'd much rather attempt the same than pay Bruno Berner's wages!

For all the stick Kean is getting, I can't remember another manager of ours giving the same opportunities to former youth players. This is a good thing.

[Torgeir]

Replacements just isn't enough, we need strengthening as well. Roberts latest comments in LT makes me worried that the players have convinced the owners to put faith in them and not dig deep in their pockets and invest properly. I'm not a doom and gloom merchant but if nothing happens on the transfer front from now until Sep 1 then how many disappointing windows is that in a row? Eight?

[Waggy76]

From that list:

RSC

Diouf

Diouf

Andrews

Gunning

Benjani

Grella

Will not be missed. Kalinic is replaced by Goodwillie, J Jones by Petrovic but Phil Jones still needs replacing. Also Formica now looks up to pace and we have some promising youngsters to make up squad numbers.

More signings are needed but it's not quite as bad as you make out. Also you said yourself that the £16m for Jones went to the bank.

I would target a main striker and a CB as a priority (Onuhua for that position for me) and then maybe another midfielder as a luxury.

Also throw into the mix:

Swansea

Norwich

QPR

Wigan

And relegation whilst a threat is far from the certainty you seem to predict.

Bolton Too .....

[he6rt6gr6m]

Kean is a puppet he will do exactly what Venkys say....if they say our teams good enough.... Kean will guide that team to champions league football........uhoh!

Completely forgot about the puppet. Always thought Scotsmen had balls.

[Mandrake]

As a stock broker - I can tell you that the current financial market aren't doing us any favors in terms of keeping the owners spending happy.....can guarantee that they have lost a considerable amount in unrealized stock losses the last few weeks..

[LeChuck]

I wouldn't expect anything less than relegation predictions from pundits. Not because they're biased, but because we'd all be doing the same if this was happening to another club.

We were in freefall for most of last season under Kean, only scraping to survival on the last day. If we repeated the form under him over a full season we would go down...and we have a weaker squad than last season. The parallels to Pompey's relegation year are quite scary (I put money on them to go down that summer, only team I've ever bet on to be relegated).

That's not to say there aren't positives, or that we can't have a good season, because there are and we can. With a couple of signings I think we'll do ok. But don't expect anyone other than a Rovers fan to be optimistic about our chances because all logic points to us really struggling to next year.

[he6rt6gr6m]

No way should we bring LuCASH Neill back to Ewood. He is way, way past it. We got the best out of him and shipped him on. Why do we keep doing this? Same goes for Bentley and Santa Cruz. Let's hope we steer well clear.

People just have an emotional connection to them, rather than seeing that they're greedy wasters that have had no luck since leaving Blackburn.

[TheTMX]

Let me get my head around this.

Compared with last season we have said bye bye to

Phil Jones

Kalinic

Jermaine Jones

RSC

Diouf

Diouf

Andrews

Gunning

Benjani

With some unlicensed agent trying to hawk off Grella as well.

and said hello to

Anderson

Ribeiro

Goodwillie

Petrovic

On a simple numeric basis, we are 5 down compared with the second half of last season. We are also £16m up on net transfer income and the £10m the Venky's promised to put in has disappeared as surely as all the other numbers that were being bandied around.

But we "hope" to sign 2 to 3 and at the time of writing all our previous hoped for named targets are now dead leads.

Have I missed something?

But we get yelled at if we post the relegation word.

You aren't considering, like a lot of other posters on here, the emergence of other young players such as Hanley, Lowe, Morris, and Nick Blackman. And there are more that I think the staff at Rovers have high hopes for. I know people will say they're a gamble and unproven players but they are rated by the club and need to be given a chance. I'm not saying they are first team players but I'd expect Lowe and Blackman to be regulars in the matchday squad and make plenty of appearances.

Also the contribution of these young players can't be any less this season, than some of the players we've lost!

With the five new signings, I'd say we've two more squad players in Lowe and Blackman this season. Morris has a little to do yet, but could step up also.

[he6rt6gr6m]

Bit of a poor do that PM John,

I think posting the PM on the forum is a poor do, if you ask me.

[scotty_beam_me_up]

Philipl I wouldn't dream of yelling at anyone but you do seem to be twisting the facts to suit your argument. You can't really count Gunning as a first team loss and you should be counting Formica and Rochina in new players for this season.

The transfer window should really run till July 31st and then all this would be done and dusted now and we would know where we stand. More business will be done in the next 3 weeks than the rest of the window. All the clubs in the same boat. Including Arsenal who you would class as a well run club and now they have to replace their two star players days before the season starts.

I really feel there are things to look forward to but depends what sort of person you are.

[American]

Bolton Too .....

Prediction: Newcastle or a club of similar ilk to have a poor first half and fire their manager. Moses to take over, bailing on Bolton who aren't doing much better. Bolton to go down and OC to escape blame.