[Archived] 2011 Summer Transfer Window Roundup

[chris]

Defence:

Loss of Jones 16.5m replaced with Danns, Emerton cover for Salgado gone, Salgado badly aging no replacement, at least Danns should mean Givet can play left back as Olsson is weak.

Overal: C-

Midfield: Loss of J Jones, Dunn aging and injured, Emerton cover gone, replacements all approx 2 million cheap signings seem like risks and impossible to judge yet. Are we looking for players that will see us in Europe or players that will take months to bed and see us survive, I'm not sure.

Overal: C

Strikers: Loss of Kalinic for 6m and purchase of Goodwillie who looks ok, worse, as good, better? we don't know, and Yakubu who obviuously has it in him but value has fallen from 11.5 mto 1.5 in three years, no smoke without fire, a gamble. Simply because we were all expecting a star striker I'll mark this down.

Overal: D

[LeChuck]

at least Danns should mean Givet can play left back as Olsson is weak.

Dann!

That's really harsh on Olsson, who's had a solid start to the season. In the aftermath of the Everton game I don't think he was mentioned, but he was very good against them. He was very solid, put some good tackles in and is much better in the air than a lot of people give him credit for. Our goals conceded so far have come from Salgado/Hanley/Samba mistakes. Olsson isn't a weak link at all.

There is a case for putting Givet left back and moving Olsson to midfield for tricky games - I'd certainly consider it against Arsenal. But overall Olsson is doing a good job at the moment. Hopefully if/when we become more settled as a team, he can start to push forward from that left back position a bit more because he looks like he's holding himself back at the moment.

[JAL]

The summer transfer has been one big disappointment which reflects the skills and knowledge of the people running the club, from the owners, the advisors and the current management team all have made far too many mistakes with their choices or selections below the standard required to remain competitive higher up the table.

Without having seen some of the new lads play. We look weaker in midfield, and up front we also look weaker.

[A cup of beans]

Has this been posted before? Real Madrid winger Pedro Leon is set to snub a move to the Premier League in order to stay in Spain with Getafe.

A string of Premier League clubs were keeping tabs on Leon’s situation and reports in Spain have suggested that Bolton and Blackburn had both had loan bids accepted by Real.

Would have been a great signing.

its a name i heard and PM'd a few on here a couple of weeks ago.

believe everton wanted him.. he didnt fancy them.. so they then switched attention to drenthe.

[chris]

Dann!

That's really harsh on Olsson, who's had a solid start to the season. In the aftermath of the Everton game I don't think he was mentioned, but he was very good against them. He was very solid, put some good tackles in and is much better in the air than a lot of people give him credit for. Our goals conceded so far have come from Salgado/Hanley/Samba mistakes. Olsson isn't a weak link at all.

There is a case for putting Givet left back and moving Olsson to midfield for tricky games - I'd certainly consider it against Arsenal. But overall Olsson is doing a good job at the moment. Hopefully if/when we become more settled as a team, he can start to push forward from that left back position a bit more because he looks like he's holding himself back at the moment.

I thought Olssen's positional sense was poor against Wolves that was partly due to poor CB's, Villa we conceded 3 but Salgado is starred most these games and Everton were just stocking. Most my judgement is based on last season, where he only became a player people wanted on the team sheet when he wasn't left back.

Givet provides more confidence for me.

[Iceman]

Has this Jordan Slew or whatever his name is, has he actually signed? sorry if mentioned already

[RoyRover]

I have mixed emotions about the transfer window. We were promised by the owners and the manager that we would have serious amounts of money to spend, even without the money generated by the Phil Jones sale. There was a change in the banks policy toward the debt, with much of the Phil Jones money going to them, but this should not have impacted that much on the transfer funds as the owners were supposed to be willing to put a lot of money in without this sale.

The signing of Scott Dann is a good bit of business and I'm surprised that we have signed him and that he didn't end up at a bigger and better team. He will make our defence a lot stronger and I see him and Samba making a great partnership. I'm still concerned about the right back area as Salgado is a weak link there and I have no idea what Bruno Ribero is like.

The additions of Petrović and Vukčević are good bits of business and they could be very good players in the long run. I am concerned about the time it will take for them to settle in and get used to the pace of the league. I do think that we are short in the defensive midfield area. N'Zonzi needed a partner and I'm surprised that we didn't try and get Jermaine Jones on loan again. He would have been perfect. It will be a lot to ask of the talented Petrović to come in and fill that role straight away. I don't think that Dunn has the legs to fill that role either and would be another week link We have a lot of attacking players our midfield, with the likes of Hoillet, Vukčević, Olsson and Rochina and Formica being like two new signings.

Up front is where I've been left most disappointed. We all know that we needed to spend big on a striker as we have very little impact there. Jason Roberts is NOT not good enough to start every week in the league. He does well in certain games and has been good as an impact sub, but he is generally awful. David Goodwillie has potential and could be another good player in the future. But after being linked with a number of good strikers that we could have signed if we had stumped up the cash, to go out and buy Yakubu (a player that makes Benni McCarthy look like a workhorse), from a Championship club, where he has hardly been setting the world a light, just smacks of the cheap option and gives further strength to the argument that the owners don't have the money that they say they have and all the 'offers' we've made have just been a smoke screen to give the impression that they are serious about these players.

Yakubu has scored goals in the Premiership, but I'm not holding my breath that he will do it again. Despite making some good signings, I still think that we have been let down and have serious problems in key areas of the field that we will mean that we will struggle for the rest of the season. I know that he wasn't the most popular player, but I do think that selling Brett Emerton was a bad idea. He should have been our right back, was able to cover a lot of positions and has a lot of Premiership experience. The way that the transfer deals have been conducted and the shambles that was the Vedad Ibišević transfer, shows that there are some brain dead people running the club.

[Stockport rover]

Can we still sign free agents? If so why not snap up Phillip deggen from Liverpool (or ex Liverpool) IMO he would be a good rb cover/starter? Ps extatic that samba stayed and dann joined!!

[LeChuck]

Most my judgement is based on last season, where he only became a player people wanted on the team sheet when he wasn't left back.

That was only the case really because we had nobody else once Kean had made Diouf an outcast.

This season we have good options out there.

[pick32]

Hearing alot of rumours that rovers have offered Vincente more money than brighton and he is due for a medical today anyone ITK confirm this. Also think it would be a good move to have Degen on trial.

[m1st]

But after being linked with a number of good strikers that we could have signed if we had stumped up the cash, to go out and buy Yakubu (a player that makes Benni McCarthy look like a workhorse)

Phrase of the day, Roy!!

Fwiw, I think that we also need to factor in two things that we were all dreading, even if, afaik [apologies if someone has], nobody's said so in this thread: Samba going to one of the North London clubs; and Hoilett signing a new contract.

The first didn't happen, the second did; together I believe they will make us a stronger team.

Mind you, and not wishing to be a party-pooper, all this euphoria is at the far end of the spectrum from the concerns being expressed only a few days ago about the financial situation of the club and the possibility of points-deductions, etc, etc. Those concerns won't have gone away. Will they?

[AmazinTim]

"fans' favourite Keith Andrews"

You owe me a new keyboard.

[1864roverite]

In the aftermath of what has been an extraordinary 24hours I wonder who Rovers turned down in an alleged pursuit of NZonzi ?

Aparently, a serious bid of some standing was made and rejected yesterday afternoon.

EHD can rot in hell for his inappropriate behaviour at the club.

My take on defence, Dann can play right back leaving Samba/Givet and Nelsen in the central berths. A good acquisition.

[joey_big_nose]

Window was good for me in terms of central defence and attacking midfield/wingers. We were already well covered in goal and at left back.

We look dangerously weak at right back and defensive midfield. Salgado seems to be seriously toiling, Riberio is a total unknown. Petrovic is still getting up to speed, and Nzonzi seems to have tailed off a bit since last season. A couple of injuries and we are in real problems in those positons. I know Dann can, at astretch, cover right back. Can he play in midfield too? At some point undoubtably one of our CBs is going to need to slot into a sitting role....

Up front we have quite a lot of options. At second striker/in the hole we seem to have a lot of quality - Hoilett, Formica, Goodwillie, Rochina and Vukcevic all look to have the ability to hurt the opposition playing off a lead striker.

However this is exactly where we have a major problem. At target man we only have Roberts and the Yak available and neither inspires much confidence.

I wonder if we are going to go down the route of not playing a target man? Like Arsenal and Man U do from time to time? Instead sticking Goodwillie or Rochina up top to run the channels and get in behind? If so it is would be a novel (crazy?) strategy for a club bottom of the table to give a go....

--------------Robinson

Dann---Samba---Givet----Olsson

---------Petrovic-----Nzonzi

--Vukcevic---Formica----Hoilett

--------------Goodwillie

Subs:- Bunn, Givet, Nelsen, Rochina, Roberts, Pedersen

Hearing alot of rumours that rovers have offered Vincente more money than brighton and he is due for a medical today anyone ITK confirm this. Also think it would be a good move to have Degen on trial.

Can't understand why we would want Vicente. We have too may wingers as it is....

[John]

Overall a decent window. Lots of potential and will be interesting to see how we accomadate all our attacking options/players when everyone is fit.

Always been impressed with Dann - also very important we kept Samba, Junior etc.

[roversfan99]

Hearing alot of rumours that rovers have offered Vincente more money than brighton and he is due for a medical today anyone ITK confirm this. Also think it would be a good move to have Degen on trial.

Where did you hear this? A good player but made of glass.

[roverandout]

agree with most, been a poor window overall, i really expected a proper striker to be brought in but why am i not surprised it didnt happen? spending big money on an area we can get away with (defence) is criminal when we really needed it to be spent up front, hope our defence has a good one this season as we will be relying on them heavily with such a goal shy attack.

[philipl]

Senior squad options

Ok let's start with the Hughesy chart. Emerton? Hughesy Emerton is on there- are you picking ghosts or something?

It only has 5 in your favourite hole position for not quite good enough forwards and that is 3,995 holes short of what the town is famous for. At the time of writing, the adequacy of that squad could be 3,995 hole fillers short of what is needed.

This is how I look at it.

There are only 15 players with reasonable PL experience. I am counting Bunn, Olsson and Hoilett in that category.

More worrying I am also counting JRob whom you won't find a single one of the other 19 PL clubs giving a nanosecond before rejecting a swap deal with their premier forward and Salgado, Nelsen, Grella, Dunn and MGP from whom we can rely on for how many full on full quality 90 minutes PL appearancies this season? Plus Yak who has been there, done it but some time ago and needs acclimatising to the PL again if his 28 going on 30 something legs can still hack it.

In terms of reliable PL experience, this looks SCARY.

With the best will in the world, we are going to have to do more defending than attacking this season so where are the midfield tackles coing from? Nzonzi who gets cranky when he has to do it all himself, Grella on whose delicate body I suspect our Premier League survival might depend and Petrovic who frankly looked petrified in his cameo appearance v Everton.

So we are down to passionately hoping that the new boys from outside the PL acclimatise rapidly:

Goodwillie- off the fried marsbars and onto the fitness regime and there could be a player there by November.

Rochina/Formica- will need to play well without scoring any goals to get a decent run in the side unless the useless spud gets planted.

Vukcivic- likely to have fallen out with Kean before he gets anything like a decent run in the side; don't blame Kean as he does that with all managers

Anderson- George Weah's cousin or something.

Overall, it is a squad with a fighting chance of staying up if we had a manager.

But we have Kean so we are going down.

As for the owners' "performance", I don't have the strength...

[pick32]

Where did you hear this? A good player but made of glass.

On a Brighton message board they seem to think he was at Brockhall today.

[McClarky]

At least yesterday gave us some hope. Dann is a really good signing, shame we didn't get him earlier in the summer when I'm sure he would have been cheaper. Good as well that we can attract good players to the club. A lack of EPL know how was becoming an issue but Dann and Yakubu have plenty of that which will help. Major problem will be the lack of a top class forward. We have a few who might score a few but noone who you can imagine will score 12-15 in the league. My team I think would be:-

Robo

Salgado

Samba

Dann

Givet/Olsson

Petrovic.Dunn

NZonzi

Hoillet

Formica

Vukovic

Goodwillie

The decisions will have to be around how attacking we want to be. This is all assuming of course that the new signings are worth a place because I know nothing about them.

With Kean in charge though it's going to be an uphill struggle but at least we potentially have a good enough defence now that we could bring in a proper manager who could get them organised.

[roversfan99]

On a Brighton message board they seem to think he was at Brockhall today.

Have you got a link please pal?

[pick32]

Brighton message board

I cant remember what page it was on sorry but there is a few people on there posting that he was meeting with Kean before deciding on his future.

[roversfan99]

Thanks. I'm not sure whether he would be a good signing, if the rumours are accurate. I would hope any deal includes incentives due to his fitness troubles.

However our squad isn't the deepest, meaning an extra body and an ex Spanish international wouldn't get any complaints from me?

[pick32]

Personally i don't think we need him we have 4/5 players capable of playing out on the left.

[miqaayil]

Anybody heard of any loan we pushing ?