January Transfer Window - Part One

[Tom]

United want Clyne, wasnt he once a target for us?

[FFP83]

Hughes had to employ a different buying strategy to Mancini too. Namely, he bought from clubs in and around City's level (at that time) to simultaneously hamper them. The likes of Barry, Lescott, Toure and Adebayor strengthened City, but they also served to weaken Villa, Everton and Arsenal.

In part because of that, City are now in a much stronger position to attract the real game-changers (e.g. Aguero). Hughes provided the stepping stone. City no longer have to worry about the likes of Villa and Everton - they can compete with the likes of United and Chelsea on a much more level playing field in terms of attractiveness.

EXACTLY!!!

IF Venkys were true to their original word we should be looking to do the same and buy all the top players from the bottom half of the PL thus making us a top 10 team. But instead we insist on buying cheap foreigners who take a year to settle

[Fraserkirky]

United want Clyne, wasnt he once a target for us?

I wish, he'd be the guy I'd be going for!

Pleased with the Modeste signing, sounds like he has the talent.

[beastlove]

they are good signings for qpr in the short term. The club is a similar size to rovers so the wages are unsubstanable. It almost reminds me of Portsmouth when they bough Defoe etc. Wonder what would happen if they went down. At least we are not going into massive debt.

[Stuart]

they are good signings for qpr in the short term. The club is a similar size to rovers so the wages are unsubstanable. It almost reminds me of Portsmouth when they bough Defoe etc. Wonder what would happen if they went down. At least we are not going into massive debt.

But we are.

Minus the quality players passing through.

[mjwood00]

On the contrary I would argue that the amounts paid for RCS, Toure, Adebayor, Bridge, Barry, SWP and especially Lescott were so high that the selling clubs had once in a generation opportunities to replenish their squads and improve. To coin a phrase 'they saw them coming'. Even Tevez's actual transfer fee was around the £40m mark as Gary Neville alluded to in his column. Hence Hughes' current agent.

Kompany was a fantastic signing and had been playing in the CL since the age of 17 - a real leader. But it most certainly wasn't the players listed above who won City the FA Cup (and I was in the City end for that game).

Anyway, will be interesting to see what happens at QPR. I think Hughes is better at developing his buying strategy rather than the rush for players that he had at City and has now.

[patrickvalery]

I struggle to understand how any Rovers fan can criticise Mark Hughes. Top manager with a quiet authority which players respect and appreciate. If QPR don't stay up i'll eat my hat. To my mind, we need to hope Wolves plus one other are dragged back into the scrap. Despite us being so so poor, we are scoring goals. That might just save us. Maybe.

Probably not though.

[mjwood00]

Not criticising Hughes' management style which is professional, respected and pretty revolutionary in its planned approach. Just saying he bought duffers at City. And he isn't a good judge of agents (something we know all about).

[FFP83]

On the contrary I would argue that the amounts paid for RCS, Toure, Adebayor, Bridge, Barry, SWP and especially Lescott were so high that the selling clubs had once in a generation opportunities to replenish their squads and improve. To coin a phrase 'they saw them coming'. Even Tevez's actual transfer fee was around the £40m mark as Gary Neville alluded to in his column. Hence Hughes' current agent.

Kompany was a fantastic signing and had been playing in the CL since the age of 17 - a real leader. But it most certainly wasn't the players listed above who won City the FA Cup (and I was in the City end for that game).

Anyway, will be interesting to see what happens at QPR. I think Hughes is better at developing his buying strategy rather than the rush for players that he had at City and has now.

Oh yeah I totally agree he over paid for them in market value but at the time it literally didnt matter what amounts they paid for the players they wanted. Say Lescott was worth 10 mil tops and Hughes paid 24 mil it doesnt matter to City or Hughes. It would be like any of us not ordering a really nice steak because it cost 5 pence too much. The amounts they pay now do matter because of the new spend what you make rules. But in Hughes time there if City wanted Messi or Ronaldo they could have spent 500 million on them, CRAZY money but it really wouldnt matter.

PS I dont think Hughes bought Barry? I may be wrong. Again they overpaid for him and I really dont rate him but Noel Gallagher says hes one of Citys best players?

[dubdubdub]

Oh yeah I totally agree he over paid for them in market value but at the time it literally didnt matter what amounts they paid for the players they wanted. Say Lescott was worth 10 mil tops and Hughes paid 24 mil it doesnt matter to City or Hughes. It would be like any of us not ordering a really nice steak because it cost 5 pence too much. The amounts they pay now do matter because of the new spend what you make rules. But in Hughes time there if City wanted Messi or Ronaldo they could have spent 500 million on them, CRAZY money but it really wouldnt matter.

PS I dont think Hughes bought Barry? I may be wrong. Again they overpaid for him and I really dont rate him but Noel Gallagher says hes one of Citys best players?

Noel's a tit.

[Miker]

It is becoming obvious that due to our general financial position including our owners reluctance to provide funding for players

For me the huge issue behind the scenes is the astronomical bill for players wages which is surely unsustainable.

Never mind marquee signings which are not going to happen in our current situation, someone at the club needs to

drastically reduce the wage bill and quickly.! For the longterm future of our club we need to introduce sound business practice

and control spending to live within our income, whatever that is specially next season in the championship. :!:

Beatrix, fantastic post. We can talk about funds coming in or not coming in, but the key thing that no one really talks about is the wage bill. I would take a guess that our wage bill is currently over 90% of turnover. We are 1 of very few clubs who would have it at such a high level. As a club we simply can't sustain big player signings, we have to rely on growing youth players and players on the cheap. It's the only way we can be sustainable as a club.

[mjwood00]

Don't forget the championship next year has implemented new UEFA fair play rules. Hence us cutting wages. See here: http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jun/10/football-league-uefa-fair-play?cat=football&type=article

[RibbleValleyRover]

If Rovers had some money to spend instead of pennies then Pavluchenko might have been worth looking at. Pav’s contract runs out in the summer (if SSN is correct) so should go for a reasonable fee.

[mckenny16]

If Rovers had some money to spend instead of pennies then Pavluchenko might have been worth looking at. Pav’s contract runs out in the summer (if SSN is correct) so should go for a reasonable fee.

This is Spurs your talking about, the same team that (rumour has it) asked Bolton for £7m for Dos Santos. I doubt anyone will get a reasonable fee for Pav.

And I've never seen what the fuss was about with Pav.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

This is Spurs your talking about, the same team that (rumour has it) asked Bolton for £7m for Dos Santos. I doubt anyone will get a reasonable fee for Pav.

And I've never seen what the fuss was about with Pav.

Never rated Pav myself, he blows hot and cold too much for me. Another Bothroyd ?

[Hughesy]

Pav is a good player, but like the poster above said - Spurs will demand too much as usual!

[davulsukur]

I thought I saw Pavs agent moaning that spurs are pricing him out of a move.

[47er]

EXACTLY!!!

But instead we insist on buying cheap foreigners who take a year to settle

or not......

[47er]

Key question of this already fast disappearing Transfer Window------who's going to be the tough-tackling/cover the whole pitch mid-fielder to replace Jones? The one position we've all identified as critical! I've seen us linked with strikers,wingers and attacking mid-fielders but not the one position crying out for action.

[Doug]

This is a strange one I need to share. Just sat in car waiting for my youngest son to finish his p/t job listening to talk sport radio. They had a piece on samba where the guest on the programme gave his opinion that Samba was well out of order. Wow, I thought, that's a turn up.

Then, they went to their 'super spy agent' who reveals the current rumours, where they discussed Samba's link to QPR. Spuds and Arsenal.

Then, to my amazement he said that there was a European club who are keeping an eye on another Rovers defender... Adam Henley, the club in question had been impressed with his couple of appearances, the club.............. Real Madrid!!

[bluebruce]

They probably rarely watch us outside of games against the likes of man u and liverpool...I'm sure they'd have been impressed a 17 yr old had good performances against the likes of them, so it'd be logical to keep an eye on him for the time being. It's a far cry from actually wanting him though. Lad needs some game time, if we manage to bring in some fullbacks this window it'd be shrewd to loan him to the championship for a bit, with a recall option.

[mjwood00]

Salgado could have fed info on him back to Madrid. Otherwise agent talk. Remember they were allegedly 'scouting' Steven Fletcher before he signed for Burnley...

[Pitty]

they are good signings for qpr in the short term. The club is a similar size to rovers so the wages are unsubstanable. It almost reminds me of Portsmouth when they bough Defoe etc. Wonder what would happen if they went down. At least we are not going into massive debt.

Totally agree with this, QPR are having their day in the sun with these transfers at the moment but they simply cannot afford to splash out on sixty-eighty thousand pound a week players. They might be getting players for ok fees- Onuoha 3mill Alex 3 mill but they are both on £60000+ on 4 year deals which means the club needs to honour minimum £24million on them contracts. I think you will find in a year or two QPR will be trying to give them players away for free to get them off the wage bill.

I dont really blame Ste Kean in this current transfer window as our wage bill is 90% we simply cannot risk the clubs future giving out these big contracts to greedy players. I will be happy with a couple more loan players just for extra bodys in the run-in till the end of the season.

[Neal]

This is a strange one I need to share. Just sat in car waiting for my youngest son to finish his p/t job listening to talk sport radio. They had a piece on samba where the guest on the programme gave his opinion that Samba was well out of order. Wow, I thought, that's a turn up.

Then, they went to their 'super spy agent' who reveals the current rumours, where they discussed Samba's link to QPR. Spuds and Arsenal.

Then, to my amazement he said that there was a European club who are keeping an eye on another Rovers defender... Adam Henley, the club in question had been impressed with his couple of appearances, the club.............. Real Madrid!!

20 million... Straight away.

[sharpysharps]

I still feel that Spurs will put in a late bid for Samba. Doesn't really matter what Redknapp says as I don't actually think his brain and mouth are connected at all based on the amount of contradicting comments he makes. You could argue its all mind games but with Harry I just think he doesn't know when to stop talking and his opinion on a player is based on what side of bed he gets out of in a morning.

As for Hoilett, he played well yesterday but has been so inconsistent, his mind clearly wanders elsewhere when there is talk about his contract and if a team offered Rovers 5 million this window and we reinvested it in a more hard working player ala how Paul Lambert goes about his business at Norwich then I would take that.