January Transfer Window - Part One

[PAFELL]

We'll sell Formica and the money will go straight to the Bank.

The Greeks do not want to buy. Only loan.

[Mercer]

Maybe things have moved along with granero.

Simply can't afford players like him.

Wishful thinking I'm afraid.

[LeChuck]

Taking all of the emotion out of it for a minute. If Venkys really are as skint as they appear then it's vital we sell Andrews, Roberts and Salgado this window. There has been nothing linking them away though.

Nobody else can afford the stupid wages we pay these average players.

Wigan taking Andrews looks like the only possibility of one of them moving. Other than them it's only Championship clubs interested, but they can't afford the PL wages.

Allardyce tried his hardest to get rid of Roberts by also banning him from the first team. He'll be here until the summer, along with Salgado unfortunately.

I think the only resolution might be big pay-offs on January 31st, but that won't give us much financial benefit.

[ad0102]

I would guess rovers have not got the cash to pay Roberts and Salgado off. Therefore they train every day to go on picking up their wages, with rovers hoping they get fed up at being ignored and leave without a pay off.

Probably still be here at the end of Jan, and then a championship team will take Roberts on loan paying a small percentage of his wages.

[rovers11]

Nobody else can afford the stupid wages we pay these average players.

I agree with this. If I had one criticism of the previous regime is is that they massively overpaid some of our average players. Why pay players like Andrews, Grella, Roberts etc over a 20k per week. That's one of the reasons our wage bill is so high.

[Hughesy]

Perhaps Olympiakos are offering us a good future fee IF they make it permanent? And thats what is swaying us?

To be honest Formica is a hard working/ decent player - however as others have said he's not really made for a relegation battle and we have many other similar players i.e. Hoilett & Rochina. (Both who are better than Formica)

IF, and only IF, we get to bring a defensive/ aggressive midfielder with quality in, then I can see why the club would do it!

[Kamy100]

Perhaps Olympiakos are offering us a good future fee IF they make it permanent? And thats what is swaying us?

To be honest Formica is a hard working/ decent player - however as others have said he's not really made for a relegation battle and we have many other similar players i.e. Hoilett & Rochina. (Both who are better than Formica)

IF, and only IF, we get to bring a defensive/ aggressive midfielder with quality in, then I can see why the club would do it!

It makes no sense to me. Formica is no where near one of the top earners at the club, I agree that he hasn’t set the world alight but he is a very very decent squad player who over the last month or so has shown signs that he is getting to grips with the Premier League. So getting rid of him now will reduce the wage bill a little and of course will allow us to bring in another player, but with the wages that Mauro is on then the replacement will not be anyone who can “hit the ground running”, it’ll be someone who will need time to adjust to Premier League etc. Time that we do not have. Formica at least has started to adjust to the demands of PL football and has shown that he is good enough to do a job for us.

Personally, I prefer Formica over Rochina. Rochina has tremendous ability but does not have a footballing brain, he consistently makes the wrong decisions and is therefore not effective, whereas Formica works hard, has decent technical ability and has started to get to grips with PL football.

[LeChuck]

It makes no sense to me. Formica is no where near one of the top earners at the club, I agree that he hasn’t set the world alight but he is a very very decent squad player who over the last month or so has shown signs that he is getting to grips with the Premier League. So getting rid of him now will reduce the wage bill a little and of course will allow us to bring in another player, but with the wages that Mauro is on then the replacement will not be anyone who can “hit the ground running”

You seem to be forgetting a loan fee Kamy. I seem to remember we got a decent loan fee from Olympiakos when they took Derbyshire. As Formica is a first team member, we should be able to negotiate a decent fee for ourselves.

If we can find a defensive midfielder that's out-of-favour somewhere then we might be able to get away with the loan fee and put all the money to the wage of a decent player.

As an example, I reckon loaning Formica would have allowed us to bring in someone like Emmanuel Frimpong...perhaps even on like-for-like wages. There are players available if we look hard enough.

[john.leigh]

It makes no sense to me. Formica is no where near one of the top earners at the club, I agree that he hasn’t set the world alight but he is a very very decent squad player who over the last month or so has shown signs that he is getting to grips with the Premier League. So getting rid of him now will reduce the wage bill a little and of course will allow us to bring in another player, but with the wages that Mauro is on then the replacement will not be anyone who can “hit the ground running”, it’ll be someone who will need time to adjust to Premier League etc. Time that we do not have. Formica at least has started to adjust to the demands of PL football and has shown that he is good enough to do a job for us.

Personally, I prefer Formica over Rochina. Rochina has tremendous ability but does not have a footballing brain, he consistently makes the wrong decisions and is therefore not effective, whereas Formica works hard, has decent technical ability and has started to get to grips with PL football.

BUT

beggars can't be choosers.

If Formica is the only player that we have received realistic enquiries about then he is the only one we can look at moving out.

Whether he is your choice, my choice or anybody elses choice as a sacrificial lamb is irrelevant.

If we need to move one out to bring one in (and obviously not a like for like transfer) then we're not really in a strong bargaining position.

I'd love to move out some of the big earners who sit in the stands, but nobody wants to sign them.

Maybe clubs aren't interested in Rochina because of the flaws Kamy has outlined above?

Maybe Rochina's agent got him a good salary package as well which might make him hard to loan out...

[BrisRover]

BUT

beggars can't be choosers.

If Formica is the only player that we have received realistic enquiries about then he is the only one we can look at moving out.

Whether he is your choice, my choice or anybody elses choice as a sacrificial lamb is irrelevant.

If we need to move one out to bring one in (and obviously not a like for like transfer) then we're not really in a strong bargaining position.

I'd love to move out some of the big earners who sit in the stands, but nobody wants to sign them.

Maybe clubs aren't interested in Rochina because of the flaws Kamy has outlined above?

Maybe Rochina's agent got him a good salary package as well which might make him hard to loan out...

Sorry John. Just noticed your twitter account. There can only be one BrisRover Mate and that is me

[Mercer]

I have a lot of sympathy with Salgado, Roberts and Andrews.

Firstly, we gave both Sally & JR new contracts last January when, in all likelihood, we didn't need to. The opinion of many is that these were to 'secure' the dressing room for Kean (Nelsen also got new contract). IMV, it was rank bad management and is now biting us in the bum. Let's be honest, if you were either Sally or JR, would you want to give-up hundreds of thousands of pounds just because the club has seemingly got it wrong ?

As for Andrews, obviously, not a crowd favourite but always gives 100% and I would opt for him rather than some high risk Brazilian. IMO, the club's recent treatment of him is more disgraceful than that of the fans prior to his loan spell at Ipswich. Again, why should he suffer financially if the club made the wrong decision firstly to sign him and secondly to reward him with a new contract under John Williams.

[Oklahoma]

Suffer financilly? You must be kidding, right?

If they chose to leave for another club, they won't lose money. And they are receiving more than they should, anyway.

They are not playing and they are being paid more than they deserve, what a hard life they have!!!

[Amo]

Would be typical. Player starts to make an impact and we flog him.

No doubt Kean's already got Darren Anderton waiting in the wings.

[Hughesy]

Maybe clubs aren't interested in Rochina because of the flaws Kamy has outlined above?

Maybe Rochina's agent got him a good salary package as well which might make him hard to loan out...

United enquired about him last summer, he would have plenty of suitors if available.

For me Rochina is a much better player. At United away he was excellent, against good teams Formica tends to do very little.

[Parsonblue]

United enquired about him last summer, he would have plenty of suitors if available.

For me Rochina is a much better player. At United away he was excellent, against good teams Formica tends to do very little.

This is the same Rochina who can't get into a team that is in the relegation zone. Like Formica, he has been here twelve months and failed to win a regular place. Both have been disappointing buys who drift in and out of games and neither is really suited to a relegation battle. I doubt either will make an impact in the more physical world of Championship football next season.

[LeChuck]

United enquired about him last summer

I'm almost certain that is not true. I think you're getting confused with the comment Kean made once, about Ferguson asking "where did you find him?" after he scored twice against Utd reserves.

[bennyboyt11]

All these people saying Formica isn't built or made for a relegation battle, how the hell do you know? He hasn't been in one yet.

He seems a hard working player who is putting a shift in, I'd rather we kept him in our already bare squad.

[Mercer]

Suffer financilly? You must be kidding, right?

If they chose to leave for another club, they won't lose money. And they are receiving more than they should, anyway.

They are not playing and they are being paid more than they deserve, what a hard life they have!!!

Kmow where you are coming from.

However, it's simple, both sides have to honour a contract unless there's an amicable agreement to rescind.

Salgado is reputedly on £50k per week - wtf should he give any of that up just because Rovers have screwed-up their finances since the takeover ?

[farhanology]

Whatever happened to Stephen Appiah we were supposed to have signed?

[Oklahoma]

Kmow where you are coming from.

From where? I'm kind of lost right now...

[ada2020]

Kmow where you are coming from.

However, it's simple, both sides have to honour a contract unless there's an amicable agreement to rescind.

Salgado is reputedly on £50k per week - wtf should he give any of that up just because Rovers have screwed-up their finances since the takeover ?

Since????

Warnock was sold to find the money to sign Salgado in the first place. The finances are shot, but dont kid yourself ,they havnt looked to good for a long while.

[mjwood00]

The only consolation so far this window is that the other teams around us haven't made any defining buys YET. A week to go, hopefully QPR will continue to be frustrated (that Brazilian chap has had a wp turned down tonight) and wolves won't sack MM and spend big.

[steo]

how anyone can call rochina a bad buy is beyond me,he is out of the team because kean feels he's too attacking,has scored some world class goals,remember his goal against fulham earlier in the season,it was simply world class.

[BrisRover]

Jason Roberts could be off to Reading for 500k

[davulsukur]

Where you heard that BrisRover?