January Transfer Window - Part One

[LeChuck]

It always feels good to make Spurs a bit of money, whilst simultaneously paying off one of your own players to join them and also allowing your relegation rivals to strengthen at the same time!

More textbook Venkys

I didn't say I was happy about it!

I just don't think there is anything untoward happening here. Wolves must have come in for Bassong late, he wanted to go and play first team football, Harry said he can't let him go until finds a replacement, and being a long term admirer of the recently released Nelsen, decides to sign him up for six months.

I've made it sound less strange than it is, because admittedly it's one of the strangest transfers I can remember (probably since we signed Robbie Fowler), but I don't think Nelsen has been kept out of the first team for reasons other than the injury he has spoken about.

[jones_rover]

I didn't say I was happy about it!

I just don't think there is anything untoward happening here. Wolves must have come in for Bassong late, he wanted to go and play first team football, Harry said he can't let him go until finds a replacement, and being a long term admirer of the recently released Nelsen, decides to sign him up for six months.

I've made it sound less strange than it is, because admittedly it's one of the strangest transfers I can remember (probably since we signed Robbie Fowler), but I don't think Nelsen has been kept out of the first team for reasons other than the injury he has spoken about.

I never meant it to come across as if I thought you were LeChuck. Please don't take it that way!

Emotions are running high after today!

[LeChuck]

I never meant it to come across as if I thought you were LeChuck. Please don't take it that way!

Emotions are running high after today!

Ah no problem, my fault for misunderstanding.

[Hughesy]

sportingintelsportingintelligence

#brfc shocker: I have it on gd authority Rovers PAID Ryan Nelsen to leave for #thfc. His contract was till Jun 13 and brfc wanted to save £

Is that guy you???

Oooooohhhh Shocker!!

What usually happens when you sell a player before end of his contract? Compo by any chance? Loyalty bonuses etc?

Did he bring up this AMAZING news when we did the same with Friedel??

[RoyRover]

A totally underwhelming transfer window, where Kean as usual promised a lot but delivered next to nothing. Some guy from France who has lost his way, a guy from Sweden who we turned down a couple of years ago and had been released from his team because he seemingly wasn't good enough and a guy who a fellow relegation rival didn't think was worth a place in their team. So much for getting the business done early with players who can hit the ground running Steve!

It's obvious that the owners have no intention of putting money into the club. They are more interested in saving some money on wages in the short term, rather than spending some of the money they said they would when they arrived, to ensure that we stay in the league where the rewards will be far greater. Just yet more confirmation that they have no idea about what they are doing and have lost interest in the club.

Holding onto Hoilett and Samba until the summer at least, will help us in our attempts to stay up. If they had gone, that would have been it. Game over.

[bluebruce]

Is that guy you???

Oooooohhhh Shocker!!

What usually happens when you sell a player before end of his contract? Compo by any chance? Loyalty bonuses etc?

Did he bring up this AMAZING news when we did the same with Friedel??

Huh? We sold Friedel for 2.5 million...am I mistaking you here? I don't see how that is in any way connected to, or helpful in understanding, paying off Nelsen's contract.

[Hughesy]

Huh? We sold Friedel for 2.5 million...am I mistaking you here? I don't see how that is in any way connected to, or helpful in understanding, paying off Nelsen's contract.

Correct but we also paid him some his outstanding contract & loyalty bonuses.

[scotty_beam_me_up]

Treated is past tense.

I'm happy.

Hopefully Samba will pull his socks up. At the very worst QPR never got him.

Ryan N out is as odd one in terms of the buyers and whether he is fit but could do well for them in other ways than playing.

Junior and Formsy being kept is good news. Junior for obvious reasons and i think Formica is a good player getting better.

Know nothing about Orr other than the obvious but if he can do anything then it means Lowe may be able to play in midfield (again somewhat an unknown to me other than i know that's his preferred position.)

Similar situation will the t'other Olsson but if he's as quick as his brother at least we have a better version of Walcott.

Petrovic starting to look good.

Goodwillie doing what a striker should do.

Not sure everyone should be so glum.

Bang on mate.

No one has left who would damage our survival chances and with Orr signing we we finally have a right back. Wage bill slashed. It's not been great but I can live with it.

I will say though yet again Kean has let his mouth do the the talking without backing it up with anything. His quote of "We will do our business early with 3-4 players who can hit the ground running" will live long in the memory. Why doesn't he just keep his mouth shut sometimes.

[bannedwidth]

They were sold an idea by someone that rovers could carry on operating the way we were. They were duped and now they're stuck with us, people shouldn't feel any sympathy for kean at all. What's his agents name again? I forget.

We've moved some crap on but so what? We are still fecked.

[keaney23]

The most disappointing thing for me this window is the non sale of Chris Samba. I know thats a controversial statement to say the least. Chris Samba has been a hero for us and he was the best captain we had in a long time. So I thought. Until the sun interview was published. I can relate to his disappointment of venkys ownership of Blackburn as we fans feel it and have shown that in recent months. However in the situation we are in and the remarkable results against Man Utd, Liverpool and the performances of late, against all odds we have a fighting chance of staying in this league. As our captain he should of taken real pride in the recent weeks and yet hes acted like a unprofessional disrespectful ****. Refused to play in games, phoned in sick when clearly that was not the case, in an attempt to force his move. I can only assume Chris Samba is bigger the Blackburn Rovers in his own head. To say publicly he would not give Rovers 100% is disgusting. I wanted Chris to go today as I will never support a player who does not support the shirt he wears. I am gutted all the focus was on keeping Chris and a top professional player Ryan Nelsen was paid off by the club.

[BRFC1995]

Most important transfer...kean out never happened .

Gutted to an extent about nelsen had hoped he would be the obvious caretaker choice if kean was to ever leave.

Manager lied through his teeth this window and seemingly only wants a very young squad that has less experience than himself to make himself bullet proof from within.

Only 4 teams in the relegation battle now and I expect wolves to make it 3 when they get some results. Cheers steve great business.

[Guest TheArtistFormallyKnownAsJB]

Keeping our key assets + slashing 2.5m off the wage bill between now and the summer is good business for our operating levels. We have seen this happen before under our previous owners, but never have we managed to offload so many ageing or ineffective players. This is proof of the desperation around the leagues to strike bargains due to new rules and constant speculation about the spending of football clubs.

However, the case is I will miss Nelsen, mainly due to his heroic performances and spirit. Unfortunately he has only played 1 game in 12 months, for around 2m in wages. We have been lucky to save the rest of his contract.

I'm happy to see the back of Keith, mainly due to his lack of ability. Roberts has been ineffectual in the past 12 months also.

Therefore I cannot complain too much. Bassong going to Wolves is my only gripe, but I feel we have 4 better Central defenders better or fitter than Nelsen, so that makes the decision to let him go (and to be fair, to give Nelsen his unlikely dream move) an easier one.

As for the incomings, what did anybody expect? if Marcus is anything like Martin then we will have struck gold. Remember players develop at different rates(Mark Hughes not signing him in 2005 is irrellevant), so he could be "identical" in many ways. Bradley Orr is not exactly "Orr-inspiring" but it is at least another backup to add who has experience superior to Bruno and Myles. (albeit mostly 2nd tier of English football)

We should already know that we are blatanty lied to by the owners so no need to get to disillusioned by the lack of "big name" signings or "prem experience to hit the ground running" as this costs money we do not have/dare not spend

[mattyc2422]

Gutted to see Nelsen go. One of the few that cares.

[FFP83]

Slashing the wage bill is very positive (although is Salgado still here?)

The players we brought in

Modeste is probably better than Roberts?

Olsson is probably better tha Keith?

Orr is fitter and more available than Nelsen.

So in that respect we have improved ever so slightly. Basically it looks like Kean thinks our squad going into the window was good enough, with results vs United, Liverpool, Everton and Fulham backing that up.

The players he mentioned who could hit the ground running were the likes of Andy Johnson I guess? But I think Fulham priced him out of a move?

(Did he go anywhere in the end?) So maybe thats what Kean found with all his "realistic" targets?

IF Samba is happy to try hard for us for a few more months and Junior keeps playing to earn himself that big summer move we have a chance.

QPR are safe now in my opinion. I think its Wigan, Wolves, us, Bolton and Swansea in the battle now.

Swansea just because of their wafer thin squad, a couple of injuries or suspensions and I think they would go on a bad run, if Dyer and/or Sinclair miss a game they have no real threats, but maybe their already accumulated points will see them safe in the end.

I think Wigan are certs to go down, its their time now.

[bluebruce]

Keeping our key assets + slashing 2.5m off the wage bill between now and the summer is good business for our operating levels.

We won't have saved 2.5 million though. Our new players won't be playing for free, and Orr and Olsson probably had signing on fees. Orr cost a fee. It's possible Modeste cost a loan fee. It's being said we had to pay Nelsen to leave. Roberts will have been due a loyalty bonus (hopefully this one will have been outweighed by the transfer fee). And then there are agents fees.

Roberts- 30k pw

Andrews- 25k pw

Nelsen- 30k pw

The above are my guesses on what the players who left were on. That'd be just over 4 million a year, or 2 million over the next six months. At a rough guess, this window will have saved us about 1 million. The players that left were all surplus to requirements, so hopefully at least one of our new boys surprises us and makes it all worthwhile.

[Brfcrule1]

The only positive to come out of this window is we have reduced the wage bill the rest of it has been a disaster and venkys must share the majority of the problems we are in and in every respect you need to feel a bit sorry for Kean as he has not been given the tools needed to do the job and I have to say I am underwhelmed by the whole window we sign a guy who can't even get a spot in the QPR lineup it's obvious Orr was a cheaper alternative to Sutter Modeste was a cheaper alternative to Andy Johnson and Olsson a cheaper alternative to Caceres and kean does not help himself stating there will be a lot of incomings and not many arrive I do believe we had a few live bids in for players but Kean has been badley let down by the owners and they would not have had to put much in to improve the squad 3M would have got Pogrebynak 5.5M would have got Jelavic 2.2M would have got Maynard 4.4M could have got Cisse but the owners have proved they no longer want to be here that along with the withdrawn invitation to the Indian national team to train at ewood tells me they no longer want to be here and should have sold when they had the chance even if they had there eye on the ball they could have tied up some cracking loan deals Pienaar, Frimpong, Corluka, all good players that would have improved our squad and would have tied us over until the summer when the situation could have been looked at again and we would only have had to put a loan fee to secure those yet we go for cheap and cheerful alternatives and if the owners wanted to do right by the club they would have put decent people at the club to tie up deals and would have put their own money into the club to ensure survival & would have sorted out the bank problems I can only hope this does not cost us our EPL survival but credit where it's due at least we held onto N'Zonzi, Samba & Hoilett and think the signing of Olsson's bro could turn out a masterstroke in terms of retaining Martin but totally frustrated at the penny pinching tactics to not strengthen with experienced EPL players does not help at least with 2 of those players would have meant survival for sure now it is anyone's guess whether we will survive all we can do is cross fingers toes and thumbs that by some miracle we survive and the thing that riles me and many supporters they posted a 1bn turnover in that economic times article just makes me sick these crooks.

[liamg14]

Why would Redknapp let Bassong leave and then sign Nelsen, who I assume passed a medical, who supposedly is knackered and hasn't played for 6 months? That's what I don't understand...

Don't get me wrong I'm pleased for Nelsen because he has now left the shambles that is our club and gone on to bigger and better things!

Redknapp: "I'm hoping to sign Ryan Nelsen on a free until the end of the season. I think he's a great competitor and a good sort to have at your club. Always liked him. (plus when hes fit he'll be ok about sitting on the bench)

Redknapp had indicated that he was willing to let Bassong leave due to the player's demoralised mindset, so i wouldnt be thet surprised if he didnt make much of an impact at Wolves, we'll have to see!

[Blueboy Downunder]

please don't tell me my antipodean mate has been forced out of the club, and now plays for spurs??

this is a shambles of the highest order.

[Eddie]

How is that a shambles? Nelsen has been injured for the majority of the last couple of season. He's coming towards the end of his career, is a relatively high earner and, even if he managed to get fit for a sustained period of time, probably wouldn't merit a place in our first 11.

[Blueboy Downunder]

it is a shambles because i am biased.

[Steve Moss]

Hilarious

Tremblers out in force!

Well done to Steve, for clearing the decks. Removing the inefficient drain on the wage bill (Roberts & Andrews [both bobbins], and The Admiral [now a severe crock, and will probably not play again).

Under testing circumstances, good old Steve has come up trumps.

I see a Groveler has made an appearance. Make sure you polish Kean's shoes while your on your knees.

Gutted to see Nelsen go. One of the few that cares.

Under the circumstances, I think most are disappointed with the manner of Nelsen's leaving. As a pragmatic matter, he needed to move on as does Salgado. As a matter of morale, I think the club could have gone about it in a far more positive manner.

On the positive side, for the window we saved on the wage bill while keeping the on the field talent we have available. On the negative side, we have failed to strengthen despite being in the relegation zone and, yet again, Venkys/Kean has demonstrated who little loyal club veterans matter.

[liamg14]

How is that a shambles? Nelsen has been injured for the majority of the last couple of season. He's coming towards the end of his career, is a relatively high earner and, even if he managed to get fit for a sustained period of time, probably wouldn't merit a place in our first 11.

or in Spurs 1st 11

[Hekla]

Hate the way we treat our players, we used to be so more professional than this. Shame to see Ryan leave, even if he is on his last legs. Why couldn't we get a small fee for him rather than paying for him to leave? Everything smells at the club.

[I_saw_Batty_score]

Maybe this is where the money went one for the future.

[bob fleming]

How is that a shambles? Nelsen has been injured for the majority of the last couple of season. He's coming towards the end of his career, is a relatively high earner and, even if he managed to get fit for a sustained period of time, probably wouldn't merit a place in our first 11.

Yes he's been injured. But isn't any more it would appear. Nelsen or Hanley?

Experience, old head, captain on and off the field, been there done it, just what is needed in a relegation battle. If we were going to pay anyone up to leave then why not Grella??

Is the football club stronger or weaker with Nelsens departure, and I don't just mean on the pitch. There's only one answer.

Oh and for all those falling over themselves saying how great it is that we've reduced the wage bill I note that you're the same people who this time last year were proclaiming that Venkys were loaded. Despite the non sale of Samba that clearly isn't the case. I wonder what happened to the money ear marked for Ronaldinho etc? Then again, just like the last 14 months, that was all bull$hit.