[Archived] Samba Set To Sign For Anzhi

[deftangel]

Samba has sullied his reputation as one of our best players of recent years. It's one thing to throw a paddy during a transfer window, quite another to continue that once it's shut.

Unless of course, this move has been on the cards for a while. You see, whilst I'm inclined to believe he hasn't covered himself in glory here, I don't trust the club to completely buy their take on how this has come about. Moreover, proper management would have prevented the situation even occurring.

Maybe on the face of things they've extracted maximum value from the asset outside the transfer window to satisfy the bank but that is a mess similarly of their own making and will pale in comparison to the "cost" of losing a relegation battle now we've sold our best defender.

I for one will thank Samba for the good times (last minute winner at Spurs springs to mind). It's a shame it had to end this way. At the least, Samba's next interview with L'equipe may be revealing.

[taurus1530]

I for one am glad he has gone and for a sensible price, not mickey mouse figures the nere do wells like QPR offered a good snub to them. At least he has gone out of the PL and will not affect our fate. He was never going to play again for us and was an unsettling influence. We have done fine without him in the team, so come on lads lets keep those points coming. Anything today would be a bonus.

[RevidgeBlue]

A very sad situation all round. Disgusted primarily by Samba and his behaviour in recent weeks but also absoloutely dismayed that he has been allowed to leave after us insisting all along that he was definitely not for sale. This obviously only meant "Not for sale for QPR's derisory 5m offer but for sale for the Russian Club's only slightly less derisory 9m less 15% due to Hertha Berlin." Plus the possibility of add ons. Whoopy doo.

BS in the paper from Eric Black who has only been at the Club 2 minutes insisting the loss of our best players won't affect us. Not a squeak out of Kean who insisted all along Samba was going nowhere.

For me with this we have:

1) Raised the white flag in the relegation battle.

2 ) Given a clear indication to the rest of the players that their contracts are completely worthless and that they can throw a hissy fit and just get their own way or just walk out whenever they feel like it.

Gutted. This also paves the way for the immediate summer exit of the likes of Robinson, Hoillet, Olsson and the Yak even in the now increasingly unlikely event we stay up.

As for Samba, what a silly man. Mostly for his conduct here whilst receiving more money than any normal person could conceivably dream of but also for consigning himself to relative obscurity in footballing terms in Russia when he could and should have established himself as the best centre half in the Premier League.

F

[Clitherover]

It's a sad day when players are that desperate to leave Rovers they'll join a club with a name that sounds like a Spanish footballer clearing his throat.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Who has come out of this latest Venkyvision episode best?

Samba

- has probably increased his salary (but not by that much if certain posters view of his Rovers salary are to be believed)

- has had to forego his ambitions and move to what would never have been first choice in order to get away from Rovers

- despite sharing feelings abour the current regime he is blamed and slated as being greedy by the very fans he gave his career best performances to

- his reputation in now under question

- he has finally escaped

Venky Rovers

- brought in £12m outside the normal transfer window

- got another high earner off the wage bill

- are under no pressure to replace due to perfect timing

Kean

- has one less player to worry about further exposing his lack of man-management skills

- another experienced senior player who could undermine him is gone

- suffers no additional reputational damage in the press, timed perfectly with "Rovers fans are evil illegitimates" story

- will probably not be on a percentage bonus from the sale like some managers are

Fans

- one less experienced senior player to help our fight against relegation (despite it being reported that he and Kean had buried the hatchet - now we know why)

- another reason to argue and give Venky apologists some further ammunition

- no chance of the money being effectively reinvested into the first team (as we are now a selling club, where is our next asset coming from?)

- pray that we now clear all of our debt and stabilise the club (based on everything that has happened to date, how likely is that?)

Did someone say the Venkys Bollywood studio had collapsed or have the just put all of their efforts into script writing and research?

He refused to play. I sympathise with everything you've said but you cannot excuse a player for refusing to train or play football when he's paid £60k a week. Venky's and Kean have lied to us and will lead this club into the championship and Samba certainly has many valid reasons for wanting to leave, but his refusal to play in order to force a move is pathetic.

'Venky apologists'. Get a grip. I dont think anyone is saying that Venky's are blameless. I just dont like to see people paint Samba as a martyr in all of this. His conduct has been childish.

[Stuart]

He refused to play. I sympathise with everything you've said but you cannot excuse a player for refusing to train or play football when he's paid £60k a week. Venky's and Kean have lied to us and will lead this club into the championship and Samba certainly has many valid reasons for wanting to leave, but his refusal to play in order to force a move is pathetic.

'Venky apologists'. Get a grip. I dont think anyone is saying that Venky's are blameless. I just dont like to see people paint Samba as a martyr in all of this. His conduct has been childish.

Whether you think so or not, there are people who look to defend Venkys at every (limited) opportunity. These same people stay very quiet when all the shot is flying around. Presumably in a dark room with their hand over their ears.

[T4E]

We haven't kept a clean sheet all season, with or without Samba. This isn't going to make any difference. Only thing that changes is we were going to go down anyway, but if he'd left in the Summer we'd have got much less for him.

[AndyC]

Qpr bid a lot more than 5 million.

It was closer to 9 with the ad ons.

Will samba be playing in the Champions league next season?

[thenodrog]

For me that'd be an easy choice - accept £5million from QPR or £12million off the Russians.

In general, it's a strange perception held by us fans, we say it's our club and Rovers' money that should be reinvested etc. one day but the next breath we say that the owners (who like it or not bought the club)are wrong to take/make money from the investment that they put the cash down for.

I think we were all desperately praying for owners who would plough their own cash in that would purely finance our enjoyment like at Chelsea and City. Whereas in truth, we are getting nothing but fear, confusion and very little enjoyment.

I personally don't think we are being asset stripped and can totally appreciate why this new bunch are drastically cutting the wage bill - it desperately needed to be done as it does at most other clubs. We now no longer have Emerton, Roberts, Andrews, Nelsen, Samba, Diouf and Jones etc and between them that must easily amount to about £1m a month saved in wages and a massive % drop to turnover has been achieved already, even before Salgado and Grella's will be off in June. Additionally we have amassed over £30m in transfer fees that will be drip fed into the club (or to Pune) for a few years. We also have a yes madam manager who multi-tasks (apart from guiding us to back to back wins or clean sheets!!!) in charge who is on a fraction of wages of the last man! That's how I genuinely imagine a business person like Mrs D sees things and I'll leave it up to someone else to work out the approx cut in outgoings at Rovers as of July - it will be colossal.

Where it may all come scarily unpicked for the club is if we are relegated and fail to win an instant promotion back to the Prem - but had we been relegated under the previous regime, we would have faced meltdown too - which John Williams openly admitted, so we've been on the edge for going on a decade now if the truth be told.

Just think how much the Venkeymob would save if we got rid of em all Pedro.

The "Murphy's donkey" principle.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Whether you think so or not, there are people who look to defend Venkys at every (limited) opportunity. These same people stay very quiet when all the shot is flying around. Presumably in a dark room with their hand over their ears.

I dont think there is anyone on this messageboard who would defend Venky's. Not one person. I just dont like to see people referring to Samba as a victim in this. He refused to play and that is inexcusable regardless of the situation.

[thenodrog]

Well not only have the chicken farmers pocketed 12 mil but their timing was excellent, now they won't or can't be pressured to spend the money because our window is closed. Another masterclass in screwing BRFC in my mind and I can't help but wonder just how long this had been the plan. God I hate the illegitimateos

It's always been Plan B imo. Always.

Lets be honest USAblue if you were a millionaire business person living in the States with absolutely no knowledge or interest in hockey for example and you were offered a chance to buy some obscure Indian hockey team in some obscure Indian city for just 10m knowing full well that you were going to receive double that from the league it competes in annually AND that even the most basic investigations reveal that the sum of it's parts could be sold for 30m within a year or so then what would you do?

Any decision ... if indeed there is one to be made ..... must become ever so much easier when the locals turn against you.

[thenodrog]

I don't understand all of this 'the club lied to us' nonsense. Almost every club trots out the 'not for sale' lines when important players are being linked with other clubs and when they are a team of our size they almost always end up selling the player. It happened under the Walker Trust, it happened under previous managers and it will happen again. There are many strings to the anti-Venkys bow, but simply turning every event into a massive failure by the club and an example of ineptitude on the part of the owners does little to add any validity to the legitimate criticism of the owners.

Samba had to go. He was refusing to play for the club. We got good money for him. We did not sell him to a rival.

The ONLY criticism can be that we released Nelsen and/or that we didn't sign another centreback during the transfer window, but there's a very good chance that this won't be an issue. Givet, Dann and Hanley are all very capable defenders and should see us through this season.

Only one of those is worth his salt in the Prem at this moment in time.

Eddie time and again you are eager convince us that you are the only person connected with BRFC who knows less about football than our owner.

Although we don't know these players personally can you not recognise is that 80% of the people who have been booted out of the door by the Slumdog Millionaires are people of strong principles who are not yes men and will not tolerate bullsh1t?

[thenodrog]

Bottom line is we have lost (another)top class Premiership player. Doesn't matter whether you like him or nor, or if you approve of his opinions and off field actions or not. Without him we are significantly weaker, and however short the odds were to go down before he left, they are now much , shorter.

Exactly. In a nutshell we have got rid of 2 of our 3 bast centre halves for the relegation run in! We deserve to go down! In fact taking everything else that has happened over the past 15 months into considereation I'd say it seems to be the agenda as set out by the owners.

[Fife Rover]

Please! Like we ever hung onto our stars before?

Whilst I don't disagree with your list of star players Rovers sold (your earlier post) I have to disagree with your contention that Rovers have always sold "ALL their stars". Were Eckersley, Clayton, Douglas not stars? these were not just Rovers star players they were also England star players, and all of them remained Rovers players from start to finish of their useful playing careers.

No the truth is that the selling years only began for the fist time in Rovers history in the early '60s, and it is no coincidence that this conicided with the abolition of the maximum wage for players. I watched Rovers right through from the re-commencement of League Football in 1946, and there was no need for Rovers or virtually ANY club to sell their star players until the abolition of max wage came along. And the simple reason for this was that EVERY club could manage their outgoings well enough on their incoming gate money. These were the days when crowds of 30,000+ were common at Ewood, and 40,000 up to 50,000 not unknown.

Who knows maybe when the greed that controls present day footbal has run it's course and moved on, then MAYBE sanity will return and with it football as it should be run and once was run. Sadly I will not be around to see it so I will just have to be content with my happy memories.

[RoyRover]

I think this is a terrible bit of business by the club. But this doesn't surprise me. Getting £9 million for him isn't much difference than getting £6 million in the grand scheme of things. If we had got £12 million up front, then it would have been a fair price. But as usual we finally bend over in the negotiations and accepted an amount below his worth, with add-ons included. So after insisting that he wouldn't be sold, the owners do so, outside of the transfer window meaning that they are under no pressure to replace him. A couple of million will go to Hertha Berlin and the rest will go to the bank, with the bold statements of significant investment by the owners fading further away.

The owners are just looking to cut costs wherever they can. This window has turned into a complete disaster. We were promised players with Premiership experience. In fact, we have lost two of our most influential and experienced players in Samba and Nelsen. Players who I have no undermined Kean's authority and questioned his obvious lack of managerial ability. So from having 5 centre backs to chose from, we now have 3. One of whom is young and inexperienced, another who has a heart problem and another who has been a awful since joining. This is total suicide from the club.

Samba should be ashamed of himself in all of this as well. I know he has stood up to the owners and the manager for the way the club is going down the toilet and in may ways that should be applauded. But to exit the way he has after seemingly refusing to play, is a bad way to go. He's pointed to the players that Anzhi have, as well as their coach and has no doubt been sold by the money on offer and the potential of other big name players being brought to the club. But he could have stayed, kept us in the league and departed in the summer to a far better team in a better league.

The whole sorry episode just proves what a joke the club has become.

[Parsonblue]

I notice that Eric Black, on the official site, is saying how fantastic our defenders have been in recent weeks. These would be the same defenders who have conceded eleven goals in three games this month. Clearly Samba was surplus to requirements according the the clowns who now own, manage and coach at Ewood Park.

I think the decision to sell Samba clearly shows that Desai is calling the tune and the tune she's playing has nothing to do with football and everything to do with money. The fact that Morris, who has had a pretty poor season in the reserves, has been given a new contract suggests to me that more of the senior players will be on their way in the summer and that money won't be spent on quality replacements.

[Sparky Marky]

We have done fine without him in the team.

Yes....we're doing great aren't we? Mis-management again puts another nail in the coffin.

[thenodrog]

A very sad situation all round. Disgusted primarily by Samba and his behaviour in recent weeks but also absoloutely dismayed that he has been allowed to leave after us insisting all along that he was definitely not for sale. This obviously only meant "Not for sale for QPR's derisory 5m offer but for sale for the Russian Club's only slightly less derisory 9m less 15% due to Hertha Berlin." Plus the possibility of add ons. Whoopy doo.

BS in the paper from Eric Black who has only been at the Club 2 minutes insisting the loss of our best players won't affect us. Not a squeak out of Kean who insisted all along Samba was going nowhere.

For me with this we have:

1) Raised the white flag in the relegation battle.

2 ) Given a clear indication to the rest of the players that their contracts are completely worthless and that they can throw a hissy fit and just get their own way or just walk out whenever they feel like it.

Gutted. This also paves the way for the immediate summer exit of the likes of Robinson, Hoillet, Olsson and the Yak even in the now increasingly unlikely event we stay up.

As for Samba, what a silly man. Mostly for his conduct here whilst receiving more money than any normal person could conceivably dream of but also for consigning himself to relative obscurity in footballing terms in Russia when he could and should have established himself as the best centre half in the Premier League.

F

Except the Russian star is in the ascendancy whilst with the exception of 1 club which coincidentally provides our opposition today the premier league curve is on a downward track.

I'll tell you what it is, if I was being paid mega bucks to play for a top team in Africa or Asia for the next few years alongside top players and under the guidence of Gus Hiddink knowing that I'd be booed by the opposing fans simply for being white I couldn't really care less. Only the extraordinarily sensitive or those actually ashamed of their skin colour would be unable to cope.

We all need to note that Samba was promised all this last January by owners reneged on their word and didn't deliver remember. Why he is now being criticised for sticking to his principles I don't know and especially by those with none.

Hopefully Simon you will now understand my suspiciouns toward the new owners from the outset who you welcomed so eagerly at the time and especially when they quickly disposed of the manager you hated. Instinct over rationale every time.

[Gav]

Enough has been said about the owners, not going to bother with that one. But Samba has again shown everything that is wrong with the modern day footballer. The move to Russia says much about the man who tried to seemingly boost his pay packet annually by throwing his toys out of the pram.

Good player, but one greedy b*****d.

[davulsukur]

How's about because he refuses to play?? What good does he do sat in the stands and causing anger amongst team mates?

So why let Nelly leave? Awful management by the club.

[47er]

"We" won't see any of this up to 12M. If any club had offered this during the English transfer window he would have gone then.

The money will go straight to the Bank to pay for the financial mismanagement of Venkys. In other words they are gradually dismantling our team to cover their own mistakes.

We had a super-abundance of centre-backs last season-----Jones/Nelsen/Samba/Givet and Hanley. Now we are down to the bare bones,only 2 available currently and injuries/suspensions

could cost us our Premier League place.

All players bought, with the exception of Yakubu and possibly Formica, (whom the owners tried desperately to sell in January) have had little or no positive effect on the team.

But its pointless talking about all this in football terms because the owners neither know nor care about such matters. All our leaders can go because they can be replaced by cheaper options. All Venkys care about

is keeping the bank away for now. How it affects our results is of complete indifference to them.

[thenodrog]

He refused to play. I sympathise with everything you've said but you cannot excuse a player for refusing to train or play football when he's paid £60k a week. Venky's and Kean have lied to us and will lead this club into the championship and Samba certainly has many valid reasons for wanting to leave, but his refusal to play in order to force a move is pathetic.

'Venky apologists'. Get a grip. I dont think anyone is saying that Venky's are blameless. I just dont like to see people paint Samba as a martyr in all of this. His conduct has been childish.

Childish if it had happened last January perhaps. Not now after the owners and the manager and the manager's agent lied through their teeth and broke promises galore.

There is a rumour of players not being paid and insolvency constantly circulating the club and in fact for all we know it might just be possible that his sale will pay the wages of his teammates until the end of the season.

Last March there were strong rumours around that at half time during the Blackpool match that the senior pro's led a revolt against the manager. We don't know for sure the entire truth but the 2nd half performance when the team so obviously reverted to Allardyce football and turned the game around suggested as much, our tactics and play were like chalk and cheese. Point being that with few exceptions most "senior pro's" have since been binned by Kean one way or another. Speaks volumes doesn't it.

[thenodrog]

I take it he's not seen the treatment black players get in Russia. Roberto Carlos walked off the pitch after having bananas thrown at him and Odemwingie was hounded out by his own fans based on the colour of his skin. Samba is in for quite a shock.

Don't make the mistake of judging the entire world on the heightened sensibilities of a tiny nation that constitutes less than 1% of the people on this planet Ricky. We in this nation have become conditioned to become over sensitive on these issues. Shouting insults toward footballers based on their racial origin is no big deal in many places. Recently and in a welter of publicity we've accused directly the Portugese, the Russians, the Italians, the Uruguayans and even the President of FIFA of being racist towards us. In the past the Turks and the Eastern Europeans have copped for it too.

Here when a footballer violently attacked and commited GBH on a specatator in full exposure of TV camera's we let him off with a few hours community service. apparently because the victim committed 'racial abuse' on the player.... even though they were of the same racial origin (white caucasian). Skewed or what?

I suggest we need to look inward and inspect our own sensibilities and values before we are so quick to judge others.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Childish if it had happened last January perhaps. Not now after the owners and the manager and the manager's agent lied through their teeth and broke promises galore.

There is a rumour of players not being paid and insolvency constantly circulating the club and in fact for all we know it might just be possible that his sale will pay the wages of his teammates until the end of the season.

Last March there were strong rumours around that at half time during the Blackpool match that the senior pro's led a revolt against the manager. We don't know for sure the entire truth but the 2nd half performance when the team so obviously reverted to Allardyce football and turned the game around suggested as much, our tactics and play were like chalk and cheese. Point being that with few exceptions most "senior pro's" have since been binned by Kean one way or another. Speaks volumes doesn't it.

I have no problem with Samba wanting to leave, I dont blame him for that at all and I wont blame Hoilett/Robbo/Nzonzi when they leave in the summer either. Owners and managers breaking promises is one thing but to refuse to play or train is another. Samba can moan all he wants about the broken promises that were made but he refused to play and that is inexcusable when he's on 60k a week. Venkys and Kean are certainly culpable here, but Samba's conduct has been disgraceful.

I blame them far more for selling Nelsen then Samba given the circumstances.

[thenodrog]

But its pointless talking about all this in football terms because the owners neither know nor care about such matters. All our leaders can go because they can be replaced by cheaper options. All Venkys care about

'Eees betta.... eees cheepah my friend' Given my experiences around Blackburn that must be the motto of the entire Indian sub continent.

We need to consider the Venkeymob's background when they turned up. No one anywhere makes high margins in the chicken farming business. Any profit is based on sheer volume of sales and costs kept to an absolute minimum by economies of scale. Who can forget the lkudicrous "5m pa will get us into the top four and Europe" from Joan? No wonder they are like fish out of water trying to cut it in the Prem is it?