[Archived] Michael Appleton - New Rovers Manager

[Ricky]

Look at the top scorers in our league and look what they cost. Murray was free, Austin was undisclosed but rumoured to be £1.2m, Chris Wood was £1m after scoring 11 in 19 goals on loan at Millwall, Vydra cost Udinese about £3m.

So I can see where Tom is coming from that we could have plugged that massive hole in our midfield as well as buying a forward who could have scored goals in this league.

Rhodes is a very very very good striker. However it's only now we seem to be playing to his strengths a bit more and getting our wingers involved. That's more of a reflection on our previous managers than Rhodes though. I'm really looking forward to seeing him with another striker like best. However playing them in a 4-4-2 will really highlight our problem midfield. Unless Etuhu can actually start performing.

[Tom]

But like I said yesterday. By the same token Van Persie was even more obvious and there should be less, even zero, credit for Ferguson.

It's important, to me, because people want to crucify Singh (even preferring Shagnew, FFS) when in my view he has shown that he does want the best for the club.

It comes down to whether people think Singh has done nothing for Rovers, or if he's actually responsible for the two things that fans can be most glad about: Kean Out, Rhodes In.

Take away those two things and maybe he becomes just a bumbling, stupid, oaf who can't keep his trap shut. I think there are people who are doing their best to promote this image and to discredit him for their own benefit. Both within the club and the fanbase.

Ok we'll compromise and ill give him some credit but not sole credit

But following the same logic that also means he has to take a large chunk of the blame for not bringing in a midfielder and leaving us lacking when we had money to spend, it's the one worry I have about Appleton so far as well because that central midfield has cost us a lot of points this season

(By the way I must think differently to most but I don't see van persie as a managerial master stroke just another extremely obvious signing that all the best teams would want)

Shebby takes credit for getting rid of Kean though, sadly he then appointed a worse manager which cost us a lot of points and time

[47er]

See with Samba there is a difference he was totally unknown and unearthed by Hughes and his team, Rhodes was such an obvious signing that most teams in the league were looking at him but most didn't have the cash to back that up.

Not sure why this is so important to people to be honest, we all have differing opinions

Because you were saying Shebby's has never done anything useful or something like that (can'teven remember now) and I was saying he signed Rhodes over Kean's dead body!

So fairs fair.

[Beta Ray Bill]

Look at the top scorers in our league and look what they cost. Murray was free, Austin was undisclosed but rumoured to be £1.2m, Chris Wood was £1m after scoring 11 in 19 goals on loan at Millwall, Vydra cost Udinese about £3m.

So I can see where Tom is coming from that we could have plugged that massive hole in our midfield as well as buying a forward who could have scored goals in this league.

Rhodes is a very very very good striker. However it's only now we seem to be playing to his strengths a bit more and getting our wingers involved. That's more of a reflection on our previous managers than Rhodes though. I'm really looking forward to seeing him with another striker like best. However playing them in a 4-4-2 will really highlight our problem midfield. Unless Etuhu can actually start performing.

But at the end of August did anyone really think our centre midfield was going to turn out to be so dire? Murphy and Etuhu might have looked ropey but apart from a few very shrewd / lucky guessers (delete as appropriate) individuals, I'm not convinced that anyone genuinely believed it would be that much of a priority. A left back to allow Olsson to move upfield if he stayed, or replace him if he went, was probably more of an issue.

I very much doubt we'd have been able to cover enough different positions with 8m to have added as much value as Rhodes alone has done. And 3x£2.5m players would probably been more in wages collectively as they'd have all been on more than a third of Rhodes wage...

[47er]

Everyone sees it differently I accept he had a role in it but I'm not going to give him sole credit or call him a Singh signing although he obviously played a role

Either way I don't care I'm just happy he's here.

The point also still stands about the Berg appointment costing us dearly

No surely not! Berg was the owners signing ! No?

[roversfan99]

But like I said yesterday. By the same token Van Persie was even more obvious and there should be less, even zero, credit for Ferguson.

It's important, to me, because people want to crucify Singh (even preferring Shagnew, FFS) when in my view he has shown that he does want the best for the club.

It comes down to whether people think Singh has done nothing for Rovers, or if he's actually responsible for the two things that fans can be most glad about: Kean Out, Rhodes In.

Take away those two things and maybe he becomes just a bumbling, stupid, oaf who can't keep his trap shut. I think there are people who are doing their best to promote this image and to discredit him for their own benefit. Both within the club and the fanbase.

Its because Shaw and Agnew are not obscure pundits with no experience in British football, in a made up role, speaking out in public whenever they possibly can.

That's not to say all 3 shouldn't go, but what makes people say Shebby wants the best for the club? Everytime he doesn't get his own way he acts stubbornly like a spoilt brat, like recently when his power was dimished, he became very irate in various radio interviews. At least Shaw and Agnew don't embarrass us in the media; no one knows for sure who is doing what behind the scenes.

Regarding Rhodes, we don't know for sure who signed him, we are going off newspaper reports. If, as reported Shebby was in charge of our summer transfers, then he made a pigs ear in my opinion. We spent quite a bit on wages and fees, yet ended up with a bloated yet unbalanced squad, half a team of Portugese youngsters who aren't up to it, and players signed against the managers will, which irrespective of our views against Kean is wrong, as even Kean knows more about football than Shebby and a manager will always be uncomfortable with players he didn't sign. At the end of the day, the transfer window last summer has left us with a squad that has us in the bottom half with more than half of the season gone. That's the proof that it was a failed summer window,

He has, like I believe Tom you have said, probably ruined our promotion chances by taking his time and appointing Berg, an appointment no one really wanted bar him who said he wanted a former player despite pleas for experience. I also seem to recall him again becoming agitated when people criticised his choice of Billy Mckinlay, saying something sarcastic along the lines of allowing us to vote in a poll for the next manager.

Regarding Kean, he left at his own free will. All Shebby did is claimed to have the next appointment under control, where he managed to find a manager who was WORSE than Kean.

Anyway I'm liking Appleton, he's getting rid of all of the number 10's in the squad and seemingly taking no nonsense from anyone, wanting to play his own direct yet effective style. Lets hope we continue in the same vein.

And Beta Ray Bill, we have such a lack of depth in many key positions. Our rivals don't have this problem and they don't have £8m to spend on rectifying this.

[Stuart]

Look at the top scorers in our league and look what they cost. Murray was free, Austin was undisclosed but rumoured to be £1.2m, Chris Wood was £1m after scoring 11 in 19 goals on loan at Millwall, Vydra cost Udinese about £3m.

Player - Age - Goals for league clubs (and by age 22)

Murray - 29 - 116 (37)

Austin - 23 - 31 (31)

Wood - 21 - 38+ (38+)

Vydra - 20 - 19+ (19+)

Rhodes - 22 - 100 (100)

[Tom]

Because you were saying Shebby's has never done anything useful or something like that (can'teven remember now) and I was saying he signed Rhodes over Kean's dead body!

So fairs fair.

I don't recall ever saying that (but i may have done) I said the decision to appoint Berg cost us dearly I never even mentioned the signing of Rhodes till someone else brought it up

I am grateful he fought the cause to go for Rhodes all I'm saying is I think there is a difference between finding and signing a bargain like Austin or Woods and blowing other teams out of the water to sign a highly in demand player. One requires real nouse and an eye for talent the other simply the backing of the owners. Thankfully Shebby obviously had the trust of the owners who allowed him to make that call, for that I'm grateful

Anyway this is the Appleton topic lets keep it that way

[47er]

You're making Rhodes more famous than he was. To pay 8m at that point in his career was a very brave call indeed. And it's come off.

I agree with Stuart, Shebby's has done 2 things we should be very grateful for.

Nobody's arguing he hasn't got a lot wrong.

[Tom]

Yes it was a lot to pay and yes it's paid off but that's the whole point the owners ultimately decided to part with 8m for him so fair play to Shebby for telling them we should go for him but begrudging fair play to the owners moreso for pushing the boat out to land him. I doubt they would have let Kean sign someone for that amount.

west ham bid £4m last January. Tottenham, Liverpool, Celtic, united, Everton, villa, Norwich, Newcastle and others had been watching him along with half of the championship.

I think it's fair to say he was quite famous already

[Stuart]

Anyway this is the Appleton topic lets keep it that way

Appy is continuing the trend of the last 3.5 managers of picking Rhodes - who returns the favour by scoring goals.

[Tom]

And I think he will thrive under Appy who for the first time this season has noticed it makes sense to play to his strengths rather than having long balls launched at him and having him out of the game for 90% of it

Bring in a winger and a cm and I think I'll agree with everything Appy has done so far

It's just that CM that worries me, it's an obvious weak spot and leaves us unable to control games fully at times

[47er]

Yes it was a lot to pay and yes it's paid off but that's the whole point the owners ultimately decided to part with 8m for him so fair play to Shebby for telling them we should go for him but begrudging fair play to the owners moreso for pushing the boat out to land him. I doubt they would have let Kean sign someone for that amount.

west ham bid £4m last January. Tottenham, Liverpool, Celtic, united, Everton, villa, Norwich, Newcastle and others had been watching him along with half of the championship.

I think it's fair to say he was quite famous already

No-one else was remotely in the running to pay 8M!

[Tom]

No-one else was remotely in the running to pay 8M!

Confirming my point that the main reason we did sign him is because the owners were willing to pay what they wanted

[47er]

Confirming my point that the main reason we did sign him is because the owners were willing to pay what they wanted

Well then-----bit of a blunder by those same owners wasting all that money on Berg. Nothing to do with Shebby. You really can't have it both ways.

[Tom]

I've given him credit for pushing for the deal just as I've criticised him for the Berg appointment

I've also said in this very thread the buck stops with the owners ultimately on the Berg appointment

Everything negative in the last 2 years comes back to them to be honest, the one thing they have done right is pushing the boat out to land Rhodes (as noted on the recommendation of Shebby)

[47er]

I've given him credit for pushing for the deal just as I've criticised him for the Berg appointment

I've also said in this very thread the buck stops with the owners ultimately on the Berg appointment

Everything negative in the last 2 years comes back to them to be honest, the one thing they have done right is pushing the boat out to land Rhodes (as noted on the recommendation of Shebby)

Well said!

[Hasta]

If he's free (Williamson) and can play central midfield that looking at Danny Wilsons quotes and fan comments on the link below I'd wager he's an improvement over what we have.

Whoops forgot the link

http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/sheffield-united-danny-wilson-hopes-for-warm-lee-williamson-welcome-1-5065764

[chaddyrovers]

Appleton has banned Rovers players from using twitter to comment on Rovers matters.

[Damien]

Appleton has banned Rovers players from using twitter to comment on Rovers matters.

If that's true chaddy, then good on him! Rovers look like a joke at the moment and we need to sort this. A PR company is a start and so is banning twitter!

[philipl]

I had seen and heard enough at Fulham to know yhose were two dire signings and said so.

[DE.]

Appleton has banned Rovers players from using twitter to comment on Rovers matters.

If true, about time. He should ban them from using twitter altogether.

[Ricky]

Didn't Murphy have more PL assists than any other player the season before we signed him?

To be fair Phil you have been completely negative about every rovers signing so you were bound to be right about the ones that didn't work out

[John]

Like that Appleton's focus is on clean sheets.

[Kelbo]

If true, about time. He should ban them from using twitter altogether.

You cant do that though, you can do stuff relating to club matters but not personal things, that woul be a breach of civil liberties!!

Like that Appleton's focus is on clean sheets.

And an organised team too, I watched the two chances City had yesterday and even though they had attempts on goal, the defence appeared to be in the right positions, shouldnt have allowed the header in as players were in the position to prevent that, even when the cross came in, both Orr and the midfielder were trying to close down the man who made the cross!!