[Archived] Do Players generally improve their careers when leaving Rovers?

[darrenrover]

The topic of Simon Barker appeared in another thread and I thought it was worth considering which players have gone on to bigger and better things after moving on from Ewood? Simon Barker certainly did as did Kevin Hird and John Bailey from the same era.

From my days watching Rovers, those that have definitely improved their careers from moving on, also include Hunter, Given, Kevin Davies, Newton, Duff and Walters. I've undoubtedly missed a few.

Those that we saw the best of at Ewood IMO would include Keeley, Bradshaw, Shearer, Sutton, Santa Cruz, Le Saux, Wilcox, Sherwood.

The likes of Hendry and Alan Wright I'm unsure of.

What are your views?

[dingles staying down 4ever]

In the 90s and 00s I think the general rule with one or exceptions was that players who left Rovers seldom improved their situation. As well as Given, Walters and Duff you can add David May and Henning Berg as those that improved. Scott Sellars' time at Newcastle at the start of the Keegan era was also relatively successful.

Before the 90s, when we were a second or third divison it was easier to go and be more successful at a bigger club but again not many did.

I think it will become easier to be more successful away from Ewood in the future due to how well Venkys and their managers have and are running this once great club. Even Modeste who at best was mediocre with us lookd like a different player in Germany at present.

[patrickvalery]

Modeste always had it in his locker to unnerve opposition defences. He did it against Newcastle time and time again. He just couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo. Maybe, being a little bit older he has become a little more calm in front of goal. Its still very early days for him and he could go on to become the dud we all thought he was going to be. But he had the raw attributes to be a threat. He is quick and quite a big unit. Two things proven to be a thorn in the side of any defence. I guess its impossible to really tell how a young player will mature. Its all guess work in the end.

As for players who have left Rovers and achieved great things. Well there will always be a few that every club up and down the land will wish they had kept hold of. But on the whole i think in the last decade Rovers have been quite adept at selling players for decent fees and then watching them fail to hit the same heights. Obviously Bentley and Roque Santa Cruz spring to mind. Warnock is another and you could possibly even say Samba too. Shearer was different because he didn't leave to further his ambitions. We still got the very best years out of him.

All that has passed now though. I appreciate that the model only really worked in the PL anyway, but it isn't beyond the realms of reality that Martin Ollson could have a blinder of a season and move on for say £15m in one or two years. Ditto with Hoilett. But i guess thats just the club we have become and the reality we now face. The one that really irks me is the lad Smalling, sorry i mean Anderson we let go for a pittance. That one could really come back and bite us on the backside. If, as i predict, he goes over to Italy and does the business, we could well be watching him reign supreme in the Champions League for years to come. Despite only racking up approximately 10-15 minutes of first team football, i hear he could have a very bright future in the game. I understand Paul 'The Maltese Falcon' Tisdale down at Exeter was distraught to see him leave these shores. A real trier and one hell of a fictionary tackle on him. Must be in the genes, i hear his old man is a pretty destructive knob.

[neekoy]

Just as many quality players leave and improve their hip pockets but not necessarily ability as are transferred in and perform poorly.

Bentley is really the only standout to me who had a semi decent lead-up career, peaked in ability at Rovers and never captured the same form elsewhere.

Sutton had great success at Celtic, Shearer was still at his peak at Newcastle, Santa Cruz has a decent run at Bayern prior to coming (honestly the only reason we got him was because of a horror run of injuries), Le Saux was integral in Chelsea's run of cups in the late 90's, Wilcox did well at Leeds, Sherwood was still the same player at Tottenham...

The biggest thing that leads people to believe in the "if you leave Rovers your career suffers hoodoo" is the sheer amount of career disrupting injuries that seem to occur after they transfer out. That list would be huge.

[OJRovers]

Myles Anderson is doing alright for himself, one sub appearance for Exeter (4 nil defeat) now he's off to a club in the Italian 4th division!

[thenodrog]

Sutton had great success at Celtic, Shearer was still at his peak at Newcastle,

Shearer was past his peak here! That first 6 months we had him he was unbelievable, as anybody who saw Shearer before his cruciate knee injury will know. At NUFC he had an even worse ankle injury on the same leg which lowered his mobility and effectiveness even more. My mate's a NUFC fan who I've informed many times never saw the best of their 'local hero'. The fact that he is still stand out alone in the Prem scoring charts despite those two injuries is almost unbelievable.

[darrenrover]

Shearer was past his peak here! That first 6 months we had him he was unbelievable, as anybody who saw Shearer before his cruciate knee injury will know. At NUFC he had an even worse ankle injury on the same leg which lowered his mobility and effectiveness even more. My mate's a NUFC fan who I've informed many times never saw the best of their 'local hero'. The fact that he is still stand out alone in the Prem scoring charts despite those two injuries is almost unbelievable.

Totally agree, I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling privelaged at seeing Shearer in his prime at Ewood, he was something else.

[M-K]

James Beattie certainly did better elsewhere.

Also, how about Chris Price - had a few seasons at Villa after leaving in the late 80s.

Just looked him up on Wikipedia, seems he had a pretty horrible accident in Australia a couple of years ago.

[des]

by and large no

[JohnD]

Players that leave and do better are more likely to be in our mind than those that sink without trace.

Let's see how Murphy does before we decide.

[matt83]

I remember patrik andersson (one of first foreign signings I personally remember) who was a distinctly average centre half for us in early 90s maybe lasted one season but went on to play for Bayern Munich and Barcelona as well as a main stay in Sweden's national team.

Also another player that falls into this category was Stephane henchoz who I thought was really good for us sad to see him go but improved winning the Micky mouse treble with Liverpool.

[McClarky]

We've had managers who get the best out of players, we don't anymore and haven't for 3 years.

[Batman.]

You could start this thread on any club's website in the world and the answers would be exactly the same. Not sure what you're trying to get at with it, that players who leave generally don't do as well as when they were Rovers? That, over any significant period of time will never be the case. Some do better, some do worse, some just carry on plodding. I suspect the numbers in each category will be pretty similar.

[Rovers_Dan]

Saw the lad Rekik who we had loan from city playing in the champions league for PSV the other night against Milan.

Looked very decent indeed. What the hell happened there? He was fairly average for us although never really got a decent go..

[McClarky]

Saw the lad Rekik who we had loan from city playing in the champions league for PSV the other night against Milan.

Looked very decent indeed. What the hell happened there? He was fairly average for us although never really got a decent go..

bad manager, bad coaches........etc etc

[Mike E]

Modeste and MB Diouf (added to Rekik) seem to be doing alright!

[Majiball]

Shearer was past his peak here! That first 6 months we had him he was unbelievable, as anybody who saw Shearer before his cruciate knee injury will know. At NUFC he had an even worse ankle injury on the same leg which lowered his mobility and effectiveness even more. My mate's a NUFC fan who I've informed many times never saw the best of their 'local hero'. The fact that he is still stand out alone in the Prem scoring charts despite those two injuries is almost unbelievable.

He was different gravey that first season and he'd have won us the elague on his own that year if he'd avoided that injury. Like you say he wasn't as quick once back but what a player to be able to adapt as he did as his body let him down. Pity Jack wouldn't let him join United and Shearer wanted to go home as he'd have won everything there and played chumpions league each season, destroying them as well. It's such a pity he never played on that stage with frequency as then the rest of europe would know what a talent he truly was.

[Amo]

Saw the lad Rekik who we had loan from city playing in the champions league for PSV the other night against Milan.

Looked very decent indeed. What the hell happened there? He was fairly average for us although never really got a decent go..

Just goes to show that fans shouldn't be so quick to write-off players and consider all factors.

[M-K]

He was different gravey that first season and he'd have won us the elague on his own that year if he'd avoided that injury. Like you say he wasn't as quick once back but what a player to be able to adapt as he did as his body let him down. Pity Jack wouldn't let him join United and Shearer wanted to go home as he'd have won everything there and played chumpions league each season, destroying them as well. It's such a pity he never played on that stage with frequency as then the rest of europe would know what a talent he truly was.

A flat track bully. If he was that good or even remotely ambitious, Jack couldn't have stopped him joining a decent club.

But he preferred to be the big fish in a small pond, throwing his weight around in a dressing room full of nobodies.

[roveranout]

A flat track bully. If he was that good or even remotely ambitious, Jack couldn't have stopped him joining a decent club.

But he preferred to be the big fish in a small pond, throwing his weight around in a dressing room full of nobodies.

Totally disagree. He went back to his own town club and made himself an hero there. He got out at the right time at rovers and to say he turned down Man Utd to do so then i'd rather admire him for that rather than slate him.

With regards to players doing better when they leave then it's about 50-50 some players do well and some don't.

[Andy]

He was different gravey that first season and he'd have won us the elague on his own that year if he'd avoided that injury. Like you say he wasn't as quick once back but what a player to be able to adapt as he did as his body let him down. Pity Jack wouldn't let him join United and Shearer wanted to go home as he'd have won everything there and played chumpions league each season, destroying them as well. It's such a pity he never played on that stage with frequency as then the rest of europe would know what a talent he truly was.

I would have liked to see how Shearer would have fared under Sir Alex.

Look at how RVP did last season, and Big Al was twice the striker RVP will ever be.

He will take solace in becoming a legend at his hometown club, but I'm sure a bit of him will regret rejecting Man U a couple of times.

Still, I suppose it saves time when cleaning his trophy cabinet out...

[Batman.]

I would have liked to see how Shearer would have fared under Sir Alex.

Look at how RVP did last season, and Big Al was twice the striker RVP will ever be.

He will take solace in becoming a legend at his hometown club, but I'm sure a bit of him will regret rejecting Man U a couple of times.

Still, I suppose it saves time when cleaning his trophy cabinet out...

Not sure about that.

[Commondore]

We did have a quite succesfull run of signing players that were on som level considered to be failures at their previous clubs (Santa Cruz, Bentley, Samba, Warnock, Bellamy) and giving them more important roles to play at Rovers. It's only natural those kind of players would take a few steps back again when they left for bigger clubs where they had to play bit parts instead.

[Majiball]

I would have liked to see how Shearer would have fared under Sir Alex.

Look at how RVP did last season, and Big Al was twice the striker RVP will ever be.

He will take solace in becoming a legend at his hometown club, but I'm sure a bit of him will regret rejecting Man U a couple of times.

Still, I suppose it saves time when cleaning his trophy cabinet out...

So would I Andy looking back retrospectively, I'd never have said that at the time however.

[M-K]

Totally disagree. He went back to his own town club and made himself an hero there. He got out at the right time at rovers and to say he turned down Man Utd to do so then i'd rather admire him for that rather than slate him.

With regards to players doing better when they leave then it's about 50-50 some players do well and some don't.

Could have gone to a big club and been recognised as the best striker in Europe.

Went to a crap club for big money, never won another trophy in his entire career.

Either he wasn't that confident in his ability or he was just plain stupid. Throwing away the chance to be the next Van Basten and actually choosing to become Le Tissier instead.

Complete waste of talent. Still, at least he got to punch Keith Gillespie's lights out.