[Archived] Transfer Talk Part 2

[The Rover of Finland]

Isn't Lenihan totally defensive minded player? I also think O'Sullivan should already have done more if he is a real talent.

[bluebruce]

For those saying he's soft- didn't the stats show that he put more tackles in thany any of our other CMs?

Thanks for bringing it up again, I'm sick of saying it. I feel like I should put a hyperlink into my sig to the stats I posted, as I'm getting really fed up of people saying that he is soft or doesn't put a tackle in.

I'm of the opinion that any player who has flair is automatically deemed by the supporter base as not putting a shift or a tackle in, whether true or not. I think it's a subconscious psychological thing. I was thinking back and the only player who I recall in my time as getting credit for work rate and tackling, who also had flair, is probably Duff. I've posted hard stats that show Cairney puts in plenty more tackles than Lowe and Evans, winning a higher rate too, and yet people say he never puts a foot in. I might start telling my bedroom wall instead, at least it will listen.

[JHRover]

Bitter blow losing Cairney imo.

1) We can't get anyone better, especially with a wage cap and no fee allowed. The golden rule of transfers is don't sell unless you have to or it benefits you - say you can replace with same or better quality, or the money would go to strengthening other areas. We don't have to sell Cairney and we won't replace with like-for-like quality - so why sell him.

2) Potential - everyone agrees there's loads. Chances of getting someone with just as much potential is slim, so getting rid of someone we know has the potential to be very good (for this level) seems daft. Surely it's better to invest energy into getting out potential we know is there as oppose for scouting about for some potential - which we haven't seen in any of Bowyer's recent buys. Given we want to get promoted surely trying to harness that potential would be a key strategy to getting promoted, especially as we're restricted to who we can bring in.

3) On that, assuming we got the potential out of him, how much would he be worth. £3.5m is a good fee now, but a developed Cairney could fetch at least twice that. Not a guarantee but a risk definitely worth taking.

4) We can't spend the money. Full stop. So we're essentially losing a player for free.

5) We have few creative options as it is - less now Dunn has also gone. So it's not like we're getting rid of one midfield workhorse - of which we have many. We're definitely weakening the squad in terms of creativity. We saw how much damage was done by limited pace last season. With Cairney and Dunn gone, we're getting worryingly low on creativity as well - only Marshall remains.

6) We're stupidly short on wide players. Regardless of our view, that's where Bowyer plays him. But with King and now Cairney gone we're getting low on players to play out wide. Conway. Marshall, possibly Olsson who else? Bare in mind Marshall's also covering right back, as is Lowe - so one of them there minus Cairney could make us short in the middle too.

7) Bowyer said promotion is the aim, we know promotion is the only way to get out of our plight - so how does releasing a key player from the team (look at how many games he played, GB clearly sees him as a key first teamer) help us with that. How does strengthening a rival?

I do wonder where the sense in selling him is. Even those saying he's not that good etc. must be worried as we won't get someone better in - so even swapping an average player for a weaker one is going backwards.

I bet Bowyer is delighted though. More evidence of how he can turn players to a profit and therefore justify staying in the role.

Very well put. I agree with everything you say.

Regardless of people's views on Cairney the fact is that in the last two seasons he has been an integral part of our first team. At a guess I would suggest he has more appearances than anyone else bar possibly Rhodes in those two seasons.

It is a very risky and dangerous game we are playing. An already small squad short on creative quality being reduced even further with no real likelihood of quality being brought in. It is a scary thought.

As I've already said. If Fulham are considered a better prospect than us for footballing reasons there is something seriously wrong. If they are able to offer finances that we can't then that sums up why FFP cannot be good or right for football.

[Madon]

Cairney has gone to Fulham - official.

[JHRover]

Isn't Lenihan totally defensive minded player? I also think O'Sullivan should already have done more if he is a real talent.

Lenihan is out of contract, and barring a few appearances at centre back last season has never played regularly above League Two

O'Sullivan is another that whilst a good young prospect has almost no experience of playing at this level.

Other than those two none of the Under 21 outfield players are close to being ready for the rigours of the Championship.

Extremely risky strategy to take whilst someone like Cairney has more than 100 games and several seasons of being proven at this level as a good player.

[Amo]

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/june/26/cairney-joins-fulham

[JHRover]

The club keeping information to a minimum for a change:

Rovers midfielder Tom Cairney has today joined fellow Championship club Fulham for an undisclosed fee.

The 24-year-old moves to Craven Cottage on a four-year deal.

Cairney arrived at Rovers on loan from Hull City in August 2013, before making the move to Ewood Park a permanent one in January 2014.

In total, he scored nine goals in 85 appearances for the club

http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/tom-cairney-fulham-2509033.aspx#pIr8R5T3Pr6TJ84h.99

No comment from the manager or player as to the reasoning behind this move. No word of thanks to the player for his contributions to the club. No mention that he was player of the season in his time here.

Pathetic.

[Bucksrover]

Not nice to see.

[yoda]

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/june/26/cairney-joins-Fulham

He wants to play in the PL and thinks he can do it with Fulham,

WTF does that say about our ambition,

Stability stinks,

We are witnessing the end of the Rovers

The club keeping information to a minimum for a change:

Rovers midfielder Tom Cairney has today joined fellow Championship club Fulham for an undisclosed fee.

The 24-year-old moves to Craven Cottage on a four-year deal.

Cairney arrived at Rovers on loan from Hull City in August 2013, before making the move to Ewood Park a permanent one in January 2014.

In total, he scored nine goals in 85 appearances for the club

http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/tom-cairney-fulham-2509033.aspx#pIr8R5T3Pr6TJ84h.99

No comment from the manager or player as to the reasoning behind this move. No word of thanks to the player for his contributions to the club. No mention that he was player of the season in his time here.

Pathetic.

Its been like that since the Raos rolled up

[bluebruce]

I sifted through the data I compiled on how we do with and without Cairney, to see how we do with him in different positions. I decided it was simplest to go with games he played the entire match, or was brought off in the 80th minute or later, and the score did not change.

Cairney at CM full game

P: 19

W: 8 (42.1%)

D: 6 (31.5%)

L: 5 (26.31%)

Points: 30 (1.57 per game)

Cairney at RM full game

P: 12

W: 5 (41.66%)

D: 4 (33.33%)

L: 3 (25%)

Points: 19 (1.58 per game)

I'm a little surprised to see there was no real points difference (although the CM games does include the two games versus Liverpool, which were theoretically our hardest of the season and yielded one 'point'). What is telling, though, is when you compare it to points we gained without Cairney at all (1.42 per game), or to the previous stat I posted which was all games where he played at all (1.48 per game). All taken together it shows a clear pattern that we do better with him in the team, and better when we don't chop and change him in and out. It might not seem much of a difference, but 0.16 per game adds up to 7.36 a season. And that's before we lose Rudy or anyone else, or consider the impact on form of losing more games.

[Jock]

It's a problem when the big boys come knocking. Are Reading lining up a bid for any of our players?

[bluebruce]

Lenihan is out of contract, and barring a few appearances at centre back last season has never played regularly above League Two

O'Sullivan is another that whilst a good young prospect has almost no experience of playing at this level.

Other than those two none of the Under 21 outfield players are close to being ready for the rigours of the Championship.

Extremely risky strategy to take whilst someone like Cairney has more than 100 games and several seasons of being proven at this level as a good player.

Exactly. Nobody would be happy if we signed two kids from League One and Two, who haven't really done anything noteworthy, to replace the likes of Cairney. Why people are suggesting we have ready-made replacements in them is a bit confusing at best.

[Amo]

He wants to play in the PL and thinks he can do it with Fulham,

WTF does that say about our ambition,

Stability stinks,

We are witnessing the end of the Rovers

Don't be a drama queen, we've been down before, this is the natural order of things etc.

Of course, I don't think we were eleventy billion in debt and run by a bunch of clueless chicken merchants and their lackeys, but that's neither here nor there.

[Earlydoors]

Always hoped Cairney would develop into a next David Dunn but he never seemed able to take the game by the 'scruff of the neck' and dominate despite his obvious talents.

With all the speculation around Rhodes and Gestede, I didn't see this one coming.

Something in the region of £3-4m would seem to be a good price for a player who cost ? what ? 300k ?

Reality Bites but we are a selling club, these days

[gumboots]

We cannot afford to be a selling club, since we can't even be a shop in the bargain basement club.

[danielwhite813]

Not happy. They keep advertising season tickets but with sales like this. They have got no chance of enticing fans back to ewood.

[Iceman]

so we cant sign much quality, but we can sell to a direct rival which makes no sense at all. somebody will have to explain this, and bloody have a very good one

[cesus]

The club keeping information to a minimum for a change:

Rovers midfielder Tom Cairney has today joined fellow Championship club Fulham for an undisclosed fee.

The 24-year-old moves to Craven Cottage on a four-year deal.

Cairney arrived at Rovers on loan from Hull City in August 2013, before making the move to Ewood Park a permanent one in January 2014.

In total, he scored nine goals in 85 appearances for the club

http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/tom-cairney-fulham-2509033.aspx#pIr8R5T3Pr6TJ84h.99

No comment from the manager or player as to the reasoning behind this move. No word of thanks to the player for his contributions to the club. No mention that he was player of the season in his time here.

Pathetic.

Even Orr and Etuhu got a "thanks for the work and dedication" line on their exit from the club on the official website.

[JHRover]

So the 'reality' for us as a club is to sell our best players to clubs like Fulham and be grateful for the money.

Whilst the 'reality' for a club like Fulham is to go around spending millions of pounds on players?

Fulham aren't a bigger or better club than us, and its worrying that some think that we should be accepting of selling our assets to a club that finished in the bottom third of the Championship last season.

[G Somerset Rover]

Always hoped Cairney would develop into a next David Dunn but he never seemed able to take the game by the 'scruff of the neck' and dominate despite his obvious talents.

With all the speculation around Rhodes and Gestede, I didn't see this one coming.

Something in the region of £3-4m would seem to be a good price for a player who cost ? what ? 300k ?

Reality Bites but we are a selling club, these days

So with this 'good price' who are you expecting us to bring in as a replacement? Bear in mind that we cannot sign anyone for £1 let alone a few hundred grand. Not meaning to sound sarcy but as I said yesterday the price is irrelevant when it does nothing to help us out of the red and we cannot replace him with anyone half decent.

[K-Hod]

It's pointless going on about the fee received as it doesn't make a jot of difference in our debt, and won't lift the embargo. Even if we sell Marshall, Conway, Rhodes and Gestede that won't happen.

What's the point? Nobody at the club can be arsed fighting FFP despite everyone else doing so. Nobody at the club appears to have a spine, they're all pathetic specimen taking the proverbial for a massive salary. Cnuts the lot of them.

[Iceman]

The club keeping information to a minimum for a change:

Rovers midfielder Tom Cairney has today joined fellow Championship club Fulham for an undisclosed fee.

The 24-year-old moves to Craven Cottage on a four-year deal.

Cairney arrived at Rovers on loan from Hull City in August 2013, before making the move to Ewood Park a permanent one in January 2014.

In total, he scored nine goals in 85 appearances for the club

http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/tom-cairney-fulham-2509033.aspx#pIr8R5T3Pr6TJ84h.99

No comment from the manager or player as to the reasoning behind this move. No word of thanks to the player for his contributions to the club. No mention that he was player of the season in his time here.

Pathetic.

whats new, its not the 1st time the club has shown no appreciation.

[yoda]

The Raos don't want the embargo lifted, they are hiding behind it,

Now the question is, what is going to happen to the money received from key players sales,

SHAW, MYERS what is the answer ?

[blueboy3333]

No comment from the manager or player as to the reasoning behind this move. No word of thanks to the player for his contributions to the club. No mention that he was player of the season in his time here.

Pathetic.

You were complaining yesterday that the club wouldn't officially announce the move for weeks, now they have you're complaining that there's no comment from the the manager/club. Pre-season only starts next week maybe there'll be a comment then, or maybe they are all too busy building him a statue to commemorate his one good season with us.

[yoda]

Don't be a drama queen, we've been down before, this is the natural order of things etc.

Of course, I don't think we were eleventy billion in debt and run by a bunch of clueless chicken merchants and their lackeys, but that's neither here nor there.

You think so,

Telephone Shaw and ask him where the money from selling our best players is going too