[Archived] Transfer Window - January 2016

[tugay5]

I'm sure PL has something lined up. There's no way he'd have allowed this move if not. He is calling the shots here and being 100% backed by Venkys. Why would he sell the clubbed most valuable asset unless he thought he had money to spend?

I think the really important thing to do is forget like for like comparisons. PL is all about the collective not the prowess of one or two players. He's going to do it his way and we have to trust him. Rhodes isn't the be all and end all. He's seen as a luxury player. The guy who finishes but cannot build a game for you...

Last season we scored 41 goals between Gestede and Rhodes and finished 9th!

I'm so interested to see what he does with it. Expect to see more guile, mobility, pace and strength...👍🏽

Mani when you say you think PL has something lined up do you think he has for this current transfer window or do you think it will be the summer until he gets his replacement?

Time will tell if it's a good decision or not but it certainly isn't the end of Blackburn rovers which is what some fans are suggesting. Hate to mention Burnley but when they sold there best player Charlie Austin they invested the money and it made them a stronger all round team. We need to do the same just hope PL is given sufficient funds

[danger19_80]

Time will tell if it's a good decision or not but it certainly isn't the end of Blackburn rovers which is what some fans are suggesting. Hate to mention Burnley but when they sold there best player Charlie Austin they invested the money and it made them a stronger all round team. We need to do the same just hope PL is given sufficient funds

And Ings

McGeady off to Sevilla:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jan/29/sevilla-loan-move-everton-aiden-mcgeady-roberto-martinez-transfer-deadline

[den]

This might well be an important moment for us. Its the right time to sell JR in my opinion. He is playing terribly and clearly does not fit the PL style of play. He is a VERY limited player and its no coincidence that a striker as prolific as JR is not playing in the top flight and is not regularly selected for his national team. He is slow and is not particularly good at holding the ball up or passing or contributing in any way other than scoring (and he has stopped doing that recently). On occasions he has barely touched the ball for whole matches, which is not what we need right now. With him upfront playing in the PL style we have been about as toothless offensively as I've ever seen, so why persevere with this losing formula? Selling JR will only be a positive thing though if we reinvest the money wisely! 3 very good £3million signings will be more useful to us than one JR. If we waste the money or don't reinvest it, then it will be disastrous. I hope PL knows what he's doing!

Having written the above I should note that JR has been fantastic for us. He is a supreme finisher and a consummate professional. I hope he does well at Boro!

Very good post. And you can see all that from York.

[ABBEY]

It's arrogant...

Good for you .. You mistake me for someone who gives a toss ..

People on here haven't been trying to sell Rhodes just getting their heads around why you would. As far as I know Lambert is this third to try and first to succeed. Still think Venkys might back track on this.

Of course they have Chaddy n den to name two .

.. But there not haters just think he's @#/? and not good enough for us . Boro think differently

[Speedie Dived]

Good for you .. You mistake me for someone who gives a toss ..

Of course they have Chaddy n den to name two .

.. But there not haters just think he's @#/? and not good enough for us . Boro think differently

Just might happen that he will score goals for them and we will be a better team.

[RoverCanada]

Earlier in the day I had actually been thinking "Watt and Graham may not be that bad of a strike combo in the Championship". Watt's young, but has shown some spark of course (and it's cheering to see the laments of Cardiff and Charlton fans!). And while I understand the snickering about Graham given his last couple years, he did manage 6 in 18 with Middlesbrough two years ago, plus 1 in 5 for Wolves last year, so 7 in 23 isn't an awful strike record for the Championship. He may not be a PL striker, but I suspect/hope he can still do a job in the Championship.

But, as I was thinking about the consequences of Rhodes leaving this year, my ultimate thought was "Okay, maybe for next year, but lets hold on to Rhodes until the summer and see". So, blah.

I'm not convinced this will be a disaster. Rovers - Rhodes + No. 10 isn't necessarily a negative given our struggles to score goals under Lambert so far. And there's only so much you can do when the player wants to leave. Watt-Graham could work, but there's no question it's a risk, and there's not much to back those two up. However, it's also easy to forget just how bad some teams are in the Championship, so despite our recent form (which I struggle to believe will just continue given there IS some talent in this squad...), I'm not convinced we're now automatically in a relegation scrap. We're not scoring goals (and this doesn't help haha), but we're also top-5 in preventing goals.

With respect to money to be spent now, it looks like it was about £10-12M in sales in the summer that got us out of the embargo (not to mention payoffs ending - we just might not be paying Givet and Vukevic anymore!). I suspect we were still at a point where we had very little maneuverability to spend without going back into embargo, hence the freebies so far. Some seem to forget we were losing £42M/year beforehand, or more like £25M after moving money around. A lot of that was due to old contracts and past transfer follies, but we're still going to struggle financially, like most Championship teams, and parachute payments have ended (http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/blackburn-rovers-burning-down-house.html some good reading for those interested. I think it's interesting we're relatively good with respect to commercial income - 6th in the league - and I think that number is before the 7-figure Dafabet sponsorship. Rovers still have some 'panache' despite the shambles of the past few years)

Perhaps the strategy for the summer was to do a Derby/Middlesbrough and spend like hell and hope for promotion, but the £8.8-10.4M this gives us (minus Huddersfield's profit share), not to mention saving £1M on Rhodes' wages, should open up the possibility of spending now. But, as some have said, that brings the question of why now if Lambert isn't able to bring in the no. 10 he's been eyeing. Either way, my guess is this gives us some £6-8M to spend now/in the summer, with the rest going toward balancing the books a bit (or the more cynical/conspiratorial may say lining Venky's/Shaw/whoever's pockets...). We may have gotten out of embargo, but we're still a bit of a basketcase financially. £6-8M can easily get you 2-3 good/great players, as long as it's spent wisely (which I put some trust in Lambert to do). I know we're all tired of discussing Bowyer, but he managed Cairney, Gestede, and Conway for under £1M!

[den]

Abbey...

Grow up you big girls blouse.

Someone at Ewood has decided that he should be sold. Me and Chaddy weren't consulted.

[RevidgeBlue]

Just might happen that he will score goals for them and we will be a better team.

That surely is a contradiction in terms?

Yet to see a valid explanation as to why he's seemingly good enough for a team chasing promotion but not good enough for us.

As for the window, I'd have thought it's pretty obvious there's no more forwards coming in otherwise Graham Jackson and Watt wouldn't have been brought in.

Whether or not a creative midfielder comes in remains to be seen but I can't see us getting anyone decent this close to the end of the January window.

[Speedie Dived]

That surely is a contradiction in terms?

Yet to see a valid explanation as to why he's seemingly good enough for a team chasing promotion but not good enough for us.

As for the window, I'd have thought it's pretty obvious there's no more forwards coming in otherwise Graham Jackson and Watt wouldn't have been brought in.

Whether or not a creative midfielder comes in remains to be seen but I can't see us getting anyone decent this close to the end of the January window.

I don't think he is good enough for a team chasing promotion. But if we invest the money properly we will be a better team, it's a no brainier really.

[sharpysharps]

Fully expect Rhodes to go on and bag plenty of goals for Boro, he will get loads more chances per game now because their manager (although I dislike him a fair bit) has built up a team over the last 2-3 seasons pretty much from scratch...this is something that PL must now do with Rovers and make use of the money brought in from Rhodes and Olsson sales to build a new Blackburn Rovers team. I'm not happy about losing Jordan but it's happening whether we like it or not. It's 'get a grip' time.

We haven't got a 'team' at this point unfortunately, we had 1 player that we have relied on far too much who deserves better at this point in his career. He will have signed for Rovers with the ambition of promotion and has been greatly mislead. I do not begrudge him this move at all, and we have been very lucky to have him.

Realistically we are in a relegation fight so finishing 4th from bottom and then spend the summer rebuilding would be my expectation. Bolton will still likely go down, and Charlton are also up against it. That leaves 1 place, of which I'd say it's between MK Dons, Bristol City, Rotherham and Rovers. Providing we bring in 2-4 players ahead of the deadline of better quality I can't see us going down.

Then we can start again...

[FGS5635]

Every time a goal scorer leaves, fans panic we wont see another. Then low and behold another one appears

Id make a cheeky bid for Rudy at half villa paid for him

[chaddyrovers]

Good for you .. You mistake me for someone who gives a toss ..

Of course they have Chaddy n den to name two .

.. But there not haters just think he's @#/? and not good enough for us . Boro think differently

Grow up Abbey.

We have opinions on football.

If you DONT like them then I just suggest you ignore my posts and posters who dont agree with you.

Nobody is hater at all or think he is Sh#t but having different opinions on football and how we want to play

[RevidgeBlue]

Every time a goal scorer leaves, fans panic we wont see another. Then low and behold another one appears

Id make a cheeky bid for Rudy at half villa paid for him

Actually they don't. We've been extremely fortunate that despite the fact we've been absolutely abysmal on the pitch since Venky's took over the Club we've had 2 excellent goalscorers in Yakubu and Rhodes.

If you extrapolate further over your football watching career you usually spend your time bemoaning the fact that you're not playing badly but if only you had someone who could stick the thing in the back of the bloody net. Unfortunately however such prolific players are usually way out of your price range. This was the case as recently as when big Sam was in charge.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Edit - WWWM that won't be happening

Hells bells. We are getting a bit touchy on here. It was written in irony!

[G Somerset Rover]

Kamy seems convinced we won't be signing a replacement and it is Graham/Watt/Brown and Jackson for the run in. If so, as i said last night this is one HUGE punt given our league predicament.

[den]

Actually they don't. We've been extremely fortunate that despite the fact we've been absolutely abysmal on the pitch since Venky's took over the Club we've had 2 excellent goalscorers in Yakubu and Rhodes.

If you extrapolate further over your football watching career you usually spend your time bemoaning the fact that you're not playing badly but if only you had someone who could stick the thing in the back of the bloody net. Unfortunately however such prolific players are usually way out of your price range. This was the case as recently as when big Sam was in charge.

You're right about teams needing goalscorers Rev, but first and foremost, if you want promotion, you need the team to perform well week in week out. Rhodes's goals have made very little difference to our results and that's because we're a poor side - and Rhodes contributes to that. You don't need Jordan Rhodes in your side to be successful as all the teams above us prove, but you do need a side that can "play". He scores goals, but he also contributes to the poor displays particularly away from home where you can really judge how Good a team or player is. More than not, he's invisible - and he's carrying an extortionate fee on his head for a championship player.

[chaddyrovers]

Kamy seems convinced we won't be signing a replacement and it is Graham/Watt/Brown and Jackson for the run in. If so, as i said last night this is one HUGE punt given our league predicament.

Alan Nixon will be naming a couple of Lambert's targets in tomorrow Sun paper

[joey_big_nose]

Kamy seems convinced we won't be signing a replacement and it is Graham/Watt/Brown and Jackson for the run in. If so, as i said last night this is one HUGE punt given our league predicament.

While I can see what people are getting at when they argue for selling Rhodes, surely sticking with a lineup of those four is a mega mega gamble. None of them have scored regularly except for Graham and he managed it a few seasons back, not recently.

If Rhodes goes I want to see a striker with a current goal scoring record come in (Wells is a good example) AND a quality technical midfielder. Then I could live with it.

[SoldierMo]

We should bid for kemar roofe

[bluefred]

Just might happen that he will score goals for them and we will be a better team.

Thing is no matter how good a finnisher Rhodes is we were never really in a position of getting promotion with the way we had to play to accommodate haveing him in our team .So I think something had to change and this maybe it I know it can be hard to take but pl has tryed with him this way and it clearly ain't working so we do it the lambert way and hope he knows better .

[JBiz]

Cheeky 3m for Jonathan Kodjia?

[Lancs Rover]

I thought PL's criticism of Olsson in yesterday's LT was telling. He's not going to be pushed around or seen to do players any favours. Seems to know his own mind and what he wants.

With the club' s new found ability to remain professionally tight-lipped, FFP now history, and surely some forward planning by PL, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't some more surprises before the transfer deadline expires.

[Riverside67]

Mark totally agree and signings will define the new manager.

[pick32]

First window out if FFP and under lambert an Id say it's the worse one since Kean era, we haven't improved on a single position and are weaker in two.

[Speedie Dived]

Thing is no matter how good a finnisher Rhodes is we were never really in a position of getting promotion with the way we had to play to accommodate haveing him in our team .So I think something had to change and this maybe it I know it can be hard to take but pl has tryed with him this way and it clearly ain't working so we do it the lambert way and hope he knows better .

Very well put. We really need a goal or two to go in off Graham's backside and a decent performance or two.

First window out if FFP and under lambert an Id say it's the worse one since Kean era, we haven't improved on a single position and are weaker in two.

Not think the three strikers we have signed have improved us?

Or the right wing cover?

Or the centre half cover we now have?

Signing Delfy and Koita last window was worse than this one by a million miles.