Summer of 1995 - Fantasy Football Hindsight (Who should Rovers have bought?)

[Nuttall is lost]

1 hour ago, speeeeeeedie said:

Looking at that squad Rovers should have signed a central defender and a midfielder.

What about Gary Speed and Craig Short? They both went to Everton that summer. Both would have been excellent. 

Batty was fit in 95/96. It's a shame that Warhurst didn't make it back to his level after his second leg break or he would have been another gilt edged player at Rovers disposal. 

He was sold to Newcastle around Christmas time.  Why I have no idea.  But never fear Gary Flitcroft is here.

When you read the list of players they bought from 1995-1999 its a facepalm moment.

Genuinely struggling to think of any good buys.  Dahlin and Donis were crap when they came also.

What became of Graham Fenton.  I had never really heard of him and then he appeared at the end of 95-96 and scored a few goals, notably against his boyhood team Newcastle.  I think he started the following season and then seemed to disappear.

 

 

EDIT:  I actually looked it up there.  IMO the club did not make one good buy since the summer of 1994 until they were relegated.  The recruitment was absolutely shocking.  Abysmal.  They sold all the good players and wasted money on absolute duds.

Callum Davidson 1.8 million!

Roy Hodgson bought the worst.  The crap he brought in was unreal.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Nuttall is lost

[LeftWinger]

45 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

EDIT:  I actually looked it up there.  IMO the club did not make one good buy since the summer of 1994 until they were relegated.  The recruitment was absolutely shocking.  Abysmal. 

Roy Hodgson bought the worst.  The crap he brought in was unreal.

Hodgson signed Filan and Henchoz who were good.

Kidd signed Jansen who was excellent. He also signed a couple that had reasonable spells - McAteer, Gillespie etc.

A lot of rubbish for a lot of money elsewhere though.

[Nuttall is lost]

15 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Hodgson signed Filan and Henchoz who were good.

Kidd signed Jansen who was excellent. He also signed a couple that had reasonable spells - McAteer, Gillespie etc.

A lot of rubbish for a lot of money elsewhere though.

Henchoz was ok I suppose but I disagree on Jansen, McAteer and Gillespie.  they were nowhere near good enough or they were past it by then anyway to challenge the top of the division.

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Nathan Blake etc.. 

The list of bad players is as long as Oskar Schindlers

 

[roverandout]

Matty bleedin Holmes was our only summer signing.  Mental 

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Henchoz was ok I suppose but I disagree on Jansen, McAteer and Gillespie.  they were nowhere near good enough or they were past it by then anyway to challenge the top of the division.

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Nathan Blake etc.. 

The list of bad players is as long as Oskar Schindlers

 

What? Jansen was absolute class. Remember the goal he scored on his debut.  Incredible goal

[G Somerset Rover]

8 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Wash your mouth out, pal. Jansen was top class. 

[K-Hod]

8 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Henchoz was ok I suppose but I disagree on Jansen, McAteer and Gillespie.  they were nowhere near good enough or they were past it by then anyway to challenge the top of the division.

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Nathan Blake etc.. 

The list of bad players is as long as Oskar Schindlers

 

Out of interest, were you having your eyes tested regularly while Jansen was playing for us?

[Mattyblue]

Matt Jansen was still fairly raw when he was bought in ‘99, but he was a top level forward by 2001 and 2002 and would’ve been an England regular if he hadn’t have had that trip to Rome, that plonker Sven picking Martin bloody Keown over him for WC 2002 and then never even gave him one minute on the pitch!

Edited February 18, 2022 by Mattyblue

[Miller11]

10 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We needed a class winger, Wilcox wasn’t good enough.

Terrible take

[Mattyblue]

I agree with Tyrone. The likes of Wilcox, Pearce, Super Atko had done us well, but they were still the weaker links of the team and to stay at the top needed replacing as first team regulars with superior footballers.

Ferguson was a master at spotting when a team had run its course and replaced those weaker links. He did it in 1995, he did it again in the early 2000s and then again late 2000s.

Edited February 18, 2022 by Mattyblue

[LeftWinger]

9 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Henchoz was ok I suppose but I disagree on Jansen, McAteer and Gillespie.  they were nowhere near good enough or they were past it by then anyway to challenge the top of the division.

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Nathan Blake etc.. 

The list of bad players is as long as Oskar Schindlers

 

I almost stopped reading when you said Henchoz was only OK.....then you described Jansen as nowhere near good enough and I definitely stopped reading.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

19 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I agree with Tyrone. The likes of Wilcox, Pearce, Super Atko had done us well, but they were still the weaker links of the team and to stay at the top needed replacing as first team regulars with superior footballers.

Ferguson was a master at spotting when a team had run its course and replaced those weaker links. He did it in 1995, he did it again in the early 2000s and then again late 2000s.

You should replace your weakest player at the end of each season. Weakest two if you can afford it. That would have been Wilcox and Pearce for me. City have been winning everything in sight by a mile but they’ll still strengthen the team this Summer. That’s how you stay at the top.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

11 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

I almost stopped reading when you said Henchoz was only OK.....then you described Jansen as nowhere near good enough and I definitely stopped reading.

The old “ Are your eyes painted on “ that gets shouted at the ref comes to mind.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

37 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

Terrible take

You think Wilcox was as good as Overmars ?

[LeftWinger]

10 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

You think Wilcox was as good as Overmars ?

Wilcox was a bit underrated for me - always got a lot of unfair stick......but Overmars was several levels above him.

[islander200]

10 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Henchoz was ok I suppose but I disagree on Jansen, McAteer and Gillespie.  they were nowhere near good enough or they were past it by then anyway to challenge the top of the division.

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

Nathan Blake etc.. 

The list of bad players is as long as Oskar Schindlers

 

Jansen was being linked with United and should have been in the England squad.

Wonderful talent 

[Displaced Rover]

10 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

 

Jansen was a good championship player but not the standard of player the club needed.  I know the League Cup goal and all but he  wasnt a top striker.

 

 

Did you actually watch Rovers when Jansen was playing? He was class in the league in 01/02, were it not for his accident/Tord Grip's idiocy he'd have been playing for England and unfortunately probably moving on from Rovers.

[Mattyblue]

Nuttall’s posts sound to me that he is only just re-invigorating himself with all things Rovers after a long hiatus post 90s…

[bluebruce]

On 17/02/2022 at 17:25, jim mk2 said:

 

All very true but Walker clearly made a strategic error in not investing further in 1995.

The result was he then saw his beloved Rovers get relegated a few years later and although he died in the summer of 2000 after our promotion back to the top flight, he spent the last years of his life watching us in the second tier again.

He didn't die after our promotion, he died just after the start of the promotion season. Which makes it even sadder as he died not knowing that we made it back up. On the other hand, it served as inspiration for the players and fans I think, to get back and 'do it for Jack'.

I often wonder if Jack later regretted not investing more in the summer of 1995. I think it was obvious at the time it should be done, especially if he wanted to make us as big as he initially said, and especially with a new untested manager who may not get as much out of the current crop and may have his own ideas he wanted to implement, but I understand he probably thought he had put in enough and the current side was good enough to at least remain in the top 2. But a mistake, with hindsight and with foresight.

What hindsight alone brings out though is just how much of a perfect time in the sport it was to keep investing. The amounts we needed at the time to stay on top were far smaller than the amounts we spunked a few years later just trying to break even. The money in the game kept on inflating and inflating, and still is. Every, or at least nearly every, player we signed up to our title challenge was sold on for a profit. Often a very large one. It's likely that any other shrewd buys we would have made (Zidane in particular) would have gone on to net profits too. Plus the Sky money and Champions League money continued to go up and up. If we had hired the right manager and spent wisely, Jack could even have been in profit himself, along with creating the huge club he wanted.

I know we are a town team with a small catchment, and a year as champions didn't give us a huge fanbase, but a few more years at the top and we probably would have seen it grow further afield. You only have to look at City and Chelsea for how a spell at the very top can give you fans (and income) from far and wide. It really was a defining moment for the club's future and unfortunately, our hero chose wrong. (Obviously, we are all very grateful for what he did though, and nobody is perfect)

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, bluebruce said:

He didn't die after our promotion, he died just after the start of the promotion season. Which makes it even sadder as he died not knowing that we made it back up. On the other hand, it served as inspiration for the players and fans I think, to get back and 'do it for Jack'.

I often wonder if Jack later regretted not investing more in the summer of 1995. I think it was obvious at the time it should be done, especially if he wanted to make us as big as he initially said, and especially with a new untested manager who may not get as much out of the current crop and may have his own ideas he wanted to implement, but I understand he probably thought he had put in enough and the current side was good enough to at least remain in the top 2. But a mistake, with hindsight and with foresight.

What hindsight alone brings out though is just how much of a perfect time in the sport it was to keep investing. The amounts we needed at the time to stay on top were far smaller than the amounts we spunked a few years later just trying to break even. The money in the game kept on inflating and inflating, and still is. Every, or at least nearly every, player we signed up to our title challenge was sold on for a profit. Often a very large one. It's likely that any other shrewd buys we would have made (Zidane in particular) would have gone on to net profits too. Plus the Sky money and Champions League money continued to go up and up. If we had hired the right manager and spent wisely, Jack could even have been in profit himself, along with creating the huge club he wanted.

I know we are a town team with a small catchment, and a year as champions didn't give us a huge fanbase, but a few more years at the top and we probably would have seen it grow further afield. You only have to look at City and Chelsea for how a spell at the very top can give you fans (and income) from far and wide. It really was a defining moment for the club's future and unfortunately, our hero chose wrong. (Obviously, we are all very grateful for what he did though, and nobody is perfect)

Will never forget the Norwich game.  The emotions of that day. The players laying out the wreaths.  Time to say goodbye playing.  One of the few times I cried

[LeftWinger]

The other time we should have definitely spent money was in 1996 when Shearer left. I think Oliver Bierhoff was the name we were being linked with at the time. I was hoping for a big statement like a Batistuta or a Weah.....and we signed no-one.

The alarm bells were ringing when we played PNE in a friendly just after Shearer had left and we started with Ian Pearce upfront.

[roverandout]

Did we sign George donis who was regarded as a train at panathinaikos but he never really worked out at Rovers 

[Nuttall is lost]

51 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

The other time we should have definitely spent money was in 1996 when Shearer left. I think Oliver Bierhoff was the name we were being linked with at the time. I was hoping for a big statement like a Batistuta or a Weah.....and we signed no-one.

The alarm bells were ringing when we played PNE in a friendly just after Shearer had left and we started with Ian Pearce upfront.

Yes Harford played players out of position from the start and started playing Chris Sutton as a centre back

[DaveyB]

We definitely should have signed a centre back that summer - Tony Gale had stopped playing regularly halfway through the title winning season and defence was our weakness in the latter stages of that season - which almost resulted in us missing out on the title. 

I always felt that we should have gone for Teddy Sheringham too. I know Shearer was reported as being keen on us signing Barmby because of the way he linked midfield to attack, but Sheringham was a similar and, imo, much better player and the two knew each other from playing together with England

[MarkBRFC]

Yeah Sheringham was a great player.

I think his partnership with Shearer for England though didn't really start until a year or so after we won the title.

I thought Ferdinand would have been perfect to compliment Shearer and Sutton in 1995, Ferdinand and Shearer would go on to have a brilliant partnership in the 96-97 season too.