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

[Nuttall is lost]

36 minutes ago, rog of the rovers said:

If you had a time machine, you'd not only strengthen with those names mentioned, but fly to Madeira and influence a young Cristiano Ronaldo, then hop a flight to Argentina and speak with Mr and Mrs Messi.

They'd both be about 8 at the time 😆

The Zidane talk is a great story, but I always feel that in 95/96 we'd have been not many places higher than we actually were, Zidane would have got a move to European giant within 12 months, especially post Euro 96.

Graeme Le Saux and Jason Wilcox injuries, Alan Shearer's influence and power in regards to the return of Mike Newell, David Batty's lack of trust in Ray Harford, squad depth stretched thin in a European campaign, numerous things went against us in 95/96.

Paul Gascoigne was available that summer and Ferdinand.  Both would have been attainable. Kanchelskis also.

Steve Bruce would have filled the Tony Gale role for a year.   Its an absolute head scratcher how nobody was brought in.

 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

The reality is that once Dalglish quit as manager we lost all pulling power overnight and couldn't attract high quality or high profile players no matter how much we offered

[Mattyblue]

But we did have the pulling power for another high profile manager to come in… we promoted Ray instead.

[Armchair supporter supremo]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

But we did have the pulling power for another high profile manager to come in… we promoted Ray instead.

Absolutely! I Can't even think about what might have been if we'd have brought in a quality high profile manager to replace Dalglish!  Total fairyvtale thinking but what if we'd have nabbed Arsen Wenger at that stage before he went to Arsenal, how different would the prem be now if that had happened 🤯

Realistically I'm not sure who we could have hired though!!?? Jack Walker was making some odd/poor decisions around that time

There's a another question to ponder over! 

Personally I felt very let down by Dalglish for just suddenly quitting like he did

The premier league in general was going through such a big transition at that time with the influx of foreign players and managers having a big influence on our game

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Armchair supporter supremo

[Nuttall is lost]

1 hour ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

Absolutely! I Can't even think about what might have been if we'd have brought in a quality high profile manager to replace Dalglish!  Total fairyvtale thinking but what if we'd have nabbed Arsen Wenger at that stage before he went to Arsenal, how different would the prem be now if that had happened 🤯

Realistically I'm not sure who we could have hired though!!?? Jack Walker was making some odd/poor decisions around that time

There's a another question to ponder over! 

Personally I felt very let down by Dalglish for just suddenly quitting like he did

The premier league in general was going through such a big transition at that time with the influx of foreign players and managers having a big influence on our game

 

I read Dalglish's book (have yet to read My Liverpool Home), which is a poor book. Very little insight or behind the scenes stories in it, just a  quick gloss over summary of the title win.

His explanations to why he stood down make little sense to me.  He wanted no more day to day stuff he said yet took the Newcastle job.  Apparently later on he confessed he wanted to go back to Liverpool but that makes no sense either as Roy Evans was doing well at Liverpool and there was no vacancy or potential vacancy. 

It was a bizarre decision. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

1 hour ago, Nuttall is lost said:

I read Dalglish's book (have yet to read My Liverpool Home), which is a poor book. Very little insight or behind the scenes stories in it, just a  quick gloss over summary of the title win.

His explanations to why he stood down make little sense to me.  He wanted no more day to day stuff he said yet took the Newcastle job.  Apparently later on he confessed he wanted to go back to Liverpool but that makes no sense either as Roy Evans was doing well at Liverpool and there was no vacancy or potential vacancy. 

It was a bizarre decision. 

Yes that was the real kicker for me when he joined Newcastle so soon after. If he'd have just gone of and completely retired i could accept that, but no

 

I bet like most things in football it probably came down to money. Maybe he wanted to renegotiate his contract for a big pay raise after winning the league, but Walker well renowned for being stubborn when it came to salaries 🤷‍♂️ 

[Nuttall is lost]

1 hour ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

Yes that was the real kicker for me when he joined Newcastle so soon after. If he'd have just gone of and completely retired i could accept that, but no

 

I bet like most things in football it probably came down to money. Maybe he wanted to renegotiate his contract for a big pay raise after winning the league, but Walker well renowned for being stubborn when it came to salaries 🤷‍♂️ 

There's definitely more to it than he has ever said.  Apparently he said he decided to step down long before he did and felt no conflicting emotions.  To me it doesn;t add up.

I have a theory he fell out with Walker about the Geoff Thomas deal in 1992 and got the hump.

My other theory is Dalglish cant handle pressure and bails out when he feels it.  His sides were prone to choking.  The FA Cup Final 1988, the final day of the 1989 season, the 1990 FA Cup semi final against Palace.  With Blackburn he almost blew missing the playoffs in 1992, and then almost threw the league away in 1995 from a strong position.  Maybe he couldn't face humiliation in Europe or the pressure of trying to repeat the success.

He informed the club the Friday after the title win he was stepping down.  Jeez. At least enjoy it for a while.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Bad decisions made at the top unfortunately. 

Needed a top manager and we were a draw, so no reason why we didn't. Good scouting means we should have gotten deals for Roy Keane, Zidane, Ruel Fox, Sol Campbell and Duncan Ferguson over the line and really pushed on. 

Huge missed opportunity

[LeftWinger]

2 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Needed a top manager and we were a draw

Who would you have gone for out of interest? 

Just looking on Wiki and Ossie Ardiles was the only non-British/Irish manager in the Premier League that season....and he got sacked. None of the British ones stand out as someone that I'd have brought in - maybe Keegan? So you're probably looking at being one of the first clubs to 'risk' bringing a foreign manager in. Not sure who was available that we might have gone for at the time. I see Wenger was mentioned somewhere on here - but that's one that's easy with hindsight. I'd not have been happy with him at the time - unlike a lot of the players that have been mentioned on here.

[Nuttall is lost]

Glenn Hoddle, Walter Smith,  Martin O'Neill, 

22 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Who would you have gone for out of interest? 

Just looking on Wiki and Ossie Ardiles was the only non-British/Irish manager in the Premier League that season....and he got sacked. None of the British ones stand out as someone that I'd have brought in - maybe Keegan? So you're probably looking at being one of the first clubs to 'risk' bringing a foreign manager in. Not sure who was available that we might have gone for at the time. I see Wenger was mentioned somewhere on here - but that's one that's easy with hindsight. I'd not have been happy with him at the time - unlike a lot of the players that have been mentioned on here.

True.  Can't think of too many names from the UK at that time.

 

Walter Smith, Ruud Gullit or Glenn Hoddle maybe.  Graeme Souness but his stock was rock bottom after Liverpool.

And the piece de resistance Big Ron. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

10 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Bad decisions made at the top unfortunately. 

Needed a top manager and we were a draw, so no reason why we didn't. Good scouting means we should have gotten deals for Roy Keane, Zidane, Ruel Fox, Sol Campbell and Duncan Ferguson over the line and really pushed on. 

Huge missed opportunity

loved Rule Fox! very underrated!!

[LeftWinger]

21 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Glenn Hoddle, Walter Smith,  Martin O'Neill, 

True.  Can't think of too many names from the UK at that time.

 

Walter Smith, Ruud Gullit or Glenn Hoddle maybe.  Graeme Souness but his stock was rock bottom after Liverpool.

And the piece de resistance Big Ron. 

Out of those names - I'd have suggested Walter Smith would have been my preference at the time. He didn't exactly set the world on fire at Everton when he came though.

Souness would probably have been my last choice out of all of them - although when he did eventually take over we played some of the best stuff I've ever seen us play. Obviously went a bit wrong towards the end, but the first three of years under Souness are some of my favourite times as a Rovers fan.

I think it was fairly obvious which players we should have gone for. I think the manager situation was much less obvious - although I never thought Harford should have been given the job.

[Mattyblue]

Don’t see why we couldn’t have gone abroad for one, in 1996 both Arsenal and Chelsea went down that road.

[Bigdoggsteel]

On 23/02/2022 at 13:59, LeftWinger said:

Who would you have gone for out of interest? 

Just looking on Wiki and Ossie Ardiles was the only non-British/Irish manager in the Premier League that season....and he got sacked. None of the British ones stand out as someone that I'd have brought in - maybe Keegan? So you're probably looking at being one of the first clubs to 'risk' bringing a foreign manager in. Not sure who was available that we might have gone for at the time. I see Wenger was mentioned somewhere on here - but that's one that's easy with hindsight. I'd not have been happy with him at the time - unlike a lot of the players that have been mentioned on here.

Trapatonni 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

On 17/02/2022 at 18:24, Nuttall is lost said:

I can;t get my head around Dalglish.  In his autobiography he said he resigned 5 days after winning the league.  Said Europe held no lure for him.  Bizarre.  You would imagine he would have been licking his chops at taking on the likes of Barcelona et al and making big money signings wit Rovers top of the tree in 1995.

Fergie would have seen winning the championship as the start of an empire.  Dalglish saw it as the end of a journey. A sort of 'lets jump out of the drivers seat before this goes tits up'.

I find Dalglish's book full of oddities.  Claims he wanted out of management twice then within a few months had taken another job.

 

I remember after the league was won thinking Blackburn are going to go onto better things.  Dalglish will sign some top players now and will be challenging for the next few years.  The squad was good and just needed a few holes to be plugged.  A defender, a midfielder and either a striker or winger.

I remember being really underwhelmed when Holmes and the really small names came in that summer. I was thinking WTF!

Another turning point came 2 years earlier.  Imagine Blackburn had signed Roy Keane.  Shearer and Keane. That would have been an incredible duo to have together.

 

 

Gazza was available.  Lars Bohinen came in the autumn.  A decent player but not good enough for where the club needed to go.  Billy McKinlay! Another dud!

Really liked Billy Mck8nlay as an anchor man before he got a serious injury,  but obviously he wasn't the kind of signing that was going to get us challenging at the top again 

[Dreyski]

I swear there was a LET back page around that time announcing Batistuta and Suker for £15 million (so after Shearer left?)

[LeftWinger]

On 26/02/2022 at 14:47, Dreyski said:

I swear there was a LET back page around that time announcing Batistuta and Suker for £15 million (so after Shearer left?)

What a front line that would have been! I'd have loved to have seen Batistuta in a Rovers shirt.

Luckily we got to see Formica in one - who was just like Batistuta according to Kean.

He was Argentinian and had long hair. That is where the comparison should have ended.