[Archived] Are We Going To Raid The Relegated Clubs?

[ihateburnley]

Apologies if this has already been done, but does anybody think there are any players in the Sunderland, Portsmouth, Birmingham and West Brom squads that are worth potentially getting on the cheap?

Arca, Dunn, Heskey and Paul Robinson spring to mind for me - just wondering the thoughts of others?

[promoted2001]

Heskey

[Cocker]

Should Pompy go down I wouldnt mind Lua Lua.

[Rovers_4_life]

Depends on prices. If we could get Dunn on the cheap then he may be a good signing. Other players such as Lua Lua, Pennant, Ellington etc. may also be decent signings but i bet there would be several takers.

[KingCrip]

Liam Lawrence of sunderland?

[philipl]

Clubs go down for a reason= they and their players are not good enough.

Apart from Dunn and perhaps that full back at Pompey, forget it.

[1864roverite]

Taylor and Lua Lua from Pompy

Lawrence from Sunderland

Pennant and Dunny from Big City FC

[Philly Rover ®]

Of course, philip, it can often be that the manager isn't good enough, not the players--which I clearly believe to be the case at the Big Club.

The only players I can realistically see Hughes going after are Dunn and Taylor. Heskey is on too much money, Pennant is too much of a headache, Davies and Gera would be chased by a host of clubs, and the rest probably wouldn't go straight into the first team, a requirement for Hughes and JW if they're going to consider most players.

That being said, there are plenty of names that could help us, but I can't see Rovers going after any of Kanu, Mendes, Davis, etc.

Just as a point of information--what type of player is Gary O'Neil?

[roversWASmylife]

I'd go for Jon Stead.

[tcj_jones]

Dunn

Heskey

Sutton

Pennant

Lua Lua

I'd look at all of them.

[blinddevotion]

Think Steven Elliott from Sunderland has lots to offer. Seen him play for Ireland a few times looks like he could be a class act, strong, eye for goal, nice touch and good pace, just a bit rough from being young and playing for Sunderland. He is also young and we can sell him on, unlike Cole and Yorke (What a waste 7m for Cole and he ends up going to Fulam for nothing!) . However the youth system needs to be our main area for recruitment with the odd Bellemy or Nelsen signing in between.

[AussieinUk]

Depending on who goes down..

Arca - Sunderland

Koumas - W.Brom

Pennant - B'ham

Dunn - B'ham *

Lua Lua - P'mouth *

Taylor - P'mouth

* Both quality player's IMO, just dont know if they would be Hughes 'type' of players..

[LeChuck]

Clubs go down for a reason= they and their players are not good enough.

389161[/snapback]

Had Souness spent much longer in charge of us then it's probably that the majority of our squad would have started this season in the Championship...it's blatantly not as simple as the sentence you've put.

Julio Arca is the most obvious one for me, primarily a left back but gets moved upfield for Sunderland because he's so far ahead of the rest of that squad in terms of ability that it's a waste having him back there. He would be a superb long term replacement for Gray, he's only in his mid-20s as well.

If Pennant can sort himself out then he would be the perfect player to compliment Pedersen on the wings, if it's one thing we lack it's a genuine winger. Despite Heskey's obvious flaws, it's difficult to argue he wouldn't compliment Bellamy...and he'd certainly be an improvement on Kuqi, although you have to wonder whether the transfer fee and wages would be worth it.

Apart from that...only a fully fit Dunn would enhance our starting 11. There are, however, plenty of players that would thicken out the squad should European football arrive next season, we'd certainly need extra cover in almost every position.

[AussieinUk]

Sorry LeChuck (and others) I cant see it with Heskey.. I would rather jon Stead

I do admit he is a target man, but I would never want to see Emil Heskey in a Rovers shirt..

Others I would rather compliment Bellamy, in Europe ;

John Carew - Lyon

Jerome Cameron - Cardiff

Edited March 8, 2006 by AussieinUk

[tcj_jones]

A combination of Pennant and Pedersen on the wings next season would be absolutely superb! I really, really hope that they get relegated.

[Fife Rover]

I really can't understand why so many people seem keen for Rovers to sign Pennant. I know he has bags of ability and talent and is still very young, but if you look into his record off the pitch with both Arsenal and Brum you can see that he is to put it mildly"something of a wild child". I suspect that he is another example of the type of player that can't handle the life style of a top professional footballer and is already heading down the same road as players like Best and Gazza and will simply throw away all the chances and opportunities that come his way.

I would not take the risk if it were down to me.

[tcj_jones]

Has he actually done anything since his arrest at Birmingham and his pledge to become a new man?

[joey_big_nose]

He was in the papers after a fight a club recently.

The best three players in the relgation fight with a few years left in them are clearly Dunn, Pennant and Arca.

We need a creative midfielder, a right winger and a left back in the summer...

We also need a striker but I can't see any of the relegation candidates providing one of a good enough standard. Kanu or Sutton would be ideal but they are getting on a bit. Lua Lua? Sounds good to me!

As for Pennant's discipline problems and questions against Dunn's commiment to training, I would back Hughes to sort them out.

It is a question of whether we can beat other clubs to the punch. With Dunnie we have a clear advantage, the others would be a bit of a scrap.

[philipl]

Reads like Pennant is a classic case for Sparky's Blackburn bad boys club. But then Bellars has managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time again...

[neekoy]

Just as a point of information--what type of player is Gary O'Neil?

389170[/snapback]

A very bad one

[Presty On Tour]

rumour in the daily sport said that martin jol's spuds will be in for arca at the end of season.

i know its not the best source

for me:

dunn

arca

if we could get both on the cheap i would be well happy

[ihtd]

I would take Pennant any day of the week. Yes his off the field life is a bit messed up to say the least but if he can stay out of prison, he could be immense for us. He has potential and lots of natural pace/ability. I think Sparky could be the man to turn his life around. Put it this way if Sparky can handle Bellamy, who has been notorious for causing trouble at other clubs to the point they have off-loaded him, i think he can handle Pennant.

I believe that all of todays footballers that have seen Sparky's way of playing the game and his spirit and have now heard about his managerial skills have a great respect for him and as a result they stay in line. Maybe it could be the same with Pennant. I know Pennant is a bit wilder than the person i am gonig to mention now but while Bentley was at Norwich and Arsenal, he also had a wildboy reputation, he used to be out partying a lot and it was affecting his game. he was making the press nearly every month, now since his loan/transfer to Ewood, that doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

If people are talking about signing Heskey, i would say hell no, he was good at Liverpool, average for England and damm right shocking for the Big Club. I know he better than what we currently have in terms of a big man, but i bet he wants nearly 2x/3x what Shefki is on and Emile hardly produces the end result.

Julio Arca!!! I think he could be superb for us, we could get him for 1.5m at the most and he would be a better alternative to Gray. Come summer we will be probably losing a lot of the wage account with the hopeful departures of Gresko/Amoruso/Matteo/Douglas(permantely to Leeds)/Jemal Johnson(Sparky doesn't rate him and i can see why)possibly. Theres a good 80 000+ a week saved there that can be better used. When was the last time one of those played for us with the exception fo Matteo who was starting until he was injured.

Liam Lawerence-Good young player-bags of potential but is he really a player that we need to be signing in the summer. We do need a replacement for Tugay should he not sign his deal or retire next season, but i feel Bentley can evolve as a player and fill that role. He showed on Sunday at Spuds that for parts of a match he can be instrumental in our success but at the moment he isn't at the same level, technically with Tugay. I fell Liam Lawerence could be a potential star but he wouldn't get a game very often from the start and in the summer i am hoping Sparky signs players who will be starting and who will make a great impact on the performance of the squad for the better.

[M-K]

Clubs go down for a reason= they and their players are not good enough.

389161[/snapback]

Only just saw that, and had to comment:

What do J Cole, M Carrick, G Johnson, J Defoe, F Kanoute, England's David James and Trevor Sinclair have in common?

[yellowsubmarine]

Pennant will be the best of the lot definitely, if Birmingham goes down. Linking up with his ex-Arsenal mate, Bentley, looks pretty promising.

[RoyRover]

I think that Sunderland, Pompey and Birmingham will go down and there are a few players from this teams that I wouldn't mind joining our team.

Sunderland: Julio Arca, Liam Lawrence

Pompey: Gary O'Neill, Matthew Taylor, Pedro Mendes

Birmingham: Melchiot, Pennant, Forrsell