[Archived] Paul Dickov Signs - Good Deal Or Not ?

[den]

Preston and Burnley? Since the mid sixties, 28 years ago to be precise, we have, with the exception of an odd season, been in a higher league than both of them.

No comparison there.

Small club, big club, it's all a matter of mentallity. Maybe Souey and John Williams are getting some of us into that mentality.

[Alan75]

I'd be more inclined to say.

We are a small town club, with big club ambitions.

Without big club ambition and success Rovers would not survive based on local support.

Without Jack Walkers finance Rovers would not have had the success that generated larger support.

Whilst there is a core of true Rovers supporters there is an element of glory hunters, who will switch clubs just to be associated with success.

[den]

Ah! There's a world of difference between small town club, and small club.

[T4E]

Ah! There's a world of difference between small town club, and small club.

Do go on.......

[broadsword]

We're a club of indeterminate size* who've just signed a small player.

* how do you measure a club? Distance of the chief execs office from the door? Are Citeh "massive" because they have maassive debts?

Edited June 7, 2004 by Bryan

[den]

So - what you are saying is that because we are a premier league club, that is situated in a small town, we can only sign players from the bottom end of the market.

I think that's where we came in, isn't it? i.e. we can't really aim above the Dickov, bargain basement player.

[Alan75]

Ah! There's a world of difference between small town club, and small club.

exactly. as I said above.

Or to put it another way, we are a big town club in a small town.

[FourLaneBlue]

Blackburn Rovers are not a small club, never have been, never will be. Their history is too great to ever accept that.

They do however "punch above their weight" in terms of resources and local area to call upon when compared to big city clubs. There is no particular reason why this should end though.

'Punching above our weight' does not not mean we are a small club, just that we organise what we have better. It's no different comparing us and Man Utd/Liverpool as there is between comparing Deportivo La Coruna and Real/Barcelona really. Well...except that they are better than us obviously but there difference ends there, they still have to compete against teams representing huge cities. We cannot compete with the attendances of the big clubs or the revenue that brings them, we can however compete them on the pitch. Not always maybe but we have our moments.

That's why we punch above our weight. It's not an excuse, just means we need to be patient and take the rough with the smooth. All town teams 'punch above their weight' to some extent. Crowds are the tip of the iceberg; more fans means more income from outside football. MOre fans wanting the tickets mean higher prices can be charged because of market forces. Just means for town clubs that their acheivements are so much more impressive than teams who spend over £10million on various players and have countless fans to call on.

PS- What would have happened without Jack Walker is debatable. We don't know. We could have ended up like Bolton/Charlton or down in the third along with Derby. We can only guess.

Edited June 7, 2004 by FourLaneBlue

[super_neill]

I can see people'e reservations in signing Dickov but i am pretty sure opinions will change if he scores us 13+ goals and has a good season.

[Tris]

So - what you are saying is that because we are a premier league club, that is situated in a small town, we can only sign players from the bottom end of the market.

I think that's where we came in, isn't it? i.e. we can't really aim above the Dickov, bargain basement player.

Dickov will probably turn out to be the bargain striker of this close season. Also I would question that he is "from the bottom of the market" - the stats this season suggest that in fact he's from the top end of the market. Look at the players who out-scored him this season - we couldn't dream of any of them playing in blue and white either because of price tag or because they just wouldn't come to us.

Interesting stat time - Dickov's goals per game ratio whilst at Leicester = 0.33. Andy Cole's whilst at Rovers = 0.33.

Are all those who have slagged off this signing going to finally turn on hero Cole for failing to be better than Dickov ? Dickov appears to have a better attitude and workrate on the pitch (unlike the hands on hips whinger) and cost 1/50th what Cole did.

So in the circumstances this is a fantastic buy.

[waggy]

dikov to score 13 goals,in the premier what are the odds on that,i reckon if he makes 13 appearence's we will be in trouble

[Jordan]

Dont forget out of the 13 or so he scored for Leicester a few of them were pens of which we dont get them.

[RevidgeBlue]

You could say we're a big club who's fans have a small club mentallity.

Exactly right Den.

To my mind the correct definition is that (thanks to Jack Walker) we are a big club competing in the most attractive League in the world situated in a small town.

The other JW seems to have done a fantastic job of brainwashing people into thinking that we've no right to expect to see anything other than the very mundane when exactly the opposite should be the case.

We're currently in probably the most attractive League in the world as far as attracting talent goes and by definition only a very limited amount of players can play for the top three or four clubs.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Exactly right Den.

To my mind the correct definition is that (thanks to Jack Walker) we are a big club competing in the most attractive League in the world situated in a small town.

The other JW seems to have done a fantastic job of brainwashing people into thinking that we've no right to expect to see anything other than the very mundane when exactly the opposite should be the case.

We're currently in probably the most attractive League in the world as far as attracting talent goes and by definition only a very limited amount of players can play for the top three or four clubs.

Makes you wonder why so many people are predicting a further slump in season ticket sales, at a time when the club has done everything to encourage increased support.

It may be the most attractive league - but as a player do you go to Rovers - who consistently fail to fill the ground, or Southampton, Birmingham, Charlton, Man City, Tottenham, Everton - all clubs roughly on a par or below Rovers but regularly sell out.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

BTW - if half of the managers in the premiership were after Dickov why is he such a bad signing. Maybe some high profile foreign signing - say for example an Italian World Cup midfield player called Baggio would be more to peoples liking

If nothing else surely Stead, Gray, Friedal etc have shown that GS does get it right sometimes. I have a feeling that this one will be one of his better buys - couldn't be any worse than an Italian world cup midfielder could it

[RevidgeBlue]

It may be the most attractive league - but as a player do you go to Rovers - who consistently fail to fill the ground, or Southampton, Birmingham, Charlton, Man City, Tottenham, Everton - all clubs roughly on a par or below Rovers but regularly sell out.

What earthly difference does that make?

Assuming everyone's offering roughly the same wage you'd go to the club you thought was going to do the best on the pitch.

[colin]

What earthly difference does that make?

Assuming everyone's offering roughly the same wage you'd go to the club you thought was going to do the best on the pitch.

But is Dickov punching above his weight in his choice of clubs to move to?

[FourLaneBlue]

To my mind the correct definition is that (thanks to Jack Walker) we are a big club competing in the most attractive League in the world situated in a small town.

Yes but the town and surrounding areas isn't given enough credit for its support of the club. Jack Walker invested in Rovers because he knew it was a hugely important part of the town. To pay back the place he grew up in he invested in the club as he knew that would make the whole town and its surrounding areas happy, if he'd been born in Manchester or Birmingham he'd probably have built a museum or library or something. As wonderful as Jack Walker was for Rovers he wasn't the first benefactor (nowhere near the first in fact) the club has had. There is something about the place that has always worshipped the club. As he was Blackburn born and bred he knew it was the club that the townspeople cared for most. As for bought the title - Jack gave the club a big helping hand with money but so what? It's only a big deal to those jealous of the success with how we spent it.

The declining season ticket sales are worrying but nobody seems to know the exact reasons and it could only be a temporary decline. Even with that decline we get better support from the surrounding area than nearly anyother club. So don't let anyone tell you Blackburn isn't a football town just because of a bit of a slump over a couple of years. Blackburn is still THE football town.

Rovers fans do themselves down too often. When I said we were "punching above our weight", I meant that we are doing so compared to Man Utd/Liverpool/Arsenal. The likes of Southampton, Birmingham or Charlton need to start winning some cups and leagues before we think of them as "bigger" than us. Those clubs may be able to point to a few empty seats at Ewood to show how they are a bigger club than us. We can point to our trophy cabinet to show what a real success of a club has to show for itself.

[Scotty]

One of the reasons Dickov scored so many last season was because he had a big target man (Les Ferdinand) to play off. We don't have one of those so I don't expect Dickov to be as successful. I don't think he's got enough quality to create goals for himself and I don't think our current midfield has enough quality to create goals for him.

[promoted2001]

Rovers fans do themselves down too often. When I said we were "punching above our weight", I meant that we are doing so compared to Man Utd/Liverpool/Arsenal. The likes of Southampton, Birmingham or Charlton need to start winning some cups and leagues before we think of them as "bigger" than us. Those clubs may be able to point to a few empty seats at Ewood to show how they are a bigger club than us. We can point to our trophy cabinet to show what a real success of a club has to show for itself.

I agree with that. They may have bigger stadiums with bigger support but have they won the title or even a cup (not counting mickey mouse cups like "The Asia cup" or "The Ajax tournament"). Nope. They can call themselves the bigger club but on our day we can beat whoever we want, whether it be Lazio (I know it was a friendly), Arsenal or even Man Utd.

Rovers are quite possibly the most stressful team to watch as we can go drawing with the likes of chelsea or matching Arsenal's class at Highbury (and unluckily losing) to crashing at home to Villa or Portsmouth. On their day they are good but on their bad streaks they can be abismal, but i'll still turn up every week. As will 99.999999999999% of season ticket holders.

[Nate]

What I don't undertsand is that he reckons he spoke to other ex-rovers players about coming here and that confirmed it for him. That can't be true though because Jan knows everything behind the scenes and she said that every ex-player hates Souness' guts.

That was the reason they were all going to be so fired up when they beat us and she was right about that wasn't she.

[Cheshireblue]

I would venture to suggest that the drop in sason ticket sales over the last couple of years has more to do with the fact that 3pm kick offs on Saturday are as common as hens teeth.

In the good old days, you knew that every other saturday you would have a home match that kicks off at 3pm. These days there is no rhyme or reason to the fixture list and you have no clue when the next game is. It's impossible to plan, and with monday, tuesday and wednesday night games, I for one just can't make it to every home game. Therefore I no longer buy a season ticket.

I can't believe that I am the only one in that position.

[Alan75]

I can't believe that I am the only one in that position.

No, your not.

With a 240 plus round trip to home games, it gets more and more frustrating having to travel mid week. Especially when the M6 is down to 1 lane thanks to the midnight cone counters.

Fortunately these days, I can rearrange my work schedule most of the time, but for those who cant or those who work shifts it must be frustrating and it is bound to affect ticket sales.

[RevidgeBlue]

Yes but the town and surrounding areas isn't given enough credit for its support of the club.

I couldn't agree with you more on that FLB. As I've always said, if the "big" clubs had our level of penetration of support they'd be playing to gates of over 200,000. We're a club in a small town, so what? That goes with the job description.

I'm sick to the back teeth and I bet 99% of the fans are as well of reading John Williams whinging about attendances every time they pick up a paper.

If he had been here in the Bill Fox era of the mid 80's when consideration had to be given to selling the boardroom table to stop us from going bust and cheques for the electricity and gas had to be sent out unsigned, he really would have had something to whinge about.

Rant over, sorry if it's gone off topic.

[CAPT KAYOS]

One of the reasons Dickov scored so many last season was because he had a big target man (Les Ferdinand) to play off. We don't have one of those so I don't expect Dickov to be as successful. I don't think he's got enough quality to create goals for himself and I don't think our current midfield has enough quality to create goals for him.

One of mine main worries this as well Scotty, which is why I stated it depends on what PD has actually been bought for.

Add to this what Jordan has commented about re the penalties - something I didn't comprehend - and the goals scored does not look so appealing. However, having seen PD play he is the type of player I like - a bit of how I would describe the old traditional late 70's/early 80's type of player - he wants to win every game and 100% effort is given and providing we can get a bit more creativity from our midfield he might surprise a few as I feel he has a knack for being in the right place at the right time for a forward - a bit like Stead.