LeftWinger

Just had the email through from the club about the final five games of the season for £99 and it contained the following line:

"You could be the difference as Tony Mowbray's men continue their charge up towards the top of the division"

I'm not sure charge is the best word to use.

58 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

As much as I don’t rate Parker, unfortunately they have enough talent to pull something out of the bag in games and secure second  - example being their last two matches where they turned potential defeats into wins late on.

It's alright when you can name substitutes that cost £25m, £15m and £8m at this level.

6 hours ago, darrenrover said:

Assuming Mitrovich bags one? if PVH or Darragh hasn't already shunted him in the air in the first 5 minutes, what odds then?

Joking aside, if Dolan and Kahdra are up top, buzzing about like wasps, I fancy us to win 2-1.

I like your optimism, but for a side that has scored 3 goals in 10 league games since the start of the year - I'm not expecting us to score twice away at the best side in the league (we have only conceded 6 in those games at least)

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.

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.

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.

16 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Well yes it was Walker's money but Dalglish and Shearer were the ones that drove the success.  Walkers money did little after they left.  To say Shearer was just one if many is way off.  Shearer was the main man and its no coincidence they were labelled a one man team. 

Without Shearer the team would have been nowhere near the title.

Disrespectful to say the championship winning team was a one man team. Flowers, Hendry, Le Saux, Sherwood and Sutton were all in PFA team of the year. Interestingly, Flowers made more appearances in the PFA team of the year than Schmeichel.

Also disrespectful to the club to say "Shearer made Blackburn". 

4 hours ago, Mellor Rover said:

Don’t think you’d find a professional keeper with a save % anywhere near that. If you did I’d be impressed. And they certainly won’t be a championship goalkeeper!

Found an article on the Premier League website and the keepers with the most Premier League penalty saves (as of 2018) were

David James (13 saved from 63)

Thomas Sorensen (12 saved from 50)

Mark Schwarzer (10 saved from 49)

Brad Friedel (10 saved from 51)

Shay Given (10 saved from 66)

The top 10 keepers had an average save rate of 21.4%

There were 9 keepers in the history of the Premier League that had a save record of 30% plus (based on a minimum of 10 penalties saved).

Dmitri Kharine saved 5 from 11! It must have been those jogging pants.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1 minute ago, SuperBrfc said:

Sol Campbell, Ruel Fox and Les Ferdinand would have been excellent business that summer too. 

And available for around £17m (I'm guessing with Campbell). What would you get for that today? 

It's not even as though it's not obvious that those three would have hugely strengthened us (even at the time).

Rovers have long been interested in the forward who is on the fringe of England selection.

Indeed they tried to sign him when he moved from Blackpool to QPR for £700,000, being persuaded by then-manager Gerry Francis that he would have a better chance of establishing himself at Loftus Road. Sinclair has never expressed a wish to move from QPR.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6206607.rovers-keep-tabs-sinclair/

That was from 1996.

2 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

It wasn't available in summer 1995 though - Walker decided the team didn't needs strengthening. A fatal decison

A quick look at Soccerbase - and this isn't 100% accurate as some of the transfers slip into different windows (ie. Anderson/Dahlin/Henchoz fall into 1996/97 spend, despite being bought in the summer of 97) and there are undisclosed fees.

1995/96 - £2.25m

1996/97 - £8.5m

1997/98 - £14.275m

1998/99 - £29m

Can you imagine if we'd have spent more of that money at the end of the 1995 season and strengthened rather than turned the taps off and gone backwards.....and then had to switch the hose on!

Not a criticism of Jack at all, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

24 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Overmars for Wilcox would have been my signing.

I was always a fan of Overmars. It was reported Arsenal paid somewhere between 5m and 7m for him in 1996. He'd have been a top, top signing and could have played either wing as well. Obviously a miles better player than Ruel Fox, I only went for Fox then I could have Zidane as my continental addition. Overmars or Bergkamp would have been incredible. Can you imagine Bergkamp in behind Shearer?

9 minutes ago, Irish_Rover said:

Great topic!

Christ what a missed opportunity. Champions of England, potential for many years at the top with a very strong core group of players, and then we decide to go and bring in a player from friggin' Darlington!!
I forgot/never knew that we actually swapped Robbie Slater for Matt Holmes, Slater from what I remember was a really good player and if it was an actual swap I definitely think we got the raw deal.

Perfect case of what might have been if we had a planned transition to a proven manager after Kenny (or if even Kenny would have given it one more year as manager until we find someone more suitable).

Overmars, Zidane and a top defender, possibly Campbell would have seen us well set.

Definitely a missed opportunity. There was definitely money still available (as Hodgson and Kidd were given a fortune in the late 90s), so it's a shame it wasn't used to consolidate our position at the top of English football. I'm not sure why Slater or Atkins were allowed to go - they were both solid squad players. We definitely had the core of a very good squad there at the right age - it just needed building upon. Would we have kept hold of Shearer for longer if we'd have been fighting for the title every season?

45 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

Was it that season or the year after when we were heavily linked with Trevor Sinclair?

 

I do remember us being linked heavily with Trevor Sinclair - it was certainly around that time, if not maybe 1996. He would have been a decent signing and I think he could play either flank?

So it’s June 1995 – Kenny Dalglish has lead Rovers to the Premier League title, but then decided to step down as first team manager. Jack Walker has entrusted you with the job and given you £15m to make signings – who are you buying?

In real life Rovers added just Adam Reed from Darlington and Matty Holmes from West Ham (with Robbie Slater going in the other direction) before the season started. We were strongly linked with a double move for Alan Stubbs and Jason McAteer from Bolton, but that fell through when McAteer decided he wanted to move to Liverpool. Looking back on it, how much different would history have been had Rovers invested that summer and pushed forward?

With the budget of £15m (thanks to hindsight), who should we have bought that would have realistically come to Rovers. As regards to European competitions, it might be worth remembering that you could only have 3 non-English players in your match day squad at that time.

I’ve done a list below of some possible targets that moved around the mid-90’s – or potential signings that we could have gone for:

Gareth Southgate £2.5m

Les Ferdinand £6.0m

Marc Overmars £6.0m

Paul Ince £7.5m

Ruel Fox £4.25m

Stan Collymore £8.5m

Nick Barmby £5.25m

Ruud Gullit Free

Denis Bergkamp £7.5m

Georgi Kinkladze £2.0m

Chris Armstrong £4.5m

Zinedine Zidane £1.2m

Personally I’d have let some of the fringe players like Talia, Gale, Makel and Harford go. I’d have kept the likes of Slater and Atkins for squad players (ones that we let go at the time).

I’d have strengthened at the back with an English centre-half – either Southgate at £2.5m or gone for a 20-year-old Sol Campbell from Spurs. I reckon £7m would have done the trick for Sol. In the end, I went for both as the budget allowed it.

I’d have been tempted to go for either Overmars or Bergkamp at the prices above, but the English player rule in the Champions League would put me off them. I always quite liked Ruel Fox as a winger who could provide cover on either flank – so I’d have gone for him at £4.25m.

Probably the ultimate hindsight, but we were interested in him in the mid-90’s, but Zidane was reportedly available for £1.2m – so he’s my foreign signing.

In (£14.95m)

Sol Campbell (20) - £7m

Gareth Southgate (24) - £2.5m

Ruel Fox (27) - £4.25m

Zinedine Zidane (22) - £1.2m

Out:

Frank Talia

Tony Gale

Lee Makel

Paul Harford

13 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

For once I think Mercer is right.  We don't concede many, so always have a chance.  6th.

Unfortunately at the moment we aren't conceding many, but aren't scoring any!

On 02/02/2022 at 21:14, 47er said:

World record for goalkeeper as well. He spent well but he did spend millions---unprecedented at the time.

British record - not world record.

16 hours ago, neophox said:

Valerien Ismael available...knew allot of us wanted him before he joined the baggies. Sacked today by the Baggies and Mowbray now 2nd favourite for the job.

I'd have certainly taken that swap at the start of the season and I'd probably even take it now (despite the fact Mowbray has definitely done a better job this season). The job he did at Barnsley was incredible.

Last 5 permanent managers at Barnsley and their win percentage:

Stendel - 47%
Struber - 35.9%
Ismael - 56.8%
Schopp - 6.3%
Asbaghi - 8.3%

11 hours ago, Tugay Et Labore said:

I find it quite astonishing that TM has managed to get us out of league one and fighting for automatic promotion to the premier league whilst barely having a net spend on transfers. 

 

 

He did also take us into League One though - I know Coyle was mainly to blame, but he had more than enough time to keep us up (even though Coyle did leave us with a pretty horrible team).

6 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

Has cancer and cost them £40million

He didn't cost them anywhere near that.

27 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Love Football Manager for what it is but I will always prefer the CM01/02 era. That was the game I grew up playing on my Dad’s lap in front of the ‘house computer’. 

I still play CM01/02 now 😂