Tugay, and possible ins and outs.

By: David | May 20th, 2008

Old hand Tugay has signed a new year long contract so we can have ANOTHER year of his magic. Sure, he can’t run anywhere anymore, but this will be worth it if he can pull off his annual wondergoal/wonderpass. It’s also good to have someone like him around the squad too, with all his experience and words of wisdom.

Tugay - legend

Alongside this there have been a few indications of who might be coming in and out of Ewood this summer. Enckleman and Henchoz I’m sure are out on free’s (anyone see Enckleman in the Cup final - oh dear. I’m from Cardiff btw). However talk of Bentley leaving has died down recently. Liverpool look like the only really big team who would buy him and they seem more interested in other players at the moment, such as Albert Riera of Espanyol, who considering his nationality looks like Benitez material (more on the Catalans later). Apart from that news of interest from Tottenham keeps cropping up, and if we are going to sell him, Spurs could be the perfect place. This is the club that paid £8mil for Zakora, £9mil for Kaboul, a couple of million for an unfit Brazillian left back (Gilberto) and £16mil for Darren Bent. We could end up selling him for a ridiculous amount of money if Spurs and their sporting director Damien Comolli act in their usual ridiculous fashion. Around £12mil I think would be acceptable for Bentley (thoughts?), but I could see Spurs spending well over £15mil if they want him.

Other rumours are concerning Roque “goal machine” Santa Cruz, who allegedly will be a target for Arsenal if Emmanuel Adebayor leaves. However this seems unlikely for several reasons:

1. It’s unlikely any top clubs will want Adebayor (Barcalona have been linked). He’s too inconsistent and lazy and has had one good season. If a club does try for him Wenger will want big money because of the monster season he has had.

2. Roque seems to like it here and has suffered all of the worst things that can happen when playing for a top club. I think he likes keeping a low profile here, at the most low profile of top EPL clubs.

3. Hence Hughes has no real reason to let him go. If the player wants to stay Sparky will only want really big money, since he’s only one year into a four year contract.

So fear not Rovers fans, Bentley (hopefully) and Santa (almost definitely) will stay. Speaking of which, he’s talking of scoring even more goals next season. This sounds fantastic, though lets hope he doesn’t suffer from “McCarthy syndrome”.

Santa and Bentley, hear to stay hopefully.

So who may be coming in? Well despite my [pathetic] attempts at persuading Sparkey to bring in Arshavin, there have been no related newspaper rumours.

Still, we are being linked with American young starlet Michael Bradley of Heerenveen (home of Boro’s Afonso Alves). This has excited me for a few reasons. Firstly, the kid looks good. He’s been playing very well in Holland and already has 14 international caps at the age of 20 (so work permit should not be a problem). He can play attacking and defensive midfield (positions that both need strengthening), and in the attacking role has scored quite a few goals for Heerenveen. Apparently we were linked with him in January, when Heerenveen told us to come back in the summer with around E6mil (ie. not that much). Finally, it would be great to have a young, exciting American (key word) playing for us - the attention and comercial benefits would be nice. I think I’m right in saying that a few of you from across the pond read this - what do you think of Bradley?

Bradley

Finally, we have been sending scouts to the little brother of Barcalona, RCD Espanyol. We are apparently being linked with a few players: Torrejon (a central defender) and Coro (a striker/attacking midfielder). I don’t know much about Espanyol, but I like their coach Valverde, who seems to have done very well with a young squad. The two players mentioned seem to be less prominent than some of their other rising stars (Luis Garcia and Jarque), so if anyone knows anything please say.

Until next time - enjoy the summer….