Rovers Hopeful Signings. No3: Daniel Carvalho

By: David | May 11th, 2008

CSKA Moscow (yes, I’m back in Russia), seem to have a good scouting network. Their team is based around a few very exciting Brazilians: Dudu Ceranse (sp?), Jo, Vagner Love and Daniel da Silva Carvalho.

Daniel Carvalho

This guy is a very similar player to Andrei Arshavin (see hopeful signings No1). He’s a flair player who can play in the middle, on the wings or up front. Like, Arshavin he’s a great dribbler, very creative, and very exciting. Unlike Arshavin he has quite a terrifying free-kick in his arsenal, though another similarity to draw with the Russian is that his effort and work-rate is not the best. Like Arshavin, he was Russian player of the year (and as Zenit and the national team have shown, Russian football is definitely on the up).

Whatever. We have enough hard workers in the team. Indeed, Rovers teams have always had good workers in the team (I think Dirk Kuyt would be very much at home here…). What we need (or what I want) is flair and excitement. Signings over the past few years have seen a progression towards that: McCarthy, Pedersen, Santa Cruz and Bentley are not boring players. However, I would really like to see someone who was out-and-out flair and fun. Someone who’s willing to go it alone, or who can see the perfect pass instantly. Someone who can occasionally produce a bit of genius.

Carvalho would provide that (I don’t think a Brazilian has ever played for Rovers). Would he be availiable though? Man City have reportedly been interested all season, which indicates that a move for him to the Premier League is on the agenda. Price wise, I have no idea how much might be wanted. CSKA are pretty well off (they have links to Abramovich), so I doubt they will need a substantial fee – they didn’t pay much for him 4 years ago. Whether Sparky is contemplating a move for a player like Carvalho is up to question though.

Still, a bit of excitement – and some press headlines – would be nice in the close season, and this would be best provided by an exciting signing. We don’t need numbers. We need an individual.

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Match report on the Birmingham game should hopefully be up tomorrow. Shame about the result…