Birmingham 4-1 Blackburn

I wrote most of this post, then my PC froze, and I’ve lost it all, so I won’t say much.

The scoreline flattered Birmingham, but you get the impression that the team didn’t particularly want to go to Lithuania sometime in July. Fair-play if I’m honest. The Intertoto is not just tiresome for players, but supporters too. Have fun Villa!

There was a good article at goal.com (I would provide a link if I could) which theorised that one of the reasons the top 4 are dominating is that ambition from the rest of the clubs is lacking. It suggested that teams like ourselves and Everton (who have been solidly top-half for the past few seasons) neeed to look at getting into the top 4 spaces and being more confident about our ambitions.

However, it’s hard to balance ambition and realism. Man City and Newcastle have shown that ambition needs to be matched with stability and acceptance of failure, without the knee-jerk reactions that have seen countless good coaches not given a fair deal.

However I think that we have a sensible enough board and a good enough base to see Sparky making some confident comments over the summer talking about top-5, maybe top-4 finishes. Yes, we may have it in the back of our minds that such a thing may not be possible, but it would be good if such ideas could get into the player’s minds so they could step up a level.

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” I think this quote is relevant to all mid-table Prem teams. I’d like to think that we are one of the “some” that Oscar Wilde describes.

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In a few weeks I hope to take a look at our main rivals challenging for Europe and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses compared to ours. This will hopefully keep the blog going during the Euro’s (which I cannot wait for), though I will also be doing exams during this period, so hopefully Jim will keep things rolling if I can’t produce any posts.

Also, please get commenting if you are a regular reader, and if you enjoy what’s going on here, please link this blog.

Last weeks results all turned out fantastically well for the Rovers and their European hopes. If we win at Birmingham and Villa don’t at West Ham then it’s 6th place and a shot at the UEFA Cup through the Intertoto (how good does that sound? – lets hope we don’t muck it up this time round).

It won’t be easy too, with Birmingham fighting for their lives. That being said, even if they win they won’t be guaranteed survival, which I hope will get them down a bit. Bolton (grrrr) and Fulham have pulled off great escapes which have put Birmingham and Reading deep in the shitter.

Still, European football, even via the Intertoto Cup, will hopefully be a good selling point to potential recruits, and even potential buyers up in the board room. I know I expressed doubts about a potential takeover, and I still have those doubts (events at Newcastle are worrying me more – and I totally agree with Keegan). That being said a good, solid takeover by good backers (think West Ham, Portsmouth, Villa), and a bit of luck, would take us lightyears forward.

It is more essential than ever that we keep onto our strongest asset: Mark Hughes. Next to him we must keep Santa Cruz (goal machine), and maybe even Bentley (talk of him leaving has died down recently). I also think Gamst and McCarthy could improve next season. Benni has recently said that the links to Chelsea this time last season messed up his focus for this year, and we all know that Gamst has the potential to be one of the better players in the league.

So things are looking up at the moment, but in general I find the future very hard to forsee at Ewood Park. Who knows what could happen?

Blackburn Rovers stopper Christopher Samba has admitted that he hasn’t been able to produce his top form this season.

“But I think we have to improve in some areas. Our last pass has not always been exact and we need to work on that to create more chances.”

This is a fantastic interview in my opinion. I think he’s being a bit harsh on himself (at the start of the season he was sensational) but it’s true that his form has been poor recently – Berbatov’s goal on Saturday and the failure to deal with Dean Ashton against the Hammers spring to mind. However if he thinks he can perform even better than he was at the start of the season (and most importantly he wants to) and do so consistently than we should be confident about our defence for next season if he and Nelsen can stay fit.

On a side note I’d like him to re-sport this hairstyle that he had back at Hertha Berlin – this look would scare most center-forwards away from our goal, but I digress.

His desire to get to Europe is great to see and the importance of it for this club cannot be understated – particularly when it comes to summer signings.

The next article is from vitalfootball.co.uk:

Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes already has plans in his mind for what the summer will hold as far as transfers goes.

“That is where we are. We are just trying to get the best value for the money that I’ll have available.”

More good news I say. £10mil isn’t much compared to most of the EPL (Reading apart) but by our standards over the last few years it’s a lot. If Hughes can pull off even more bargains like he has in the past then fantastic.

On another side note, lets look at how much our first team has cost (according to my memory/approx – feel free to correct):

Brad Friedel – £0

Brett Emerton – £3mil (ish)
Ryan Nelsen – £0
Chris Samba – £0.4mil
Steven Warnock – £1.5mil

David Bentley – £3mil (ish)
Steven Reid – £1.8mil
David Dunn – £2.2mil
MG Pedersen – £2.5mil

Roque Santa Cruz – £3.4mil
Benni McCarthy – £2.5mil

Total: £20.3mil or £1.85mil a player. To spend such a little amount of money and stay in the Premiership is good – to be a top half team for the last 3 years is fantastic.

This all bodes well for the summer, so who could we pick up relatively cheaply?

Well we need a midfield player, and one person who springs to mind is Steve Sidwell. This guy had a sensational season at Reading last year and was an absolute fool to go to Chelsea on a free transfer thinking he could compete with Makelele, Ballack, Lampard, Essien and Mikel for the midfield positions. He seems to have completely disappeared from the footballing radar and Chelsea paid nothing for him so he wouldn’t cost much – can Hughes rejuvinate him?

However there seem to be few Premiership players who would be availiable at a good price in the right positions, so I think we should look abroad. In particular I hope Hughes is looking in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 for some good, cheap players of a multitude of nationalities and styles. One player I would love to see (if Benni isn’t going to find some form) is Dortmund’s Alexander Frei. Other nice additions would be HSV’s Rafael Van Der Vaart (is that a realistic wish?) and Nigel De Jong.

Problem is, I’ve heard of these players. And one thing Sparky does very well is bring in people I (and most others) haven’t heard of (think Nelsen, Samba, Pedersen) and make them above average EPL players.

And so perhaps all this blogging about potential signings is pointless. I think I can trust Sparky to do a good job and not be reckless with his above-normal budget.

On a final aside, the fight for European places is a lot more complicated than anyone bargained for, what with this year’s FA Cup drama and Spurs’ success in the Carling Cup. It seems that if we finish above Villa and Man City we will get a European place of some sort, likely Intertoto and another short summer break for the players. I’m confident we can do this.

That being said Rovers need to concentrate on themselves. I’m perhaps one of Gamst’s biggest fans but he needs to get his act together before he’s dropped or sold, which would be sad since he has the potential to be a consistant star in the league (like he was last season). Otherwise we really need to become more clinical and consistant – pundits (when they rarely mention us) constantly talk about how we are doing so well but personally I see a team that could do a little bit better. It feels like the players all have top performances inside them but they’re not always producing them.

That being said I’d settle for 7th – with the league becoming a bit more competitive in the 5th-11th place area due to all the money flowing in, our distinct lack of funds does make our current position an achievement and something to brag about.

On a side note, it’s hard to laugh at Burnley these days – the teams never meet. So instead let’s laugh at Bolton. They’re going down…..

Highlights:

His fitness may take a while to get up to scratch but I think Vogel could be a useful player. He’s experienced at the top level of football with Champions League and International games under his belt. We need a midfielder who is defensively solid to compliment Dunn (who really seems to be finding form) and shore up our GA (goals against). And he’s for free, so why not?

Speaking of transfers, we should look ahead to the summer. European football is looking a bit unlikely and a top half finish is almost certain, so how can we improve?

Well another top quality midfielder would be great, and maybe a right back too. However it is very hard to gauge who would be interested in joining Rovers and how much they would cost. On one hand we are a team on the up, but noone would really say we are bigger than any of our top half rivals (maybe Pompey apart). Except that Pompey have money and have been able to sign the likes of Muntari and Diarra (both of whom I would love to see at Rovers), as well as Defoe and Kranjcar.

Perhaps most important will be keeping hold of our own players, particularly Bentley and Santa Cruz. I would also like to keep Pedersen if we can keep him on his toes, plus he’s on the back of my Rovers shirt… McCarthy has scored the same amount of goals as Rooney this term (suprisingly), though I wonder how many are from penalties. And Dunn has as many assists as Aliaksander Hleb – also impressive.

We will need a keeper eventually to replace Friedel too, but I’m confident he can continue to pull out the stops for another year – he’s been a class act for so long now.

Well there is plenty of time to think about it. I’m really excited about who we may get linked with this year.

Here it is:

Blackburn Rovers have enjoyed an excellent start to this season’s Premiership. Indeed it is the best start they’ve had since 1994/95 when they went on to take the title. So what exactly is it that the club is doing so well?

When looking at the way the team is performing you have to start at the top. The board control Rovers’ finances extremely well. Long gone are the days of Jack Walker’s millions, the finances at Ewood are a lot tighter since the clubs biggest fan passed away in 2000. Clubs that suffer financially often suffer with their on field fortunes, in the transfer market this season the club have spent less than anyone else in the league. They haven’t even hit the 5 million pounds mark, with Roque Santa Cruz at 3.5 million being their most expensive acquisition. This leads into the next point:

Mark Hughes. Hughes’ summer spending has been minimal, strengthening only those areas that need to be strengthened, and by doing it as cheaply as possible. He saw an opportunity to sign a quality striker who was looking for a way out of Germany and took it. This was his only major buy for the club so far this season. He also signed exciting Dutch prospect Maceo Rigters (you may remember his overhead kick knocking England out of the under-21 championships in the Summer) for half a million and goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen for a small fee.

Since becoming gaffer at Blackburn, Hughes has proved his ability to shrewdly acquire players that have perhaps not been performing too well at other clubs and get the best out of them. Two shining examples of this are the central defensive partnership of Chris Samba and Ryan Nelsen. Both were taken to the north west club as virtual unknowns and both have flourished, becoming the backbone of one of the strongest, most solid defensive partnerships in the Premiership. Nelsen was signed from American club DC United for next to nothing. The New Zealand international had a trial at Charlton but was rejected before arriving at Ewood. He has done so well that he now wears the captain’s armband! Samba, a DR Congo international came from Germans Hertha Berlin where he was struggling to get a game. He is the complete player. Defensively solid, 17 feet tall, good with his head and a solid striker of the ball (see Tottenham away)!

So Hughes has a pretty solid base. He inherited one of the greatest goalkeepers in the world in Brad Friedel. So often overlooked when it comes to naming the ‘Top 20 keepers’ or lists of a similar fashion, the big American pulls off world class saves on an almost weekly basis! To add to this impressive looking defence he took Stephen Warnock from Liverpool. Warnock is one of those players who showed promise but was never going to be good enough to be a regular a Liverpool due to the fact they can just put their hands in their pockets and pick up a world class foreign defender instead! He signed for Rovers and has been quality ever since.

If you look at great teams over the years they always have two quality strikers. One striker can keep you in the upper part of the league but not necessarily take you any further. If you go back to the 1994/95 season Rovers had the SAS, Sutton and Shearer. Between them they scored almost 50 goals and won the side the title. The club has once again discovered a quality partnership in McCarthy and Santa Cruz. With McCarthy signed for a couple of million last season Blackburn were able to move forward after losing Craig Bellamy. However, without the support of another top quality striker Blackburn could only muster a 10th place finish. With the partnership of McCarthy and Santa Cruz, backed up by the ever-improving Matt Derbyshire and Jason Roberts they are looking lethal in front of goal.

Then, look back into midfield and they have yet more class. Wingers David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen have impressed under Hughes. Pedersen, after being signed by Graeme Souness was left out in the cold but soon found his feet under Sparky and has flourished, Bentley has been rewarded for his excellent form with an England call up. In the middle they have everyone’s favourite Welshman in Robbie Savage. A superb player who is hated by every opposition and loved by whoever he’s playing for. Despite being the oldest man in the world, Tugay continues to impress with his ability to play the perfect pass and to score from anywhere! David Dunn has also impressed since returning to his hometown club. He struggled with injury at Birmingham and when Hughes gave him his chance to return to Blackburn he took it with both hands.

The gist of it is this: With Mark Hughes in charge Blackburn Rovers have gone from relegation battlers to Champions League hopefuls. The likelihood is that they won’t have the legs to make the final push into the Champions League, but they are once again a force in English football .

But I don’t want to talk about it, so to cheer me up, here’s the Blackburn boys on Soccer AM last Saturday!

And for those who want to see just what the f**k happened last night…

Boys, you have shamed us. I expect better on Sunday!