So what does this mean for our striker force?

It means we have a ton of strikers again. Paul Gallagher, Benni Mac, Jason Robers, Di Santo, Dioufy, and now Niko. I believe we’ll see a good healthy mix of Benni, Jason, Di Santo and Niko with Diouf probably playing on the right wing as a RM.

So what’s everyone’s take on this new boy? Yay or Nay? And how do we feel about the start of this season? Let me know! UP THE ROVERS!!

Excited for the league to start this weekend? Can’t wait to sit down and turn on your Rovers, after waking up early to make sure you catch them on TV? Well, you wont be turning on Fox Soccer Channel, at least not till after September.

Setanta isn’t showing us much love either, with only 2 matches being shown in August, and only one of those 2 is live. To quote the wise words of Mr. Rodney Dangerfield, “I get no respect!”

However, a new option has emerged. Just a few days ago, The Offside’s very own Daryl wrote a piece talking about ESPN showing 2 premier league matches a week on ESPN2. Read that blog here. That would be exciting stuff indeed, and would offer more chances to watch our Rovers.

In this edition of “Did I Miss Something?!” I play the fool as I clearly have missed the official signing of Nikola Kalinic. I had referenced it a few posts ago, but it wasn’t until I checked my fantasy team that I realized he had been officially signed. (Click the picture for full size)

Now that’s all well and good. Celebrate a new striker right? Yeah, hold the champagne, because he hasn’t been given a squad number. Curious.

Last but not least at all, Rovers are facing a small injury scare. Big Sam was quoted as saying “Unfortunately I think from our point of view that the game was over when Gally, Ryan and Chris got injuries, and they are looking pretty serious as well for next week.” AKA all three are doubtful. Awesome…not. Basically no midfield, a weakened defense, and a strike force that can’t score goals? I went from kinda hopefully optimistic to straight up afraid of this game against Citeh this weekend.

I won’t be talking about the friendlies for two reasons.
1. They’re friendlies.
2. We lost or tied them.

So, coming up this week you can look forward to a preview and some big hype leading up to the kickoff of the 09-10 season. As always, UP THE ROVERS!

Alright, I know I’ve been absent for a couple of days and there has been a lot of stuff going on. I made the trip to Baltimore Friday night to see the Chelski v AC Milan game and have been readjusting my sleep and time schedule all weekend while traveling up and down the East Coast. So, here’s some links to some stories I’ll be talking about this week, as alot is going on in the world of BRFC.

In Squad news: Keith Andrews has signed a new 4 year deal, while winger Keith Treacy has been loaned out to Sheffield United till the end of the year.

Also, a nice article on Brett Emerton and his desire for a healthy return from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Jason Roberts has hailed new arrival N’zonzi as “one to watch,” while Warnock has announced that Rovers need “a flying start” to the new Premier League campaign.

In transfer news, Zigic has said he is happy to stay with Valencia, while in today’s People, Alan Nixon has reported that Big Sam is in Russia scouting and pricing Pavel Pogrebnyak.

Finally for today, you can read the report on the 1-1 draw against Leeds yesterday where Gally equalized from the penalty spot after a poor first half from Rovers.

All these stories and more in detail to come this week, including and new transfer news. As always UP THE ROVERS!

Rovers trial for Ghana Starlet-SkySports

Santa Cruz expecting bid by City??(Guardian)……but then is happy at Rovers?(SkySports)

Nolan moves to Preston permanently for a “6 figure deal”, Gallagher to stay with Plymouth, Sergio Peter leaves for Sparta Prague for undisclosed fee, and last but not least Ooijer to AZ Alkmaar??

So lots of outs and not a whole lot of ins, but Big Sam has said that he hopes to bring in his new signings as early as possible.

A Blyth preview tomorrow and hopefully some good transfer news soon. I would say lets al laugh at Bolton, but they say pride comes before the fall, so lets save it. Up the ROVERS!

Warnock – “No unrest at Rovers.” — SkySports
That’s great Warnock. Really. I appreciate the effort. Now, lets see how that great camaraderie is making your game better on the pitch. Thanks in advance.

Now this next article comes as a great bit of news to me. Shows the Rovers using some pulling power and beating out some big rivals for this kid’s commitment.
Blackburn Rovers win race to sign Arsenal wonderkid. — Lancashire Telegraph

Now earlier this week, there were some stories saying that our Roque wanted to hop ship and head to Man City. I dismissed this as rubbish right away and now there’s an article proving my point.
Roque Santa Cruz agent slams Manchester City link stories. — Lancashire Telegraph

The Mail Online has a story about Paul Gallagher wanting to leave Rovers for good. Hm. I’ll leave this one open to debate. Discuss.
Gallagher tells Ince: I want to leave Blackburn in January. — The Mail Online

And last but definitely not least, our own Brett Emerton scored two for the Aussies against Qatar. maybe he could work some of that magic this weekend.

It seems our club can’t stay out of the headlines. Here’s the latest in your daily update:

Nigel Winterburn officially named new defensive coach.– Rovers’ Official Site

Aston Villa officially bid for Bentley.—SkySports

More on Winterburn’s appointment.—Setanta Sports

RSC “focused” on Blackburn.—TEAMtalk

Ince confirms the bid for Bents.—Eurosport & Yahoo

Finally, I mentioned the club shop before. Expect a write up on that when the online portion is 100% up. I’ve heard great things about it though from people lucky enough to be there. Until next time, Up the Rovers!

Edit: After the jump I’ve added a match review write up that I enjoyed and thought was quite good. Cheers to RevidgeBlue from BRFCS.com for it.

Very enjoyable evening. I knew Macclesfield were a small club and ground etc. but I didn’t realise they were THAT small, was like a throwback to the old 3rd division days in the early to mid 70’s.

Decent Rovers following – crowd of just over 2000 – of which well over half seemed to be from Blackburn.

As Macclesfield play in dark blue, we donned the red and black halves once again which looked even better with the black Crown paints logo. Hope they go on open sale at some point as well.

We started with a very strong side (including Brad) but no Bentley or RSC. Derbyshire wide right, Roberts and McCarthy up front.

We didn’t really fire first half, McCarthy hit the outside of the post with a curling shot from distance after about 35 mins and Dunn scored a delightful goal after a mazy run and neat shot into the bottom right hand corner after 42 mins. That was the only real excitement of the half although I was extremely impressed with our fitness levels, we seemed a lot sharper and hungrier than when I’ve seen us play friendlies at a similar stage in previous seasons.

At half time we made eleven changes including Paul Gallagher coming on. Unbelievably he scored within about ten seconds of the restart, nodding in an excellent cross from the right wing. The rest of the second half was even more of an anti climax with basically a reserve side being on but again there was nothing wrong with the motivation or levels of commitment. They got one back whilst I was texting tnr.

In the first half I thought Samba was terrific, looked like he’d been playing all summer, his game was bob on. MGP and Reid also looked a lot sharper they did for much of the time lasrt season imo.

In the second half I thought Gallagher looked a cut above the other “reserves”.

What a nice man Steven Warnock is, after coming off at half time, came over to the Rovers fans on the other side of the pitch for photos and autograph signings.

The other highlight was seeing Robbie Savage on the team coach before the game with his young daughter. Apparently he got on after the others got off and subsequently appeared to be getting on famously with Dunny, and John Williams. What a great bloke he is too. Must be worth ten points having him around (unless you’re Derby).

We asked him if he’d come in his 160k Derby coloured Merc and he said he had then we asked him about the latest stories about a Range Rover with diamante lettering and he said it was right about the Range Rover but not the lettering! I was rather hoping we might have signed him back on the cheap but I suspect it was more to do with his daughter who was wearing a Rovers top. I also overheard Sav say to someone else that he can’t get a Derby shirt near her. Sensible young lady!

Met Paul Ince briefly outside the ground after the game and wished him luck. He seems a really bright, bubbly and likeable personality.

So not too much to be drawn from the game itself, although all 22 players certainly looked well up for it and fitness levels seemed excellent.