**Summer Transfer Thread: News, Rumours and Speculation**

Well Villa have a bargain there with Delph. Gutted he's gone but hope he does well down there.

He should pair up well with Milner, another Leeds youth product. Rather he be there and overshadowed at Man City.

See how we fare this season without him and who, if anyone we spend the money on.
 
BaZ87 said:
As people have said earlier in the thread, Torres and Villa haven't really hit it off in the Spanish team. Also playing Villa and Torres upfront and still playing Gerrard far enough forward to get the best out of him would leave us incredibly vulnerable in midfield.

Half of the reason as to why Gerrard plays further forward these days is because Benitez doesn't like him playing CM as part of a 4-4-2; he feels Gerrard vacates the position too often and can leave us vulnerable.

As for the stuff about Villa saying he doesn't want to leave Valencia or Spain; he's just one of many players that are constantly talking in the press about how they want to join club x, then the next day they're happy and so on. And I am sure he is friends with Torres but if anybody was to persuade him it would be Reina, they're very good friends (go on holiday together etc).

And much cheaper.
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Did anybody watch the Euro's, they were lethal together! As for the Diamond formation, you wouldnt be too exposed, you just need to know how to play the formation. Thats like saying Chelsea with 1 up front and 2 wingers wont score enough. Where are the days when formations were 3-4-3 eh?
 
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Couple of Signings for Blackburn
Croatia international Nikola Kalinic has completed his move to Blackburn, according to the striker's agent.

The 21-year-old was close to joining Portsmouth earlier in pre-season, but the deal collapsed and Rovers boss Sam Allardyce has swooped.

Allardyce, who has spent the summer searching for forwards, has previously confirmed his interest in Kalinic and he now appears to have got his man.

The Hajduk Split forward's representative, Tomislav Erceg, claims a deal has been agreed between the clubs and all that is now required is to obtain a work permit.

"It is finished, the transfer is completed. Now all Nikola needs is a work permit, which shouldn't be problem," Erceg told Sportske novosti.

Reports say Kalinic has signed a four-year deal with Rovers, where he will be expected to replace Roque Santa Cruz following his move to Manchester City.
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and
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce has signed striker Franco Di Santo on loan from Chelsea for the first half of the season.

Allardyce has been determined to strengthen his attack following the departure of Roque Santa Cruz to Manchester City and Di Santo will give him a fresh option.

The 20-year-old Argentinian made only a minimal impact on the first team at Stamford Bridge after signing from Chilean side Audax Italiano in January 2008.

He will stay with Blackburn until January under the terms of the deal completed today.

Rovers will then have first option on extending the deal providing Chelsea are willing to let him stay on loan for the remaining months of the season.

Di Santo could make his first appearance for Blackburn in Wednesday's home friendly against Hibernian.
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Thermaltake said:
Did anybody watch the Euro's, they were lethal together! As for the Diamond formation, you wouldnt be too exposed, you just need to know how to play the formation. Thats like saying Chelsea with 1 up front and 2 wingers wont score enough. Where are the days when formations were 3-4-3 eh?
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I did watch the Euros and I didn't think their partnership was anything special. One or the other played well and again like others have said, Spain often done better when 1 was subbed off.

The only way we could play all 3 other them (other than playing Villa slightly out wide, which defeats the point of signing him) would be to restrict Gerrard and the one person we wouldn't want to restrict would be him. If we went into a big game (in Europe in particular) with Gerrard in the position he plays now but behind 2 strikers instead of 1 then we'd be short in midfield and get overrun. As Utd found out, it's hard enough playing the likes of Barca with 2 sitting midfielders let alone 1.

edit: the only other possibility (which Benitez has experimented with before) would be to switch to a 3-5-2 which would allow us to keep the 2 sitting midfielders and have Gerrard off of 2 strikers but then Kuyt wouldn't have a spot and his names on the teamsheet before Gerrard and Torres' :p
 
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Burned_Alive said:
I think regardless of the Torres/Gerrard partnership, we need another top striker and Villa would certainly be welcome.
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We don't need 1 but it would be nice to have. It could end up being a pain in the arse though. No top striker would be willing to join if they weren't going to be a regular and finding a system to fit them all in will be difficult.

The ideal situation would be to sign somebody who can play upfront or in 1 of the wider positions in our system.
 
I really think we do if we want to mount a decent title challenge. Try as he might, Torres will not be able to play every game and we cant just go with Ngog or Voronin when that happens. As you say, someone who can play upfront and wide would be ideal, but I'll believe it when I see it!
 
Torres missed half of last season and we didn't do too bad :p

Providing we sign 1 more attacking player then we'll be ok as even if it's just a winger, we can always use Kuyt or Babel up top if Torres is out.
 
I think we seriously need another striker. Its not healthy for the squad relying on one star man so much to bag us goals throughout a match packed season (Not including Stevie ;) ) Yeah he's capable of opening up any defense but you need options throughout a season.

In my opinion Kuyt isn't upto the standard in terms of replacement while playing upfront in the league and champions league, however he's proven to be quality on the wing (proved me wrong thats for sure) and is FAR more effective in that position. And as for Babel, its not going to happen, the guy hasn't got a brain on the pitch and he doesn't play for the team at all. Really we should have looked to offload him this summer because he's simply not good enough and will always be a hit and miss type player.

Voronin is a lazy sod whose game intelligence is only effective in very certain circumstances, and Ngog while he does show promise, is again too far from the standard we need to help take the burden off Torres.

We all know how good Torres is and especially with Gerrard floating nearby, however we need versatility throughout a season and the 1 upfront thing will not always work. Thats why I feel we should have kept Crouch, I believe we would have won the league last year if we kept him. All those stubborn defensive and park-the-bus teams he would have opened up and created chances.

If by some miracle we're able to sign Villa, I'm sure Benitez would make it work.
 
BaZ87 said:
The only way we could play all 3 other them (other than playing Villa slightly out wide, which defeats the point of signing him) would be to restrict Gerrard and the one person we wouldn't want to restrict would be him. If we went into a big game (in Europe in particular) with Gerrard in the position he plays now but behind 2 strikers instead of 1 then we'd be short in midfield and get overrun. As Utd found out, it's hard enough playing the likes of Barca with 2 sitting midfielders let alone 1.
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You wouldnt have just 1 man back tho. Thats the beauty of the Diamond, the ability of the SM's to tuck in. Even if you did have 4 up, then you would still have 1 tucked in with Masch. If i had a pen & paper i could show but its relly not gonna happen on Paint is it. Too many scenerios to do - really cant be bothered.

Its the players adaption of a formation that concludes the defensive and attacking capabilities!
 
eggyoke said:
If by some miracle we're able to sign Villa, I'm sure Benitez would make it work.
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Like Keane?

As much as every Liverpool fan will disagree, I firmly believe that Benitez is a truly awful manager.

Not even going to say why because I have explained several times over the last season or two.
 
Thermaltake said:
:eek:
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He's upset because he made a plonker of himself when we signed Keane and for some reason got even more upset when Keane turned out to be rubbish for us ;)

edit: and regarding the stuff about Villa and a diamond; that would mean we'd need to play different players to what we have on either side of the diamond:
----------Gerrard
----?---------------?
----------Masch

We don't have players that could play in those positions that could tuck inside if Gerrard got caught forward.
 
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Andybtsn said:
Nice signings, Blackburn fans have something to look forward to now instead of watching Samba try and play up front
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If we'd had a fit strike force at the end of last season we wouldn't have had too :o.

With the signing of both Di Santo and Kalinic we've got a more youthful strikeforce that will hopefully provide competition for places amongst the older, more experienced players. I'm actually feeling a bit better about the new season now and as Kalinic has reportedly signed for around 6mil, we've still got 7mil to spend on cover for other areas. Hopefully a new midfielder and possibly a right back will be added before the start of the season.

Edit: Just seen an article that says he's signed for 12 million :eek: So much for hopeful additions :p.

Edit 2: Or 6.5 million, with the 5.5 mil being his wage packet over the next 4 years.
 
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