Because then they can bid and we can turn it down. We haven't had much noise from Ince himself saying he wants to leave, nor have we heard SB say he's free to leave. People have assumed that because he had a good spell at Derby that's where he wants to be, but if we can persuade him to stay, the last thing we want is Derby popping up with the fixed price and nabbing him. If, on the other hand, he has said he wants out then I assume we'll squeeze Derby for everything they have.
All this talk of transfers in and out, is Steve Bruce actually back off holiday yet, I can`t see anything happening until he is back although anything is possible.
Sorry, to be fair you just said "why let that run out if they are still supposedly after him", for some reason I thought you meant from our point of view. However, to answer that, if Ince does want to leave then Derby could wait for the agreed price deal to run out, then bid a lower amount knowing that Ince would be forcing a move away. We'd have to accept it otherwise we'd have an unhappy player on our hands and it might all get a bit pear shaped.
Lots of clubs leave transfers to the end simply because they don't want to be paying someone's wages for 8 weeks or so when they're not playing & have no revenue coming in! In any walk of life a price is defined on the timing! If Derby wanted ince now & are willing to pay in full then I think he'd have gone by now? And we have to maybe look at the possibility it was maclaren who wanted him more than Derby?
That's rather a precarious position to be in when we know the chances of some of them leaving are very high. Snodgrass is a winger, always will be. As you can see from your formation, he doesn't fit into a 3-5-2, we'll try and shoe-horn him into a position he can't play, like we do with many talented individuals. It's too early to predict the starting XI now but we all know it's going to be a 3-5-2 and my personal view is we're going to look like a midtable outfit come August.
............................McGregor ....Dawson.......Chester.......MaGuire/Bruce Elmo..Diame..Thudd...Robertson..Snodgrass ................Brady...........Aluko........................... Not a great fan of Aluko, but SB is so he will get plenty of game time this season
If we can keep our defenders, Elmo, Brady and add a couple of strikers then we'll be more then midtable I think? The fact snoddy, diame & thudd are injured could well be to our advantage come August?
Think you are right re Maclaren. We don't know if new Derby manager wants Ince - it's just assumed that because he did well there last year they are still interested
Yet you put one up and said it's a mid table team!!!!! Mine was using the players we already have, if we lose Brady, Robertson and Ince then Snodgrass would go on the wing. Until all the transfer deals have been done we don't know the starting eleven let alone the formation (chances are it'll be a 3-5-2), but he might be working closely with Phelan and coming up with different formations depending on the transfers
In response to someone posting a starting XI, I was merely pointing out that what we are more likely to see really isn't very impressive. Snodgrass would be ****e as a wing-back. He is slow and has never been tasked with defensive duties, it's far more likely Bruce will try and shoe-horn him into a midfield three as an attacking midfielder. We all know it will be a 3-5-2, and if it wasn't it would make our decision to let Rosey go even more ludicrous.
They'll probably do the fixed price thing on the final day of June. That way they will have saved wages, the other signings I think they made were Bosmans - so to prevent others signing them, they acted immediately.
I said a few weeks ago I think bruce needs to work on a 4321 system with Snodgrass diame. Ince Been the 3 attacking midfielders, add a decent striker (Rhodes with a bit of luck) and there's enough creativity and goals there to get us straight back up
we need to set up to win rather than setting up not to lose, would love Rhodes but he's on such a stupid contract PL wages and 8yrs long contract he wont be leaving Blackburn in a hurry.
Think we need to be flexible, prefer to see us line up to cause problems so we can easily change from 352 to 433 etc.... Don't think a 4321 is the answer maybe for some situations but not always, prefer to see 2 up top myself. Think we need to keep our width which has seen elmo and the likes of brady do well, just need a forward who can read them......... Think we can forget big names like Rhodes, have to be prepared for a couple of unknown games i think..... could be another Sagbo and Proschwitz coming
I don't think being on holiday for Bruce, will be too laid back, IMO he'll have his mobile phone stuck to his ear more than he will with his feet in the briny. He'll want to bounce back just as much if not more than we do, so if there's players he wants he'll be working on it. PS I'm dieing here without watching footy and without being too sexist I just can't handle watching women muck it up.
I wondered with Snodgrass being out in Portugal and Bruceys on holiday there if thats where preseason is. He'll be using his villa as a base for conducting transfers etc and sorting preseason training.
A few of the players are out in Portugal today, as Alex Bruce is getting married out there today. wonder is Steve has his phone turned on to agents today, or if Mrs Bruce has told him to turn it of
That's been mainly about Elmo, he's been given the ball a lot like he's the only attacking option at times. But if he's done so well as you say why didn't we score more and keep up?
