Blackburn Journals Monday 7th – Sunday 13th Aug 2006
Monday 7th August 06
Right, here we go again with another week of footballing events on and off the field?
Brett Emerton is still being linked with Middlesbrough with an expected £1million deal about to take place tomorrow?
There is talk of more conflict with our Premiership opener rivals Portsmouth. They alleged want to lock horns with us in a battle to sign Dutch defender Andre Ooijer of PSV Eindhoven. Apparently though we have met up with his agent so who knows we may bag us another defensive force. Click Here for Full Article
Our striker Shefki Kuqi is subject to a Birmingham move. Bruce wants him as Cameron Jerome has been suspended and Birmingham could do with an additional striker. With Jason Roberts, Francis Jeffers and Benni McCarthy added to our strike force, I am sure he is well down the list. Wigan might also join the chase as they don`t appear to be getting anywhere with their bid to re-sign Nathan Ellington.
Florent Sinama-Pongolle is set to join Spanish team Osasuna. Shame that as I felt he did quite well for us last season on loan but guess we got our strike force sorted.
Steven Reid has been talking about his commitment to Blackburn and how he felt he owed it to the club and the supporters to sign that new deal. He had a good season recently and is a good asset to us and it`s good that we have negotiated to keep him for another four years. He shows what loyalty is about. Click Here for Full Article
Ryan Nelsen for now is still a Rovers player. Hughes has rejected Portsmouth`s £4.7m bid for him as he wants to keep him, and has made him an improved offer.
Tuesday 8th August 06
Andre Ooijer has been reported to have assured Hughes that he will be signing for us by the end of the week. Perhaps he was attracted to the prospect of playing in Europe. He will cost us £1million and it now looks like Emerton will be heading out to Middlesbrough.
Ryan Nelsen could after all be heading to Portsmouth. Hughes would now have sufficient cover at centre-back and it could be appealing making up to £5million for a player that cost us nothing?
Steven Reid has been handed a place in the Republic of Ireland squad to face Holland. I wonder if he`ll be facing Andre Ooijer?
South African Aaron Mokoena has been offered a new three year contract and talks are supposed to be currently taking place. There is less than 12 months remaining and without a new deal he could move on for nothing.
Wednesday 9th August 06
Robbie Savage has been reflecting on the past season and admits that he needs to clean up his act. The recent campaign saw him receive his first ever red card in club football and a total of 12 yellows. I don`t feel that he is a real dirty player, perhaps just a little hasty and mistimed the odd tackle! He has also set himself another target of being on target more with an improved goals return. Click Here for Full Article
It`s good to see there have been many International call-ups for the squad with 14 representing their countries. Lucas Neill and Brett Emerton for Australia, Jason Brown for our neighbours Wales, new star Benni McCarthy and Aaron Mokoena representing South Africa, Shefki Kuqi and Peter Enckelman for Finland, Morten Gamst Pedersen for Norway and Steven Reid for Ireland. Zurab Khizanishvili will feature for Georgia and Sergio Peter of Germany and Jay McEveley of Scotland will compete at U-21`s level with Sergio winning his first call-up. Also fellow Scot Stephen Thomson will represent the U-19`s whilst Swede Martin Olsson will also compete at same level. Good luck to all you lads. Click Here for Full Article
Damn it we lost our penultimate friendly this evening against Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam 1-0. Let`s hope we can stick it to Ryan Nelsen`s Kiwi`s on Saturday in our final friendly before the big kick-off. But what about Nelsen? If fit who will he play for if at all? Click Here for Full Article
Thursday 10th August 06
We lost last night to Sparta Rotterdam 1-0 which isn`t the result we were looking for but Sparky felt it was a good workout. It appears that there were a lot of positives from the game and some of the players that do not regularly feature got a run about. We have one remaining pre-season left and let`s hope that it`s a cracker. As Hughes says, positive results are preferred but from the big kick off is when you have to get results.
Jason Brown played his first 90 minutes in goal and was reported that he did not disappoint. It is said that he pulled off a couple of stunning saves and looked very confident in goal. It`s good to see that we have a good alternative/up and coming keeper for the future.
There was news of another International call up today. David Bentley will be representing the England U21 squad in a European Championship qualifier. Bentley has scored 3 goals in his last 4 international appearances so lets hope he scores some more and brings that goalscoring form to Ewood Park this season hey!
Jerome Watt has signed for Northampton Town on non-contract terms.
The 21-year-old winger was with us until the summer but only ever really played in the reserves. He also went on loan to feeder club Cercle Brugge.
Friday 11th August 06
Our current target Andre Ooijer has been speaking of his frustration with current club PSV Eindhoven and how they will not negotiate a sensible transfer fee. He now has only one year left to run on his contract and a year ago the club were willing to let him leave to another club for ?1.5 million but want considerably more from us this season.
It`s crazy to think that he is in the final year of his contract, yet they want more for him now than when he had 2 years remaining. I guess they`re either keen to keep him or are getting greedy. Let`s hope we get him as he has a lot to offer as he is a quality international footballer, as well as being keen to work under our leader Sparky.
Saturday 12th August 06
We had a great result today against New Zealand winning 5-0. I wanted a cracker, and a cracker we got! You`ll get people “giving it all that” about the quality of New Zealand but all the same, it is a moral booster ahead of the new season. McCarthy netted twice to make it three in three games, Jason Roberts also scored two and Steven Reid was on the score sheet. Click Here for Full Article
The early signs from McCarthy are very encouraging and I did not expect any less from him as I`ve always said I think he would shine. I`m sure he will carry it over to league form.
Sunday 13th August 06
Rumour has it once again that Middlesbrough are to swoop for Brett Emerton as one of a couple of deals next week. They have been talking about it for a while now but such news has always been brushed aside as speculation with no apparent approaches. But it appears now that negotiations will advance next week as he is still to sign a new deal as Hughes had wanted. We`ll just have to watch and see what happens.
The link with Andre Ooijer is still being talked about but it appears there is a lot of uncertainty as he is preparing to return to training with PSV Eindhoven. Ooijer claims that he wants to join us but PSV claim that there has been no Rovers bid. Hopefully talks will progress as Ooijer was not scheduled and as it happens did feature for PSV against Ajax in the Dutch Super Cup today.
