Outs
On the De Pedro side, it's a shame that the Spaniard never really established himself at Ewood. If the player had been given a run in the team, would have eventually become a fans favourite. At the beginning of the season, I believed he would be our best signing, bringing some class into the side. Undoubtedly though, our star so far has been hearty Scot Paul Dickov. The midfielder who has made his mark (no pun intended) in recent weeks has been the Norwegian midefielder we signed from Tromso, Morten Gamst Pedersen. Yes, he looks like he belongs in McFly or Busted or something, but the young man really has played a part in Rovers recent revival, four goals in four games a remarkable return.
On Ferguson however, once again Rovers fail on a finacial front in making a loss on the Scotland captain's departure. Previous departures under the Souness-lead Rovers sides were often the fault of the manager, and of course a similar thing is now happening at Newcastle, where the fans appear to be waiting for one slip-up from the Magpies boss. Craig Bellamy, Oliver Bernard, Luarent Robert and Patrick Kluivert all seem to have fallen foul of Souness. Add to that at Rovers the names Todd, Flitcroft, Cole & Yorke plus former Rangers hitman Ally McCoist, and I'm sure you'll agree that is a pretty impressive list. But of course not all of our big money players were ousted by Souness for that reason. I don't think we'll miss him too much, he was never really on top form for the team.
Grabbi (6.75m) was seen as not upto the task, as for all the lad's work it just wasn't coming off for him, and you just had to feel sorry for the boy. But Cole (8m) was after a fall out with Souness allowed to leave for nothing. His strike partner Dwight Yorke (2.1m) was also allowed to leave after seeming to have forced his way back into the team for the sum of 250,000. And there was also a nothing-to-do-with-Souness high figure transfer, that of Kevin Davies, (7.2m) who was allowed to leave for (4m) plus Egil Ostenstad. You really have to question Rovers business sense.
Ins
Let's have a gander at the filp side of the coin however and see who the new faces are.
Aaron Mokoena - The South Africa captain can play at centre-back or in central midfield. Nicknamed 'The Axe' I'm sure we can gather what we're in for!
Ryan Nelsen - The former DC United player was voted MLS player of the year twice in four seasons and was a firm favourite for the club. Nelsen can play at full back but is generally a centre mideilder. He is also international captain of New Zealand.
Robbie Savage - Just as the deal looked dead, it eventually happened bringing in our third international captain. The Welshman was keen to link up with the two Marks again and got his wish. Just like the transfer of Savage, Rovers suffered the same fate with Birmingham. We all know what we're going to get with him so I won't go into detial!