Argentine ace Formica set to stay at Rovers

7:45am Monday 14th January 2013 in Football Photograph of the Author By Andy Cryer, Blackburn Rovers reporter

NEWELL’S Old Boys have given up in their pursuit of Blackburn Rovers’ midfielder Mauro Formica after they were told the play maker was ‘not for sale’.

The Argentine outfit were keen to seal the return of their former crowd favourite – having sold him to Ewood Park for in the region of £3.5million in 2011 – but have now accepted the move will not happen.

Several other clubs in South America are also understood to be tracking the 24-year-old but Rovers are set to stay firm in their stance that he is not for sale.

New Rovers boss Michael Appleton has already been linked with a couple of potential transfer targets, including West Brom’s young midfield ace George Thorne, although it is understood the Baggies would not allow his exit, and former Ewood favourite David Bentley – currently on loan at Russian side FC Rostov from Spurs.

Appleton is set to meet with global advisor Shebby Singh for the first time today, with talks between them and managing director Derek Shaw about possible transfer targets set to be held in the next few days.

He will also face a battle to keep some of the club’s current squad, with West Ham United refusing to give up in their pursuit of Martin Olsson and a number of clubs looking at goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

Meanwhile Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston has dismissed rumours that a fall-out between him and Michael Appleton had sparked the latter’s move to Ewood Park last week.

Appleton starts work at Rovers today, having only been appointed Blackpool boss nine weeks ago, but Oyston insists a “very high offer” was his reason for quitting Bloomfield Road.

He said: “There’s no fall-out. That’s one of the more easily dismissible rumours going. We should dismiss it because it’s factually incorrect.

“Derek Shaw (Blackburn Rovers’ managing director) called me and asked for permission to speak to Michael. He’s contractually entitled to leave if he gets a better offer.

“Michael’s spoken to Blackburn and it’s a particularly good offer for him. In his shoes, most people would have done the same thing. The level of the offer was very high and I believe it’s longer term.

“Disappointment has got to be tempered with some realism – in particular, the fact that there’s so much money at stake.

“Whatever people have signed and whatever the morals involved in walking out of contracts are, you’d have to be a very robust character not to chase that sort of offer.

“It’s not a shock at all. These things happen in football pretty regularly.

“Fans follow football throughout the world and anyone who’s shocked by this is very naive, frankly.

“It’s not unheard of in football that people get better offers and move on. It’s part of the very nature of the sport that we all follow.”

Comments(14)

grimupnorth says...
7:57am Mon 14 Jan 13

Andy Cryer misses the best bit of Oystons comments

Oyston continued - "Disappointment isn`t the right way of putting it.

"It`s unfortunate we`ve become embroiled in the disaster shipwreck Blackburn have become and embroiled in their antics.

"It`s a shame the way they are being run has de-stabilised us."

as reported in many other sources this morning

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A Rover 45 years and over says...
8:23am Mon 14 Jan 13

Don't know why anybody rates this player, he's had a lot of games both Premier and Championship and done nothing.They may as well start with 10 players than pick him in the team his contribution is rubbish.

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Balti Towers says...
8:39am Mon 14 Jan 13

Formica hasnt made any impact whatsover.

Has he been playing in the right position? Who knows!

Bet hes gaggin to return home!

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lusorover says...
8:57am Mon 14 Jan 13

If Michael can get the best out of Formica, Olsson and Robinson they can be good performers and worth having at the Club but their performances will have to be greatly improved on what we have seen recently.

Olsson in particular looks like his mind is already at Upton Park and has become a liability rather than the asset he used to be.

We do have an adequate squad; I hope that the new manager can get them back to their best.

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Riverside 7 says...
9:01am Mon 14 Jan 13

Purchased for £3.5M - another very poor Steve Kean signing!

We would be lucky to get £1M for him now.

Nevertheless I would still cut our losses and get rid now and give the whole transfer fee to Appleton so he can bring someone else in.

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GAZHAY says...
9:16am Mon 14 Jan 13

lusorover wrote:
If Michael can get the best out of Formica, Olsson and Robinson they can be good performers and worth having at the Club but their performances will have to be greatly improved on what we have seen recently. Olsson in particular looks like his mind is already at Upton Park and has become a liability rather than the asset he used to be. We do have an adequate squad; I hope that the new manager can get them back to their best.
Why would we want to keep Robinson? He will be on very high wages and his performances over the past 18 months haven't been anywhere near from what we have seen from Jake Kean, he actually makes some top class saves and there is more confidence in the defence with him behind the back four.

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vicn1956 says...
10:18am Mon 14 Jan 13

"Samba's going nowhere!"

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French Rover says...
10:21am Mon 14 Jan 13

Rovers linked this morning with selling Formica to another club in Argentina? Need MA to look at Formica before we sell him unless the money we get for him is possibly paying for Bentleys wages or Blackpool's compensation for MA? Not set the world on fire during his time at Ewood.

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lusorover says...
10:33am Mon 14 Jan 13

GAZHAY wrote:
lusorover wrote:
If Michael can get the best out of Formica, Olsson and Robinson they can be good performers and worth having at the Club but their performances will have to be greatly improved on what we have seen recently. Olsson in particular looks like his mind is already at Upton Park and has become a liability rather than the asset he used to be. We do have an adequate squad; I hope that the new manager can get them back to their best.
Why would we want to keep Robinson? He will be on very high wages and his performances over the past 18 months haven't been anywhere near from what we have seen from Jake Kean, he actually makes some top class saves and there is more confidence in the defence with him behind the back four.
You need two decent keepers and I, for one, don't know how good Usai and the Polish chap are.

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LittleRonnieHildersley says...
4:09pm Mon 14 Jan 13

GAZHAY wrote:
lusorover wrote:
If Michael can get the best out of Formica, Olsson and Robinson they can be good performers and worth having at the Club but their performances will have to be greatly improved on what we have seen recently. Olsson in particular looks like his mind is already at Upton Park and has become a liability rather than the asset he used to be. We do have an adequate squad; I hope that the new manager can get them back to their best.
Why would we want to keep Robinson? He will be on very high wages and his performances over the past 18 months haven't been anywhere near from what we have seen from Jake Kean, he actually makes some top class saves and there is more confidence in the defence with him behind the back four.
Agree with that no suprise we'e conceded a lot less since he's been dropped. Kean has done well and is clarly taented, he's young and will no doubt make mistakes along the way but he's already been an improvement on Robbo. By the way much respect for robb's loyalty

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sallycinamon says...
5:48pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Olsen hasn't come on really, give me warnock in his pomp anyday

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MxMave says...
7:19pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Balti Towers wrote:
Formica hasnt made any impact whatsover.

Has he been playing in the right position? Who knows!

Bet hes gaggin to return home!
Formica hasnt made any impact? What games do you watch? He's our most creative midfielder by an absolute mile (not saying much i know). I can count probably 5 man of the match performances he's received in his quite few 90 min appearances. Black played him every single game because he saw Ruben was too unreliable, Marcus Ollson cant get a final ball in, Vucevic cant run for 90 mins, fabio nunez cant cross above 2ft high. He's surely the most rounded attacking midfielder we have, if we loose him we'll have to rely on King to up his game but i doubt his vision.

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kazluvsrovers says...
7:29pm Mon 14 Jan 13

lusorover wrote:
GAZHAY wrote:
lusorover wrote:
If Michael can get the best out of Formica, Olsson and Robinson they can be good performers and worth having at the Club but their performances will have to be greatly improved on what we have seen recently. Olsson in particular looks like his mind is already at Upton Park and has become a liability rather than the asset he used to be. We do have an adequate squad; I hope that the new manager can get them back to their best.
Why would we want to keep Robinson? He will be on very high wages and his performances over the past 18 months haven't been anywhere near from what we have seen from Jake Kean, he actually makes some top class saves and there is more confidence in the defence with him behind the back four.
You need two decent keepers and I, for one, don't know how good Usai and the Polish chap are.
The Polish goalkeeper is supposed to be very good, and I agree with
GAZHAY regarding Robinson, he had definitely gone off the boil and
couldnt even catch the ball always had to punch it out which sometimes landed at the feet of the opponents. Jake Kean for number one goalie!!!!

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dale88brfc says...
7:54pm Mon 14 Jan 13

MxMave wrote:
Balti Towers wrote:
Formica hasnt made any impact whatsover.

Has he been playing in the right position? Who knows!

Bet hes gaggin to return home!
Formica hasnt made any impact? What games do you watch? He's our most creative midfielder by an absolute mile (not saying much i know). I can count probably 5 man of the match performances he's received in his quite few 90 min appearances. Black played him every single game because he saw Ruben was too unreliable, Marcus Ollson cant get a final ball in, Vucevic cant run for 90 mins, fabio nunez cant cross above 2ft high. He's surely the most rounded attacking midfielder we have, if we loose him we'll have to rely on King to up his game but i doubt his vision.
tbh i expected more from formica. PLus he has zero pace and no strength to make up for it nunez is sickly quick even if he has to play on ground can get further up pitch more dangerous. Formica too slow for me might be better played in holding postion like pirlo to play long pass.

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