Rovers close to fifth Portuguese signing after Etuhu joins up in Holland (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Rovers close to fifth Portuguese signing after Etuhu joins up in Holland
6:00am Saturday 4th August 2012 in Football
By Andy Cryer, Blackburn Rovers reporter
DICKSON Etuhu will join his new team-mates in Holland today after completing his move to Ewood Park – as Blackburn Rovers also close in on their fifth Portuguese signing of the summer.
Etuhu yesterday joined Rovers from Fulham in a deal worth around £1.5m, putting pen to paper on a four-year contract after passing a medical. And the Lancashire Telegraph understands that Rovers are also closing in on a deal for Sporting Lisbon midfielder Diogo Rosado.
The 22-year-old, a former Portugal under 21 international, spent last season on loan at Feirense, and underwent a medical yesterday.
Rovers are expected to complete the signing in the next couple of days, with Rosado following Portuguese compatriots Nuno Gomes, Fabio Nunes, Paulo Jorge and Edinho to Ewood this summer.
Etuhu jets out to Holland this morning to link up with the Rovers squad ahead of the second and final game of their pre-season tour against NEC Nijmegen tomorrow afternoon, kick-off 1.30pm.
The 30-year-old Nigerian international, who started his career at Manchester City, is the second Fulham player to join Rovers this summer after Danny Murphy and is expected to partner his former Cottagers team-mate in central midfield.
Rovers were in action against Go Ahead Eagles last night in their first game of their tour of Holland and Etuhu will link up with the squad today ahead of their second and final match in the country against NEC Nijmegen tomorrow afternoon, kick-off 1.30pm.
Rovers were yesterday waiting for Huddersfield Town’s response to a bid for striker Jordan Rhodes, lodged on Thursday.
It is expected to take an offer in excess of £6m to land the highly-rated 22-year-old, who netted 40 times last season, but Rovers are willing to offer a lucrative package in an attempt to stave off rival interest.
Fulham are among those thought to be interested. But Etuhu is already Rovers’ seventh signing of the summer and boss Steve Kean said: "Dickson is a player I have admired for a long time and he will be a fantastic addition to the squad.
"He is a powerhouse in midfield, who has played at the highest level with Fulham and we feel confident he will complement our other midfield options."
Etuhu featured for Fulham in the Europa League final two years ago and also previously represented Sunderland, Norwich and Preston.
He was born in the Nigerian city of Kano and has 17 caps for his country after making his debut in 2007 - although he grew up in London along with younger brother Kelvin, who plays for Barnsley.
Comments are closed on this article.

Comments (44)
6:45am Sat 4 Aug 12
The-Jerome-and-Steve-Show says...
7:03am Sat 4 Aug 12
dallydally says...
7:25am Sat 4 Aug 12
Dan11 says...
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Onto serious matters though, and that is namely, how many of these new Portugese players will actually feature in the first team other than Nuno Gomes?
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70% of a teams success is the manager anyway. So even though the squad has improved compared to the one that started last season. Kean is still there.
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Karl Pilkington OUT
Steve Kean is not a football manager.
You are aving a larf
7:53am Sat 4 Aug 12
AndyW says...
Is this why the signing was suggested and intigated completely by Murphy?
Kean in 'lies' shocker...
7:57am Sat 4 Aug 12
Tanner1983 says...
8:21am Sat 4 Aug 12
Captain Dreckley says...
Kean out
8:44am Sat 4 Aug 12
bburnrover says...
ians,Swiss,Dutch etc etc the only reason why is that Kean can speak Portugese.
Why does Shebby go along with this fiasco?How do we get rid of 5 players when Kean is fired?
9:03am Sat 4 Aug 12
jackmetickler says...
I'll bet a years mortgage that he has his greedy little mits in this.
how many Portugese players have made an impact in the Championship.
I can only think of one who has made any real impact on English Football... and he was a bit of an exception to the rule.
Time will tell.... but I seem to remember the same flannel when the south american lads turned up.... and!
9:13am Sat 4 Aug 12
Harwoodstblue says...
Why don't they make a statement as to what their thinking is behind all these Portuguese signings ?
Shebby's here to communicate. Why doesn't he say something ?
9:13am Sat 4 Aug 12
stick to football says...
Why Portugese with no experience of Championship football - like last season if you enough you might get one to succeed.
Obviously Goodwillie and Pederson will be out -scoring good goals
Roll on the new season
9:15am Sat 4 Aug 12
srvp28 says...
9:16am Sat 4 Aug 12
srvp28 says...
9:28am Sat 4 Aug 12
hasslem hasslem says...
.
a fish rots from the head down and summat smells very fishy round here.
.
i genuinely dont think this shebby sham ("words are cheap") has it in his power to dump kean - but if he does, then prehaps its best that we get a real hammering at portman road and hull give us a bl00dy nose at ewood before it is too late. i am not thinking of promotion - i am thinking of survival.
9:36am Sat 4 Aug 12
r30vrs says...
9:42am Sat 4 Aug 12
Rovers 1495 says...
9:44am Sat 4 Aug 12
givet82 says...
There is nothing new about players being foisted on a manager, even Jose Mourinho has suffered in this way. Either currently, or recently, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, West Ham and Newcastle are among Premier League clubs where signings have been made at the instigation of an owner, chairman, chief executive or director of football. On the continent the practice is commonplace.
The club provides the players, the manager coaches them. A refinement of this looks to be the future at Liverpool. The manager will request a type, such as an attacking right-back, and Damien Comolli, the director of football strategy, will either present him with a shortlist, or simply deliver one. Sometimes it works, on other occasions it does not, as Rafael Benitez made clear when he left Valencia complaining, "I wanted a sofa and they bought me a lampshade."
However, what appears to be on the cards at Blackburn is another step entirely. Their buying policy, it is claimed, will be influenced by the client list of a major agent.
So far the Premier League chiefs profess themselves unconcerned by the close relationship between Kentaro, a Swiss sports rights agency, Sports Entertainment and Media Group (SEM), a players' management agency, and Blackburn's new owners, the Indian poultry magnates Venky's. However, they will be keeping an eye on the situation.
It has been suggested Kentaro might use Blackburn as a shop window, much as Kia Joorabchian did in parking Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano at West Ham. The big difference since then is that third-party ownership has been outlawed.
Whatever Kentaro's intentions they will have been carefully planned, as the company has quickly spread its influence way beyond the small Swiss town of Wil in which it is based. It began in 2003 when two Swiss, Philipp Grothe and Philippe Huber, decided to pool their experience and contacts in the sports rights market. They soon struck broadcast deals in boxing and football but did not come to attention in England until 2005 when they arranged the friendly against Argentina in Geneva. That launched a new niche industry, staging high-profile friendlies in neutral venues with the bulk of the income realised through TV rights.
Kentaro signed agreements with the Argentine and Brazilian FAs to sell their friendlies. London and Doha have become regular venues, England playing Brazil in the latter last year. However, home fans only see Brazil and Argentina play in competitive matches, and the schedules can appear to be against the teams' interests. Before the 2006 World Cup, Brazil's preparation included a match in sub-zero temperatures in Moscow and friendlies against Lucerne and New Zealand. Tickets were sold for training sessions. Before the 2010 World Cup, they played in Zimbabwe, on a poor pitch against weak opposition. Brazil lost in the quarter-finals in both competitions.
Kentaro has also sold TV rights for the Football Association (including England and the FA Cup) and several clubs including Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, giving it a strong foothold in the UK. It agreed a "corporate partnership deal" with SEM in February last year – Kentaro already owned a Nordic agency. Its 60 staff include Jonathan Hill, previously commercial director at the FA. Emmanuel Petit, the ex-Arsenal and France midfielder, is a founding shareholder. Kentaro also provides television production, marketing and financial services. In short, Kentaro is a seriously influential and well-connected player in the football business. Quite what it will be doing at Blackburn is less obvious and Rovers fans will hope its influence proves less damaging than potentially similar ventures in Belgium and Brazil.
In 2001, Jean-Marc Guillou, founder of the successful ASEC Mimosas academy in Ivory Coast, took over Beveren. He used it as a shop window importing many Ivorians including Yaya Touré and Emmanuel Eboué. The team reached the Belgian Cup final, but of the starting XI 10 were Ivorian. After pressure from Fifa, and within Belgium, Guillou pulled out in 2007. The club were relegated soon after.
In 2004, Joorabchian bought the Brazilian club Corinthians through a company called Media Sports Investments. MSI embarked upon a transfer splash, including Tevez for a Brazilian record fee. Corinthians won the title, but most of the players belonged wholly or partly to MSI. When the relationship foundered in 2007 it emerged Corinthians only owned five of their squad. Six months later they were relegated.
Strict work-permit rules, and the ban on third-party ownership, means neither of these cases could be exactly replicated in the Premier League, but there is no rule to prevent Rovers exclusively signing SEM clients, or owners dictating transfer policy by phone from India or Switzerland. Former owner Jack Walker can never have imagined such consequences when he decided to put his hometown club back on the football map.
10:09am Sat 4 Aug 12
Gaz M says...
10:28am Sat 4 Aug 12
Gaz M says...
10:34am Sat 4 Aug 12
rankoutsider says...
o.uk/magazine/featur
es/120730/portuguese
-midfielder-who-coul
d-spark-transfer-war
-between-liverpool-a
nd-177614 interesting article from a uk source
10:55am Sat 4 Aug 12
baldie says...
Difficult to see any negatives from that article,but it isn't 11 oclock yet so we've got all day to make some up.
11:07am Sat 4 Aug 12
dangerous dave says...
As for Kean just more garbage spouted from his 'big mouth' - most of these signings wont play a part in playing for the Rovers but will be difficult to off load when Keans time comes to an end and it will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!
OUT WITH KEAN AGNEW SINGH VENKYS AND HENDRY
11:52am Sat 4 Aug 12
whittleblue says...
11:54am Sat 4 Aug 12
carlmc1 says...
I have nothing against the Portugese, but I had nothing against certain players agents, until I realised that the best interests of the clubs were not necessarily at the heart of these deals.
I have the horrible feeling that we will find some sinister goings on very soon that lead to Portugal. Maybe hidden fees, or clauses in contracts that mean the team is compromised in some way. Five Portugese players suddenly arriving in no time at all is very suspicious.
12:37pm Sat 4 Aug 12
whittleblue says...
Looks suspiciously like another one for the so called future. All very questionable.
1:04pm Sat 4 Aug 12
Londonrover24k says...
1:25pm Sat 4 Aug 12
the_iconoclast says...
ROVERS "FANS" OUT.
KEANO TID.
IF THE SHIPS BROUGHT DOWN BY THE "FANS" CAPTAIN KEAN SHOULD GO WITH IT
1:53pm Sat 4 Aug 12
Harwoodstblue says...
2:12pm Sat 4 Aug 12
Dan11 says...
2:40pm Sat 4 Aug 12
the_iconoclast says...
Anyway each to their own. The 10,000 know not what they do.
I suggest its about time kean/venkys are given their first chance. Particularly since the squad looks capable of challenging for promotion. A bit of support for a change would be huge for the side. Hostility is purely corrosive. Especially as venkys are adamant they will do the decent thing and wait for kean to get a fair crack of the whip.
2:46pm Sat 4 Aug 12
RUinsane says...
On a serious note, it looks like some super secret agent has figured that young geezers sell for peanuts and if you can establish one in the first team they can sell him for millions, just like mincing Ronaldo. A new strategy?
2:58pm Sat 4 Aug 12
MxMave says...
3:04pm Sat 4 Aug 12
Gaz M says...
4:00pm Sat 4 Aug 12
merlinrabbit says...
4:41pm Sat 4 Aug 12
Ewood-b-happy says...
4:42pm Sat 4 Aug 12
MxMave says...
4:45pm Sat 4 Aug 12
pbirty says...
4:47pm Sat 4 Aug 12
pbirty says...
5:23pm Sat 4 Aug 12
Harwoodstblue says...
6:47pm Sat 4 Aug 12
peely says...
11:35pm Sat 4 Aug 12
earwego says...
11:24am Sun 5 Aug 12
Rod of the Rovers says...
12:19pm Mon 6 Aug 12
thetop5 says...
When Rovers were relegated, I thought at least Kean would be going. My concern now would be that after a hammering in the championship and relegation to div 1, Kean would still be in change!
8:10pm Mon 6 Aug 12
bluefadingfast says...
8:16pm Mon 6 Aug 12
bluefadingfast says...