Rovers Heading For a Striker Crisis?

According to reports this week Jason Roberts is unhappy at Ewood Park due to personal reasons and is eager to move south to be nearer his family.

This, of course, follows on from the utterances of Benni McCarthy`s pining for a Champions League club (West Ham need not apply).

So, for the second consecutive summer, Mark Hughes could be forced to seriously re-think his plans should his preferred strike pairing leave for pastures new.

The club have already made a strong stance regarding Benni`s future, rebuffing all approaches for last season`s Premiership second top-goalscorer.

Chelsea has been credited with an interest with Jose Mourinho`s meddling tactics being used and recently West Ham were thought to lodge an offensive £6million bid.

Now it would appear as though Roberts is trying to hatch an escape route from our 'small town in Lancashire`. Charlton are rumoured to be sniffing around in light of these latest developments.

Roberts has been a surprisingly sought after forward this summer despite missing the majority of the last campaign through injury. Everton have been linked on numerous occasions as have Spanish sides including last years UEFA Cup winners Sevilla.

However, he himself said, at the end of the season, how happy he was and how he is going to try his utmost to convince Benni to stay. These don`t sound like the words of someone wanting to leave, unless things have changed behind the scenes.

Should he or McCarthy, or both, even leave then Hughes has some major work to do to restructure his striking options. Last summer this was the case following Craig Bellamy`s exit and the departure of fans favourite Paul Dickov. Hughes had to work hard to create a brand new strike partnership and he managed to do so, on the cheap, and with great effect last season.

However, it would be a tall order to expect this to happen again, even with the projected investment. Such disruption is detrimental to the plans for taking this club forward and we must hope that nothing materialises from both instances. Alas, where would Rovers look for new strikers, who would be interested in joining us? These are difficult questions to answer.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.