HIGHLAND NEWS 20th January 2011

UNDER-pressure Hibs boss Colin Calderwood is hoping to land Caley Thistle striker Adam Rooney on a pre-contract.

The Dubliner, who has scored 14 SPL goals this season, was in talks with the Edinburgh club yesterday (Wednesday), ICT boss Terry Butcher confirmed, although these dicussions were at an early stage.

Hibs were dumped out of the Scottish Cup by part-time Division Two side Ayr United on Tuesday and Calderwood quickly needs players to help fire them out of trouble.

This news comes as speculation that Swiss club Young Boys of Bern was poised to make an offer.

Last week, Russian club Kuban Krasnodar had a ?100,000 offer for the hitman rejected.

Butcher said: "Adam is talking to Hibs, possibly along the lines of speaking about a pre-contract, which would see him move in the summer. It's early days, however, and our full attention is on the Hamilton game this Saturday."

I'm with you Caley D.

Personally, I'm not as convinced as some of you seem to be that Rooney is off and still have a sneaky feeling he'll put pen to paper on an extension with us before the end of the season.

I would like to think so, but honestly do not have a clue one way or another !!!

Sportsound saying just now that they reckon Rooney will be gone in this window - Let's hope they're wrong

Sportsound saying just now that they reckon Rooney will be gone in this window - Let's hope they're wrong

Yeah, I've been listening to that. Slightly strange logic from Allan Preston - when Chick Young said that he reckoned Rooney would be a worthwhile signing for Rangers (not sure I agree, tbh), Preston suggested that he wouldn't be because he is a 'lone striker' and Rangers don't play that way. Maybe this betrays my ignorance of the game, but I've never thought of Rooney as somehow generically a lone striker; rather, I've always felt Rooney has been asked to play this way because of the system TB favours and because of our squad limitations. Is there any reason why Rooney couldn't play in a partnership?

I'm sure he could play in a twin role ala Wyness/Dargo although it doesn't look as if he gels too well with Sutherland when he plays up front as they seem to get in each others way IMHO

rooney/foran partnership with this new younster playing on the left?

if rooney stays on

My own view is that Rooney would score even more goals if he had a quicker more Dargoesque striker playing with him.

From the sounds of it Hibs are after a marquee signing and Rooney will be their man. Hopefully our board are playing hard ball, using Conor Sammon's recent offer from Scunthorpe as a bench mark and we get plenty cash for the guy.

Rooney has been excellent, he has that knack of scoring goals (until recently) but he is not irreplaceable. Thankfully, we are about 3 points off safety, which means Sutherland can get his chance without any major pressure on his shoulders. If he doesn't manage to get the goals to suggest he can secure a first team place we can look at targets in the summer, or even sign someone else on a pre-contract.

If we can get anything near the amount Scunthorpe offered for Sammon then we should accept the offer and move on, as we always do.

From the sounds of it Hibs are after a marquee signing and Rooney will be their man. Hopefully our board are playing hard ball, using Conor Sammon's recent offer from Scunthorpe as a bench mark and we get plenty cash for the guy.

Rooney has been excellent, he has that knack of scoring goals (until recently) but he is not irreplaceable. Thankfully, we are about 3 points off safety, which means Sutherland can get his chance without any major pressure on his shoulders. If he doesn't manage to get the goals to suggest he can secure a first team place we can look at targets in the summer, or even sign someone else on a pre-contract.

If we can get anything near the amount Scunthorpe offered for Sammon then we should accept the offer and move on, as we always do.

Rooney a marquee signing ????

The last few games have made me believe we'll survive without Rooney., the runnings there but he's barely been noticed. Whether or not recent rumours and goings on have affected these performances we'll not know, but as long as we can get a half decent replacement for him then we'll be fine, we've had and lost better strikers than him and managed with it.

It's Jonny Hayes I'm more worried about replacing when he leaves us, Terry really did unearth a gem with him.

I think Rooney will be off, and I hope he does go. If we get a striker/penalty taker as good as him in, we'l have the cash from Rooney, the cash from our sixth place finish, and a striker for next season IMVHOTIWITL|OLROFL

I think he'll still be with us till summer. We turned down a reported 100k and Hibs wont go more than that so unless some big money comes in by monday night then he's ours till season end at least. And if we were to get a european place then maybe he'll be here for longer. Still a top four possibility and a cup which is more than Hibs can achieve

He is waiting until nearly the end of the window to see who else will come in for him. He is waiting to see if he can get a better deal. The likelyhood is he is off in the transfer window.

He is waiting until nearly the end of the window to see who else will come in for him. He is waiting to see if he can get a better deal. The likelyhood is he is off in the transfer window.

Only if someone can come up with more than 100k

let Rooney go now we have lost players in the past and we are still playing well

let Rooney go now we have lost players in the past and we are still playing well

Eh? Let him go now???

let Rooney go now we have lost players in the past and we are still playing well

Have you extended the transfer window to allow this to go ahead? :blink:

let Rooney go now we have lost players in the past and we are still playing well

Why would we let him go now when Hibs didn't come in with a bid during the window ??? He's an ICT player until at least the end of the season .... And hopefully longer