GRANT Hanley’s move to Newcastle United was finally confirmed yesterday and you have to say he’s a big loss for Rovers, writes Simon Garner.

He’s been at the club quite a while, he’s an international, he’s a solid player at the back and he’s going to take some replacing.

MORE TOP STORIES:

I don’t know if Owen Coyle has got anyone lined up or whether he’s going to be given money to spend from the 24-year-old’s sale.

But it’s a big loss to the club because Grant was the captain, the leader, and they’ll miss him.

You could say the £5.5m fee looks a bit low, and you would hope there might be add-ons included in the deal.

I would be looking for around £8million for him in today’s market, especially from a club like Newcastle who have got the money to throw around with parachute payments.

You can’t blame the lad for wanting to go to a big club like that. They’re set up to be a Premier League club, they have full houses every week and the fans are fanatical.

The good thing about it is it’s been done in reasonable time and hopefully the club will give Owen a good slice of the money they’ve got for Hanley so they can bring somebody in, which he’ll need to do.

Your two centre-backs are very important to his team and I don’t think he’ll want to go out and get a loan in, he’ll want somebody with experience. That is going to cost money.

Rovers are unbeaten so far in pre-season and got a 1-1 draw at Rochdale last Tuesday evening.

I don’t think the results matter too much, and playing on such a hot day will only have helped the players improve their fitness.

Danny Graham got the goal and started up front alongside Anthony Stokes for the first time.

I think Owen will have in his mind now what his starting XI is now and what formation they’re going to play.

That means the strikers should play together in the rest of the friendlies and will do a lot of work on the training ground as well.

When you play up front with another striker you develop an understanding between you; you know where the other player’s going to run to and what positions he’s going to takes up.

I had a lot of striker partners in my time and you adapt to them.

If you play with a big guy you know he’s going to win the headers and flick them on, and if you’re playing with a little guy you’re both going to be looking for the ball over the top.

You have to build an understanding up as quickly as you can., and You don’t have to be best mates, but it does helps if you get on off the pitch.