Dale Stephens - Press Conference

Trelford Mills Guide Dog · Feb 14, 2017

Garry Nelson's Left Foot said:
Dale, Dale, Dale, we all love you so please stay now

to the tune of pm Dawn's No no no.

If that doesn't make him want to stay nothing will.

Failing that, surely this East 17 classic will convince him we're his best option.

'Dale if you've got to go away,
I don't think,
I can take the pain,
Won't you stay another day,
Oh please don't leave us for those northern slums,
'Cause Sean Dyche is a c***,
Won't you stay another day'.

https://youtu.be/0mg7ok8dmDU

No ... ? Fair enough

Driver8 · Feb 14, 2017

cooliobhafc said:
I too believe he is off and good luck to him, he deserves the chance and this will secure him financially. However, why now, why does someone have to stir this up on the eve of a fairly important game, the sqaud focussed on tonights match. The first thing they are going to see is Dale maybe off. I think as usual from someone this is pisspot timing.

Presumably the club put him forward for the press conference and would have known the likely questions about his future.

El Presidente · Feb 14, 2017

Stat Brother said:
Who would you say those clubs were, assuming (fingers crossed) both divisions finish as they currently stand?

Beyond us and Burnley (granted that's 2 clubs) I can't quite see who'll be 'bidding war' keen for his signature.

I know NooBHA doesn't agree but I can't shake the feeling that in this squad DS is a very round peg slotted into a custom built round hole.
Making me wonder, irrespective as to his importance to the Albion, how transferable he is elsewhere, in the Premier League.

Palace were interested in him last summer, but one would hope we would be in a higher division than them next season.

NooBHA · Feb 14, 2017

Stat Brother said:
Who would you say those clubs were, assuming (fingers crossed) both divisions finish as they currently stand?

Beyond us and Burnley (granted that's 2 clubs) I can't quite see who'll be 'bidding war' keen for his signature.

I know NooBHA doesn't agree but I can't shake the feeling that in this squad DS is a very round peg slotted into a custom built round hole. Making me wonder, irrespective as to his importance to the Albion, how transferable he is elsewhere, in the Premier League.

I do agree with that - He has a set role game after game. His role at Brighton is the same week after week and he is never asked to alter it like perhaps say Kayal of Norwood. His role is get the ball, and get it distributed quickly and effectively and he does it well.

I also agree that I don't think there will be that many offers out there. Established clubs will be after better and the ones that might be ''suitors like say Middlesbrough could go down. Burnley I don't see having the same interest as they did at the start of this season but you never know, there is so much dodgy stuff goes on with Agents, there might even be an offer lined up but you could say that about any player who's contract anywhere around the world is due to expire.

I don't read anything into anything at the moment because circumstances can change in days, never mind months.

AmexRuislip · Feb 14, 2017

NooBHA said:
I don't read anything into anything at the moment because circumstances can change in days, never mind months.

This.
All the speculation is about DS moving on.
When we get promoted, why wouldn't he want to stay, it'll be a bloody marvellous place to be with the Albion, team spirit will be even better!

Lurker · Feb 14, 2017

Munchkin said:
........ I think the reluctance to let him leave for Burnley pretty much made his mind up that he was never going to sign a new contract.

I'm not sure what point you're making.
Are you suggesting that if we had let him leave for Burnley then he would now be more inclined to sign a contract with us in the summer?
You've lost me.....

I don't understand the anti-Stephens brigade.
So what that he put in a transfer request?

Football is his profession, his job, the thing he does for a living in order to care for his family.
He isn't a Brighton fan like we are, it's not an emotional attachment that he has to the club, it's purely business ... just like 95% of all professional footballers.
He had a better job offer on the table that potentially offered him untold riches, why on earth would he turn his back on that, even if he had have been a diehard Albionite!

We would all take up a big money job offer if it came along ... wouldn't we?
I know I would.
Football fans are such hypocrites sometimes.

I, for one, have been hugely impressed by Dale Stephens commitment to our cause since his transfer request disappointment.
In an era of Dimitri Payet and players like him that stamp their feet and have untold paddies until they get what they want, Dale Stephens has been a beacon of shining light.

He hasn't sulked, he has got his head down and played to the best of his ability every time selected, and I don't think anybody could argue that he has been our most influential and important midfielder by far this season.

If he goes in the summer (I hope he doesn't, but I accept he possibly will) I will applaud and thank him for what he's done for us this year, I get the feeling that an awful lot of folk on here will not be joining me, which I'm afraid says more about them than it does about Dale.

And I'm not his Dad by the way, in case you're wondering .....!

Honky Tonx · Feb 14, 2017

They speak odd, fancy Pigeons and Whippets, eat a poor diet, constantly complain, blame Margret Thatcher for everything that goes wrong in the meaningless worthless lives and are genuinely a burden on the purse string of the us honest hard working people in the South.

Albumen · Feb 14, 2017

Honky Tonx said:
They speak odd, fancy Pigeons and Whippets, eat a poor diet, constantly complain, blame Margret Thatcher for everything that goes wrong in the meaningless worthless lives and are genuinely a burden on the purse string of the us honest hard working people in the South.

That's not just the North, but she did successfully ruin them.

Sussex Nomad · Feb 14, 2017

Lurker said:
If he goes in the summer (I hope he doesn't, but I accept he possibly will) I will applaud and thank him for what he's done for us this year, I get the feeling that an awful lot of folk on here will not be joining me, which I'm afraid says more about them than it does about Dale.

I disagree, I think he will go with the majorities blessings. But just as he thinks hard and cold about his future, people here are entitled to express a hard and cold opinion.

Stat Brother · Feb 14, 2017

The Football Ramble chaps were discussing Swansea's Tom Carroll, in a manner that reminded me of Stephens.

Fair or foul?

Larry · Feb 14, 2017

He will sign a new contract his wife is loves living in this part.

lancyclaret · Feb 19, 2017

Munchkin said:
Didn't realise that. But in truth I'm sure clubs will already be sounding out players unofficially. In fact the pessimistic side of me wonders whether Burnley have already had a quiet chat around a signing on fee for when his contract expires!!!! Surely not.

I would expect Burnley to have kept in contact with Dale's agent after the August bid was rejected and the transfer request made.

lancyclaret · Feb 19, 2017

hans kraay fan club said:
And sold David Jones, and lost Dean Marney to a very long injury...

....and signed Ashley Westwood......I'm confident Dyche still wants Stephens at Turf Moor next season

Bob'n'weave · Feb 19, 2017

AmexRuislip said:
This.
All the speculation is about DS moving on.
When we get promoted, why wouldn't he want to stay, it'll be a bloody marvellous place to be with the Albion, team spirit will be even better!

This with bells on.
He will be weighing up options, as any player in his position should and come the end of the season, if we are up, the option to stay becomes a pretty good one. Why wouldn't he want to stay indeed!

Stat Brother · Feb 19, 2017

Bob'n'weave said:
This with bells on.
He will be weighing up options, as any player in his position should and come the end of the season, if we are up, the option to stay becomes a pretty good one. Why wouldn't he want to stay indeed!

If IF the Albion were to be promoted this season, this is the only club he'll be able to guarantee a Premier League starting position.

Not that we'd ever find out, but I'd love to know how this summers offers for free agent Stephens stack up.

Any of next season's championship clubs expecting top 10 finish, with designs on top 6 and then 2, ought to be crawling over broken glass to get his signature.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if more lucrative offers, for DS, come from the Championship rather than the Premier League.

Mackenzie · Feb 19, 2017

If we go up, we'd be a decent 'option' for him, he might buy into our 'project', if we don't then he's gone.

crookie · Feb 19, 2017

Stat Brother said:
If IF the Albion were to be promoted this season, this is the only club he'll be able to guarantee a Premier League starting position.

Not that we'd ever find out, but I'd love to know how this summers offers for free agent Stephens stack up.

Any of next season's championship clubs expecting top 10 finish, with designs on top 6 and then 2, ought to be crawling over broken glass to get his signature.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if more lucrative offers, for DS, come from the Championship rather than the Premier League.

You could be right but he wants to play in the PL. If that's not us next year, it will be with someone else. Zero chance he will play in the Championship next year

Hugo Rune · Feb 19, 2017

Stat Brother said:
Not that we'd ever find out, but I'd love to know how this summers offers for free agent Stephens stack up.

I'm sure any PL team after him will be able to pay a more than us. Burnley (like ourselves) seem to have a controlled salary limit so why would he go there when say a Watford or a Stoke would pay him a lot more.

However, It could be a case of how much his signing on bonus is worth. That might be a way of us keeping him by offering him £5m up front or some such ludicrous incentive.

Stat Brother · Feb 19, 2017

crookie said:
You could be right but he wants to play in the PL. If that's not us next year, it will be with someone else. Zero chance he will play in the Championship next year

Absolutely.

I guess the extension of my thought process is, and I know it sounds like crazy talk:-

'will he want to take less money to do so'?

Stat Brother · Feb 19, 2017

Hugo Rune said:
I'm sure any PL team after him will be able to pay a more than us. Burnley (like ourselves) seem to have a controlled salary limit so why would he go there when say a Watford or a Stoke would pay him a lot more.

However, It could be a case of how much his signing on bonus is worth. That might be a way of us keeping him by offering him £5m up front or some such ludicrous incentive.

As per post #137.
I'm just not seeing who from the traditional bottom half Premier League teams would want to get into a battle for his signature.

As for £5m up front, that certainly isn't happening.

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