[Albion] Boulaye Dia

[blockhseagull]

I still think we might be interested if the deal is right.

Whilst other clubs are interested we might sit and wait to see what happens and if no one else shows their hand we might make a move.

We often play the long game with signings, Groß and Jahangash are ones we tracked for a long time before finally signing them and it’s clear we had some discussions with both the club and the player in the summer.

For me I still think we need a striker, Welbeck’s fitness will always be in question and Connolly is still learning.

I think Dia appeals to GP as he can play in any of those front 3 positions ... I just don’t believe we will get into a bidding war for him

 

[peterward]

I still think we might be interested if the deal is right.

Whilst other clubs are interested we might sit and wait to see what happens and if no one else shows their hand we might make a move.

We often play the long game with signings, Groß and Jahangash are ones we tracked for a long time before finally signing them and it’s clear we had some discussions with both the club and the player in the summer.

For me I still think we need a striker, Welbeck’s fitness will always be in question and Connolly is still learning.

I think Dia appeals to GP as he can play in any of those front 3 positions ... I just don’t believe we will get into a bidding war for him

We could be? and Welbeck is staying true to form and spending more time on the treatment table than on the pitch.

Our recruitment has been pretty bad, how we tracked players for so long and still got it wrong so many times, is anyones guess, but one o the biggest issues, as I see it, and it could be financially related? is our inability to ditch the deadwood and ruthlessly bin off those who rent good enough, even i that mean cutting losses.

Both Wet Ham and final day escape Villa, made minimal additions..... Villa finished 4th bottom with Grealish, new keeper, Ollie Watkins and loan for Barclay, though got Traore but he not featured consistently yet and theyre comfortably top ten, same with West Ham with minimal additions.

Difference between them and us, both ruthlessly jettisoned that which wasnt working.... Ally Samatta came from Belgiu for 10 million, flopped and hes off 6 months later, Haller came for 40 million flopped and he's binned for 20. We buy Ali J and persist with trying to polish the turd thats not good enough, we buy Locadia who flops big time and we cant get him off the books.

Theyre both bigger clubs but they seem to be better at sacking off the dross where we dont.

 

[blue-shifted]

We could be? and Welbeck is staying true to form and spending more time on the treatment table than on the pitch.

Our recruitment has been pretty bad, how we tracked players for so long and still got it wrong so many times, is anyones guess, but one o the biggest issues, as I see it, and it could be financially related? is our inability to ditch the deadwood and ruthlessly bin off those who rent good enough, even i that mean cutting losses.

Both Wet Ham and final day escape Villa, made minimal additions..... Villa finished 4th bottom with Grealish, new keeper, Ollie Watkins and loan for Barclay, though got Traore but he not featured consistently yet and theyre comfortably top ten, same with West Ham with minimal additions.

Difference between them and us, both ruthlessly jettisoned that which wasnt working.... Ally Samatta came from Belgiu for 10 million, flopped and hes off 6 months later, Haller came for 40 million flopped and he's binned for 20. We buy Ali J and persist with trying to polish the turd thats not good enough, we buy Locadia who flops big time and we cant get him off the books.

Theyre both bigger clubs but they seem to be better at sacking off the dross where we dont.

The trouble is, "the dross" as you so eloquently put it, are on long term contracts. Same as players like Bissouma and Webster. It's very hard to know how well a signing is going to work out.

I wouldn't mind betting that Villa are still paying about 80% of Samatta's wages. West Ham did manage to get a fee for Haller, but it's still an eye watering loss on what they paid for him.

The most likely scenario for Ali J or Ryan or any other players we are looking to move on is a loan, with us paying more than half of the wages. Tough to take, but that's how the economics of football are

 

[JBizzle]

We could be? and Welbeck is staying true to form and spending more time on the treatment table than on the pitch.

Our recruitment has been pretty bad, how we tracked players for so long and still got it wrong so many times, is anyones guess, but one o the biggest issues, as I see it, and it could be financially related? is our inability to ditch the deadwood and ruthlessly bin off those who rent good enough, even i that mean cutting losses.

Both Wet Ham and final day escape Villa, made minimal additions..... Villa finished 4th bottom with Grealish, new keeper, Ollie Watkins and loan for Barclay, though got Traore but he not featured consistently yet and theyre comfortably top ten, same with West Ham with minimal additions.

Difference between them and us, both ruthlessly jettisoned that which wasnt working.... Ally Samatta came from Belgiu for 10 million, flopped and hes off 6 months later, Haller came for 40 million flopped and he's binned for 20. We buy Ali J and persist with trying to polish the turd thats not good enough, we buy Locadia who flops big time and we cant get him off the books.

Theyre both bigger clubs but they seem to be better at sacking off the dross where we dont.

I don't think our recruitment has been as bad as people make out. Sure some of our big signings weren't as good as we'd hoped (Locadia, Jahanbakhsh, Bernardo being the obvious ones), but Lamptey, Webster, Ryan, Burn, Bissouma, Maupay, Trossard, Gross, Mac Allister have all been relative successes.

Grealish is a very very good standard of player, and you've seen from Palace that all you need is one game-changer to propel you up the table to safety. We have a lot of decent/good players but no game-changers, especially when Lamptey is out. No-one to build a team around.

I agree we haven't shifted out players as quickly as you'd like, but Locadia was off the books over a year ago wages wise, as was Andone and now Bernardo. Jahanbakhsh hasn't worked but I still maintain that it was a Hughton failure as much as anything, so it's not unreasonable to try and see if a more progressive manager could bring the best out of one of your record signings.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

I guess this is not gonna happen then, shame

 

[Super Steve Earle]

We could be? and Welbeck is staying true to form and spending more time on the treatment table than on the pitch.

Our recruitment has been pretty bad, how we tracked players for so long and still got it wrong so many times, is anyones guess, but one o the biggest issues, as I see it, and it could be financially related? is our inability to ditch the deadwood and ruthlessly bin off those who rent good enough, even i that mean cutting losses.

Both Wet Ham and final day escape Villa, made minimal additions..... Villa finished 4th bottom with Grealish, new keeper, Ollie Watkins and loan for Barclay, though got Traore but he not featured consistently yet and theyre comfortably top ten, same with West Ham with minimal additions.

Difference between them and us, both ruthlessly jettisoned that which wasnt working.... Ally Samatta came from Belgiu for 10 million, flopped and hes off 6 months later, Haller came for 40 million flopped and he's binned for 20. We buy Ali J and persist with trying to polish the turd thats not good enough, we buy Locadia who flops big time and we cant get him off the books.

Theyre both bigger clubs but they seem to be better at sacking off the dross where we dont.

I think Ryan might dispute that we aren't ruthless.

 

[lawros left foot]

I guess this is not gonna happen then, shame

#holdthenerve

 

[vagabond]

Lots of deals go to deadline day... always the same.

You never know.

 

[lawros left foot]

Scott Parker has said Fulham’s interest in Dia is nonsense.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

I think Ryan might dispute that we aren't ruthless.

I'm not sure about that. Ryan played 3 1/2 seasons for us before being dropped. In that time he only made about a handful of top class saves.

Does not sound ruthless to me.

 

[blue-shifted]

I'm not sure about that. Ryan played 3 1/2 seasons for us before being dropped. In that time he only made about a handful of top class saves.

Does not sound ruthless to me.

Utter bollocks.

Certainly his form tailed off badly this season and GP has done the right thing bringing Sanchez through.

But apart from that, he's been in around around the top of the players of the season vote every season he's been here.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I'm not sure about that. Ryan played 3 1/2 seasons for us before being dropped. In that time he only made about a handful of top class saves.

Does not sound ruthless to me.

The facts are that Ryan made 338 saves in 3 Prem seasons, was 3rd, 8th and 5th in terms of Most Saved Made in 2017/18 thru 2019/20.

He will be a great acquisition for a side with good, organised defenders that can already defend set pieces but maybe need a shot-stopper.

I think he was decent with players like Duffy and Murray helping out at set pieces and being called upon to make 3 saves per match helped his confidence. Now with wing-backs we defend open play much better and cut down number of efforts on goal, so less action for the keeper but more importance on the keeper to defend set pieces. For a smaller keeper like Ryan this is a problem.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

Utter bollocks.

Certainly his form tailed off badly this season and GP has done the right thing bringing Sanchez through.

But apart from that, he's been in around around the top of the players of the season vote every season he's been here.

Sorry, I can't agree with you (but I will be polite).

Ryan made saves that you would expect a prem GK to make, other than that the ball ended up in the net IMHO.

 

[portslade seagull]

I guess this is not gonna happen then, shame

Don't think there will be any striker in movement and we will be going with what we presently have

 

[albionalex]

Interesting that no club has gone in for him yet. Great scoring record, supposedly available for a modest fee (well, modest for a striker). Wonder if there is something putting clubs off.

 

[blockhseagull]

Interesting that no club has gone in for him yet. Great scoring record, supposedly available for a modest fee (well, modest for a striker). Wonder if there is something putting clubs off.

Several rumors doing the rounds in French media.

One is that he agent has advised him to sit tight till the summer as will get better offers

One French journo seems to think he is coming here in the summer, unless him and his club are “blown out of the water” by another offer.

 

[albionalex]

Reports coming out of France that West Ham and Napoli are very interested in him.

 

[blockhseagull]

Reports coming out of France that West Ham and Napoli are very interested in him.

West Ham didn’t want to pay the fee in Jan and looked elsewhere.

If the asking price has come down I could see them going back in for him.

 

[blockhseagull]

Signing for Villarreal.

€13m

 

[GT49er]

I agree we haven't shifted out players as quickly as you'd like, but Locadia was off the books over a year ago wages wise, as was Andone and now Bernardo.

I wish! They may have been out on loan (although Bernardo has finally gone for good now) but we would have still been paying a substantial part of their wages. Andone is back with us now, getting his full whack - and had Locadia's loan now ended? Are we stuck with him again until we can find someone to take him off our hands on loan and pay a bit of his wages? One thing's certain - he's still costing us thousands of pounds every week.

Jahanbakhsh hasn't worked but I still maintain that it was a Hughton failure as much as anything, so it's not unreasonable to try and see if a more progressive manager could bring the best out of one of your record signings.

There are admittedly those who think Jahanbakhsh hasn't been given a proper chance, it was Hughton's failure, now presumably Potter isn't using him properly, and we just need to keep playing him and he will suddenly come good and prove all us doubters wrong; they are deluded.