Derby and Fulham bid for Dunk [+ Newcastle now interested]

[Triggaaar]

It's a myth to think we are outspent in this division.

I'm not sure I agree there. It's a myth to suggest we don't spend anything, or to suggest TB pockets any cash, but going by your figures, we clearly are outspent by some teams. Our ambition is to finish top 6, and we don't spend top 6. Note that I'm not criticising, I'm grateful for what TB does spend, I'm just pointing out that we are outspent by some.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

My point with this is that Albion would sell him lets say to Arsenal for £6million but they get no one else in to replace him by spending even half of that.
This club has a record of that and a bad one.
You would think Messers Bloom and Co would now have learnt their lessons, especially after last season.
We all fully understand that, I would assume anyway , that sometimes offers are put in by big clubs, clubs like ours can't refuse,
but if you are prepared to sell.

A: Fight tooth and nail for the RIGHT price on ougoing and incoming players.

Which i thought we have been, holding out for the right price for Ulloa and refusing to pay over the odds and meet Bristol Citys fee demand for Baldock for example.

B:Spend transfer money taken for outgoing players on the best QUALITY players you can find, subject to how much you have to spend. Don't horde the cash away and buy shite players thinking the fans won't notice, coz guess what Mr Bloom ? We do !

On paper most of the signings we made were an improvement for at least equal to what we were losing
McCourt at Celtic (as seen on the video about him posted soon after we signed him), Holla with his decent record in Holland, O'grady was great against us (we signed Noone and Barnes for a similar reason but that was in games played at a lower level than the O'grady matches) Baldock was League one's top scorer with experience of promotion from the Championship with West Ham (played 21 games when they finished 3rd) Stockdale has Premier League and Championship experience before signing

Goalkeepers Tomasz Kuszczak & Peter Brezovan were released as well as midfielder Andrea Orlandi (injury hit season, David Lopez (who was poor all season) & forwards Will Hoskins (always injured) and David Rodriguez (poor)

Ulloa was the only sold because we had received an offer that was too good to turn down and Buckley wasn't that great in his last season here and didn't want to stay but rather join Gus and Bridders at Sunderland at the earliest opportunity.

C: Don't keep waiting until a week before the season starts to sign players, and then panic and get shitey loans in.
If a particualr targeted player isn't available until then then thats fair enough.
Unfortunately this has been done every season weve been at the Amex and looks deeply unprofessional.

I doubt that was their intention, however it's not always in your hands and you can't force a player to sign earlier than they do just because you want them, they do have a say (and having to recruit for Ulloa's and Buckley's replacements was late because it wasn't clear they were going)

D: Admit when your wrong Mr Bloom, fans would have so much more respect for you if you did.
Hyypia should have been sacked by the end of December, and you know it.
However you went on national TV and said and i quote " Hopefully Sami will be with us for years to come " WTF That may have made you No 1 Mr Loyal Chairman with Hyypia
but in the eyes of Albion fans, well all the ones I know, it made you look like a total moron , who hadn't got a clue.
Had Albion been relegated this season, (and lets face it we were a " gnats baw hair away from it " as they say in Scotland)
I'm sure there would have been a few ugly and nasty scenes down at the Amex at the last home game and no one would trust you ever again.
We all know you have the best interests of Albion at heart, but this is our club too and not to be used for little power games.


My outlook on Albion is this.....

We are not a rich club, another thing we all know.
We will probably never be any better than a bottom half Premier League side.
We will never sign players for £80 million.
We will never pay players ridiculous wages like £300,000 a week
We will never have managers like Wenger or Mourhino.

Most people I imagine are happy to accept that.

RANT OVER !

We are a Championship side, with the slight possibilty of brief periods of time in the Premier League but also the possibility of playing in League 1 again. The fans were hopeful that we could become an established Championship side once we got to the Amex but didn't take it for granted, we are now an established Championship side (but one thats just had a poor season)

We are not a premier League side, maybe some people have got to stop thinking of us as one and be a bit more realistic in what we are and therefore what we should expect of our very generous owner and without him, there would be no ground and likely no club for people like you to get frustrated at for not making the play-offs due to the unsustainable losses we were running up at Withdean, plus no assests meaning administration would have been the end and we owe a great deal to people like Dick Knight and Fatboy Slim who allowed us to get to where we are now. But thats still not enough for some people - unbelievable, i know modern society has evolved into take, take, take and i want, i deserve, i need but really!!

 

[chaileyjem]

I'm not sure I agree there. It's a myth to suggest we don't spend anything, or to suggest TB pockets any cash, but going by your figures, we clearly are outspent by some teams. Our ambition is to finish top 6, and we don't spend top 6. Note that I'm not criticising, I'm grateful for what TB does spend, I'm just pointing out that we are outspent by some.

Agreed. More explanation/nuance required. We are outspent by some clubs each year . Obviously we don't have the highest wage bill in the division. These are largely clubs with parachute payments of course.

So I should have said It's a myth that we don't invest heavily in the playing side, that it's declined since 2012/13 and that as it puts us in the top 10 or thereabouts that it's not competitive.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Hughton : Sign here lad. Its for the website.
Barber: (whispers) How did we get away with that fee. [Rubs hands. Cackles.]
Bloom: All smile everyone. We really will be challenging for the top 6 this time.
Player's Agent: Hang on. Whats this on my phone. North Stand Chat ? Who's this Ernest who says we're loose.
Player: (FURIOUS) I thought you'd checked this. Look. Mr Hughton. I'm sorry Its off. The fans are bedwetters. Moaners. The lot of em. Get Leeds on the phone. (player never heard of again).

So you wouldn't find out about a new area first if you were about to move house to a different part of the country?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Agreed. More explanation/nuance required. We are outspent by some clubs each year . Obviously we don't have the highest wage bill in the division. These are largely clubs with parachute payments of course.

So I should have said It's a myth that we don't invest heavily in the playing side, that it's declined since 2012/13 and that as it puts us in the top 10 or thereabouts that it's not competitive.

It can be competitive, but there are those who think that what we are spending should make us promotion certs and even then, we still arn't spending enough and it needs to be even higher

 

[symyjym]

Add the disappointment of losing in the play-offs to our arch rivals, only to see them promoted and then survive in the Premier League.

Add the second defeat in the play-offs to Derby and the fashion of the defeat (after losing our 2 1st choice centre backs for the 2nd leg)

And so the depresssion and disappointment flooded out in the summer and left a very negative feel about the club (Garcia leaving wasn't necessarily a bad thing as the quality of entertainment of the football we played was worse than this season imo)

Yep all clubs go through cycles of rebuilding and we are in ours. I personally liked Oscar and he achieved a lot for what he had to work with. He was plagued with injuries and the 2nd Derby game exposed how weak we were in depth. The first leg was a good game but the second was a step too far.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Yep all clubs go through cycles of rebuilding and we are in ours. I personally liked Oscar and he achieved a lot for what he had to work with. He was plagued with injuries and the 2nd Derby game exposed how weak we were in depth. The first leg was a good game but the second was a step too far.

Fingers crossed we can build again and go even further next time. Some players click straight away and others may take a season or 2 (like Murray) to produce so lets hope our last lot of signings come good and are re-enforced during the summer and it's a far better season next season in terms of results and performances.

 

[chaileyjem]

So you wouldn't find out about a new area first if you were about to move house to a different part of the country?

Sorry. That was my very poor attempt at being slightly amusing.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Sorry. That was my very poor attempt at being slightly amusing.

So that wasn't the official club line... i am disappointed

 

[GT49er]

Hyypia failed to get the team performing and the squad lost confidence and belief. he quit. It certainly wasn't due to who had been sold over the last few seasons (Barnes, Bridcutt, Buckley, Ulloa........)

Oh, although it is true that Hyypia failed to get the team perforforming, I think the departure of Barnes, Bridcutt, Buckley and Ulloa might have made just a tiny bit of difference. Not to mention Upson and Ward.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Oh, although it is true that Hyypia failed to get the team perforforming, I think the departure of Barnes, Bridcutt, Buckley and Ulloa might have made just a tiny bit of difference. Not to mention Upson and Ward.

Decent players elsewhere come here and fail to recapture previous form and it's the fault of players we had who had already left the club before the new players arrived?

I suppose Kemy's failure was due to Bobby Zamora leaving? or maybe Peter Ward?

 

[GT49er]

Decent players elsewhere come here and fail to recapture previous form and it's the fault of players we had who had already left the club before the new players arrived?

I suppose Kemy's failure was due to Bobby Zamora leaving? or maybe Peter Ward?

Sometimes I agree with you. Sometimes you come up with complete twaddle! Peter Ward's leaving didn't affect the last season at all - but having better players than the ones we had (the ones listed, for instance) would made a difference.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Sometimes I agree with you. Sometimes you come up with complete twaddle! Peter Ward's leaving didn't affect the last season at all - but having better players than the ones we had (the ones listed, for instance) would made a difference.

How does a player that has already left affect a new recruits level of performance, seeing as they hadn't played with the player because they had already departed. (hence why it seems silly to suggest it and as logical as blaming Peter Wards departure)

Had that player stayed, the new recruit may still have failed to meet the recruitment teams, the fans and his own expectations for his performances. They may have not even figured and may have ended up a bench player if the old player competed for the same position, you just can't tell.


Some managers get the best from some players (Gus seemed to here with players like El-Abd) but not from others, regardless of who has been let go / sold. Given the history of our new players, i doubt the club assessed them and thoght that they were only just good enough to survive in the division (and be in the bottom 3 when Hyypia left) lets sign them, or did they think that they were good enough to still challenge for the play-offs and signed them on that basis. If it's the latter, then they clearly have underperformed.

 

[The Wizard]

'Fulham have been linked with a £750,000 bid for Dunk and need to strengthen at the back.'

**** off Fulham.

 

[spanish flair]

'Fulham have been linked with a £750,000 bid for Dunk and need to strengthen at the back.'

**** off Fulham.

Wow, that will make a hole in their parachute payments

 

[GT49er]

'Fulham have been linked with a £750,000 bid for Dunk and need to strengthen at the back.'

I know there are mixed opinions on here about how good or how not-quite-so-good young Dunk is, but an offer of £750K takes insulting to a whole new level.

 

[B.W.]

I know there are mixed opinions on here about how good or how not-quite-so-good young Dunk is, but an offer of £750K takes insulting to a whole new level.

I would say they would have to multiply that figure by 4 and we'll start talking...

 

[ThePompousPaladin]

...(hence why it seems silly to suggest it and as logical as blaming Peter Wards departure)

Ward would probably have done better than Best, albeit i reckon he's lost a bit of pace!

 

[bhawoddy]

'Fulham have been linked with a £750,000 bid for Dunk and need to strengthen at the back.'

**** off Fulham.

Looool - I just read this too. What a bunch of p..s taking.........

Should be told to never call again. Disrespectful tw..ts

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

'Fulham have been linked with a £750,000 bid for Dunk and need to strengthen at the back.'

**** off Fulham.

For that we need a 100% sell on clause