[Albion] Garcia's reasons for leaving (from today's Argus, per Andy Naylor)

[elwheelio]

It's a shame to hear of this but I'm pleased we are keeping a tight control on finances.

Despite the apparently small budget we are working with we have remained very competitive. I'd be far more concerned if we were gambling without any great success like Forest or spending premier league parachute payments like Reading or QPR and still not getting automatic promotion.

 

[Icy Gull]

I feel sad that we will never see the team that Oscar would have built. He did an amazing job given the circumstances which now seem to be so constraining that he must have wanted to walk away after January.

I remember Oscar on arrival saying he was looking for a project and turned better offers down to come here. One can only conclude the truth of budget constraints (presumably not what he was told before he came here) and now the news that not a single one of his targets was delivered, are perfectly reasonable reasons for him to walk away. Shocking just shocking IMO.

Difference between Oscar and Gus is that Gus was allowed to sign his targets and didn't in reality take us any further than Oscar.

 

[greenfordgull]

There are 2 issues here;
1 the budget, oscar, I assume, would have discussed this before his arrival and I therefore have little sympathy for his change of heart on this.
2 the player identification and recruitment team. If, and given our record in transfer dealings this season it seems plausible, is clunky and too slow/indecisive, the. It needs to be changed. Those who run it must act and accept accountability for the any failings.

It will be a fine line between bloom holding his nerve an his strategy of capital investment, but p&l restraint and acknowledging and acting on any shortcomings in the management of the club...

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

No money for players but the club can afford to develop a hotel at the Amex?

 

[Questions]

A coach doesn't have to sit in on the financial bits but MUST have a say in new players.

Garcia had no choice but to go. At least we know the truth straight away this time.
I understand the arguments on ffp but that doesn't explain sone of the points raised in that piece.

The slow processes is worrying.

 

[Icy Gull]

the budget, oscar, I assume, would have discussed this before his arrival and I therefore have little sympathy for his change of heart on this..

You are assuming he was told the truth about the budget, we will never know so I'm not taking sides on this.

 

[maltaseagull]

No money for players but the club can afford to develop a hotel at the Amex?

Totally different. The club can easily raise finance to build a hotel as there will be a tangible asset on completion. It may even pay for itself.
Not many player will do that!

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Exactly this. Apparently Tim Sherwood is the bookies favourite as next coach. Why would he join us if the last two managers have left under a cloud?

He has been backed again overnight, the price movement across two companies now all point to his imminent appointment

Not many unemployed turn down £1m+ a year jobs

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I hope that TB has a longer term strategy than one season at a time. I would imagine that his overall target is to manage the finances as frugally as possible until the academy starts to bring our own players through and then push on a la Southampton.

It is totally plausible that the numbers favour us remaining in the championship with a solid financial base, sort out the FFP aspect and aim for a windfall via the playoffs in the meantime.

Championship winning players cost a lot of money and don't guarantee promotion. Managers will inevitably get cheesed off with this strategy, unless they're Sean dyche, and most of them will expect control of player budget. Clearly this doesn't suit the club strategy. I therefore expect another season of bargain basement players and more moaning on here.

 

[Seasider78]

I can understand why under those circumstances Garcia would be frustrated and not want to continue but there are 2 things we need to consider here

1) the players Oscar identified were both attainable and affordable

2) the delays he talks of seem to be Burke having to sanction the transfers with bloom

Now I would guess the recruitment team are working within an existing budget and would only need blooms intervention if exceeded that or our wage structure. I would assume Grabban did both

The club clearly need to review the recruitment process but I still feel the underlying issue here is FFP and the budget available not being sufficient for the amount of development managers feel our squad needs to get out of this divisioni

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Were his requests reasonable? We don't know that. For all we know his list of targets started with Messi and then moved onto Ronaldo.

Grabban - clearly he wanted to come but couldn't agree terms. But did he get too greedy? To pluck made-up numbers, perhaps he wanted 8k/week and the club would only pay 6k. Perhaps the club decided if they were going to pay 8k/week to someone, they could do better than Grabban.

So thats understandable. And regardless, clearly there is a mess with recruitment. But Garcia inherited a fantastic squad, there wasn't much needed doing, and Ward to replace Bridge and Andrews to replace Hammond were perfectly fine deals to start the season off. The fact he couldn't sign who he wanted is being used somewhat as a smokescreen to hide the fact he couldn't do more with what he had available.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

I hope that TB has a longer term strategy than one season at a time. I would imagine that his overall target is to manage the finances as frugally as possible until the academy starts to bring our own players through and then push on a la Southampton.

It is totally plausible that the numbers favour us remaining in the championship with a solid financial base, sort out the FFP aspect and aim for a windfall via the playoffs in the meantime.

Championship winning players cost a lot of money and don't guarantee promotion. Managers will inevitably get cheesed off with this strategy, unless they're Sean dyche, and most of them will expect control of player budget. Clearly this doesn't suit the club strategy. I therefore expect another season of bargain basement players and more moaning on here.

Re your first para the club have clearly read the Vegas book on the way forward in business :

Test, Learn, Enhance

Rome wasn't built in a day

 

[somerset]

It makes sense now why OG never smiled,.............

 

[Vegas Seagull]

I can understand why under those circumstances Garcia would be frustrated and not want to continue but there are 2 things we need to consider here

1) the players Oscar identified were both attainable and affordable

2) the delays he talks of seem to be Burke having to sanction the transfers with bloom

Now I would guess the recruitment team are working within an existing budget and would only need blooms intervention if exceeded that or our wage structure. I would assume Grabban did both

The club clearly need to review the recruitment process but I still feel the underlying issue here is FFP and the budget available not being sufficient for the amount of development managers feel our squad needs to get out of this divisioni

Conducting January transfer dealings at 5pm with the person signing off the deal asleep at 5am the other side of the World is clearly not ideal and proved a deal breaker

 

[Icy Gull]

Were his requests reasonable? We don't know that. For all we know his list of targets started with Messi and then moved onto Ronaldo.

Grabban - clearly he wanted to come but couldn't agree terms. But did he get too greedy? To pluck made-up numbers, perhaps he wanted 8k/week and the club would only pay 6k. Perhaps the club decided if they were going to pay 8k/week to someone, they could do better than Grabban.

So thats understandable. And regardless, clearly there is a mess with recruitment. But Garcia inherited a fantastic squad, there wasn't much needed doing, and Ward to replace Bridge and Andrews to replace Hammond were perfectly fine deals to start the season off. The fact he couldn't sign who he wanted is being used somewhat as a smokescreen to hide the fact he couldn't do more with what he had available.

We ended up with three points less than last season but don't let that stop you suggesting Garcia underachieved with someone else's squad. Poyet signed the players he wanted and probably spent the budget that was supplied to get us to the Premier league leaving nothing for the incoming manager after Gus had failed to get us promoted. I'd love to see what Oscar could have achieved given the same ability to sign who he wanted.

 

[willyfantastic]

Were his requests reasonable? We don't know that. For all we know his list of targets started with Messi and then moved onto Ronaldo.

Grabban - clearly he wanted to come but couldn't agree terms. But did he get too greedy? To pluck made-up numbers, perhaps he wanted 8k/week and the club would only pay 6k. Perhaps the club decided if they were going to pay 8k/week to someone, they could do better than Grabban.

So thats understandable. And regardless, clearly there is a mess with recruitment. But Garcia inherited a fantastic squad, there wasn't much needed doing, and Ward to replace Bridge and Andrews to replace Hammond were perfectly fine deals to start the season off. The fact he couldn't sign who he wanted is being used somewhat as a smokescreen to hide the fact he couldn't do more with what he had available.

i would have thought grabban was ready to sign. brighton took too long to finalise it, whilst bournemouth realised they didnt want to lose him and offered a decent contract - grabban waited and when nothing came, signed with bournemouth. just a guess, but it could make sense......

 

[Guinness Boy]

I agree there are two completely separate issues here.

The first is the budget. It cannot and should not be broken, not just because of FFP but because doing so is an unsustainable way to run anything. On this the club have my backing and it's something we need to get used to.

The second issue is how that budget is used and (once again) the club's communications around this. Clearly neither David Burke nor Oscar had the final say on transfers despite Burke going on record with his own job description and stating that Oscar has final say. This needs addressing and now. I wouldn't be rushing to take the job at the moment and I can completely understand why Oscar left.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I feel sad that we will never see the team that Oscar would have built. He did an amazing job given the circumstances which now seem to be so constraining that he must have wanted to walk away after January.

I remember Oscar on arrival saying he was looking for a project and turned better offers down to come here. One can only conclude the truth of budget constraints (presumably not what he was told before he came here) and now the news that not a single one of his targets was delivered, are perfectly reasonable reasons for him to walk away. Shocking just shocking IMO.

Difference between Oscar and Gus is that Gus was allowed to sign his targets and didn't in reality take us any further than Oscar.

I'm more concerned about player recruitment wasting the budgets. Gus had players brought in that he didn't want and it seems that Oscar didn't get one player from his list.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

If correct and unless the set up changes, the club are going to find it hard to attract another young, ambitious Manager. This leaves us with those at the tail end of their careers who are prepared to have a go with what we've already got and future signings that Burke identifies as being within our budgetary constraints.

 

[somerset]

The fact he couldn't sign who he wanted is being used somewhat as a smokescreen to hide the fact he couldn't do more with what he had available.

Technically correct, but bear in mind that for the first half of the season we were sometimes carrying 7 1st choice players on the treatment table,.... without that burden I am sure that OG would have got us into a better position than we ended up, and better performances.