This "Diarra is a Hyypia signing" thing

[AZ Gull]

Have we? Who's that then?

For [MENTION=9822]KZNSeagull[/MENTION], and anyone else who is genuinely interested in our recruitment set-up (as opposed to those who simply want to call David Burke a ****), these two recent Argus articles should be required reading:-

Ex-Fulham defender on board as Albion expand their recruitment set-up

Smart recruitment key to Albion's long-term health

 

[sir albion]

On a couple of threads Alou Diarra has been described as looking like a Hyypia signing.

I'm curious as to why people suddenly assume Burke (who signed Ulloa, Kush, Bridge, Upson, Ward, Benno, Tex Mex, Stephens, Hughes, Lingard, Al Habsi, Joe Bennett, Toko - who on paper is a fantastic signing, Bent, Stockdale - again on paper looks like a decent replacement) has nothing to do with our signings.

Okay, so Poyet or Garcia or Hyypia make them want to sign. Ok so the manager usually has contacts. Burke still negotiates a deal and does the less glamourous parts of the transfer.

Burke has handled our signings since he joined us and the last two seasons have seen us make the Playoffs. Surely he isn't that bad? And Diarra is another one of his signings?

Why do people dislike the man?! and why is he suddenly NOT involved with the signing of players.

On paper you'd think so,but that's not the case for many and the amount of useless signings are quiet incredible as most clubs tend to get one or two max per season while we get half a dozen.
I would suspect that the high calibre players were to do with poyet even though he was a tit.

 

[AZ Gull]

When people say 'not a Burke signing', they don't mean, 'Burke wasn't involved', they mean Burke didn't identify the player. Tex wasn't a Burke signing, because Hyypia organised it.

Admittedly, Teixeira could have been identified and Sammi could have just rung Gerrard to make the deal more likely, but when it was first announced the move was touted as 'Hyypia rings Gerrard to ask if there's a player that can help at Brighton'.

Perhaps Burke did identify Teixeira and Hyypia just facilitated the move.

I've posted this before, but it bears repeating:-

From the article on the official site when Teixeira was signed - TEIXEIRA JOINS FROM LIVERPOOL

It's something we have been working on for a short time, and I am pleased to be able to welcome Joao to the club.

"The reports I have seen on him are very positive and my former colleagues at Liverpool have told me he is a very bright young prospect who is held in high regard at the club at all levels.

The highlighted bit would strongly suggest that it wasn't a case of

Sami H: Hey David, let's see if we can get this kid Teixeira that I know about

but rather a case of

David B: Sami, this kid Teixeira at your old club Liverpool might be worth a look - here are the reports we have on him.

 

[KZNSeagull]

For @KZNSeagull, and anyone else who is genuinely interested in our recruitment set-up (as opposed to those who simply want to call David Burke a ****), these two recent Argus articles should be required reading:-

Ex-Fulham defender on board as Albion expand their recruitment set-up

Smart recruitment key to Albion's long-term health

Thanks very much - very interesting

 

[Pondicherry]

Is the problem Paul Winstanley then who as far as I can tell has no football background other than that he is good at Prozone which lets face it is just a dumbed down version of Football Manager. Some of the crap recent signings make more sense if we are relying on statistical analysis as our main recruitment tool rather than getting off arses and watching 4 games a week in person.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

i would rather the manager identified players that he wanted...i'm not convinced by the director of football type role at all. I think it works at big clubs where they have huge budgets and it's all 'hey, mr. manager I've just signed Cristiano Ronaldo for you....is that a problem?', but when Cristiano Ronaldo becomes Leroy Lita or whatever it seems like a bit of a waste of time signing players that the manager doesn't really want or is reluctantly agreeing to

Could it be partly that Burke is hamstrung by the manager not knowing who he wants? We know Poyet wanted Ulloa (or maybe Aranalde scouted him for Poyet), though presumably Burke did all the back room stuff such as getting his passport sorted out (Bloom said at the Seagulls over London meeting that he told Poyet to wait till January to get him, rather than signing someone else in the summer), and I take it a number of the other players we signed were wanted by him too. Garcia we were told didn't want to be involved in player recruitment, other than providing that list of unavailable or unaffordable players, and Hyypia was perhaps out of the English game for too long to know what he wanted as well as Poyet did. Burke is then left having to work out, within the budget he's been given, what player might fit in where.

That said, something clearly went wrong over the summer. We needed a replacement for Ulloa and got Colunga (who I am convinced was an insurance policy in case we didn't get Baldock), and then Baldock, meaning we have two similar players up front, and no bite (until Bent came to us). I would far rather have had one of those, plus a strong, tall player up front. As for O'Grady, I've no idea what they were thinking there.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Houlier signed him for Liverpool when SH was playing there

Diarra & Hyypia played together.

 

[AZ Gull]

Diarra & Hyypia played together.

Sort of. Diarra actually spent his three years at Liverpool on loan at three different French clubs, and never made a competitive appearance for the Reds.

 

[WhingForPresident]

On a couple of threads Alou Diarra has been described as looking like a Hyypia signing.

I'm curious as to why people suddenly assume Burke (who signed Ulloa, Kush, Bridge, Upson, Ward, Benno, Tex Mex, Stephens, Hughes, Lingard, Al Habsi, Joe Bennett, Toko - who on paper is a fantastic signing, Bent, Stockdale - again on paper looks like a decent replacement) has nothing to do with our signings.

Okay, so Poyet or Garcia or Hyypia make them want to sign. Ok so the manager usually has contacts. Burke still negotiates a deal and does the less glamourous parts of the transfer.

Burke has handled our signings since he joined us and the last two seasons have seen us make the Playoffs. Surely he isn't that bad? And Diarra is another one of his signings?

Why do people dislike the man?! and why is he suddenly NOT involved with the signing of players.

Hyypia: "He was on loan quite a lot in France during that time but pre-seasons he was with us and the beginning of the season. I think we need a midfield player but is he the one? We shall see. He didn't have a club and when I knew I immediately invited him here. I have given him an opportunity to train with us and maybe at the same time we can have a look how he is. He has trained with a personal trainer but training alone is not the same as training with the team. He will be with us this week as well and we'll see what's going to happen."

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Because people need a scapegoat.

We seem to have a LOT of scapegoats, depending on who is posting. I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that the reason we're going down was because the floor in the East Stand was painted blue in the summer