[Albion] Barber's Deadline Day Disappointment

[Weststander]

Errrm, so who is doing the wheeling & dealing?

The laundry lady?

 

[n1 gull]

Maybe the club have decided to follow the 'much admired' Burnley model to go down again with parachute money, regroup and bounce back up again ?

Given the potentially increasing problems of getting out of the Championship it could however be a flawed strategy !

If that is the case maybe we could at least buy some decent Championship strikers and give them ago, then worst case scenario we would be Championship ready - but that probably doesn't sell season tickets?

 

[Springal]

Maybe the club have decided to follow the 'much admired' Burnley model to go down again with parachute money, regroup and bounce back up again ?

Given the potentially increasing problems of getting out of the Championship it could however be a flawed strategy !

Burnley did that because they had a good squad and largely kept it together. Including their strikers. Murray has to go in the summer as he is to old, Hemed possibly had his head turned ?

Dunk will go but possibly replaced by Goldson. The foreign players we signed this summer? Who knows but I'm not convinced we'd keep this squad together

 

[Weststander]

Maybe the club have decided to follow the 'much admired' Burnley model to go down again with parachute money, regroup and bounce back up again ?

Given the potentially increasing problems of getting out of the Championship it could however be a flawed strategy !

But that would go against PB’s statement to the BT Sport team live last August of “STAYING IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE IS EVERYTHING”.

 

[Is it PotG?]

If that is the case maybe we could at least buy some decent Championship strikers and give them ago, then worst case scenario we would be Championship ready - but that probably doesn't sell season tickets?

I honestly believe whichever level we find ourselves next term that the ST will easily sell out again, with room to spare.

 

[n1 gull]

I honestly believe whichever level we find ourselves next term that the ST will easily sell out again, with room to spare.

True but man will there be a lot of empty seats next season, can you imagine the amount of blue seats for a midweek match against Shrewsbury on a Tuesday night in January?

 

[Stat Brother]

You really do fail to understand the frustration. We didn't land our targets in August, and some of us are prepared to believe that was in some way down to bad luck and swallowed Barber's usual novel as an apology. However, you'd think (after reviewing our fixture list) that some planning might have been done to make sure we landed a target striker in the early part of January. That hasn't happened and meanwhile we've taken 1 from 6 very winnable points (Bournemouth & WBA). This is important because it won't matter who comes in this month, we are not winning many points in April and May.

THAT is the problem here.

I completely understand the frustration, believe me, I've done my time with Chailey battling the clubs rhetoric.

My only contention is where the blame is going to end up if we're asked to swallow a 'megahyperbubblemarket' excuse on 01.02.18.

Already it seems like CH can do no wrong while everything is the fault of the mythical Recruitment Team and (as usual) Barber-Out.
Despite the simple fact the club has ALWAYS presented the Recruitment Team as being run by Bloom, Barber, Hughton & Winstanley.
If you have a problem with the recruitment they are who you have a problem with, and as I notice I said in September if they all remain in their jobs we can safely assume there is no 'blame' or the 'blame' lies at the very top.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I don't get this at all. Of course we understand there in an inflated market etc but why hasn't there been a plan B or even plan C?
If the targets whom seem to be mainly from abroad don't come in maybe we could go for targets from the Championship or lower leagues.

We need to score goals or at least have attacking options. We are a couple of injuries away from being totally screwed if we aren't already

My point isn't to say no one is to blame, my point was we don't know who is to blame. We don't know that CH isn't being steadfast in refusing to accept plan B or C because he wants to wait to see if Plan A materialises. We don't know if Plan A is there ready to be signed, but TB isn't sanctioning the spend. We don't know if the recruitment have simply failed to identify Plan B or C targets, or that PB is mismanaging the resources and not committing enough scouts to Europe or whatever. We don't know.

The evidence to refute some of the things being said, is that the recruitment team did a fine job in the summer with Ryan, Propper and Gross who have quite frankly been excellent buys at pretty much Championship level prices. Suttner has been an able LB to compete with Bong. Izquierdo, jury is out, but a young player from South America in a new country always going to be a bit of a punt, I remember Ronaldo being pretty shocking in his first season at MU, Mahrez and others also took time to properly settle into the PL, so time will tell whether smashing our record fee was worth it.

In the summer we obviously had targets, and we seemed to have been let down at the last moment like a house sale fallen through when part of the chain breaks. The heart defect never mentioned by the selling club or picked up by them, and only due to us being extremely prudent with our fitness test meant the end of that deal, and potentially may even have saved that player's life in the future.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm sure that was right, or was it 'Daydream Believer" - see I'm doubting myself now!

Cheer up.

"Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day"

 

[Chicken Run]

My point isn't to say no one is to blame, my point was we don't know who is to blame. We don't know that CH isn't being steadfast in refusing to accept plan B or C because he wants to wait to see if Plan A materialises. We don't know if Plan A is there ready to be signed, but TB isn't sanctioning the spend. We don't know if the recruitment have simply failed to identify Plan B or C targets, or that PB is mismanaging the resources and not committing enough scouts to Europe or whatever. We don't know.

The evidence to refute some of the things being said, is that the recruitment team did a fine job in the summer with Ryan, Propper and Gross who have quite frankly been excellent buys at pretty much Championship level prices. Suttner has been an able LB to compete with Bong. Izquierdo, jury is out, but a young player from South America in a new country always going to be a bit of a punt, I remember Ronaldo being pretty shocking in his first season at MU, Mahrez and others also took time to properly settle into the PL, so time will tell whether smashing our record fee was worth it.

In the summer we obviously had targets, and we seemed to have been let down at the last moment like a house sale fallen through when part of the chain breaks. The heart defect never mentioned by the selling club or picked up by them, and only due to us being extremely prudent with our fitness test meant the end of that deal, and potentially may even have saved that player's life in the future.

The only thing we know is we won’t sign anyone of interest, feel free to shove this post back down my throat on Feb 1st 2018[emoji853]

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

I don't get this at all. Of course we understand there in an inflated market etc but why hasn't there been a plan B or even plan C?
If the targets whom seem to be mainly from abroad don't come in maybe we could go for targets from the Championship or lower leagues.

We need to score goals or at least have attacking options. We are a couple of injuries away from being totally screwed if we aren't already

given it is so obvious, why do you believe it's not happening? Why do you think we are not getting the signings?. As far as I can see the Club have tried to be open about they way they are approaching things. If Plan B or C is Championship or League 1 then I can't see that they will be any better than the options we already have and we will pay well-over the odds for them. Just because we haven't got what we all really want, doesn't mean that the Club are not trying in line with constraints (sensible ones IMO) that they have talked about. It could just be that the players that will definitely upgrade our options are as yet too expensive, wage demands too high, simply don't want to play for us yet. (we are not the most attractive proposition) or stalling to see if they get a better option - ie Plan A is not yet played out. I find the sheer angst and opinion that it is just simple incompetence baffling given the performance of the Club over the last few years. TB, PB etc etc haven't put their life and soul into getting us this far to simply not bother now. However, knowing that they have the future of the Club in their hands means that they have to work to scenarios, one of which has to be what happens if we get relegated.. I can understand a debate about how much we should gamble on getting a striker, but not on the efforts to get one. I don't believe that IF we do get a striker, that is just because the team have worked harder.

 

[TSB]

Jeez this place is miserable.
Hard to imagine there wouldn’t be mass-suicide if we were bottom rather than in position to stay up.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

We are experiencing a "glitch in the matrix".

Not really looking forward to watching the hours tick by on transfer deadline day with no striker signing.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The thing is BHAFC and Bloom splashed out a lot of money in the summer, £ 40 000 000, the 6th highest in the league so it is a bit unfair to say that we have not invested. Also the thing is EVERYONE knew the fatal flaw all along was a poor strike force, ok for the championship but woefully lacking in the premiership shown by 17 in 23 games and 7 in the last 12. To miss one transfer window was careless, to miss 2 shows something is not quite right. As Simster rightly says we needed this on 1/1 ready for Bournemouth and West Brom, 2 must wins or 4 points at least, we got 1.

The issue now may well be any half decent striker is looking at our position and run in and thinking " I may be a championship player in 4 months " that must be playing a hand now

Our run in is the toughest of all. I have us at 37 points and that is being optimistic. We need new talent it may well be make or break NOW

We also need to completely change the mind set, starting Saturday, thinking " let's keep the score down and maybe hope for a shock goal " is NOT working. We cannot afford to throw 12 games home and away out of 38 games and expect to lose home and away to the top 6. That means we need 40 points from the other 26 games. We may well do but FFS let's at least give it a proper go and have 2 upfront Saturday, we have to bring in Baldock now, no choice, he has been on the naughty step too long

I simply find it hard to believe Bloom after spending £ 130 000 000 on the stadium and training facilities and a 6 year hard graft to get to the promised land and not just be " premiership ready " but premiership, just to simply fizzle out without a fight of EPIC proportions. That goes again'st everything I believe to great Man to be

 

[Gazz15]

Well said Uncle Spielberg, very well said.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Well said Uncle Spielberg, very well said.

Thanks. From the heart from a lifelong fan

 

[Weststander]

The thing is BHAFC and Bloom splashed out a lot of money in the summer, £ 40 000 000, the 6th highest in the league so it is a bit unfair to say that have not invested. Also the thing is EVERYONE knew the fatal flaw all along was a poor strike force, ok for the championship but woefully lacking in the premiership shown by 17 in 23 games and 7 in the last 12. To miss one transfer window was careless, to miss 2 shows something is not quite right. As Simster rightly says we needed this on 1/1 ready for Bournemouth and West Brom, 2 must wins or 4 points at least, we got 1.

The issue now may well be any half decent striker is looking at our position and run in and thinking " I may be a championship player in 4 months " that must be playing a hand now

Our run in is the toughest of all. I have us at 37 points and that is being optimistic. We need new talent it may well be make or break NOW

We also need to completely change the mind set, starting Saturday, thinking " let's keep the score down and maybe hope for a shock goal " is NOT working. We cannot afford to throw 12 games home and away out of 38 games and expect to lose home and away to the top 6. That means we need 40 points from the other 26 games. We may well do but FFS let's at least give it a proper go and have 2 upfront Saturday, we have to bring in Baldock now, no choice, he has been on the naught step too long

I simply find it hard to believe Bloom after spending £ 130 000 000 on the stadium and training facilities and a 6 year hard graft to get to the promised land and not just be " premiership ready " but premiership, just to simply fizzle out without a fight of EPIC proportions. That goes again'st everything I believe to great Man to be

£146m on facilities AND another £145m in bankrolling fees/wages for players in the Championship years we would otherwise not have afforded ... to ultimately get the club to only place, the PL, where TV income covers the club's huge costs.

TB's obviously a strategic planner in all aspects of his successful career, but somehow planning for and obtaining a PL squad went off the rails.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

£146m on facilities AND another £145m in bankrolling fees/wages for players in the Championship years we would otherwise not have afforded ... to ultimately get the club to only place, the PL, where TV income covers the huge costs.

TB's obviously a stragegic planner in all aspects of his successful career, but somehow planning and obtaining a PL squad went off the rails.

Still hoping Tony may have an Ace up his sleeve

 

[Weststander]

Still hoping Tony may have an Ace up his sleeve

Or two, or three.

Palace signed three proven players on the last 2 days of last January's window, which made the difference and kept them up.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Or two, or three.

Palace signed three proven players on the last 2 days of last January's window, which made the difference and kept them up.

Yes 2 or 3 may be needed