Blackwell out for most of season

[Blue and White]

From lunchtime Argus:


Injury misery for Blackwell

by Mike Donovan

Injury shock: Blackwell

Albion have been rocked by a serious injury to Dean Blackwell.

The central defender has been ruled out for most of the season with a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Manager Steve Çoppell said today: "It is a very serious injury and he will be out for two-thirds of the season. It is bad news for Dean and for us.

"He overstretched himself when he came back for pre-season training. There was no contact, it was just one of those awkward things.

"Dean will undergo reconstruction on the knee to get him right. It's part of football and I'm sure he will take it and come back.

"We've agreed a new contract with him and will honour that."

Coppell has confirmed goalkeeper Dave Beasant has priced himself out of a new deal with Albion.

He said: "Dave won't be signing for financial reasons. He wasn't asking a great deal but but we have only got so much of the pie to spare.

"It's disappointing because he did a great job for us last season. He has got a lot of offers and will do a good job for anyone."

Darryl Flahavan, the former Southend goalkeeper who has been training with the Seagulls, was expected to play in last night's 5-1 friendly win against Arundel.

But Coppell said: "Michel hadn't played for so long I thought I'd give him decent time on the pitch and it wasn't worth Darryl playing for ten or 15 minutes.

"I've got something in mind but don't want to say any more at this stage."

 

[CHAPPERS]

f*** f*** f*** f*** f***

 

[Fluffster]

f*** and double f***. Even triple f***. We're now one defender down, we've still got no back-up keeper and once again we'll be paying high wages for somebody who's going to be injured for most of the season.

 

[Safeway]

"We've agreed a new contract with him and will honour that."

For f*** sake. Gutted for Blackwell and all, but can we really afford such grand gestures as this if he hasn't actually signed? He can't be on a bad whack and for him not to play until next year takes the piss a bit.

 

[pasty]

OH ITY ITY

 

[bhaexpress]

Shame but he's not signed a contract as he wasn't happy with it. Ooops !

 

[JJ McClure]

f*** it, I thought he hadn't signed up. theres a chunk of our budget gone on someone who isn't even going to be playing. Looks like we're gonna have to rely on Mr Butters to partner DC.

 

[pishhead]

why do we have to honour the agreement? What if he had been fit and another club had offered more im sure he wouldnt of stuck around. Why didnt he sign the contract he was offered originally?

 

[Trigger]

So now we need...

1 Keeper
1 Right Back
1 Centre Back
1 Right Winger
1 Left Winger
2 Strikers
Come on DK, let the moths out ya wallet

 

[Meade's Ball]

I'm all for honouring his contract. If we had a verbal agreement, then thats good enough. We can't keep complaining that football has lost its dignity and then refuse to honour something like that.

And he'll be back for the promotion run-in.

Good luck Deano.

 

[dwayne]

We are no no obligation to honour this contract and we shouldn't!!

 

[pishhead]

I agree no place for sentiment in football, sad but true

 

[Marc]

Big bad news on 2 fronts with that, would've liked to of seen Beasant stay as backup incase Kuipers falls flat, and Blackwell....well thats the real bummer and why the f*** we are still signing him on is beyond me, thats a waste of a decent wage that SC could offer to someone else. Think its time for SC to bring in some decent signings now

 

[Mr Popkins]

think virgo will do ok this season, with danny along side him to guide him he should do a good job.

cant see why we gave blackwell a contract, he dithered over signing ,in my view its a case of hard cheese! what a waste of our limited paying budget, that one more player could be the difference between us going up or staying in the 2nd div.

 

[Soton Seagull]

I presume that if he had already signed a contract we would probably have had insurance against longterm injury of some kind (maybe). As such, not signing has screwed us big style.

 

[Artois]

Very Bad News.

 

[tinx]

On th e flip side, blackwell may sign a deal now for next to nothing knowing that its that or the dole queue.

 

[pishhead]

Not at all he could get a hefty insurance payout then play for an ambituous non league outfit wen he regains full fitness as well as having a full time job if he wanted. As prove wen Scott Ramsey rejected a move to Brentford

 

[Eggman]

I'd like to see Hinshelwood given a run at centre back, he impressed me last season in his brief appearences

 

[the right footed denilson]

this is a f***ing joke!! the gezzer wasnt happy with his contract, hadnt signed- f***ing release him!!!