Woeful season, but potentially invaluable lessons learned for the future?

[brightn'ove]

Its entirely believable. We agreed a fee (finally) with Wolves for Ward and he'd agreed a contract. No other Champ club were in for him.
Then Burnley right at the death, came in and offered him a Premier League contract (average Champ wage 8-10K, average Prem wage 30/40K) which would have set his family up for life financially and substantially more than the club could offer. He chose the Prem Contract. What do you think Ward or the club should have done differently in the circumstances ?

Your incessant jumping to the defence of everything the club has done is incredibly boring. Ward was there for the taking all summer, we fannied around and lost him. If you think that he is earning 30-40k a week in the Premier League you are a fool.

 

[Simster]

Agree with much that has been said and put in a plea never to become Brighton and Loan Albion again.

biggest lesson for this year should be you can't build a winning team with 5 of the 11 on loan from other clubs its like putting a plaster on a stab wound.

clubs like bournemouth have shown its better to have team of good players they own who will fight for each other rather than players who know they can always walk away at the end of the season to their parent clubs

The caveat to this is that one, possibly two HIGH CLASS season-long loan signings can often work. Here, we've had Tex, Bridge, Ward etc. Two other clubs have taken Bamford and done well.

But the loan thing is a direct consequence of penny pinching, missing out on key signings, and then patching them up with other team's cast-offs, and most of the teams who loan out their crap to us because they aren't deemed good enough have nowhere our season ticket holder base.

If those players are not good enough for the likes of 12,000 Blackburn fans to watch, how is it acceptable to put them in front of 23,000 Albion season holders?

 

[KZNSeagull]

Your incessant jumping to the defence of everything the club has done is incredibly boring. Ward was there for the taking all summer, we fannied around and lost him. If you think that he is earning 30-40k a week in the Premier League you are a fool.

He was earning 20k+ a week at Wolves which is out of our league. He was there for the taking if he was willing to take a massive wage cut early in the transfer window. Wolves held out for a fee larger than we were prepared to pay and he held out for the most wages available. Shit happens.

 

[chaileyjem]

Your incessant jumping to the defence of everything the club has done is incredibly boring. Ward was there for the taking all summer, we fannied around and lost him. If you think that he is earning 30-40k a week in the Premier League you are a fool.

So in your view we should have matched the Burnley offer ?

 

[Simster]

So in your view we should have matched the Burnley offer ?

No, in his (correct) view we should have paid somewhere close to what he was worth about two months before Burnley even expressed an interest.

He's also right about your tiresome arse-licking.

 

[brightn'ove]

So in your view we should have matched the Burnley offer ?

No. We should have had it all wrapped up well before the Burnley offer. It is a recurrent pattern in our recent transfer dealings - we dick about, we lose the players.

 

[chaileyjem]

He's also right about your tiresome arse-licking.

Tiresome it definitely is.

 

[c0lz]

I think that what Bloom/Board had said publicly about SH and what was being said privately could have been very different things. Having already parted company with GP very publicly and OG very quickly, there is the possibility that BHAFC would have looked like a bad place for a manager to come to work.

It may or may not be the case, but it is certainly plausable, that TB was saying "we will support our manager through the difficult times" in public and "f*ck off Sami" in private just so that the club look like the sort of place that a manager will be supported and therefore an attractive place to come and work. Some compromise agreement including a non-disclosure clause may mean that SH and the board will always retain the public facade that SH honourably fell on his sword despite the continued support of the club... doesn't mean that it is true.

Obviously I have no idea what the truth is, but I'm happy to take all the club's public statements (both good and bad) with a pinch of salt and a healthy dose of cynicism because I believe that TB is an extremely astute business man and wouldn't jeopardise the club (and his investment) out of blind loyalty, but will offer the sort of bluff a poker player would be proud of.

Newspapers were reporting that Brighton failed to persuade Sami Hyypia to make a U-turn on his decision to quit as manager on that Monday.

 

[KZNSeagull]

No, in his (correct) view we should have paid somewhere close to what he was worth about two months before Burnley even expressed an interest.

He's also right about your tiresome arse-licking.

But can you not concede that the club were trying to get the best deal possible on a player that was overpaid at Wolves and not in demand? I can certainly understand why the club did what they did - it was a calculated gamble that only went tits up at the last minute.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Your incessant jumping to the defence of everything the club has done is incredibly boring. Ward was there for the taking all summer, we fannied around and lost him. If you think that he is earning 30-40k a week in the Premier League you are a fool.

 

[Simster]

But can you not concede that the club were trying to get the best deal possible on a player that was overpaid at Wolves and not in demand? I can certainly understand why the club did what they did - it was a calculated gamble that only went tits up at the last minute.

I can indeed concede that. However, he was the wrong player to try this with because we had no cover, certainly no-one of his class. And you also have to say that this can't be taken in isolation - we spent all summer running through our shopping list and failing to get any of them because we wouldn't pay any of them market rate. Ward was the final straw.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Very amusing. But why would the club lie about something that can so easily be proven when the accounts are released?

 

[KZNSeagull]

I can indeed concede that. However, he was the wrong player to try this with because we had no cover, certainly no-one of his class. And you also have to say that this can't be taken in isolation - we spent all summer running through our shopping list and failing to get any of them because we wouldn't pay any of them market rate. Ward was the final straw.

Fair enough. Are we in the game where we can pay the going rate for all our targets though? Perhaps the problem was that he was not one of our main targets when he should have been, as those that were (Baldock and CoG) we got without a problem.

 

[nwgull]

If you sell three of your top players and the club keep spouting the 'Premier league ready' stuff

It was a phrase quoted in one single Argus article about one of Paul Barber's internal staff edicts back in October 2013. Nothing to do with the playing side of things.

The only place where people keep spouting the Premier League Ready stuff is on this message board.

 

[Simster]

Fair enough. Are we in the game where we can pay the going rate for all our targets though? Perhaps the problem was that he was not one of our main targets when he should have been, as those that were (Baldock and CoG) we got without a problem.

All? We didn't get ANY of them last summer! And this from a relative position of strength on the pitch.

 

[father_and_son]

You could be right. I'm not sure whether it was true or NSC rumour but wasn't it hinted at that Bloom flew back to Australia with no apparent intention of sacking Hyypia and then after the resignation a week or so later flew back for the interview process for the new manager? We will probably never know in truth.

I'm sure that we will never know the truth. It was in the interests of both parties to say that Sami went honourably and that the board asked him to stay, regardless of whether that is true or not. Personally I'm happy to believe that this is a nice story to tell the children at bedtime (and the Argus) to help them sleep and reality was a bit less straight forward, but then I am a natural cynic.

 

[stss30]

It was a phrase quoted in one single Argus article about one of Paul Barber's internal staff edicts back in October 2013. Nothing to do with the playing side of things.

The only place where people keep spouting the Premier League Ready stuff is on this message board.

Hang on, didn't Bloom say this season he thought we would be in and around the top 6 and be very competitive?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I'm sure that we will never know the truth. It was in the interests of both parties to say that Sami went honourably and that the board asked him to stay, regardless of whether that is true or not.

I'm pretty sure the bit about TB flying back to Oz just before xmas and then having to fly almost straight back again is fairly easily verifiable. Much of the rest can be deduced from TB's travel schedule.

 

[nwgull]

Hang on, didn't Bloom say this season he thought we would be in and around the top 6 and be very competitive?

Yes. That's not the Premier League Ready phrase though, is it?

I'm sure he's very disappointed with the way things have turned out.

 

[KZNSeagull]

All? We didn't get ANY of them last summer! And this from a relative position of strength on the pitch.

Who was our main target then if it was not Baldock? Or Stockdale for that matter?