[Albion] The decimation of a top six championship first team

[HawkTheSeagull]

We needed a clearout and were getting one. The question is how we replace and build for next season.....which im not concerned about at present as we have OVER THREE months until the transfer window closes.

Times like these weed out those who are impatient. If i can wait ages for the Amex, I can wait for improvements within 3 months to be made.

 

[soistes]

Times like these weed out those who are impatient. If i can wait ages for the Amex, I can wait for improvements within 3 months to be made.

Bedwetters?

 

[Gwylan]

Yes but in the original sense (in Roman legions), decimation was execution normally undertaken by the team mates of the one in ten being culled (typically by clubbing or stoning them to death), so it still might be a tiny bit OTT for the present context.

It would be a fantastic way to build interest in the close season though ...

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Bedwetters?

If you like, I got slated the last time I used that word when i said those who were moaning about us last season when we were outside the play-offs.

 

[Icy Gull]

3


I'm actually excited about next season, we needed a clear out in all honesty. Just my opinion anyway.

Me too, it's going to be quite exciting. Will we get a decent manager and players or will we be in for a relegation battle as TB gets it wrong ( which is a possibility of course)

Half the fun of being a football fan isn't it? I think we needed a big clear out personally and although we have lost some good players, all of them had their best years behind them.

Just sad we lost Oscar before he could build his own team.

 

[soistes]

If you like, I got slated the last time I used that word when i said those who were moaning about us last season when we were outside the play-offs.

Weed out... (oh never mind)

 

[upthealbion1970]

But we already have the basis of something special - , JFK

From the grave

 

[dazzer6666]

Ward who we had on a season long loan you mean?

Yes.

 

[spanish flair]

We needed a clearout and were getting one. The question is how we replace and build for next season.....which im not concerned about at present as we have OVER THREE months until the transfer window closes.

Times like these weed out those who are impatient. If i can wait ages for the Amex, I can wait for improvements within 3 months to be made.

Yes you are correct about the three months before the closure of the window, but the thing that worries me is that any player who was in their last six months of contract (Barnes) can already have been talking to new clubs.
The fact that yet again we have lost our manager, we are losing out on possible good players, who are out of contract in June, as they are now talking to clubs now, even before their contract runs out ( Upson ). I hear from the club that we are not to worry as we have Jones and Burke still forging ahead with possible signings, which will surely lead to another season of a manager or coach ending up with the majority of the new signings not his choice. So the sooner we get the new man in and he starts talking to the scouting team, the better I will feel about our chances next season.

 

[Machiavelli]

Me too, it's going to be quite exciting. Will we get a decent manager and players or will we be in for a relegation battle as TB gets it wrong ( which is a possibility of course)

Half the fun of being a football fan isn't it? I think we needed a big clear out personally and although we have lost some good players, all of them had their best years behind them.

Just sad we lost Oscar before he could build his own team.

This. I'm upset about Oscar going, as the whole point of him was develop the team, youth and the training facility or, in short, a long-term appointment. I'm also upset that Upson and Orlandi are no longer with us, but their contracts were both up, and these things happen. With Upson, I think it wasn't just the PL opportunity, it was also the frequent change in the 18 months he was here. But, as others have said, we were only likely to get one or, at best, two more seasons out of him.
The hope is that all of this frees up a lot of wages, as Guinness Boy points out, and that the combination between Burke's data-gathering systems and the new manager's insights will bear fruit. That's a bit of a hope I grant you. But we still have a nucleus that looks like this:

Walton/Ankegren/please a new quality goalkeeper
Bruno/Calde Greer Dunk Chicksen
Ince Toko Crofts Stephens JFC
Buckley March Ulloa CMS KLL

(Apologies to those other players that I should have included.) On top of the above, we ought to have the funds to bring in a couple of others up from the DS, and sign (or get on loan) somewhere between five and eight players.
Put that way, it doesn't look so bad, but the real 'known unknown' is what the new manager can bring to it all.

 

[dazzer6666]

We don't know for sure that the new manager isn't being consulted on signings.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Yes you are correct about the three months before the closure of the window, but the thing that worries me is that any player who was in their last six months of contract (Barnes) can already have been talking to new clubs.
The fact that yet again we have lost our manager, we are losing out on possible good players, who are out of contract in June, as they are now talking to clubs now, even before their contract runs out ( Upson ). I hear from the club that we are not to worry as we have Jones and Burke still forging ahead with possible signings, which will surely lead to another season of a manager or coach ending up with the majority of the new signings not his choice. So the sooner we get the new man in and he starts talking to the scouting team, the better I will feel about our chances next season.

If players want to wait until Summer, knowing they then either have the option to talk to other clubs or get a new contract with us - then thats what they will do. Barnes was refusing to sign a new contract so he had to go. Upson was putting off signing a new contract too, along with Kooshack. We havent lost our manager, he decided to leave himself for whatever reason and is replaceable.

We are not losing out on players with THREE months left, especially when most clubs havent even started buying new players yet so have no players surplus to requirements. The manager did have choice in the signings last season, TB himself said that. Of course, the sooner a new manager is in the better though, but the current system wont change much.

Come back in a month or so, then we can see how we are. If we are manager-less then, then I would start to be concerned.

 

[Napier's Knee]

From the grave

Well spotted sir!

 

[brighton bluenose]

I remember right after Oscar left lots of people were saying we should clear out all the "dead wood" now its happening (maybe not upson) you're all panicking, WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM THE CLUB

How many in the list by the OP were 'dead wood'??!!

 

[Brixtaan]

This. I'm upset about Oscar going, as the whole point of him was develop the team, youth

Walton/Ankegren/please a new quality goalkeeper
Bruno/Calde Greer Dunk Chicksen
Ince Toko Crofts Stephens JFC
Buckley,Lua,CMS,Ulloah.

Thats a fantastic looking squad for a decimated club in the middle of a crisis. Kids only from now on and get them down to Lancing every day with a coach who understands he's here to coach, not shop. Happy days.

 

[Acker79]

Decimation means the culling of one in ten. As we've got rid of about a tenth of our players, it's fair enough to use it.

Still smacks of bed wetting though

I make it we ended the season with 30 players who had first team squad numbers. Along with the six listed above we also have lost Rodriguez, Lopez, Brezovan and Hoskins. That's 10 from 30. We've yet to hear if Ankergren, Bruno and Calderon will accept the contract offers from the club.

I think using it's technical definition, 'Decimation' is selling it short. It's been reduced by one third.

 

[spanish flair]

If players want to wait until Summer, knowing they then either have the option to talk to other clubs or get a new contract with us - then thats what they will do. Barnes was refusing to sign a new contract so he had to go. Upson was putting off signing a new contract too, along with Kooshack. We havent lost our manager, he decided to leave himself for whatever reason and is replaceable.

We are not losing out on players with THREE months left, especially when most clubs havent even started buying new players yet so have no players surplus to requirements. The manager did have choice in the signings last season, TB himself said that. Of course, the sooner a new manager is in the better though, but the current system wont change much.

Come back in a month or so, then we can see how we are. If we are manager-less then, then I would start to be concerned.

I fully understand about Barnes, PIG and Upson, but the fact is they could have all been spoken to already and they were never going to sign as in Barnes case.
So if they have been spoken to, why not the players being released out of contract from other clubs, as we did with our new signing, who again, it might be a case our new manager would not have chosen him. Of course there will be players looking for clubs, but a lot of the good ones maybe already in negotiations with new clubs and because we are managerless at this time we could again miss out.

 

[Acker79]

So, right now there's a sort of "oh, come, on, it's May, there's ages until next season" feeling.

Fine.

Will we get "Be fair, [Manager] didn't have a proper pre-season with the players, let's judge him next season" like we got with Oscar who was initially appointed just two days after players returned for pre-season (which we were told would have been medical assessments, not training days, anyway).

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

As far as I'm aware the transfer window doesn't even OPEN until June 1st.

All I'm currently looking for is a speedy managerial appointment, and news of Ankers, Calderon and Bruno signing up to new deals.

 

[Gwylan]

I think using it's technical definition, 'Decimation' is selling it short. It's been reduced by one third.

But my original point was exactly that - that decimation wasn't too strong a term to use