Albion reject "final" Leicester bid for Ulloa

[Icy Gull]

Just got a feeling we'll persuade him to stay another year. Hope so anyway.

It is encouraging that as far as we are aware that he hasn't thrown a strop and "done a Bridcutt"..yet.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Which part of we wont take less than £10m do Leicester not understand?

They are tight fisted skinflints.

 

[Stat Brother]

Maybe it wasn't the final bid? Argus thinks a new bid is likely.

It's only the final bid when they've bought someone else or the calendar rolls over to 01.09.14.

Leicester are paying the price for their £120m war-chest comment, upon promotion.
Not to mention sitting around the table with a man who positively thrives on brinkmanship and bluffing.

 

[Insel affe]

Which part of we wont take less than £10m do Leicester not understand?

Do you blame any club for trying to get a player cheaper than his value, we have done and will do...

Its all a game, we will sell him for around 8m, and that is a good deal for everyone including the player, at the end of the day he has to think of himself and lets also face it the chances of us going up are slim, why should he stay just to finish just outside or even in the play offs he owes us nothing, thanks and goodbye.

 

[Icy Gull]

Which part of 'we wont take less than £10m' do Leicester not understand?

Probably the part where we will accept less, which is almost certain I imagine. The are just trying to find out how much less.

 

[British Bulldog]

Lingard and Rodriguez?

Both short term options that are no longer here.

 

[Rugrat]

I think there is a game of brinkmanship going on between the Championship clubs and the players. Very few clubs have spent any real money bar the usual suspects, the ones with parachute payments and high value players sold and the few who don't care. Everyone else even if they have brought a few players in, it's been Bosmans or on free's.

Towards the start of the season, players wage demands will fall and you will see a flurry of signings, not just by us, but by most of the teams in this league...

I'd go along with that and also add that it will be that way ad infinitum, other than the times when a big sale allows a little more flexibility. I think we will remain amongst the favourites from the pack without parachutes and if that gives us a reasonable shot at the play offs then that's fine by me

 

[Triggaaar]

If bids under 9m won't be entertained or refused, what will happen to them?

They would just sit there, gathering dust.

Which part of 'we wont take less than £10m' do Leicester not understand?

"Won't"

Both short term options that are no longer here.

We may still have Lingard next season. We replaced Barnes for the games we had last season, and I'd expect us to have a replacement for him this coming season too.

 

[Rookie]

Both short term options that are no longer here.

So they have yet to be replaced and not Barnes.

 

[Acker79]

Saying we replaced Barnes with Rodriguez is like saying we replaced Murray with Sam Vokes. Barnes got 6 goals and 4 assists in the first half of the season, no one we brought in, not even Lingard, matched that. He wasn't adequately replaced.

 

[Return of the Rev]

£8 million should do it

 

[Spadge]

Can you explain where the money is supposed to come from for this investments bearing in mind the constraints of FFP or are you choosing to ignore that? Assuming FFP sanctions are applied from January as is the intention, if we exceeded the allowed parameters, people like you wouldn't have to worry about transfer windows because, one the basis we might not have got promoted despite spunking millions on players, we would have a transfer embargo, not only for that January window but for every window after that until our accounts are back in order! It is unfair that some clubs have parachute payments but that is the hand we are currently being dealt.

Errrr just maybe the Transfer fees we got for:

Stephen Dobbie
Liam Bridcutt
Ashley Barnes
Adam El Abd

One would assume we didn't sell these players to use all the money on wages for loan signings.

I would imagine Aaron Hughes is on a fairly hefty wage compared to the squad average but he will have no sell on value.

If the club is going to be sustainable then they need to sign younger players on longer contracts so that they have a sell on fee and don't walk away for free.

Example: CMS can walk for free at the end of this season, if that happened then the club would have made an horrendous mistake after paying out £2 million+ and wages for his services.

Are we saying that 23000 season tickets at an average price of £50 per month gives a revenue just short of £14 million per year then the extra match day revenue, sponsorship does not cover the costs of the club? Plus the fact we have reduced the wage cost of the playing staff by releasing/selling the following over the last 16 months.

Vicente
Stephen Dobbie
Anton Rodgers
Ryan Harley
Torbjorn Agdestien
Marcos Painter
Gary Dicker
George Barker
Ashley Barnes
Adam El Abd
Ben Sampayo
Liam Bridcutt
Yaser Kasim
Daniel East
Cahrlie Oatway Jnr
Thomas Kuszczak
David Rodriguez
Will Hoskins
Peter Brezovan
Andrea Orlandi
David Lopez
Matthew Upson
Ben Dickinson


The facts are the money is not being invested back in the team!

We have signed:
Nzuzi Toko
Aaron Hughes
Rohan Ince
Adam Chicksen
Kemy Augestien
Jeffrey Monakana
Dale Stephans


How much was spent on fees there and do their wages outweigh what we have already released/sold?

Something in our club is not right.

 

[British Bulldog]

So they have yet to be replaced and not Barnes.

A short term loan and a player on nothing more than a paid trial are not what I would call replacements for a striker that was here for nearly 4 years, but which ever way you look at it we're still short of strikers.

 

[Silverhatch]

What's not right is that we are making unacceptable losses as is the whole of football. It appears that our club's owner and directors are trying to do something about it by slashing operating costs while trying to keep a 'competitive' squad on the pitch, and investing really heavily in long-term player development via a state of the art academy.

I get the feeling that we're really going to give some of our young players a go this season and build a Southampton type (production line of talent) reputation. A way to accelerate that is to have young & talented players in your team let alone squad. More young players with a pathway to the first team (and beyond to the PL) will attract/produce more talented players. It's self-sustaining if done properly.

 

[Hotchilidog]

The facts are the money is not being invested back in the team!

We have signed:
Nzuzi Toko
Aaron Hughes
Rohan Ince
Adam Chicksen
Kemy Augestien
Jeffrey Monakana
Dale Stephans


How much was spent on fees there and do their wages outweigh what we have already released/sold?

Something in our club is not right.

The vastly increased wage bill would suggest that we ARE investing the team. What part of things are tight and you have to get the best deal you can do you not understand. The non-playing side of the club is being cutback as far it can to free up money for the playing budget. I'd suspect (but do not know for sure) that we will be looking to sound the majority of that budget on wages rather than fees. In the last few seasons we have done most of our deals late on and sadly for us information starved fans this year is unlikely to be too different.

The squad is shaping up, quite nicely with the addition of Hughes and Toko, the renewed CMS and the emergence of Fenelon as potential gatecrasher to the first team squad. The only major position I can see us filling early is a first-choice goalkeeper which seems to be the priority. As long as we keep Ulloa we are ok for now up front, although a further addition is needed it is not currently urgent.

Once again I'd also like to point out that we have indeed made the playoffs two seasons in row using our current business practice and I see no reason to think we cannot give it another shot this year too.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

£8 million should do it

What is the point of accepting £8M when the club is holding out for £10M ? It only sends out a signal to all other clubs that they can pick up our players on the cheap because we don't stick to our guns. Do you think Leeds United would have caved in and taken £6M for McCormack ?

 

[Napper]

If bids under 9m won't be entertained or refused, what will happen to them?

Should be like a vending machine when you dont insert enough money.

Just gets spat back out with no explanation

 

[Notters]

Something in our club is not right.

Something in our fans is not right.

I can't believe people are still saying this. People like [MENTION=31]El Presidente[/MENTION] spend a great amount of time and effort explaining how it all works and people come along and question the club that we all (?) love.

This has been explained sooooo many times. The wage bill is astronomical and you're not taking into account all the other costs. VAT alone takes your 14 million figure down to 11.5 million. Then you've got other taxes, security, FA/FL fees, stadium maintenance, etc. etc. The problem is football as a whole, which is eating itself. Not the Albion. We are in the safest possible hands.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

Should be like a vending machine when you dont insert enough money.

Just gets spat back out with no explanation

Yep

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Errrr just maybe the Transfer fees we got for:

Stephen Dobbie
Liam Bridcutt
Ashley Barnes
Adam El Abd

One would assume we didn't sell these players to use all the money on wages for loan signings.

I would imagine Aaron Hughes is on a fairly hefty wage compared to the squad average but he will have no sell on value.

If the club is going to be sustainable then they need to sign younger players on longer contracts so that they have a sell on fee and don't walk away for free.

Example: CMS can walk for free at the end of this season, if that happened then the club would have made an horrendous mistake after paying out £2 million+ and wages for his services.

Are we saying that 23000 season tickets at an average price of £50 per month gives a revenue just short of £14 million per year then the extra match day revenue, sponsorship does not cover the costs of the club? Plus the fact we have reduced the wage cost of the playing staff by releasing/selling the following over the last 16 months.

Vicente
Stephen Dobbie
Anton Rodgers
Ryan Harley
Torbjorn Agdestien
Marcos Painter
Gary Dicker
George Barker
Ashley Barnes
Adam El Abd
Ben Sampayo
Liam Bridcutt
Yaser Kasim
Daniel East
Cahrlie Oatway Jnr
Thomas Kuszczak
David Rodriguez
Will Hoskins
Peter Brezovan
Andrea Orlandi
David Lopez
Matthew Upson
Ben Dickinson


The facts are the money is not being invested back in the team!

We have signed:
Nzuzi Toko
Aaron Hughes
Rohan Ince
Adam Chicksen
Kemy Augestien
Jeffrey Monakana
Dale Stephans


How much was spent on fees there and do their wages outweigh what we have already released/sold?

Something in our club is not right.

For the 25th time, any money we received last year has gone. Finished. Kaput. Whilst we may have the money in the bank, as far as FFP is concerned, that reduced our losses last year. You don't get a lottery style rollover and are allowed to spend last year's money this year. Last year we were allowed to break even with the owner subsidising £8m losses. This year it is just £5m. So we can spend less this year, not more. The only bit I'm not sure about is future payments we are due from these transfers - if indeed there were any. But anything we have received in the last financial year has gone as far as FFP is concerned.