Alex Pritchard

[essbee]

Whilst I'm not a massive fan of the Premier League, that is bollocks.

Last season Aston Villa fell out of the Premier League, whilst Leicester won it and less favourable teams Like Southampton and West Ham finished above Chelsea and Liverpool. Surely all of that points to the money being pumped in making the league more open, rather than a closed shop. Bournemouth and Watford stayed up fairly comfortably last season too.

To me it points to mercenary players in the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool who don't give a sh*t about the club and care more about money.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Whilst I'm not a massive fan of the Premier League, that is bollocks.

Last season Aston Villa fell out of the Premier League, whilst Leicester won it and less favourable teams Like Southampton and West Ham finished above Chelsea and Liverpool. Surely all of that points to the money being pumped in making the league more open, rather than a closed shop. Bournemouth and Watford stayed up fairly comfortably last season too.

I'm not saying it will happen overnight, but it stands to reason that most clubs that are in the PL will stay there due largely to their slice of the new £5.1bn TV deal. Apparently the next deal is going to be worth upwards of £15bn, so they will continue to get stronger. Hence why I think the gulf between PL and Championship will get bigger.

Yes Villa went down last season, but they are spending huge amounts to try and get back there plus many people are tipping Newcastle and Norwich to go straight back up. Look at two of the three who went up last season: Burnley (straight back up after relegation) and Hull City (straight back up after relegation). Boro are the exception and it took eight years for them to get back there, but then – as I said – there is more money there now, and if they came back down again at the end of next season, I reckon they would be much better equipped to go back up.

 

[pasty]

And then there is the ridiculous amounts of money spent on players who are clearly not worth that amount. Prichard, it could be argued, is a case in point – if people think the rumoured £8 was too much and Norwich paid more...

When Chelsea are rumoured to be forking out somewhere around £75M for Lukaku, you know the world has gone mad.

 

[BensGrandad]

When Chelsea are rumoured to be forking out somewhere around £75M for Lukaku, you know the world has gone mad.

And United 100m + for Pogba. Both players having been sold by the club trying to buy them back, good business that.

 

[pishhead]

The premier league will slowly become a game of top trumps where it will be a race to collect all the good players, interspersed with the smaller teams unearthing a gem that will then get sold on for an abhorrent transfer fee.

 

[Javeaseagull]

Think we’ve played a blinder here. Showing interest in Pritchard was a smokescreen and gave the hurry up to Reading to sell us Norwood. Well done recruitment team.
As soon as anyone is mentioned in the press I always have doubts about the reasons it is public knowledge. Doesn’t stop me devouring every tit bit in Rumours and Gossip columns!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Honestly I used to like Newcastle but their fans have just been offensively smug all pre-season. It's like they forgot that their team was utter shit-house last season.

Of the three that came down its only Villa I'd like to see do well. Just not at our expense.

Newcastle fans might not be so smug after tomorrow night...I just have a feeling Fulham will get a result against them..I might take 5/2 for a draw

 

[Triggaaar]

SSN has gone from a must-have to a must-avoid nowadays.

It's been that way for a while for me. I hated it when they tried to tell me it was great that SSN would now only be for Sky Sports subscribers, and no longer a freeview channel - sorry, how is that a good thing? So I can no longer watch it in the spare room while the wife or kids watches something else? And you're telling me that's good news! And they're happy to talk about WWE, which isn't a ****ing sport, but they never talk about MMA (like the UFC) which is, because Sky doesn't cover it.

Shit channel.

 

[Sweeney Todd]

Norwich fans on their forum are boasting about stealing Pritchard from a promotion rival.

When a club steals a player from them, it is a crime and something should be done to stop such sharp practice. When they steal a player from another club, it is fine.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Think we’ve played a blinder here. Showing interest in Pritchard was a smokescreen and gave the hurry up to Reading to sell us Norwood. Well done recruitment team.
As soon as anyone is mentioned in the press I always have doubts about the reasons it is public knowledge. Doesn’t stop me devouring every tit bit in Rumours and Gossip columns!

There is no chance that the Pritchard and Norwood deals were connected in the manner you suggest. Firstly, they are entirely different players, so one would never be a second option to the other, and secondly, Norwood was training with the Albion squad yesterday morning - long before the signing was announced, and must have been sorted out long before the Pritchard deal went cold.

 

[Whitechapel]

To me it points to mercenary players in the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool who don't give a sh*t about the club and care more about money.

Really don't get that logic, if those players are only interested in money then why aren't they relaxing in China or 700k a week? Why aren't they busting a gut to win stuff, which would result in massive extra payments (bearing in mind when Chelsea won the league a couple of years ago, U-16 squad members picked up bonuses running in to the tens of thousands.)?

I'm not saying it will happen overnight, but it stands to reason that most clubs that are in the PL will stay there due largely to their slice of the new £5.1bn TV deal. Apparently the next deal is going to be worth upwards of £15bn, so they will continue to get stronger. Hence why I think the gulf between PL and Championship will get bigger.

Yes Villa went down last season, but they are spending huge amounts to try and get back there plus many people are tipping Newcastle and Norwich to go straight back up. Look at two of the three who went up last season: Burnley (straight back up after relegation) and Hull City (straight back up after relegation). Boro are the exception and it took eight years for them to get back there, but then – as I said – there is more money there now, and if they came back down again at the end of next season, I reckon they would be much better equipped to go back up.

I think it's more of a case of good recruitment being more necessary than anything else. The money in the English game means more teams can afford to pick up big name players, like Cabaye at Palace. If you do a Burnley, sign a bunch of Championship players for £3.25 and a Mars Bar then you're going to struggle. If you do a Watford, invest wisely and look for hidden gems across Europe then you have a much better chance of staying up. Relegated teams have always been some of the strongest teams in the league too, but that's true of any league. Wigan and Barnsley bounced straight back up from L1. Does that mean that the Championship is in danger of becoming a closed shop too?

I get what you're saying, but it just seems like mass hysteria for me, along the lines of when people say that football is in danger of going up its own arse, the bubble bursting and it all ending in tears etc.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Norwich fans on their forum are boasting about stealing Pritchard from a promotion rival.

When a club steals a player from them, it is a crime and something should be done to stop such sharp practice. When they steal a player from another club, it is fine.

Good sign that they think we're a promotion rival though. Many on here seem to think we'll struggle this season.

To be honest, the whole McCormack thing confuses me. I see no evidence that Norwich had a bid accepted so how can they be annoyed?

 

[Justice]

8 million plus wages is a lot just to deny us a player when we can just look at alternatives, It may have factored in the decision but I cant see any well run club doing that as the sole reason.

Its free money £10m does not mean much to them.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Think we’ve played a blinder here. Showing interest in Pritchard was a smokescreen and gave the hurry up to Reading to sell us Norwood. Well done recruitment team.
As soon as anyone is mentioned in the press I always have doubts about the reasons it is public knowledge. Doesn’t stop me devouring every tit bit in Rumours and Gossip columns!

I think you've put two and two together and made five.

I'm sure the Albion were putting together both deals simultaneously and were hoping to get both. You don't find out late at night you've missed out on one player and have a replacement deal sorted within 24 hours.

The two players are completely different.

 

[Notters]

The comments on Facebook are ridiculous - I thought it was bad on here!

 

[saafend_seagull]

Good sign that they think we're a promotion rival though. Many on here seem to think we'll struggle this season.

To be honest, the whole McCormack thing confuses me. I see no evidence that Norwich had a bid accepted so how can they be annoyed?

Many on here seem to think we'll struggle?! Did you imagine that one? I would say our first 11 is joint best in this league with Derby and Newcastle. Our squad though is nowhere near as strong as those two, or Norwich, but enough for top 6. If we bring in another centre back and a nippy striker we can compete with top two instead of top six.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Many on here seem to think we'll struggle?! Did you imagine that one?

Have you not seen the negativity in many threads this summer, league getting stronger and us not signing anyone?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Its free money £10m does not mean much to them.

Its far less than they sold Nathan Redmond for. Are they not allowed to use that money to replace him?

 

[LamieRobertson]

The comments on Facebook are ridiculous - I thought it was bad on here!

Aye I've seen a few..all looks a bit daft.
Beating Norwich on the pitch is all that matters to me now.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Ok so to sum up my thoughts on this whole debacle:

Negatives:
We've been mugged.

Positives:
We have money left for other targets.
We've avoided signing a money driven tosser.
Norwich have, allegedly, paid more than us.

General musings:
What is it about other fans from other clubs, oh lets say Boro, who spend time on Twitter taking the piss?

Positive:

Pritchard will either spend half his miserable money-grabbing life driving up the soul-annihilating M11 and A11, or give that up and move in among the six-fingered.

Negative:

His agent, who engineered the whole Narch thing after agreeing a deal with us, won't have to do the same.