[Albion] Alexis Mac Allister - *** New Contract Until 2025 ***

[b.w.2.]

I know because of what I overheard on a Gatwick Express train post Crystal Palace. I was sat in the front carriage and at Gatwick a party of six got on chaperoned by a club official (he was wearing a club tie and spoke of collecting his car from Camden at the Starlizard offices) with delegates from a Canadian NHL franchise, some other European football bigwigs (they were accented but not clearly definable so could have been Flemish, Belgian, possibly Eastern French (think Alsace etc)) and proceeded to have a very indiscreet conversation about the nature of the differences between both European football transfers v the NHL draft system and cited the transfer of Tau specifically as purely being a business transaction good for all parties....

So they didn’t know...


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[b.w.2.]

You have been paying absolutely no attention, whatsoever.


Wow.

You’re right. It is all BS. So little attention required.


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[Barham's tash]

At last I know Ben’s Grandads other user name

Yeah it was a long rambling diatribe....

I’ve sat on that nugget since then and wanted to spill the beans but felt some strange sense of loyalty to the club but whether it was the bottle of wine last night, the events of the last two weeks or simply a dose of the ****itts I finally just snapped and let rip.

I was genuinely amazed that someone clearly quite high in the echelons of club power would be so indiscrete a public place.

I was the only other person in that divided section of the carriage but still. Very silly.

 

[blockhseagull]

Articles yes. Relevant to this thread. No.


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Well it’s relevant in the fact you accused someone of making stuff up.

And there is evidence to prove they weren’t.

 

[Icy Gull]

Yeah it was a long rambling diatribe....

I’ve sat on that nugget since then and wanted to spill the beans but felt some strange sense of loyalty to the club but whether it was the bottle of wine last night, the events of the last two weeks or simply a dose of the ****itts I finally just snapped and let rip.

I was genuinely amazed that someone clearly quite high in the echelons of club power would be so indiscretion a public place.

I was the only other person in that divided section of the carriage but still. Very silly.

True, it is amazing how many people disclose things they shouldn’t be talking about when on trains, buses and in pubs. Maybe not realising how loudly they are talking or being aware of just who may be in earshot. Normally people bigging themselves up with things they know that aren’t “out there”

 

[b.w.2.]

Well it’s relevant in the fact you accused someone of making stuff up.

And there is evidence to prove they weren’t.

Not relevant. Just CH offering up PR BS after nobody brought in. There are multiple assumptions and conjectures in this thread with zero basis in fact. TBF just like most of NSC...


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[blockhseagull]

Not relevant. Just CH offering up PR BS after nobody brought in. There are multiple assumptions and conjectures in this thread with zero basis in fact. TBF just like most of NSC...


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Absolutely agree

Where is the proof it’s PR BS ?

One fact you do have wrong, CH said he was happy with the squad before the window even opened.

We did spend £10m in the window, albeit possibly wastefully on players who still haven’t arrived. But are you telling me if CH asked for £10m for a player the recruitment team would have said “No Chris, we are busy spending £10m elsewhere on players you’ll probably never see”

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

It was worse than that if CH agreed to that, as he was handicapping himself, because he was playing with a 24 man squad from January. If that was the strategy, to let the prem side run one short at the same time spend over £7 million + wages on the Argie/Jock, then he deserved to be sacked along with anyone else party to that policy

We had a 23 man squad from January - not 24 - as Ahannach wasn't nominated to fill spot #24.

 

[fosters headband]

We had a 23 man squad from January - not 24 - as Ahannach wasn't nominated to fill spot #24.

I thought Burn had one of the spots?

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I thought Burn had one of the spots?

He took Barclay's place in the 25.

Barclay, Suttner and Schelotto were moved out of the pre-January 25 - with Burn coming in.

 

[Hampden Park]

is this argiejock coming to us then?

 

[Triggaaar]

But if you’re a manager that has been told that there will be no investment in January - wait til the summer, then you’re hardly likely to come out and say that you think that the squad needs a lot of improvement.

Our club don't generally like doing their business in the January window. Some still happens of course, because players become available, but it's not when we prefer to do it. We were also in a good position in the league at Christmas, and it looked like we didn't need to strengthen.

Following the last 4 months of football, it looks like we do need to strengthen (to give us a good chance of surviving in the PL), so I expect we will.

 

[fosters headband]

He took Barclay's place in the 25.

Barclay, Suttner and Schelotto were moved out of the pre-January 25 - with Burn coming in.

That makes it worse i.m.o to make a struggling squad go 5 months with two players short and spend £12.5 million on players only to loan them straight back is stupid. I think that makes the treatment of CH truly bad
When you think what one player, even on loan did for Palace, makes our January business look amateurish

 

[Ninja Elephant]

That makes it worse i.m.o to make a struggling squad go 5 months with two players short and spend £12.5 million on players only to loan them straight back is stupid. I think that makes the treatment of CH truly bad
When you think what one player, even on loan did for Palace, makes our January business look amateurish

We didn't sign anyone with the immediate quality of Batshuayi and you're speaking with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, we did not need any signings because we were extremely comfortable in the league. Which perhaps was then demonstrated by the "performances" on the pitch. We were only 2/3 wins away from survival, with a run of straight forward home games to come. Spending in january would have been a gamble we didn't need to take, it all looked like progression as normal and then the summer window would roll around, we'd have finished nicely in midtable and Hughton would be preparing to invest in the squad to push up the table even further.

As it is, either the players took their eye off the ball, or the manager did, and we plummeted. Eventually, we got the required points but only thanks to Cardiff bottling survival by losing to Fulham and Palace. Once the pressure was off, they then won at Old Trafford. Crazy.

 

[fosters headband]

We didn't sign anyone with the immediate quality of Batshuayi and you're speaking with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, we did not need any signings because we were extremely comfortable in the league. Which perhaps was then demonstrated by the "performances" on the pitch. We were only 2/3 wins away from survival, with a run of straight forward home games to come. Spending in january would have been a gamble we didn't need to take, it all looked like progression as normal and then the summer window would roll around, we'd have finished nicely in midtable and Hughton would be preparing to invest in the squad to push up the table even further.

As it is, either the players took their eye off the ball, or the manager did, and we plummeted. Eventually, we got the required points but only thanks to Cardiff bottling survival by losing to Fulham and Palace. Once the pressure was off, they then won at Old Trafford. Crazy.

Hold on we did spend £12 mill in January on three players we loaned back to their clubs
I find the complacent attitude of management at the time appalling and would have served them right had we not survived I think only one other club in the bottom half Southampton didn't strengthen and we both were lucky to escape

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Hold on we did spend £12 mill in January on three players we loaned back to their clubs
I find the complacent attitude of management at the time appalling and would have served them right had we not survived I think only one other club in the bottom half Southampton didn't strengthen and we both were lucky to escape

We didn't buy players who could go straight into the team, Mac Allister might never be able to get to us! And the others are just Burn, who is a back up at best and some players to disappear into the u23s - doesn't matter if it was then, or after their loan spells. We had plenty in the squad to make sure we stayed up, it was a simple case of chronic underperformance at all levels of the first team and coaching staff.

Southampton weren't lucky to escape, they did so pretty comfortably with a few good wins along the way. Beating us, obviously, but also Spurs.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

That makes it worse i.m.o to make a struggling squad go 5 months with two players short and spend £12.5 million on players only to loan them straight back is stupid. I think that makes the treatment of CH truly bad
When you think what one player, even on loan did for Palace, makes our January business look amateurish

Does it really though? Hindsight is a lovely thing but at the time we still had lots of new signings that had barely played at all and who were being bedded in. And, as much as I was in the Hughton out camp come the end of the season, no one including myself thought in January that we'd have the second half of the season that we did. So it's not that surprising that he worked with what he had and it's not surprising, when working with that context, that we didn't strengthen.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

We didn't buy players who could go straight into the team, Mac Allister might never be able to get to us! And the others are just Burn, who is a back up at best and some players to disappear into the u23s - doesn't matter if it was then, or after their loan spells. We had plenty in the squad to make sure we stayed up, it was a simple case of chronic underperformance at all levels of the first team and coaching staff.

Southampton weren't lucky to escape, they did so pretty comfortably with a few good wins along the way. Beating us, obviously, but also Spurs.

Absolutely this. The revisionism since Hughton's sacking in this regard is a tad surreal.

 

[B.W.]

Absolutely agree

Where is the proof it’s PR BS ?

One fact you do have wrong, CH said he was happy with the squad before the window even opened.

We did spend £10m in the window, albeit possibly wastefully on players who still haven’t arrived. But are you telling me if CH asked for £10m for a player the recruitment team would have said “No Chris, we are busy spending £10m elsewhere on players you’ll probably never see”

Well, I saw Chris statement AFTER the window closed... pretty obviously (I assume!) PR BS since we did not add to the 1st team squad, so Chris just trying to assure the fans that this wasn't an issue... but, yes, that is just me reading between the lines...

I am certainly NOT saying what you are saying in your last sentence.

I, unlike many poster's on this thread, just DON'T believe we are buying players to make a quick buck... IMHO, the Tau transfer has just gone wrong, and we were probably expecting him to have a work permit for the 2019/20 season... with Mac, I still expect to see him with us soonest (but did not expect him to be here last season)...

All this conjecture about buying players to NOT play for us, and just to make a profit, is just bollox IMHO...

 

[blockhseagull]

Well, I saw Chris statement AFTER the window closed... pretty obviously (I assume!) PR BS since we did not add to the 1st team squad, so Chris just trying to assure the fans that this wasn't an issue... but, yes, that is just me reading between the lines...

I am certainly NOT saying what you are saying in your last sentence.

I, unlike many poster's on this thread, just DON'T believe we are buying players to make a quick buck... IMHO, the Tau transfer has just gone wrong, and we were probably expecting him to have a work permit for the 2019/20 season... with Mac, I still expect to see him with us soonest (but did not expect him to be here last season)...

All this conjecture about buying players to NOT play for us, and just to make a profit, is just bollox IMHO...

https://www.skysports.com/football/...ghton-expecting-quiet-january-transfer-window