Really want him to score a hatrick and sell him to Man United or Newcastle!?
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
[Albion] Alireza Jahanbakhsh joins Feyenoord
- Thread starter alexanderhills
- Start date
Really want him to score a hatrick and sell him to Man United or Newcastle!?
Bold Seagull
strong and stable with me, or...
Not sure Potter works with binary pegs round or square. We're talking nonagon peg in an octagon hole.
matt
Well-known member
- Mar 19, 2007
- 1,564
It's not that clear.
Easy 10
Brain dead MUG SHEEP
I don't recall hearing of any interest in him during the summer, but i must admit I don't exactly keep my ear to the ground when all the transfer speculation bobbins is in full flow, so I could easily have missed it.
Having binned off the DJ and the loon, and with Trossard and Solly subsequently crocked we're not exactly blessed with forward options. I wouldn't be surprised if Ali was kept on primarily so we'd still have enough bodies to put on the field, in the HOPE he'd come good and contribute. As useless as he's been so far, we'd have been dangerously thin on the ground to have released him as well.
blue-shifted
Banned
We buy quite young players on long term deals to protect any sell on clause.
The problem is, what do you do when they don't work out?
Assuming he doesn't come good (and now Trossard and March are on the way back and Alzate and Connolly have come through it's increasingly unlikely), the next best option is to get him off the books.
But there are two problems
First wages. Is he prepared to take a massive hit on his salary, probably £50k p/w down to £25 in a different European league?
Second transfer fee. Are we prepared to write off the whole £17m? Should we be prepared to do this? How much would PSV or someone be able to pay us, 2 or 3m?
With Andone, Locadia and Knocky we've gone for the approach of loaning out for a year, presumably with a view to getting them in the shop window. Fair enough and the players are happy because they're still getting their full wages, but really we're only putting the problem off until the summer. It's still going to be very hard to find a club that will give us a fraction of what we paid who will also give the players their current wages.
This is why I think the most likely scenario is that all Ali J, Knocky, Locadia and Andone are back with us next summer, we don't manage to sell them and they aren't prepared to take the pay cut to move on. We then continue to heavily subsidise their wages on loan to various clubs until their contracts end. It's a bad situation for us, but part of the risk you take when you buy a prospect and give them a long term contract
The problem is, what do you do when they don't work out?
Assuming he doesn't come good (and now Trossard and March are on the way back and Alzate and Connolly have come through it's increasingly unlikely), the next best option is to get him off the books.
But there are two problems
First wages. Is he prepared to take a massive hit on his salary, probably £50k p/w down to £25 in a different European league?
Second transfer fee. Are we prepared to write off the whole £17m? Should we be prepared to do this? How much would PSV or someone be able to pay us, 2 or 3m?
With Andone, Locadia and Knocky we've gone for the approach of loaning out for a year, presumably with a view to getting them in the shop window. Fair enough and the players are happy because they're still getting their full wages, but really we're only putting the problem off until the summer. It's still going to be very hard to find a club that will give us a fraction of what we paid who will also give the players their current wages.
This is why I think the most likely scenario is that all Ali J, Knocky, Locadia and Andone are back with us next summer, we don't manage to sell them and they aren't prepared to take the pay cut to move on. We then continue to heavily subsidise their wages on loan to various clubs until their contracts end. It's a bad situation for us, but part of the risk you take when you buy a prospect and give them a long term contract
I’m surprised he made the bench as Potter went 4-2-2-2 with essentially, no wingers, wing-backs or inside forwards (which are the three positions he’d been touted as playing)
Hove Lagoonery
Well-known member
- Dec 16, 2008
- 1,039
£25? You must be talking Albania or Moldova!
AZ Gull
@SeagullsAcademy @seagullsacademy.bsky.social
I posted this on the Southampton Carabao Cup thread last season:-
Whatever your thoughts on his on-field production (or lack of it), I don't think anyone could accuse him of being anything other than a stand-up guy. And he does seem to have a genuine, altruistic concern for Aaron Connolly (this was after Connolly scored for the U-23s against Arsenal in August 2018):-
On the positive side he's now only got 3 & a half years to go.
Given the level of his ability he'll probably be on a better wedge than any players at a club he is loaned to. That'll piss them off and they probably won't pass the ball to him. He's become the proverbial White Elephant.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
I think there are just a few scenarios in which Knockaert doesn't sign for Fulham next summer and, if that happens, we'll be getting a fee about five times we paid for him. Andone didn't cost much in the first place, we've got him off our wages, and he at least has a year to reflect on what a dickhead he is. I suspect we'll recoup the fee in the summer. We'll definitely have to take a hit on Locadia and, in all probability, on Jahanbakhsh as well.
Will 'we'?
A player doesn't have to feature in the first team to have had a chance.
He's had a chance to impress Potter from the first day of pre-season training. His new gaffer has seen him day in, day out for over three months now.
Now, that's not to say he still won't come good, but let's not pretend he's not had a chance to impress yet.
The club is allowed to have more than 11 good players.
The club is also allowed more than 1 good player, per position.
Oh and players do sometimes get injured.
Wasn't the last missive on Ali that he was being trained as Montoya's back-up?
Despite what some on here, inexplicably believe, Martin has been classy this season and only through injury will be see if that's the case.
Of course, yes.
But Florin Andone and Jurgen Locadia have both been given more Premier League minutes this season than Ali J, and they are both tossers the club wanted rid of.
Bold Seagull
strong and stable with me, or...
Exactly. He might not have had a chance to impress us, but there is no way Potter isn't using him if he thought he was going to bring something to the team.
All this about him being used in the wrong way, playing full back, not suiting his style etc. is all sounding a little hollow now under a second manager he's not getting any game time at all - even through a supposed injury crises, and with more attacking intent in the side. It's not looking good lets be honest.
Ali was part of that injury crisis, in his own little way.
I'd be Spencesque if the club dropped Gross for Christiano Ronaldo, so I don't see how Ali would get a look in.
That said no, it's not looking good.
Part of my defence of Ali was my faith in the process that bought him here.
Seemingly that faith wasn't shared by the current manager, and who am I to argue with that.
Someone, on here, offered up the theory that one of Big Jurg or Ali was coming off the books, and the club didn't get any viable offers for Ali.
I can see how every aspect of that would make sense.
I know this might be damning with faint praise, but at least he appears to have passed the 'No dickheads' policy with flying colours. The anecdotal evidence seems to be that he is a hard-working and supportive squad member, and that alone means he still enjoys a lot of goodwill from the fanbase. There isn't s single one of us who doesn't want him to be a star; no one wants him to fail, despite what some of his more passionate supporters claim.
They just have a funny way of showing it...
...and so it begins again.
Stand back people
Nothing to see here
Move away
