can somebody explain.

[chaileyjem]

I don't think we can always hide behind the parachute payment argument. We tracked Odubajo for a long time, but Brentford offered £1m+ and got their man. We desperately needed, and very much still need a player like him. Warren Aspinall has publicly said the club scouts recommended Callum Wilson, Bournemouth offered the money and got their man. That's 2 quick examples of players we could have bought but lost out to teams without parachute payments.

I'm not sure of your point. If you're saying we signed the wrong striker this season and should have signed Wilson then fair enough. (and likewise other players) If you're saying the club don't make big signings to add to the squad this season and can't get players to come to the club, even up against clubs with parachute payments then thats not the case. We signed L1's top scorer in the summer (more than Wilson last season) on Albion's 3rd biggest transfer fee of all time.

 

[OvingdeanSeagull]

I don't see how people can disagree with BG here. We sold over £10m worth of players just in the summer and didn't even come close to spending half of that. How can we expect to succeed if we sell our best players and replace with players costing a fraction of the price? At best it's a very risky strategy and it certainly hasn't paid off.

Bloom then said we were ahead of the game for January before spending 300k on one permanent player, plus the wages for an utter shithouse striker on loan. This is unacceptable and seems almost unbelievable that Bloom, a huge fan of the club let alone the fact he is the owner, would be so complacent when relegation is a serious possibility. Anyone could've told him that we need at least another winger/striker, so why couldn't he see this? Especially after loaning colunga out. When players like Benik Efobe are available for £1.5m and we instead elect to sign Best on loan despite having sold a striker for £8-10m 6 months ago, something is wrong.

 

[KZNSeagull]

I don't see how people can disagree with BG here. We sold over £10m worth of players just in the summer and didn't even come close to spending half of that. How can we expect to succeed if we sell our best players and replace with players costing a fraction of the price? At best it's a very risky strategy and it certainly hasn't paid off.

Bloom then said we were ahead of the game for January before spending 300k on one permanent player, plus the wages for an utter shithouse striker on loan. This is unacceptable and seems almost unbelievable that Bloom, a huge fan of the club let alone the fact he is the owner, would be so complacent when relegation is a serious possibility. Anyone could've told him that we need at least another winger/striker, so why couldn't he see this? Especially after loaning colunga out. When players like Benik Efobe are available for £1.5m and we instead elect to sign Best on loan despite having sold a striker for £8-10m 6 months ago, something is wrong.

Ulloa cost a fraction of the price we sold him for, the same cost as Sam Baldock. Our most expensive player ever is almost certainly going to leave the club on a free transfer in the summer. Just 2 examples of the vagaries of the transfer market.

If you are really expecting the club to spend all of the money received from Ulloa and Buckley on players, then I hate to think of the reaction when we do finally get to the PL and the club do not spend 100m on transfers.

The answer to this conundrum is that the club lost 10m last year, will lose another 6m+ this year, so that is why not all the money gets spent. We have the highest playing budget we have ever had this season. If it has all been spent on "shithouse" players, then perhaps the problem runs deeper than David Burke and maybe more changes to the personnel responsible will come in time.

But I fail to see how TB has not acted and can only conclude that some supporters expect him to spend yet more money that the club does not have. We are not in that game.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

I'm not sure of your point. If you're saying we signed the wrong striker this season and should have signed Wilson then fair enough. (and likewise other players) If you're saying the club don't make big signings to add to the squad this season and can't get players to come to the club, even up against clubs with parachute payments then thats not the case. We signed L1's top scorer in the summer (more than Wilson last season) on Albion's 3rd biggest transfer fee of all time.

So, I've just said we lose out to teams on a level playing field, and you trot out the parachute payment line again? Ignore it, I've not compared us to a club receiving parachute payments, I gave 2 examples of clubs in a similar position to Brighton's.
We signed the League One top scorer for a club record fee previously when we already had a better striker, that was a poor decision also. I appreciate the club spent a few million in the summer, but the club had also received many more millions in fees for players sold, they tried to replace them on the cheap(ish) and that is exactly why we find ourselves battling relegation and on the cusp of losing thousands of season ticket holders. Being frugal isn't looking so smart all of a sudden.

 

[OvingdeanSeagull]

Ulloa cost a fraction of the price we sold him for, the same cost as Sam Baldock. Our most expensive player ever is almost certainly going to leave the club on a free transfer in the summer. Just 2 examples of the vagaries of the transfer market.

If you are really expecting the club to spend all of the money received from Ulloa and Buckley on players, then I hate to think of the reaction when we do finally get to the PL and the club do not spend 100m on transfers.

The answer to this conundrum is that the club lost 10m last year, will lose another 6m+ this year, so that is why not all the money gets spent. We have the highest playing budget we have ever had this season. If it has all been spent on "shithouse" players, then perhaps the problem runs deeper than David Burke and maybe more changes to the personnel responsible will come in time.

But I fail to see how TB has not acted and can only conclude that some supporters expect him to spend yet more money that the club does not have. We are not in that game.

Of course we aren't going to spend all of it, but we should've at least made one, big marquee signing to replace our best striker in years. I rate Baldock but Callum Wilson was £3m, surely we could've got him ahead of Bournemouth at the time?

 

[KZNSeagull]

Of course we aren't going to spend all of it, but we should've at least made one, big marquee signing to replace our best striker in years. I rate Baldock but Callum Wilson was £3m, surely we could've got him ahead of Bournemouth at the time?

Should we? I would imagine that the club decided that Baldock at 2m was a better buy than Wilson at 3m. Some you win, some you don't. But we are not in a position to keep on doing that until one finally pays off. Ulloa we won, CMS we certainly did not.

The club has made some poor decisions and the suspected main culprit has lost his job. So TB has acted accordingly. He and the club cannot afford to rectify those mistakes quickly.

 

[B.W.]

So, I've just said we lose out to teams on a level playing field, and you trot out the parachute payment line again? Ignore it, I've not compared us to a club receiving parachute payments, I gave 2 examples of clubs in a similar position to Brighton's.
We signed the League One top scorer for a club record fee previously when we already had a better striker, that was a poor decision also. I appreciate the club spent a few million in the summer, but the club had also received many more millions in fees for players sold, they tried to replace them on the cheap(ish) and that is exactly why we find ourselves battling relegation and on the cusp of losing thousands of season ticket holders. Being frugal isn't looking so smart all of a sudden.

Well said.

 

[Dave the OAP]

many a word said in jest

Many a true word is spoken in jest

Chaucer, the Cooks Tale.

 

[Stuart Munday]

I havn't got a problem with how much money we have spent, the problem is how it was used on too many average players and loans.

Im sure the money spent could of bought a 3 million pound striker and 3 quality replacements then we could of used the loan market if we got injuries

 

[The_Viper]

It's the classic question that everyone brushes over unfortunately and that will continue to happen with words like FFP and parachute payments.

The fact is Bournemouth bid 5 million quid for a player in January. That's more than we spent all summer and for those saying they'll fail FFP, I remember people saying they'd fail it for this season, and Brentford when they outbid us, and Huddersfield when they signed Clayton because we couldn't compete.

Yet here we are. None of them failed, all of them are better than us and we're looking like we could very easily be a league below all 3 of those and the rest next season.

A. Something is very very wrong within the clubs financial department
B. Something is very very wrong with our recruitment strategy
C. We have neglected the playing side because we are arrogant enough to think it'll 'come'

Not sure which of those 3 options it is, I have a feeling it's a mixture of all 3. Someone somewhere is really killing us if we cannot afford to compete with Brentford and Huddersfield let alone Bournemouth.

Why is it that even after Burke and co. we were still left WAY behind in January despite being told all was going fantastically?

It's a terrifying prospect being relegated but after this weeks home games and the results it could end up being a formality.

 

[WonderingSoton]

We came up from L1 on a tidal wave of momentum with the Amex and Poyet's cage rattling, we ramped up the squad spending to unprecedented levels for our club. We didn't quite make it, got awfully close, but it shouldn't come as any surprise that we've now needed to ratchet that squad spending down a tad to make up for it. That's pure logic.

That's not to say we're skinflints, our budget is still surely still very much competitive and if the league table was on budgets alone we would be far higher than we are, probably half way somewhere. Our wages aren't peanuts, our huge non playing staff in there as well. You have to look at the managerial choices for this season's issues, not Bloom, not FFP or any of that which gets parrot repeated all too often on here. But this is just one season, everything is reset in the summer so long as we stay up, which I'm pretty confident we will. I feel there is usually a lot of overreaction on here, there are more than 3 sides worse than us.

We have no divine right to be challenging for promotion to the Premiership, we gave it a good crack for a couple of seasons and whilst we have to lie low for a little bit, I'm confident our time will come again to have a decent crack at it.

So can we please stop going on about Bournemouth and Brentford, focus on ourselves, and retain some belief in the club hierarchy. Taking recent years on the whole - We've never had it so good folks.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Someone somewhere is really killing us if we cannot afford to compete with Brentford and Huddersfield let alone Bournemouth.

This ABSOLUTELY. It's utterly pathetic. We're stuck like a Trabant in the slow lane while being overtaken by Robin Reliants. How on EARTH did it ever come to this?

 

[bobby baxter]

Should we? I would imagine that the club decided that Baldock at 2m was a better buy than Wilson at 3m. Some you win, some you don't. But we are not in a position to keep on doing that until one finally pays off. Ulloa we won, CMS we certainly did not.

The club has made some poor decisions and the suspected main culprit has lost his job. So TB has acted accordingly. He and the club cannot afford to rectify those mistakes quickly.

Just a thought but...if we had signed Wilson and Bournemouth had signed Baldock, who do you think would have scored the most goals at this point in the season?
Its much too early to write off Baldock.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Just a thought but...if we had signed Wilson and Bournemouth had signed Baldock, who do you think would have scored the most goals at this point in the season?
Its much too early to write off Baldock.

Baldock. The problem isn't with the strikers. I think Baldock is a good player, he just does not get the chances. Same as CMS.

 

[BensGrandad]

The biggest problem is nothing to do with this player or that player the whole team either under orders or not, are not prepared to try a shot and try to walk the ball into the net and invariably lose it. When they shoot like Tiexiera and Baldock against Ipswich it can reap dividends.

 

[RexCathedra]

We have no divine right to be challenging for promotion to the Premiership....

Why, yes, yes we do. Because We Are Albion!

I have come to believe that the Zamora-era double promotion, getting on for a decade and a half ago, has inordinately influenced a lot of people's thinking.
Walking the league is now the new normal.

Yo-yos, however, work both ways -- they run up and down the string.