Dale Stephens . . . either play him, or sell him..

[GT49er]

I regard a 'young prospect' as an 18, 19 or 20 year old (i.e. Ben White, Ben Hall, Tom Dallison). Still being a 'young prospect' at 24 doesn't look so good.........I'd expect the real deal by then, if a player's going to make it.

 

[chaileyjem]

We don't actually know what the purchase price and wages were but I doubt it was 30k+ a week plus 7-9 million for a player who has hardly played first team football above this level do you?

I've no idea what the wages are but you're saying Bloom is explicitly not prepared to spend the required £7-£9mm on a striker (how do you know ?) when three weeks ago he'd agreed a deal to do precisely that.
Or does that not count. ??
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...nwanted-Tottenham-forward-Alex-Pritchard.html quotes a probably exaggerated £8m but hey - its in the ballpark i guess.
Barber here confirms , as he has several times, that a fee and a deal was agreed with Pritchard.
http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/paul-barber-brighton-hove-albion-3285030.aspx

 

[chaileyjem]

I regard a 'young prospect' as an 18, 19 or 20 year old (i.e. Ben White, Ben Hall, Tom Dallison). Still being a 'young prospect' at 24 doesn't look so good.........I'd expect the real deal by then, if a player's going to make it.

Shane Duffy has played in the Prem League,an international, has over 100 appearances in the Championship and spent his summer fending off Italy in the Euros and is still only 24. Seems like the real deal for me despite not having a great game for us in his first 2 appearances. Have you written him off then ?

 

[chaileyjem]

We don't actually know what the purchase price and wages were

Sky said here that the package was £8m
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...r-spurs-midfielder-alex-pritchard-sky-sources

 

[Icy Gull]

I've no idea what the wages are but you're saying Bloom is explicitly not prepared to spend the required £7-£9mm on a striker (how do you know ?) when three weeks ago he'd agreed a deal to do precisely that.
Or does that not count. ??
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...nwanted-Tottenham-forward-Alex-Pritchard.html quotes a probably exaggerated £8m but hey - its in the ballpark i guess.
Barber here confirms , as he has several times, that a fee and a deal was agreed with Pritchard.
http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/paul-barber-brighton-hove-albion-3285030.aspx

I have no doubt a deal was agreed I just question whether it was of the level of what Derby paid for Vydra, for the sake of argument which appears to be in the ball park of 7 million plus big wages.. Would we not be a lot better off if we had Vydra in our squad? Or are you saying either CH didn't want him or Vydra didn't want to come here?

Or put another way is there really not a decent striker that we could have bought for 7-9 million plus big wages? I find that hard to believe, hence my feeling that we are not willing to pay big transfers AND big wages. Just a thought, no suggestion of inside knowledge

 

[Icy Gull]

Sky said here that the package was £8m
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...r-spurs-midfielder-alex-pritchard-sky-sources

Did that estimate include wages for the length of the contract though

 

[GT49er]

Shane Duffy has played in the Prem League,an international, has over 100 appearances in the Championship and spent his summer fending off Italy in the Euros and is still only 24. Seems like the real deal for me despite not having a great game for us in his first 2 appearances. Have you written him off then ?

No, I just don't regard him as a 'young prospect'.

FWIW though, I was rather underwhelmed by his signing. Maybe I'll be proved wrong.

 

[chaileyjem]

Did that estimate include wages for the length of the contract though

You said quite plainly that Tony Bloom was not prepared to fund a £7-£9m on a striker this summer ...
You've said they weren't despite...
"Brighton and Hove Albion have agreed a club-record fee of £8m with Tottenham Hotspur for Alex Pritchard"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...nwanted-Tottenham-forward-Alex-Pritchard.html
and "Brighton have agreed a fee to sign Alex Pritchard from Tottenham, according to Sky sources.
Spurs are understood to want a package amounting to £8m for the 23-year old, who will now discuss personal terms with the Championship club"
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...r-spurs-midfielder-alex-pritchard-sky-sources
and...
http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/14660444.Pritchard_heads_to_Norwich___and_Albion_are_seething/
and Barber:
"as has been well documented, our plan to sign Alex Pritchard didn't come off "
http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/paul-barber-brighton-hove-albion-3285030.aspx

They were prepared to spend that amount of money. And for a striker. its a shame it didn't happen and there are good reasons why it didn't (financial) but arguing that TB wasn't prepared to spend big to land the player that Hughton wanted is clearly wrong. He was.

 

[Icy Gull]

You said quite plainly that Tony Bloom was not prepared to fund a £7-£9m on a striker this summer ...
You've said they weren't despite...
"Brighton and Hove Albion have agreed a club-record fee of £8m with Tottenham Hotspur for Alex Pritchard"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...nwanted-Tottenham-forward-Alex-Pritchard.html
and "Brighton have agreed a fee to sign Alex Pritchard from Tottenham, according to Sky sources.
Spurs are understood to want a package amounting to £8m for the 23-year old, who will now discuss personal terms with the Championship club"
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...r-spurs-midfielder-alex-pritchard-sky-sources
and...
http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/14660444.Pritchard_heads_to_Norwich___and_Albion_are_seething/
and Barber:
"as has been well documented, our plan to sign Alex Pritchard didn't come off "
http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/paul-barber-brighton-hove-albion-3285030.aspx

They were prepared to spend that amount of money. And for a striker. its a shame it didn't happen and there are good reasons why it didn't (financial) but arguing that TB wasn't prepared to spend big to land the player that Hughton wanted is clearly wrong. He was.

No, I said he wasn't prepared to fund 7-9 million PLUS wages in excess of 30k+ per week, all IMO obviously. So up to 9 million PLUS a four year contract? So an additional 6 million plus in wages. So a goal outlay of over 13 million in all likelihood. I understand this is an obscene amount of money but without doing it we will not go up, again just IMO.

I questioned whether Pritchard would be able to command wages of 30k plus given his lack of any real experience apart from the Championship. So I suggest we wouldn't have been lumbered with wages of say someone like Vydra, if Pritchard had signed.

 

[drew]

I have no doubt a deal was agreed I just question whether it was of the level of what Derby paid for Vydra, for the sake of argument which appears to be in the ball park of 7 million plus big wages.. Would we not be a lot better off if we had Vydra in our squad? Or are you saying either CH didn't want him or Vydra didn't want to come here?

Or put another way is there really not a decent striker that we could have bought for 7-9 million plus big wages? I find that hard to believe, hence my feeling that we are not willing to pay big transfers AND big wages. Just a thought, no suggestion of inside knowledge

What is it with this love affair with Vydra? He had a great season with Watford, did crap at WBA and then scored a few for Watford again and then flopped with Reading. Some seem to bang on as if he is the messiah!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Sky said here that the package was £8m
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...r-spurs-midfielder-alex-pritchard-sky-sources

Peeps have been quite happy to quote 4mill for Duffy even though that is probably the total 'package'....so I can see the point you are making

 

[LamieRobertson]

No, I said he wasn't prepared to fund 7-9 million PLUS wages in excess of 30k+ per week, all IMO obviously. So up to 9 million PLUS a four year contract? So an additional 6 million plus in wages. So a goal outlay of over 13 million in all likelihood. I understand this is an obscene amount of money but without doing it we will not go up, again just IMO.

I questioned whether Pritchard would be able to command wages of 30k plus given his lack of any real experience apart from the Championship. So I suggest we wouldn't have been lumbered with wages of say someone like Vydra, if Pritchard had signed.

I wonder how much Norwich offered him

 

[Icy Gull]

What is it with this love affair with Vydra? He had a great season with Watford, did crap at WBA and then scored a few for Watford again and then flopped with Reading. Some seem to bang on as if he is the messiah!

Just saying I think we'd be much better off if we had signed him , as we have no cover for Baldock and he would have at least given some competition. Baldock is the only player in the squad without competition, I quoted Vydra because he was available and Barber says we couldn't find any players to tempt here to improve the squad. I have no idea who else was available.

 

[Icy Gull]

I wonder how much Norwich offered him

A shit load more than we did wouldn't you think?

 

[chaileyjem]

Just saying I think we'd be much better off if we had signed him , as we have no cover for Baldock and he would have at least given some competition. Baldock is the only player in the squad without competition, I quoted Vydra because he was available and Barber says we couldn't find any players to tempt here to improve the squad. I have no idea who else was available.

Barber didn't say we couldn't "find players" or that they couldn't be "tempted here". He said , as with for example Burnley & Stephens, "our other targets couldn't be prised from their existing clubs " because, as with Stephens, chairman presumably refused to sell and/or they were over priced.
If Albion were interested in Vydra this summer, as they were reportedly in previous windows, then there weren't any credible reports saying so.
http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/paul-barber-brighton-hove-albion-3285030.aspx

 

[grubbyhands]

Shame no one has mentioned how well Brentford played yesterday. They had us sussed , and counter-attacked perfectly. The body language from our players is negative, Knockaert was having a good old moan up. To me, something at the club is array. Spoke to a Brentford supporter after the game, congratulated him on their goal scorer, who came from Rochdale and has been injured for 2 years.........step up Hambo !!!!!

Have to agree with Brentfords' quality and Hogan looks like a real find. They are obviously out there if you know where to look.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Shane Duffy has played in the Prem League,an international, has over 100 appearances in the Championship and spent his summer fending off Italy in the Euros and is still only 24. Seems like the real deal for me despite not having a great game for us in his first 2 appearances. Have you written him off then ?

Yep I have. 180 mins of unconvincing me. Goldson get fit quick please. Can we have a refund?

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Blimey, If that was a decent game, I'd hate to see him have a poor game.
His mistake led directly to the first goal, when we were well in the game. His penchant for playing ' hollywood ' passes...cutting across the ball with the outside of his foot, requires precision and perfect timing. Norwood had neither and time and time again, he overhit or underhit passes. He is lightweight and loses possession too easily and seems most comfortable sitting infront of the back four and rolling pretty little square balls around. He is not a physical presence and not a driving force in midfield. If he is going to be accomodated, CH has to play 4-1-4-1, with Norwood playing the Bridcutt role. He cannot play as one of two central midfielders.

Norwood, is simply not good enough. Yet bafflingly CH persists in picking him. Watch his performance against Oxford (Oxford!) for the amount of misplaced passes, lost control and giving the ball away. He made Holla look good.

If we wanted to a player to do that we may as well have kept JFC.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Shame no one has mentioned how well Brentford played yesterday. They had us sussed , and counter-attacked perfectly. The body language from our players is negative, Knockaert was having a good old moan up. To me, something at the club is array. Spoke to a Brentford supporter after the game, congratulated him on their goal scorer, who came from Rochdale and has been injured for 2 years.........step up Hambo !!!!!

Agree. Almost from the off I thought smething doesnt seem "right" and I dont mean playing that busy idiot Norwood or Bruno having a mare.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

TB will not fund the 7-9 million required for a classy quick striker plus the minimum 30k a week wages which would break the wage structure, although GM is apparently on these wages. It's not my money so I can't really complain.

I am entertained, even when we lose so I don't mind staying in this division but how much longer will TB continue to fund the losses? Can't see us getting out of this division this year because....we don't have the strikers.

I normally find myself in agreement with much of what you post Icy. But you are happy to see us play in this division? Having supported this club for more years than I care to remember, I am getting desperate to see us play in the Premiership, not because I particularly like Premier League football, but because it is the pinnacle of what we can reach. Surely we have to have the ambition to reach the very top, or what else is there?