Dale Stephens Summer 2016 shenanigans (Merged Thread)

[Neville's Breakfast]

Couldn't agree more.

In a world where Jeff Hendrick is now worth £10.5m to Burnley, Dale is clearly worth at least that to them, so why they messed about with derisory bids for so long is anyone's guess.

Now Dale's got two options:

1 Do the minimum to see out your contract, while blaming the Albion, and see
a) your worth and reputation plummet and
b) your chances of ending up in the Premier League take a similar nosedive, OR
2 Get your head down, put the last few weeks behind you, and get back to the form that saw you and Beram boss the midfield for most of last season, enhancing your worth and reputation, and giving yourself every chance of playing in the Premier League either with the Albion (on a new contract) or someone else when your contract is up.

Bit of a no-brainer, isn't it?

yep we need him fired up for the rest of the season. If its the Albion he's fired up against then that's fine, whatever works.

 

[El Presidente]

Dale Stephens should be venting his feelings at his agent not Brighton or their fans. Who is his agent by the way?

In what respect was he venting his feelings at the fans.

He fancied playing at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and the Emirates, can't see a problem in that.

CH knows him far better than we do, and his assessment is presumably that Stephens will get his head down and do his best, as it's in his interests to do so. There's never been any evidence of him not trying before in his career, so why assume that that will change? If he doesn't knuckle down then Norwood or Sidwell will play instead of him, and there will be no EPL suitors for him next summer.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Brighton fans. This isn’t an apology but an explanation that you deserve," he said on Twitter.
Don't need an explanation, DS, just your loyalty.

"Yes I did submit a transfer request earlier today, which I was reluctant to do.
“The football club have been aware for 5 weeks I wanted to leave to fulfill my and every footballers ambitions of playing in the Premier League.
Well you could fulfill your ambition with the Albion, if you are patient.

“I’m 27 years old and recognised this could be my final opportunity to do so, which is why I feel disappointed my chance was taken away.
“I prefer to give you honesty rather than shy away from my actions now the window is closed.
Well that's very decent of you.

“I respect and understand your frustration as this is your football club.
Respect the club's decision, and knuckle down and do your job.

I have 10 months remaining and will honour my contract.
Again that's very decent of you.

Estimation in DS, slightly down in my view.

 

[Bwian]

Pretty good assessment.

Dale's agent has been filling his head with nonsense when he should have been urging Burnley to bid higher earlier in the window, not leave it until getting a replacement player is impossible.

The agent messed the move up bad-style with a poor strategy.

Stephens, his scummy agent and tinpot Burnley showed BHAFC, Paul Barber and Tony Bloom zero respect.

Just because Burnley is cash rich this season doesn't make it right that they think they can disrupt our season in the way they tried (include Stephens in that 'they') because they have a bit of money (which they were too tight to spend in the right amount). Burnley and Norwich-hope they both crash and burn.

 

[Ernest]

Maybe Stephens put in the transfer request to try and get Burnley to up their offer or see if Hull or another TINPOT team could be tempted to ? His agent should have told him to put the transfer request in at the end of the season so everyone had time to do a deal not 12 hours before the window closes.

 

[ROSM]

Except as honest and heartfelt as it was , its angered some fans, will alienate further his relationship with the club, and was poorly timed and worded.

I didn't say I agreed with him.....

Im.impressed by how ruthless the tory party are. Doesnt mean i like them

 

[marshy68]

Don't know what to think but in dale doing his tweet is not good really he should of kept it to himself all he has done is slate the people who pay his wages and it don't bode well. Players who hand in transfer requests don't want to be here which means supporters have every right to have a pop

Social media + Football Players =

they should all stay off it.

 

[acheter]

Having defended Stephens and the club, I'll be a bit sick if I see DS kissing the badge anytime soon. I do have some limits to my tolerance.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Dale. Get real. You're not good enough for the premier league

So if we had got promoted I take it you'd think the club should have sold him ..interesting

 

[marshy68]

I think it's a bizarre decision financially other than the club want to set in hand that players can't make demands and always get them.

Up to now Buckley, Bridcutt and Ulloa have all been left to move to the premiership, maybe Bloom said enough is enough it stops here. Otherwise players will think they can call the shots.

However £8million plus the Pritchard money would have got you a bloody good player, arguably better and more important than Stephens who lets be honest has only really had one good season. He could actually have already peaked.

This is what I cant work out. Its a £100 million promotion gamble against £8 million in the hand + the other £8 million they were prepared to spend on Pilctard. Which could have been invested as you suggest in an excellent replacement. I don't believe for a minute that our promotion hopes rest solely in having a 100% committed Dale Stephens in the team. If as Stephens suggested the club have known for 5 weeks that he wanted to leave (I suspect it must have been longer) I am really surprized they did not cash in and give themselves time to find a replacement. perhaps Pilchard and Norwood were the replacements? Maybe Stephens would have been allowed to leave if the Pilchard deal had gone through? I don't know, but I am shit at online poker so maybe TB does know what he is doing.

 

[ewe2]

We might well get promoted.......and replace him !!!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Prefer a bit of honesty myself

He better play well though.

Well I was thinking the same ..I haven't got much of a problem with the tweet ..you can see why he doesn't bother with social media much ..it's what he does on the pitch for the coming months that I'll be more critical of

 

[El Presidente]

Fans are not loyal to players, managers or the board, so why do they expect loyalty?

If Stephens had turned out to be like Dobbie, Kemy or Leon Best there would have been a line of people offering to drive him to any other club that showed interest 10 months before his contract expired.

DS is an excellent player, and let's hope he has a great season in the final year of his contract, the same as Kayal, Bruno, Stockdale, Baldock, Sidwell and no doubt a few others.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Well I was thinking the same ..I haven't got much of a problem with the tweet ..you can see why he doesn't bother with social media much ..it's what he does on the pitch for the coming months that I'll be more critical of

I agree

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[BensGrandad]

IMHO Pritchard was the key to any move and was Target A and that B & C didnt exist because we expected to get Pritchard not getting him completely threw us ..We will never know the full story behind this so I think that it is best now to draw a line under it and look forward to Dale Stephens appearing against Brentford with something to prove

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

I agree

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

Careful, you know what he's like

 

[AZ Gull]

Having defended Stephens and the club, I'll be a bit sick if I see DS kissing the badge anytime soon. I do have some limits to my tolerance.

Having defended Stephens and the club, I'll be a bit sick if I see DS kissing the badge anytime soon. I do have some limits to my tolerance.

 

[dangull]

8 Million for a player who cost £700,000 seems to be good business if the guy wants to leave. With half the profits, there may have been a better player to bring in, given time to do deals of course.

 

[NooBHA]

Fans are not loyal to players, managers or the board, so why do they expect loyalty?

If Stephens had turned out to be like Dobbie, Kemy or Leon Best there would have been a line of people offering to drive him to any other club that showed interest 10 months before his contract expired.

DS is an excellent player, and let's hope he has a great season in the final year of his contract, the same as Kayal, Bruno, Stockdale, Baldock, Sidwell and no doubt a few others.

All 100% correct in terms of loyalty.

Not only that. Fans are sometimes not even loyal from one week to the next.

Look at last year, fans were raving about how wonderful Stockdale and Skalack were when Stockdale was making great saves and Skalak was whipping in crosses that players were getting on the end of.

Then last week they were both getting ''pelters'' from some fans. I know that because I was one of the ones who criticised both after last weeks match so I am as guilty as anyone.

 

[wellquickwoody]

That's true and I agree. However his next deal at 27/28 is likely to be nearly the best or more likely the best deal he will ever get. It's probably the last time he can ask for three or more years and at a decent rate. After all (and I appreciate you know this) whilst footballers earn good money their peak earning window is actually quite small; they go from being 'promising youngster' to 'veteran' extremely quickly - then of course they're out of the game for good and have to join the job market with the rest of us.

It's not outside the bounds of possibility that at sometime during the rest of this season he may pick up a serious injury that may finish his career or at least severely curtail it. He'll be aware of that, and so I can't really begrudge him feeling that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to financially secure his future may have forever passed him by. No one will want a crock. even if they can get him for free,

All correct.

Best he gets on and signs a new contract with us then, with promises of wages if we get to the Prem, and black and white clauses if this does not look likely in January. that way we can all move forward.