[Albion] Gus on Murray; What would he now say?

[Bold Seagull]

Please give your suggestion on what Gus would say right now regarding a player we pretty much know TB would have signed had GP said he was integral to his Championship plans and getting into the Premier League. Murray now has 31 PL goals in 103 appearances, post Gus he also managed 67 Championship goals in 142 appearance. So all totalled, the striker not deemed quite good enough for a bumper contract went on to get 98 goals in 209 appearances at a level thought to be above him.



"Gus, you let Murray go on a free when you could have persuaded the chairman that he was more than capable of propelling the club to the Premier League, instead you spent £3.5m of his money on a striker that would manage 31 goals in 152 appearances, under half what Murray achieved, would you say your judgement as a manager reached a ceiling?"

"I wouldn't say it er...reached a ceiling, but I always love British culture and I associated the Golden Retriever or Labrador dog breeds with Britain and so when the opportunity arose, I said to the Chairman, look, Murray lacks dog-like characteristics, ee's not snappy like a Terrier, ee's not quick like a Greyhound, look at this guy, £3.5m, looks like ee could fetch sticks, balls, shoes, anything you like, all day, and will never stop running for you. That is what i said, and I stand by that."

 

[Goldstone1976]

ees complicated

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Hindsight makes things much easier.

 

[maltaseagull]

Oooooooopps?

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Hindsight makes things much easier.

Exactly, such a shame that none of us possess it.

Seriously though, he obviously did what he thought was right at the time. Ok so it worked out to be a big mistake. Plenty of examples of that in football.

 

[Springal]

Ken Brown to blame too

 

[Two Professors]

Tanno,he tell me not good enough,so get rid.I do tactics,not player recruitment.

 

[Megazone]

I don't care, I go play golf.

 

[blue-shifted]

I think he would repeat something he has said before. The way the finances of the club was structured at the time was that wages came out of one pot (and there was a wage limit) and transfer fees came out of a different pot. Consequently, he couldn't take the CMS transfer fee and give it to Murray in wages.

I would just remember we were growing fast as a club at the time, The Amex was very new and a huge amount of the clubs and boards focus was on getting and setting up a new stadium. We were also playing at a higher level than we had done for years which brought different challenges and we didn't get everything right. I really don't see why anyone would re-hash some sort of blame game for decisions made years ago. Gus was a really good manager for us, but a volatile individual which wasn't, in the end, the right fit for our club. Can we leave it at that now?

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Exactly, such a shame that none of us possess it.

Seriously though, he obviously did what he thought was right at the time. Ok so it worked out to be a big mistake. Plenty of examples of that in football.

Exactly so. I can remember being excited when we signed CMS. I had been in Leicestershire visiting my daughter over the weekend before he was signed, and Sven Goran Erickson was all over the Leicester Mercury saying what a great signing CMS was going to be for Leicester!!!!

And then a couple of days later he signed for us!!!!

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Ultimately Muzza and us have had the last laugh. The Albion and Glenn have gone from strength to strength and Gus' career has pretty much gone down the pan.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Tough crowd. I was going for funny send-ups, I've got back Brexit seriousness. It is definitely ee's complicated...

 

[Triggaaar]

Tough crowd.

 

[Ecosse Exile]

The biggest loser out of it all was CMS, signed for a club which never played to his strengths, i wonder if he might have been a much better fit for Leicester.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Gus didn't set the PL alight, and his own ceiling appears to be upper championship.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The biggest loser out of it all was CMS, signed for a club which never played to his strengths, i wonder if he might have been a much better fit for Leicester.

He got 10 goals in 43 Championship games for P'Boro who built their play around him.

I tell you what was a much better fit....






League One.

 

[wokingone]

where is Gus Currently?

 

[Murray 17]

He got 10 goals in 43 Championship games for P'Boro who built their play around him.

I tell you what was a much better fit....






League One.

Quite agree.

People make excuses for players - with CMS it was that we didn't play to his strengths. With Locadia it is also that he hasn't had much game time.

Look at Andone - played a lot less than either of those 2, but already you can see that he's a PL player.

 

[Hillian1]

JUC..

 

[Perkino]

I completely agreed with the decision not to break our wage structure for any of our players, believing they should feel lucky to play for us and not try to bankrupt the club in the process. Murray chose to go elsewhere for a bigger salary a decision that most would make in the same scenario. It takes a strong character to openly admit they made a choice that they regret making and I don't expect to hear that anytime soon