[Albion] Knockaert joins Fulham on initial one-year loan

[LamieRobertson]

As an aside, and if the rumours are to be believed, he was part of the Albion drinking trio as well. This doesn’t help his case.

As an aside it was also rumoured that he shopped in Tescos...probably didn’t help either
Let thee be judged by rumours ..especially when the team was performing badly

 

[El Presidente]

Perhaps this is a question for [MENTION=31]El Presidente[/MENTION] but would the Albion still be a bottom 4 funded team if they had bought Andone for the initial reported £15m+?

The player budget consists of two elements, wages and transfer fee amortisation (transfer fee spread over the contract length). Give that Andone signed a five year contract a £15 m fee would increase his amortisation fee from £1m a year to £3m. We were £12m behind the next club in 2017/18 (Burnley) in 19th place. In 2018/19 Cardiff were promoted and I'm confident we were still above both them and Huddersfield, but Wolves and Fulham were big spenders so anticipate the Albion moving from 19th to 18th in the table.

For 2019/20 I suspect we will be above both Norwich and Sheffield United of the promoted clubs, but with Huddersfield and Cardiff being promoted that won't make a difference. Expect to see us narrow the gap or overtake Burnley though.

The wages and amortisation table does give a fairly good indicator of who will be close to the relegation spots. Of the bottom seven in 2017/18 four have been relegated (as well as Cardiff who would have been bottom in 2018/19) and we survived by a close margin in 2018/19.

 

[Hugo Rune]

I agree....but some on here are making out that he is some sort of talismanic genius.
It's too rose-tinted for me. Very good in the Championship, which is his true level. Unfortunately, he makes far too many basic,simple errors at PL level and that is why he doesn't hold down a regular place in the starting line-up. He lays the ball off without looking, over and over again. He drove CH to distraction. He hasn't got the delicacy of touch that you would expect either. His dead-balls are all very similar. All whipped in with pace and mostly overhit.
On the other hand, he is frustratingly capable of moments of brilliance. These are few and far between at the highest level because he is up against much more clever players, who know how to unsettle him and ruffle him up. The moment he tries to overplay, its a lost ball and the opposition are in possession.
Believe it or not, I like Knocky and have huge respect for what he did in the Championship but he has driven me mad in the PL with his inability to knuckle down and simplify his style. This is his achilles heel. When he stops over playing, keeps the ball moving quickly and simply, he looks a different player. Unfortunately, he cannot stop reverting to type ( loose extravagance ) which then moves him more towards being a liabilty and indicates a lack of footballing nous.
He is a top of the ground, seat of the pants, heart on the sleeve, emotional, complex mixture, that can work at a lower level. The PL is a cold, calculating, ruthless environment, not best suited to him.

Very well written and true in every sense but even your concise logic won’t take away the pain of parting with yet another Albion legend.

 

[Guinness Boy]

So our PL plan is to keep the poorer players and get rid of the better one, because he's the only one other teams want? What a shit way to run a PL club that would be. If the others aren't good enough, loan them out. If we can't sell them, take the hit financially. It will be cheaper than getting relegated, which is what will happen if we deliberately offload our better players.

You’ve selectively missed out half my post to make it look like that’s what i meant. If you’d quoted the whole thing you’d see I said to judge the window at its end, that we’ve replaced AK with Trossard (unknown quantity right now) and that I hope moving off a top 10 earner frees up wages for a right back and striker.

If it’s that easy to find a club for Ali J perhaps you could suggest a couple


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[Ninja Elephant]

So we're either pro AK or anti AK now? Right.
For me, club legend. End of.

It is a shame, but it's inevitable when somebody is about to leave. Personally, I'm not unhappy or necessarily surprised, but I'll never be anti-Knockaert. He is one of the main reasons we got promoted and one of the main reasons we stayed up. I don't think he's quite cut out for the Premier League but he's done brilliantly for us from start to finish and he'll always be a legend in my eyes.

 

[Luke93]

Whoooooosh.

I am talking about the same player

AK is nowhere near as good as the AK being discussed on this thread.



Oh and I didn't ghost over your comment.
You comment, like every other 'pro AK' comment is basically screaming 'he's not good enough, get rid'.

The fact that he was still better than all the others with those really really piss poor stats says more about the team last season than it does able AK's 'brilliance'.

There’s a difference being between overplaying his ‘brilliance’ and undervaluing what he brings to the squad.

Brighton are now left with 2 players yet unproven at this level, an injured winger until at least Christmas and Solly March. To say Knockaert is no where near good enough for that squad of players is one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve seen. And I’ve read #flaskgate.

 

[Stat Brother]

There’s a difference being between overplaying his ‘brilliance’ and undervaluing what he brings to the squad.

Brighton are now left with 2 players yet unproven at this level, an injured winger until at least Christmas and Solly March. To say Knockaert is no where near good enough for that squad of players is one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve seen. And I’ve read #flaskgate.

Esp as the transfer window has slammed shut and the season starts in 4 and a half hours.


God this is hard work for what was a glib, sarcy aside.

I didn't say he wasn't good enough for this squad I was inferring he wasn't as good as the player being discussed.
I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear enough.

 

[Sorrel]

Hopefully we'll be singing "You've got Knockaert" when we play today.

 

[Triggaaar]

A new contract WOULD be needed for each occasion because of the length of the deal, for example a new player signs on a 5 year deal earning 5k more per week than Dunk is earning, Dunk may think, i'd rather stay as i am and run down my existing contract therefore making him more attractive to other clubs.

That's without having a 'highest earner' clause. A highest earner clause would mean either a) we don't sign anyone on more than that player, or b) that player gets an automatic pay rise. They wouldn't also get an extra year on their contract, and if they had a highest earner clause they wouldn't have to accept another year on their contract either. In your example, if Dunk chose to stay as he was and run down his existing contract, then he would be on less money than the new signing, so he clearly wouldn't have a highest earner clause, as he wouldn't be the highest earner.

As for the being set up for the premier league, yes it was always the intention, however we have stated on a few occasions that we have been surprised by the fees, wage demands etc.

Since we started our journey to the PL, fees and wages have risen, so it makes sense that we'd have been surprised. Not many players can expect to get a 'highest earner' clause though. To get that they need to be good enough that everyone thinks they'll be the best player we have for the next 5 years. That should never be the case for a defender outside the top few clubs (IMO). It shouldn't be the case for any Championship player if the destination is the PL, where we would obviously need to sign better players.

As for Knocky, i can imagine his agent making such demands when he was rewarded with a new contract after we won promotion and his client was player of the year, not just for us, for the whole league.

And we'd have simply said that we'll need to be signing even better players if we're to make a success of the PL. He wasn't getting offers from PL teams, he loved it here and needed stability after the loss of his father, so he wasn't in such a great bargaining position to be making such demands.

That doesn't mean we are being run by amateurs, just that we really didn't want to lose our best player, you are seeing peoples opinions now, imagine if we had lost him when we got promoted.

Who were we going to lose him to? PL teams weren't after him.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Never seen March rip a PL team like AK has done.

At the start of last season March was our best player for a number of games.

 

[Stat Brother]

At the start of last season March was our best player for a number of games.

Much like AK's stats.

Being the best player, in that team, under those instructions, doesn't necessarily mean he was any good.

 

[NorthStandSteward]

I agree. As gutted as I am, and I'm reeaallly gutted, if we'd sold March I would have felt even worse. To me Knocky is a huge loss but March is the better player over all. It's amazing really that here we are in the Premier League and after spending millions of pounds, our two local lads are still arguably our two best players.

Could March ever produce a season even close to Knocky's in the championship!?!

March is the definition of bang average, if he were listed for sale the only clubs interested would be teams at the bottom of the Championship at best.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Much like AK's stats.

Being the best player, in that team, under those instructions, doesn't necessarily mean he was any good.

True, but he was the best player on the pitch when we beat Man United.

 

[Nixonator]

Could March ever produce a season even close to Knocky's in the championship!?!

March is the definition of bang average, if he were listed for sale the only clubs interested would be teams at the bottom of the Championship at best.

 

[Wellesley]

Could March ever produce a season even close to Knocky's in the championship!?!

March is the definition of bang average, if he were listed for sale the only clubs interested would be teams at the bottom of the Championship at best.

You're weird.

 

[casbom]

If we’re struggling and Knocky is tearing up the Championship, NSC will be unbearable this season. We just need to bear in mind that at the top level, he’s not made the same impact. In fact, a couple of times he’s been a liability and at the latter end of last season seemed far more interested in waving his arms about and moaning at team-mates than knuckling down.

Not happy to lose him with the others unproven and March inconsistent, but will trust for now that it frees up comparatively high wages (and a squad place) for use in more important areas. If that doesn’t happen in this transfer window, I can’t see us surviving and will feel a bit sorry for the new boss.

Of course, IF we do go down, there’s a chance we might see Knocky in an Albion shirt again, given the reported structure of the deal.

This bit is the crucial bit for me, it's a safety net in case we do go back down then (if it is structured that way) we can have Knocky back for the Championship after we've sold off Ali J, Trossard and Izquierdo.

 

[kemptown kid]

An integral part of our amazing journey over the past few years - deep personal ties to the club and fans and a genuine game changer on occasion (his wonder goal and celebrations at Palace THE highlight of last season). An Albion legend for all time, notwithstanding a few lapses. Merci et bonne chance Knocky.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Could March ever produce a season even close to Knocky's in the championship!?!

March is the definition of bang average, if he were listed for sale the only clubs interested would be teams at the bottom of the Championship at best.

I can only assume you steward facing the crowd


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[NorthStandSteward]

I can only assume you steward facing the crowd


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Was a steward when I was at Sussex, been a seasson ticketer for the last four seasons.

Upper East, excellent view . . .

 

[Triggaaar]

You’ve selectively missed out half my post to make it look like that’s what i meant.

No, I haven't. I haven't tried to make it look like something different. You said "People losing their shit way too much on this thread." You said "The transfer window is always a sum of its parts." You said lots of other things too. I wasn't wanting to comment on those things you said.

What I did want to comment on was your point that you would rather have AK than Ali J or Locadia. Regardless of the other things you've said in your life, I should be able to comment on that alone. If you think we're better off (from a playing perspective) with AK than Ali J or Locadia (and I agree), then (unless AK really wanted out, which seems extremely unlikely) the only reason it would make sense to let him go was if it made a big difference financially. The figures we're hearing are not going to make a big difference financially. We could have easily loaned Locadia or Ali J out instead, with the idea that if they proved themselves in the Championship they'd then get a chance in the PL, if that's what Potter had wanted.

as Zamora points out Knocky may well have a "match highest earner" clause in his contract which is proving problematic in attracting those two players.

If that was the case, he could just say no to the loan and get a pay rise when we sign someone else. Or, if he doesn't want to do that, he could agree to remove the clause. Before anyone asks 'why would he remove the clause?', first answer 'why would he agree to go on loan which effectively does the same thing?'.

And as @Mo Gosfield correctly points out AK is simply too erratic for the PL.

And that's a fair opinion, which would mean he's going because we think we'll do better with the likes of Locadia and AJ (or they might go too etc). What I was disagreeing with was the idea that the club decide AK is better, but get rid of him anyway. That, IMO, would be a shit way to run the club.

If you’d quoted the whole thing you’d see I said to judge the window at its end, that we’ve replaced AK with Trossard (unknown quantity right now) and that I hope moving off a top 10 earner frees up wages for a right back and striker.

But I don't disagree with that comment. I don't need to highlight all of your comments that I agree with and reply 'agree'. I will judge it all at the end, and maybe then it will make more sense to us. What I disagree with is the idea that we get rid of the better player and keep the worse players, unless there's really good financial reason (which it seems there isn't).

If it’s that easy to find a club for Ali J perhaps you could suggest a couple

If Potter decided he wasn't good enough yet, then I suggest we'd tell him he didn't do as well in his first season as we'd all hoped, and he's not going to be in the squad of 25 for the first half of the season, and that it would be a good idea for him to go on loan to a Championship side with the hope he rejoins us at the winter break. Plenty of Championship clubs would be interested.