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

[Lower West Stander]

How depressing.

I’m not his biggest fan but I would’ve thought we’d have at least got someone else in first. Trossard is all we’ve bought and he’s totally unproven.

The pages of NSC have been filled with potentially selling Dunk and AK probably our two highest profile players.

Meantime we are being linked with a bunch of foreign players no one has ever heard of and youngsters who will vanish into the U23s never to be seen again.

I really hope there’s a couple of potential signings we don’t know about but with three weeks left I’m not holding out much hope.

Unless Potter is a miracle worker, I can’t see us doing much with the same team as last year minus a couple of our best players ( if Dunk goes). The teams coming up are way better than the ones relegated.

Losing my mojo.....


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[kevo]

He’s only been gone 3 hours and the rose tinted better than he actually is thing has already kicked in.

Knockaert our best player?!

No-one said that. Whatever you do, don't start an argument about Brexit.

 

[kevo]

Sorry, i've backed the club for a lot of things, but I have absolutely no idea why we've done this. We survived by 2 points over 3 shocking premier league teams last year, we need to strengthen, not weaken. We're a team, who you could kindly describe as functional with very few creative options. What exactly is going on behind the scenes on this one?

So on this thread, i've heard, it frees up wages - For who exactly? Maupay? Would he even get on the bench? ....
... Then I've heard Trossard is the replacement, well probably he is. But we have no idea if he is actually any good. He may have played well in the Belgian league, but as we know, that's no guarantee he can make the transition to English football quickly, if at all ....
....Then there was some bloody idiot that was arguing we were better off as Ali J, would finally get a run in the side. Well if he had played well enough (or possibly if he did anything useful at all) to displace our first choice winger over the course of the season, he would have had more of a chance in the side.

Finally, if we're going to sell, then let's sell. We can get up front cash, which we can throw at getting someone with the quality to keep us up, but no. £10m, which we will get at the end of the season. Even if we do stay up, the transfer market will have gone up by another 20% by then.

Maybe the club are going to pull something spectacular out of the fire in the next couple of weeks. Maybe Potter has the (frankly astonishing) ability to make Locadia and Ali J better wingers than Knockeart. Maybe Izquierdo is closer to fitness than we think and he's had the epiphany that it's permissible in the laws of football to beat a defender on the left. But if none of these things are true, this is an incredible reckless gamble, with negligible upside and gigantic downside.

I'm feeling really bad about this, but at least i'm not the bloke who got his name printed on the new shirt for his kid. That's the only thing cheering me up right now

Excellent post, but I hope that fella gets a refund.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Have to agree, whilst be did blow hot and cold, he was one of those players who could get bums off seats, I am not too sure how many other players in our team do that..?

Not sure about this decision, seems to me a strange one?

Is it one where the money tied up in the deal was too good to turn down?
Or, his attitude wasn’t good and the club decided to part company?

I know we have a few wingers and at some cost, but has AK been worse than AJ last season?

The fact that a good player has been shipped out on loan, not sold to a bid too good to refuse, should tell you all you need to know.

Team harmony always comes first and if he behaves in training like he does on the pitch, I’m sure some won’t be too upset to see him leave.

Plus we have freed up a big chunk of wages, so I guess we should standby for incoming.

 

[Hugo Rune]

It wasn't against Man City, but here is evidence of Knockaert doing exactly what you are suggesting he cannot:

https://twitter.com/officialbhafc/status/693039154154774529

I would guess that Potter would have been quite happy to use him.

So it wasn’t Potter’s decision to get rid?

Bizarre.

 

[Nitram]

It would seem that the club are desperate to move the lad on, I can't make sense of the decision unless this is the reason. Peculiar situation.

 

[Springal]

Also was he not part of the rumoured Casino / drinking 3?

 

[drew]

Yes, the most important bit, you mean? Because if we are not in the PL, then PB can waive bye bye to his silly high prices in the lounges and all the other stuff that is 'PL ready'...

Are you really suggesting PB should have some involvement in the team being PL ready or not? I think most understand the thinking behind the philosophy whether or not you like PB himself.

 

[Solid at the back]

Can anyone sum up the deal? How does this benefit us now?

He wasn't great in PL, and initially I wasn't against the idea of selling him, if we reinvested the funds back into the first team, but in my eyes this just makes us weeker.

I get what the club are doing, I do. I think last season was a real wake up call in that if we did go down we would of had those big signings on big wages in the second tier. But I'm still not convinced that the signings were any good in the first place.
So far it seems that they don't want to spend, and that's fair enough, but it kind of seems that we're trying to balance the books, so that if we do go down this season, we can have a go at getting back up next. Kind of the opposite to what Fulham have done, because they've pumped in the money the last 3 seasons now, but if they don't get promoted, albeit, unlikely, they're stuffed.

 

[Zebedee]

Can anyone sum up the deal? How does this benefit us now?

He wasn't great in PL, and initially I wasn't against the idea of selling him, if we reinvested the funds back into the first team, but in my eyes this just makes us weeker.

And so say all of us.

 

[Weststander]

Can anyone sum up the deal? How does this benefit us now?

He wasn't great in PL, and initially I wasn't against the idea of selling him, if we reinvested the funds back into the first team, but in my eyes this just makes us weeker.

I get what the club are doing, I do. I think last season was a real wake up call in that if we did go down we would of had those big signings on big wages in the second tier. But I'm still not convinced that the signings were any good in the first place.
So far it seems that they don't want to spend, and that's fair enough, but it kind of seems that we're trying to balance the books, so that if we do go down this season, we can have a go at getting back up next. Kind of the opposite to what Fulham have done, because they've pumped in the money the last 3 seasons now, but if they don't get promoted, albeit, unlikely, they're stuffed.

We can spend another £45m in fees this summer and increase the wage bill, and still balance the books.

 

[Solid at the back]

And so say all of us.

To me it seems that we had a go last couple of season in terms of investment, but the board didn't feel they saw an improvement in performances. Change of manager to maybe get the "best" out of them to save reinvestment incase we went down this season, with players on big money. So maybe we're planning for next season now? And if we stay up, that's a bonus? I dunno... I'm confused with what our plan/ambition is so far.
That's not a dig, I have full faith in the board.

 

[chaileyjem]

Jeezus.

You said “I assume you think we've signed 1-2 decent players in the last few years“

I said “ you assume incorrectly”

And you’ve drawn the above conclusion.

I actually think we’ve signed quite a few decent players, but we’ve also signed some PUPs.

Double negative miscommunication there.

Gotcha.

Apologies

 

[Solid at the back]

We can spend another £45m in fees this summer and increase the wage bill, and still balance the books.

How did you get to that figure?

 

[GT49er]

Tom Barclay is reporting that it is a 1 year loan with option to buy for £10m at end of 12 months.
If Fulham don't take up the option then its a £4m loan fee for the season.

Yes, somebody mentioned on here yesterday that that is what The S*n reported. Put like that, it looks like a great deal for Fulham - they can use him to get promoted, and then give him back (OK, plus $4M) when they don't want him in the PL - but I can't see it's that great a deal for us. Who actually decides whether Fulham hand him back or buy him after the season - do we have a say? Even if they do buy, £10M doesn't seem great business on our behalf.

I could understand us selling him for a good price, but this deal does look a bit odd. Almost as if we were trying to get shot of him for some reason ....................

 

[chaileyjem]

How depressing.

I’m not his biggest fan but I would’ve thought we’d have at least got someone else in first. Trossard is all we’ve bought and he’s totally unproven

Meantime we are being linked with a bunch of foreign players no one has ever heard of and youngsters who will vanish into the U23s never to be seen again.

I really hope there’s a couple of potential signings we don’t know about but with three weeks left I’m not holding out much hope.

Unless Potter is a miracle worker, I can’t see us doing much with the same team as last year minus a couple of our best players ( if Dunk goes).

Trossard isn’t unproven
And all reports say
Dunk isn’t going anywhere
We intend to make more signings
We’ve been linked with multiple expensive players you have heard of, of which some aren’t foreign and aren’t headed for the u23s.

 

[Weststander]

How did you get to that figure?

I asked @El Pres on here a few weeks back what our transfer fees budget will be this summer (after someone gloomily said the club is pot-less this summer). He replied that our budget is at least on a par with last summer’s. We’ve only spent £14m on Trossard and £3.5m on Clarke so far.

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

I don't think this decision is anything to with Potter. I think Potter is just purely a coach and transfers seem to be in Ashworth's hands. A sign of things to come.
Very sad day for me when are clubs transfer policy is not dictated by the the guy choosing the tactics.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I asked @El Pres on here a few weeks back what our transfer fees budget will be this summer (after someone gloomily said the club is pot-less this summer). He replied that our budget is at least on a par with last summer’s. We’ve only spent £14m on Trossard and £3.5m on Clarke so far.

We've had a £2million+ profit from the sale of Ales Mateju, and reportedly a £4million loan fee for AK.

 

[Weststander]

I don't think this decision is anything to with Potter. I think Potter is just purely a coach and transfers seem to be in Ashworth's hands. A sign of things to come.
Very sad day for me when are clubs transfer policy is not dictated by the the guy choosing the tactics.

Shirley Potter would be consulted on whether AK is key to his plans or not.

The Albion don’t operate a European club system, where the club president imposes players on here today/gone tomorrow head coaches.