Nick Szczepanik Tweets Poyet hearing Monday now!

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Can't we just break up with him over the phone, like you would a girlfriend?

Simples ...

Listen Gus, we're just not right for you.

It's not you, it's me.

You're just too good for us.

Anyway bye, oh do you have "Adventurous" Julie's number? Just wondered ...hello .... hello?

 

[rusty redeyes]

People say contracts in football are not worth the paper they're written on. This would certainly seem to be the case from the club's point of view. Gus happily signed a 5-year deal guaranteeing him income in the eventuality the club were to sack him if results were poor. The club mitigated their risk by inserting the compensation clause for £2.5mill. Yet Gus seems to be holding all the aces.

Management jobs always come up, if he should miss the boat this summer he's only got to wait until October when no doubt two or three of Norwich / Fulham / Sunderland / West Ham / Newcastle will be getting twitchy. The same will apply in La Liga. Plenty of jobs, plenty of golf. Meanwhile, the Albion can kiss goodbye to that £2.5million, baulk at the legal fees currently being racked up and despair as potential signings disappear one by one.

I think you can add Southampton to that list, their manager got twitchy towards the end of last season, Villa, will their board and fans stomach a bad start and Swansea with the Laudrup/Agent/Chairman fallout

 

[elninobonito]

Gus is back in the UK, just landed from Malaga. If I tell you how I know this I may loose my job, but hes is 100% back in the UK.

 

[littlehampton seagull]

Gus is back in the UK, just landed from Malaga. If I tell you how I know this I may loose my job, but hes is 100% back in the UK.

The plot thickens

 

[Pavilionaire]

If both GP and the club are playing 'hardball' - i.e. GP won't quit and the club won't pay off his contract - then this could drag on for months, not weeks, irrespective of how justified the club may or may not be in imposing the suspension.

It is contract law that is relevant in this case, not employment law per se, and if the suspension could be shown to have been unjustified could cost the club far more than just the outstanding value of the contract.

I suspect that's where we're at on this.

People on here have been preoccupied with players that we might have missed out on, but I'm starting to wonder whether the more significant point all along has been the managerial jobs that Gus has been missing out on. If Bloom could turn back the clock you wonder whether he'd take a mutual parting of the ways and contracts being ripped up the day after the Palace defeat.

 

[backson]

The plot thickens

And you were saying he doesn't give a shit

 

[Joe Gatting's Dad]

If we grant Gus his wish to resign then it actually costs us nothing if he is replaced by someone better - Tanno and Charlie might still need to be compensated though.

 

[Goldstone76]

Gus a pundit for the BBC's coverage of the Confederation Cup then..http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22843441

 

[Mackenzie]

let him go to swansea - a dump of a town - he wont understand any of the accent, no spanish restaurants...

...i would love it if he went there and took them down.

Really?

 

[littlehampton seagull]

And you were saying he doesn't give a shit

I still think he does not any more. Think he has been unhappy at the albion for some time now but like I said for 3 years was a great manager and having met him a few times a great guy. Just think his heart is no longer in the job so for that reason he has to go.

 

[Easy 10]

Well if there wasn't a clearly demonstrable case of "gross misconduct" or some other clear breach of contract then the suspensions make no sense unless legal advice wasn't taken before the suspensions were imposed.

When you're talking about millions of pounds which may or may not be going to one party or the other, then eees complicated, hence the suspensions while both parties prepare their cases. But without knowing what the allegations are, we are just pissing in the dark.

Its hurting the club though, its hurting the preperations for next season, and the longer this drags on the worse it gets. Gus no doubt knows this, so by default, his position will get stronger as the club gets more desperate to get this bloody thing resolved.

 

[Easy 10]

If we grant Gus his wish to resign then it actually costs us nothing if he is replaced by someone better - Tanno and Charlie might still need to be compensated though.

If we accept Gus's resignation, then we are writing off the £2.5m compensation which would have been due from whoever next employs his services.

Looks like that could well end up happening if this drags on much longer.

 

[father_and_son]

If the investigation is not yet concluded because Gus [and CO] is on holiday then what do you think would be happening in terms of transfer negotiations while he's... on holiday?

No more, that's for sure.

Whenever is scheduled holiday is due to end is the point at which anyone can start to get concerned about missing the boat in the market place. Some of you seem to have got yourselves seriously wound up rather too early.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

If we sack him, then unless it was for gross misconduct, we'd have to pay him off - and as he still has about 2 and a half years left on his current deal, that would be a substantial amount of money. This is presumably, (as nobody really knows), the rub, and why it is taking forever, while the lawyers pick over whether he has breached his contract.

If we simply let him walk away, if we just tear up his contract and let him mince off to join another club, then TB is writing off about £2.5m in compensation we should be receiving if another club poached him.

In either scenario, the club is loses out. TB is going through due process - thats not being a moron, thats protecting his and the clubs best interests.

Why are so many assuming his guilt?

It may be that a serious allegation was made, (possibly by a disgruntled (ex-)employee) and the club have to investigate this and be seen to be doing a proper investigation and not just a whitewashing / cover up exercise.

It could reach a conclusion that there was nothing to answer for and those involved are cleared of any wrong doing.

We don't know any details so why all the presumptions of guilt just because the club have suspended them and it's taken this long so far to reach a proper conclusion?

 

[ROSM]

Would that be a disciplinary matter if they were asked to come in, in advance, but chose not to?

Not at all. There needs to be reasonable notice. There also needs to be an opportunity to have a representative available and review any documents that are key to the hearing.

If say, the proposal on the table is a compromise agreement (so in effect there isn't enough evidence to be convinced of a dismissal standing up, or there isn't the appetite to fight a prima facie valid case) then these get quite complex and take days of negotiating.

It may be that Gus has been told there is no case to answer and has said he believes the employee relationship (which is based on mutual trust) had irretrievably broken down and he has pushed for a settlement.

Either way, not attending isn't in itself a failure provided notice was given.

But I would say, from what has been said on nsc today that

a) Gus being on holiday was known before today,

b) he was advised on weds that no offer was ready for today,

It would seem someone was being mischievous yesterday by letting it be know a meeting was today and then this morning letting it be known Gus wasn't attending.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Why are so many assuming his guilt?

Many on here decided very quickly that he was the devil incarnate and everything from poogate to the holocaust was his fault - actually not knowing anything at all has not stopped them making it all up and mouthing off. I'm sure they feel better for it.

 

[ROSM]

If we accept Gus's resignation, then we are writing off the £2.5m compensation which would have been due from whoever next employs his services.

Looks like that could well end up happening if this drags on much longer.

To be clear, if he resigned, he would normally have to pay us!

 

[Easy 10]

Why are so many assuming his guilt?

It may be that a serious allegation was made, (possibly by a disgruntled (ex-)employee) and the club have to investigate this and be seen to be doing a proper investigation and not just a whitewashing / cover up exercise.

It could reach a conclusion that there was nothing to answer for and those involved are cleared of any wrong doing.

We don't know any details so why all the presumptions of guilt just because the club have suspended them and it's taken this long so far to reach a proper conclusion?

I'm not assuming his guilt at all. Like everyone else, I don't even know what it is he's supposed to have done.

The best case scenario as far as I was concerned was for Gus to be cleared of all wrongdoing, and continue in the job. But its gone on too long for that to happen now, bridges have probably been burned, and the result is that we are going to lose the best manager we've had here since Mullery.

Like everyone else, I'm just desperate for this to get resolved so we can move on and get out of this increasingly catastrophic state of limbo.

 

[The Stout Yeoman]

Plenty of BA flights coming into Gatwick from Malaga today

And you can guarantee there's a spare seat can you ?

 

[Easy 10]

To be clear, if he resigned, he would normally have to pay us!

Well, we don't know the ins and outs of his contract so that may not necessarily be the case. If he resigned to go to another club that wanted him, then he could reasonably expect that club to buy him out of his contract with us, which would in effect be the compensation we were due. As it stands though, nobody else wants him. If Gus had to buy himself out by resigning, I can't honestly see why TB would turn that down in favour of this current situation, so I'm not sure thats ever been on the table.