[Albion] Paul Barber: The Transfer Window

[Baker lite]

Not sure what's more alarming,the fact we have no striker for Saturday or that so many have fallen for this old guff.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Its interesting to read that and chimes with what most of us assumed and understood. I think most of us are pissed off that we haven't got another striker, but it doesn't automatically follow we should be pissed off with the club - I'm most annoyed at Deportivo for pulling Andone back, at Janssen for leading us on and turning us down, at Dwamena's ticker for being wobbly. It sounds like the club have worked exceptionally hard all summer and circumstances have gotten in the way. I think in many ways that's better than signing someone like Mounie or Abraham early and then rubbing your hands and having a lie down. They wanted to get strikers better than what we already have, couldn' get them but it doesn't mean they should have settled for less.

Secondly, PB shouldn't get quite so annoyed about what was written on NSC or social media, things like 'we should have done our transfer business early' was obviously twaddle from the outset. And it is becoming more and more clear that the loudest voices on NSC are more and more out of touch with what Brighton fans are really like.

 

[Icy Gull]

We do have three of top championship quality already, the only point of another one would be if we think both Murray and Baldock are out injured for a long time. But they must have assumed Andone was in the bag for most of the last couple of days, and then that plug got pulled

We needed two more strikers, one could have been on a par with what we have to boost the numbers and give us options. History is being rewritten here suggesting that we only targeted the one. I am pretty sure CH said they were after two as soon as last season finished. The fact that we were apparently willing to sell Hemed if we got our marquee signing suggests we were only ever going to end up with gaining one and losing one come the end of the window. That would still have left us with just the three.

Currently we have two strikers who are very alike and one who spends large swathes of every season injured.

If this all sounds like reasonable planning to you who that's fine, it looks like a cock up to me.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Shut up Barber.

If you cock up you deserve criticism. End of.

Exactly this.

I have a lot of time for Paul's interaction with the fans, but i have first hand experience of his backing of short term staff ahead of long term customers.

He really needs to listen to feedback more and be less rigid, if he wants a stronger backing from the fans.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

We needed two more strikers, one could have been on a par with what we have to boost the numbers and give us options. History is being rewritten here suggesting that we only targeted the one. I am pretty sure CH said they were after two as soon as last season finished. The fact that we were apparently willing to sell Hemed if we got our marquee signing so we were only ever going to end up with gaining one and losing one come the end of the window. That would still not have been enough imo.

Currently we have two strikers who are very alike and one who spends large swathes of every season injured.

If this all sounds like reasonable planning to you who that's fine, it looks like a cock up to me.

Well, Brown and Gross are both touted as number 10's It was always worth going for better strikers than we already had, and I'm sure they were going for two. But we couldn't get them, no point settling for a Niasse or a Mounie in that situation

 

[withdeanwombat]

I much preferred the old system of buying players through the season if you needed them, then The Argus announcing who'd been signed two days later.

The transfer window is total nonsense dreamed up by half wits and taken over by the ridiculous Sky-hype. Only 117 days til the window creaks open, Jim.

 

[fosters headband]

We do have three of top championship quality already, the only point of another one would be if we think both Murray and Baldock are out injured for a long time. But they must have assumed Andone was in the bag for most of the last couple of days, and then that plug got pulled

Am I correct in thinking that Andone really wanted to come here and had a release clause in his contract that could have made that happen?

 

[Icy Gull]

Well, Brown and Gross are both touted as number 10's It was always worth going for better strikers than we already had, and I'm sure they were going for two. But we couldn't get them, no point settling for a Niasse or a Mounie in that situation

I haven't seen enough of Brown to argue with that but what little I've seen of Gross he certainly doesn't fit the bill as a back up striker to me. That is not a knock I'm sure he'll be OK but a striker he ain't.

 

[hart's shirt]

- it’s a complete myth that the best transfer business is always done early; if transfers can be done early in the window, they will be. If transfers are not done early, there’s usually a very good reason.

- equally, it’s a myth that transfers late in the window are “panic buys” or the player must have been “low on our list”; it can be the complete opposite: sometimes transfers just take all the time available.

'It's also a fallacy to view as 'failures' any transfers that would have addressed key positional deficiencies but didn't take place within the 4 and half months that have elapsed since promotion. That's short-term thinking. Sometimes things naturally take longer. A baby needs 9 months. 4 and half months is only half of that. And who'd want half a baby? Not Mother Nature, not me and certainly not our Chairman. And probably not our paying customers and supporters. The next 4 and half months will see us through to the next transfer window. That's when our whole baby striker will be born ready to face the world - a world full of unfair and harsh internet criticism from customers/supporters.

The club are planning to officially recognize this 9 month anniversary with 'welcome baby Brighton striker' happy-nappy white flags for supporters to wave at the home game against Chelsea on Saturday 20th January 2018. The flags will be made out of biodegradable organic cotton and will have a nappy pattern printed on the reverse. This will allow supporters to keep the flag, leave it in a service station ready for a middle aged Crystal Palace supporter whose life aspiration is to set one on fire, or cut it out and use it as protection against bedtime wetness. To help with ordering requirements, club stewards will using the security frisk for all supporters over forthcoming home matches to primarily identify different sizes of posterior. As a club, we believe in hands-on experience for all our employees from the bottom up, so don't be surprised to see club officials getting involved. We're never afraid to get our hands dirty.

With 30,000 paying customers/supporters involved, it's fair to say that a big job is expected with the nappy flags. It might involve a squeeze on the day itself. So we'll need some additional happy-nappy chappies, chapesses and those identifying as non-binary or gender-neutral to help out with sizing customers/supporters in the weeks leading up. The Chairman has agreed to the creation of a number of temporary paid (minimum wage - we need to start saving money for baby striker!) roles to assist with sizing. As well as inside the AMEX, external locations are available including Brighton Station, Preston Park, the Palace Pier (underneath just after midnight), Wild Fruit nightclub and Duke's Mound. Actually, we're considering Hove too, but only for those born and bred there.

I hope that this additional note will help to clear up any unresolved questions that supporters may have about potential striker signings.

As always however, all feedback is appreciated.

Even criticism.

Honestly.

PB

P.S. Can't guarantee a striker though.'

 

[Lower West Stander]

I really don't think Barber helps himself sometimes with the tone of his communications.

Saying we are entitled to our opinion is very gracious of him - but it just smacks of patronising. Same as the disclaimer at the bottom of ticketing emails threatening pain of death if season ticket holders give their ticket to a mate.

If he wants to have a genuine connection with the fans, a greater ability to truly empathise with us is needed.




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[Triggaaar]

Well, Brown and Gross are both touted as number 10's

I thought Gross was a midfielder?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I think Barber's responses here is pretty reasonable. Most of the points are brief and I think if he expanded on them he'd adequately address a lot of the knee-jerk anti-Barber reaction in this thread. Step back from the negative emotions of failing to get a striker in, and take a few minutes to consider both what (and how) he's written as well as what he's very carefully not written but still alluded to and I think most here will realise that he, and the club, are just as disappointed as we are. The key difference between us and Barber, is Barber's already moved on and set aside that disappointment - for the club, the focus is now on the future. There's no point dwelling on the past except to learn the lessons from where things went wrong, and Barber's pretty clear here that that's what they are aiming to do.

I think also that, reading between the lines, we got caught out with targets we'd done a lot of work for ultimately not becoming available because moves at other clubs also didn't happen. Transfers are like buying houses; there's often a bit of a chain that needs to be worked through, and if the first domino fails to fall (or falls too late) then the entire chain falls apart. It sounds like that happened to us with some of our targets, and simultaneously we got unlucky with the chain-free targets (Dwamena in particular).





That's a little unfair given what we know. We had 4 deals that were all-but executed and all failed as a result of external factors beyond our control. At least one of those (Dwamena) was a striker, and one of the others may have been Andone - making two strikers missed due to what are normally pretty rare factors.





Don't take what he wrote personally. It wasn't aimed at any individual. It wasn't particularly aimed at all, to be honest. It's a very fair assessment of the range of stuff that's been directed at the club since the window closed. I think it's entirely fair (and a very good thing) that Barber acknowledges the full range of feedback received, be it positive or negative. I prefer to see it acknowledged than swept under the rug. As long as they've taken the time to consider what lies beneath the negative commentary (which, I believe, they have based on some of his other comments).





Nope, I'd rather see him acknowledge that he's seen it, and digested it. Ignoring it can sometimes be the worst thing to do, because the spite and vitriol can often simply be a layer over the top of what is otherwise perfectly valid comments. I hope the club has someone there with the skill to wade through it all. As I noted above, my suspicion is they have done the wading - there's a few clues in what he's written (and, notably, what he hasn't written - some careful reading between the lines is needed).





Pretty fair response here, with the exception that I don't think what he's written was intended to be viewed as excuses. One of the careful bits of reading between the lines I mentioned being necessary is where and how he talks about how disappointed and frustrated the club were/are. I think, for those willing to read and digest his comments, it's pretty clear that the club knows they've failed to land a key recruitment and are as unhappy about that as we are - but they also know there's now nothing they can do about it until January, and they're moving on to work with what they've got. And that's exactly what they should be doing.

I think you're probably right that the list of potential strikers may have been too narrow, but I think it's also fair to say that we were unlucky with 4 targets (including at least 1, possibly 2, strikers) being missed through no fault of the clubs. And while it's not been stated explicitly, I think it's pretty clear that Janssen is who Barber's referring to when he says "when a player decides not to join a club, it’s often about him wanting to stay with the club he’s at, rather than snubbing the club courting him".






He's not said they aren't allowed to post unreasonable opinions. But, as supporters of the club, I firmly believe that it is our responsibility to not create an environment or atmosphere at the club that unreasonably places constraints on their ability to do the very best they can with the situation the club now finds itself re: the squad. We're very lucky to have a club that's very well run in the main (far, far better than many others). They've over many years done the majority of the work right to firstly rebuild the club, and then get us promoted to the Prem. That staff now needs to be given the trust and support to continue to do their best for the club; sending unreasonable, spiteful, destructive messages their way will do the exact opposite. I know many here will say "well, they should grow a ticker skin", but I speak from experience of working the last 10+ years in roles that involve collecting, digesting, and responding to public feedback. It doesn't matter how thick a skin you have: sustained, unreasonable, spiteful and targeted opinions will always result in reduced morale. And reduced morale results in reduced performance.

That's not to say that negative opinions can't be sent to the club. It's not the opinions themselves that are necessarily the problem; the problem is in how those opinions are expressed. It's called "constructive criticism".





The mistake you're making here is interpreting his comments in context of NSC only. But that's not what he's responding to here: he's talking about NSC, about Twitter, about Facebook, about emails and letters sent directly to the club that none of us have seen (or ever likely will). The worst of the personal attacks will most likely have been sent anonymously, and privately, direct to the club. Because at the end of the day, the sorts of people who stoop to that sort of thing are generally cowards and won't want public scrutiny (especially on platforms where they could be tracked and de-anonymised).

Given the length of your own replies I can see why you're such a fan of Barber.

I can't be arsed to read all this.

 

[Baker lite]

I think most of us are pissed off that we haven't got another striker.

Another?
We haven't even got one now,let alone another.


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[Deleted member 2719]

If he wants to have a genuine connection with the fans, a greater ability to truly empathise with us is needed.




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Spot on again, the worrying thing is i think this genuine lack of empathy is filtering downwards within the Albion.

 

[timbha]

Spot on again, the worrying thing is i think this genuine lack of empathy is filtering downwards within the Albion.

Genuinely interested - how do you think PB could have expressed such empathy. My take on it is while we can sit around expressing our disappointment, what we would/could have done better, etc, PB and his team have a club to run (that includes amongst many other things comms with the fans).

 

[Napier's Knee]

I accept PBs arguments, and i'm not saying they are going to finish any higher than us, but how come Huddersfield seem not to have had these problems? Either they signed who they wanted or they managed to keep failures under wraps very well. Evidently we have things to learn from them

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Genuinely interested - how do you think PB could have expressed such empathy. My take on it is while we can sit around expressing our disappointment, what we would/could have done better, etc, PB and his team have a club to run (that includes amongst many other things comms with the fans).

If you look a couple of post up i have praised his communication, but the lack of genuine lack empathy does appear obvious to me.

All i am saying is he can do better unless he is an android.

 

[Deadly Danson]

If you look a couple of post up i have praised his communication, but the lack of genuine lack empathy does appear obvious to me.

All i am saying is he can do better unless he is an android.


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What do you want - some sobbing emojis, for him to tell us he sat up all night head in hands screaming "what have we done?", for him to tell us he feels he has let us all down and he begs forgiveness? Albion fans are so bloody needy. He's told us his side, we didn't get a striker - it's bloody annoying but this post mortem is going to last longer than the transfer window.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

What do you want - some sobbing emojis, for him to tell us he sat up all night head in hands screaming "what have we done?", for him to tell us he feels he has let us all down and he begs forgiveness? Albion fans are so bloody needy. He's told us his side, we didn't get a striker - it's bloody annoying but this post mortem is going to last longer than the transfer window.

Great idea.

 

[Weststander]

Given the length of your own replies I can see why you're such a fan of Barber.

I can't be arsed to read all this.

I rate PB, but also couldn't be bothered to read the essay.