Paul Samrah

[Biscuit]

The increasing no-shows this season, will be further not-renewing next season.

This is very true and should be very worrying for the board. We are not a cheap club to go and watch, and when people have a ticket, but decide not to go anyway, that should ring alarm bells.

 

[Mellotron]

Why would we open to offers ? He signed a new improved contract only at end of July and presumably sees his future at the Albion. We aren't looking to sell players . Bridcutt, Buckley and Ulloa all wanted to leave (at the end of the season) and all wanted to go the Premier League and all didn't want to stay. We weren't looking to sell them. And thats it out of a 25 man squad. Just because we've lost a couple of matches this season doesn't mean all bets are off. SELL EVERYONE. does it.

Signing a new contract means absolutely nothing other than that we might get more money when we sell. You think Dunk WOULDN'T want to play in the Prem? It's every young footballers ambition. He'd be off like a shot. The club have stated numerous times that they will not keep players at the club against their wishes.

 

[clippedgull]

Why would we open to offers ? He signed a new improved contract only at end of July and presumably sees his future at the Albion. We aren't looking to sell players . Bridcutt, Buckley and Ulloa all wanted to leave (at the end of the season) and all wanted to go the Premier League and all didn't want to stay. We weren't looking to sell them. And thats it out of a 25 man squad. Just because we've lost a couple of matches this season doesn't mean all bets are off. SELL EVERYONE. does it.

Contracts mean nothing regarding players wishes to stay at a club. It just gives the parent club a bit more clout when/if the inevitable happens. If a Premier Club comes in for Dunk/JFC/ or March they will be off if the bidding club meets our valuation. You think otherwise?

 

[chaileyjem]

Fair play if that's how things are.

You don't believe him then ?

 

[London Irish]

Paul is clearly a top bloke but I think he's a bit off with this comment. Baldock will cost (if he hasn't already) about what we paid for Ulloa.

Hindsight is great and we were lucky with Ulloa and it clouds trying to make a comparison now, but I reckon Baldock looked less of a gamble than Ulloa did at the time we picked him up.

I'm not suggesting for a second that Baldock will deliver the same success as Ulloa did, but it's far too early to tell. Baldock has only started four games, has had to deal with injury and has been dropped into a team still trying to learn how to play as they have been asked. Ulloa only scored twice in his first six Albion games.

Have to respectfully disagree - Baldock's pedigree has been well established over past few years, and it's not a great one. By contrast outperformance in Spanish second division is a higher level of success. Yes, Ulloa far exceeded all baseline expectations that's true but buying two lower level Champ/League 1 strikers in COG and Baldock looks total folly, bad enough one. Baldock's main strength alas is negated by the quicker pace of Championship defenders, basically the same problem we had a decade ago with Leon Knight

 

[London Irish]

Paul is clearly a top bloke but I think he's a bit off with this comment. Baldock will cost (if he hasn't already) about what we paid for Ulloa.

Hindsight is great and we were lucky with Ulloa and it clouds trying to make a comparison now, but I reckon Baldock looked less of a gamble than Ulloa did at the time we picked him up.

I'm not suggesting for a second that Baldock will deliver the same success as Ulloa did, but it's far too early to tell. Baldock has only started four games, has had to deal with injury and has been dropped into a team still trying to learn how to play as they have been asked. Ulloa only scored twice in his first six Albion games.

I agree though that PS went a bit over the top, particularly his final comment which was a bit unworthy. But the debate it creates could be a healthy one

 

[Bozza]

Have to respectfully disagree - Baldock's pedigree has been well established over past few years, and it's not a great one. By contrast outperformance in Spanish second division is a higher level of success. Yes, Ulloa far exceeded all baseline expectations that's true but buying two lower level Champ/League 1 strikers in COG and Baldock looks total folly, bad enough one. Baldock's main strength alas is negated by the quicker pace of Championship defenders, basically the same problem we had a decade ago with Leon Knight

My main point was the money - there seemed to be a suggestion that spending on Ulloa was 'going for it' whilst going for Baldock was not. The reality is the outlay on both players by the Albion will be broadly similar.

However, I'd question Ulloa's "outperformance". When we picked him up, he'd scored 4 in 18 for Alemeria that season. If Ulloa had represented a minimal gamble he would have been snapped up by a bigger club with richer resources long before the Albion came sniffing.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Paul is clearly a top bloke but I think he's a bit off with this comment. Baldock will cost (if he hasn't already) about what we paid for Ulloa.

Hindsight is great and we were lucky with Ulloa and it clouds trying to make a comparison now, but I reckon Baldock looked less of a gamble than Ulloa did at the time we picked him up.

I'm not suggesting for a second that Baldock will deliver the same success as Ulloa did, but it's far too early to tell. Baldock has only started four games, has had to deal with injury and has been dropped into a team still trying to learn how to play as they have been asked. Ulloa only scored twice in his first six Albion games.

Have to respectfully disagree - Baldock's pedigree has been well established over past few years, and it's not a great one. By contrast outperformance in Spanish second division is a higher level of success. Yes, Ulloa far exceeded all baseline expectations that's true but buying two lower level Champ/League 1 strikers in COG and Baldock looks total folly, bad enough one. Baldock's main strength alas is negated by the quicker pace of Championship defenders, basically the same problem we had a decade ago with Leon Knight

Or rather Ulloa's main strength was the element of surprise. No one really knew how to play him.

Yes we may well end up spending the same or a bit more on Baldock but we have still replaced an £8 million striker with a c. £2 million one. Now, since those Paul Barber threads people have a little more idea why but it doesn't negate the fact that we are going backwards on the field, This squad is FAR weaker than when Gus left and a wee bit weaker than when Oscar upped sticks too.

 

[Biscuit]

Or rather Ulloa's main strength was the element of surprise. No one really knew how to play him.

For about two weeks, and then the scouts did their job. He didn't score because he was consistently surprising people, quite the opposite, he did only one job, it was just very difficult to stop him doing it. This, so far, is apparently not the case for Baldock.

 

[London Irish]

My main point was the money - there seemed to be a suggestion that spending on Ulloa was 'going for it' whilst going for Baldock was not. The reality is the outlay on both players by the Albion will be broadly similar.

However, I'd question Ulloa's "outperformance". When we picked him up, he'd scored 4 in 18 for Alemeria that season. If Ulloa had represented a minimal gamble he would have been snapped up by a bigger club with richer resources long before the Albion came sniffing.

Well, good additional detail on Ulloa but it hardly negates his overall record at that level which did point to his success in the Championship - but leaving that aside, I guess what is puzzling most of us right now is how come Boro on Saturday could have a player idle on the bench in Patrick Bamford who would walk into our current team. There are too many examples of good recruitment Vetokele, Wilson etc it's making our current efforts look sub-standard, and that is what is placing extreme pressure on Hyppia and now perhaps Barber and co.

 

[chaileyjem]

The increasing no-shows this season.

Well there's always no-show ST holders. Are there actually increasing no-shows as a percentage of the lower (7%) season ticket holders this season ? Looked pretty full on Saturday.
Isn't it just the normal absences due to holidays, evening games etc. Nobody likes a poor run of results and I think the club works hard to keep ST numbers up and sales up (lots of offers, freezing certain prices, different packages) but i'd like to see more evidence that this is true. I think its about the same as normal (and probably in any other club).

 

[Leighgull]

I echo all that Paul said.

From being in a postion of strength, strange decisions and apparent strategic niavety at board and CEO level, now find the Albion in serious trouble.

IMHO the only option now is to sack Hypia in the morning, and get a , without wishing to mimic the legendary Ernest, a tried and tested British manager with a proven record at Championship level.

Clearly it's a big ask to get someone in for Tuesday, so Jones takes the team at Huddersfield, but the new man must be in post before Saturday, and unfortunately with his own coaching staff, so it will be farewell to Nathan as well.

Messrs Bloom and Barber need to stop hiding behind this FFP cloak and give the new man exactly what he needs, a decent budget and full control of all team matters answering only to Bloom and reporting to Barber.

I also took issue with the tone of Paul Barber's programme notes, thankfully I will have a platform in my newspaper column to respond to them on Thursday.

No one listens to the phone in since you were stabbed, sorry, I mean stopped from doing it Ian. I totally agree with everything you have said there and am only sorry I am too far away from Worthing to read what you say in the Herald...time for decisive action. No more dicking around.

 

[chaileyjem]

There are too many examples of good recruitment Vetokele, Wilson etc it's making our current efforts look sub-standard, and that is what is placing extreme pressure on Hyppia and now perhaps Barber and co.

But we spent a similar amount on Baldock as Charlton did with Vetokele and Wilson scored less in L1 than Baldock last season. And Baldock has so far started 4 matches. Obviously we're struggling, and all signings are a gamble to some extent, and we've seen little yet but the idea that the club didn't deliver on a new, relatively expensive young striker with an impressive track record (our 2nd or 3rd highest signing ever ?) doesn't wash.

 

[London Irish]

But we spent a similar amount on Baldock as Charlton did with Vetokele and Wilson scored less in L1 than Baldock last season. And Baldock has so far started 4 matches. Obviously we're struggling, and all signings are a gamble to some extent, and we've seen little yet but the idea that the club didn't deliver on a new, relatively expensive young striker with an impressive track record (our 2nd or 3rd highest signing ever ?) doesn't wash.

But you still don't get it - paying over the odds for a striker who is not that good at top Championship level is not going to cheer people up. I'm not sure I can express this simple concept any more straightforwardly. If you talk to seasoned judges of League 1 football last season, they would have told you Wilson was a much better player than Baldock. Real gulf of class - Wilson is as quick as Baldock but much more physically stronger and with good skill levels, a real handful for best Champ defenders which Baldock is not.

Now Wilson of course would have cost a bit more - that's the point where "fans unhappy at lack of ambition" meet "fans unhappy at underperformance of recruitment dept", nod at each other and boo simultaneously

 

[Rugrat]

I echo all that Paul said.

From being in a postion of strength, strange decisions and apparent strategic niavety at board and CEO level, now find the Albion in serious trouble.

IMHO the only option now is to sack Hypia in the morning, and get a , without wishing to mimic the legendary Ernest, a tried and tested British manager with a proven record at Championship level.

Clearly it's a big ask to get someone in for Tuesday, so Jones takes the team at Huddersfield, but the new man must be in post before Saturday, and unfortunately with his own coaching staff, so it will be farewell to Nathan as well.

Messrs Bloom and Barber need to stop hiding behind this FFP cloak and give the new man exactly what he needs, a decent budget and full control of all team matters answering only to Bloom and reporting to Barber.

I also took issue with the tone of Paul Barber's programme notes, thankfully I will have a platform in my newspaper column to respond to them on Thursday.

Don't agree we should be sacking SH before he has had the chance to make "adjustments" to his approach that would/could lead to success.

FFP is a crock of sh*t but it is something we're right to adhere to, whilst I hope, campaigning to make it more sensible. Nor can I see TB wanting to permanently "prop up" the club, although it's difficult to see how any club that doesn't have the benefit of TV money can be self sustaining.

But, you can ask PB that if he is going to talk to fans can he do so without the need to be patronising and give (many/most) of us some credit for understanding how football, and business in general works

 

[LamieRobertson]

I think anyone immediately after a match where we were generally poor is perhaps going to give a more emotional response and say things perhaps they normally wouldn't (?)
Re Baldock it's so early days isent it...few games in a struggling side..just back from injury etc....I guess the main query has to be why we have 3 out of 4 strikers of the same build/style which don't suit playing one up front...but how many times have we talked about this

 

[Lord Bracknell]

You don't believe him then ?

I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of either Paul Barber or Tony Bloom. The point is, though, that a growing number of fans are expecting some sort of action to address the team's apparent shortcomings and there's little sign that this is going to happen soon.

 

[chaileyjem]

I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of either Paul Barber or Tony Bloom. The point is, though, that a growing number of fans are expecting some sort of action to address the team's apparent shortcomings and there's little sign that this is going to happen soon.

Little sign ? Hardly. Do you imagine TB will put up with the results/table continuing like this ? Sami is already under pressure and he knows it.

 

[chaileyjem]

But, you can ask PB that if he is going to talk to fans can he do so without the need to be patronising and give (many/most) of us some credit for understanding how football, and business in general works

Why get Ian to talk to PB. He'll talk to you face to face himself, over email or via the many forums he attends where he meets fans every month.

 

[chaileyjem]

Wilson of course would have cost a bit more

Both Baldock and Wilson were undisclosed fees. They were the top two scorers in L1 last season.
My guess is that given rumours, local journalists insight that fees were about the same.
I also suspect their wages (Bournemouth ?) were about the same. But i'll bite. How are you absolutely sure Wilson cost more, that Wilson was a target but we were put off by his fee or alternatively that our scouts obviously didn't talk to any "seasoned judges of L1 football" before plumping for Baldock as you imply.