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[Albion] Selling club forever?







Monkey Man

Your support is not that great
Jan 30, 2005
3,224
Neither here nor there
We sell, and we buy. We develop our own talent, and some players retire. Some players may stick around for several seasons but in the main they're passing through, either through their choice or more likely the club's.

The object of the exercise is to try to keep improving while all of this is happening. I would suggest, by any objective measure, this is the case.
 


Lurchy

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2014
2,422
Ajax, Dortmund and the Red Bull Clubs despite being very successful are still “Selling Clubs”.

It’s possible to be both.
 








Westdene Seagull

aka Cap'n Carl Firecrotch
NSC Patron
Oct 27, 2003
21,530
The arse end of Hangleton
In the first 4 years of our Premier league tenure we barely sold a bean. Now all of a sudden with our progress on the field invariably comes more interest in our players. It's how we stay SUSTAINABLE.

At least we now have players good enough to be sought after by bigger clubs, but as long as we continue to act prudently then long may this continue. I for one hope that IF Caicedo and Big Mac go in the summer then Tony can recoup some of the funds to pay himself back for the vast sums he's propped us up with over the years.

Just becuse we don't spend BIG doesn't mean we are purely a selling club. More often than not players that clubs spend a fortune on can often disappoint and spending £30m or £40m guarantees us nothing. Look at Nunez at Liverpool (hardly pulling up any trees) and our mistakes with Ali J and Locadia which were big fees for us at the time.

I personally like our approach to the transfer market, and if one day we do struggle and go down, then hopefully we won't go down with a barrow full of debt.

It is utterly amazing how many people have forgotten TB's aim of making the club sustainable. Very short memories clearly. Unless of course they had some other idea as to what sustainable could possibly mean other than selling players. :facepalm:
 


BBassic

I changed this.
Jul 28, 2011
13,065
Ajax, Dortmund and the Red Bull Clubs despite being very successful are still “Selling Clubs”.

It’s possible to be both.
Yeah this all would depend on how we're quantifying success, I guess.

For us, I would say, being a successful "selling club" would probably mean Top 10 finishes (at least) with the occasional foray into Europe. And I think the majority of our fans would be OK with that. Until the young'uns start growing up and start to get all entitled at least.

I don't know if I'm being unambitious but I don't see us ever being Ajax successful, y'know? Winning their domestic league regularly, decent forays into the Champions League / Europa league etc. But then I honestly never thought we'd be a club that is spoken of so glowingly in the media as well so what do I know?
 






martin tyler

Well-known member
Jan 25, 2013
5,969
Unfortunately with the money in football everyone outside the very elite money are selling clubs. Unlike most other businesses in the world these clubs can run at a loss and carry on.
We are realistic and clever. We invest in large scouting networks with a clear path for the future. We know potentially we will have players brought by other clubs. But we sell on our terms. I’m baffled by people thinking trossard and Cucurella out played our board. Cucu wanted City we said no money wasn’t right. Only when Chelsea paid 63 million did we budge once we had our replacement sorted. We won’t stand in front of players if it’s right for us as a club. Sure we could have sold Bissouma earlier at a bigger fee, but we waited for it to be right. He never threw his toys out as he knew he would get his move eventually and respected what we needed from him. Ben white the same and instead of playing for Leeds he got his move to Arsenal a year later, which I’m sure he is thankful for.
 




ConfusedGloryHunter

He/him/his/that muppet
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2011
2,420
I don't know if I'm being unambitious but I don't see us ever being Ajax successful, y'know? Winning their domestic league regularly, decent forays into the Champions League / Europa league etc. But then I honestly never thought we'd be a club that is spoken of so glowingly in the media as well so what do I know?
I doubt we could be Ajax successful on account of there not being 7 billionaire teams in The Netherlands for them to compete against. We will have to make do with just being Brighton successful.

What "Brighton successful" means will not be clear for a few more seasons yet. Perma top 10 and winning a trophy would be more than enough for me!
 




Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
12,953
Brighton
By and large the hierarchy at Brighton have been nothing less than sensational for the , club with not only its development but also the astute signings and shrewd work in the transfer market. However, the danger signs are there for all to see particularly for the supporters who will eventually become disenchanted with the now regularity of top players leaving after hissy fits in the middle of contracts . Needless to say the majority that have left have achieved very little but the question is what is the ambition of the club, are we supposed to be happy just to stay in Premier league and fight for survival or do we kick on and go for glory . If Caicedo goes so do any thoughts of Europe what’s wrong with him leaving at the end of the season Arsenal will still be there.
But look at the clubs we are selling to.

It's hard to resist clubs with pedigree in terms of their position in the league, and deep pockets. If we were selling to the other 14 (13 now that the Geordies are here) then I would agree, but we're not. We'll only sell to the likes of Leeds if we want to because our players are not thinking "Yes please, I wanna go to Elland Road!"

We will always be a trading club. We buy, develop and sell players, and we operate a Premier League team, and we want that team to be among the best. That's the way to see it.
 


Wozza

Custom title
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
24,389
Minteh Wonderland
Losing a hot player is a jolt to the system.

Meanwhile our incoming players are usually rookies who take a while to break into the first team and with relatively little fanfare.

We've added Mitoma and Ferguson as first-teamers in the last few months!

(With Gilmour, Enciso and others on the fringes)

Perhaps we need a "Graduated to the first-team" thread to celebrate the additions as much as the losses...
 






The Wizard

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2009
18,401
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