So Stephen Ward was ours for the asking all summer...........

[Mellotron]

Do you believe this process is working? Even strictly financially? It seems distinctly like we regularly save a penny now to lose many pounds later

We focus on short term cost and completely ignore long term gain, is how it looks to me.

 

[Stat Brother]

Do you believe this process is working? Even strictly financially? It seems distinctly like we regularly save a penny now to lose many pounds later

The process can't work all the time so few clubs are attempting to cut their cloth.
Why sign for Brighton when others will pay more.

It seems the only extra the club is offering is loyalty.

 

[Mellotron]

Tony Bloom has made a lot of right decisions for this club - he'll make wrong ones too, being human and that.

Of course, who's questioning that? What I think a lot of people are questioning is the overriding philosophy. It also doesn't tie in to what the club have previously done (a ridiculously expensive stadium, best seats at any standium, hugely expensive training facility etc). We're getting very mixed messages.

If the wage bill thing is true that is very worrying because this squad is unquestionably weaker than that of a couple of years back - obviously we did have Poyet as manager which made a massive difference but still...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

We focus on short term cost and completely ignore long term gain, is how it looks to me.

yes, the TWENTY MILLION POUND academy / training ground illustrates that really well.

 

[Julio]

Ward was one part of a bigger picture - as has become apparent a good chunk of last season's success was down to strong leadership from players; both on the pitch and in the dressing room. By all accounts Ward, Upson and Andrews were a very good influence. We didn't lose one of those, which would be unfortunate, we didn't lose two of those which would have been problematic, we lost all three which has turned out to be calamitous. The end result is a real lack of leadership and professional nous on the pitch - it's this that means we can't concentrate for 90 minutes and concede sloppy goals - granted tactics have contributed too - but stronger players would have influenced Sami earlier.

So, while Bennet may be a good left back in the making, this one is more about personality & leadership.

 

[Mellotron]

yes, the TWENTY MILLION POUND academy / training ground illustrates that really well.

That's the completely baffling thing, as you will see mentioned in my other post. We will spend SHITLOADS on everything except the ONE thing that will actually make you money.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Ward was one part of a bigger picture - as has become apparent a good chunk of last season's success was down to strong leadership from players; both on the pitch and in the dressing room. By all accounts Ward, Upson and Andrews were a very good influence. We didn't lose one of those, which would be unfortunate, we didn't lose two of those which would have been problematic, we lost all three which has turned out to be calamitous. The end result is a real lack of leadership and professional nous on the pitch - it's this that means we can't concetrate for 90 minutes and concede sloppy goals - granted tactics have contributed too - but stronger players would have influenced Sami earlier.

So, while Bennet may be a good left back in the making, this one is more about personality & leadership.

Two of those went to Premier League clubs who offered more money. The other was a loan player and we have enough of those already.

 

[Napier's Knee]

I can't help but feel that this isn't about Ward at all. This story, coming now, is about Ward's agent leveraging the Albion on behalf of another of his clients in the coming transfer window. If it's about Ward it's a complete non-story - man takes higher paid job elsewhere bombshell. It's about his agent and someone he is is trying to sell to us.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

This discussion is plain WIERD. People piling into the club for 'failing to agree terms' with Ward, or missing out due to 'not being prepared to pay what he wanted', when the club DID reach an agreement, that the player was happy to sign, and was ON HIS WAY to do so, when he got a call to say that he could double his money in the Prem.

What were the club supposed to have done when he had AGREED to accept what they had offered? Offer more, in case another offer came in before he got down the M6?

The reason, as [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] has alluded to, that Burnley came in late, is that the agent will have waited until the negotiations with us were complete, before making one final round of speculative calls, one of which hit the jackpot.

If we'd reached that agreement with Ward three weeks sooner, he still would have made those other calls.

Other teams might not have thrown their hats into the ring at an earlier stage adopting a similar policy to us and leaving it late, alternatively it would have enabled us to get Bennett (or a better option) in for the start of the season for 2 very winnable games.

I really think (unusually) you are being a little blinkered with this.

 

[Julio]

Two of those went to Premier League clubs who offered more money. The other was a loan player and we have enough of those already.

No saying there was much we could do about losing all three; but we should have seen the gaping hole this left in experience and leadership and done something about it

 

[Albion Robster]

Burke has to be made accountable for all these mistakes in the transfer market.
If the club are'nt going to sack the manager, the club need to make a statement and sack someone else equally to blame for the performances on the pitch this season. Leicester made a statement at the start of the week by sacking their Head of Player Recruitment, surely Bloom should do the same. What decent signings had Burke actually made? I would say, Poyet was more influential in bringing in new players than Burke was.

 

[Bozza]

That's the completely baffling thing, as you will see mentioned in my other post. We will spend SHITLOADS on everything except the ONE thing that will actually make you money.

So you're going to ignore the 'highest playing wage bill we have ever had' bit because it doesn't suit your line of debate?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30004150: "The cost of our squad this year, in terms of salaries, is higher than it has ever been in our history."

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Burke has to be made accountable for all these mistakes in the transfer market.
If the club are'nt going to sack the manager, the club need to make a statement and sack someone else equally to blame for the performances on the pitch this season. Leicester made a statement at the start of the week by sacking their Head of Player Recruitment, surely Bloom should do the same. What decent signings had Burke actually made? I would say, Poyet was more influential in bringing in new players than Burke was.

Poyet was probably instrumental in talking to prospective players but from the summer of 2012, Burke actually signed them. It is part of his job.

 

[Stuart Munday]

Changing the subject slightly I still can't believe we recalled Chicksen early to replace Bennett last week, I was convinced he must of been injured and was staggered when it was squad rotation.

Anyway I think Bennett is definetely one of our best players this season.

 

[Icy Gull]

So you're going to ignore the 'highest playing wage bill we have ever had' bit because it doesn't suit your line of debate?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30004150: "The cost of our squad this year, in terms of salaries, is higher than it has ever been in our history."

If this is true then the Poyet factor was even more impressive than I thought. I am frankly astounded that the current wage bill is higher than it was with the much much better players we had in Poyet's last season. The club also had the added bonus of millions raked in in transfer fees as the squad was disassembled, Not much value in transfer fees in the current squad is there.

The fact that we are now paying more than ever for an inferior group of players, most with no sell on value as they are loans, suggests that the recruitment team have ****ed up big time. This being the age of FFP when most clubs are being more circumspect in their spending makes the signing of inferior players on higher wages by the Albion even worse.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Other teams might not have thrown their hats into the ring at an earlier stage adopting a similar policy to us and leaving it late, alternatively it would have enabled us to get Bennett (or a better option) in for the start of the season for 2 very winnable games.

I really think (unusually) you are being a little blinkered with this.

No, not at all - I agree with you entirely that we should have acted sooner, to bring it to some form of conclusion, so that we could move on more quickly to other targets if necessary.

I'm just questionning the naive assumption that we could have just signed him whenever we wanted, without any risk of other clubs showing an interest.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Changing the subject slightly I still can't believe we recalled Chicksen early to replace Bennett last week, I was convinced he must of been injured and was staggered when it was squad rotation.

Anyway I think Bennett is definetely one of our best players this season.

It was more to do with the fact that we can only play 5 loan players in any matchday squad. I'm not saying that Hyypia was right to drop Bennett, but that was the reason.

 

[jasetheace]

So you're going to ignore the 'highest playing wage bill we have ever had' bit because it doesn't suit your line of debate?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30004150: "The cost of our squad this year, in terms of salaries, is higher than it has ever been in our history."

Oh for crying out loud Bozza. I see now a certain graphic from The Godfather. You know the one with strings.... Are you the new wartime consigliere?

We certainly do not need clickbait at the moment as plenty of people wish to express their opinion on here so I can think of no other explanation.

Tell me now, for the record, after which game number (i.e. 18 on Saturday, 19, 20...30..) will it all become unacceptable to you?

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

No, not at all - I agree with you entirely that we should have acted sooner, to bring it to some form of conclusion, so that we could move on more quickly to other targets if necessary.

I'm just questionning the naive assumption that we could have just signed him whenever we wanted, without any risk of other clubs showing an interest.

Fair enough

 

[Bozza]

If this is true then the Poyet factor was even more impressive than I thought. I am frankly astounded that the current wage bill is higher than it was with the much much better players we had in Poyet's last season. The club also had the added bonus of millions raked in in transfer fees as the squad was disassembled, Not much value in transfer fees in the current squad is there.

The fact that we are now paying more than ever for an inferior group of players, most with no sell on value as they are loans, suggests that the recruitment team have ****ed up big time. This being the age of FFP when most clubs are being more circumspect in their spending makes the signing of inferior players on higher wages by the Albion even worse.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that although we may be paying MORE on salaries this year, our overall playing budget (which includes transfer fees etc) might well be LOWER.

We're also doing well on not having to pay out many win bonuses this season. Every cloud and all that...