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

[Stat Brother]

Are we genuinely the worst at player negotiation in the whole football league?

Murray, Barnes, Ward, Grabban, sure there's plenty others where we've completely ****ed it up over the sake of £1k a week or so.

Maybe negotiations aren't the clubs strong point.

Whereas when it comes to drawing a line in sand and not budging the club are the best.

It seems like the Albion are the only parents saying 'no' in Disneyland.

 

[The Birdman]

And how much have the ineffective loanees cost us? The entire senior football operations team need replacing (excludes youth and womens).

What a shame we didn't get van Dick he scoring goals for Celtic

 

[Marshy]

Agreed. I think he's a good player, and great to watch. Most of the percieved deficiencies highlighted by some ('constantly caught out of position', etc) are down to the impossible role asked of him, rather than actual weakness in his game.

Spot on, the same can be said for a couple of others as well.

 

[Mellotron]

Maybe negotiations aren't the clubs strong point.

Whereas when it comes to drawing a line in sand and not budging the club are the best.

It seems like the Albion are the only parents saying 'no' in Disneyland.

We're going down, but it's ok, because we have good PRINCIPLES.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

i actually think joe bennett has been pretty good this season to be fair

Offensively he's been good, but his primary job is a LB and he is woeful at defending. At least 4 goals he is culpable for and that is without any degree of analysis.

 

[Stato]

Are we genuinely the worst at player negotiation in the whole football league?

Murray, Barnes, Ward, Grabban, sure there's plenty others where we've completely ****ed it up over the sake of £1k a week or so.

Don't forget Clayton. David Burke, like Hyppia is taking a lot of flak, but do we know whether it is him who sets wage levels? In Grabban, Ward & Clayton players have been identified who would have made us stronger, but personal terms were not attractive enough. Is this down to Burke, or to a wage structure which has proved uncompetitive? This could be about FFP, but it seems to me that the club have had the view that they could get better value elsewhere. This gamble seems to have failed this year.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

This to me were the first warning signs about how we were going to do this season.

The (relatively derisory) fee we wouldnt pay yet we had already agreed the wages he was in effect ours.

But we dilly dallied over £200k for a full international proven at this level.

Lets be honest the warning signs were there for all to see.

 

[Stat Brother]

As said Bennett is a long way from being what's wrong with the Albion.
But had Ward been in this team he certainly would have bought so much else we currently need, experience presence etc.
Not to mention some attacking quality.

Even under Sami's style I still don't see SW getting caught out like Bennett.

 

[Eddiespearritt]

The club's indecision is final - and no doubt fatal. Let's start a campaign - Free the clueless ones !! - Barber, Burke, Hyypia, Jones.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

This to me were the first warning signs about how we were going to do this season.

The (relatively derisory) fee we wouldnt pay yet we had already agreed the wages he was in effect ours.

But we dilly dallied over £200k for a full international proven at this level.

Lets be honest the warning signs were there for all to see.

Spot on.

Ward is streets ahead of Bennett, the club should be embarrassed......... Still 'judge us at the end of the transfer window'........ Oh.

 

[supaseagull]

Burke and his boss are far more to blame for this season's debacle than Hyypia.

 

[Icy Gull]

Spot on.

Ward is streets ahead of Bennett, the club should be embarrassed......... Still 'judge us at the end of the transfer window'........ Oh.

I don't think TB and PB do embarrassed.

 

[Bozza]

People seem to be making a massive assumption that if we had committed/paid more earlier then no other club, such as Burnley, would have nipped in to snap him up. How do they know that?

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

People seem to be making a massive assumption that if we had committed/paid more earlier then no other club, such as Burnley, wouldn't have nipped in to snap him up. How do they know that?

Weren't you personally quite surprised that we missed out on Ward?

 

[Mellotron]

People seem to be making a massive assumption that if we had committed/paid more earlier then no other club, such as Burnley, wouldn't have nipped in to snap him up. How do they know that?

I think the point is Bozza, we seem to have narrowly missed out on/lost a LOT of players now, for the sake of often (allegedly) small amounts of money.

Sometimes you just have to break the bank to get quality in, don't you?

 

[aolstudios]

People seem to be making a massive assumption that if we had committed/paid more earlier then no other club, such as Burnley, wouldn't have nipped in to snap him up. How do they know that?

Nobody knows that. But we sure as hell didn't do our best to make him wanted & made it easy for them

 

[Napper]

Bennett varies between 5/10 to 7/10 for me

Ward was consistently and 8

Joke saga with Ward this summer though.

 

[Stat Brother]

We're going down, but it's ok, because we have good PRINCIPLES.

Something like that, yeah.
It won't be long before we are being told how unfair football is.

In other news the world is round and the sun comes up in the morning.

 

[Bozza]

Weren't you personally quite surprised that we missed out on Ward?

Yes, I was.

I think the point is Bozza, we seem to have narrowly missed out on/lost a LOT of players now, for the sake of often (allegedly) small amounts of money.

Sometimes you just have to break the bank to get quality in, don't you?

Like Pompey did?

Nobody knows that. But we sure as hell didn't do our best to make him wanted & made it easy for them

If it was easy for them why didn't they sign him during the prolonged period that we were supposedly procrastinating?

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

People seem to be making a massive assumption that if we had committed/paid more earlier then no other club, such as Burnley, would have nipped in to snap him up. How do they know that?

We don't. But we effectively had him at our mercy all season in terms of negotiation, as we all know often deals are done before the end of the season with signings taking place on 1st June/July.