Thoughts and perspective

[Triggaaar]

I'm certain the club personnel were doing their best to sign the right striker

Probably true, but their best was woeful.

they want to stay up as much as we do

Some of them maybe. I care about our fortunes more than some.

Fact is there were a whole bunch of players who didn't want to play for us.

I don't think that's a fact.

I am glad that many of you are feeling more positive than I am.

 

[Triggaaar]

It's also possible that PW had identified good striker targets early on, after years of hard work, but TB wasn't prepared to sanction the wages that strikers demand. Until the penny dropped in the last 48 hours

I find it hard to believe that Tony was stupid enough to not realise the demands until there was 24 hours left.

 

[tigertim68]

Any one who thinks it will be any easier in the January transfer window , will be in for a big shock , it is notourously hard to get business done , and the transfere fees will be even higher

 

[Questions]

THPP, absolutely not my intention, I have just looked at a load of thread titles, I'm on tour in Sweden not able to read through everything due to time constraints but thought I'd contribute. You are entitled to say what you like about me, but I think your comments are bizarre. I just wanted to say my bit and having a go not at what I said but where I chose to post it is odd. End of matter as far as I am concerned.

Maybe it's just that you love the sound of your own voice ....... e.g. Your cringworthy speech outside the Evening Star after the Wigan game. Heaven forbid you express your view in a thread started by someone else.

 

[Lawro's Lip]

Woke up this morning thinking we had pulled the Jansen deal off at the very last minute but what a disappointment. Our recruitment plan over the last couple of months has failed to deliver on our most important objective and clearly needs a rethink. I don't know what led to the failure but behind the scenes those involved must learn quickly from this. If inflated prices, our low profile and bad luck played a part this needs to be built into the strategy starting now and until the end of the January window. As fans we obviously need to give CH and the players a chance to prove they can pull this round particularly if we struggle, as most now fear we will. It feels like we have made the extreme challenge of staying in the top flight almost impossible but let's hope our manager and team can surprise us all.

 

[sir albion]

We've all been saying strikers for months and would you believe it we get none

 

[kemptown kid]

We have a squad that accumulated 182 points over the last two seasons
A squad that scored 74 goals in the league last year
A squad that finished comfortably above two of the relegated sides from the Premier league and only a point behind the other as we eased off for the last 3 games
A squad that we have added 8 players to, many of whom are internationals
A squad that we have invested in by being the 9th biggest net spenders during the summer transfer window
A squad that we would have spent more on but for various reasons couldn't complete other deals
I'm disappointed that we didn't land a striker, of course, but all this talk that we are doomed to relegation etc and heads must roll is pathetic given the proper context

Spot on. Huddersfield have started well and good luck to them, but let's see where we are by Christmas before panicking. Like all Albion fans,I wish we had landed one of our striker targets but there is no guarantee that 10 or even 15 million pounds would buy the 15 -20 goals we want. There is plenty of fire power in the squad and potential for one of our current wide men to step into the speedy striker role we hoped to fill during the last few days. However the season ends, we certainly don't want to be saddled with over priced and over paid panic buys.

 

[sir albion]

Spot on. Huddersfield have started well and good luck to them, but let's see where we are by Christmas before panicking. Like all Albion fans,I wish we had landed one of our striker targets but there is no guarantee that 10 or even 15 million pounds would buy the 15 -20 goals we want. There is plenty of fire power in the squad and potential for one of our current wide men to step into the speedy striker role we hoped to fill during the last few days. However the season ends, we certainly don't want to be saddled with over priced and over paid panic buys.

Plenty of firepower like who?
This isn't the championship remember

 

[Weststander]

Any one who thinks it will be any easier in the January transfer window , will be in for a big shock , it is notourously hard to get business done , and the transfere fees will be even higher

Very true. Selling clubs famously know they have relegation battle clubs over a barrel.

 

[sams dad]

rose tinted Glasses i'm afraid
regards
DR

Why do you give a ****? I thought you stopped watching the Albion years ago?

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

We'll finish 14th, no probs. Other teams have other issues, dodgy owners, crooked managers, prima donnas, cock wombles and **** muffins (Rooney's of this world) We'll be fine,Tony and Chris will work their magic.

 

[Weststander]

I find it hard to believe that Tony was stupid enough to not realise the demands until there was 24 hours left.

His speech mentioned optimum timing. That must be the end of the window, shirley. He thought he'd timed it to perfection.

 

[kemptown kid]

Plenty of firepower like who?
This isn't the championship remember

Knockaert. Izquierdo. March. Hemed. Brown. Hopefully Murray and Baldock will be available before too long. It's not The Championship, but I have faith in CH's ability to get goals out of that lot.

 

[Giraffe]

These sort of threads are all well and good and very noble but I find it a bit patronising all things considered.

We all know we needed a striker. Fans, Bloom, Hughton, Barber, everyone. We had all summer to get one. In fact as the first automatically promoted side we had longer than anyone else. We didn't get one.

Whatever the reason for that and I don't doubt the difficulty of recruiting one it is a glaring fact that we are lacking goals in the team. So yes it's not the end of the world, no one has died, and yep we are very lucky to have Bloom and the stadium and we all know where we have come from ("1997 club!") but what has that got to do with the inability to sign a single striker?

We don't need geeing up. We, as supporters, will always support the team but right now and until the next match it is understandable to be fed up, cross, disappointed, fearful that we don't have a striker that can score goals at this level. It took so much to get us where we are that to see it given up without a fight would be a great shame.

Let's hope the players we do have can produce a miracle though and let's hope the club have learnt their lesson and sort it out in January.

 

[Stat Brother]

I honestly feel like if we can weather this season, stay up for a second term, it'll be easier to convince players to sign for us.

There is only one way to convince players to play for the Albion, you and the OP know it.
Sadly after 6 years and then still not working it out at 22:58 yesterday, when an extra £10m suddenly appeared, didn't quite cut it.

 

[durrington gull]

Quite a few posters praised Hudd's early business at the time, but were shot down by know-it-alls who vehemently stated that Hudd had wasted £40m plus on Championship shite and overseas nobodies.

I never got the anger towards Hudd and anyone complimenting them.

Weird.

Good points, Hudds showing they mean business fair play

 

[Frutos]

The thoughts of Uwe Huenemeier:

https://twitter.com/UweHuenemeier2/status/903718320461008898

 

[symyjym]

The thoughts of Uwe Huenemeier:

https://twitter.com/UweHuenemeier2/status/903718320461008898

Totally with him. Being disappointed is fine but fans spitting the dummy is an embarrassment. We want our players to believe we are as loyal to them as we want them to be for us so it's unfortunate when players pick up a bad vibe from a vocal few making all the noise.

Anyway my thoughts and perspective is we are 2 points behind Arsenal and 3 behind 9th.

 

[Brian Parsons]

I too think it's our lack of provenance that goes with playing history in the PL. I for one would like to see someone from the development squad step up to the plate. Also do the scouts still look around non-league footie these days on the off chance there might just be another Jamie Vardy out there. Hope springs eternal.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm certain the club personnel were doing their best to sign the right striker - they want to stay up as much as we do, obviously - and it seems clear the funds were there. A principal target, Dwamena - who I know from contacts at Zurich has been in our sights for a while and is hugely rated by fans there - was secured and it is a personal tragedy for a young footballer (our disappointment insignificant in comparison, some perspective is essential here) that he has a condition which our stringent medical assessment deemed to be sufficiently serious to call the transfer off.

From what I have read it seems to be the case that most of our other targets simply turned us down. Clubs agreed terms: players didn't want to play for Brighton. We can't blame the recruitment team for that. Years of global media obsessing with the Premier League to the virtual exclusion of the other 72 clubs has meant that the 'never heard of them factor' must play a big part in the fortunes of promoted clubs in the transfer market, especially in the particularly refined striker market. Promoted clubs who arrive in the PL with a 'brand name' and 'Premier League history' are at a distinct advantage when selling themselves to Mr Celebrity Big Name Striker.

So, you say, what about Huddersfield, in the same position as us? They did brilliantly because it just so happens that Wagner and his advisors had such detailed knowledge of his own and nearby leagues that he could identify and pick players literally no-one else was interested in, completely under the radar. Their recruitment strategy has thus been brilliant, in a league of its own. It is one I am sure we aspire to and I hope are learning from! Well done to them.

Burnley and other clubs who are not 'glamour names?' The PL is blasted everywhere across the world. After one or two seasons their name is familiar to foreign fans and players alike, and a move there seen as a step up in a way that a move to us newbies isn't. I could go on about how our experience in this transfer window is just one more manifestation of the ludicrous imbalance, celebrity obsession and financial insanity which are the principal features of modern corporate football, but I won't.

Fact is there were a whole bunch of players who didn't want to play for us. We have a bloody good squad of ones who do and who are perfectly capable of competing in this league and keeping us up. Let's get behind them. We're good at being underdogs and have a brilliant track record at it in the last 20 years. Let's show the prima donnas who turned us down what we're made of, folks.

Up the Albion!

Good post. Sums it up perfectly for me. Thanks for not tacking it onto one of the numerous bedwetter threads.