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[Albion] Tony Bloom



macbeth

Dismembered
Jan 3, 2018
4,172
six feet beneath the moon
I can't be sure. Tony is a supreme gambler. He'll work out he odds. That's all I'm sure about.

You're probably right, but whilst I'm sure TB will have the casting vote, it won't be just him making the decision in the summer

That “long as possible” might be 5 months?

TB will make the hard decisions.

I hope so. But we've also seen in the past that he's a man who backs his judgement to the hilt
 




peterward

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 11, 2009
12,275
Can't see many players going, tbh. The ones we wouldn't mind off-loading just won't have very much value at the moment. How would you rate our chances of getting our money back on Locadia or Jahanbakhsh for example?

Maybe Israel or the US would give us 17 mill for Jahanbakhsh, could use him as leverage to stop Iran from further developing their Nukes.

"If you dont turn off those centrifuges at once, Hughton is going to start him again and humiliate your nation"
 


Doc Lynam

I hate the Daily Mail
Jun 19, 2011
7,347
Same old we’ll get found out straight away! Same system, better players; different system, different players (well some!)
 


GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,186
Gloucester
Maybe Israel or the US would give us 17 mill for Jahanbakhsh, could use him as leverage to stop Iran from further developing their Nukes.

"If you dont turn off those centrifuges at once, Hughton is going to start him again and humiliate your nation"
Send Trump an e-mail about that ..............................................
 


Behind Enemy Lines

Well-known member
Jul 18, 2003
4,884
London
The club need to sign 4 players who can go straight into the first team and are capable of making an impact. Top of those must be goal scorers and goal creators. We will not survive another Premier League season without.
 




Pinkie Brown

Wir Sind das Volk
Sep 5, 2007
3,637
Neues Zeitalter DDR 🇩🇪
Can't see many players going, tbh. The ones we wouldn't mind off-loading just won't have very much value at the moment. How would you rate our chances of getting our money back on Locadia or Jahanbakhsh for example?

Maybe loan them for a season to the Bundesliga or elsewhere in Europe. Get them off the wage bill, hopefully get their confidence back in a different environment & review it later in the season. Both done the business in Holland but have been found out at Premier League level. If they perform and come onto the transfer market radar & we want shot of them, hopefully we'll cut our loses or maybe make a profit, such is the madness of football transfers in the modern game.
 




theboybilly

Well-known member
I’d be astounded if TB sacked Hughton based on one poor half season.

Half season? Were you abroad when we played Watford, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Cardiff? Yes I know we won 2 out of 4 but realistically we would have been fortunate to get 1 point let alone 6. We have been awful all season. Hughton must shoulder the blame or we will just get more of the same.
 




trueblue

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
10,954
Hove
Chris Hughton has been great. But if we’re not looking for a manager to move things forward more, I’d now be surprised. If we stay up, Premier League football in itself is an attractive proposition for coaches across Europe. We’re a decent size club, good crowds, great stadium and training facilities. It may be time to broaden our horizons. I’d love him to stay and be successful because he seems such a tremendous bloke, but our approach over the past couple of months has been baffling at times.
 








LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
He was talking out of hisarse. Bloom is worth considerably more than one billion. I'm not telling you or anyone how I know but I do.

He has paid for all the Albion stuff without the need to borrow a single thing. No one has that sort of wealth hanging about or be prepared to pour it into a bottomless pit unless they have much more invested elsewhere.
Exactly.

Putting about £300m into a football club knowing that you'll probably never see it again. Yeah you've probably got a few quid.

Doing it without leveraging the club with debt. Ah, you've got a lot more than a few quid.

Not complicated. Our boy is loaded, clearly.
 


I want Hughton to stay and work with 5 or 6 new players. But boy my faith was tested in the first half, he got the selection badly wrong again and didn't seem to know what he was doing with his baffling formation switches.

The better players he left out saved his arse in the second half, that wasn't a brilliant plan but luck we took one of our precious few chances, otherwise this place would be in meltdown.

I want Chris to stay but there will need to be a transformation otherwise he will need to be replaced. I think he's on notice
 


southstandandy

WEST STAND ANDY
Jul 9, 2003
6,047
Players and quite possibly CH will depart in the summer.

Looking forward to major changes. TB won’t allow us to go into next season uncompetitive on the pitch again.

I don't disagree, but interestingly around Christmas I and many others felt although we weren't playing scintilating football we were doing enough and any transfer activity in the summer would only need to be minimal.

Having capitulated to such a degree in the 2nd half of this season I would agree that wholesale changes are now needed (it's amazing how the outlook can change so relatively quickly) but do you have any faith in the recruitment department being able to attract and obtain the right players? Conversely will we be able to get rid of those supposedly 'big' signings and recapture any of our outlay on them - Locadia, Ali J, and Izzy being three that spring to mind.

On my Santa's wishlist would be : a new goal keeper (sorry but I just don't think Ryan does enough for me and doesn't command his area enough), a new right back to replace Bruno, 2 new central midfielders (at least 1 of who is attack minded), 1 winger to freshen up the wide areas, and 2 new forwards to ultimately replace Locadia and Murray.

From Christmas time when I thought we might only need possibly 3 players, I now feel that 6 or 7 will be required.
 
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Weststander

Well-known member
Aug 25, 2011
69,282
Withdean area
I don't disagree, but interestingly around Christmas I and many others felt although we weren't playing scintilating football we were doing enough and any transfer activity in the summer would only need to be minimal.

Having capitulated to such a degree in the 2nd half of this season I would agree that wholesale changes are now needed (it's amazing how the outlook can change so relatively quickly) but do you have any faith in the recruitment department being able to attract and obtain the right players? Conversely will be be able to get rid of those supposedly 'big' signings and recapture any of our outlay on them - Locadia, Ali J, and Izzy being three that spring to mind.

On my Santa's wishlist would be : a new goal keeper (sorry but I just don't think Ryan does enough for me and doesn't command his area enough), a new right back to replace Bruno, 2 new central midfielders (at least 1 of who is attack minded), 1 winger to freshen up the wide areas, and 2 new forwards to ultimately replace Locadia and Murray.

From Christmas time when I thought we might only need possible 3 players, I now feel that 6 or 7 will be required.

That would be great. In reality, I’d settle for a RB (even 38 year old Bruno is a better defender than Montoya), a striker, an ACM with pace and a box to box CM with pace. All good enough to step into a PL first team.
 


drew

Drew
NSC Patron
Oct 3, 2006
23,612
Burgess Hill
I don't disagree, but interestingly around Christmas I and many others felt although we weren't playing scintilating football we were doing enough and any transfer activity in the summer would only need to be minimal.

Having capitulated to such a degree in the 2nd half of this season I would agree that wholesale changes are now needed (it's amazing how the outlook can change so relatively quickly) but do you have any faith in the recruitment department being able to attract and obtain the right players? Conversely will we be able to get rid of those supposedly 'big' signings and recapture any of our outlay on them - Locadia, Ali J, and Izzy being three that spring to mind.

On my Santa's wishlist would be : a new goal keeper (sorry but I just don't think Ryan does enough for me and doesn't command his area enough), a new right back to replace Bruno, 2 new central midfielders (at least 1 of who is attack minded), 1 winger to freshen up the wide areas, and 2 new forwards to ultimately replace Locadia and Murray.

From Christmas time when I thought we might only need possibly 3 players, I now feel that 6 or 7 will be required.

We aren't going to buy 6 or 7 players as the cost will be exorbitant if they are going to be of the calibre that I think you're looking for.

We certainly don't need a new keeper. As for midfield, we have Bissouma who is excellent coming forward but we are just not set up to play to his strengths. Izzy is clearly not 100% ai I wouldn't discard him just yet.

What exactly is your budget and where are the players coming from in that budge?
 


LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
I don't disagree, but interestingly around Christmas I and many others felt although we weren't playing scintilating football we were doing enough and any transfer activity in the summer would only need to be minimal.

Having capitulated to such a degree in the 2nd half of this season I would agree that wholesale changes are now needed (it's amazing how the outlook can change so relatively quickly) but do you have any faith in the recruitment department being able to attract and obtain the right players? Conversely will we be able to get rid of those supposedly 'big' signings and recapture any of our outlay on them - Locadia, Ali J, and Izzy being three that spring to mind.

On my Santa's wishlist would be : a new goal keeper (sorry but I just don't think Ryan does enough for me and doesn't command his area enough), a new right back to replace Bruno, 2 new central midfielders (at least 1 of who is attack minded), 1 winger to freshen up the wide areas, and 2 new forwards to ultimately replace Locadia and Murray.

From Christmas time when I thought we might only need possibly 3 players, I now feel that 6 or 7 will be required.

Izzy has not become a shit player overnight, he's been carrying an injury all season which is why he looks half the player he did. If he can get back to where he was last season (apparently needs an op) then that's like a new signing. He doesn't look unfit, he looks totally bereft of confidence.

Nothing wrong with Ryan. He's suffered as the rest of the team has with a lack of confidence and too many games being under constant bombardment. He's a good keeper.

Replacing Bruno with the same quality? That'll be unbelievably difficult, and expensive.

Others possibly need selling or moving out on loan, or perhaps with experience and training they can step up. But the big picture is that your shopping list, for guaranteed quality first team PL players who can slot straight in is pie in the sky.

Six or seven players like that? £200m? And that still might not work (see Fulham).

We're not Man City.

Also. The second half today showed that we ARE Premier League quality. Christ knows why we can't play like that more often but so much of sport is down to confidence and mental strength. If CH thought that Solly was going to play like that then he'd obviously have started him. It's clear that in training, Izzy looked fine, but in a match situation he was bloody awful.

I had a chat with a cricket/football coach with a masters in sports psychology the other day and some of the stuff she told me was fascinating (but not surprising) about players who have all the talent but doubt, lack of form, inability to come back from injury mentally etc ruins them.

Are Locadia, Ali J and Izzy shit? I don't think so. Can the former two make it as PL players, I'm not sure. I do still trust our recruitment team though. A lot more than anyone on here.
 




martin tyler

Well-known member
Jan 25, 2013
5,967
If TB doesn’t do it, we will shirley stink the PL out with Norwich next season and drop.

I reckon we’ll bring in quality players this summer, to protect TB’s investment by staying in the cash cow PL. Several new entrants = several departees.

Does anyone here know if Ashworth’s role includes assessing our current first team squad?

Let’s hope so and let’s hope he knows what we need. He’s got a busy summer ahead if he does convincing a fair few to move on as well as identifying some talent to come in
 


GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,186
Gloucester
We aren't going to buy 6 or 7 players as the cost will be exorbitant if they are going to be of the calibre that I think you're looking for.

We certainly don't need a new keeper. As for midfield, we have Bissouma who is excellent coming forward but we are just not set up to play to his strengths. Izzy is clearly not 100% ai I wouldn't discard him just yet.

What exactly is your budget and where are the players coming from in that budge?

Dead right. Assuming our budget will be the better part of our PL £100M, that will be enough for two of the players of the calibre we need - three at the very outside if we're lucky with bargains, but we've tried doing that already..........
These players need to go straight into the first team - no bloody months and months to 'get up to speed' - and be first on the team sheet week in week out and improve the team (and indirectly by doing so make the players around them play better). The idea that we should go out and buy 6 or 7 is just stupid and naïve nonsense - if we do, we'll just finish up with more Jahanbakhsh's, Locadias, Schelottos, etc. running around the place making a good living.
Big job for the recruitment department - they mustn't get this summer wrong!
 


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