Was Gus asked/told to speak to Reading?

[Icy Gull]

As suggested in a post hidden away on another thread?

No apologies for starting a thread on this because if he was it would seem that the club may have been looking to get shot of him? I have not heard this suggestion before. Anyone in the know on this?

If so this would radically alter my opinion on the events of the last few days and bring me down on Gus' side.

If this is true it possibly makes Gus "ceiling" remarks more to do with the club's opinion rather than his own and explain his rather odd comments and behaviour recently.

This is not supposed to look like a conspiracy theory, even if it does

 

[Eddiespearritt]

Don't know if he was asked to speak to Reading or if the club prompted that situation - I do know very reliably that Nigel Adkins was lined up to come in the case that Poyet could agree with Reading. But the whole thing didn't make sense at the time - why leave a vibrant club with a good chance of the Premier League, for a doomed Premier League club backed by a Russian (who could be gone perhaps when the toy is boring).

I too am extremely sceptical of this whole mess now. Why suspend the coaching team - the club know precisely what was said on Monday publicly - it was on the telly for God's sake - if it breaches a contractual clause - and you want him gone, sack him on the spot. This does now look like a power struggle between Barber and Poyet - and the generous support some credible players are now offering Poyet means there is something awfully wrong here. I'm thinking of joining the Barber out camp. Would rather read about an England international (Wayne Bridge) being happy to stay with us, than worry about the next problem being engineered by a divisive CEO.

 

[Icy Gull]

Thinking about it, this also gives credence to the posts suggesting that Gus never actually spoke to Reading.

1) he was on his way to Barbados, so did he actually speak to them at the airport as suggested he could have done?
2) he refused to but knew his card was marked

 

[BigGully]

Don't know if he was asked to speak to Reading or if the club prompted that situation - I do know very reliably that Nigel Adkins was lined up to come in the case that Poyet could agree with Reading. But the whole thing didn't make sense at the time - why leave a vibrant club with a good chance of the Premier League, for a doomed Premier League club backed by a Russian (who could be gone perhaps when the toy is boring).

I too am extremely sceptical of this whole mess now. Why suspend the coaching team - the club know precisely what was said on Monday publicly - it was on the telly for God's sake - if it breaches a contractual clause - and you want him gone, sack him on the spot. This does now look like a power struggle between Barber and Poyet - and the generous support some credible players are now offering Poyet means there is something awfully wrong here. I'm thinking of joining the Barber out camp. Would rather read about an England international (Wayne Bridge) being happy to stay with us, than worry about the next problem being engineered by a divisive CEO.

I think some are misinterpreting the turn of events.

To me it seems that it had got to the point where Poyet was irreversibly going to leave.

As soon as that happens the HR department with its access to their lawyers will engineer a situation where they might maximise their compensation demands for the club he wishes to go to whilst trying minimise the immediate ongoing financial liability to the staff ready to leave.

Similarly Poyet would instruct his own lawyers/LMA to minimise any likely compensation issues and maximise his current financial interests.

I would suspect the HR department keeps detailed logs to be prepared for an inevitable parting of its manager at some stage, there is always likely to be a breach of contract at some stage, the dynamics of football and its associated passion seems to lend itself to this.

One will end up having a stronger case than the other and a compromise would be met, especially if Poyet wants to move to his new club soon and BHA wants to recruit their new manager quickly too.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Trying to get my head round ' power struggle ' between Poyet and Barber.
Would those in the know like to enlighten me a bit more.

 

[BadFish]

I agree entirley, Those jumping on the Anti gus bandwagon seem so sure that he is at fault for all current problems but I am not sure I have seen enough evidence to place the blame solely on him.

This story has gathered momentum with little or no solid foundation based on hearsay and conjecture (unless I have missed something) and we have hung Gus out dry with no investigation or compelling evidence.

I am not so quick to assume the innocence of other parties in this and remain very skeptical about Paul Barber and his role in all this.

I am wishing (I do understand we had little choice) that we had a different ownership model and enjoyed more representation on the board and more transparency. Not sure how long the silence will continue but the longer it lasts the less I trust the club.

 

[casbom]

Gus was already in Barbados when it was announced he could speak to Reading, so not sure whether he spoke to them from there or not.

There has been alot of assumptions made considering we have no idea why they have been suspended. Questions need to be answered by the Club this week about this whole mess.

What are the breaches of contract for all 3?

Why has the relationship deteriorated between Tony, Barber and Gus?

Will the Manager (Gus or whoever) have a bigger budget for next season? If not why not?

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

Trying to get my head round ' power struggle ' between Poyet and Barber.
Would those in the know like to enlighten me a bit more.

I think it's a fair assumption that anyone on NSC genuinely in the know would be keeping quiet at the moment.

Instead, enjoy the wild guesses/theories being thrown around comfortable in the knowledge that you're as clueless as the vast majority of us.

 

[Hyperion]

Gus was already in Barbados when it was announced he could speak to Reading, so not sure whether he spoke to them from there or not.

There has been alot of assumptions made considering we have no idea why they have been suspended. Questions need to be answered by the Club this week about this whole mess.

What are the breaches of contract for all 3?

Why has the relationship deteriorated between Tony, Barber and Gus?

Will the Manager (Gus or whoever) have a bigger budget for next season? If not why not?

Bigger budget? FFP perhaps? I very much doubt our budget will be bigger.

 

[backson]

As I recall, the original post on here was from a Reading fan, intimating that there were connections between the clubs, as there was history (we did a similar thing with Coppell).

What that failed to take into account was that back then, both us and Reading had a completely different chairman and board than we both do now, so I took the original comment with a pinch of salt.

 

[drew]

Does anyone genuinely think the club would force Poyet to speak to Reading, it's laughable. More than likely is that when Poyet signed his new contract just after the start of the 2011/12 season I wouldn't be surprised if there was a clause allowing him to talk to any premier league club that asked for permission to talk which would dovetail with the compensation clause. As good as Brighton are, Reading may have been seen as a better managerial prospect as they have experience in the premier league and, more importantly, irrespective of relegation, would have a bigger budget due to parachute payments at the very minimum.

No doubt Poyet's agent would also have sounded out any deal and then the fact Poyet openly spoke to them suggest to me he was probably playing mind games with Bloom in trying to engineer a bigger budget for next year. At that time we had just beaten Palace and were on the fringe of the play-offs.

 

[Bra]

Still unsure about barber being to blame here. Yes there would doubtless be friction between them, one wanted more money the other said no, just the nature if the beast. To take the decision to suspend all the management team means you have to be pretty confident that all the management have committed a breech of contract serious enough to warrant possible dismissal for gross misconduct. This is a high profile and possibly expensive area to get into and take a flyer so to speak or even try to engineer the situation. The club must be confident via the legal team they are rught here I would think. You also dont and cant suspend charlie and tanno for the sins, so to speak, of the manager whatever they are and you cant advise reason so as not to affect due process so we will not get a statement from the club, probably not even when complete
Doubtless the club gave him permission to soeak to reading, I understood it was part of thd agreement to let him speak to premiership clubs but could be wrong.
I also think that this decision to suspend would be taken by the board and not just barber although he would be part of the process

 

[Bra]

Forgive spelling in previous post, doing this quickly on the train

 

[drew]

Bigger budget? FFP perhaps? I very much doubt our budget will be bigger.

Have to agree with this. Seems people, when they chose, ignore the implications of FFP. Managers always want to have the biggest possible budget, which is understandable, and we have seen on numerous occasions when managers with a blank cheque book have subsequently left the club facing administration, relegation etc. Prudent management behind the scenes has meant that BHA have not gone into administration, even in our darkest days, and, as far as I'm aware, we have paid our creditors. FFP means more clubs will need to operate like us and therefore level the playing field.

 

[Captain Sensible]

​

Poyet's tune changed after the reading thing. He started going on about 10 out of contract players all the time and how professional they were putting in a shift when they are not sure if they are at the club next season. He said this at least twice in almost every press conference and post match. I don't know, something doesn't add up.

 

[Icy Gull]

Does anyone genuinely think the club would force Poyet to speak to Reading, it's laughable..

Of course not, but what if they made it clear that they'd like him to speak to them? I don't recall any comment from the board about how pleased they were that he'd decided to stay, but I accept I could be wrong on that. How would Gus be expected to take it if the club made it clear that they were happy for him to go as long as they got the compensation? IF and it's a big IF this was the case it would explain why Gus expects to be ousted or wants to leave?

All complete idle speculation I accept but I think we should explore some avenues, as everything is so murky and unclear, where Gus may not be the bad guy in all of this, seeing as so many on here, myself included, have been pointing the finger at him?

Also are you certain that Gus openly spoke to Reading or are you just assuming it?

 

[mune ni kamome]

Not too many definite facts about. Only this I know, Tony Bloom is a lifelong supporter of the Albion and will always be doing his utmost to ensure our continued success in the long run. I'm happy to trust in that for now

 

[casbom]

I'm sure I read somewhere that as long as the compensation figure was matched and it was a Premiership club, permission would be given for that club to speak to Gus. Whether he does speak to them it's up to him.

If that is the case the Reading thing would be logical as they matched the compensation figure.

 

[Diego Napier]

I agree entirley, Those jumping on the Anti gus bandwagon seem so sure that he is at fault for all current problems but I am not sure I have seen enough evidence to place the blame solely on him.

This story has gathered momentum with little or no solid foundation based on hearsay and conjecture (unless I have missed something) and we have hung Gus out dry with no investigation or compelling evidence.

I am not so quick to assume the innocence of other parties in this and remain very skeptical about Paul Barber and his role in all this.

I am wishing (I do understand we had little choice) that we had a different ownership model and enjoyed more representation on the board and more transparency. Not sure how long the silence will continue but the longer it lasts the less I trust the club.

Conversely, there are a lot of people who have jumped on the anti Barber bandwagon and there has been no evidence to put the blame solely on him.

I've been firmly on the Gus bus since his arrival, enthused by the statements from him and TB that we'd embarked on a 5 year building programme to reach and stay in the Premier League. I've also stayed firmly on the Gus bus because of his introduction of a quality of football that I've never witnessed Brighton play before. However, the events of the last week have made me decide to jump off the bus.

I was willing to overlook Gus's continuing disloyalty to us with his repeated suggestions that he wanted to manage Spurs, and Chelsea and Leeds and Zaragoza and any Premier League team and the way that must've made us look in the eyes of the rest of the footballing world. I was also willing to overlook the continuing suggestions that he needed more money to get us promoted this year (whatever happened to the 5 year plan?) obviously ignoring examples like Paul Lambert at Norwich who gained promotion 2 years running with a very limited budget and team essentially made up of Championship/League 1 players. I was also willing to overlook his silly outbursts to the press over events like Suarez's racism, putting it down to his Latin temperment.

What I can't overlook is the "evidence" of arriving such at a crunch playoff game and putting out a team against Palace that lacked the tactics, players and motivation necessary get us to Wembley. Gus's "body language" indicated that he just wasn't up for it. Whatever happened behind the scenes, his team should've gone out on the pitch willing to die for us; on the night, the opposition just wanted it far more than us. That's unforgivable.

Ultimately, Gus and Barber were both appointed by TB to carry out specific roles and he will be completely aware of the entire situation that we are all speculating about as well as the bigger picture in terms of our future.

When you say that "Not sure how long the silence will continue but the longer it lasts the less I trust the club" then you what you are really saying is that, without any evidence, the less you trust Tony Bloom's judgement.

 

[BadFish]

Conversely, there are a lot of people who have jumped on the anti Barber bandwagon and there has been no evidence to put the blame solely on him.

I've been firmly on the Gus bus since his arrival, enthused by the statements from him and TB that we'd embarked on a 5 year building programme to reach and stay in the Premier League. I've also stayed firmly on the Gus bus because of his introduction of a quality of football that I've never witnessed Brighton play before. However, the events of the last week have made me decide to jump off the bus.

I was willing to overlook Gus's continuing disloyalty to us with his repeated suggestions that he wanted to manage Spurs, and Chelsea and Leeds and Zaragoza and any Premier League team and the way that must've made us look in the eyes of the rest of the footballing world. I was also willing to overlook the continuing suggestions that he needed more money to get us promoted this year (whatever happened to the 5 year plan?) obviously ignoring examples like Paul Lambert at Norwich who gained promotion 2 years running with a very limited budget and team essentially made up of Championship/League 1 players. I was also willing to overlook his silly outbursts to the press over events like Suarez's racism, putting it down to his Latin temperment.

What I can't overlook is the "evidence" of arriving such at a crunch playoff game and putting out a team against Palace that lacked the tactics, players and motivation necessary get us to Wembley. Gus's "body language" indicated that he just wasn't up for it. Whatever happened behind the scenes, his team should've gone out on the pitch willing to die for us; on the night, the opposition just wanted it far more than us. That's unforgivable.

Ultimately, Gus and Barber were both appointed by TB to carry out specific roles and he will be completely aware of the entire situation that we are all speculating about as well as the bigger picture in terms of our future.

When you say that "Not sure how long the silence will continue but the longer it lasts the less I trust the club" then you what you are really saying is that, without any evidence, the less you trust Tony Bloom's judgement.

Fair points indeed. I think I will retract my comments and wait until this is all over before passing blame or opinion on any of the people involved. My comments were born out of a feeling of frustration of not knowing what is going on. On reflection, as others have said, maybe it is a good thing that the club have kept their investigations out of the public eye and are holding investigations in house.