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We need to talk about Dale







chaileyjem

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Jun 27, 2012
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That depends on whether or not you think having DS is the difference between promotion and another season in the Championship. I honestly think selling him could cost us promotion. £7m now or £170m & Premier League football?

Thats why Bloom has turned down £5m+ offers and thats why he'll invest ££s in a new contract to keep him (and Knockeart, Dunk etc).
But he won't let Stephens run down his contract so he can leave on a free. (come to think of it I'm not sure his agent will either - no ££ for him)
 




GT49er

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Feb 1, 2009
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That depends on whether or not you think having DS is the difference between promotion and another season in the Championship. I honestly think selling him could cost us promotion. £7m now or £170m & Premier League football?

It's not my money of course - but if it was, bearing in mind where the club and the team are at the moment, I'd gamble the £7M.
 


GT49er

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Thats why Bloom has turned down £5m+ offers and thats why he'll invest ££s in a new contract to keep him (and Knockeart, Dunk etc).
But he won't let Stephens run down his contract so he can leave on a free. (come to think of it I'm not sure his agent will either - no ££ for him)
If Stephens leaves on a free next summer, won't his agent get a sizeable wedge of his signing on fee when he joins a new club? And presumably he'll be on a percentage of his wages anyway?
 




chaileyjem

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Jun 27, 2012
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If Stephens leaves on a free next summer, won't his agent get a sizeable wedge of his signing on fee when he joins a new club? And presumably he'll be on a percentage of his wages anyway?

he won't so it doesn't matter.
 


Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Thats why Bloom has turned down £5m+ offers and thats why he'll invest ££s in a new contract to keep him (and Knockeart, Dunk etc).
But he won't let Stephens run down his contract so he can leave on a free. (come to think of it I'm not sure his agent will either - no ££ for him)

There is the January window, which is when Barnes went. That also gives us 5 months playing time, an indication of whether we can go for promotion, and 5 months haggling time to offer better terms.
 


Turkey

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Jul 4, 2003
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Thats why Bloom has turned down £5m+ offers and thats why he'll invest ££s in a new contract to keep him (and Knockeart, Dunk etc).
But he won't let Stephens run down his contract so he can leave on a free. (come to think of it I'm not sure his agent will either - no ££ for him)

If that's true and you know for a fact that TB won't let him run his contract down then that's interesting. Personally I hope he does let him run it down. If there are no further bids for Stephens then the club have no choice but to let him run his contract down anyway. Kayal has been pretty open and honest that he's in the same position and keeping his options open. I don't blame either one of them for wanting to play at the highest level and if we don't go up this season, lets face it, they'll both be gone next summer.
 






chaileyjem

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If that's true and you know for a fact that TB won't let him run his contract down then that's interesting. Personally I hope he does let him run it down. If there are no further bids for Stephens then the club have no choice but to let him run his contract down anyway. Kayal has been pretty open and honest that he's in the same position and keeping his options open. I don't blame either one of them for wanting to play at the highest level and if we don't go up this season, lets face it, they'll both be gone next summer.

The fee for Kayal given his age, and injury record is not comparable to anything the club would attract for Stephens.
No sensible club lets a player run down his contract these days. Albion are no different. Bloom effectively said this when asked at the Fan Forum.
But i certainly don't know for a fact what Bloom is up to although I did see him yesterday in the Reading car park. :)
 






Turkey

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Jul 4, 2003
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The fee for Kayal given his age, and injury record is not comparable to anything the club would attract for Stephens.
No sensible club lets a player run down his contract these days. Albion are no different. Bloom effectively said this when asked at the Fan Forum.
But i certainly don't know for a fact what Bloom is up to although I did see him yesterday in the Reading car park. :)

Appreciate the extra couple of years works against Kayal's value and given how important he is to us that's perhaps why we haven't heard about any bids for him. I think we'd want a decent fee for him because he's worth a lot to us in what he brings to the team. Personally, I don't think selling Stephens now would be sensible. I think this is our strongest squad going into a Championship season and a massive opportunity to fulfil our ambitions. If we fail this year, Stephens and Kayal will be gone and we'll have to rebuild the midfield anyway. Bruno, Sidwell, Rosenior, Murray etc will all be a year older. Knockaert and Dunk will attract further interest and perhaps want to make that step up. Stockdale's 30 and said he'd love to play for Leeds one day. Before you know it we could be looking at a pretty big rebuild job and we could be waiting another few years to get such a talented group together. This is our big chance, bollocks to £6/7m, that's nothing in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, I think I've made my point, we'll find out soon.
 


GT49er

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No sensible club lets a player run down his contract these days. Albion are no different. Bloom effectively said this when asked at the Fan Forum.
But i certainly don't know for a fact what Bloom is up to although I did see him yesterday in the Reading car park
Normally no, they wouldn't; of course not. But there may come a time when it isn't such a bad idea. As someone else has said on this thread, it's gambling £7M to get £170M. Assuming those figures are roughly correct, that's around 25 to 1 in my book. Worth a punt?
Not normally the done thing to let a contract run down, but there's always a first time.
 


trueblue

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Jul 5, 2003
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Appreciate the extra couple of years works against Kayal's value and given how important he is to us that's perhaps why we haven't heard about any bids for him. I think we'd want a decent fee for him because he's worth a lot to us in what he brings to the team. Personally, I don't think selling Stephens now would be sensible. I think this is our strongest squad going into a Championship season and a massive opportunity to fulfil our ambitions. If we fail this year, Stephens and Kayal will be gone and we'll have to rebuild the midfield anyway. Bruno, Sidwell, Rosenior, Murray etc will all be a year older. Knockaert and Dunk will attract further interest and perhaps want to make that step up. Stockdale's 30 and said he'd love to play for Leeds one day. Before you know it we could be looking at a pretty big rebuild job and we could be waiting another few years to get such a talented group together. This is our big chance, bollocks to £6/7m, that's nothing in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, I think I've made my point, we'll find out soon.

Equally there's a danger the team could be broken up even sooner than the end of the season. The club really needs to be adding to the squad this week so the likes of Kayal and Knockaert know we're really going to be in the promotion hunt - otherwise any other bids that come in may begin to look more attractive. You'd hope that Albion can persuade Stephens to stay for this campaign, even if they lose out on a fee at the end of it.
 




chaileyjem

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Jun 27, 2012
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Confirmation? Wow Twitter is now FACT! Maybe you will be correct AN, but taking Twitter as confirmation, really?

These are 2 newspaper stories both reported independently of each other confirming the story (the Albion football writer for the Argus, the Burnley football writer for the Lancashire Telegraph). Twitter has nothing to do with it.
 


BensGrandad

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Jul 13, 2003
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No doubt there will be more bids for players this week and the club have to persuade the players of the direction we are going selling one of our assets does not show this.
 


One Teddy Maybank

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There is the January window, which is when Barnes went. That also gives us 5 months playing time, an indication of whether we can go for promotion, and 5 months haggling time to offer better terms.

Haven't agreed with you lately on things, but spot on.......
 






chaileyjem

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Jun 27, 2012
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. I think this is our strongest squad going into a Championship season and a massive opportunity to fulfil our ambitions.

Bloom has helpded fund and rebuild a team 3-4 times now in the last 6-7 years. Changing the manager, and the entire squad with three play offs in four seasons and one promotion..
Only once has it completely backfired. I don't buy the argument that this is the only chance we'll have. (Plenty said the same about 2012/13).
Nor should,i'm guessing, the club's commitment to running the club sustainably, not allowing players or agents to dictate unfair terms, seeking value in the transfer market, commitment to the academy and youth simply go out of the window because of the riches on offer up there...
 




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