A selling club.

[Chris Smith]

The need for us to reduce the wage bill BEFORE signing players was reconfirmed by Pelty the other day. In that case how was MON supposed to buy players before he left? You really should try thinking things through before going of an another of your rambling, pointless interventions.

I've no idea, I just mentioned that the General had suggested had the need arisen money would have been there.
Perhaps his son knows more than he does I've no idea.

I'm sorry my rambling pointless intervention has rattled your Mon adorned cage dear, life's a bitch at times especially for lovers of the bloke who quit 5 days before the season started. Don't you find ?

I think its time you called General K to task Chris, having intimated several times Mon was reluctant to sell players he needs sorting, especially if Pelty says differently. Be interested to see you do it.

The General hasn't intimated that he was reluctant to sell players, that was you. They have said that he'd agreed to the policy but then suggested that he somehow changed his mind. The obvious conclusion to draw from that is that when the players hadn't been sold he wanted to spend anyway and was told no that he had to stick to the plan so he flounced off.

[pauliewalnuts]

That would have been Shorey, NRC, and L.Young from the list of six and would have probably given him more scope. We wouldn't have received huge money for any of them, but they'd have been off the books which by consensus was the most important aspect of it all.

But perhaps realizing how difficult they could make things for MON, they decided to stay.
Can't blame them really.

That's the double edged sword of giving big contracts out.

As an example, Habib Beye is, what, 32 or 33 and on 40k a week. He's never going to get anything like that anywhere else, not a prayer, so he'll sit it out and see out the last two years on his contract, for which he'll be paid 4 million pounds, as is his perfect right.

It's going to be nigh on impossible to shift someone in those circumstances. Same with Heskey and his rumoured 60k a week up until he hits 34.

I believe even the Celtic fans acknowledged that MON left them with exactly the same problem.

I do think that a lot of these issues with unshiftable players come down to MON's, well, laziness in the transfer market. Couldn't be arsed to look around for value, made the "easier" to spot signings from the home market, with a bit of a scattergun approach at times, the end result being what we have now, lots of players on good money that we'll struggle to shift.

If we'd signed McGeady this summer, for example, does anyone think that would have been because MON thought he was the best midfielder we could get?

I don't. I think it'd have been the most obvious player from the limited sample he was prepared to shop from.

[ronshirt]

I've no idea,

[Rip Van We Go Again]

When Man City come calling, virtually EVERYBODY is a selling club.
He's an excellent player, but £26m?
Spurs are no different to us, they would have sold him too.

[TopDeck113]

We sell, we buy - as in the good old days every club did.  The difference is that in the last decade first Chelsea, now Citeh have distorted the market so much that every other club looks small time, selling clubs in comparison.   

[KevinGage]

I do think that a lot of these issues with unshiftable players come down to MON's, well, laziness in the transfer market. Couldn't be arsed to look around for value, made the "easier" to spot signings from the home market, with a bit of a scattergun approach at times, the end result being what we have now, lots of players on good money that we'll struggle to shift.

That and his penchant for leaving it as late as possible in the window to agree a fee with clubs, in the mistaken belief he was some ice cold master negotiator.

The knock on effect being that when we'd finally been given the green light to proceed it would be at the back end of August and we'd pretty much have to give the players the wage they or their agents were demanding to get them on board- or go into September down on numbers. So whatever partial saving we made on transfer fees we probably lost a few times over with the financial commitments and contracts for players who -as it turns out- weren't up to standard in many cases anyway.

To continue that theme, I'm not at all convinced that spending the bulk of the Milner money on McGeady and Keane would have been of huge benefit to us. We're well stocked as far as wingers are concerned and Keane looks visibly older and off the pace with every passing game. He had a horror show yesterday, Tottenham only got back into the game when he went off.

[Ads]

When Man City come calling, virtually EVERYBODY is a selling club.
He's an excellent player, but £26m?
Spurs are no different to us, they would have sold him too.

Which is the point. We’re not operating in a vacuum, there is market going on out there and its worth noting that Van Der Vaart went for a third of Milner’s value. Lerner has not jacked it in, despite allegations of this kind that have surrounded us for a few seasons now. Let the cynical make hay now, history will prove them wrong.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Good point about Van Der Vaart, a quality player at a reasonable price, but one that Doh'Neill would never have signed in a million years.
He would have preferred Jenas at £10m +

[pauliewalnuts]

When Man City come calling, virtually EVERYBODY is a selling club.
He's an excellent player, but £26m?
Spurs are no different to us, they would have sold him too.

of course they would.

Fuckwits like Lawrenson wouldn't be calling them a selling club though.

That is what is so annoying.

[Ads]

When Man City come calling, virtually EVERYBODY is a selling club.
He's an excellent player, but £26m?
Spurs are no different to us, they would have sold him too.

of course they would.

Fuckwits like Lawrenson wouldn't be calling them a selling club though.

That is what is so annoying.

Its all about perceptions though.

We were lucky to have O’Neill and Spurs play it the right way.

Ultimately it doesn't matter what he says because its only his opinion and as irritating as it is that he's able to dispense his poorly founded opinion to the nation, it doesn’t alter the reality of the situation.

[SoccerHQ]

Spurs are more of a selling club than we are...they've just signed equally as good replacements to vober that.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

When Man City come calling, virtually EVERYBODY is a selling club.
He's an excellent player, but £26m?
Spurs are no different to us, they would have sold him too.

of course they would.

Fuckwits like Lawrenson wouldn't be calling them a selling club though.

That is what is so annoying.

Just more thoughtless nonsense from the camp one, he has, at best, a sketchy knowledge of the inner workings of Premier clubs and he get's most of that through thumbing the daily nationals.
He should stick to his painfully unfunny puns when co-commentating

[Ads]

True, Carrick was replaced by Modric and Berbatov by Defoe (who he'd initially repalced?!)

What happens when Modric goes to Man United next summer mind, I don’t know.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Spurs are more of a selling club than we are...they've just signed equally as good replacements to vober that.

There in lies the difference, 'Arry wouldn't piss £9m up the wall on McGready, or £9.5m on Curtis Davies.
Doh'Neill's bilnkered transfer policy was always a handicap for us and it may have more far reaching consequences than we imagined.

[Somniloquism]

True, Carrick was replaced by Modric and Berbatov by Defoe (who he'd initially repalced?!)

What happens when Modric goes to Man United next summer mind, I don’t know.

Berbatov's initial replacement was Pavylechenko. He actually played with Defoe for 18 months before the dodgy loan / signing to Portsmouth in January