The price of Emile Heskey

[Villa'Zawg]

Didn't Paul Faulkner take over responsibility for conducting transfer deals when he was appointed CEO?

To be fair, I think that's something you're convinced of, but for which we've no factual evidence.

Leaving that aside, I think there are enough sticks to beat him with anyway.

If I were convinced it would have been a statement rather than a question. It is something that was said at the start of last summer following his appointment but I've seen no convincing evidence either way.

If you don't know either, why are you posting this?

"...So, they ask said manager "can you please do some wheeling and dealing, move some players on, work on managing the wage bill a little".

Manager agrees, then does nothing about it. Gets asked again, realises that he's not going to be able to move some of them on quite so easily, realises that he's going to struggle to finish sixth again, realises that this is going to tarnish his own CV, changes his mind, abruptly fucks off."

Leaving that aside and the rest of your post is a typical "ooh look at the big numbers" without reference or comparison to any other club.

I posted a list of 5 players for whom Liverpool paid the best part of £30m, cost almost £20m per year in wages and have contributed 4 goals in total.  Have Liverpool adopted a slash and burn strategy? No. Their new owners paid £300m to buy the club in October and have already invested approx. £50m net in transfer fees, which is as much as Randy Lerners investment in the squad since he got here.

Every team has players who don't contribute as much as was hoped, Heskey is one of ours.

[cheltenhamlion]

Run me through the Harewood deal.

[pauliewalnuts]

Didn't Paul Faulkner take over responsibility for conducting transfer deals when he was appointed CEO?

To be fair, I think that's something you're convinced of, but for which we've no factual evidence.

Leaving that aside, I think there are enough sticks to beat him with anyway.

If I were convinced it would have been a statement rather than a question. It is something that was said at the start of last summer following his appointment but I've seen no convincing evidence either way.

If you don't know either, why are you posting this?

You clearly missed the bit where I started the post by saying "My view is that ...."

You're right, it was something that was said at the start of last summer and since then too. By you.

And the reason I didn't refer to any other club, or any other player, is because I don't give a shit about other clubs, and the thread is about Emile Heskey.

Only you could manage to weigh into a thread and start suggesting that spunking those sums of money on a player as demonstrably shit (which could have turned out to be otherwise, but did not) and of that age (and even you'd accept he couldn't get any younger) is somehow "par for the course".

[not3bad]

It's interestingh how people start talking about MON's spending and then 5 minutes later Villadawg shows up.  He must have a telephone that lights up when the thread starts like Batman in the TV series.

[brontebilly]

A dreadful signing. Probably the worst of MON's reign as he was just the player we didn't need at the time. Changed the formation to 442 to fit him in with disastrous consequences. Typically unimaginative and lazy signing. Has nothing to add to AVFC now and same as Beye should be just paid off to leave

[MoetVillan]

Holy pisspants Batman, dont you see the plan?  He is our new CB.  Big guy, great in the air, can pass (much better than Cuellar) and there is absolutley no chance of him scoring an own goal.  Plus he will finish the job and take Hendersons head clean off in December when we finish with 9 victorious playes in a 2-1 win against Liverpool in December.  Warnocks career threatening injury will be well worth it seeing as Dowing ended up in the upper Holte.

In Heskeys defence, he is not MONs worst signing.  At least he has scored goals.  I have seen nothing to convince me that Sundaymondayhabibbeye even knows the basic principles of offside, tackling or tracking back

[SoccerHQ]

I was really hoping Leicester and Sven would make a bid for him considering they're signing loads of other players but looks like we'll be lumbered with him for another season on the bench.

[Quiet Lion]

Thank god someone made this thread. I have been waiting for years for someone to make a thread so we can all moan about what a bad signing he is and how he doesn't score goals.

Finally this important topic gets the airing it deserves.

[Villa'Zawg]

It's interestingh how people start talking about MON's spending and then 5 minutes later Villadawg shows up.  He must have a telephone that lights up when the thread starts like Batman in the TV series.

My Bat Phone tends to be activated when people are talking bollocks about our finances. It just so happens to be that it is almost invariably cloaked in an illogical assessment of one or more aspects of O'Neill's tenure.

"Heskey hasn't been a good signing."

"True. All clubs have them, good clubs factor them in. "

"Yeah but it shows that O'Neill's a ****** and Lerner/Faulkner have done all that could possibly have been done...blah blah blah."

"No it doesn't and here are some examples of other clubs having the same issue but on a grander scale"

[Rudy Can't Fail]

A couple of questions about Emile.

1. How much has it cost per goal?
2. Why did MoN put him on such a high wage.
3. is there another Premiership club out there stupid enough to take him off our hands?

4. Why did we give him a three and a half year contract that will see him at Villa Park until he's 34?

As I pointed out yesterday, we were stupidly giving aging players very attractive, long term deals that would make it very hard to move them on, not to mention zero sell-on value. Only Everton seem to do likewise and we all know what a financial mess they are in.

Randy Lerner and Martin O'Neill need to hold their hands up for this mess. What were they thinking? Now Faulkner has to clear it up.

As for Heskey, it's very simple. We should never have signed him, at least not on those conditions. The same same goes for Beye. The same can be said for the extended contract of Petrov that will see him at the club for another two seasons. A combination of buying loyalty and utter naivity have left us in this situation.

AS I said yesterday, it's stupid contracts like these that restrict us from getting better players in, thus keeping our best players because we can't shift the deadwood.

[Risso]

Thank god someone made this thread. I have been waiting for years for someone to make a thread so we can all moan about what a bad signing he is and how he doesn't score goals.

Finally this important topic gets the airing it deserves.

Could you possibly start a subject on something Villa related that hasn't been done to death then?  Other than for a new signing, I think you'll struggle.

[UsualSuspect]

What about something original like,

Was MON good for Villa??


I'll get me replica shirt......

[Concrete John]

Spurs' wagebill.  That's something we've never discussed.

[TheSandman]

Dreadful, dreadful signing.

I agree with Pauliebentnuts posts on the previous page. They were until things really got out of hand wages wise reluctant to challenge MoN. A catch 22 for them.

[MoetVillan]

Cant we compare our wage bill against Liverpool?  Fuck me, we think we have some deadwood to shift, take a look at the players on their books, and what some of them must be raking in (sorry "earning").  Deadwood?, its like Sherwood forest the day after Friar Tuck fell asleep instead of keeping an eye on his mead still.