Alan McCafu

[Simon Ward]

Why is it our bomb squad can't engineer moves whilst on international duty?

I think we know the answer to that one Peter!

[Ron Manager]

I am pretty sure if he handed in a transfer request he could have got a move last summer. But he didnt because he doesnt believe in himself enough to take a pay cut and prove himself at a new club.

He is probably frozen out because of appearance fees or some such in his contract.

Hutton is just acting the same way Shay Given is, I find it a bit annoying Hutton gets abuse but Shay doesnt.

I've not seen newspaper articles where Given is moaning about a lack of first team football despite turning down opportunities in the summer.

What's wrong with that?

Nothing. The point is that I have seen Hutton quotes where he moans about not getting first team football. Given's been nothing but a total professional and doesn't deserve the label of 'parasite'. It's a harsh tag on Hutton too but I don't see how one minute he can turn down a move to somewhere where he would get first team football and then moan to the media about a lack of first team opportunities. Basically he had a choice - regular football or money. He chose money, which is fair enough but he shouldn't then moan about regular football having turned that down. 

Someone else in the same position (and Given has done just this) would take a pay cut to get regular football. In my mind that's the sensible thing to do because they can rebuild their career and potentially get a move in future where they will be back on good pay but getting regular football again.

It's also worth noting that had he joined Mallorca, he would have still been on best part of a million a year. It's not like he would have been slumming it.

You're basing all that on things we don't know. We don't know who made offers, we don't know how much they offered, we don't know how much of a pay cut it would have meant for Hutton, we also don't know if the loan fell through because we wanted too high a loan fee.

I don't see how anyone can decide from a situation like that that Hutton chose money over football.

And how come Given escapes such harsh treatment? He might have talked about taking a pay cut to get football, but he's still here, too, so when it came down to it, he stayed. Why don't the same assumptions that were made about Hutton in damning him get made about Given, too?

People forget, it's not just a case of "Hey, Shay (or Alan), Club X have offered to take you, but they're going to pay you 10k a week instead of 50k". It's also a case of a loan fee, of other fees which will be due to the player and his agent, no doubt, lots of things will have to be sorted out, and they're not all in the control of the player.

If anyone is to blame for this situation, it is the club, and specifically the people at the club who doled out such lavish contracts in the first place. It's all well and good blaming players for being money-grabbers and what not, but we have a legal, contractual obligation to pay them that money. We shouldn't have told a 37 year old keeper we'd pay him 65k a week until he was 42 in the first place, then we wouldn't have this problem.

That last sentence sums this situation up perfectly. Thinking about it paying any player at the age of 42  £65,000 a week seems in the realms of fantasy. Who was responsible for this ludicrous situation. Well it wasnt MON. It was the bloke who authorised it Mr R.Lerner.
He is the chairman who followed Doug.

[Dave Clark Five]

Could have done with Alan Hutton tonight.
It was no time for pussy-footing about. Hard tackles were needed.
What is the game coming to when so many moan about players who tackle hard, even if they foul occasionally?

[myf]

we could never do with Hutton in my view. one of the worst players I've ever seen in c&b. skinned over and over again by all and sundry

[Dave Clark Five]

we could never do with Hutton in my view. one of the worst players I've ever seen in c&b. skinned over and over again by all and sundry

We would not have been 2-0 down tonight if Hutton had been playing.

[supertom]

we could never do with Hutton in my view. one of the worst players I've ever seen in c&b. skinned over and over again by all and sundry

We would not have been 2-0 down tonight if Hutton had been playing.

We probably would have. And down to 10 men. And he'd have conceded a penalty. He might have broken Shane Longs legs, shortly after he put the Baggies 4-0 up, which would have been some consolation...

[Dave Clark Five]

Did we ever hear Chelsea fans moaning about Ron Harris?

[ozzjim]

Could have done with Alan Hutton tonight.
It was no time for pussy-footing about. Hard tackles were needed.
What is the game coming to when so many moan about players who tackle hard, even if they foul occasionally?

He would have helped us when we were losing that game to our local rivals 5-0 tonight, he would have made all the difference.

[pauliewalnuts]

Did we ever hear Chelsea fans moaning about Ron Harris?

40 years ago.

The game has changed hugely.

[ChicagoLion]

can any one say that they would do much different, the fault is with the club, they entered into these contracts willingly.

[JUAN PABLO]

Hutton dont bother me , its the prat that signed him and the owner that sanctioned it that bothers me .

[N'ZMAV]

I wonder if we'll manage to sell Hutton this window....

[Dante Lavelli]

That last sentence sums this situation up perfectly. Thinking about it paying any player at the age of 42  £65,000 a week seems in the realms of fantasy. Who was responsible for this ludicrous situation. Well it wasnt MON. It was the bloke who authorised it Mr R.Lerner.
He is the chairman who followed Doug.

You can imagine Randy's shock when Lambert came in, "So you don't HAVE to pay all footballers a minimum of $40,000 a week.  Jeeze, why didn't anyone tell me!?"

[class_of_82]

World class full back seen at villa park oh sorry it was Hutton dressed as lam

[Dribbler]

World class full back seen at villa park oh sorry it was Hutton dressed as lam

I had to give that joke a groan of appreciation, it's so bad it's good!