Gabby

[Villa in Denmark]

Does Agbonlahor have an agent?. If so who represents him?

The same bloke that sells ice to eskimos and sand to the Gulf states.

[Villa in Denmark]

The years of the club meekly accepting the awful goal return Gabby has provided, as he effortlessly goes from contract to contract symbolise every thing which is wrong with this club - in fact, he is the poster boy for our meek acceptance of utter mediocrity.

I don't give a fuck of he supported us or Small Heath as a kid, it is a total red herring.

That clip of him waddling around on motd last night made me want to put my foot through the telly.

I can't wait till the day we finally offload him

The problem there is that mediocrity disappeared over the horizion a while ago.

Lately our aspirations appear to have been "not being totally shit" which we've failed to live up to this year.

[Ron Manager]

Does Agbonlahor have an agent?. If so who represents him?

The same bloke that sells ice to eskimos and sand to the Gulf states.

I see. Mr D.Trotter then.

[avfc_1874]

When Gabby leaves. We party.

[Villa in Denmark]

When Gabby leaves. We party.

Like it's 1999?

If we could go back and stop Gregory wasting £7M on Steve Stone and Najwan Ghrayib.

[pbavfckuwait]

I think the Chinese Super league would be a good move for Gabby, but only if part of the contract is a Balti pie seller and a Kebab stall, cant see him wanting to go for 200k a week if its only noodles.

[sickbeggar]

One of the opportunities missed by Garde and more likely the board was to put the fear of god into the likes of Gabby. If we'd have cancelled the contract of someone having 1+ years left,and hinted at more of the latter in the summer, it may have motivated some of the more comfortable slackers. Sounds nice for them to get their contract paid up, but there'd have been all manner of tax issue they'd have with that massive lump sum, not to mention financial schemes they put in place to run the the length of their contract. Faced with the prospect of a good chunk of his retirement fund going to the taxman we may have seen a reaction on the pitch.

[robbo1874]

Under  normal work situations, it's possible to performance manage people out the door. Maybe worth a try with some of our shitter players and could set a precedent to reign in some of the power from the players back to the clubs. Likely to end up in the courts, but worth a gamble I reckon.

[pauliewalnuts]

Contacts can't just be cancelled, though. Thats the point of them.

As for paying them up, I'm sure the bonus of not actually having to work for the rest of it outweighs any tax implications around a lump sum pay off.

[sickbeggar]

Contacts can't just be cancelled, though. Thats the point of them.

As for paying them up, I'm sure the bonus of not actually having to work for the rest of it outweighs any tax implications around a lump sum pay off.

When you get into those sort of sums, suddenly finding 5 million more in the bank for the tax year can seriously fuck up your plans. Load of stories about people being buggered by earning MORE money than they expected

[Dave]

Sounds nice for them to get their contract paid up, but there'd have been all manner of tax issue they'd have with that massive lump sum

Wouldn't it just be taxed at the highest rate of income tax, just like the overwhelming majority of his normal monthly income?

[sickbeggar]

Sounds nice for them to get their contract paid up, but there'd have been all manner of tax issue they'd have with that massive lump sum

Wouldn't it just be taxed at the highest rate of income tax, just like the overwhelming majority of his normal monthly income?

I'm sure he has all sorts of investments aimed to reduce the tax on his monthly income but its based on that income per month for the length of his contract. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be very pleased to get his contract paid out in full so it was in this tax year instead of spread over several

[brian green]

I have often contemplated that concept Rob.  There has to come a time when the Bosman pendulum swings back to a less player favouring position.  As things stand players can do pretty much anything short of pleading guilty to under age sex without being regarded as being in breach of their contracts.

In any conventional business your terms of employment would demand satisfactory levels of performance.  Professional footballers are so thick and so self obsessed that they assume that failure on their part to deliver a standard of output (N'Zogbia being as clear an example as you could ever find) is simply an option they are choosing to take.

At the root of it all is the inability of the employers to act in concert.  They all adopt a devil-take-the-hindmost attitude and hope to put one across their rivals.  Wait until Johnson is released.  He will get big wages at some opportunistic club.

[Dave]

I have often contemplated that concept Rob.  There has to come a time when the Bosman pendulum swings back to a less player favouring position.

I'd say it's already swinging back thanks to the TV money.

Take Berahino - two transfer windows now that Albion have been turning down bids of £20m+ for a player desperate to leave and with only a year left on his contract.

That would have been unthinkable even as recently as a few years ago.

[Clampy]

I have often contemplated that concept Rob.  There has to come a time when the Bosman pendulum swings back to a less player favouring position.

I'd say it's already swinging back thanks to the TV money.

Take Berahino - two transfer windows now that Albion have been turning down bids of £20m+ for a player desperate to leave and with only a year left on his contract.

That would have been unthinkable even as recently as a few years ago.

He's playing with a smile on his face now so it wouldn't shock me if a deal as already been done and he knows he's off in the summer.