Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

Fair comment, and you could say Peace was correct in his actions. I was just commenting on what the effect had been, rather than assigning blame. And Bale did sulk his way out of our club.

 

I certainly would've been annoyed if Levy's attempts at brinkmanship had stripped us of 50% of Bale's transfer fee, which is essentially what Peace did with Berahino. Surely it gets to a stage where common sense has to prevail, the player clearly wanted to leave 1.5 years ago now. The length of time they clung onto him was just pathetic. What does it even prove? That West Brom are a big club who won't be shoved around? We knew that 3 windows ago when they told us where to get off. Or that the individuals calling the shots are stubborn, egocentric pricks who couldn't give a toss about the wider wellbeing of the squad. Even Pulis himself clearly wanted the player out in the summer. Levy's stance on Modric turned out to be the perfect solution: tell the player categorically 'you can leave at the end of the year but not to a rival, which means you'll need to pull your finger out and play out of your skin so that one of the big clubs from abroad comes in for you'. Modric's final season with us was his best by a country mile. After a month of sulking he pulled himself together, played out of his skin and the interest in him was upgraded from a £25m offer from Chelsea to a £35m one from Madrid. So everyone won - the player was delighted, we got more money, avoided strengthening a rival and saved face in front of the fans.

 

That's the thing though, Modric everyone knew was a class act. Berahino on the other hand was still a inconsistent up and coming striker with good potential he mainly relies on his speed and finishing.

He played quite a lot of games last year and just wasn't very good and **** knows what happened this year. Not sure there were any offers in for him at the price that Pearce wanted. I'm sure if someone offered 20 odd million Pearce would have let him go.

In the end, they still made a big profit on a player they picked up and after your offer, i don't think anyone else really wanted to buy for 20 odd million anymore

 

I think that Berahino lost faith in the club because of broken promises made to him.
Pulis said something at the time of our bid and his meltdown which suggested it.
There was also an article by The Secret Footballer (cough Dave Kitson cough) that indicated it, but the site's disappeared.
He was told one thing by the manager, then something different by the chairman, IIRC.

 

That's the thing, we did offer £20m - but Peace was trying to say we weren't.

That's the part about the saga that made Peace's stance so utterly ludicrous: first there was his posturing about how the club didn't have time to sign a replacement in spite of signing Rondon and Lambert several weeks earlier, then there was his mealy-mouthed nonsense about how we were trying to screw the club over by paying the fee in installments rather than chuck £20m at them in one go - despite knowing full well that the £12m they paid for Rondon wasn't in one big chunk, so either he was saying Zenit should've told West Brom to piss off or he was using "alternative facts" eighteen months before Trump was.

 

i know you guys offered 20 odd million that summer. I meant since then that summer, i don't think they have had an offer of such a size since....

 

IIRC they had similar sized offers this summer from at least 2 teams - Stoke being one of them. Your point about Modric being an established star makes WBA's stance seem all the more ridiculous. We sold Modric and Bale knowing full well that they belonged to an elite class of player who are basically impossible to replace. But at some point you have to draw a line and just move on. Pulis is doing an excellent job there - he must be fuming at having a £12m kitty in January when he could've had a £20m one before the season started.

 

That's how Peace's stance backfired: his blabbing/lying (delete as applicable) to the press told pretty much every club with an interest in Berahino that looking elsewhere would have been a better use of their time.

 

If they did get them offers then i agree, they should have snapped peoples hands off considering berahinos contract was running down.

Regarding the point modric was an established star, i think it was more cause he was a key player for you, and berahino was a key player when you first put your transfer through, Maybe they thought he was similar to sterling who went for 50m and felt 20m wasn't enough for player pretty similar to sterling.

Again, they shouldn't have kept him this season if they had no intention of playing him.

I think Pulis is very underrated. I used to highly dislike him for his anti football but theres no denying the guy gets results and actually, i think his teams aren't just long ball merchants when he has the right blend ala palace and now at brom.

 

Peace handled the Saido situation terribly and deserves sole blame for WBA essentially getting dicked over by the saga.

I get the whole saying no to a bigger club stance, that's more than fine and is something we know all too well about but then don't allow the player in question to then go into obscurity after rejecting big bids for him, especially when at the time there was only 24 months on his contract. I know Pulis is manager and I presume he chose the teams but I get the feeling Peace had something to do with Saido's absence (though Saido didn't help matters by having social media meltdowns). I'm sure Pulis would've loved to have played him alongside Rondon a lot more often, on paper it's a great partnership - big, tall and strong + small, quick and skilful - and probably would've propelled WBA much further up the league.

What's been made worse for WBA is that not only have they sold him for less than half we were offering just 18 months ago but they've sold him to a team who is a league rival to them. Without sounding cocky WBA aren't on our level, by selling to us yes it'll mean widening the quality gap between both sides but by selling to Stoke, they've strengthened a side just one place lower than them with what was probably their best player... Absolutely bizarre.

 

It's called cutting your nose off to spite your face, the dynamic duo and Karunty Brady are trying to emulate Pearce at wet spam with the Payet saga, watch him go for 12 M in the summer.

 

They'd be lucky to even get that.

With each month his value will deplete, interest in him has already died down and seeing as he's 30 in a couple months, there's no sell on value for any prospective buyers. They should have bit Marseille's hand off at their latest £25m offer, absolute iditos... Comical though, West Ham are the gift that keeps on giving and long may it continue.

 

New name for Hudd?

Oh well, I suppose we have got decent DM cover for when Dier gets sold.

 

With all due respect, what you just wrote is a big pile of cow poo.

WBA were wrong to stop their star player from leaving, because the mighty Spurs came knocking! Seriously mate, they stood firm, which was a big gamble judging by SB's terrible attitude problems. But they had every right to say 'no' to you. And lets face it, Levy was probably offering to pay £10 a month for him, so lets not pretend the offer was too good to turn down. Stoke have paid £12M rising to 15, that is pretty good for someone who would be going for a song in the summer! Its not a bad gamble when you consider all things, although it must be said, the situation has not made anyone look good. Pulis picks the team, not Peace. And they are currently 8th in the league, so its rather presumptuous of you to suggest they would have done better with him in the team, maybe his absence has helped the squad more?

 

Of course they had every right to stand up to us. But WBA received two bids of £20m this past summer, after a year of it being quite clear that he would never play for them again. One of those bids came in from the same team they ended up selling him to 5 months later...for £8m less. They have been made to look like absolute muppets. I would suggest that you clean up the 'big pile of cow poo' as your post is painfully wrong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36872229

 

Where on earth have you got the idea that I've suggested WBA had no right rejecting "the mighty Spurs" bid? I haven't said standing up to us was wrong at all, what I've criticised WBA about is that they've dicked themselves over of a good transfer fee for a star player of theirs and Peace deserves the blame for it.

18 months ago we offer circa £25m in a final fourth bid, regardless of whether it's in Levy instalments or not, it's still a £25m offer, WBA again reject it and then Peace goes public and kicks up a fuss saying their key player isn't for sale at any price. That's all well and good, commendable in fact but then to cast the star player aside for most of the 18 months since our bid, only to then sell him now for less than half of what we offered, to a side who's one place lower and just four points behind them in the table is utterly mad. How you can say that's "pretty good" from a WBA perspective is beyond me.

 

Peace : a Levy 'in his own mind' , and nowhere else.
By every measure on how WBA have handled the Berahino issue,
they have failed miserably by comparison.

 

As you rightly point out, Pulis picks the team and not Peace.
Perhaps the chairman should've listened to his manager and let the player go, then?
It was quite clear at the time that he didn't fit into his plans and he wanted to sell him and reinvest the cash.

That was (allegedly) the problem.
West Brom were going to change hands and Peace didn't trust Pulis with the money.
He's had high-profile issues with various other chairmen, a couple of which ended in court cases.

 

Especially Paul Scally the Gillingham chairman
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2001/apr/27/newsstory.sport1

 

And Steve Parish: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38136496