I took a bird along in ‘86 to impress her and she ended up listening to me swear endlessly and watch me sob uncontrollably.
I think it is also a reflection of a quite significantly reduced Market Value for Championship players overall since we bought him. Dickie did ok under Warburton, it probably helped him to play in a back 3. Beale came in, played a back 4 and brought in Balogun, Dickie's out of the start 11 and his confidence got a knock before Beale even left. Think he then got an injury too and by the time he got back in the team due to the injuries to JCS and Balogun many of the remaining players had lost a lot of confidence too. I thought Dickie picked up a bit at the end of the season under Gareth, as you say he was a hero at Burnley.
Someone is only worth what another club is willing to pay. Circumstances dictate, as in previous injuries, contract length , age etc. Any player this season can be counted on one hand how many good games they have had. Dickie is no exception to that. Totally lost in a back 4 (but shouldn't be) and alright at best in a back 5. The most worrying thing for me, who the **** would possibly come to us that is even near his standard. Are we going to go and spend his fee on a replacement? Are we ****ers like! This is a guy who was most likely going to run his contract out so we got what we could for him. I'm really surprised we nearly recouped the fee.
Actually March the First happened in 1986. Bannister hat-trick, 2 for Byrne and Supersub Leroy. It was so good my Dad bought me it on Betamax! As for Dickie, "He plays better in a back three" (which actually means five) has to be the biggest insult to any centre back.
Clives farewell to Dickie... Rob Dickie’s M4 odyssey – Column Wednesday, 7th Jun 2023 00:31 by Clive Whittingham QPR’s much needed squad rebuild/FFP induced fire sale is underway, with Rob Dickie’s quest to complete the M4 corridor furthered by a departure to Bristol City at a financial loss to the club. Mood music I quite fancy Bristol City next season. Having previously got the conveyer belt a non-parachute payment club needs going quite smoothly - with big money arriving at regular intervals for Aden Flint, Bobby Reid, Joe Bryan, Adam Webster, Jonathan Kodjia and others - like us they found the model of buying low, selling high and reinvesting hobbled by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent collapse in the Championship transfer market. Like us they’ve seen some sellable assets run their contracts down – Famara Diedhiou left for free and Han Noah Massengo is heading back to France cut-price. Like us they’d also used the headroom created by sales to do some daft things, like handing out chunky three-and-a-half-year contracts to Nahki Wells. Some large financial losses were recorded. A breach off FFP was not out of the question. But it feels to me like a recovery is well underway at Ashton Gate. https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/60318/rob-dickie’s-m4-odyssey-–-column A worrying summary of where we'll be come the end of this transfer window at the bottom.of the arricle
I’m not sure that Rob Dickie merits quite that many pixels, but I can’t contradict anything he says about QPR. For those who (like me usually) don’t read all the way to the end of Clive’s stuff, three (paraphrased) points : - any funds generated by sales of players (Dickie, Chair, Dykes, Willock and I would add Dieng) will not be reinvested in the squad, but used to plug the £10m FFP hole (while the owners continue to stump up for day to day running costs). So additions likely to be free transfers/out of contracts and not demanding too much of the wage budget. - we have exactly the same people running the club in every department who got us into this mess, why would we expect their decision making to improve? - Previously managers have been allowed to stuff the squad with players who suit their ‘style’. Where that leaves us when Ainsworth is sacked after a losing run playing horrible football and we replace him with someone with the polar opposite ‘style’ is easy to guess. Cheery stuff. Happy holidays!
It's hard to be optimistic right now, as I agree with the points Clive has made. Here's my best attempt: - We've got players that people want to buy, quite a few of which we have developed well. It's taken a lot of work to get to this point and we shouldn't ignore that. Selling them too late shouldn't completely detract from that - We've already put in the hard work to get our wage budget down from £60m+ to £25m. The players going out will not only plug the £10m FFP hole, but also bring that budget down quite significantly - The extra money from Eze's England cap & world cup fees for Chair & Dieng help plug that £10m hole too. Attendances were (somehow) decent enough last year too, which helps a bit - The new EPL TV deal will help a lot from next year onwards - I have major concerns about Ainsworth's style too, but if we do need someone who can build a squad of freebies and get them playing cohesively and winning, he has that track record - A point Clive hints at in his piece, but the squad last year was mentally weak, and with the honourable exception of Field (and maybe Dykes) I won't be sad to never see any of them play for us again. I'd welcome a year of players who are actually grafting and 'leaving it all on the pitch' which I think we'll get from Ainsworth I still have major concerns about the big picture strategy here, and if we've abandoned a strategy that was viable too early with the appointment of Ainsworth, but that's my best attempt to be optimistc.
Agree with all your points Raving, until you start talking about strategy. As you say, strategies have been repeatedly abandoned under the current owners. Seems to me a series of short term plans have been put in place as the result of knee-jerk, panic driven, decisions, and those plans are completely changed when the next panic comes along.
Felt like there was from Warburton's appointment onwards. Buy players we can develop, play attractive football that attracts PL interest in players, get a bit better reach year, reduce the wage bill a bit each year, and appoint managers in that style - Warburton, Beale, Critchley. Maybe I'm wrong but it at least felt like there was a strategy there to me.
I would add that he also posits that we might be stuck in a pre-pandemic strategy (develop youth/buy young and develop and sell for profit) in a post-pandemic world. The bottom dropping out of the Championship transfer market has got to be a big factor, no one is worth what they once were. The Dickie deal is such an odd one, equal parts WTF? making nil profit and bloody hell we actually got some money for him.
We’ll inevitably sell as he’s got a year left and isn’t signing for us. Things are looking grim if that’s all we can get for one of our better assets. Frustrating as Dykes is, his effort isn’t questionable and I like him. He won’t be easy to replace and we’re desperately short up front even more than we’re desperately short across the rest of the team. Oh well.
As with Dickie, had we sold a year ago that was probably realistic. Maybe £7-8m for the pair. Either sell these guys with two years to go or get a contract nailed down. Willock will go for around £3m when we had what looked like a £20m player on our hands not long ago.
I would be surprised if we got half of what you reckon for Willock. On last season's form, not one of our players is worth over 2m despite what we think. If they won't sign extensions, sell them for whatever we can get. It ain't gonna be pretty for a few years that's for sure!
Not fussed who we sell, as long as we spend the money on replacements. Try and get a bit more for Dykes and get in a striker who puts it in the net more often. If we sell the players but then give Ainsworth **** all to replace them then blame the board not the manager !
