Hey @Teessidemakem - Just merged these as they both appear to be about the same thing - hope you don;t mind mate
Still a bit gutted about Mavrias tbh... Convinced this lad could have made it in the PL if given the chance.
Player parity - agents know what every player earns, they have a network of contacts to get this information. If Rodwell signs, he wants the same money as Johnson and other top earners. TV money - players see the extra money coming in and their agents do a job on the club, it's them earning that money by keeping the team in the league so they deserve a cut, so the thought process goes. Free transfers - no fee involved for the player, if you sign him for a very low signing on fee as well it could be offset with distorted wages. If you have no cash left to invest without making a loss, you can incentivise a wage scale for the player. 10% increase after each 25 appearances for example. All well and good if the player ends up integral to your team, but try getting them to budge off £25k a week when everybody else thinks they're worth nothing but the **** off their shoe. Agents really innit, put clubs over a barrel with every signing nowadays and unless the player is loyal and does a great job, the club ends up with the ****ty end of the deal.
As much as we`d like to Monty we simply can`t compete with those people. They`ve got the cash to beat us every time.
So you'd want to keep an obvious mercenary here who couldn't wait to get away to piss away his talent in a mickey mouse league on tax free mega bucks by offering him silly money to stay. In truth it was a great bit of business by the club managing to get back from the Arabs pretty much what we paid out for the clown in the first place. Then at the opposite end of the spectrum is Hendo. He is now showing what the Bin Dippers saw in him to make them offer us £20 million for his services. He's played Champions League and is an England regular, neither of which he would have achieved if he'd stayed with us. Maybe he should have stayed here for another year but the affection in which he is held by most Sunderland fans shows we know he left for footballing reasons and not for the wedge, yet you think offering him silly money would have made him stay What is most instructive is when you try to name the players we've had who have left us to move on to bigger and better things. Hendo is about all I can think of, Mig is debatable as he seems to have lost the trust of Rogers at Liverpool. Other than these two (Bent doesn't count) we seem to struggle to ship players out to teams about our level or just below (Stoke, and thank Greggs for Bruce and his love of pissing away cash on medicore players he already knows) or end up stuck with misfits we can't shift for love nor money. Ironically when we do start losing players to top 8 / European clubs it will signify progress as at least it will mean we are starting to bring in decent players who are performing well and improving us (and I fear PVA will be one of the first of these in a year or so)...
Michael Graham @Capt_Fishpaste 9h9 hours ago Roberge IS on more than Ba/Mavrias etc, but disagree his wage is a huge financial drain on resources. Know for a fact it isn't, actually. He's pretty adamant. Click to see full convo
Gyan was an "obvious mercenary" "clown" who "couldn't wait to get away"? Asamoah Gyan never did ask to leave here. He didn't want to leave and Sunderland didn't want to lose him. He had a problem with Bruce and, rather than go whinging to the press, went to someone higher in the club (presumably Quinn) and aired it. Al Ain came in with a straight offer to buy him and were turned down flat. Then they offered good money to borrow him for a season. It suited Gyan and Sunderland until we saw what was going to happen to Bruce, so off he went on loan. When O'Neill came in, we got stories that 'From what we've heard, Gyan doesn't want to come back'. Gyan always denied that and said 'My agent tells me Sunderland don't want me back'. Put the two quotes together and it suggests Gyan's agent was playing both sides against the middle for a wedge, and that O'Neill never once picked up the phone to actually speak to his player one to one! Gyan was anything but "an obvious mercenary who couldn't wait to get away". As for "clown", he scored the same number of goals as Bent that season (Bent scored eleven in the first half of the season, and Gyan scored eleven in the second half of the season - he didn't play his first game till October). Some "clown"! I wish we had a "clown" like him right now. In his best season here, Fletcher only scored twelve in a full season!
And in the season just gone Wayne Rooney scored 12 - in fact, only: Sergio Agüero (26) >£50m Harry Kane (21) - >£30m Diego Costa (20) - >£50m Charlie Austin (18) - >£20m Alexis Sánchez (16) >£40m Saido Berahino (14) - >£20m Olivier Giroud (14) - >£30m Eden Hazard (14) - >£50m Christian Benteke (13) - >£20m Scored more than 12 goals in the season just gone - so the word "only" is a little off the mark - there are very few 15 goal a season strikers now - and those that are cost a mint to buy - those prices I put up there are only my estimate but I reckon every one of them is right! Gyan scored goals when we were on a bit of a high and playing a different style and formation (game was different even that long ago) (I don;t rate Fletcher that highly by the way, just using the numbers to make a point!)
I don't think the word 'only' was that far off the mark, Marcus. It's all right trying to downgrade Gyan's tally by comparing it to today. But Gyan scored his eleven in 2010-11, and Fletcher's twelve was in 2012-13. The game hadn't changed so much in that amount of time. And let's not forget that Gyan's were in a shorter space of time than Fletcher's because he didn't play his first game here till October. I don't think Gyan was a "clown" at all.
I don't get why Gyan and goals are being discussed. I mentioned him because he's a quality all round CF. He's comfortable hanging off the last man, dropping deep, playing wide, running the channels, holding the ball up and comfortable passing, I think we could do with a Gyan because he'd suit the game in this league. I think he'd be a 8-10 goal striker at the moment but it's everything else he brings, things our present strikers just don't bring.
I loved Gyan but wasn't something else going on during his time with us? I'm sure he was done for drink driving or speeding at the same time we were playing a cup-tie one night.
If you chaps care to mosey on over to the sexy side of the force, I've posted an article that may be of interest to you (give or take a few subtle, subtle digs ). Did you know you lot have apparently spent more than us on players since 2003-04? Did you know you've spent more and recouped less over the past 5 years, yet your points to millions spent isn't much worse over that period? Me neither, and I promise you that what I've just written has left my head faster than yours after reading it . Personally, though, whatever fat Mike says about Champs league, I expect Sunderland to spend more again. Down the end of the table where we both inevitably are, it's obviously about eeking out the best of what you've got. The interesting thing about this coming season, for me, is that eternal empty pockets West Brom and Everton are in need of a rebuild due to aging squads, whereas us, Villa and your good selves need to focus on getting quality first team players in (with the added annoyance of having to get rid of absolute **** before we can buy). Whoever makes the best transfers will be mid-table mediocrity, so I expect heavy competition for all the typical bum fluff we'll be linked to (also, if only we could have your form at the end of a season, or you could take ours at the start, maybe we'd finish higher than ****ing 10th for a change).
Well while I can't speak for everyone I really don't feel the need to trample over your turf, basically because I don't give a ****. Michael Owen was good value though eh? Pleb.
Aye was Sess It's ok I'm aware my own clubs spending and spending patterns over the last decade or so.
