I was going to finish the title with incompetence but maybe it's not all incompetence. Off the top of my head I can think of Charlie Austin when he was at Swindon, again when he was at Burnley, although this one may have been medical. Jordan Rhodes was linked with us when he was at Huddersfield, we didn't want to spend that, then again when he's at Blackburn. Now this with Gray, just seems to show something's not right with our transfer dealings. Yet we can get players who are useless from abroad with no problem & pay whatever it costs. Anyone think of anymore we've failed to get or what the reasons are, is it incompetence?
if we signed gray, we would be promoted rhodes, i don't rate him too highly tbh and austin, i'm glad we didnt sign him
I started a thread questioning our signing incompetence a few weeks back...specifically referring to the medical incompetence on Charlie Austin and Jimmy Bullard, which probably has cost us not only millions of pounds but also our place in the Prem. As SB has pointed out we scored zero goals in over half our games last year. Austin's goals for us (not QPR) would clearly have kept us up. I doubt you'll get any sensible replies. I didn't. Check them out...it was about three weeks ago. But in answer to your question my answer would be ...yes it is incompetence...GROSS INCOMPETENCE.!! And it is being repeated again with the Gray debacle. We are our own worst enemies.
If we hadn't signed Bullard, and had signed Austin, we may never have been relegated way back in 09/10, and be where Stoke are now..
Good point Syd. What might have been eh.? But as I was told when I raised the "transfer incompetence" question a few weeks..."Austin's long gone...move on FFS!". Well maybe he has. But the incompetence hasn't ..be it medical or managerial. We are still totally f*** up a deal for another striker (Gray not Gayle) who might well give us the additional striking power that could ensure promotion and millions more in revenue. All for the sake of 500k apparently. He WANTS to sign for us.. yes I know we claim to need to sell another player. But why...we've already brought in over 22 mill. from player sales. Sure we want to get Hernandez/Jelavic wages off the books. But even doubling or tripling Grays wages would surely not break the bank. Steve Bruce sounds baffled and confused. So the decision seems to rest with the Allams...?????
Everyone is going on suggesting we haven't actually received the 22m, we've only received instalments, and still have installments due on previous transfers.. FORGETTING the PL money we have earned, and the fact that we would only need to pay an installment to Brentford!! Seems to suit them when it works in their favour, but totally ignore the other side of the equation.
Pointless thread. Austin is still an accident waiting to happen, hence his outburst to West Ham yesterday. Are Middlesbrough incompetent because they didn't get Rhodes? Are Manchester United incompetent because they didn't sign Pedro? Benzama to Arsenal? Pogba to Chelsea? Etc etc Back to Gray, we would be equally as pissed off as the Brentford fans if one of our players was wanting to join a rival club which had refused to meet the asking price but the player had also turned down other clubs who were prepared to pay more.
We wanted more for Brady & Chester originally according to SB, but then took less. However I think we'll have to stump up the full £9 million if we really want him. I can see this being a big deal between SB & the Allams, I hope I'm wrong though & get it sorted before SB walks off in a huff. It could be the straw that broke the camels back!
Some you win, some you lose, it's not worth dwelling on these things. Bruce can't sign Gray because he can't get rid of the bloke he spunked £10m on, he knows the score, he's not going to walk over it.
The point with Campbell, which is so easily overlooked, is that his 15 goals took us the the play-offs where, in the final, he took that magnificent through-ball from Barmby, to the dead-ball line (plus 3(?) defenders) before setting up Dean "The Legend" Windass with THAT ball for THAT goal. He didn't stay with us because his Daddy (and agent) brokered a much better deal than we could offer so you can't blame him for that. Since then, with injuries, he has become "Fraizer Who" and is not on any clubs shopping list.
Could all be down to not getting the name change as well, with the Allams having an indirect dig at those that opposed his name change. Who knows what is going on with the management.
Can't live your life thinking about what if's. Surprise some of you can get out of bed in the morning sometimes
They have a single aim at the moment and that's promotion, they're not going to let their dislike of some fans distract them from that aim.