And it says in the post gone to Birmingham from Charlton so guess he can't be blamed for Charlton's Defensive record
And Brums fortunes upturned whilst Charlton's nosedived!! The point I was making was, there are decent Championship players around for not a lot of money. We had £ 4 million Sam Byram, Birmingham had "hardly a signing to get excited about" Morrison and currently, they are 11 points in front of us!!
Think it probably had more to do with Clayton Donaldson and the youth player Grey TBH.Finding a top striker from the lower leagues who can make the step up is what's needed but not easy to do.
Without getting too wrapped up in this, I was simply saying the likes of Morrison, Martin, Keogh, Friend are the sort of signings that we should have been able to compete for when they were sold and you would know they would have us a lot closer to the Top 6 and, as a result, much more likely to be able to hang on to our good youngsters. I was actually replying to Don and his opinion of Tomlin who, I believe falls into the same sort of decent Championship calibre player!
But it was after I talked about the likes of Keogh, Martin and Friend and I wasn't saying they were signed last week either
But how do you know they will do well,Keogh,Martin,Friend and Morrison never set the world alight with there previous clubs TBH and only when there clubs spent another £20 million or so have they become part of a good side.We have managed to sign some of them type of player also,Cooper and Berardi being 2 good examples.Like Derby and Boro you end up signing 10 players and only a couple step up to make top players.
You could well be right. I think Tomlin would do quite well, I thought Bridcutt would do quite well. If we have to sell our best youngsters but re-invest the money in proven Championship Players rather than £ 4M on the likes of Bellusci and Doukarra I think we would be a better team How is that?
To Sam Byram it was all about money. All about the readies. Nothing to do with West Ham United’s standing in the Premier League, their relocation to London’s Olympic Stadium or the thought of debuting at home to Manchester City this weekend. And nothing to do with Leeds United’s directionless years as a Championship club. Byram would be fooling no-one by denying that a rise in salary was nice, but Everton don’t pay peanuts and when the choice was put in front of him, he took it soberly. Everton have Seamus Coleman at right-back, now and for the foreseeable. West Ham are doing with James Tomkins what Leeds have done with Scott Wootton. Byram chose and made himself look like a player choosing to play. Money was at the root of his fall-out with Massimo Cellino, the factor which drove Cellino’s hopeless attempt to lower his salary, but United’s owner is deluded if he thinks that Byram cut and ran because Leeds couldn’t pay him enough. There is more to an offer than the value in cash terms. There is the outlook, the vision, the strategy and the credibility. There is the fundamental question, based on hard evidence, of whether a club is worth staying at. Cellino was onto something when he claimed in September that Byram “thinks Leeds is too small for him”. Byram probably does think Leeds are too small for him but not in the way Cellino meant. Most of the players who come through United’s academy understand the club’s history and culture. Many of them grew up as supporters. They respect Leeds’ stature in the traditional sense, but they are clever enough to distinguish between reputation and the present day. Jonathan Howson was and is a Leeds boy, a club captain in that mindset; always aware of his surroundings, always willing to front up, always a willing – if slightly overused – candidate for community events. It was not his choice to leave in the window where Leeds decided to sell him, whatever anyone else says, but it had occurred to him by then that the time might be coming. Howson was into the last six months of his deal. Leeds had lost their impetus in the Championship and were about to fire Simon Grayson. Ken Bates was losing the crowd. Howson had given more than 200 games to United, so he left. And left with his conscience clear.
Define small club, twelve years outside the top flight, last achievement getting promoted from League One, ownership issues and history of selling its best players year after year... I don't blame Byram in the slightest, He won't be missed even half as much as previous names to leave like Ross, Gradel, Beckford and Snodgrass. He was 11 years old last time we were in the top flight.
Don't think Bellusci is a bad player,in fact if it wasn't for the odd moment of madness he would be our best CH.imo.Doukarra isn't a bad player either just not great in our team due to a lack of goals coming from midfield or attacking support from midfield.For some reason when other teams attack us they get 5 or 6 in the box,we seem to get 1 or 2.Would love Lafferty myself he's a guy who wins his headers and we don't have one of them.
He owed us IMO sat on his arse for 18 month taking his new big wage from his last contract.I now believe he made an agreement last seasons end to sign for WHU,and no matter if we had offered to double his wage he wouldn't of signed a new contract.He then got in talks with Everton to force West Hams hand early.For West Ham to offer less money they knew he had already agreed to join them.Cellino knows what's been going on he's no fool,that's why he said Everton have been great in the way they tried to buy Byram,implying West Ham have been crap.Hope he breaks his legs.
As they say, it's all about opinions - I just wish we had people running the club whose opinions were right as determined by the League Table
