Goodbye Jose and......

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Have there been any newsworthy events? Or just fonte bashing? (Slash board slash agents slash football culture bashing).

No <laugh>

We have had a tweet from a 12 year old boy saying man Utd have bid £11m, but so far nothing from any respected journalist or ITK.
Jose posted a picture of the premier league trophy, which means he wants a move to Leicester
 
I disagree that there's anything about it that's negative largely because I think it's all very deliberate. This is not accidental. I believe we're following exactly the trajectory that Olympique Lyonnais followed when they went in a few years from unknown provincial nobodies to European powerhouse. Buy anyone you think is cheap, sell anyone you think is expensive, don't buy kids, offload old players and have no emotional attachment to players. That's a quick précis of a bigger strategy but it worked for them and it's working for us. (I also don't think we sold Mane for too little. About the right price for his good games but way, way overpriced for the games where he wasn't effective.)

I also think that you're missing something in your IT analogy. Yes, your guys are headhunted but before that you get three years out of grossly underpriced talent before passing them off for daft money to fund yet more underpriced talent. That's the way to (a) perform - you have good people and (b) get better - every year your war chest grows.

Finally, I don't care if players are playing because they love us or if it's to impress their next team. They are still playing well for us, which I'd have thought we all want.

Finally, finally, I expect to see exactly the same post towards the end of the transfer window next summer. If I could be bothered, I'd dig one up from last year for fun.

Vin


Well put. I'm not melting down I'm simply on the other side of the fence on this. I do care why they're playing, it feels important to me but I may be a dinosaur on this. Time will tell.
 
Btw for the people saying the board set a precedent they didn't. A certain guy who got pushed out did.
 
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Not at all, you have a habit of talking down to anyone who makes a point you disagree with. There is nothing half-full about my attitude. I am making a specific point and thats pretty clear if you bother to give it some consideration. If you can argue that we haven't created a culture of being a stepping stone over the past four years then do so.

Nice that you drag it down to personal criticism :emoticon-0148-yes:

If you really think that by telling you your post was disputable (it is your opinion not based on any actual inside knowledge of the club) is talking down to you, then I will have to walk on eggshells with you in future. You posted your opinion as fact by claiming it indisputable. A little bit unrealistic really unless you are Les Reed's brother.
 
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No <laugh>

We have had a tweet from a 12 year old boy saying man Utd have bid £11m, but so far nothing from any respected journalist or ITK.
Jose posted a picture of the premier league trophy, which means he wants a move to Leicester
It's still very much rumbling in the back ground. There is far to much smoke to be no fire. We could very well end up keeping him, but it would be silly to think nothing is happening.
 
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Not at all, you have a habit of talking down to anyone who makes a point you disagree with. There is nothing half-full about my attitude. I am making a specific point and thats pretty clear if you bother to give it some consideration. If you can argue that we haven't created a culture of being a stepping stone over the past four years then do so.

If there is nothing half full about your attitude, please explain how signing our current better players on extended contracts is seen as a losing hand. I am confused by this.
 
We do often make it difficult. You are choosing to not see that at this moment in time, that is all. I understand that as it's an emotional situation.

No the point is, we sell in the end!!! I know we wave our codpieces around sometimes and say you can go next season, but we don't really try to hang on to a cohesive and consistent team. We will always be a team that needs to rebuild not by 10 percent but more 20 percent that can't be good. On that basis we might stay in the top league but barely win anything, maybe a few cups here and there.
 
There is far to much smoke to be no fire

____________________________

Yep, that's undeniable. Jose went away to the euro's fully committed and respectful & came back with his head well and truly turned. Whether he leaves or not, I've lost some love for the guy.
 
A lot of debate here about what the board is doing right / wrong. I am on the fence, personally.

1) if we have to give gentlemen's agreements to get people to sign contracts we are pretty much saying "we're small fry, we know it".
2) If you sell when people expect you to sell, you lose bargaining traction. Go back two years and we were the hard dealers of the league. Over the last two summers we have become recognised as happy to sell. Prices have dropped. Mane is now apparently worth less than either of Watford's awful strikers. Our captain, a player we have no need to sell, is now worth £11m - even though his loss could quite realistically cost us more than that in today's cash rich climate. The only way to counteract this is to have a sale-free summer, but (see point 1), we've probably already agreed that won't happen.
3) we do sign great young players and this wouldn't happen if they thought they'd be stuck here.
4) hold on. Read 3 again. We are now the interview stage for a good job. No one wants it but they want what it brings.
5) the setup that all managers and players are just cogs in a machine is great and it has kept our heads above water.
6) the last two managers have deviated from the plan in terms of first youth team use and now formation. So... How does that work?
7) we have banked an awful lot of money. We didn't need to spend it really. But now we do. So we have loads of it. And we can afford to buy a truly top class CB. Who here thinks we will?
8) this is not the end of the world, but it does feel kind of inevitable these days.

Actually, I am not that on the fence. I think things are pretty good, but they should actually be a lot better!
 
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No the point is, we sell in the end!!! I know we wave our codpieces around sometimes and say you can go next season, but we don't really try to hang on to a cohesive and consistent team. We will always be a team that needs to rebuild not by 10 percent but more 20 percent that can't be good. On that basis we might stay in the top league but barely win anything, maybe a few cups here and there.

But Ashby, that's our model... Surely you know that by now. It's been laid out for the last 7 years. It's not just the "top players" going, we've shifted out the ones we don't want. Deano Hammond, Nigel Adkins amongst them.
 
It's still very much rumbling in the back ground. There is far to much smoke to be no fire. We could very well end up keeping him, but it would be silly to think nothing is happening.

Just giving an update on the reason for several pages of occasionally funny vitriolic abuse of Jose Fonte
So far we've no serious evidence of him demanding a move away, other than his place on the bench and him not smiling during some training sessions
 
If there is nothing half full about your attitude, please explain how signing our current better players on extended contracts is seen as a losing hand. I am confused by this.

Well Fonte might be leaving, and maybe we signed them on longer terms just to avoid the issue we had with Wanyama.
 
Just giving an update on the reason for several pages of occasionally funny vitriolic abuse of Jose Fonte
So far we've no serious evidence of him demanding a move away, other than his place on the bench and him not smiling during some training sessions
Ok that's put it another way. If Fonte was 100% wanting to stay, don't you think he would have said something on social media by now?

He probably has loads of fans messaging him all worried he is going, yet says nothing.

When Davis was linked to Celtic, he instantly took to social media to take the piss out of it.
 
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With the amounts of money being thrown around in football recently amongst yet again losing some top talent, my love of football is diminishing. I know it's all about supporting the club and not the players but to have the captain sold would be such a kick in the teeth. His reaction is very disappointing (that's if something is really going on). Without trying to ramble my main feeling is that of disappointment that although we keep progressing, it's a new team of players each season. I just want a calm summer.
 
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The only thing that does annoy me slightly, and it's towards players, not the board - they get paid a shedload, whether here or Liverpool/United. If all those players had the foresight to stay, we'd walk the bloody league every year!
 
The only thing that does annoy me slightly, and it's towards players, not the board - they get paid a shedload, whether here or Liverpool/United. If all those players had the foresight to stay, we'd walk the bloody league every year!

We'll probably not.... People have previously said to look at our team if they'd all stayed... That would mean no Pelle, no Mane, no Tadic, nonToby, no VVD, etc... As the team wouldn't have evolved through selling of the players they came into replace. :)
 
But Ashby, that's our model... Surely you know that by now. It's been laid out for the last 7 years. It's not just the "top players" going, we've shifted out the ones we don't want. Deano Hammond, Nigel Adkins amongst them.

Yes I know it is, but does it have to be that drastic every season. Two steps forward one step back might work, what about if it turns to one step forward two steps back?

I guess it depends on what are goals are, is it EPL survival, top ten or top 4, or champions but over what time period.