Hey ristac embarrassed much? The only people who really know what is in that contract are the people who have seen the actual contract. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce8445emg6ro "However, sources at Ipswich have since confirmed to BBC Sport that the release clause value decreases by £10m upon relegation." "United also know there will be a lot of competition for Delap and that could drive the price up beyond £30m"
No not even slightly, you’re the person who believes there could be a bidding war when someone has any kind of release fee clause, even a 12 year old should have been able to work that one out When you’re at home with the family, do you ever admit you’re wrong or are you one of these guys that always tries to twist things around
Says the keyboard warrior who thinks he knows. better than the BBC sports department and the ex-footballer pundits
I think we can see that this was the wrong approach. We’ve spent the season bedding in a new squad of players when the players we already had couldn’t have performed worse as a team or had a worse set of results. Top clubs pick off the players worth having for not much more than we paid and we are left with the players who can’t cut it at the top level without having covered our outlay. We are left with a pants defence, a midfield in need of a rebuild and no progress in the striking department either.
Had we done that and had the same results the accusation would have been we showed no ambition.Given the accepted difficulty for promoted sides to get established/survive in the PL there doesn't seem to be an "easy " way to an extent we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.Obviously with hindsight things could have been done differently.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If we hadn't of gotten in new players and we were sitting where we are now we would be asking why didn't we bring anyone in ? It sort of reminds me of Burleys second season in the Premier League. We had a solid squad from a couple of failed attempts at promotion. That first season was brilliant, then we went out and added to the squad and that went well. I am sure there were other factors involved.
Yeah, whatever your thoughts on the success of the transfers this season - we absolutely needed to invest in the summer. We had to replace the departing loan players from last season, who made key contributions (Sarmiento, Moore). We needed to replace Hdlaky, who'd rather sit on the bench at Burnley for the pleasure of an additional year on his contract. Without new signings, we wouldn't have the depth in the squad to cover for injuries - key players from last season (Burns, Chaplin, Hirst) have missed months from prolonged injury absences. Our Premier League transfer business - for all its criticisms - makes sense from the perspective that we've at least signed players who are proven top Championship talent. In my opinion, it's positioned us to make a quicker return to the Premier League. That strategy (whether you agree with it or not) will fall apart if we end up selling the likes of Jack Clarke. Our most saleable asset is Delap, we are powerless to prevent him leaving if he's got a release clause. We're then likely going to sell a couple more first teamers (the promoted sides will likely have eyes on O'Shea). Burgess and Tuanzebe are likely off on frees. There's a chance Davis goes, but he hasn't lived up to the hype this season so I can't see a club willing to spend big on him. We'll need to invest again in the summer. Central midfield needs a couple of additions. We'll need depth in defence if first team players depart. We'll need a centre forward to replace Delap/add competition to Hirst. Other than that, I think we've got more than a good enough squad to compete for promotion. What we ideally don't want to be doing is selling off players like Greaves, Jack Clarke, Philogene, and Szmodics - who we've brought in as our proven top end Championship talent - as we'll just be back to square one.
It's not all hindsight. Last summer it was obvious that the McKenna contract was a rush of blood to the head; letting Hladky go was a risk and it didn't take long to see that Muric was hapless (making an arse of himself on his debut). Johnson has come in for criticism all season; Jack Clarke has taken the whole season to toughen up; more subjective or debatable things -> I'd have gone with Wolfy and Burgess at any point; Luongo was dropped when he'd performed well; Delap has really come into his own the last few weeks but he was wasteful before that. There's a fairly long list of things that have been obvious to everybody and loads more debatable points.
While I agree there are comparisons to Burley's second season in the Premier League, I think the key difference is that Burley's team the year before had proven their Premier League credentials by finishing fifth and qualifying for Europe. McKenna was working with a squad that had achieved a lot with back-to-back promotions, but only a couple of those players had even played a Premier League match before. We ideally needed players with the experience. I guess if I was to argue with myself I'd say 'point taken, Nuggets, but the three players we brought in with the most Premier League experience - Muric, Godfrey, and Phillips - have been several shades of poor'. To which I'd then respond 'f*** off Nuggets and go back to doing actual work on a Friday.'
"We needed to replace Hdlaky". We didn’t need to and we ended up downgrading him at a huge price. We could have rewarded his heroics with a decent contract and sent a message “perform well for the club and it will look after you”. Instead we overpaid for Muric in a rush. It’s the number one stupid-not-with-the-benefit-of-hindsight mistake that was made.
My concern is that we have not really improved on paper in too many areas and in terms of spirit, momentum and understanding between the players it’s tired, damaged and disjointed. The only position I feel we have ultimately strengthened compared with last season is Palmer in goal and Delap up front and in all other areas we might’ve taken a step backward. I wouldn’t fancy the task of picking up the pieces in the summer and I expect McKenna not to fancy that either. In the longer term I’m optimistic but not so much for next season. I think there’s another round to go with not too much of Premier League team involved.
Well, some positive news from KM presser today. He is committed to staying. In discussions with Burgess and Tuanzebe, Omari likely to stay and a chance that Delap might not go. What do we know!
That was the headline, but I don’t think what he said was any kind of a commitment. If Spurs came calling and were prepared to pay off his Town contract I think he’d be off.
I still think he's too early in his career for one of the "bigger" Clubs and like Gaffer I'll see the positive noises as reassuring.
His agent did the same last year, Barcelona stating they’d never heard of him, his agent is a complete tool https://www.football-espana.net/202...ied-after-agent-drops-amusing-red-herring/amp
Give it a couple of years. Agents from all over the world will be outside Portman Road for a photo opportunity.
