I think my points about his suitability to manage at the highest level refers to that point. Also, he may not manage the club but as first team coach, he must be happy and authorise these sales, unless you're saying he has no control of any player recruitment and departures? There's a whole new debate.
He has a say. But not in the same way as our past managers. its far more likely that he will go to DoF and say what positions need strengthening, the DoF will come back with a shortlist and PDC will pick from that. By way of departures, There will be consultation on transfer fees and things like that as well as who gets transfer listed etc. Its always been a case of the board being far more involved in that kind of thing than the manager though. It terms of premier league experience. Did Laudrup have it when he went to Swansea? did Steve Clarke have any past first team managerial experience other than being an Ass. Man. When Moyes went to Everton his only previous job was Preston. If you arent willing to give new managers a chance we will always have the same kabal of managers running around the league
I can't beleive all this negativity already, we haven't kicked a ball in anger and already there are some who are no happy. I don't beleive for one minute that PDC set the fee for MIG and yet some on here are adamant it's his fault or the new regimes fault. Short, Byrne and maybe Di Fanti will be responsible for setting or accepting any fees for selling or buying, PDC's imput will be to tell them who he wants and who he doesn't need and has already been stated by him, he wanted to keep the Mig. I'm not in favour of wholesale changes, whether it be for british or foreign replacements, it doesn't matter who or what nationality they are, if they can play football they will adapt. But too many too quick is a risky strategy. That said, sticking with what we had would have been a bigger risk IMO as we simply weren't good enough, end of. We very nearly went down last season with a ****, paper thin, injury ravaged squad, so changes need to be made, even if it is only to beef up and strengthen an already weak squad. The time to start bitching is when you know the facts, not on speculative bullshit journalism heresay and when the current regime start to fail, not until.
LADS.....Just think back to last season and ask yourself how many games we were good in?how many did you enjoy? For me, ONE. West Ham at home. Every other game was ****E. We need big changes at our club. With 6/7 games to go 99% of us thought we were down. PDC did his first job and kept us up. As MW says we haven't kicked a ball yet. We are nowhere near having our first team squad complete 1 or 2 changes and we were botton 3/4 for sure. We needed an overhaul. Have patience. If we haven't got in a quality striker or two, quality centre midfield and two full backs then i'll start to worry. Migs agent has tried to scew us and we either take whats offered or next year take less than half and then nothing. We. All know contracts are worthless. If Mig thinks he's going to win things at Pool then let him go with our blessing and let ES think about the money. He has enough, he's a billionaire, he's bought and sold banks. May not be good enough for some but we will finish higher than last year. And thats progress for me.
I know the squad needs change but my point is to much to soon sell your peripheral players and those who don't perform but you don't sell your best! As I've said all along my issue with Di Canio is how he does all our club business in public this going right back to when he started publicly sagging of the players fitness you do that sought of stuff behind closed doors and it has just gone on from there!
How do you know that? Ellis may have told him when he joined that he's going to listen to any offers on a terrible squad. Understandable and well within his rights. That's just speculation from my head, much like the speculation you've just thrown up there. You know as much as everyone else, nothing. You've gone from being on the fence to opposing him on arguments and points drummed up in your own mind. Fair do, you have reservations on his inexperience and his mouth, which I agree with wholeheartedly, but now you're nitpicking and using your own speculation as ammo. Bloody half the forum is in meltdown on the grounds of assumption. insane! I'm staying on the fence with Paolo, I'm a bit more confident with Di Fanti but still close to the fence, and I'm not going to let my insecurities cloud my judgement.
PDC will show his emotions this season for sure and instead of the likes MON say we played very, very well when we know we were very, very poor will do for me. All fans say they want to know whats going on at their club and we are getting that. The likes of Sess would have been told well before us if he is wanted or not so don't worry about that. Just worry that he brings in better than we let go. Losing Graham, Wickham, Bardsley, Bramble and that lot doesn't bother anyone. Sess for me, is more than replaceable.
1st post and wanted to offer a few of my own observations 1. He hasn't been sold yet 2. When he does I'm pretty sure we wont know how much for 3. if he does go for 9m that would make him the joint 6th most expensive goalkeeper in world history according to my cursory websearch (so as an earlier poster rightly said, keepers don't go for high fees) 4. His agent has made it pretty clear he wont sign a new contract and therefore we will be lucky to get even ha;f of that next summer, and therefore the only smart business move is to sell him on. 5 PDC doesn't decide on the fee whatever it turns out to be Whilst he was clearly player of the year last year, i think he's a good keeper, did more than any player to keep us up last season, i shall happily welcome him back and buy him a pint any time i bump into him, in my humble opinion has plenty to learn yet. I think he's an immense shot stopper, one of the best ive seen and I think he will learn and go on to become a very good keeper but currently he's a little over rated for me. He doesn't command his box as well as he could, his distribution is not great (although some of that may be the directive he got from MON), he's not particularly vocal, sticks to his line a little too much particularly on crosses and dithers at times as to when to come for those edge of the box incidents where he has to dominate the defender and attacker. That's sounds like a long list of critisisms but I accept its splitting hairs (and im well aware ill get slaughtered for that!), he is a fine keeper i just want to set out that i think potentially the 6th highest fee of all time for a keeper is a good price for him. The lad is 'willing' to honour his contract but knows full well we'll get much less next summer and hes hoping a move to a more fashionable club will get him ahead of Courtois in the world cup selections; a competition that for the first time in my lifetime, Belgium are easily capable of winning. In reality injury to Courtois is his best hope of starting any WC matches but frustrating as it is for a Sunderland supporter to say, he will get more exposure at Liverpool than here and i cant blame him for that; good luck to the lad, he deserves it on attitude alone. Last of all, but easily most important of all, we have a lad who has bided his time; trained hard and never moaned despite the fact that hes lost his international place and i rank him as one of the best goalkeepers i've seen and that isn't just based on his small number of appearances for us; i've seen him a lot over the years and even done courses/training sessions with his former coach and talked about him at length. If Simon stays, Westwood would have inevitably left and we would have got very little for him. He should have been given the cup games last season but i'm told O'Neill spat his dummy out because Westwood said he wasn't 100% fit for a match which in my opinion is the right thing to do when other keepers are fully fit. Westwood has all the attributes to be the best keeper in this league (I think the competition is the most average ive seen for keepers) whilst Simon can go and get a deserved pay rise at a club with genuine Euro ambitions and we can invest the 9m or whatever it is in strengthening a dangerously thin squad whilst balancing the books which my thin grasp of the new financial rules seems to be more and more important. Good business all round, I believe. If anyone thinks we're being 'had' to put it more politely than previous posters i suggest you have a whip round for Sint Truiden who received all of £2m for the lad not so long ago. Just my opinion.
Welcome fella, very good points, yes poor Sint Truiden, wonder if they'll be owed anything from this sale? One point though, I think he's a lot better on crosses then folk give him credit for. He's a puncher which always worries English fans but his stats show he's dealt with almost every cross he challenged for. Distribution need to improve the most for me.
Well said fulwell end - agree mostly (although have to say he's better on crosses than a lot give him credit for) - £9m isn't a bad price but I rate him higher than De Gea on everything except distribution and he went for £18m. But £18m for someone who passes like David Beckham playing in goal who is very small and easily bullied?? Not for me! I wouldn't be too disappointed with £9m - as has been said only 5 keepers have gone for more money in world football. But I'd prefer £12m+ - although, as you said Fulwell end, I doubt we will ever know the actual final selling fee I know I said it sort of but, comparing our keeper and his value to players like De Gea is unrealistic - I think he is a better keeper without a doubt but Man Utd paid an inflated price for a lot of potential - to expect others to do that for our keepeer is crazy - After his first season at Utd how many would pay £18m for De Gea? - I wouldn't swap him directly for Mignolet - I think if Mignolet goes and plays second fiddle then his agent deserves a kick up the arse for badly advising
What is it with all the talk about a keepers distribution. A keeper first and foremost should be a keeper. It is not his job to playing intricate through balls and the like, to unlock the oppositions defence. So long as they can roll it out to the nearest free defender and I'm happy. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate a keeper who can spread it with aplomb and with good ball skills like Reina, but that would probably rank as one of the last things I'd want ask from a team bearing in mind the fundamentals are not being matched.
Im not sure how this DOF fits into our schema, didnt PDC leave swindon because they sold a player from under him, I just cant see PDC having someone else getting players in and selling players from under him. Time will tell but i can see it ending in tears.
But he was Swindon Manager, not head coach. He knows full well the contract he signed and if he walks because of player sales, he won't have a legal leg to stand on. So he must be happy with it, or at least willing to put up with it in order to coach at a higher level. Think it could cause problems though in the long run. Anyway, we've sold no one yet, lets see how the summer pans out. Interesting times.
You can have principles however they will not pay the bills, nor will they give PDC or whoever money to make signings, the very signings only a fool would say we did not need to make. If Mig walked for nothing when his contact ends then I guess some would be making theirs mouths go then about how incompetent the club is, you cannot have it both ways. Quinn said "every player has ways his price" well whether it is £9 or £12 million, the club has decided the bindippers have matched Migs price after factoring in that we will still make a net profit after taking into consideration initial fee and wages paid out. Now, if we let him walk at the end of his contract then that initial fee and subsequent wages will become a net loss that we could have re-couped - now that is incompetence in my book and if you practised this over a period of time then we would not have a club to support. I don't think the club has done much wrong under the circumstances, trying to attach blame to PDC is just ridiculous and frankly beneath contempt.
