Sam Baldock leaves Bristol City with a heavy heart.. Sam Baldock admits it was with a heavy heart that he left behind the happiest times of his football career in departing Ashton Gate. The striker, signed from West Ham United in August 2012, scored 36 goals in 93 appearances before his transfer to Brighton & Hove Albion brought to an end a two-year stint in BS3. Baldock, 25, admitted life as a City player was not always plain sailing, but he will look back on his time at the club with âonly fond memoriesâ. âIt was a difficult decision (to leave) because itâs all come to an end at a time when I was enjoying my football more than at any other point in my career,â the departing skipper said. âObviously my first season wasnât the best, but to be made captain and end up with the Golden Boot in my second was fantastic. âIâm very grateful to the manager (Steve Cotterill), who came in and turned our season around last year and has assembled a very strong squad. âIâve said it before and I maintain that they should be favourites for promotion. âBut at the end of the day, a four-year deal and the opportunity to return to the Championship, where I feel I have unfinished business, was too good to turn down.â Baldock went on to pay tribute to two of his former bosses and to the team-mates he believes have all the credentials to join him in the Championship next season. âIâll forever be grateful to Sean OâDriscoll for making me captain and to Steve Cotterill for keeping me in that position,â he continued. âI had a close bond to both of those managers, to the players and the staff â there are a fantastic bunch of people working for the club. âAs for the supporters, I think I had my ups and downs with a few of them â with relegation and some poor performances â but Iâll forever be grateful for what they did by going into their own pockets to club together and pay for a Golden Boot. It was a humbling gesture. âI can only hope the club go on to win promotion â not only for the supporters, but for the manager and the set of lads Iâve left behind. They are the tightest group Iâve ever been a part of. âI went in this morning just to pick up my boots and say my goodbyes, which was difficult, but Iâm excited by what the future holds with Brighton.â http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Sam-Ba...-heavy-heart/story-22842205-detail/story.html
Were Bristol City Right to Sell Captain Sam Baldock? please log in to view this image Bristol City captain Sam Baldock has left to join Championship club Brighton & Hove Albion, but was the club right to sell a player who still had a year to run on his contract? Have your say here. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristo...-Sam-Baldock/story-22842339-detail/story.html
Right or wrong, he has gone to Brighton. Rumoured to be around £2m which given he was in the last year of his contact, I think was a good deal. personally think that Agard has already been earmarked as his replacement.- Hopefully, the remaining funds can be still used to strengthen. If that's on a Goalkeeper, we have 4 days to sort it, or its in to loan signings, so hopefully, SC is already working on it-
i have already said on multiple threads, i am not angry at Sammy, but disappointed at the way we are constantly kept in the dark or lied too as fans.We are told by our manager and the player he aint going and "we dont need to sell", then hes gone! The ST sales finishing aswell could just be coincidence, but again the club leave themselves open for criticism.I truely wish Sammy all the best but we seem to keep shooting our chances in the foot all the time. Hopefully Agard will explode on the scene and we'll all be saying Sammy who at our promotion party, but if not, this could haunt the club and fans. I just wish the club had not said either way what was going to happen with sammy, and that time will tell or we will monitor the case, then when he went we would of still been gutted, but would of been saying "ah well knew it was coming" or something along those lines and there would probably be no negative remarks aimed at the club or player, maybe. this is just my opinion anyhoo, over to you peeps...........
You say that, but equally, how stupid would it be if the board said they're willing to listen to any offers for one of their prized assets. Imagine how much that would drop his value! Giving off the impression that you are 100% unwilling to sell can attract better bids. It would be a nonsense to advertise the fact of him being for sale to clubs.
Reading between the lines from most of the comments, made by the club, it seems that they were really saying "We don't want him to go, but if he wants to move on and we get the right offer then c'est la vie" and good luck to him. Anybody scoring 20+ goals in this division is going to be looked at by other clubs, so whilst in this division we will have to come to terms with the fact that we will be a selling club at times. Good luck to Sam hope he sets the Championship alight, especially against Cardiff. Our ambition will be shown by what we do with the money??
