Since July 2010, we have now lost FIVE of our big name signings in Henderson, Jones (not my favourite tbh but he was for many of you), Cana, Bent and now Gyan. All under Bruce's watch and four of them very acrimoniously it would seem? 3 of them were his signings and one was a young player he developed and gave his chance to. Jones was the only one he hadn't been involved in buying or developing but also seemed to have difficulty with the manager. Can we draw any worrying parallels between the five, or is it just a case of the way football is today and could happen to anyone? If it could happen to anyone, can someone name me another club in the EPL that has lost FIVE of its top players in a 13 month period in such shoddy circumstances? Oh yes, the Muppet's up the road. We are supposed to be so much better organised and ran than the planks up at NE1 but the two clubs seem to have similar policies when it comes to losing players only ours seem to slip away in the dead of night whilst theirs go kicking and screaming. Different exits but the same outcome. I find this very interesting. Maybe its just a NE thing regardless of the regime and the good people or bad people involved.
Gyan has had his head turned by greedy agents hell bent on gleening every penny they can from their star player, why else would he leave the big stage of the EPL, regardless of who he played for, for a micky mouse outfit in the desert? ****ing greedy ****, just like Bent. It's got **** all to do with the manager or the club, it's all about money and i hope the **** breaks his leg in his first match.
Correction, I hope he gets gang raped by heard of camel mounting Arabs, after he breaks his leg. ****ing greedy bastard.
For me its a viscious circle. To get into Europe you need to buy the players and pay them a wage to get you there, but most clubs cant afford the wage of these players, or the players come on a lower wage, Europe doesnt happen, so they want to piss off to get more wages somewhere else, even if that means, not in Europe. I really do believe this fair play rule has scuppered us and other PL teams fighting to get up the league, Man U is fine, even though they have the most debt by miles, their wages are only 45% of their turnover, ours is in the 85% Bracket, which doesnt leave a lot of room to manouver. Teams like us also have to hedge our bets more, come to us we want to get into Europe, but if we get relegated you have to take a 25% drop in wages, the players will be thinking, eh Europe and Relegation in the same sentence, sod this they dont have any ambition.
I think you will find they have spent a pretty penny. 08/09 when they came up 30 million 09/10 23 million 10/11 17 milion 11/12 21 million and they didnt get in through the League, cups are just a lottery, and like i said in another thread, Romance is what makes the cups, (us getting beat of Notts County and Brighton for instance) if there was no cup upsets we would have never won it in `73.
Ok then. At least that money went on actually developing the squad rather than having to build a new one every summer. And as for the getting in through the cups, this is the easiest way and obviously Pulis has targeted them.
but pullis was the manager when they came up, the players that came up were his that he bought previously, Keane bought players to get us out and stay in the division, they were not good enough to get us up the division, and they were Keanes not Bruces. Tell me another manager who could have a 17 miilion deficit in 3 years and make a whole new squad, never mind 1st 11.
The thing is though many of those players that were only good enough to get into and stay in the PL are now at Stoke.
