It does sound the board/Bas have been completely up front with us over all of this - saying no official approach has been made, and ocne one was made, they rejected it. As Norway says, this will go a long way in repairing at least some of the trust in them... let's hope they carry on with this!
The first statement in a haggle over compensation, I'm afraid. Mr B could do no less. Still, this story has had more legs than a centipede, so it could go on for a couple of days yet.
I agree that its potentially not over wrt Malky and the question is really what is the price to Cardiff to be allowed to talk to and potentially unsettle our manager. I'd say an up front fee of a million to be allowed to talk would be fair followed by Malky telling them where to stick their job.
You really are a misery-guts these days. Baz comes out with an unequivical 'no' and ....it's 'the least he can do'. He can't do anything about Malky if his head has been turned, but he can do no more than what he has done. Would you have liked 'Malky goes over my dead body' or some such nonsense? Malky may well go, but having signed a new improved contract a few months ago, if he tries to blackmail the club into upping the ante again , well, much though we love him I would rather he f***ed off and we got as big a slice of compo as possible. In fact I would sue Malky for breach of contract.
If Malky and Baaaaadiff have been talking already and his head has been turned I'm sure it will end up in court. I must say I dont think he has as this would put him firmly in or below the Rodgers moral class and we know he's better than that.
Calm down dear , (as the PM might say if he were allowed to). Nothing miserable about my observation--just a statement of the obvious. The least Mr B. could do at this stage is say"no"--obviously. He wants to maximise the compensation if Malky is set on going. Which is not certain, but likely. Malky would not be using this to seek a better contract at Watford--we could not match Cardiff anyway. The improved contract Malky got recently enables us to get a better compensation deal, if he moves on ( is poached) which was probably a factor in why he was given it. For Malky this is only partly about salary--it is mainly about him moving on to the next stage of his career at a club that can give him the opportunity to build a team and keep it together long enough to challenge for the next level. Which is not what Watford can offer him at this moment. I am not saying that Mr B is not doing his best. He probably is. That is the worrying thing.
Roger - I agree with you about 99%! Baz has done the right thing by saying NO (initially). I presume Baz and GT know Malky's feelings. Malky either wants to go or stay - he can't exactly vote "Don't Know"! The point still remains, if Malky wants to go then the club has to negotiate the best compensation deal and let him go. The club cannot hang onto any employee who wants to go.
Roger I think we get it, you are not Bassini's biggest fan can you wait until he has actually done something wrong? And don't come out with the broken record of he is taking £10m out of the club to pay the debts that the club built up before he underhandedly muscled his way through the massive queue of wealthy philanthropists who had wanted to buy us so they could write off our debt and not expect anything in return. On point, its over to Malky now.
Definitely the right move by Bassini, and also the right comments. Obviously, as outlined by Roger (although a little pessimistically!), this is the first stage in the process of Cardiff approaching Malky. I doubt they will simply think, "Oh well, we tried", but will come back with an improved offer. They obviously have a valuation of him, so I guess it now depends on Cardiff's valuation matching or improving our own valuation. I would suspect their valuation would be lower, purely because in Cardiff's point of view, he is an unknown entity. Fingers crossed the (innevitable) future approaches are also rejected. Keep it up 'Baz'.
http://www.watfordfc.com/page/NewsDetail/0,,10400~2376671,00.html Here's an additional statement...it does seem a little wishy washy...but far more positive than i expected..
harrow--obviously any other owner would do what Mr B is doing in this situation. Say "hands off" and haggle for the maximum compensation, if Malky has told him he wants to leave. He must know Malky's mind on this one. When I say that Mr B is doing his best I mean it, it is not a snide dig at his competence-- that remains to be seen. The "worrying" part is that he has no more cards to play if he wants to keep Malky--he cannot offer Malky a bigger budget than Cardiff, nor a higher salary, just another couple of years of blood, toil, sweat and tears. Simply forbidding him to leave is not an option. I don't imagine the discussions will go on for very long. All parties must want to bring this to a conclusion. Do Cardiff have a third choice?
I think the best thing Bas can do is tell Malky stick with us for another year so his stock can rise further (hopefully - as it will mean another succesful year) and when a Premiership team comes knocking, you can go with our blessing!
Lol ok, how about Bas and Malky mud-wrestle for his contract - winner gets to do what they want.... Although preferably they nominate suitable women to take their place!
...or offer him a massive bonus for getting us up. The odd mil would be (relatively) small change if we got promoted. In fact, I don't know why all contracts are not structured like that, it would attract hungry players confident in their abilities, and deter couldn't-give-a-monkey's journeymen.
Harrow... that is exactly what I have wanted for years - small basic pay with their bulkl of the pay related to performance! Never going to happen though...
