[Archived] Transfer Talk Part 2

[thenodrog]

My guess is that Lenihan and O'Sullivan have got offered a lot less than what they want so have said they will only sign one year deals.

Great negotiating by the club if no one else fancies them in a year. Awful negotiating if they turn out to be good and immediately jump ship. Though I suppose in that eventuality we may get some compensation from tribunal.

If they are seen as genuine first team players it seems absolutely ridiculous to only tie them to one year deals. I can only assume that ultimately we don't really rate them and they will be on the fringe of the squad. If not we are idiots.

One of my pet solutions would be to offer EVERY player a 1 year deal with a decent basic but huge bonus's based on performance of the team. I bet the venkys wished we'd done that with the likes of Best, Robinson, Orr, Murphy, Etohu et al.

That's why the club need to continue to develop other streams of income and improve the level of sponsorship at the club. The deal with Dafabet is undoubtedly a start.

No club in this division has sufficient operating income to spend millions on players and give them £20 k a week wages. Not even the mighty Leeds United. That's why most clubs are owned by wealthy people who pump in money, and almost all the clubs lose money year in year out.

It all depends on what the owners of the club want to do going forward.

Smaller clubs than us are able to throw money around despite big losses and huge debts - QPR and Fulham being prime examples. I'm not buying the self pity story of we can't compete whilst everyone else is allowed to do as they want regardless.

It's just complete madness. If there was a salary cap of 5k pw in this division I doubt 90% of the players would get any more anywhere in the world. They'd have to take it and be damned thankful.

[patrickvalery]

Have you considered that 1 year deals might be at their or their agents insistence?

I think you've hit the nail on the head Gordon. Didn't the same thing happen with O'connel? And where did that lad end up? Walking out after his year was up. I can't see that the club would have given our two better prospects a year a piece and the other lad a three year deal.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Maybe our accounts dept can't commit to ANY deal longer than 12 months now. Remember the wording in the accounts and the last season of parachutes................

Did Nyambe not get a 3 year contract ?

[The Rover of Finland]

Smart move for Lenihan to sign short extension. The reason it took so long might be he was unwilling to sign any longer deal.

Nyambe news was great. Hope the lad brings some light to this darkness we are living in.

I expect Taylor contract news will be announced very soon or he is a goner. He did practice with Rovers yesterday as did Lenihan.

[Bucksrover]

Did Nyambe not get a 3 year contract ?

Yes he did

[G Somerset Rover]

Pity Lenihan and O'Sullivan haven't signed longer deals as they'll both be quite useful the season after next in League One!

On a serious note I'm pleased that we haven't lost Lenihan or Nyambe. I expect the latter to push for a first team slot at some point during the season. He may even get his chance against the more combative wingers in the league which Henley struggles against IMO.

[Reedy You're A Star]

Paul Wheelock ‏@PaulWheelock 9m

9 minutes ago

Josh Morris' move to Bradford City has been confirmed. Free transfer but #rovers have included a sell-on clause.

Good luck to him. Should be decent in L1. Good news on a sell on too, bit of extra cash if he does OK.

[Kamy100]

I believe that it is case of Lenihan and O'Sullivan insisting on shorter deals because they don't want to be tied into longer deals if promises about exposure to the first team are not kept.

[K-Hod]

I believe that it is case of Lenihan and O'Sullivan insisting on shorter deals because they don't want to be tied into longer deals if promises about exposure to the first team are not kept.

Fair enough isn't it? For an ex youth team manager, GB hasn't exactly put his faith in youth.....

[JAL]

Ryan Nyambe has signed a new 3 years deal.

Plus other players like Forrester

http://mobile.rovers.co.uk//news/article/ryan-nyambe-new-deal-2518295.aspx

You rubbished me last time about Bowyer being heavily influenced by an agent would you like to do it again regarding these two chaddy.

[bluebruce]

The flipside is that surely the manager is less likely to play them if he knows they could leave easily.

[rebelmswar]

The flipside is that surely the manager is less likely to play them if he knows they could leave easily.

Being ruled by fear makes timid subjects.

[Leonard Venkhater]

Really? I think hindsight has shown that we had United's pants down at the price of 16m plus add ons, he hasn't kicked on at all since moving imo.

(Tin hat on) Incidentally it seems we have Jerome Anderson to thank for realising such a good price for him as he stated he renegotiated the buy out clause in Jones's contract up from a miserly 8m to 16m in those few months he was at Brockhall.

Yes, "really!"

Rovers having United's pants down does not fit with the report at the time that Liverpool's offer was thought to be £6 million more. ( Mark Ogden in The Telegraph).

Blimey, we couldn't even sell him to the highest bidder. I wonder why that was-Jones being such a supporter of the club, as well...

[K-Hod]

You rubbished me last time about Bowyer being heavily influenced by an agent would you like to do it again regarding these two chaddy.

How have you arrived at that conclusion from anything said before??

[Hanks]

Yes, "really!"

Rovers having United's pants down does not fit with the report at the time that Liverpool's offer was thought to be £6 million more. ( Mark Ogden in The Telegraph).

Blimey, we couldn't even sell him to the highest bidder. I wonder why that was-Jones being such a supporter of the club, as well...

The odd thing about the Liverpool bid was that if Jones had wanted he could still have gone to them for the £16 million and they could have paid him the extra £6 million. So maybe Liverpool's personnel terms were nowhere near those offered by Utd.

[bluebruce]

Been a while rebel! Good to see you on the board.

[RevidgeBlue]

I believe that it is case of Lenihan and O'Sullivan insisting on shorter deals because they don't want to be tied into longer deals if promises about exposure to the first team are not kept.

Prettty obvious that would be the case I would have thought. GB's reluctance to blood any of the younger players last season was an absolute disgrace given the season was a dead rubber by mid Feb and there was an embargo about to really kick in. The youngsters must wonder if there's any point being at the Club when they can't get a start for love nor money and dross like P. Taylor is being needlessly brought in to fill up a squad place.

[A cup of beans]

Prettty obvious that would be the case I would have thought. GB's reluctance to blood any of the younger players last season was an absolute disgrace given the season was a dead rubber by mid Feb and there was an embargo about to really kick in. The youngsters must wonder if there's any point being at the Club when they can't get a start for love nor money and dross like P. Taylor is being needlessly brought in to fill up a squad place.

It became seriously suspect to me. The only logic I could grasp was; GB was in fear of his position and was scrambling around for some face -saving results and didn't trust the youngsters to win points.

[JBiz]

The youngsters must wonder if there's any point being at the Club when they can't get a start for love nor money and dross like P. Taylor is being needlessly brought in to fill up a squad place.

...or when they do get established and make 100+ appearances they are harangued, scapegoated, wished injury upon and just generally used as an example of the manager "picking his mates".

[Stuart]

...or when they do get established and make 100+ appearances they are harangued, scapegoated, wished injury upon and just generally used as an example of the manager "picking his mates".

Not if they're in the team because they're good enough.

[RevidgeBlue]

It became seriously suspect to me. The only logic I could grasp was; GB was in fear of his position and was scrambling around for some face -saving results and didn't trust the youngsters to win points.

The only reasons I could think of were

a) If they were over a certain age (23?) and had played a certain number of games they became fully fledged members of the squad for FFP purposes.

b ) If they were under a certain age and played a certain number of games then they were entitled to improved contract terms.

Either way if you're scared to play them for those sorts of reasons there's not much point in running an Academy in the first place.

[tomphil]

...or when they do get established and make 100+ appearances they are harangued, scapegoated, wished injury upon and just generally used as an example of the manager "picking his mates".

In other words if they aren't up to the job then they ain't immune to the same stick other players who've been transferred in might get.

[JBiz]

Now lads, you know what I'm getting at. We can all have opinions on players but realistically they are involved on merit and what the coach(s) has seen in the time they've had chance. Question it, but see both sides. Our academy setup is still one of the best and looking down the years- many have gone on to successful careers.

It makes some sense to give u24 players who've trained at the clubs shorter contracts when your facing financial issues. If they are signed away at the end, we'd get the same fee at tribunal as going rate anyway. It's all very much dependent on their performances either way.

Will they get a chance this season? Well that's difficult to say - depends on circumstance. For instance, having no right back has allowed Henley the chance to cement that position- another one under 24 and developed in house who could be useful going forward in time.

If we had nothing to play for from mid feb(which is blatantly not true however remote you felt the playoffs where) we would have seen more performances from O Sullivan, Lenihan, Raya etc than we did. I agree that the pressure to keep up probably kept a few out of the team until it the playoffs became unreachable.

I'd expect all three or Eastwood instead of Raya (he may do another loan) to be starting in a month and a bit against Shrewsbury to try and stake a claim.

If they perform like a number of the second string did in the Scunthorpe game last season, it wouldn't be suprising to see them back out on loan for another year.

[tomphil]

It was strange that a former youth coach and well known tinkerman/rotator didn't give some a bit more time towards the end of the season. There were probably a few reasons at play but one was most obviously ass covering to try and safe guard results to keep up appearances.

On another note our academy had a reputation for producing players for lower division teams. Loads not quite good enough for our Prem squad and some arguably not given a fair crack of the whip. Plenty went on to have good careers at Champ level and below. Knowing this we should be able to be confident at a stream of players good enough to help keep us propped up in midtable in this division. Trouble is has the academy despite it's fantastic facilities now been dumbed down that much that even that isn't likely ?

[JBiz]

We can't really know that for some time. One thing for sure is we can't spend money so we need it to produce. We can also see the damage that takeover did initially with the academy because of the recent changes of staff and a shortage of 18-21 of any quality. Most are below.

One of the very few silver linings of the current ownership is keeping the grade 1 academy status which require investment, amenities and a certain number of staff with the right qualifications.