[Archived] Transfer Talk Part 3

[RevidgeBlue]

If I sell my car and 6 months later the new owner is doing 120 down the M6 without oil or water, running on illegal tyres, drink driving and bouncing it off trees...is that my fault?

Blaming the Trust is silly. They simply took a commercial decision. A very bad one in hindsight. Plod along with the old model and three years later they are making 40 million pure coin with the advent of the new TV deal. Who could possibly have expected respected billionaires would be so stupid? And have no-one around them with any common sense? And employ total chancers? And be happy losing 20 zillion per year. The model was in place and simply needed copying. And then improving. A million and one bad decisions later we are what we are.

(While typing Finns got Smith and Clarke).

It all started to go wrong when they didn't give Hughes the backing he so richly and obviously deserved.

We've been in constant decline ever since albeit Sam managed to stem the tide temporarily. But even he was forced to scratch around for garbage on loan like Benjani, and our fall from grace would have happened eventually imo.

All we needed was sensible owners who were prepared to run the Club properly with a top manager at the helm and who were prepared to inject a competitive amount per year for said manager for transfers. Instead we had the Walker Trust who latterly starved the Club of any investment then the Venky's who have made a pig's ear of practically everything they've touched. They're now forced to inject huge amounts of money just to keep us afloat and avoid losing their investment altogether.

[JHRover]

If I sell my car and 6 months later the new owner is doing 120 down the M6 without oil or water, running on illegal tyres, drink driving and bouncing it off trees...is that my fault?

Blaming the Trust is silly. They simply took a commercial decision. A very bad one in hindsight. Plod along with the old model and three years later they are making 40 million pure coin with the advent of the new TV deal. Who could possibly have expected respected billionaires would be so stupid? And have no-one around them with any common sense? And employ total chancers? And be happy losing 20 zillion per year. The model was in place and simply needed copying. And then improving. A million and one bad decisions later we are what we are.

(While typing Finns got Smith and Clarke).

I don't really want to get into this again, but it does continue to frustrate me that they have got out of this situation scot-free in the eyes of many supporters.

The Trust have to take a sizeable portion of the blame. They were GIVEN ownership of the club by Jack Walker on the basis they invested into it for as long as necessary and acted in its best long term interests. Never mind commercial decisions. That wasn't their role. Their role was to do what was best for the long term future of this club, even if that meant channelling the profits of their other interests into supporting it. Nobody, no fan or businessman genuinely concerned with this clubs long term interests would have sold the club to Venkys. Alarm bells were ringing far and wide BEFORE they sold when it was clear that an Indian poultry group advised by an agent was interested. Five minutes, probably less, in a room with Balaji and co. would have told anyone that these people perhaps weren't suitable long term custodians of Jack Walker's club.

But they brushed whatever concerns they had (if any) under the carpet and pushed ahead with a quick sale, cashing in £20 million for JACK's shares in the club and leaving the club still with the £20 million+ Barclays debt. They should only have sold the club if they were absolutely 110% convinced that it would be beneficial (to the CLUB, not THEMSELVES) in the long term. I have already suggested that even the briefest of meetings with Venkys and Anderson would have caused anyone to query the sale, but then lets remember that they were considering selling to Ahsan Ali Syed(fraudster who bankrupted Racing Santander) until he was exposed by Panorama.

And lets just remember here that they didn't own some black hole of a hopeless football club that couldn't make a go. They owned an established Premier League club, that already had all the staff, infrastructure etc. needed to continue as it was, reaping the benefits of John Williams and Sam Allardyce's good work and being a member of the richest league in the world, with the profits set to soar.

They treated the club as an unwanted hindrance when to anyone else owning an established Premier League club would have been a major asset.

Even if they couldn't possibly have known what was coming, do you not think the very least we deserve is an apology from them? Yet we get nothing from them either, just like we got nothing when they owned the club.

[tomphil]

If Marshall goes it's got to be the price of Cairney if not more. A better more robust more versatile player than Tom and less injury prone. If Rhodes goes I think Marshalls departure would be the final nail in the coffin !

[T J Hooker]

Tbh taking Marshallsimjury record and purchase process into account id sell him for anything over 3mill

[Gav]

If Marshall goes it's got to be the price of Cairney if not more. A better more robust more versatile player than Tom and less injury prone. If Rhodes goes I think Marshalls departure would be the final nail in the coffin !

I think they'll both go before the start of the season, sorry to sound like Mercer but I firmly believe everyone is for sale at the moment, I only wish they intended leaving also, but that doesn't seem to be the case sadly.

[ABBEY]

Sell him and replace him with what ? People are not grasping it.

[Bucksrover]

I don't think Marshall would want a move to Brighton - he didn't like Leicester because it was too far from his family who I believe live in the Manchester area.

The only doubt with him is that he seemed to get on well with Cairney so him leaving may have unsettled him.

I hope Marshall stays - if he can consistently play at the level he did at times last season then he would be very useful - I also like the fact that he can finish - with Gestede gone the cross into the box is less useful to us.

[T J Hooker]

As crud of a match day manager gb is, im pretty confident that he(or should i say out player recruitment team) could find an adequate replacement(sarpong, semba, etc..)

[Gav]

Tbh taking Marshallsimjury record and purchase process into account id sell him for anything over 3mill

League one here we come.

Marsh just gone at the test match, come on England!

As crud of a match day manager gb is, im pretty confident that he could bfind an adequate replacement

what?

[Kie_BRFC]

If it was that simple then Brighton would be signing this 'adequate player' on a free/loan rather than Marshall. The issue then becomes that we replace Marshall with someone of less quality and we then continue to downgrade until we are in league 1 or worse

[ABBEY]

It's called stability , brain washing and head burying Kiero .

[T J Hooker]

I dont think Brighton would be so dead set on trying to sign Marshall unless they got a sniff from somwhere that he'd be interested in the move.

[JHRover]

Marshall COULD be replaced, if we had enough time in the market to bring someone in, however that doesn't justify selling him at any price to an inferior club. Unlike Rhodes and Gestede who cannot be replaced at this stage.

Again I would have to ask the question of why we would happily take £3 million for him on the basis that we need to bring money in yet a club that finished way behind us last season are willing and able to pay that amount for him. The two are incompatible. If Brighton are willing to pay that as a bottom half Championship side then surely we should be looking to keep him and only sell him if a Premier League club comes along.

Whilst we're at it we might as well sell the whole lot. Perhaps its worth getting Ewood Park valued and see if Tesco are looking to build a new store. After all, the only concern some seem to have is to get as much cash in as quickly as possible even if that is to the obvious detriment of the club.

How about we give Brockhall to Burnley to save some money there?

We can all feel very happy with ourselves when our summer business leaves us with £20 odd million, we've offloaded our prized assets to second division clubs, and are on track for League One by Christmas.

[JAL]

Are you going to give us a list of how many have left the club, JAL? Be nice to add a little bit of a balance to your argument.

Perhaps you can explain how many were loans, how many have been youngsters brought in for the future, and how many subsequently have moved either for profit or at no loss to the club other than paid wages whilst they were at the club i.e. Varney, Judge.

Just to put a bit of perspective to this - quick search on TransferMarkt... incoming players for the following clubs - last season and season before.

Bolton - 46

Sheff Wed - 39

Cardiff - 37

Boro - 36

Forest - 36

Fulham- 36

Brighton - 35

Derby - 33

Leeds - 29

And those were first time searches, not trawling through other clubs with loads less signings. The only club I found with fewer was Reading with about 22 or 23 I think.

So you list the competition is this some sort of justification your trying to apply to the current struggling Blackburn Rovers team.

So from 31 players how many does it take to get the best eleven ?

[West Yorks Rover]

It all would depend on the asking price for the shares in the club and the debt situation.

If, and its a big if, Venkys were to separate the club from the debt and let somebody else have the club for £20 million then there would be buyers out there. It might take time but we've seen a recent influx of foreign owners into the Championship as Premier League clubs become more difficult to purchase.

People would be interested because we are one promotion away from the profile and riches of the Premier League. Even one season there would wipe out the cost of buying the club.

This club has everything geared up for the top flight. The training ground and academy is already there, the modern stadium is already there, and the club has shown that with astute stewardship it could survive

As for the Walker Trust fund, well, the less said about them the better given that it was they who welcomed Venkys through the door with their advisors and sold Jack's legacy to them. Still keeping quiet with no apology for their actions I see.

Suffice to say that if the Walker Trust had been that desperate to find a buyer they could have reduced their asking price. There would have been more people interested in taking the club on and running it on a sensible and sustainable basis in the Premier League had they not wanted £20 million cash for Jack's shareholding and then passed on in excess of £20 million debts to the new owners.

It was recently reported that no less than seven parties were interested in buying Birmingham City.

The PL money is certainly what they're after, and there's a lot more of it now, compared to when we were up there.

[RevidgeBlue]

Marshall COULD be replaced, if we had enough time in the market to bring someone in, however that doesn't justify selling him at any price to an inferior club. Unlike Rhodes and Gestede who cannot be replaced at this stage.

Again I would have to ask the question of why we would happily take £3 million for him on the basis that we need to bring money in yet a club that finished way behind us last season are willing and able to pay that amount for him. The two are incompatible. If Brighton are willing to pay that as a bottom half Championship side then surely we should be looking to keep him and only sell him if a Premier League club comes along.

Whilst we're at it we might as well sell the whole lot. Perhaps its worth getting Ewood Park valued and see if Tesco are looking to build a new store. After all, the only concern some seem to have is to get as much cash in as quickly as possible even if that is to the obvious detriment of the club.

How about we give Brockhall to Burnley to save some money there?

We can all feel very happy with ourselves when our summer business leaves us with £20 odd million, we've offloaded our prized assets to second division clubs, and are on track for League One by Christmas.

As with Cairney I think you're slightly over-reacting there. On the evidence of last season Marshall (like Cairney) is simply not that good over the slog of a 46 game season and under normal circumstances I'd have no compunction whatsoever about selling him to a rival for 3.5 - 4m. More fool them.

However, as others have correctly pointed out, if he was sold, we'd likely only be able to replace him with worse due to the embargo so on that basis on pure footballing terms we should probably keep him.

[G Somerset Rover]

We should sell players of any value and replace them with free transfers. We wouldn't be any worse off.

*Smacks head against wall*

[chaddyrovers]

I wouldnt sell Marshall at any price. He will be our key player this season and I hope he plays in the number 10 role.

[RevidgeBlue]

I wouldnt sell Marshall at any price. He will be our key player this season and I hope he plays in the number 10 role.

Hope you're right chaddy, that would be an interesting prospect, him playing behind Rhodes but he'd need to up his performance levels massively.

[Lancs Rover]

I disagree Chris, its not all about having deep pockets, its about having good business sense and a way forward when it comes to servicing any debt left by those idiots in Pune.

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Look what Ken Bates did at Leeds, yes he was unpopular but he saved them.

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We need to get away from this perverted fixation that only the people that have raped and pillaged this football club can save it, thats not the case and we need them out.

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Apologies for going off topic.

Stop talking sense, GAV. Going way over the top was much more interesting.

[the original david brent]

I know I'm not the first poster to mention this but still no news on Kim work permit despite it being past the normal working day. I wouldn't imagine the 'hardworking' individuals at the FA to work past 5 pm!

[The Rover of Finland]

I know I'm not the first poster to mention this but still no news on Kim work permit despite it being past the normal working day. I wouldn't imagine the 'hardworking' individuals at the FA to work past 5 pm!

Another minor disappoiment must be announced any minute.

[Lancs Rover]

I remember the first game after we got relegated at Ipswich. I was shocked at how much the playing standards had slipped in the Championship since I last remembered it. Since then we've got used to it. It is a very average league. Look at our team last time we got promoted. That team could easily hold its own in the PL now.

No players are irreplaceable. Gestede was nobody when he walked in here. Cardiff were promoted a couple of years ago (Chamions?) when their top score netted something like 8 goals.

Button up our defence and we can go places. It's not rocket science.

[tomphil]

I wonder why they put all their stock into this player knowing it was highly unlikely we'd be able to get him ??? Be amazed if we actually sign anyone other than maybe another young trialist or something. Face it we are looking to get some cash in but spend zero in terms of adding nothing of any note to the wage bill, that includes ten grand per week players. Pray for some loans.

[Gav]

I remember the first game after we got relegated at Ipswich. I was shocked at how much the playing standards had slipped in the Championship since I last remembered it. Since then we've got used to it. It is a very average league. Look at our team last time we got promoted. That team could easily hold its own in the PL now.

No players are irreplaceable. Gestede was anybody when he walked in here. Cardiff were promoted a couple of years ago (Chamions?) when their top score netted something like 8 goals.

Button up our defence and we can go places. It's not rocket science.

We're going to league 1 with Williams in midfield, Hanley in defense and Brown up front.