Kanj

Right on. We need to add a no shop provision to our bids. Yep. Exclusivity would be helpful to us. I think it's nonsense that our bids are getting highjacked or shopped to other clubs after we get them accepted. Really poor on seller if that's true. Our policy of backing down in "auctions" doesn't help either. We don't even low ball bid and increase to our "ceiling" it seems. We just offer what we can pay max, say to the seller take it or leave it, f*** off if the deal requires any brain work. Obviously these deals aren't going to be clear, cut and dry anymore. We aren't even adapting to these changing conditions either ffs. Would it be better to stealth with multiple offers for different players? Obviously not versed in footbal transactions, but I'd think that would be a way around it. Having a better relationship with the selling club would be helpful too. A pissed off seller isn't going to help us out at all. We've been on the fortunate end of getting quiet deals done during the Ba/Cabaye/Marv summer, but now the selling clubs and player reps have caught on to us. We've GOT to adapt our policy or we will see more and more of this. Everyone knows we are cheap and won't move our bids up much (ie like Madras said, De Jong, Ba etc) so if they get wind we won't up our bid, then your West Ham's of the world will up their bid by 500k and if the player isn't totally in love with joining us, then we'll lose out. Again, I'm only trying to apply what I've done in my own career in transactions for my company and take some of those elements and apply them to football. I know we've not a clue what is going on with the deals, but we have quite a strict wage policy and valuation policy that has gotten us this far, but it sure could use some tinkering.

except we did up our bid for de jong and we did deal with ba's multiple agents. what you have to remember is that we know very little of what goes on. I know and you're right too.

I'm going to add that transactions are my trade. I work in acquisitions, so this process does intrigue me. If you can't secure exclusivity In a deal, then a deal can collapse or the bogey price could move at any time. So fine, if in football that's not possible to secure exclusivity or whatever, then deal makers need to be aware of the volatility, which ours are aware of. So If we can't get our heads wrapped around that fact, and it pisses us off to the point we hold on our terms - then we won't sign the players we target unless the seller, the player, and his reps don't have other motives (in terms of fee, terms and other clauses). One of those parties can make the deal complicating, and as it stands we don't prefer to do those nor do we like to do them. Are the Club's deal makers wrong? I don't fucking know, but I'll point at the results from summer and January so far, and we've not signed the players we need.

We've already heard the board say we don't do bidding wars and we won't deal with complicating transfers with multiple agents etc. those are deals that require brainwork no? I mean im putting 2 and 2 together, but that clearly seems to be the case with many of our recent targets, if the rumors are to be believed.

Of course I don't man. I'm speculating like everyone else on here. Just frustrating that we seem to be resolved to only bid once and stop there. I'm saying we seem to be too strict in our policies and in return we are losing out on players.

Right on. We need to add a no shop provision to our bids. Yep. Exclusivity would be helpful to us. I think it's nonsense that our bids are getting highjacked or shopped to other clubs after we get them accepted. Really poor on seller if that's true. Our policy of backing down in "auctions" doesn't help either. We don't even low ball bid and increase to our "ceiling" it seems. We just offer what we can pay max, say to the seller take it or leave it, fuck off if the deal requires any brain work. Obviously these deals aren't going to be clear, cut and dry anymore. We aren't even adapting to these changing conditions either ffs.

Retracted our 2.5m bid? No such thing as a CA on these deals anymore? Am I missing something? Surely if a club bids for someone, its accepted. It should be done in good faith to let the club work the deal out? This nonsense is the complete opposite of actual business transactions too by the way. Fucking frustrating.

If he ever sacked Dekka and brought in a football man to be our chairman and really turned things around from the board's point of view and became more competitive in transfer dealings (not being so stubborn) he could easilly regain a ton of support from the common fan, in my opinion.

This could be a fantastic signing, top analysis by Tooj. This allows for true cover for RB/LB and competition for the left back position for young Santon. Get this one done and dusted quickly, and hopefully we'll see progress on the other areas of weakness.

Performance: Top 8, challenge for Europe, and an annual deep run in one of the cups. Recruitment: Continue to recruit great talent and put together a run of 1-2 years where we make a push for top 3.

Hope its true mate!

Wish he would sell us to someone who gave a fuck.

Agreed

Halfway through the month, glaring holes in the team to fill and we sign one player and lose out on another on the 11th hour right after we had some decent feel-good and momentum. Our captain could quit the club or stay; we haven't a clue. We are in a s*** position in the table and in poor form. We have 2 very winnable games and not a clue how we'll do that given the previously said form. Yeah, I think anyone who wants to be concerned has every reason to be concerned right now man. I'd love to be real happy and optimistic like I always am about things, but Im struggling with that like many of us are.

Nah, of course there are times when the valuations are far apart you need to walk away. But it was plain for everyone to see we needed another striker, another rb, and another cb capable of playing in the first team now. We signed 1 cm and left the rest alone. So we failed, b/c injuries kicked in and form never picked up, team morale suffered and we are stuck in the position we are in the table. Thats poor vision from the board. It wasn't like Debuchy was rated at 10M at his age, De Jong was 20M, and Douglas 15M. These were all pretty reasonable prices given the age. Sure in hindsight the Debuchy deal looks good right now given we paid much less than that summer quoted number from Lille, but we've once again put ourselves in this position where our Board has failed the coaching staff, players, and ultimately us as supporters of the club.

I've no problem with us being very shrewd in the market. Negotiating to get a fantastic deal is good business. Now when our valuation is some less than 1M off or so; I have issues with our deal makers not recognizing the opportunity cost associated with getting top players to help ensure a better results, finish, etc. Debuchy, Douglas, and De Jong or whoever we wanted in this summer - ALL of those players should have been brought in. ALL of those players would have helped our squad size, morale and ultimately our results. I've also no issue with us having a wage structure, and kudos to the club for getting this structure in place and being able to have the players we have on those sort of wages. But also, there comes a time when the wage ceiling needs to be increased at a certain time to ensure we continue to get top players and continue to pay our best players commensurate with their status in the team, performance, etc. For all the hard work Graham Carr and his team put into scouting and such, we continue to undo his hard-work with our transfer fee policy and our wage structure. Fucking frustrating this club at times. Painful when you look at all this city, stadium and supporters offer. Can't help but wonder, why us? Whenever we fail to sign someone/build the squad whenever we gain any momentum whatsoever.

The caption under the pic of her in a bikini "Hot model...Sylvie van der Vaart" FFS

Like I needed another reason to be pissed off with Harry

Battyboy

http://www.wparisopera.com/ They did set up in a fantastic hotel mind you.

Nothing funnier than a complete random Mrs Bimpy tirade.

Following this shit while on business travel is fucking painful man!

Top footballers are not underpaid, they get paid what many would consider more than enough. All top-level athletes are paid a shed-load of cash in wages and even more in endorsements. I'm sure there are some good agents out there, like in all trades, but there are also a ton of bastards out there who sway their clients into decisions for their own personal and monetary gain. Sure, the buyer or club wants to get the best deal - that's business. We all try to get a good deal out of everything, but when you have a middle man acting on your behalf in your best interests who is incentivized on money, you're going to have situations where a player is making the wrong decision from a career-growth standpoint because they get extra cash today. It's a broken system and every sport faces this problem. I think of players like Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell, who had no business moving to their respective clubs, as two young promising players who's careers could be hitting a brick fucking wall right now.

there you go making me feel like a mug for being so angry.