Contracts and Rebuilding

[Taylor Swift]

Firstly, what's the deal with this relegation clause? If no one at the club bothered to insert an automatic wage reduction then, well, wow.

 

Secondly, here's a list of the shittiest players we have at the club and when their contract expires.

 

Nolan = 2013

Duff = 2011

R Taylor = 2013

Smith = 2012

Butt = 2010

Ameobi = 2012

 

These guys aren't leaving. You think Smith will give up £60k? To play for who? Which team in the Premiership will actually give us money for him? You think Nolan is leaving after signing for £4m? Forget it. Pencil him and Butt in for the CM role next year. Do it now so you don't get pissed off when it actually happens.

 

This re-building shit ain't happening. We're going to lose our best players (Enrique, Bassong, Gutierrez and Martins) and not surprisingly, these guys are the young players in our team.

[Beezeri]

Can't see Duff(70-90K a week) or Butt(50K), Nolan(50K) or any of them leaving as they wouldn't make half of the wages anywhere else they're making here! So so sad but true!

[Guest magpies_rawk]

they will leave at slashed prices. there'll always be big sam to take these players in.

[Jayson]

ashley wont buy shit now, even championship standard

 

shearer may hop off because of it

 

this may be our club well and truly fucked.

[Shearer9]

Has this thing about a relegation wages clause actually be substantiated?  If Shearer stays on, I think it'll be on the condition that we clear the shite.

[Lagerstedt]

Let's all write to Warren Buffet or someone and hope for the best

[captainhaircut]

Remember that every player that leaves gets a slice of the transfer fee and a signing on fee. So if they are on 3m a year like Duff or Smith they can afford to drop to 1.5m a year as they'll probably make 2/3m out of the transfer.

 

They'll all be gone. We may have to pay a portion of their wages or let them go for ridiculous prices but they're all gone.

 

Keep Guthrie, Steven Taylor, Ryan Taylor, Enrique and the kids and rebuild.

[AlanSkÃrare]

Does anyone think we have ANY chance of keeping Enrique and Beye?

 

Steven Taylor is staying, I'd imagine we'll keep Viduka, Guthrie, Nolan, Butt, Edgar, Harper, Ameobi and Carroll. Maybe Duff for some reason. The rest is gone.

[Taylor Swift]

I'd keep Bassong, Enrique, Guthrie, S Taylor, Harper, Beye, Gutierrez and Martins. Everyone else can go (the kids like Carroll and Ranger are obvious keeps).

[Taylor Swift]

Does anyone think we have ANY chance of keeping Enrique and Beye?

 

Steven Taylor is staying, I'd imagine we'll keep Viduka, Guthrie, Nolan, Butt, Edgar, Harper, Ameobi and Carroll. Maybe Duff for some reason. The rest is gone.

 

Viduka's contract is up so he's gone. I, for one, am glad. I'm glad that Owen will be off too. Edgar's contract is up and he's shit, so hopefully he goes.

 

Ideally, we'd be left with about 7 players and the kids. And then it's Shearer's job to get some hungry footballers in.

 

But that's in an ideal world. What I think will actually happen is that we're left with about 8 or 9 players but none of the ones that I listed in the previous post.

[Beren]

The focus has to be on young athletic players IMO. We must do everything in our power to ensure we don't have that slow, old man midfield if we have any chance of escaping the Championship.

[Dave]

27% of teams come back in one go.

 

14% in two seasons.

 

19% in three+ seasons.

 

40% don't come back.

[johnnypd]

im beginning to think we should keep our best players and try and get up asap. even if teams come calling for enrique, bassong, martins, jonas etc, just say no, tell them they fucking owe us.

[Shearer9]

The focus has to be on young athletic players IMO. We must do everything in our power to ensure we don't have that slow, old man midfield if we have any chance of escaping the Championship.

So true, we're gonna have to have legs especially in the midfield if we're to come back. 

[Beren]

Thinking about it more, we're a bit of a Confidence Club really, aren't we?

 

String a few wins together next year and should we get promoted I think we can ride that wave into the top half on our first season back. Conversely, you get the impression we'd have just stagnated had we stayed up. Maybe I'm just consoling myself, but I look at what happened when we got promoted 16 years ago - times are different, yes, but confidence does wonders for our club - more than at others anyway.

[sugoinufc]

these are the players i hope will stay and help us win promotion! a massive clear out is naturally needed! Players not mentioned...GET OUT!

 

(Harper) maybe krul or forster could replace him and make money available elsewhere!

 

Bassong (sell only for 6 mill plus)

 

Beye

 

colo

 

enrique

 

S. Taylor

 

(Nolan) not sure i rate him even in the championship

 

R. Taylor (good squad player in the championship)

 

guthrie

 

jonas

 

Lua Lua

 

Caroll

 

xisco (would like to see him given the chance)

 

Martins (but that seems almost impossible)

 

Løvenkrands ? ? ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Magpie007]

27% of teams come back in one go.

 

14% in two seasons.

 

19% in three+ seasons.

 

40% don't come back.

 

67% of all satistics are made up on the spot

[oldtype]

I think Lovenkrands would be one of the best strikers in the Championship and I'd love for us to hand him a new contract, despite how s*** he's bene today.

 

To be frank, Shearer should have played him up front or not at all.

[Guest defo]

they will leave at slashed prices. there'll always be big sam to take these players in.

 

No they won't, no-one will touch them because they are championship players who ar enot good enough to play in the prem, as demonstrated.

[Mistle17]

Lets hope Andy Carroll is given the nod to step in and play a big part for us next year.

 

 

[ChrisMcQuillan]

they will leave at slashed prices. there'll always be big sam to take these players in.

 

No they won't, no-one will touch them because they are championship players who ar enot good enough to play in the prem, as demonstrated.

 

Premiership players in a Championship team.

 

I think that's been our problem.

[Cronky]

We've ended up with too many players who are on the fading part of their careers - Owen, Duff, Viduka, Nolan, Butt, Smith, Geremi. You need some experience for sure, but the balance hasn't been right. Plus I don't think any of those players have provided leadership.

 

The bright side is you won't have to listen to me moaning about Michael Owen any more.

 

Ok - one last time. The most costly transfer error this club has ever made.

[tmonkey]

I'd keep Bassong, Enrique, Guthrie, S Taylor, Harper, Beye, Gutierrez and Martins. Everyone else can go (the kids like Carroll and Ranger are obvious keeps).

 

This. If we kept that lot, I think we'd jump straight back up. Martins, assuming he stays clear of injuries, will be scoring heavily against alot of the opposition we'll be up against. A defence of Beye, Taylor, Bassong and Enrique should be extremely strong for that standard. Bassong in particular would take the Championship by storm, he'd be like Vidic in that league.

 

Unfortunately, Ashley beign a plank with no sense or foresight will mean those are the players that will most likely be sold. As per the OP, we'll probably have a midfield of Butt, Nolan, Smith, Duff, with Ameobi up front. Going to be absolutely abysmal. We'll be overrun in central midfield by practically every team in the Championship, with no ball retention or end product to show for it.

 

Dare I say it, I think we'd be in with a chance of getting relegated to League 1 if we repeat the same mistakes we made in January, i.e. sell the few remnants of talent we have and replace with yet more cloggers.