Demba Ba (now retired)

[Ketsbaia]

We signed a striker on a free, he scored lots of goals for us, promoted strawberry syrup, got us into Europe and earnt a move to the European champions. Nothing too bad about that tbh, you could call him a moneygrabber but that's the going rate for the elite clubs. The only things that irk me are his agents and that he's going to warm their bench. At least the deal is done early and the circus is over. If you believe we'll replace him, things aren't so bad. Onwards and upwards!

[Si]

No loyalty to the club who took a risk on him. Thanks BA, tonight is Cisse's night to get back on form and show Ba we don't need him.

 

West Ham?

[Rich]

What's the difference between what's happened today and what happened 3 days ago? Hadn't Ba already been granted the permission to speak to Chelsea, when the "unproductive talks" took place? If it's the same situation I can't see why now he's practically gone

 

It's a bit different when it's posted on the official website and when he gets withdrawn from the squad like.

 

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20130102/club-statement-demba-ba_2281670_3024928

[Unbelievable]

How can Chelsea get Ba and lose Sturridge and be in a net cash inflow position? Doesn't make sense. Bastards.

 

Last time it was us, replacing Carroll with Ba, Cabaye, Marveaux, Obertan and Cisse and still being well up in net cash

 

What's also quite interesting is that in January 2011 Torres left Liverpool for Chelsea for £50m and Carroll left us for Liverpool for £35m.  With Ba coming here for free and being seen as almost an after thought in the whole saga.  Now Ba could be going off to replace Torres and a backup player from Chelsea could be off to Liverpool to replace Carroll

 

Aye, remember not being impressed at all when we got Ba in on a free to be our main striker.

[Guest firetotheworks]

At Teasy (I can't quote on this PC for some reason)

 

I was just laughing at the whole Torres-Carroll-Ba-Sturridge merry-go-round.

[Teasy]

At Teasy (I can't quote on this PC for some reason)

 

I was just laughing at the whole Torres-Carroll-Ba-Sturridge merry-go-round.

 

Ah right, weird, try changing the browser?

[Guest ItalianMagpie]

What's the difference between what's happened today and what happened 3 days ago? Hadn't Ba already been granted the permission to speak to Chelsea, when the "unproductive talks" took place? If it's the same situation I can't see why now he's practically gone

 

It's a bit different when it's posted on the official website and when he gets withdrawn from the squad like.

 

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20130102/club-statement-demba-ba_2281670_3024928

 

I know, but I don't understand how it went then: 3 days ago there was no offer and no meeting with Chelsea?

[TRon]

At Teasy (I can't quote on this PC for some reason)

 

I was just laughing at the whole Torres-Carroll-Ba-Sturridge merry-go-round.

 

Aye, people rip into our transfer dealings but we've ran rings round some other clubs in comparison. Although obviously we've suffered points wise this time round.

[Teasy]

What's the difference between what's happened today and what happened 3 days ago? Hadn't Ba already been granted the permission to speak to Chelsea, when the "unproductive talks" took place? If it's the same situation I can't see why now he's practically gone

 

It's a bit different when it's posted on the official website and when he gets withdrawn from the squad like.

 

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20130102/club-statement-demba-ba_2281670_3024928

 

I know, but I don't understand how it went then: 3 days ago there was no offer and no meeting with Chelsea?

 

Could just be that 3 days ago there was no match to withdraw him from and so no need for any announcement.

[Rich]

It was only ever billed as his representatives speaking to Chelsea and there was never an official source for it. Since then there's been rebuttals from Pardew saying the agents in question weren't actually representing Ba and that Ba himself had stated this to be the case.

 

For whatever reason - even if it's simply that Chelsea have now actually made an official offer and are speaking to whoever Ba considers to be his actual agent/s plus Ba himself - it's now more solid.

[afar]

January is a key month for us in terms of fixtures with games against reading, Villa and Norwich coming up, we need to be targeting 7 to 9 points from them, so we need to bring in a replacement fast along with Debuchy, a new CB and possibly another cm. We don't have the breathing space to piss around until the last day of the window, but I'm sure we will

 

[STM]

Could have been brinksmanship on Chelsea's part. I can't imagine Ba turning down the chance to move to Chelsea.

 

The second he was pulled from a matchday squad, that's it.

[Guest ItalianMagpie]

What's the difference between what's happened today and what happened 3 days ago? Hadn't Ba already been granted the permission to speak to Chelsea, when the "unproductive talks" took place? If it's the same situation I can't see why now he's practically gone

 

It's a bit different when it's posted on the official website and when he gets withdrawn from the squad like.

 

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20130102/club-statement-demba-ba_2281670_3024928

 

I know, but I don't understand how it went then: 3 days ago there was no offer and no meeting with Chelsea?

 

Could just be that 3 days ago there was no match to withdraw him from and so no need for any announcement.

 

But in that case there would still be no evidence that Ba will sign with them, as he didn't 3 days ago. So it's still possible that the deal will be called off again, or isn't it?

At this point I wish he fucked off anyway, if he stays now I reckon it'll be more troubles than benefits for us.

[Darth Crooks]

Brilliant this like. Go to the states for 4 days and its footballing 'soccer' vacuum. Come back to a drubbing from Arsenal and now Ba is fucking this game off to be a bit parter at Chelsea. 2013 off to a flyer. Thank god Danny Simpson hasn't....WHHAAATTT?!!!

 

[Unbelievable]

An interesting angle in the whole "greedy cunt/refused to play left wing to the detriment of the team" argument is that his contract with us was probably heavily incentivised towards scoring goals, i.e. a low basic wage plus a high bonus for each goal scored. Interesting, because whilst performance related renumeration, which seems to be something Mike & Co are fond off, can work really well to mitigate certain risks (low pay when injured for example), it also inadvertently can motivate a player to be more greedy in front of goal rather than pass it off to a team mate who is in a better position and wanting to play in a position where the chances of picking up bonusses are higher. Providing this has been a factor in the entire "Ba will play centrally 90% of the time" saga earlier in the season, I hope Mike & Co learn from this experience and make sure that any future bonus related payment is geared towards team rather than individual parameters.

[henke]

a) once he's withdrawn from our squad he's as good as gone in my opinion.

 

b) he can fuck off anyway.

 

c) Cisse hat-trick tonight.

[TaylorJ_01]

Why the fuck can't he play? We fucking pay him money to play football. Fuck off Ba.

[Benwell Lad]

Ashley's blue print is to buy players cheap and sell for a profit so players will use us in the same way.  They are signing for us as relatively unknowns with something to prove and putting themselves in the shop window and if bigger clubs come calling then they will move on.

 

The only way that will change will be if we start to win things and pay competitive wages and neither are likely to happen.

 

Not totally true on two fronts.

 

First - His blueprint is for the club to be self sufficient, if a players cost fits within the clubs affordability he’ll be bought irrespective of fee. The other “condition” is that he has resale value, that does not have to be more than he was bought for, just more than his value “on the books” at the time of sale (due to amortisation).

 

Second – “competitive wages” are paid already (daft wages are not) and will continue to be so, so long as it fits with the % of turnover for wages that’s been laid down.

 

It really is quite simple, players will be bought if it fits the model. If they don’t they won’t.

 

In hindsight, he made a mistake in the summer, there was a case for a little speculate to accumulate, especially given the explosion in PL dosh next season. Hopefully he’s learned from that, but it doesn’t need a daft or never ending splash of cash.

 

In fact if we hadn’t had so many injuries (way more than you could possibly reasonably expect) the apparent summer non-spend likely wouldn’t have been a factor.

 

 

Yup, that is exactly the policy at present contrary to what many would have us believe.

[Rich]

An interesting angle in the whole "greedy cunt/refused to play left wing to the detriment of the team" argument is that his contract with us was probably heavily incentivised towards scoring goals, i.e. a low basic wage plus a high bonus for each goal scored. Interesting, because whilst performance related renumeration, which seems to be something Mike & Co are fond off, can work really well to mitigate certain risks (low pay when injured for example), it also inadvertently can motivate a player to be more greedy in front of goal rather than pass it off to a team mate who is in a better position and wanting to play in a position where the chances of picking up bonusses are higher. Providing this has been a factor in the entire "Ba will play centrally 90% of the time" saga earlier in the season, I hope Mike & Co learn from this experience and make sure that any future bonus related payment is geared towards team rather than individual parameters.

 

I thought Llambias has publicly stated that he does not do (or maybe like to do) bonuses in contracts?

[Guest tollemache]

For the most part people are being quite sensible about Ba but it always pisses me off when fans complain about players leaving for the money, being mercenaries etc, like every single one of them wouldn't do exactly the same thing and probably have done it in their jobs on multiple occasions. Part XXV in my "most fans are c*nts" series there

[Rich]

An interesting angle in the whole "greedy cunt/refused to play left wing to the detriment of the team" argument is that his contract with us was probably heavily incentivised towards scoring goals, i.e. a low basic wage plus a high bonus for each goal scored. Interesting, because whilst performance related renumeration, which seems to be something Mike & Co are fond off, can work really well to mitigate certain risks (low pay when injured for example), it also inadvertently can motivate a player to be more greedy in front of goal rather than pass it off to a team mate who is in a better position and wanting to play in a position where the chances of picking up bonusses are higher. Providing this has been a factor in the entire "Ba will play centrally 90% of the time" saga earlier in the season, I hope Mike & Co learn from this experience and make sure that any future bonus related payment is geared towards team rather than individual parameters.

 

I thought Llambias has publicly stated that he does not do (or maybe like to do) bonuses in contracts?

 

Just checked...

 

"We just do straight contracts. We do no overseas pensions, no image rights. We say, 'This is your money, now you go away and talk to your tax advisers if you must.'

 

We don’t do goal bonuses. We had that with (Oba) Martins, maybe that’s why he would always shoot from the halfway line! We used to see him on the ball and think, 'Oh look. He’s going to shoot again.'

[Cronky]

I'm with the Moody Blues on this one. Go now.

[Unbelievable]

Ashley's blue print is to buy players cheap and sell for a profit so players will use us in the same way.  They are signing for us as relatively unknowns with something to prove and putting themselves in the shop window and if bigger clubs come calling then they will move on.

 

The only way that will change will be if we start to win things and pay competitive wages and neither are likely to happen.

 

Not totally true on two fronts.

 

First - His blueprint is for the club to be self sufficient, if a players cost fits within the clubs affordability he’ll be bought irrespective of fee. The other “condition” is that he has resale value, that does not have to be more than he was bought for, just more than his value “on the books” at the time of sale (due to amortisation).

 

Second – “competitive wages” are paid already (daft wages are not) and will continue to be so, so long as it fits with the % of turnover for wages that’s been laid down.

 

It really is quite simple, players will be bought if it fits the model. If they don’t they won’t.

 

In hindsight, he made a mistake in the summer, there was a case for a little speculate to accumulate, especially given the explosion in PL dosh next season. Hopefully he’s learned from that, but it doesn’t need a daft or never ending splash of cash.

 

In fact if we hadn’t had so many injuries (way more than you could possibly reasonably expect) the apparent summer non-spend likely wouldn’t have been a factor.

 

 

Yup, that is exactly the policy at present contrary to what many would have us believe.

 

I agree. Thing is before this "self sufficient" policy came into effect Mike Ashley pledged that he would invest 20 million per season of his own money on top of making the club more financially stable. I can understand how he retracted that promise when the fans turned against him, but you would hope that as things have stabilised in terms of fan discontentment, he would now go back to his initial blueprint for the club.

[Robster]

We had that with (Oba) Martins, maybe that’s why he would always shoot from the halfway line! We used to see him on the ball and think, 'Oh look. He’s going to shoot again.'

[GoranBadlund]

We signed a striker on a free, he scored lots of goals for us, promoted strawberry syrup, got us into Europe and earnt a move to the European champions. Nothing too bad about that tbh, you could call him a moneygrabber but that's the going rate for the elite clubs. The only things that irk me are his agents and that he's going to warm their bench. At least the deal is done early and the circus is over. If you believe we'll replace him, things aren't so bad. Onwards and upwards!

 

This