Hunty at Left Back

[Sarah Star]

The time to get a little worried is when Shorey leaves and we don't have a left-back, though if Hunt does well there, I'll feel a bit better.

[Bill Oddie's Beard]

The time to get a little worried is when Shorey leaves and we don't have a left-back, though if Hunt does well there, I'll feel a bit better.

I'm sure we will bring in a replacement for Shorey pretty much immediately. The comments that Coppell made about Hunt filling in will hopefully only apply for a couple of games while our new full back settles in.

[Southbank Old Boy]

How do you make sure a player is leaving? Do you find a way of blackmailing Roy Keane into making a bid that matches our valuation or hold his family at gunpoint? Just curious.

We were never going to bring in someone to replace Shorey if he was still at the club. I believe we will make a significant investment in a new left back and the club are not going to do that until the left back slot is free. That is just a common sense approach.

There was enough tentative interest in Shorey to know that if we dropped our asking price to an acceptable level we'd have got rid of him no problem.

If things got desperate we could've loaned him out or offered to pick up a bit of his wages once he'd gone.

It might've cost us a little bit of cash but I really think that it would've been worth it.

If it was such a common sense approach not to replace a player before he's left, why did we end up with FOUR senior professional right backs at the club last season? Perhaps that's one mistake we've learnt from?

[Blue and White Toucan]

What worries me is the possible chain of events -

We don't accept the bid for Shorey from (I assusme its Pompey) as it is under our valuation.

We end up with a player who knows he will leave FOR FREE in 9 months time playing for the next season.

If the last 9 months are anything to go by then he will not have the best of seasons there anyway.

We SHOULD not be talking about moving players around in the squad FFS, we SHOULD take whatever we have been offered for Shorey NOW and we SHOULD already have 2/3 potential targets that we have monitored over the past 9 months.

Why oh why are we 4 days from the start of the season still in this position!?!?

[Bill Oddie's Beard]

What worries me is the possible chain of events -

We don't accept the bid for Shorey from (I assusme its Pompey) as it is under our valuation.

We end up with a player who knows he will leave FOR FREE in 9 months time playing for the next season.

If the last 9 months are anything to go by then he will not have the best of seasons there anyway.

We SHOULD not be talking about moving players around in the squad FFS, we SHOULD take whatever we have been offered for Shorey NOW and we SHOULD already have 2/3 potential targets that we have monitored over the past 9 months.

Why oh why are we 4 days from the start of the season still in this position!?!?

Coppell has said that he has a replacement lined up who will cost a lot of money, that's why he's waiting on Shorey going. I agree that this should all have been sorted weeks ago, but I'm confident that he will be replaced when he eventually goes.

[Blue and White Toucan]

I am not saying I am not confident of somebody coming in but why on earth was this not done 2/3 weeks ago so at least the new recruit could have played in some games/Sweden tour/ team bonding etc before the season started!!

I don't really see how holding out for another £500k (which we don't get all of anyway) makes this a worthwhile excercise.

[Bill Oddie's Beard]

It's a pretty lame excuse, but I suppose it doesn't help that the Prem season doesn't start for another week, meaning they're not in as much of a rush to get deals done.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I am not saying I am not confident of somebody coming in but why on earth was this not done 2/3 weeks ago so at least the new recruit could have played in some games/Sweden tour/ team bonding etc before the season started!!

I don't really see how holding out for another £500k (which we don't get all of anyway) makes this a worthwhile excercise.

Espcially when we're presumably paying Shorey the best part of £15k a week to mope about waiting for a new club to whisk him away to the promised land.

Any replacement we get in is going to be on less money than Shorey, even after his probable 40% pay cut.

[Wycombe Royal]

There was enough tentative interest in Shorey to know that if we dropped our asking price to an acceptable level we'd have got rid of him no problem.

If things got desperate we could've loaned him out or offered to pick up a bit of his wages once he'd gone.

It might've cost us a little bit of cash but I really think that it would've been worth it.

If it was such a common sense approach not to replace a player before he's left, why did we end up with FOUR senior professional right backs at the club last season? Perhaps that's one mistake we've learnt from?

Why should we lower our asking price? If you do it for one player then other clubs and players who want to leave will expect the same. We have a valuation of him and they either match it or they don't.

You seem to think it is just a case of lets sell him or loan him out and next minute he's gone. This isn't football manager where you can take over another club buy the player then resign.

As for the four senior right backs - Rosenior arrived because he was offered in a swap deal with Seol and he was highly regarded and young and seen as a long term replacement for Murty, De La Cruz was never going feature and neither was Halls. Hardly the same. Plus we were in the Premiership last season and could support having more players, that isn't the case now. We aren't going to spend a decent amount of money on a left now that we are in the Championship just in case Shorey leaves. It would tie up a lot of valuable resources.

What would be wrong is if they aren't PREPARED for Shorey to leave and weren't in a position to immediately go after an already identified replacement.

[Vision]

I am not saying I am not confident of somebody coming in but why on earth was this not done 2/3 weeks ago so at least the new recruit could have played in some games/Sweden tour/ team bonding etc before the season started!!

I don't really see how holding out for another £500k (which we don't get all of anyway) makes this a worthwhile excercise.

Have to say i do agree with that. I can totally understand the club's stance with the other players but Shorey has less than a year left. If we do have replacements in mind then accepting a bid slightly below our initial valuation earlier, in order to secure this replacement and give him more time to bed him would have served us far better. We're hostages to fate in a lot of respects having been relegated but i do think in this instance it was possible for us to be pro-active.

Its also quite possible that our supposed target(s) have moved elsewhere during the time we've spent procrastinating. equally i suspect the main hold up in selling Shorey is any possible "loyalty" clause he maynhave in his contract. Hence the unusual public utterences from the club saying that he has expressed his wish to leave.

[brendywendy]

im not sure selling an ex england left back for 3 million is good business-even with a year left
i admit our 5m+ valuation is too high

but i think we will let him go if 4-4.5 m is bid

which is about right

[Southbank Old Boy]

There was enough tentative interest in Shorey to know that if we dropped our asking price to an acceptable level we'd have got rid of him no problem.

If things got desperate we could've loaned him out or offered to pick up a bit of his wages once he'd gone.

It might've cost us a little bit of cash but I really think that it would've been worth it.

If it was such a common sense approach not to replace a player before he's left, why did we end up with FOUR senior professional right backs at the club last season? Perhaps that's one mistake we've learnt from?

Why should we lower our asking price? If you do it for one player then other clubs and players who want to leave will expect the same. We have a valuation of him and they either match it or they don't.

You seem to think it is just a case of lets sell him or loan him out and next minute he's gone. This isn't football manager where you can take over another club buy the player then resign.

As for the four senior right backs - Rosenior arrived because he was offered in a swap deal with Seol and he was highly regarded and young and seen as a long term replacement for Murty, De La Cruz was never going feature and neither was Halls. Hardly the same. Plus we were in the Premiership last season and could support having more players, that isn't the case now. We aren't going to spend a decent amount of money on a left now that we are in the Championship just in case Shorey leaves. It would tie up a lot of valuable resources.

What would be wrong is if they aren't PREPARED for Shorey to leave and weren't in a position to immediately go after an already identified replacement.

Have no idea what your on about with the Football Manager comments, but the reason I think we should drop our asking price is to get rid of him quickly as we know he doesn't want to be around.

I said earlier I can understand the arguement about setting a precedent for other want away players but I just think reaching a sensible compromise in order to get him out the door and get a committed player in and around the squad is worth the loss on the transfer fee.

As for the right back positions. We signed Halls as a long term replacement for Murty. We then signed DLC as short term competition/cover. We then signed Rosenoir as a long term replacement.

Why is that any different to signing a long term replacement for our left back? The fee's maybe be on a different scale, although £1.5m on Rosenoir last season is nothing to be sniffed at!

[Agent Balti]

£3m + a new left back that wants to be at RFC >>>>>>>>>>> Nicky Shorey.

[Wycombe Royal]

Have no idea what your on about with the Football Manager comments, but the reason I think we should drop our asking price is to get rid of him quickly as we know he doesn't want to be around.

I said earlier I can understand the arguement about setting a precedent for other want away players but I just think reaching a sensible compromise in order to get him out the door and get a committed player in and around the squad is worth the loss on the transfer fee.

As for the right back positions. We signed Halls as a long term replacement for Murty. We then signed DLC as short term competition/cover. We then signed Rosenoir as a long term replacement.

Why is that any different to signing a long term replacement for our left back? The fee's maybe be on a different scale, although £1.5m on Rosenoir last season is nothing to be sniffed at!

But the club don't want to get rid of him quickly - they would rather stayed.

I would also hazard a guess that the players they are looking at will not be willing to join a Championship club to play understudy to Shorey, hence another reason for waiting.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Have no idea what your on about with the Football Manager comments, but the reason I think we should drop our asking price is to get rid of him quickly as we know he doesn't want to be around.

I said earlier I can understand the arguement about setting a precedent for other want away players but I just think reaching a sensible compromise in order to get him out the door and get a committed player in and around the squad is worth the loss on the transfer fee.

As for the right back positions. We signed Halls as a long term replacement for Murty. We then signed DLC as short term competition/cover. We then signed Rosenoir as a long term replacement.

Why is that any different to signing a long term replacement for our left back? The fee's maybe be on a different scale, although £1.5m on Rosenoir last season is nothing to be sniffed at!

But the club don't want to get rid of him quickly - they would rather stayed.

I would also hazard a guess that the players they are looking at will not be willing to join a Championship club to play understudy to Shorey, hence another reason for waiting.

Yes, but I'm expressing my opinion on what I think the club should be doing.

Why they would want Shorey to stay beyond me (and to be honest I don't think they do, they just want to hold out for all the £££ they can for him - again I think that's a mistake).

[brendywendy]

£3m + a new left back that wants to be at RFC >>>>>>>>>>> Nicky Shorey.

3 M minus orients sell on, minus the fee for a new LB = ~0 million + new LB who isnt as good as NS <<<<<< Nicky shorey

[Agent Balti]

£3m + a new left back that wants to be at RFC >>>>>>>>>>> Nicky Shorey.

3 M minus orients sell on, minus the fee for a new LB = ~0 million + new LB who isnt as good as NS <<<<<< Nicky shorey

Which is exactly what we'll get, so what's your point? Reality stinks, eh.

[Southbank Old Boy]

£3m + a new left back that wants to be at RFC >>>>>>>>>>> Nicky Shorey.

3 M minus orients sell on, minus the fee for a new LB = ~0 million + new LB who isnt as good as NS <<<<<< Nicky shorey

But most likely >>> a half hearted want away Shorey who'll probably be even less enthusiastic than last season!

[Wycombe Royal]

Have no idea what your on about with the Football Manager comments, but the reason I think we should drop our asking price is to get rid of him quickly as we know he doesn't want to be around.

I said earlier I can understand the arguement about setting a precedent for other want away players but I just think reaching a sensible compromise in order to get him out the door and get a committed player in and around the squad is worth the loss on the transfer fee.

As for the right back positions. We signed Halls as a long term replacement for Murty. We then signed DLC as short term competition/cover. We then signed Rosenoir as a long term replacement.

Why is that any different to signing a long term replacement for our left back? The fee's maybe be on a different scale, although £1.5m on Rosenoir last season is nothing to be sniffed at!

But the club don't want to get rid of him quickly - they would rather stayed.

I would also hazard a guess that the players they are looking at will not be willing to join a Championship club to play understudy to Shorey, hence another reason for waiting.

Yes, but I'm expressing my opinion on what I think the club should be doing.

Why they would want Shorey to stay beyond me (and to be honest I don't think they do, they just want to hold out for all the £££ they can for him - again I think that's a mistake).

And that is why thay are in charge of this club and not you. We are not a club who sell on the cheap. I am sure they have lowered their valuation compared to last season but whilst there are numerous clubs sniffing around they are hardly going to lower the price are they? We have just been relegated and have a large hole in our finances so they are going to try and get as much as tehy possibly can for Shorey, just like they did with Kitson.

It amazes me that people can't see that.

[Southbank Old Boy]

And that is why thay are in charge of this club and not you. We are not a club who sell on the cheap. I am sure they have lowered their valuation compared to last season but whilst there are numerous clubs sniffing around they are hardly going to lower the price are they? We have just been relegated and have a large hole in our finances so they are going to try and get as much as tehy possibly can for Shorey, just like they did with Kitson.

It amazes me that people can't see that.

Yeah because they did such a good job last season!

It seems we'll have to agree to disagree that the extra £££'s we might get from dragging out Shorey's move is more vital to the club than being able to go out and get the replacement we want for the long term benefit of the squad.

I'd love to know exactly what the Kitson deal involves by the way. My guesstimate is that we've got £2-2.5m and the other £2-3.5m will be in performance related payments. What those are based on would really define how good a deal it turns out to be.