MATCHWATCH : West Bromwich Albion (h)

[tmesis]

WBA are pretty poor at the moment, and with us now being safe and guaranteed 21st spot i would be inclined to give a few of the senior pro's a rest and let a few of the fringe players showcase their talent for next season.

Would like to see Barker, Azeez, Camara and Abrefa given a run out and maybe Tetek if fit. Would also try Holmes and McIntyre as the central pairing in defence.

First and foremost, I'd like to see us get a win. We've not exactly had a lot of those at home in the last few years.

Yes, I'd like to see some younger players tried out, but such an experiment seems a little less enjoyable when you are 0-3 down at home.

Of course, there's a real risk that with the season over, some of the senior pros might half-arse it too. The risk of losing the last three games is very real, and would be a disappointing end to the season.

[Royal_jimmy]

West Brom are in the same shoes as us.

Entertaining score draw written all over it

[Rusty royal]

Really bad new folks!!!

Rusty royal will be in attendance I'll be in G10 as I can't do too many stairs. See you'll there It's going to be a long day as I have to leave home at 7 in the morning to catch the first train (I might have to mix with a few Swans fans which could be fun )

[Snowflake Royal]

With a well run academy producing promising home grown players, we shouldn't need greedy agents like Kia Whats-his-face offering us has been mercenary's who don't give a rats arse about the club as long as they get a big fat pay check!!!

Interestingly those 3 home grown hero’s you mentioned (only 1 of whom was really home grown) all up and left as soon as they got big money offers from elsewhere !

And one of them was pretty mediocre in the first team.

[Crowbar6753]

With a well run academy producing promising home grown players, we shouldn't need greedy agents like Kia Whats-his-face offering us has been mercenary's who don't give a rats arse about the club as long as they get a big fat pay check!!!

Interestingly those 3 home grown hero’s you mentioned (only 1 of whom was really home grown) all up and left as soon as they got big money offers from elsewhere !

Ok, my bad regarding them being homegrown lol. However, i have no problem with players wanting to up and leave as long as the club (Reading FC) have done their due diligence on the contract side of life and we get properly compensated with either a good transfer fee or a clause for future payments or sell on fees.
This is where a good Director of Football comes in, there's no way the three above mentioned players would have left so cheaply with a good Dof on board.

[Snowflake Royal]

With a well run academy producing promising home grown players, we shouldn't need greedy agents like Kia Whats-his-face offering us has been mercenary's who don't give a rats arse about the club as long as they get a big fat pay check!!!

Interestingly those 3 home grown hero’s you mentioned (only 1 of whom was really home grown) all up and left as soon as they got big money offers from elsewhere !

Ok, my bad regarding them being homegrown lol. However, i have no problem with players wanting to up and leave as long as the club (Reading FC) have done their due diligence on the contract side of life and we get properly compensated with either a good transfer fee or a clause for future payments or sell on fees.
This is where a good Director of Football comes in, there's no way the three above mentioned players would have left so cheaply with a good Dof on board.

One of them went for a record transfer fee. I don't see Hammond making much difference to Richards, but maybe he'd have cashed in on Loader 6 to 12 months earlier. If permitted by the owner.

[Crowbar6753]

Interestingly those 3 home grown hero’s you mentioned (only 1 of whom was really home grown) all up and left as soon as they got big money offers from elsewhere !

Ok, my bad regarding them being homegrown lol. However, i have no problem with players wanting to up and leave as long as the club (Reading FC) have done their due diligence on the contract side of life and we get properly compensated with either a good transfer fee or a clause for future payments or sell on fees.
This is where a good Director of Football comes in, there's no way the three above mentioned players would have left so cheaply with a good Dof on board.

One of them went for a record transfer fee. I don't see Hammond making much difference to Richards, but maybe he'd have cashed in on Loader 6 to 12 months earlier. If permitted by the owner.

Howdy Snowflake, indeed you are correct Sir, but Hammond had was very good at his job and somehow had that knack of getting that little bit extra for a player...Olise and Richards were hard one's as they went from U-23s to good players almost overnight and that i guess caught the club napping a bit.
Loader was just really badly handled and that would never of happened on Hammond's watch!!! and regards to Olise and to a certain extend Richards i guess we're all upset to miss out on a big payday for both players. Olise, yes , was a club record fee, however, it should have been way more than $8 million (Sorry, Canadian keyboard) and Richards must be worth $10 million, that possible $20-$25 million missed would sure come in handy right now.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ok, my bad regarding them being homegrown lol. However, i have no problem with players wanting to up and leave as long as the club (Reading FC) have done their due diligence on the contract side of life and we get properly compensated with either a good transfer fee or a clause for future payments or sell on fees.
This is where a good Director of Football comes in, there's no way the three above mentioned players would have left so cheaply with a good Dof on board.

One of them went for a record transfer fee. I don't see Hammond making much difference to Richards, but maybe he'd have cashed in on Loader 6 to 12 months earlier. If permitted by the owner.

Howdy Snowflake, indeed you are correct Sir, but Hammond had was very good at his job and somehow had that knack of getting that little bit extra for a player...Olise and Richards were hard one's as they went from U-23s to good players almost overnight and that i guess caught the club napping a bit.
Loader was just really badly handled and that would never of happened on Hammond's watch!!! and regards to Olise and to a certain extend Richards i guess we're all upset to miss out on a big payday for both players. Olise, yes , was a club record fee, however, it should have been way more than $8 million (Sorry, Canadian keyboard) and Richards must be worth $10 million, that possible $20-$25 million missed would sure come in handy right now.

Wotcha.

I'm certainly not against having some decent management structure back at the club. Oh how I miss Hammond, Howe and Madejski.

[Nameless]

With a well run academy producing promising home grown players, we shouldn't need greedy agents like Kia Whats-his-face offering us has been mercenary's who don't give a rats arse about the club as long as they get a big fat pay check!!!

Interestingly those 3 home grown hero’s you mentioned (only 1 of whom was really home grown) all up and left as soon as they got big money offers from elsewhere !

Ok, my bad regarding them being homegrown lol. However, i have no problem with players wanting to up and leave as long as the club (Reading FC) have done their due diligence on the contract side of life and we get properly compensated with either a good transfer fee or a clause for future payments or sell on fees.
This is where a good Director of Football comes in, there's no way the three above mentioned players would have left so cheaply with a good Dof on board.

A good DofF has no way of stopping a young player with a savvy agent and an aggressive career plan running down a contract. Olise knew we were just a shop window for him, we got a decent fee for a player we really didn’t develop. The clever move was actually getting him to sign for us, we made a quick profit there !
Richards only really developed late on, he wasn’t an obvious star at 16 /18. Putting huge release clauses or sell ons weren’t obvious and you can’t activate them if the contract expires....

[Nameless]

Ok, my bad regarding them being homegrown lol. However, i have no problem with players wanting to up and leave as long as the club (Reading FC) have done their due diligence on the contract side of life and we get properly compensated with either a good transfer fee or a clause for future payments or sell on fees.
This is where a good Director of Football comes in, there's no way the three above mentioned players would have left so cheaply with a good Dof on board.

One of them went for a record transfer fee. I don't see Hammond making much difference to Richards, but maybe he'd have cashed in on Loader 6 to 12 months earlier. If permitted by the owner.

Howdy Snowflake, indeed you are correct Sir, but Hammond had was very good at his job and somehow had that knack of getting that little bit extra for a player...Olise and Richards were hard one's as they went from U-23s to good players almost overnight and that i guess caught the club napping a bit.
Loader was just really badly handled and that would never of happened on Hammond's watch!!! and regards to Olise and to a certain extend Richards i guess we're all upset to miss out on a big payday for both players. Olise, yes , was a club record fee, however, it should have been way more than $8 million (Sorry, Canadian keyboard) and Richards must be worth $10 million, that possible $20-$25 million missed would sure come in handy right now.

Olise caught no one napping. He’d been at the very best academies and was well known in football circles. From his first appearance for our u18s aged 15 he looked absolute class.
Hammond did manage to do some decent deals but not sure what he would have done differently with these 3 (apart from maybe cash in sooner on Loader when his reputation was at it’s peak)

[YorkshireRoyal99]

One of them went for a record transfer fee. I don't see Hammond making much difference to Richards, but maybe he'd have cashed in on Loader 6 to 12 months earlier. If permitted by the owner.

Howdy Snowflake, indeed you are correct Sir, but Hammond had was very good at his job and somehow had that knack of getting that little bit extra for a player...Olise and Richards were hard one's as they went from U-23s to good players almost overnight and that i guess caught the club napping a bit.
Loader was just really badly handled and that would never of happened on Hammond's watch!!! and regards to Olise and to a certain extend Richards i guess we're all upset to miss out on a big payday for both players. Olise, yes , was a club record fee, however, it should have been way more than $8 million (Sorry, Canadian keyboard) and Richards must be worth $10 million, that possible $20-$25 million missed would sure come in handy right now.

Olise caught no one napping. He’d been at the very best academies and was well known in football circles. From his first appearance for our u18s aged 15 he looked absolute class.
Hammond did manage to do some decent deals but not sure what he would have done differently with these 3 (apart from maybe cash in sooner on Loader when his reputation was at it’s peak)

I see the point being made though, most/everything mentioned about Olise would have been similar with Birmingham's case about Bellingham as well, yet they still managed to get more than triple what we received for Olise and whatever on top in add ons.

Not to suggest that every situation is the same, of course it isn't, but better contractual management of players would have served us better and, as mentioned, we could have easily cashed in on £30m minimum for Olise and Richards last summer.

[Nameless]

Howdy Snowflake, indeed you are correct Sir, but Hammond had was very good at his job and somehow had that knack of getting that little bit extra for a player...Olise and Richards were hard one's as they went from U-23s to good players almost overnight and that i guess caught the club napping a bit.
Loader was just really badly handled and that would never of happened on Hammond's watch!!! and regards to Olise and to a certain extend Richards i guess we're all upset to miss out on a big payday for both players. Olise, yes , was a club record fee, however, it should have been way more than $8 million (Sorry, Canadian keyboard) and Richards must be worth $10 million, that possible $20-$25 million missed would sure come in handy right now.

Olise caught no one napping. He’d been at the very best academies and was well known in football circles. From his first appearance for our u18s aged 15 he looked absolute class.
Hammond did manage to do some decent deals but not sure what he would have done differently with these 3 (apart from maybe cash in sooner on Loader when his reputation was at it’s peak)

I see the point being made though, most/everything mentioned about Olise would have been similar with Birmingham's case about Bellingham as well, yet they still managed to get more than triple what we received for Olise and whatever on top in add ons.

Not to suggest that every situation is the same, of course it isn't, but better contractual management of players would have served us better and, as mentioned, we could have easily cashed in on £30m minimum for Olise and Richards last summer.

How would you have managed Olise’s contract differently ?
Bear in mind his plan was never to play for us long term. We put him on a pro contract at 17 and his agent would have made the release clause part of the deal. If we’d not put it in he’d have gone to another club and used them as his bridge to the PL.

[Hound]

I might be making this up but didn’t Bellingham sign a contract with Brum the season he left?

Olise was just never going to sign another deal. Also worth noting that we were under embargo then in terms of contracts we could offer. This also potentially stopped us offering Richards a deal until it was too late

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Olise caught no one napping. He’d been at the very best academies and was well known in football circles. From his first appearance for our u18s aged 15 he looked absolute class.
Hammond did manage to do some decent deals but not sure what he would have done differently with these 3 (apart from maybe cash in sooner on Loader when his reputation was at it’s peak)

I see the point being made though, most/everything mentioned about Olise would have been similar with Birmingham's case about Bellingham as well, yet they still managed to get more than triple what we received for Olise and whatever on top in add ons.

Not to suggest that every situation is the same, of course it isn't, but better contractual management of players would have served us better and, as mentioned, we could have easily cashed in on £30m minimum for Olise and Richards last summer.

How would you have managed Olise’s contract differently ?
Bear in mind his plan was never to play for us long term. We put him on a pro contract at 17 and his agent would have made the release clause part of the deal. If we’d not put it in he’d have gone to another club and used them as his bridge to the PL.

I think the embargo meant our hands were tied, but that's really the clubs fault for irresponsible spending which has potentially cost us in this situation.

Hindsight is always 20-20, so it's very easy to say Olise was never to play for us long-term (even if that was his plan), but there was never any guarantee that he wasn't going to play for us for years. Many other talented youngsters have been able to make it to the PL but will still sign new deals with their current club, it's not some sort of phenomenon just because they believe they are destined for the top.

Ideally, I'd have improved his deal at the start of last season if possible, realistically our embargo probably made that impossible to do. He may just not have wanted to sign a new deal, I'm obviously not ruling that out as we don't know, but we can't say that's definitely the case either.

[Nameless]

I see the point being made though, most/everything mentioned about Olise would have been similar with Birmingham's case about Bellingham as well, yet they still managed to get more than triple what we received for Olise and whatever on top in add ons.

Not to suggest that every situation is the same, of course it isn't, but better contractual management of players would have served us better and, as mentioned, we could have easily cashed in on £30m minimum for Olise and Richards last summer.

How would you have managed Olise’s contract differently ?
Bear in mind his plan was never to play for us long term. We put him on a pro contract at 17 and his agent would have made the release clause part of the deal. If we’d not put it in he’d have gone to another club and used them as his bridge to the PL.

For
I think the embargo meant our hands were tied, but that's really the clubs fault for irresponsible spending which has potentially cost us in this situation.

Hindsight is always 20-20, so it's very easy to say Olise was never to play for us long-term (even if that was his plan), but there was never any guarantee that he wasn't going to play for us for years. Many other talented youngsters have been able to make it to the PL but will still sign new deals with their current club, it's not some sort of phenomenon just because they believe they are destined for the top.

Ideally, I'd have improved his deal at the start of last season if possible, realistically our embargo probably made that impossible to do. He may just not have wanted to sign a new deal, I'm obviously not ruling that out as we don't know, but we can't say that's definitely the case either.

It’s not about hindsight. Olise and his agent knew where they wanted to get. Instead of worrying about not getting more we should be pretty pleased that we made an easy £8 million just for letting a highlyntalented kid pass through our ranks.
You can’t just give a player a New contract without them signing it. And to suggest we would have boosted his wages to anything like what he will now be on is just naive.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

How would you have managed Olise’s contract differently ?
Bear in mind his plan was never to play for us long term. We put him on a pro contract at 17 and his agent would have made the release clause part of the deal. If we’d not put it in he’d have gone to another club and used them as his bridge to the PL.

For
I think the embargo meant our hands were tied, but that's really the clubs fault for irresponsible spending which has potentially cost us in this situation.

Hindsight is always 20-20, so it's very easy to say Olise was never to play for us long-term (even if that was his plan), but there was never any guarantee that he wasn't going to play for us for years. Many other talented youngsters have been able to make it to the PL but will still sign new deals with their current club, it's not some sort of phenomenon just because they believe they are destined for the top.

Ideally, I'd have improved his deal at the start of last season if possible, realistically our embargo probably made that impossible to do. He may just not have wanted to sign a new deal, I'm obviously not ruling that out as we don't know, but we can't say that's definitely the case either.

It’s not about hindsight. Olise and his agent knew where they wanted to get. Instead of worrying about not getting more we should be pretty pleased that we made an easy £8 million just for letting a highlyntalented kid pass through our ranks.
You can’t just give a player a New contract without them signing it. And to suggest we would have boosted his wages to anything like what he will now be on is just naive.

I'm not worried about it because it's done, I just feel like we've lost out where other clubs potentially wouldn't have done.

I've suggested nothing regarding what he should have been earning should we have given him a new deal, let alone his earnings at Palace now.

I have acknowledged that he may just have simply not signed any new deal as well.

[Nameless]

There are days when logging onjust doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Let alone typing anything.....

[NathStPaul]

This is painful.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

There are days when logging onjust doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Let alone typing anything.....

We can agree on that.

[Snowflake Royal]

Personally I find it preferable reading YR laboriously making the same argument he has about Olise for much of the last month to most of Nameless's content, but it is pretty tiring at this point.