Summer Rebuild

[Sutekh]

You can't recall season long loans.

The loan agreement can include an option to recall at the mid-season window.

I very much doubt we are paying £2.5m for someone who can oxf*rd off in January.

Wonder how much we paid for Murray.

[Platypuss]

You can't recall season long loans.

The loan agreement can include an option to recall at the mid-season window.

I very much doubt we are paying £2.5m for someone who can oxf*rd off in January.

Agreed, I was just clarifying that absolute statement.

[SCIAG]

You can't recall season long loans.

The loan agreement can include an option to recall at the mid-season window.

I very much doubt we are paying £2.5m for someone who can oxf*rd off in January.

We're not paying for Hector though...

If Watford have the option to recall Vydra, then I suspect that would mean we wouldn't have to give them the full £2.5m.

[Nameless]

I kind of agree, although I would expect that it's more a question that a £2 million fee ensures he cannot be recalled....

[Royalwaster]

Those two new signings - Blackman and Ferdinand - look decent ....

[Royal Rother]

Can't be. Everyone with half a brain on here repeatedly said they were both utter shite, complete waste of money and an indication of how everything about this joke club was going backwards.

[Ian Royal]

Can't be. Everyone with half a brain on here repeatedly said they were both utter shite, complete waste of money and an indication of how everything about this joke club was going backwards.

Blackman's doing well, and it's looking positive, but to suggest his signing for over £1m in the Premier League two and a half seasons ago has somehow been vindicated because he's had half a dozen good games is bonkers.

I don't think anyone with a functional brain denied he had talent after his first full season with us. The problem was always that he didn't seem to have a genuine position he could play effectively within the team or the understanding of how to effectively use that talent.

Despite his excellent start, I'd say the Jury should still be out on him for some little while yet, as this could just be another flash in the pan like his good start to last season.

As for Ferdinand, signing an aging CB, with injury problems who'd barely played in two or three years - quite possibly at the instructions of someone away from the footballing management of the club doesn't stop being a highly questionable decision, just because - after a year of injury - he plays half a dozen games very well. Hell, even if he has an excellent full season, it doesn't make the reservations at the time he was signed any less valid.

[Royal Rother]

They look decent right now.

No. More than decent.

That's all really.

[Ian Royal]

They look decent right now.

No. More than decent.

That's all really.

That doesn't support your previous post or counter anything I just said.

But I'm glad we can agree that, currently, Ferdinand and Blackman are making very good contributions.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Can't be. Everyone with half a brain on here repeatedly said they were both utter shite, complete waste of money and an indication of how everything about this joke club was going backwards.

No one said Ferdinand was shit. In fact the majority of people thought he looked very good in the 45 minutes that he actually managed to play. Don't think you can criticise anyone for doubting whether he'd ever be fit enough to play a part. And Blackman was shite. Looks like he's turned it around though. Good for him and us.

Given that you haven't seen either of them play, other than on the telly, you probably shouldn't be so smug about it.

[Royal Rother]

No one said Ferdinand was shit, you say.

Forgive me a little chuckle at that one.

Here it comes.



For all I can remember I might have said the same thing, I actually can't remember with 100% confidence, but I know for damn sure a lot of people did.

[SCIAG]

Thread here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=125394

Lots of people saying he was a bad signing, but only one person explicitly states he was a bad player - the same one who provided my gem of a location.

[CountryRoyal]

As SCIAG and Ian said.

Everyone said it was a shit signing, but anyone who saw or even heard his fleeting minutes could tell he wasn't.

[Royalwaster]

Remember several people slating him on the grounds that he must be bad because he was part of the West Ham team that lost 6:0 against us ....

[Ian Royal]

Remember several people slating him on the grounds that he must be bad because he was part of the West Ham team that lost 6:0 against us ....

The concern for the majority was that he'd barely played in a long time, had been about to go into semi-retirement in Thailand for the money and wasn't remotely fit.

Yes, he's surprised a lot of people by getting fit and recovering his performance back to a high level.

This is certainly not the sort of situation to try to laugh at people who had (entirely reasonable) reservations about him though.

[Royal Rother]

Who's laughing?

People said they were useless and terrible signings / a waste of money. Fact.

Now they are both playing very well. Fact.

Who really said what and when and who could / should be changing their opinions now I don't really care tbh. I was exaggerating history for effect and a little bit of fun.

In exactly the same way as posts like...

Worst.
Signing.
Ever.

...were probably an exaggeration at the time.

That's all really.

[RoyallyFcuked]

The only reason many of us were saying Ferdinand was a shit signing was because he played about 45 minutes for us in a whole season, and until the summer it didn't look like he was going to be anything like a regular for us.

Nothing to do with his abilty as a player, we just thought it was a pointless signing if he's barely going to play. Pretty obvious really.

[Royal Rother]

Don't care who said what and when but it was also being said at the time we signed him, not just during / after his injury ravaged year.

Anyway, I'm bored now talking about Ferdinand - what about Blackman?

[Ian Royal]

Don't care who said what and when but it was also being said at the time we signed him, not just during / after his injury ravaged year.

Anyway, I'm bored now talking about Ferdinand - what about Blackman?

Signed for £1.2m to help keep us in the Premier League, he has taken two full seasons in the Championship to start contributing and stop being bang average, at best, thanks to his previously awful decision making, excessive arrogance and inability to fit into a conventional striker or winger role.

But I'm still not sure why we can't just celebrate now without pretending the past was something it wasn't.

I'd still say that Blackman is symptomatic of half the things that went wrong with the club during the Russian years and their fallout. Pogrebnyak symbolises the other half. Signing overrated 'name' mercenaries on big money and overpaying for lower league mediocrity that was no where near the level we needed.

[CountryRoyal]

I'd still say that Blackman is symptomatic of half the things that went wrong with the club during the Russian years and their fallout. Pogrebnyak symbolises the other half. Signing overrated 'name' mercenaries on big money and overpaying for lower league mediocrity that was no where near the level we needed.

It's hard to think that him and Akpan were both signed during the prem. In fact, most of that season was pretty bewildering. Our squad is a lot better now than that one.