RUMOUR - Doyle to......

[Royalee]

If you reckon it's just spin then you've learnt even less in the last two years than Coppell.

So during the time Coppell's been "happy with the squad" we've bought (just off the top of my head)

Mikkel Andersen
Alan Bennett
Andre Bikey
Oliver Bozanic
Kalifa Cisse
Bobby Convey
Kevin Doyle
Michael Duberry
Emerse Fae
Adam Federici
Scott Golbourne
Brynjar Gunnarsson
Ben Hamer
Steve Hunt
Ivar Ingimarsson
Jimmy Kebe
Dave Kitson
Leroy Lita
Shane Long
Marek Matejovsky
Graeme Murty
Liam Rosenior
Sam Sodje
Ibrahima Sonko
Radoslav Vasilev
John Halls
John Oster
Seol Ki-Hyeon
Glen Little
Chris Makin
Eric Obinna
Lloyd Owusu
Les Ferdinand
Martin Keown

It's you that needs to "learn" and I have every confidence you will after you complete KS1.

In the meantime can I put it on record that I am happy with your performance as a HNA poster and that your dedication to posting cannot at all be faulted. However, if you were to request to leave and go to another forum I would not stand in your way as I only want fully committed posters on here. Should you leave you will of course be a true consumate professional and add a valuable dimension to whichever new message board you go to. I will be happy to give you a glowing reference.

You would of course have a point if Coppell had come out and said he was happy with the squad when we went out and signed players prior to our promotion. He has said he is happy with the squad since promotion, during which time we've only signed two players who have improved the squad in Bikey and Matejovsky.

[Roger the Rabbit]

I was assuming Wycombe Royal would point out that we still have to pay wages, so I thought I'd budget for that as well..

Forgetting of course that Harper and Hunt are already on very good wages which would be budgetted for given the length of their contracts. We may have to pay up a part of their contracts, although by no means all of it. So I suspect you've double counted there.

No, I didn't double count - if I'd pointed out we'd have even more money to spend on new players then surely that would strengthen my argument (not that I need to) even further?

I think you need an arguement before you can strengthen it !
Atthe moment you've got the simplistic statement that Coppell should sell some players and then go and buy some more. Which is fine as far as it goes but not really very useful. I've no doubt Coppell would be quite happy to sell some players (for the right price) and then buy some more (in the relevant positions) but it's not like putting an ad on ebay is it !!

[Royalee]

I think you need an arguement before you can strengthen it !
Atthe moment you've got the simplistic statement that Coppell should sell some players and then go and buy some more. Which is fine as far as it goes but not really very useful. I've no doubt Coppell would be quite happy to sell some players (for the right price) and then buy some more (in the relevant positions) but it's not like putting an ad on ebay is it !!

£4 million is more than 'the right price' for Harper or Hunt - neither are worth half of the offers we've knocked back. Yet again Coppell is trying to make do as he hasn't got the balls to try something new and use the transfer market to his advantage, just like Madejski is making do in keeping him at the club.

[Uke]

If you reckon it's just spin then you've learnt even less in the last two years than Coppell.

So during the time Coppell's been "happy with the squad" we've bought (just off the top of my head)

Mikkel Andersen
Alan Bennett
Andre Bikey
Oliver Bozanic
Kalifa Cisse
Bobby Convey
Kevin Doyle
Michael Duberry
Emerse Fae
Adam Federici
Scott Golbourne
Brynjar Gunnarsson
Ben Hamer
Steve Hunt
Ivar Ingimarsson
Jimmy Kebe
Dave Kitson
Leroy Lita
Shane Long
Marek Matejovsky
Graeme Murty
Liam Rosenior
Sam Sodje
Ibrahima Sonko
Radoslav Vasilev
John Halls
John Oster
Seol Ki-Hyeon
Glen Little
Chris Makin
Eric Obinna
Lloyd Owusu
Les Ferdinand
Martin Keown

It's you that needs to "learn" and I have every confidence you will after you complete KS1.

In the meantime can I put it on record that I am happy with your performance as a HNA poster and that your dedication to posting cannot at all be faulted. However, if you were to request to leave and go to another forum I would not stand in your way as I only want fully committed posters on here. Should you leave you will of course be a true consumate professional and add a valuable dimension to whichever new message board you go to. I will be happy to give you a glowing reference.

You would of course have a point if Coppell had come out and said he was happy with the squad when we went out and signed players prior to our promotion. He has said he is happy with the squad since promotion, during which time we've only signed two players who have improved the squad in Bikey and Matejovsky.

He was happy in general with the squad after all it had performed the year before so the drop in form was really unexpected and remember it was only one goal that sent us down by which time we coudn't mak changes if we wanted to.

I can't think of a single time that Coppell hasn't protected his squad by saying he's unhappy with them or any single player. No footie manager ever does in public, no matter what the papers suggest. Has Fergie gone on record to say he's hacked off with Ronaldo's attitude? There's plenty of speculation in the papers, but no actual quotes.

[brendywendy]

I think you need an arguement before you can strengthen it !
Atthe moment you've got the simplistic statement that Coppell should sell some players and then go and buy some more. Which is fine as far as it goes but not really very useful. I've no doubt Coppell would be quite happy to sell some players (for the right price) and then buy some more (in the relevant positions) but it's not like putting an ad on ebay is it !!

£4 million is more than 'the right price' for Harper or Hunt - neither are worth half of the offers we've knocked back. Yet again Coppell is trying to make do as he hasn't got the balls to try something new and use the transfer market to his advantage, just like Madejski is making do in keeping him at the club.

4 million is generous for hunt-but since weve had offers of 5 before it would be odd to put him up for sale for less
harps 4 million is ok including the sell on clause to arsenal

but looking at the market as a whole id say they are both worth more than the prices you have quoted
and worth more to us

[Roger the Rabbit]

I think you need an arguement before you can strengthen it !
Atthe moment you've got the simplistic statement that Coppell should sell some players and then go and buy some more. Which is fine as far as it goes but not really very useful. I've no doubt Coppell would be quite happy to sell some players (for the right price) and then buy some more (in the relevant positions) but it's not like putting an ad on ebay is it !!

£4 million is more than 'the right price' for Harper or Hunt - neither are worth half of the offers we've knocked back. Yet again Coppell is trying to make do as he hasn't got the balls to try something new and use the transfer market to his advantage, just like Madejski is making do in keeping him at the club.

Just because it's your opinion doesn;t make it right (it may surprise you to know !!)
Your valuations of Harper and Hunt are obviously wrong ( or rather, of course no one is actualy 'worth' £4 million, but the stupidity of the overblown football market makes those prices realistic). How you can claim they aren't worth the amount people are prepared to pay then you have lost the thread of how transfer 'values' are arrived at.

Not sure how you decide Coppell is prepared to 'make do'. I don't think there have been any statements on the website that say he' s not going to bring anyone in. Read comments about the current squad as holding statements for today, not 5 yeat strategic plans.

[Southbank Old Boy]

He was happy in general with the squad after all it had performed the year before so the drop in form was really unexpected and remember it was only one goal that sent us down by which time we coudn't mak changes if we wanted to.

The drop in form wasn't unexpected. Most sensible people didn't think we were going to carry on where we left off and finish 6th. Most could forsee we were going to have a much more difficult season.

Don't forget we didn't have the same squad or circumstances surrounding it (momentum, unknown quantities etc) which meant most realised the "drop in form" was coming. That includes Coppell.

I can't think of a single time that Coppell hasn't protected his squad by saying he's unhappy with them or any single player. No footie manager ever does in public, no matter what the papers suggest. Has Fergie gone on record to say he's hacked off with Ronaldo's attitude? There's plenty of speculation in the papers, but no actual quotes.

Going into every transfer window after our promotion Coppell stated that he needed to strengthen his squad. Be it 2 or 3 players or more he always built it up saying he needed to strengthen. He even went so far as to say we wouldn't buy players based abroad after the struggle getting Fae and Cisse up to speed before bringing in Matejovsky and Kebe.

Coppell hasn't ever singled out individuals but you can't rewrite history Uke, he's often said he his squad needs strengthening, which obviously means he isn't comfortable with the squad as it is. Which is as it should be.

[brendywendy]

saying the drop in form was "expected" by "most" people is wrong
there was no real reason to expect players who had consistently performed week in week out for the previous two seasons to play well beneath themselves.
perhaps expected the team to finish lower as a whole as we lost sidwell, and others took time to bed in
but each individual player has to look at themselves over last season-just as coppell has done

[Southbank Old Boy]

I think you need an arguement before you can strengthen it !
Atthe moment you've got the simplistic statement that Coppell should sell some players and then go and buy some more. Which is fine as far as it goes but not really very useful. I've no doubt Coppell would be quite happy to sell some players (for the right price) and then buy some more (in the relevant positions) but it's not like putting an ad on ebay is it !!

£4 million is more than 'the right price' for Harper or Hunt - neither are worth half of the offers we've knocked back. Yet again Coppell is trying to make do as he hasn't got the balls to try something new and use the transfer market to his advantage, just like Madejski is making do in keeping him at the club.

Just because it's your opinion doesn;t make it right (it may surprise you to know !!)
Your valuations of Harper and Hunt are obviously wrong ( or rather, of course no one is actualy 'worth' £4 million, but the stupidity of the overblown football market makes those prices realistic). How you can claim they aren't worth the amount people are prepared to pay then you have lost the thread of how transfer 'values' are arrived at.

Not sure how you decide Coppell is prepared to 'make do'. I don't think there have been any statements on the website that say he' s not going to bring anyone in. Read comments about the current squad as holding statements for today, not 5 yeat strategic plans.

Can you not see where Royalee is coming from though Roger?

We need to act in order to get the squad in order. Without selling of the family silver we need to make sure we're not left behind the market by trying to squeeze every last penny out of each transfer if it means delaying moves for another couple of weeks. Fee's such as £4m for Harper and Hunt are pretty reasonable and if taking them puts us in a better position for finding replacements than in two or three weeks time, albeit with an extra load of cash in the bank, then I can see Royalee's point.

As for Coppell being ready to make do, I guess that comes from the lack of activity and sense that we're not really pushing he market. We're sitting back, as we always seem to do, and waiting to see what happens. I'm with Royalee etc who think we need to get on and make the changes that need to be made to liven the squad up.

[winchester_royal]

interesting point - what is the highest price we have ever got for a player?

Off the top of my head I can't remember any price of significant value.

[Southbank Old Boy]

saying the drop in form was "expected" by "most" people is wrong

It's not wrong. Who was predicting we'd qualify for Europe last season then? If you can find me a sensible person with a proper grip on reality who was then I'd be surprised. If you can show me more than a few I'd be shocked, if you can show me a majority (ie not the most who I think said we'd suffer a fall in form) then I'll eat my hat.

there was no real reason to expect players who had consistently performed week in week out for the previous two seasons to play well beneath themselves.
perhaps expected the team to finish lower as a whole as we lost sidwell, and others took time to bed in
but each individual player has to look at themselves over last season-just as coppell has done

Yes each player does have to look at themselves, but the club as a whole took it's eye off the ball. We didn't strength, we didn't even maintain the equilibrium, and the players experienced that second season syndrome that see's most players form dip after an amaxing first season in the top flight.

There may be no real reason (I can think of a few mind) but it happens a hell of lot, and was predicted and expected by most.

[Uke]

He was happy in general with the squad after all it had performed the year before so the drop in form was really unexpected and remember it was only one goal that sent us down by which time we coudn't mak changes if we wanted to.

The drop in form wasn't unexpected. Most sensible people didn't think we were going to carry on where we left off and finish 6th. Most could forsee we were going to have a much more difficult season.

Yes but the drop in form to the relegation zone was a unexpected - most of us had mid to lower table in mind (and would have been happy with escaping relegation)

I can't think of a single time that Coppell hasn't protected his squad by saying he's unhappy with them or any single player. No footie manager ever does in public, no matter what the papers suggest. Has Fergie gone on record to say he's hacked off with Ronaldo's attitude? There's plenty of speculation in the papers, but no actual quotes.

Going into every transfer window after our promotion Coppell stated that he needed to strengthen his squad. Be it 2 or 3 players or more he always built it up saying he needed to strengthen. He even went so far as to say we wouldn't buy players based abroad after the struggle getting Fae and Cisse up to speed before bringing in Matejovsky and Kebe.

Coppell hasn't ever singled out individuals but you can't rewrite history Uke, he's often said he his squad needs strengthening, which obviously means he isn't comfortable with the squad as it is. Which is as it should be.

Again every manager who is happy with their squad also says they want to strengthen it - is PR speak too. Even Ferguson wants to "strengthen" his squad, but doen't want to sell. But every manager knows the real economics of the situation.

No one has asked for a transfer (far from it even, there have been 'loyalty' statements saying how they are happy here but if the clubwants to sell...) so there are additional costs involved in selling players on if we cut short their contracts - ask Sidwell!

[Southbank Old Boy]

He was happy in general with the squad after all it had performed the year before so the drop in form was really unexpected and remember it was only one goal that sent us down by which time we coudn't mak changes if we wanted to.

The drop in form wasn't unexpected. Most sensible people didn't think we were going to carry on where we left off and finish 6th. Most could forsee we were going to have a much more difficult season.

Yes but the drop in form to the relegation zone was a unexpected - most of us had mid to lower table in mind (and would have been happy with escaping relegation)

How far is that mid to lower point to relegation though? The difference is minimal and if you think you're going to be mid to lower then your basically saying your in the relegation fight.

[Uke]

The drop in form wasn't unexpected. Most sensible people didn't think we were going to carry on where we left off and finish 6th. Most could forsee we were going to have a much more difficult season.

Yes but the drop in form to the relegation zone was a unexpected - most of us had mid to lower table in mind (and would have been happy with escaping relegation)

How far is that mid to lower point to relegation though? The difference is minimal and if you think you're going to be mid to lower then your basically saying your in the relegation fight.

TBF this season was tighter than most with the bottom half of the table - at one point there were about nine clubs in the fight

[Arch]

How far is that mid to lower point to relegation though? The difference is minimal and if you think you're going to be mid to lower then your basically saying your in the relegation fight.

For the first half of last season we were where many, probably the majority, thought we'd be - albeit not playing as well as we thought we would. The run of eight straight defeats was not expected by any but a handful of pessimists and that put us into the relegation zone. Thereafter, optimism was not warranted.

[Southbank Old Boy]

How far is that mid to lower point to relegation though? The difference is minimal and if you think you're going to be mid to lower then your basically saying your in the relegation fight.

For the first half of last season we were where many, probably the majority, thought we'd be - albeit not playing as well as we thought we would. The run of eight straight defeats was not expected by any but a handful of pessimists and that put us into the relegation zone. Thereafter, optimism was not warranted.

Agreed but the dip in form was still predictable, maybe not the fact we'd go 8 games being as shite as we were, but predictable all the same (IMO anyway).

[Royalee]

I think you need an arguement before you can strengthen it !
Atthe moment you've got the simplistic statement that Coppell should sell some players and then go and buy some more. Which is fine as far as it goes but not really very useful. I've no doubt Coppell would be quite happy to sell some players (for the right price) and then buy some more (in the relevant positions) but it's not like putting an ad on ebay is it !!

£4 million is more than 'the right price' for Harper or Hunt - neither are worth half of the offers we've knocked back. Yet again Coppell is trying to make do as he hasn't got the balls to try something new and use the transfer market to his advantage, just like Madejski is making do in keeping him at the club.

Just because it's your opinion doesn;t make it right (it may surprise you to know !!)
Your valuations of Harper and Hunt are obviously wrong ( or rather, of course no one is actualy 'worth' £4 million, but the stupidity of the overblown football market makes those prices realistic). How you can claim they aren't worth the amount people are prepared to pay then you have lost the thread of how transfer 'values' are arrived at.

Not sure how you decide Coppell is prepared to 'make do'. I don't think there have been any statements on the website that say he' s not going to bring anyone in. Read comments about the current squad as holding statements for today, not 5 yeat strategic plans.

How are my valuations of Harper and Hunt 'obviously' wrong? Just because Coppell seems to think his lovechildren are worth ten million, doesn't mean the rest of the football world are as dense as him. Boro, Bolton and Sunderland weren't prepared to pay the ridiculous prices he slapped on them.

Managers who are about to sign players generally aren't 'happy with the squad', otherwise they wouldn't need to sign anyone. As for your '5 year strategic plans', Coppell won't be here in one year, let alone five you numpty. If we had any foresight as a club, we'd have got rid of him in the summer and brought in someone who could assess what needs to be done and could have built a squad, not chiseled away trying to make cuts out of one which wasn't even good enough to start with.

[papereyes]

How far is that mid to lower point to relegation though? The difference is minimal and if you think you're going to be mid to lower then your basically saying your in the relegation fight.

For the first half of last season we were where many, probably the majority, thought we'd be - albeit not playing as well as we thought we would. The run of eight straight defeats was not expected by any but a handful of pessimists and that put us into the relegation zone. Thereafter, optimism was not warranted.

Hmmmm

When we were 14th-ish, we were only ever about 6 points off the last relegation spot. I think, even after the Liverpool game, it wasn't much more than 8.

So we were never more than 2 bad weeks from getting really stuck into the mire. It is not the position that matters in January, it is the points and performance. Neither was really satisfactory.

I think in that 8 game run, most if not all of the games were ones where we could have expected to lose, except for Bolton(H)(which we lost and a draw would have possibly been enough). So we were in a position that was not as safe as it looked at first sight and a run of games from the 29th that was Spurs (A), Portsmouth(H), Villa (A), Manchester United, Chelsea, Bolton, Everton (A), Villa. It is not surprising that our safe position of 14th (ish) turned out to be a lot less than safe.

[Ian Royal]

interesting point - what is the highest price we have ever got for a player?

Off the top of my head I can't remember any price of significant value.

£1.somethingM for Shaka?

Who incidently if it hasn't been reported already is apparently making a career as a public speaker in the US.

[SpaceCruiser]

interesting point - what is the highest price we have ever got for a player?

Off the top of my head I can't remember any price of significant value.

£1.somethingM for Shaka?

Who incidently if it hasn't been reported already is apparently making a career as a public speaker in the US.

Nah, it's surely got to be the 2.5 mil for Greg Halford.