Tommy Smith - Gazumped by Pompey - Thread

[Deathy]

In no way should we be crawling to a Hertfordshire pikey who grows lettuce for a living.

LOLlo @ Russo indeed.

Expect his from Italy and probably lives in London.

You must have someone ITK on your forum? Is Smith on hos way to anyone, let alone us? Russo needs him off the wage bill, but this is a joke now.

[FiNeRaIn]

Over the last few years it has become apparent to Watford supporters that very little that comes out of the mouth of Mr Russo can be trusted, at fault.

He's only been chairman for about 8 months though and most trust him much more than the old chairman (who you may be talking about?) who kept on saying a lot but then doing the opposite.

Anyway as I said elsewhere if Rodgers wasn't your manager you'd probably have Smith playing for you now.

+1 thanks for putting him in his place.

[nev monkey]

I think I know the real reason as to why we seem so reluctant to spend money at the moment. I really believe that we have become far more of a business (I know that in reality all clubs are businesses) than a football club. When did we last lose money on a player? Hunt, Bikey, Doyle, Kitson, Shorey, Fae, Harford & many more all bought & sold for a profit. I know others have left for free but there was no one who left this summer who costs us much at all apart from Lita.

Tommy Smith is 29 & as such in 2/3 years time will probably be worth considerably less than the £1.8m being asked for. I think this is the real reason that we have not spent much. Mills is young & considered to be a great talent. If that proves to be the case then we will almost certainly make a profit on him.The young kids all cost nothing, so with some first team exposure & if they shine then they will be worth money & will be sold. We are becoming a club more interested in the size of our (or rather JM's) bank balance than we are about future success. I believe that JM will only attempt to buy young players that we can possibly sell on for a profit & if we have to spend money on anyone approaching their thirties then they had better be bloody cheap.

JM seems to have lost interest in the club. I know he has served the club well in the past but the love affair is over. He may have saved us many many years ago but the time has come for a change. Their must be plenty willing to buy the club but I suspect he wants far too much money as it has been for sale for over 3 years now. Sell up & leave the club whilst you still have the respect of the majority of fans. If you leave it any longer then I'm afraid you will become a figure of hate.

[Arch]

What you guys have to recognise is that the Mills deal is full of add ons. RFC in no way have paid £2million. Doncaster just happened to agree to the deal when we upped the amount for the first installment.

The Madman is never going to pay out big money and that is why he is taking the Royals in the wrong direction. He will certainly be looking to scam any potential buyer if they are mugs to pay.

I wonder what he is actually selling? Does it include the stadia, training ground, hotel complex etc I bet it is only the RFC franchise which frankly at present is pretty worthless.

Real facts.

But before this came out, you said we should pull out of the Smith deal. Why is this an embarrassment to JM? He hasn't been blabbing off in the press or on our OS. It's pretty evident that we offered terms and they rejected them. Russo's rant about our finances is none of his business and incredibly unprofessional. Where have we been unprofessional? BR saying Smith wants to come here and BR saying we matched the Blades' offer. That's it.

[Royal Lady]

Didn't BR say Smith wanted to come here before we'd made an offer? He might not have done, I'm just asking. In any event, he certainly said it when we'd only made a "derisory offer" of £750k, when we knew they were asking £1.8 million.

[Deathy]

Didn't BR say Smith wanted to come here before we'd made an offer? He might not have done, I'm just asking. In any event, he certainly said it when we'd only made a "derisory offer" of £750k, when we knew they were asking £1.8 million.

Before an offer was accepted in any case, and what a naive move that was. I hope in future he keeps his big mouth shut.

[Super_horns]

Newcastle and Pompey have been linked

He'll still leave if we get an offer over 2 million..

[Deathy]

You haven't said anything that hasn't already been said on all 103 of the others threads on this.

And it was Halford, not Harford. Also I don't believe we made a profit on Fae.

[winchester_royal]

Over the last few years it has become apparent to Watford supporters that very little that comes out of the mouth of Mr Russo can be trusted, yet bizarrely Reading FC fans are quite happy to take his rant about how poorly our club has conducted business over Tommy Smith at face value. I guess these people conveniently forget the fact that on more than one occasion recently clubs and their Chairmen have commented on how it has been a pleasure dealing with RFC in transfer matters due to the straightforward and professional way in which we handle them.

I couldn't possibly know but it is far more likely that, in this particular case, Russo moved the goalposts once too often causing us to pull out.

But, curiously, it seems far more satisfying for many to believe that our own club is at fault.

Im more than ever convinced that you are Nigel Howe - another RTG wearer!

oxf*rd off and self congratulate yourself somewhere else.

[07RFC]

I think I know the real reason as to why we seem so reluctant to spend money at the moment. I really believe that we have become far more of a business (I know that in reality all clubs are businesses) than a football club. When did we last lose money on a player? Hunt, Bikey, Doyle, Kitson, Shorey, Fae, Harford & many more all bought & sold for a profit. I know others have left for free but there was no one who left this summer who costs us much at all apart from Lita.

Tommy Smith is 29 & as such in 2/3 years time will probably be worth considerably less than the £1.8m being asked for. I think this is the real reason that we have not spent much. Mills is young & considered to be a great talent. If that proves to be the case then we will almost certainly make a profit on him.The young kids all cost nothing, so with some first team exposure & if they shine then they will be worth money & will be sold. We are becoming a club more interested in the size of our (or rather JM's) bank balance than we are about future success. I believe that JM will only attempt to buy young players that we can possibly sell on for a profit & if we have to spend money on anyone approaching their thirties then they had better be bloody cheap.

JM seems to have lost interest in the club. I know he has served the club well in the past but the love affair is over. He may have saved us many many years ago but the time has come for a change. Their must be plenty willing to buy the club but I suspect he wants far too much money as it has been for sale for over 3 years now. Sell up & leave the club whilst you still have the respect of the majority of fans. If you leave it any longer then I'm afraid you will become a figure of hate.

don't forget Sonko

[frimmers]

feed the goat..he will score....

[Cookie]

Smith is a journeyman striker. If Brendan's coaching credentials are the biz then he can work his magic on our young talent as well as the older talent we already have.

Move on I say.

[Wimb]

You haven't said anything that hasn't already been said on all 103 of the others threads on this.

And it was Halford, not Harford. Also I don't believe we made a profit on Fae.

+1

[nev monkey]

You haven't said anything that hasn't already been said on all 103 of the others threads on this.

And it was Halford, not Harford. Also I don't believe we made a profit on Fae.

At the very least we got our money back. I also apologise for mis spelling his surname.

[eleventh earl of mar]

Without wanting to attack or defend anyone as I do not know, who on here was actually at any of the meetings and can honestly say they know exactly what was discussed? Why are we to just accept what Watford have had to say is absolutely true?

Because if we had offered the right amount he would have signed for us months ago. It's obvious to everyone we've been penny-pinching with our offers so are you really surprised by this statement?

You haven't actually answered my questions. Were you at the meetings then?
If you choose to accept everything Watford have to say that is up to you.

[Deathy]

Newcastle and Pompey have been linked

He'll still leave if we get an offer over 2 million..

That's paper talk. You have only had two offers for Smith this summer, one from Sheff Utd and one from us equating to £1.8m, albeit with add ons.

Reading say they matched Sheff Utd's bid in every way, Russo says different.

Saying they want £2m now is a joke. Surely no one will take Watford seriously if their chairman accepts a bid and then decides he wants more later on from any one else.

[TWRoyal]

I find it hard to believe everyone bar royalrother and 11th earl are taking this spin at face value. I don'T think these negotiations are over. I think russo is trying to embarass the deal out of us. Get the Reading fans on the club's back and watch all the clauses melt away. I couldn't comment on how they do business, he says after commenting about our business. They've got all this money but don't want to give hardup little watford any.we've had interest from big clubs not crappy litle Reading - oh yeah where are the offers? Why suddenly is mad the focus not Hammond? This smacks of a personal dislike between two egomaniac chairmen and the signing is bound to get sorted.

[clauski]

Without wanting to attack or defend anyone as I do not know, who on here was actually at any of the meetings and can honestly say they know exactly what was discussed? Why are we to just accept what Watford have had to say is absolutely true?

Because if we had offered the right amount he would have signed for us months ago. It's obvious to everyone we've been penny-pinching with our offers so are you really surprised by this statement?

You haven't actually answered my questions. Were you at the meetings then?
If you choose to accept everything Watford have to say that is up to you.

It's more a case of choosing to see the results of the (in)action on the part of Reading that makes my informed judgement!

[2.8 lita injection]

A club can be shrewd and conservative in the transfer market but this is embarrassing.

The guy is proven at this level and for some other clubs he is seen to be decent enough signing in the epl, his price is above £1m and below £2m end of.

Still reckon near the end of the window we will have a chance of signing him if he is still at watford as they cannot refuse £800k off their wage bill and at least £1m plus in the bank.

[07RFC]

So after various comments from Russo, Madjeski, Rodgers, Mackay and the media for many weeks, leaving Reading looking pathetic and rather tight, do you think Tommy Smith is actually worth the drama and embarressment inflicted on our club and which has left an increasing number of fans calling for Madjeski's head? Or do you think it'll all be worth it if we get TS who could kickstart our season or be a big flop?