CONFIMRED - Blackman to Derby

[OLLIE KEARNS]

By all accounts he has stayed very much off the boil since his move and since his purple patch earlier in the season. But Derby have been playing him wide right too. Which is bizarre. He was most threatening for us through the middle.

No he wasn't, he scored most his goals this season playing down the channel off the main striker as one of a front three. In fact he only played centrally a handful of times. Steve Clarke deserves a lot of credit for figuring out how to get the best out of him which was to get him coming onto the ball, ideally on his left foot and he'd be worth a fraction of what Derby paid for based on all form prior to this season.
The problem in going from Mr Average to top scorer in the championship is that teams start taking notice of a players strengths and then set up to nullify them. I'd see that as the reason for his perceived loss of form. He is a decent player but we may look back on +£2.5m for someone with 6 months left on their contract as one hell of a good deal now that his ability is somewhat more exposed.

[Jano]

May look back and think it was a good deal? It was blatantly obvious it was an absolutely stonking deal the moment it was announced. It was downright miraculous we got that much for him.

[TBM]

By all accounts he has stayed very much off the boil since his move and since his purple patch earlier in the season. But Derby have been playing him wide right too. Which is bizarre. He was most threatening for us through the middle.

No he wasn't, he scored most his goals this season playing down the channel off the main striker as one of a front three. In fact he only played centrally a handful of times. Steve Clarke deserves a lot of credit for figuring out how to get the best out of him which was to get him coming onto the ball, ideally on his left foot and he'd be worth a fraction of what Derby paid for based on all form prior to this season.
The problem in going from Mr Average to top scorer in the championship is that teams start taking notice of a players strengths and then set up to nullify them. I'd see that as the reason for his perceived loss of form. He is a decent player but we may look back on +£2.5m for someone with 6 months left on their contract as one hell of a good deal now that his ability is somewhat more exposed.

Although you're right, Blackman has always said his best position is down the middle and that's where he wants to play

[Maneki Neko]

and obita thinks he's a midfielder
and HRK thinks hes a striker
.....

[OLLIE KEARNS]

May look back and think it was a good deal? It was blatantly obvious it was an absolutely stonking deal the moment it was announced. It was downright miraculous we got that much for him.

Fully agree and posted as such when the deal was done. The club have a solid history in terms of selling players at the very top of their value range outside of forced sales. This one could end up very high on the list.

[Woodcote Royal]

He is a decent player but we may look back on +£2.5m for someone with 6 months left on their contract as one hell of a good deal now that his ability is somewhat more exposed.

Or, and as much as I didn't want to see him go, for a player who clearly wanted to run down his contract and leave for free, beyond the blinkered world of our East Stand plonkers, it was bite their hand off time!

[RoyalBlue]

May look back and think it was a good deal? It was blatantly obvious it was an absolutely stonking deal the moment it was announced. It was downright miraculous we got that much for him.

Fully agree and posted as such when the deal was done. The club have a solid history in terms of selling players at the very top of their value range outside of forced sales. This one could end up very high on the list.

Unfortunately that is somewhat countered by their reluctance to negotiate early and/or give more than 2.5 year deals, leading to the loss of some very valuable assets for sweet FA. HRK the next?

[OLLIE KEARNS]

May look back and think it was a good deal? It was blatantly obvious it was an absolutely stonking deal the moment it was announced. It was downright miraculous we got that much for him.

Fully agree and posted as such when the deal was done. The club have a solid history in terms of selling players at the very top of their value range outside of forced sales. This one could end up very high on the list.

Unfortunately that is somewhat countered by their reluctance to negotiate early and/or give more than 2.5 year deals, leading to the loss of some very valuable assets for sweet FA. HRK the next?

Fair point but that is effectively the other side of the equation. For example, Blackman allegedly wanted his salary doubled to sign a new contract so it would have been us over paying on the back of a little purple patch instead of Derby perhaps ?. That is exactly what we did with HRK on the back of his little purple patch in the last few months of the Prem season and you could argue the risk is the same now i.e suddenly hits form in the last few months of his contract.
With HRK I actually hope we put the money up and keep him if we possibly can. I think he's grown up a bit mentally in the last year or so and is now coming into the best years of his career. Be a shame if they are spent at another club.

[Maneki Neko]

May look back and think it was a good deal? It was blatantly obvious it was an absolutely stonking deal the moment it was announced. It was downright miraculous we got that much for him.

Fully agree and posted as such when the deal was done. The club have a solid history in terms of selling players at the very top of their value range outside of forced sales. This one could end up very high on the list.

Unfortunately that is somewhat countered by their reluctance to negotiate early and/or give more than 2.5 year deals, leading to the loss of some very valuable assets for sweet FA. HRK the next?

good. can no longer afford him, or Williams

[Jano]

HRK is a totally different kettle of fish. He's proven he has the quality to perform at a higher level (prem/international) very often over a number of years, he just doesn't do it consistently enough for us. Blackman was good for what, 6 weeks? I would still be very very wary of offering HRK a new contract if he's demanding more or the same money he must be on as it's bound to be prem wages. I actually don't think it'll get that far and wouldn't surprise me at all if he didn't already have something in place with another club.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Fwiw, his resulting form with Derby <> his possible form with us if he stayed

Changing teams is a big hit that even some of the best can't take

[CountryRoyal]

I'd like to say I'm righteous enough to wish him well,l or at the very least not care one bit about how he does, but I'm not, and I'm glad he's shit and can't get a game.

Cheap, egotistical, self-important, one-footed pretender.

[Vision]

Fully agree and posted as such when the deal was done. The club have a solid history in terms of selling players at the very top of their value range outside of forced sales. This one could end up very high on the list.

Unfortunately that is somewhat countered by their reluctance to negotiate early and/or give more than 2.5 year deals, leading to the loss of some very valuable assets for sweet FA. HRK the next?

Fair point but that is effectively the other side of the equation. For example, Blackman allegedly wanted his salary doubled to sign a new contract so it would have been us over paying on the back of a little purple patch instead of Derby perhaps ?. That is exactly what we did with HRK on the back of his little purple patch in the last few months of the Prem season and you could argue the risk is the same now i.e suddenly hits form in the last few months of his contract.
With HRK I actually hope we put the money up and keep him if we possibly can. I think he's grown up a bit mentally in the last year or so and is now coming into the best years of his career. Be a shame if they are spent at another club.

This season we lose 8m of our parachute payments. Next season we lose another 8m and the season after that we lose them altogether.

I'm not sure how far ahead RB thinks we should sign players that are on borderline Premiership wages or does he think they'll be more than happy to sign on for the next 4 years at a fraction of what they're currently earning and what the likes of Blackman, HRK think they can get elsewhere. Equally it would be financial suicide for us to commit to 3 years or more when our income is likely to be severely depleted.

The Gunter deal was a pleasant surprise on that score but he was never going to agree to a severely reduced deal over a longer period of time than two years.

[Woodcote Royal]

May look back and think it was a good deal? It was blatantly obvious it was an absolutely stonking deal the moment it was announced. It was downright miraculous we got that much for him.

Fully agree and posted as such when the deal was done. The club have a solid history in terms of selling players at the very top of their value range outside of forced sales. This one could end up very high on the list.

Unfortunately that is somewhat countered by their reluctance to negotiate early and/or give more than 2.5 year deals, leading to the loss of some very valuable assets for sweet FA. HRK the next?

More blinkered nonsense from a typical source.

Having cost over a million and only justifying the fee for a few short weeks just before his contract was due to expire, we sold Blackman for potentially 3 times the initial fee.

Unless you live in Cloud Cuckoo Land, this was a no brainer

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Correct Vision. These issues were discussed on the FFP thread a while back. The club is in the process of having to transition out of the remaining prem period contracts because parachute payments will cease after next year. The good news is that they have a strategy in place based around the academy (youth investment doesn't count towards FFP) that should keep us competitive.
A combination of players such as Tshibola, Cooper coming through, some cashing in (Hector) and some low level investment (Rakels, Kerm, Evans) should leave room for one or two hefty transfers / contracts but not much beyond that.
It will be a case of picking the one or two very carefully !

[Hoop Blah]

Fwiw, his resulting form with Derby <> his possible form with us if he stayed

Changing teams is a big hit that even some of the best can't take

He'd already reverted to form long before he left for Derby so it's probably fair to think we'd seen the best of him during that short purple patch.

[Maneki Neko]

why is a patch that is coloured purple considered good?

[Extended-Phenotype]

Fwiw, his resulting form with Derby <> his possible form with us if he stayed

Changing teams is a big hit that even some of the best can't take

He'd already reverted to form long before he left for Derby so it's probably fair to think we'd seen the best of him during that short purple patch.

Not a massive fan of his or anything but that's just conjecture. Much like assuming his form for Derby would be his form for us.

[Extended-Phenotype]

why is a patch that is coloured purple considered good?

It was considered a distinctive and also important colour

[Maneki Neko]

its a royal colour, but surely a patch of it isn't very royal