Liam Moore Hypocrite or Hero?

[muirinho]

Kind of tangential and obviously I’m very pro Moore, have made my feelings clear on that especially with this whole debacle, but am I the only one that thinks although he deserves another a shot at it he won’t be much cop in the prem? I think he is one of those players too good for the champ but not good enough for the top flight. I guess we won’t know until we find out which shouldn’t be too far down the road one way or another.

I think he is one of those players who would "do a job" in the PL, but wouldn't be the best in your team. i.e., if we went up (ha ha), he wouldn't be top of your list to get in replacements for, and would probably end up being a useful squad player rather than a mainstay.

I see Fulham have spent over £100 million in one window alone in an effort to stay up. With it costing that kind of money to build a PL team, you'd be looking at your players thinking - you'll do, you'll do, and identifying key positions to upgrade. He'd be low on that list.

[Tilehurstsouthbank]

Relegation here we come if we play him ever again. I will boo him throughout. What a hypocrite.

Any "fan" who openly boos a player during the match is a massive Helm and should Fook off and go and support a club like Wolves that has equally toxic supporters.

[Z175]

On the flip side - if we didn't have ambition to get to the Premier League, why are our owners saying that they wouldn't sell our best player for any price?

If that’s true (which I doubt), owners were late to the dance and let this drag on for weeks/months. What this meant was, among other things, Clement didnt/couldn’t even include him in squad for very important opening game. (If Moore is as good as some say, maybe we win or draw the game?). Owners can say what they want after the fact, and some will buy it, but reckon club was interested in selling...and came close to doing so.

(Re. Hause, not sure I’ve ever seen him play.)

Brighton made at least 3 offers culminating in the final one this week for £10m

They have been "close" to selling him for months but elected not to.

Agreed - as always in these situations, something doesn't add up. If he was never for sale at any price, why was he left out and why did Clement say it would have been "unfair to him (and the other club)" to play him v Derby ? It sounds like perhaps Clement and Ron Gourlay agreed to sell him, but were overuled by the Dais?

Or did the Dais just flatter Moore's ego to restore his desire to play for us - in reality £15m and they would have snapped Brighton's hand off?

As always, we'll never know.

What is totally different is that we haven't lost any key players this summer - other than summers following promotion, I don't remember that ever happening since the start of the Coppell era?

I'm not sure what Moore's late transfer request might reflect about Paul Clement - but certainly the end result reflects very well on our current owners. Perhaps it is third time lucky with foreign "billionnaires".

[Lower West]

I'm not sure what Moore's late transfer request might reflect about Paul Clement.

Nothing at all. As it's not personal. Perhaps Moore was badly advised by his agent.

[Lower West]

Moore's post makes a bit more sense now its come out that we turned down 10m for him this week

Appears that BHA haven't been splashing much cash.

Yeah just the £45 million odd.

£4m for a Premiership quality defender. Nah. BHA obviously didn't rate Moore highly enough to bid higher.

[Denver Royal]

Agreed - as always in these situations, something doesn't add up. If he was never for sale at any price, why was he left out and why did Clement say it would have been "unfair to him (and the other club)" to play him v Derby ?

Or did the Dais just flatter Moore's ego to restore his desire to play for us - in reality £15m and they would have snapped Brighton's hand off?

I'm not sure what Moore's late transfer request might reflect about Paul Clement - but certainly the end result reflects very well on our current owners.

That's been the narrative, but I'm not altogether sure it does really.

Many folk in here have observed a few transfer windows in their time and they are not idiots.

Furthermore, it's not the owners that handle transfers, etc. That's for the board, Gourlay, Tevreden, etc. That's their expertise and their job. That's why they are employed and what they are paid to do.

At that (very) late hour the owners came across as rather amateur, to me, and not sure it helped much really, esp if Moore goes next window or two. Even though they rarely say anything, a part of me thinks, in this instance, they maybe would have been better off saying nothing.

[ayjaydee]

I would imagine there has been a renegotiation of his contract adding a "reasonable" buy out clause. If we are not seriously challenging by Xmas and Moore is consistently putting in decent performances I can see an amicable parting of the ways in the next window.

[Jagermesiter1871]

If that’s true (which I doubt), owners were late to the dance and let this drag on for weeks/months. What this meant was, among other things, Clement didnt/couldn’t even include him in squad for very important opening game. (If Moore is as good as some say, maybe we win or draw the game?). Owners can say what they want after the fact, and some will buy it, but reckon club was interested in selling...and came close to doing so.

(Re. Hause, not sure I’ve ever seen him play.)

Brighton made at least 3 offers culminating in the final one this week for £10m

They have been "close" to selling him for months but elected not to.

Agreed - as always in these situations, something doesn't add up. If he was never for sale at any price, why was he left out and why did Clement say it would have been "unfair to him (and the other club)" to play him v Derby ? It sounds like perhaps Clement and Ron Gourlay agreed to sell him, but were overuled by the Dais?

Or did the Dais just flatter Moore's ego to restore his desire to play for us - in reality £15m and they would have snapped Brighton's hand off?

As always, we'll never know.

What is totally different is that we haven't lost any key players this summer - other than summers following promotion, I don't remember that ever happening since the start of the Coppell era?

I'm not sure what Moore's late transfer request might reflect about Paul Clement - but certainly the end result reflects very well on our current owners. Perhaps it is third time lucky with foreign "billionnaires".

... I think that isn't at all surprising considering that last season we had a team of shite who clubs even in league 1 wouldn't have a sniff at.

[royal_rumble]

Fair enough question if you ask me. If you think he’s a hero you’re basically saying he’s doing us a favour staying, and we wouldn’t be able to do better without him or sign a replacement that is equal or greater. Are you really a Reading fan in that instance? The club should be bigger than one player, no matter if we might be a slightly better team with him in at the moment.

Personally I think he’s a bit of a hypocrite. Leaving Leicester for first team football, to then have his head turned by a premier league club that realistically wasn’t offering him first team football. I’d probably be more OK with it if a team like West Brom wanted to sign him to be a replacement for Johnny Evans for example… and make him their no.1 CB, and he felt that was a better fit for him.

[mheholt]

Anyone who has the opportunity to move to a new employer for a better job and get paid a lot more money would at least consider it. Why should it be any different for a footballer?

[Snowflake Royal]

No one said he's a hero.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Just player of last season

[Scutterbucketz]

Transfer request was a bit of a dick move. Players move so frequently these days that you barely even hear of them. As has been said he must have had either his agent or Brighton in his ear, or he might just be a dick.

But all in all I can barely muster the enthusiasm to finish this post. Whatevs, liam.

[elrey]

Let's find one fan who works for a company, and wouldn't leave that company to get paid a load more money.

Me.

More relevant would be someone who's signed a fixed term contract.

If I sign a four year contract and sign my name, my word and my honour that I will work for a certain salary there for a set time (knowing full well that there are other higher paying companies around) but taking the gamble that this is the best option there is no way in hell I'd be screwing over my company. I know because this has happened to me.

Ask the question, sure,but once it's clear you're expected to stay, drop it. He's a oxf*rd as far as I'm concerned. But then so are most players. And probably most people. Doesn't mean it's not oxf*rd behaviour. We live in a world of oxf*rd.

This sort of "anyone would do it so it's fine" mentality is a) factually wrong and b) just encourages this sort of behaviour.

Having said that what are our options now? Hate the guy and boo him or just be pragmatic, pretend we like him, let him bust a gut for us.

I'm going with the latter and whilst deep down think he can **** off I'll be cheering him on whilst he's with us and will look down on anyone who boos him. There's no point.

Do we continue to pretend that football players love the badge any more? How many of out players have been at the club for 3 seasons? We've got seven. Three of which have been youth players. Most don't play much.

Best players aren't players that care about the club any more than they get paid by them. That's the reality and we shouldn't expect much else.

[Ascotexgunner]

I couldn't believe Clements comments that Moore hadn't been "fully" training and that's why he didn't start as he wasn't fit.
What kind of answer is that? If Brighton were gonna pay through the nose for him are we saying he wasn't fit to start the season for them? He should have been ready to start for any club. The club should have made him train so he was fully ready, he's being paid by the club to play for us, and until that contract changes otherwise he should have played.

[bobby1413]

I couldn't believe Clements comments that Moore hadn't been "fully" training and that's why he didn't start as he wasn't fit.
What kind of answer is that? If Brighton were gonna pay through the nose for him are we saying he wasn't fit to start the season for them? He should have been ready to start for any club. The club should have made him train so he was fully ready, he's being paid by the club to play for us, and until that contract changes otherwise he should have played.

I agree, it's a stupid excuse. How is he not fit ffs? As you've said he should have been fit (other than injury maybe) if he was being sold. How can you have a summer off and come back unfit?

[Millsy]

I couldn't believe Clements comments that Moore hadn't been "fully" training and that's why he didn't start as he wasn't fit.
What kind of answer is that? If Brighton were gonna pay through the nose for him are we saying he wasn't fit to start the season for them? He should have been ready to start for any club. The club should have made him train so he was fully ready, he's being paid by the club to play for us, and until that contract changes otherwise he should have played.

I agree, it's a stupid excuse. How is he not fit ffs? As you've said he should have been fit (other than injury maybe) if he was being sold. How can you have a summer off and come back unfit?

True, it doesn't make sense to me.

Total speculative shot in the dark here with zero substance, but I wonder if he's pissed off at Moore and wants to prove to him that we can do without him if we want to.

[bobby1413]

Total speculative shot in the dark here with zero substance, but I wonder if he's pissed off at Moore and wants to prove to him that we can do without him if we want to.

I thought that, it makes sense with Moore saying "I look forward to trying to EARN a place back in the team".

Two views:

1) he is your best player, get him in the team you idiot

2) He is a great player, but those that have filled the void have put the effort in, they've held the fort. Let's see waht they can do and see how they compare to someone link Moore

Conclusion - no idea

[AthleticoSpizz]

Yet to outshine his peers on the training ground?

[Snowflake Royal]

I couldn't believe Clements comments that Moore hadn't been "fully" training and that's why he didn't start as he wasn't fit.
What kind of answer is that? If Brighton were gonna pay through the nose for him are we saying he wasn't fit to start the season for them? He should have been ready to start for any club. The club should have made him train so he was fully ready, he's being paid by the club to play for us, and until that contract changes otherwise he should have played.

I agree, it's a stupid excuse. How is he not fit ffs? As you've said he should have been fit (other than injury maybe) if he was being sold. How can you have a summer off and come back unfit?

Surely it's quite common to isolate a player who has put in a transfer request from the first team squad's training sessions as they aren't going to be properly focused, and you're not going to he using them. Why would we put effort into getting a player up to match fitness for another team, when we can just take a couple of weeks to do it if he stays.

The outrage and obsession at the Moore situation really is daft. Why are we even talking about it still ffs.