Ex Players

[YorkshireRoyal99]

No reason as to why he couldn't have attempted to either renew his contract (could have done to be fair so that can't be said for certain) or included performance-related clauses in his contract. It works both ways, it doesn't just benefit player, it's there to benefit a club as well.

An £8m release clause seemed very low considering the fee's PL clubs are paying for talented Championship players these days. He may just walked away, but there was never any guarantee his next club could have offered him the same as what we did at 16/17.

He wasn’t James Maddison when he signed the contract. At the time he signed it, £8m would have been an excellent fee for us - our record sale, for a player on the fringes of the first team.

Yeah, once he had developed we could probably have got a lot more for him without the clause. But better to get £8m than the EPPP minimum.

Even more importantly - There is plenty evidence that Olise wanted to get to the PL as quickly as possible. There is ZERO EVIDENCE that improved pay or performance fees would have made the slightest modicum of difference to him - let alone to his agent who would have been licking his lips at PL fees. And ABSOLUTELY ZERO EVIDENCE Olise would have been willing to sign ANY OTHER contract.

Right... so a larger contract and fee would have meant more money for the agent, who would of course increase his fee as well. So there would be plenty of incentives for the agent to have an improved contract offer of course.

Yes, Olise may not have been willing, nothing to suggest that he would have been, but there is also nothing to suggest there wouldn't have been anyway. As stated, plenty of players who had potential to, and did, move on to the PL (or just a higher level in general) have signed contract extensions with clubs before.

[Snowflake Royal]

Sorry YR, think you're in Lala land if you have any problem with how Olise worked out for us. We got about as good as we possibly could out of him.

[muirinho]

He wasn’t James Maddison when he signed the contract. At the time he signed it, £8m would have been an excellent fee for us - our record sale, for a player on the fringes of the first team.

Yeah, once he had developed we could probably have got a lot more for him without the clause. But better to get £8m than the EPPP minimum.

Even more importantly - There is plenty evidence that Olise wanted to get to the PL as quickly as possible. There is ZERO EVIDENCE that improved pay or performance fees would have made the slightest modicum of difference to him - let alone to his agent who would have been licking his lips at PL fees. And ABSOLUTELY ZERO EVIDENCE Olise would have been willing to sign ANY OTHER contract.

Right... so a larger contract and fee would have meant more money for the agent, who would of course increase his fee as well. So there would be plenty of incentives for the agent to have an improved contract offer of course.

Yes, Olise may not have been willing, nothing to suggest that he would have been, but there is also nothing to suggest there wouldn't have been anyway. As stated, plenty of players who had potential to, and did, move on to the PL (or just a higher level in general) have signed contract extensions with clubs before.

Jeez!
I'm not talking about the fee the agent would have got from Reading, I'm talking about the extremely fat fee they'd get from a PL team for persuading Olise to sign with them. A hypothetical £25m release contract might not have had a PL team interested at all - while not actually getting the agent any more fees from Reading. Whereas a £8m fee OTOH is set at a level that increased the likelihood of a transfer - and therefore significantly more money for the agent. If Reading were offering a contract three times as good as it was, it's still peanuts in comparison.
There is also plenty of evidence to suggest Olise wouldn't have signed anything else, he's made it very clear in private messages - examples of which are earlier in this thread, that he wanted to get to the PL ASAP. A big release clause would hinder that, as would signing a new contract.

But of course Olise and his agent couldn't possibly know how good he was, and would have signed anything put in front of them. While Reading was absolutely guaranteed in their knowledge of how good he was, and chose to ignore it and offer him only that contract out of sheer perversity.

Sure, Jan.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Sorry YR, think you're in Lala land if you have any problem with how Olise worked out for us. We got about as good as we possibly could out of him.

The problem is we lost 2 players, Olise and Richards, for £8m for the pair when they could/would have easily demanded £25-20m for the pair.

Our irresponsible spending previous to these flourishing in our first team probably backed us into a corner where we couldn't offer these players better deals, despite (last season anyway) an improving league performance.

[From Despair To Where?]

Got to agree with the others with reference to Olise. You can't force a player to sign a contract and if he's a player who could potentially be in high demand, he holds most of the cards when it comes to negotiations. Better to take £8m last summer than fcuk all this and clearly he never regarded us as more than a stepping stone. Hezqas being routes as a potential superstar before last season. Why would he sign a new contract.

Maybe we could have offered Richards a new deal prior to the start of last season but I remember there being a big debate on here about whether to keep Blackett or Obita with Richards very much as back up. I dont think anyone prwdicted tahe rate at which he would progress last season.

[Hendo]

Got to agree with the others with reference to Olise. You can't force a player to sign a contract and if he's a player who could potentially be in high demand, he holds most of the cards when it comes to negotiations. Better to take £8m last summer than fcuk all this and clearly he never regarded us as more than a stepping stone

Maybe we could have offered Richards a new deal prior to the start of last season but I remember there being a big debate on here about whether to keep Blackett or Obita with Richards very much as back up. I dont think anyone prwdicted tahe rate at which he would progress last season.

Came here to say this.

[From Despair To Where?]

At the start of last season, if anyone had suggested that within 15 months,,Richards would be playing in the Champions League for Bayern Munich, they'd have been laughed off the forum.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Got to agree with the others with reference to Olise. You can't force a player to sign a contract and if he's a player who could potentially be in high demand, he holds most of the cards when it comes to negotiations. Better to take £8m last summer than fcuk all this and clearly he never regarded us as more than a stepping stone. Hezqas being routes as a potential superstar before last season. Why would he sign a new contract.

Maybe we could have offered Richards a new deal prior to the start of last season but I remember there being a big debate on here about whether to keep Blackett or Obita with Richards very much as back up. I dont think anyone prwdicted tahe rate at which he would progress last season.

I think, for clarity's sake, it feels as if we lost out on a hell of a lot for Olise, when you compare to how other clubs managed their promising youngsters. Yes, fully aware that nobody can force him to sign a new contract, but it never appears as if we seriously attempted new negotiations (yes, I know there is no evidence but there isn't also any evidence to suggest we did either as far as I know) with himself and his agent. Nobody can also be sure how well and quickly he would have developed, but people would have been aware of his potential and it feels as if our irresponsible spending put the club in a position where we couldn't offer players better contracts because of how high our wage bill was.

Of course we could never match PL wages or CL wages in Richards' case, but if we could have offered them improved offers on what they were earning at the time, like what most clubs outside of restrictions tend to do, there may have been a possibility of them signing. Nothing guaranteed of course, but certainly more of a chance than seemingly losing out of a heck of a lot of revenue. Bowen and Pauno themselves have referenced this around being able to retain assets previously, which is where the frustration from my side comes from.

[Hound]

Tbf with Richards - he has basically had 6 good months and lots of very average ones. Barely played for Bayern has he?

We did miss out of course but it really only was that period at the start of last season where he would have been a priority signing.

[From Despair To Where?]

By which point, he was already being linked to much bigger clubs.

Some you win, some you lose.

[Hendo]

Some were born to sing the blues?

[From Despair To Where?]

We bought Doyle and Long for £100,000 by taking advantage of a release clause and a club in financial difficulties.

We sold them for what? £13m? It works both ways, I dont see the point in getting vexed by it.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

We bought Doyle and Long for £100,000 by taking advantage of a release clause and a club in financial difficulties.

We sold them for what? £13m? It works both ways, I dont see the point in getting vexed by it.

Yeah, in fairness, that's true. It does work both ways but it doesn't mean it's not frustrating when the club do potentially lose out on players. Particularly given the financial constraints that have been peppering the club for seasons now.

[morganb]

Jordan Holsgrove: Life in La Liga

https://www.lfe.org.uk/news/jordan-hols ... o-la-liga/

[Millsy]

Olise worked out shit for us. Sold him way too cheap, clearly cocked up. Shoudl have done better with contract/min release.

But it happens. At least we got something.

[South Coast Royal]

Jordan Holsgrove: Life in La Liga

https://www.lfe.org.uk/news/jordan-hols ... o-la-liga/

Good luck to him for making a bold move like that.
A bit sad that he thought that everybody would understand English.

[Hound]

By which point, he was already being linked to much bigger clubs.

Some you win, some you lose.

By the time others were interested it was too late

There was a window where he was performing for us and was apparently keen to sign a new contract which hadn’t been offered

Admittedly quite a small window

[AthleticoSpizz]

Graham Stack kept goal for Chesham United yesterday in their 3-2 win over Poole, guess there’s the goalie sorted for the 2005/2006 squad kick about game in May

[bcubed]

Graham Stack kept goal for Chesham United yesterday in their 3-2 win over Poole, guess there’s the goalie sorted for the 2005/2006 squad kick about game in May

Thought he must be getting on a bit but only 40

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Not so much an ex-player but, Mark Bowen has taken charge of AFC Wimbledon until the end of the season. The Dons are winless in 21 games and sit one point from safety. I hope he keeps them up personally.