Summer squad changes | Page 3 | Vital Football

Summer squad changes

Wise enough words from you guys above, pragmatism rules at BFC and when you look at each departure the case is clear for what's happened. Plenty of sensible bees have told me HD was offered £400 pw more than his previous deal at GP, forme the club wanted him gone. Jota was allegedly after the money & had an aggressive representative, FFC £35k pw, Brum going to £40k pw. And Colin who can be injury prone also wanted a move. So we've turned that into arguably £12M with potential for add ons, sure it's what we do, and tbf we did good business early. What has upset people is the almost January sale like way it went down on Thurs, and the club involved. Arry has dissed BFC ever since the MW episode & yet here he is benefiting from our player scouting & development. Brum are a divisional rival & we've made them stronger, hardly upwards progression for our stars - just more money!

I can't apologise for some of my emotions this week, my love for BFC is stronger than ever but now we're in the big leagues my love for the people's game diminishes. Some of the stick thrown at our owner this week is out of order, but again BFC fluff the PR & have set expectations too highly.

Our 2 Danes played v well in a 4-0 win vs Poland last night, they are not useless as some st GP suggest. Time for DS & all the players to gel together & get some points, we'll be ok although now seem to be competing to top a mini league of have nots relative to the lunatics in the midlands, Putney & beyond.

So much to discuss-get writing on here people, it's never dull!
 
This Chinese money is ruining the game isn't it. Birmingham FFS! Jota should be in the Premiership or at a club with realistic ambitions of getting there very soon. A Hull when Moses went there or a Burnley when Gray went, perhaps Boro this year [I've just realised all those three had just come down from the prem with their parachutes open].

I've given up on how FFP works - I'm guessing Brum are just going to spend what they want a bugger the repercussions [which they can afford but we can't].

Some very astute observations above. I'm not bothered about Harlee going and the best he could hope for is the better pay he's getting now. Colin had a release clause [€3.5m apparently] so, like Moses, there was very little we could do to keep him without offering a massive pay rise which we couldn't afford. Our DoFs were sensible and got his replacement in early.

There are still some fabulous players at the club and we can all get excited by Canos, Watkins, Sawyers and Maupay and plenty of other youngsters we've got on our books.

Offers for Woods, Bentley and Egan that were turned down will give you an idea of who is next out of the door but a stonking season for any of the above could see very big bids come in this time next year.

This is how we operate and as long as the DoFs can find the next bargain we'll be fine. Whether we can ever get the stars to align enough for a proper push at the premiership I don't know. It's been done before but with more and more teams with parachute payments and Chinese money it feels like it's getting harder and harder.
 
Some question marks I gather over this Chinese investments generally and whether the Chinese bubble is going to burst, too technical for me but something about Chinese banks and their borrowing strategies. If so some of these Chinese funded clubs like BCFC could be vulnerable especially if they are paying premiership wages and don't get up.
 
It's the constant lying to the fans I am getting pissed off with. "We'll not sell to a Championship club" they said about players previously and then did. "We'll have a twenty thousand all singing, all dancing stadium with view to extend if needed" they said, now it's seventeen minus three thousand corporates, minus away fans, lock and leave...."Won't go to Championship club..." heard that one before.....then THREE of our better players go to one. A club who've finished below us in the last three years. I seem to remember "We're not a selling club anymore, no need for players to go.." Doesn't seem to be that way to me. There's always a reason or excuse blaming outside influences like FFP (not that anyone seems to get too hurt for breaking that rule, don't even know why it exists, it only hurts the smaller clu....oh yeaah,that's why).

If our newest Dane is not as bad as some say, it's about time he started showing it in a Brentford shirt from previous showing. Our defence has been our main problem and we didn't fight to keep two of our best and are now lumbered with one too easy to beat and often out of position, and one who has the turning circle of an artic, is far too slow and always drops us in it at least once a match, normally to be saved by Bentley. I am more bothered about them leaving than Jota to be honest. We could have kept one if we'd tried just a bit harder instead of undervaluing him.

I really think Clarke can replace Jota quite easily, not as skilful and first touch not so good but quicker, not so reliant on one foot and his pace scares the hell out of defences. I think he actually has more to his game.

I can understand the players needing to move, end of contracts so need to get something in for them, but DON'T lie to me. Be upfront and say "We'll sell to whoever comes up with the money" But we do look, from the outside, to be a club that will sell, sell our best and then start again just as it's beginning to click and we are back to square one. If we really do want to go up, we need more than seventeen thousand seats minus corporates and we need to do everything we can to keep our better players.

It's funny, but look at the Facebook posts. There is a kind of split, not right down the middle but a good split that makes the under thirties keep telling us to "stop complaining, be thankful where we are, blah blah" and the older ones who've seen it all before, heard all the promises for thirty or forty years plus and are getting sick of seeing it all again.

I was really positive despite results. Last week knocked me back a bit. For us to get started now and get going, a couple of our defenders need to step up now and improve. At the rate they were leaving I was being kept awake by nightmares of seeing that number seventeen shirt wandering aimlessly around the pitch again. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 
Collioure, I think you might have missed the signs of change. I am in my seventies and for years and years have seen what was the Brentford way. People only had to wave a few notes under the club’s nose and the player was gone, either to be replaced by a donkey or not replaced at all.

The signs are pretty clear, the club had a high expectation that these three were going and the replacements were in early. On this site I have taken part in a debate on “we’ve got too many midfielders” and seen all the “why have we got four centre halves?” According to Beesotted Colin had sold his house.

By buying early we have got the ones we wanted, and at a price we are comfortable with and then it was just a question of waiting for the best offer for the ones who were going. Some of the new ones we had never heard of (Maupay) and others we have got despite competition (Watkins).

The fact that the three went on the last day shows that we hung on for the best price. I was desperate for Jota not to go. I chatted to him in Portugal at the Marinus pre-season, I was in the Basque Country when he went to Eibar, he was from almost the same town as where I was born and spent a lot of my childhood (Vigo) and Celta is my Spanish team, and he is one of the best I have seen in a Brentford shirt. He’s gone, move on. The club did a great piece of business through making him sign a one year extension before he went to Spain, and I don’t know who he got to write his farewell message this time, but he made a right pig’s ear of it. I have no more than a passing interest in his career anymore but remember what he did to Bidwell and Fulham. Birmingham City, who cares? At least it wasn’t Fulham.

I don’t think we are going to charge into the Premiership, but neither are we heading for League 1. But things really have changed, the signs are there. We aren’t Brentford the victims anymore, we plan and analyse what to do and we punch above our weight.

We need to get behind the team, they are a good team with good players and the past is gone.
 
I thought it was Jota that said he wouldn't go to a Championship side rather than us. In fact it's exactly what Hogan said too. I suppose we could have taken much less for him to entice a prem team and maybe Jota would have accepted lower wages to play in the prem [or sit on the bench]. It seems no one was willing to take the gamble.

£6.5m or nothing in a few months time. At least we held out for some decent money.

 
We said it too, Beefy. We said it too.

Spanish, Maupay is in my opinion the most exciting prospect as a striker I can remember having. He is a pain in the arse to opponents, maybe a bit too easily wound up as Ipswich sussed, but he will be quality and I fear the next one to be disrupted by higher wage offers and better contracts etc.....I did also say I wasn't as worried about Jota going as the others. We have an excess of talent there and I did say why I felt Josh might just be a better option. One we'd never have noticed. I felt Jota was a great player for us, up with the best but could also see the obvious weaknesses.

I just don't like the constant lies. And we are getting fed constant lies.
 
I totally understand your feeling negative about what is going on, but I think that to accuse the club of lying is a little bit strong. Goodness knows the communications could be improved both in terms of quantity and content. It is one of the weakest aspects of MB's project. Basically it's the difference between lying and bullsh*tting.

A lie is when you say something that isn't true with a deliberate intention to mislead. I think that they must have thought the original stadium plan was the right one, but got cold feet in the light of day. This is sensible but as usual it was done really badly and they have cut out a lot of the things that were going to make the stadium special. If they had said, we are very concerned about the risks and then gone into some kind of consultation process with Bias to get people on board it wouldn't have been so bad. I don't think MB is used to "relationship marketing" in his business. It makes his decision making easier but riskier because he is in danger of pi**ing of his customers.

It is stupid to say "we won't sell him to a championship club". If they had said "We will do everything we can not to sell him to a championship club" it would have been smarter. If I say "I am going to win the 100 metres" and I come second I look stupid. You can't say I am lying, just bullsh*tting. If I say "I am going to do everything I can to win the 100 metres" and I come second you just say bad luck. Do better next time.
 
I don't mind the club being ambitious in its objectives but once again we have seen the pronouncements of RA biting him & us in the arse. Premier league in 3 years anyone? How about stronger after each window? He's there taking credit at the early summer signings, then MIA when things are more difficult, leaving the amiable Phil Giles to do the reality check. I'm coming round to the logic in what had to be done last week, but it is a big reset for me, if Leicester city proved that you could dare to dream as a fan, last Thursday was the complete opposite. Premier league 2 has arrived in all but name, and our expectations have been reset with it. Not all BFC's doing at all, but a little of the magic was lost last week. I'll still be there though-love the bees but not so much the charade that is modern football.
 
I can't say anymore. I know why I feel like I do, and I know I am justified in feeling it. But they lied to us. Not too strong. Just honest. They bare faced lied. And they knew it. How long do they think they will continue to pull the wool over our eyes? Many have said this is it for them. I'm not sure I'll be too interested if we go to a new ground with nothing much more to offer after all the promises and reasons we were given. It might just be it for me.

Just tell me the truth, don't dress it up in "must leave Griffin Park for all singing all dancing stadium (not ground) that will cater for our needs and have room to expand" and then give us a place not much better than Walsall or Northampton (as many of us suspected way back), don't tell me you'll not sell here or there.
Just be upfront. We'll sell to whoever pays the right money.....

Like I say, I can't say anymore.
 
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