Worst Outgoing Transfer Ever?

[Rustyfunk]

We sold Kovacevic for 2.5m, who a year or so later went for 18m.

As far as busines goes, this one, bz miles

[scram]

I usually agree with a lot of what you post Scram but it aint lazy Pleat bashing.

yes the aforementioned players were at the *** end of their careers , but i still maintain that handled correctly they could have still contributed for a year or two more whilst new signings bedded in.

He said Shez was finished yet signed Magilton to replace him who was only a couple of years younger.

You say we didnt have the money , but at the time we DID , but PDC and Beni aside he acquired very poorly check out the following signings with approx fees paid

Booth 1.5M

Clarke 500K

Collins 600K

Di Canio 4.0M

Carbone 3.5M

Newsome 1.5M

Kovacevic 1.5M

Stefanovic 1.0M

Billington and McKeever 500K

De Gryse 1.2M

Oakes 400k

Trustfull 250K

Magilton 600K

Pembridge 800K

Donaldson 150K

Blinker 250K

Contracts for Nicol and Srnicek

That is MORE than enough backing to rebuild a squad.....................truth was Pleat was the same in the job as he is on TV , talks a lot and says nothing but dont take it from me....................check out the book blue and white wizards to see what the players , Shez especially thought of him.

Also read Big Rons autobiography , he too is less than enamoured with the man.

but the way you have portrayed it is disingenuous and goes back to what i was saying - he wasn't allowed to sign all those players without releasing others of them - so the money was recycled and not always added to

I'd dispute the value of some of them as well - perfect example being PDC (who wasn't here at the same time as Blinker but the list would make it appear so) - i was under the impression it was Blinker and 3m for PDC

BTW i'm not saying everytime somebody has a go at Pleat its lazy Pleat bashing as there is plenty that can be left at his door - its the bit about expecting him to adequately replace probably the best 3 player - all at the same time - and the players were not merely good players for us but absolute legends.

And i also don't believe we'd have coaxed any more effective seasons from them at the upper end of the premier - Hirst played another 20 odd games and packed in - Waddle left for the heights of Falkirk and Shez drifted downwards from then on

It was the right thing to do and i still haven't heard anybodt explain how we could just generate another 3 players of their calibre out of the ether.

AS DJM says - our record fee received is a sell on clause - our record paid with players exchanged amounts to circa 4m

We were no longer fishing in those waters of high end premier players (if we ever were)

the truth is some people cant look past him selling the family silver (even though right and necessary) - and thats that

Edited April 12, 2012 by scram

[DJMortimer]

I'd dispute the value of some of them as well - perfect example being PDC (who wasn't here at the same time as Blinker but the list would make it appear so) - i was under the impression it was Blinker and 3m for PDC

Yep. Blinker was valued at £1.5m of Di Canio's £4.5m total fee.

Also on that previous list, Srnicek was a Wilson signing wasn't he? Kovacevic was a £2.5m purchase, Stefanovic was £2m, I think Booth was something like £2.5m and Clarke more like £300k

[Taximark]

Not standing by Di Canio after his push and ultimititely forcing him to leave for nowhere near what he was worth. We lost our best player and didn't get enough cash to be able to replace him.

You know the manager who was responsible for this don't you - double agent perhaps?

[s.armo]

The problem we had was letting too many players go after the 93 finals. Then after that it was selling palmer as he was the engine of our team, and not gettin somebody to play alongside des walker. It wasn't until we had thome with him that he had a decent partner.

From 1993-2000 we had enough quality like pressman, walker, thome, petrescu, blinker, trustfull, degryse, stefanovic, hyde, alexanderson, di canio, carbone etc etc...

The problem we had was players like atherton, Pearce, Nolan, collins, booth, pembridge, magilton etc...without being disrespectful these are the players who played a lot of games for us and dragged us down to delegation!

[Hawkeye]

Hirst played on but was crocked after doing his ankle in a hole at southamptons ground wasnt he?

Sheridan and Waddle might have been at the back end of their careers, but my point is that he decided to shift them all out in one go. thats an awful lot of upheaval which IMO did go some way to unsettling things. There was no harm in offloading them gradually, and easing the transition across. i actually agreed with the selling of Hirst (i was gutted at the time) as it was sound business, but in removing such big characters Pleat effectively took apart the squad and the nucleus at the same time.

such MASSIVE rebuilding attempts have been an ongoing theme at wednesday for years, never one iv been popular with. the best teams manage to keep players together for years, something we have failed to do. when we get players that have been here playing together for 4/5+ years, im pretty sure you will find that results and performances improve as their understanding does.

some people might not be able to look past the selling of family silver, i look at it in terms of he sold off key personnel throughout his reign without a clearly defined plan of what he was going to do to replace them.

[s.armo]

^^^relegation!!

[DJMortimer]

Hirst played on but was crocked after doing his ankle in a hole at southamptons ground wasnt he?

Sheridan and Waddle might have been at the back end of their careers, but my point is that he decided to shift them all out in one go.

Waddle departed for Falkirk in September 1996, Sheridan for Bolton in November 1996, Hirst for Southampton in October 1997

[scram]

It's a good debate and i take your points

I guess we disagree on the fundamentals of whether it was right to let the players go when we did and i do think he got that right

They were not up to the level we needed any more.

Hirsty would have been a master deal if it'd been nearly anybody else - i really don't think Pleat can be blamed or criticised for that

[Guest phshaw]

Holt has been mentioned in this thread

But i think its laughable if people tink thats the worst outgoing transfer we ever made

Firstly Holt wasn't good enough for what we needed at the time - and after leaving us he dropped down the divisions and it was several season before he was back playing at our level again.

People aren't seriously suggesting we should have persevered with a player for 4-5 seasons of not being good enough on the off chance he might go on to be good enough later on are they?

If that was the case we'd never release a player

It is true that the club was in turmoil and he may not have developed with us. But I can assure you that I was very disappointed when he was released; I have no special scouting skills or a particularly shrewd eye for a player but I thought Holt had the physique, mentality, attitude and intelligence to develop exactly as he has. I said at the time he was destined to play at a higher level and this wasn't on "an off chance"! Coaches are paid good money to assess potential and they failed miserably re. Holt at that time!!

[Hawkeye]

It's a good debate and i take your points

I guess we disagree on the fundamentals of whether it was right to let the players go when we did and i do think he got that right

They were not up to the level we needed any more.

Hirsty would have been a master deal if it'd been nearly anybody else - i really don't think Pleat can be blamed or criticised for that

Cant argue with that, the problem was the replacements - not just of those two, but of the players sold in general.

My memory isnt good enough to remember everything, so im not sure which managers were responsible, but the selling of players like Thome, Degryse, Whittingham, Pembridge, Waddle, Sheridan, Di Canio and more recently Whelan, Brunt, Bougherra, Wood, the releasing or contracts expiring of players like Quinn, Walker, Pressman, Simek, along with the losses made on the likes of Jonk, De Bilde, Sibon, Di Canio (again), and the eventual sellings of players for lesser values like Booth, Wood, Spurr, Tudgay, Di Canio (yet again!). its hardly any wonder we were in the poo poo.

It wasnt just a pleat thing - we have had an unhappy history of over paying for players, to subsequently either release them for nowt, hold on and sell them when we got much less than market value (tudgay/whelan) or sell them at a loss was compounded by our unability to replace like for (reasonable) like.

In short - we have been absolute dogger in the transfer market for years! with the odd random exception.