Philb125 Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 2 minutes ago, StudentOwl said: If that was the thought process then it's total madness... and I'm kind of hoping the club are better than that. Because there is no way on this planet we will have any chance at signing a player better than Sasso to be fourth choice. Sasso is good enough to start for 75% of the championship so I'd be shocked if we hadn't offered him something. Pair with that a crazy transfer market... pay a million for him if purchasing him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudentOwl Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 1 minute ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: But we may be in the market for a centre back who improves our starting eleven, thus making one of our existing players the backup option. Also also, not being funny, but look how quickly he found his new club There was talk he had signed for another team a couple of days after, or even a couple of days before (I genuinely can't recall) our retained and released list. Sure, maybe he'd been told he wasn't going to be offered a new contract in advance, but the speed in which he found a new club speaks to me as a man who knew exactly where he wanted to go. And he released that statement on his social media saying goodbye and thanking the fans etc for his time here... I mean what player that's outright released does that? No... whilst there's nothing concrete, there are too many small signs pointing to the idea that he was the one that thought it was time to say goodbye, not the club. It could have been mutual sure, but considering our CB situation, I'd suspect not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philb125 Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 1 minute ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: OK - you assume we offered Sasso a new deal if you like. I'll wait until there's some evidence. It's not even worthy of discussion, really. I agree, but just a tad annoyed at hearing how we let a player walk away, when you and the others stating that have as much evidence as I do to that fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 1 minute ago, StudentOwl said: Also also, not being funny, but look how quickly he found his new club There was talk he had signed for another team a couple of days after, or even a couple of days before (I genuinely can't recall) our retained and released list. Sure, maybe he'd been told he wasn't going to be offered a new contract in advance, but the speed in which he found a new club speaks to me as a man who knew exactly where he wanted to go. And he released that statement on his social media saying goodbye and thanking the fans etc for his time here... I mean what player that's outright released does that? No... whilst there's nothing concrete, there are too many small signs pointing to the idea that he was the one that thought it was time to say goodbye, not the club. It could have been mutual sure, but considering our CB situation, I'd suspect not. The fact that there were three weeks between the retained list being announced to the public and Sasso signing for his new club and he said thanks on Facebook doesn't particularly suggest he was offered a new contract to me. From The Star at the time: There were suggestions that Sasso could be given another contract should Carlos fail to secure the signing of another central defender, however the Frenchman, who made 14 appearances last season, scoring twice, has moved on to a division he has experienced before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groundhopping Owl Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 41 minutes ago, TheEnd1976 said: Is there any Players from West Brom that our old friend Mr megson can help us out with?..... Young Jonathan Leko could well be exactly what we need on the wing, an injection of pace, power and direct running to bring off the bench and change games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesteel Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I didn't get the impression he was offered one. In an ideal world he shouldn't have been either. It's only an issue because we have baulked at the price of what we need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 7 minutes ago, Philb125 said: I agree, but just a tad annoyed at hearing how we let a player walk away, when you and the others stating that have as much evidence as I do to that fact. It's just a turn of phrase. Whether we offered him a new deal on terms he could better elsewhere, or whether we offered him nothing, it doesn't change the fact that Sasso left the club. I'm pretty sure if the club were really keen to keep Sasso, they could have done. Chansiri doesn't strike me as the type to let a player he wants to keep leave the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouncing Owl Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Sasso was not good enough for where we want to be. He was not as bad as some made out on here but he's not good enough for top end championship football. He had a number of mistakes in him, was not good enough or strong enough in the air and his distribution was poor. He had some pace about him and was good at bringing the ball out of defence but you need a lot more for championship football. We have a quandary here - do we bring a Mulgrew type player in to cover a few positions including centre back to tie us over? Do we wait until the end of the window with the hope of negotiating a better deal for a better centre back in the mould of Bartley, Dean or more likely Grant Hanley? If we have Lees, Loovens, Hutch and one of the above as our centre back options, surely that is good enough for us. I still see Hutch as a midfield player but he provides a good back up option for the centre of defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 1 minute ago, Bluesteel said: I didn't get the impression he was offered one. In an ideal world he shouldn't have been either. It's only an issue because we have baulked at the price of what we need. That's how it seems to me, too. Sasso would have been a solid 3rd or 4th choice centre back, but where would the progress have been there? In order to play more attacking football, we need to strengthen our first-choice defence so that the midfield feel more confident pushing on and leaving the odd gap at the back. The top two teams conceded 40 goals each last season whilst playing an attacking brand of football; we conceded 45 playing a much more conservative game. Surely the aim is to bring in a new first-choice centre back so that Loovens becomes our backup option, thus improving the strength of both our overall squad and our first team in the process? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oh_weds_we_love_you Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 (edited) 43 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: Or it suggests that the club were confident that they could bring in better than Sasso and didn't offer him a new deal. We only re-signed him at the 11th hour last summer after failing to secure other targets such as Hanley. I wouldn't assume that he was offered anything. Sasso was on loan in his first season, it's not like he was ours and released him, only to re-sign him! Edited July 30, 2017 by oh_weds_we_love_you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Just now, oh_weds_we_love_you said: Sasso was on loan in his first season, it's not like he was ours and released him, only to re-sign him! I know. That doesn't change the fact that we only signed him after missing out on other targets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oh_weds_we_love_you Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Just now, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: I know. That doesn't change the fact that we only signed him after missing out on other targets. Or we signed him after he was released by his club at the time and waited for that rather than offering a fee? Maybe Sasso was always coming here for a season if his club agreed to his release? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Just now, oh_weds_we_love_you said: Or we signed him after he was released by his club at the time and waited for that rather than offering a fee? Maybe Sasso was always coming here for a season if his club agreed to his release? The two aren't mutually exclusive. We know the club were in for other centre backs last summer before Sasso signed. This is getting weird now. Note to self: never mention Sasso on Owlstalk again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesteel Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 17 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: That's how it seems to me, too. Sasso would have been a solid 3rd or 4th choice centre back, but where would the progress have been there? In order to play more attacking football, we need to strengthen our first-choice defence so that the midfield feel more confident pushing on and leaving the odd gap at the back. The top two teams conceded 40 goals each last season whilst playing an attacking brand of football; we conceded 45 playing a much more conservative game. Surely the aim is to bring in a new first-choice centre back so that Loovens becomes our backup option, thus improving the strength of both our overall squad and our first team in the process? Yeah id say so. Even just having a player that doesnt duck headers and get shrugged off the ball would make a big difference. Sasso isn't hard to replace in terms of actual defending Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I'm sure sasso was probably frustrated at the lack of game time, so even if we'd made an offer, he probably still would've left. http://appnews.be/2017/06/05/interview-vincent-sasso-return-to-nantes-it-would-be-interesting/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Cosby Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 1 hour ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: Or it suggests that the club were confident that they could bring in better than Sasso and didn't offer him a new deal. We only re-signed him at the 11th hour last summer after failing to secure other targets such as Hanley. I wouldn't assume that he was offered anything. You're saying that like it's defensible, seeing as though we haven't brought anyone else in, nor have we looked close to doing so. I'd like to think that if all we had was the video footage of 200 centre backs to wade through, we might have at least offered Sasso a deal to stay? While I accept he's not Bobby Moore or owt and people love to say "we need better", he certainly would have been better than... Well.. er... No one!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 4 minutes ago, Cosby Blunkett said: You're saying that like it's defensible, seeing as though we haven't brought anyone else in, nor have we looked close to doing so. I'd like to think that if all we had was the video footage of 200 centre backs to wade through, we might have at least offered Sasso a deal to stay? While I accept he's not Bobby Moore or owt and people love to say "we need better", he certainly would have been better than... Well.. er... No one!! I'm not defending it; I'm just pointing out a possible train of thought, and one to which I suspect the club subscribed. Whether they were correct in doing so remains to be seen. We'll only know that at the end of the transfer window, won't we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prowl Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Does it really matter whether or not we offered Sasso a deal. He's not going to be here next year so let's move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilyfox Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I'd be happy with Batth and Mulgrew. Danny did well for us, and has since established himself in the championship - with his best years still right in front of him. Mulgrew a versatile performer with a cracking left peg. I wouldn't complain, given the current market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesteel Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Djourou mentioned as a possible signing by Staton. Former Arsenal and Hamburg, 30 years old. Not sure where that one came from? At face value he sounds a decent signing, unless he's been out injured all season or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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