I go back a lot further than that but, despite my angst when a player I rated highly was sold, I also consoled myself with the belief that the money was, genuinely, being used to keep the club afloat. These days I am honestly not so sure. And, by the way, your estimation of the player’s ability is just your opinion and shouldn’t be stated as fact.
Making a profit is irrelevant to me. Especially when the difference in leagues is worth £6-7m. There’s the difference, ‘had to’. We didn’t have to sell Moore, he had 2 years left on his deal. Not replacing him effectively relegated us before the season started as we’d already lost our defence. O’Grady for example had to go because we’d been relegated & couldn’t afford his wages. Butterfield’s deal was up & Vaz Te only had 3 months of a one season deal left so aren’t similar cases. He was hardly a big lummox either. If you watch his goals from last season most were with his feet. It’s become a bit of a myth on here that with him in the side we were some one dimensional hoof ball side when in truth we played fast paced football that was great to watch & he was a big part of that
Selling Moore was a reasonable decision. Not getting the going rate was poor. Not adequately replacing him was negligent.
That's where my feelings diverge. I'll never forget the sadness I saw in a young (19) fan's face, when she found out he'd gone. She'd got a selfie with him at the open day, and he'd told her he wasn't leaving and looking forward to the season. I just can't stand this new way of running the club, where the emotion of it seems to be ignored, where it's mostly just about profit, where we can't get attached to players (or managers) because it's only a matter of time before we separate from them. Sure, the finances are important, but surely there's a middle ground somewhere?
Hang on a second. you’re literally hanging an emotional response on the club, when the reality of that exchange is that Keiffer openly lied. he freely admits he wanted to leave, how the club handled that is an aside; but he lied to you about his ambitions and you’re blaming the club for letting him go. There’s lots of ways of blaming the club, and discussions about whether we could make him stay, but no one is pretending he didn’t want to leave, not even him.
Yes I am. He was under contract, he could have been told to stay. But I don't want to argue with a fellow red, it's in the past now and obviously I can't change it. I just wish the club would take the fans' emotions into account when making decisions, that's all.
I can appreciate that. I just don’t think Kieffer is good enough at Championship level. I agree with you at about the way the club is being run.
True, but that's not my main point. My point is that this policy of selling all our best players to make a profit has the effect of alienating most (not all) fans, and weakening the team.
If that’s your point, your post didn’t reflect that. The post I read revolved around a heartbroken teenager who Keiffer told a lie to. I have no problem with selling Keiffer, maybe we could have got more for him (no one knows) but we definitely should have replaced him with someone better.
Fair enough, if that's the way you understood it. At least it's clear now. I blame the club owners totally, the way they're running the club is an utter disgrace, and it's had me raging with anger for 6 weeks, mixed with abject sadness. Other opinions are of course available.
Tbh on the open day I thought he was looking a bit distracted and as though his heart wasnt 100% in it. Contrasted to DS who despite officials trying to usher him away kept coming back for one more photo/autograph.
It is a bit gutting that barely anyone does more than 2 seasons with us. It feels at the minute like we’ll never have a club legend again. My mates lad goes occasionally & he was asking where’s Davies, Pinnock, Lindsay, Moore etc. Kids want hero’s, we all do as well really. It’s easy to say don’t get too attached but what’s the point of been a fan if you don’t. I’d love a couple of Hassell’s Fosters, Steele’s etc. Even a Jim O’Brien staying 4 years would be nice
Not just us though, it’s the state of the game. if you want a club legend nowadays, go watch Coppinger at Donny or Sharp at the blunts.
Like the last game Woodrows pic was in a poster in middle my son wanted it on his wall. Needless to say by the end of Jan he will have moved on and the poster will be taken down. Only the top clubs tend to have actual hero’s who are around long term now.
Assist again tonight, makes me wonder if he would have been playing in these games had he been playing for us still this season?
Have you seen him play? I haven't. I know he hasn't scored goals, but no idea if he's struggling. I watch Barnsley.
He is having a classic Kieffer game tonight, missing a good chance but a real handful and unwittingly assisted second goal. We miss him massively and what we got for him was peanuts. He left because we didn’t pay him what he was worth. He’ll be worth a lot more on the back of his international success. Bad business all round.
He got called into the squad in the first place by playing for us. His opportunity came through injuries and he scored on his debut and from there couldn't be left out. Good luck to him.
Wigan fans like him, they’ve been complaining that they don’t support him enough & hoof it up to him expecting him to work miracles.