Come on, Flicker. raise everyone's spirits

Stones is a good 'un.....in fact he will beocme a great 'un.

BUT..............

He will not be the one who determines whether BFC stay up or go down.

We've got good money for him, stop worrying (or moaning in some cases) and let's continue this good form, with a different right wing back (and maybe Wiseman is the man, who knows)?

Setting off for Blackpool at 15:00......YOU REDS !!!

 

Re: If the club's desperation to keep him

Don did say he asked to leave. Or maybe he asked to speak to Everton after the club had accepted a bid. Or maybe he was encouraged to leave to generate cash to subsidise a relegation.

 

I agree with every single word in that post mate, couldn't have put it better myself

 

Re: If the club's desperation to keep him

Did Don actually say *when* Stones asked to leave. Just being devil's advocate, but it might have gone:

1). Acceptable bid from Wigan/Everton
2). Don told Stones who asked to leave/said he wanted to talk to them

Stones might or might not have asked to leave before the bids were made but it is possible that nobody is lying, just being economical with the timings....

BTW IIRC the academy costs £250K per year to run (or did a while ago). So this transfer has effectively paid for its entire existence. Can we now start calling it the John Stones Academy (like the Carl Tiler Stand)...

 

Re: Which came first?

I personally think the Don was saying John Stones asked to leave after hearing about the offers from Wigan and Everton, and accepted their invitation for talks, that's different than him wanting out. Surly the club had a duty to inform him of any offer and it was only then when he said, yes I will go and speak to them. I certainly don't think for a second that John said to the club "1st chance I get I'm off" I would also be pretty confident in saying that if John said "no I want to stay here a while" we would have declined the offers and not told John that he was going because we needed the money.

Again, people looking far too much into stuff to find a scapegoat or somebody to blame for a situation that was quite frankly out of our control

Good luck with you future John Stones, hope everything works out. Look forward to seeing you pull on that full England international shirt on very soon kid.

 

Of course there is

If we accept on offer from Wigan and Everton, tell Stones & his agent about the offer, then it's quite possible the lad says he wants the opportunity to go to the Premier League. Young Stones will then have done what Don Rowing said. But the initial transfer offer will have come first and prompted Stones' reaction.

 

Are you making a weekend of it, mate?

.

 

Re: Of course there is

I'm not going to get annoyed at you Kev. We have a difference of opinion. I didn't mean to offend with my earlier post and I apologise for doing so. I can be too forthright at times. Well, all the bloody time.

 

As I said at the beginning of the thread

Now that Stones has left, we need to focus on an important game tomorrow at Blackpool. I hope Flitcroft has the team up for the game and we continue our current form. If we can achieve that, I'm still confident we can avoid relegation and haven't thrown in the towel.
You & I are still good, mate.

 

Stones could have waited until the end of the season for his transfer, but he chose to put his own interests before that of club and it's supporters. Which is okay, but I for one do not want to hear about what a massive Barnsley fan he is. It is likely that he and his advisors/agents were worried that his stock would fall if we were relegated and he baled on the club he claims to love rather than take that chance.

As for the culpability of the club - I don't know, I haven't worked that one out yet. But anyone who did not see Everton or even Wigan, making absolute mincemeat of our negotiators must have been asleep this last 5 years.

 

Re: As I said at the beginning of the thread

Don't you two fall out! Sorry Kev, I think it was me who diverted your very reasonable and positive thread. :smile:

 

moaning, and worrying, dunt change owt its done move on, sad at loosing him wish him all the best,C,MON barnsley lets go stuff blackpool tomorrow and everything will be ok again simples.

 

I blame you for everything

You're the personification of sinister! Oh yes!

 

Re: I blame you for everything

I know, I'm the devil's own!

If you are not doing anything next Wednesday afternoon, would you like to accompany me on a tour of Wentworth Woodhouse?

 

Sorry mate, but

Crystal's working and I'm taking Laura to the hospital. You certainly seem to be making the most of your time back up here in God's Country. Good lad.

 

Re: Which came first?

The thing that frustrates and annoys me Jimbob is the suggestion that the situation was out of our control. If it was, it shouldn't have been. We held all the cards - we'd John Stones on a three year contract and at this stage of his career and at his age there's no-way he would've gone on strike if we'd said no. Telling him that we'd received offers is obviously the right thing to do but we could have talked to him to say, it doesn't match our valuation of you and we desperately need you here to win the fight against relegation - stay with us til the end of the season - and irrespective of whether we stay up or not we'll let you go if the fee is right. In the meantime, I feel sure that his value would have grown and am absolutely sure it wouldn't have fallen. If we needed the cash at that time then accept the same fee - what have we lost in the meantime?

We held the cards - but played them badly imho.

And to be honest, Don's statement that he wanted to go was poor. It was unnecessary and disrespectful to the lad. My view is that we accepted the bid and told him we'd accepted it - at which point he would've been keen to talk to them. As soon as he did, he couldn't fail to be impressed by what he saw at Everton and his departure was a formality. What Don should've said is: "We received what we felt was a good and fair offer for John. Having done so we talked to John and he was keen to talk to them - and he has therefore left with our blessing and good wishes. We know that some fans will feel that the fee isn't enough but we felt it was a good price. We've got the best interests of the club at heart and so, despite differing opinions, hope that we can stay focused on our battle to stay up." Trying to deflect criticism by suggesting that we sold him because he said he wanted to go:
a) Paints John Stones in a negative light - not fair to the lad and
b) Makes the club look weak and powerless

That's what I'm upset about in all this. It's not the fact he's gone (although of course we're all disappointed about it), it's how it's been handled.

Just my view......

 

What JLWBigLil highlighted is what I'm concerned about, that the momentum built up during the last month will hopefully not have been affected by the sale of Stones.

I still think we should have waited until summer for any sale, but hey, he's gone, so let's get at Blackpool tomorrow with the same intensity as against Millwall on Tuesday night.

3 points tomorrow will be the best way of erasing the bad memories of yesterday.

 

Kev & Jay sitting in a tree

K.I.S.S.I.N.G.
tongues N'all


Gerra Room you pair.

 

Re: Which came first?

Cash in your chips while you are ahead. Relegation would certainly have damaged his value and our bargaining position - for what that's worth - and the club erred on the side of cowardice. I do agree fully with the first paragraph, it should never have come to the table. Any bids should have been batted for six well away from Oakwell and the lad's young ears. The end of the season would have been the perfect time to take stock but patience, faith and loyalty seem to be qualities lost on all concerned.