Well to be fair he has played at this level with Ipswich & that didn't go well & he wasn't a regular all season in division 2 with Bristol so the I would not be optimistic plus I cannot get over how over the moon he was to go to Ipswich, get rid for me because no doubt he will be on a decent wedge & clearly wants to be away
Fair enough. I guess the fact that he's into the last year of his contract along with the financial mess we're in makes it difficult to turn down offers.
I wonder if he could do a job in the hole? I know Duff likes to play a 3-5-2, we could play a 3-4-1-2 with wing backs.. I'm intrigued to see how Thomas would do for us at this level, after a year away in a successful side. I wish him all the best whatever he decides to do, the lad has been through the mill and seems to be back on track.
Tbf I believe his time at Ipswich was when he was at his worst mental health wise so I wouldn’t really judge him too much on that period. He’s been heavily involved this pre season and he’s been doing some stuff for the club’s media and the lad seems happy, doesn’t seem like he wants to leave unless it’s different behind the scenes. Time will tell I guess.
Maybe but it isn't his natural role and I reckon someone like Aitchison would be better in that position if we went for it so he isn't even guaranteed a start in that role. His best position is out wide in 442 or 433 etc. which we don't play.
Even if that were so (which I can't get my head round that being anything like), we've still paid around £1m for a couple of players to make the maths work.
I can see how a Europa League club would command higher fees than the clubs we signed Schmidt and Andersen from for their contracted players, particularly their club captain. January also tends to be a more expensive time to buy. I think we paid fees for Schmidt, Odour, Halme, Chaplin, Collins, Andersen, Diaby, Wilks, Sibbick and Thomas that Summer. My suspicion is that Leeds in particular spent a lot of that summer pointing and laughing at us, and we'll have paid too much for Thomas, even it it was 6/700k. But in general, it wouldn't surprise me if the transfer fees were spread generally quite evenly across one big blob of mediocrity.
It feels every time we get to one of that intake leaving, there are calls that the alleged transfer fees suggested at the time aren't accurate or are overstated. They can't all be inaccurate because its in the accounts that we spaffed £6.4m. I vaguely recall quite a lot of back and forth paper talk about Thomas and that multiple bids were rejected and that £1.2m was the figure we had to pay. Of course, there may be some contingent variables in that amount, but I suspect when Thomas does leave, whether now or on a free next year, it will be another catastrophic crystallised loss.
Possibly, it's worth trying in my view, but maybe they already have (in training etc.) and maybe he's not suited to it. Has Aitchison played that role before?
On a personal note. I wouldn't be displeased if he stayed. Based on the 2 friendlies I've seen, I think he could do a job, but his head has to be in the right place. I don't know if what issues he has, have completely gone away. (One of which was apparently home sickness.) But hopefully a little older. he may be more settled.
My understanding is that is Jack's best position and main place he plays but I could be wrong. Yet to really see him in a Barnsley shirt so not 100% sure.
Don't disagree. The first point I made on this thread was that we can't take the reported 1.2m as gospel, and dismiss the 2m reported for Morris at the same time. Fact is we don't know. We spent 6.4m across 13 players (think Radlinger was a free), That averages out at just shy of 500k each, and I'm not sure how much the deviation would be. I think the same applies to the wage bill, pay a moderate amount of money to/for an awful lot of mediocre players. But yes, a loss for Thomas is inevitable but if we get something, it will be more of a return than we got for Halme, likely to get nothing for Odour, and it's possible we'll end up letting Andersen and Collins run contracts down and not trigger the extra year.
Collins and Radlinger were frees. Bahre was £135k. So you can average the overall fees across a lower number of players. We're probably in the position we need around £5m in fees for Mads and Collins to break even on that window. And like you say, you consider the wages on top of those fees... frightening.
Edit: Sorry - just seen the other thread about this! Could be on according to Bristol Live: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...pushing-permanent-deal-7332392?int_source=nba
With all these rumoured fees and what seems to be heavy losses on our part now we are having a clear out...is it only me who thinks hang on do I smell a rat.....re previous incomings, were they inflated prices ...has somebody had our pants down.... On another note, In my opinion, it seems strange to me that the egotistic Conway hasn't been shouting from the roof tops about being removed from the board...anybody else think it's strange....not like him to be quiet is it.
Yeah Shed, the sooner that the loathsome Conway & co are finally 1000% removed from the club, the better!.
As far as I understand Conway only owns an 8% stake. He'll either sell it at a loss, or stay a shareholder. As long as he's not on the board, quite frankly I don't give a ****.
But a lot of fans do actually give a * (whatever word that was), don't they. It dun't feel right knowing that the man or group of men who almost single handedly put our club in this position, are still there. Abeit in a lesser role now of course.
