The State Of The Team In February 2011 & Going Forward

[Ian Royal]

Not sure it was Coppell genius, more Sidwells determination to prove himself. His attitude and performances were excellent. It's just a shame he had to come out with the daft comments about feeding his family.

combination of both?

[Wimb]

Ironic then that he was playing for peanuts but making the big money sitting on the bench, such is the madness of football

[brendywendy]

Not sure it was Coppell genius, more Sidwells determination to prove himself. His attitude and performances were excellent. It's just a shame he had to come out with the daft comments about feeding his family.

it was coppells genius that enabled and motivated sidders to do so.of course it was primarily down to sidders that he managed it.

Really, Sidwell was getting less at RFC than he thought he warranted, but he put in the work and got a good move to Chelsea. Didnt want to move but we said no to his demands.

thats nonsense, looked very very much like it was always the plan to move after that 1st season, cos he thought he had enough to play at a top prem club. he didnt, and has only just found his actual level. which isnt much higher than RFC when he left.

[Hoop Blah]

The only genuis on Coppells part was making the call that he couldn't get a better player than Sidwell for the money we had and so he was more valuable to us playing for a year and going for nothing rather than cashing in on him (if he'd even have accept a move) at the time he turned down a contract.

Realistically Coppell didn't really have that much of a decision to make really, and he probably didn't want to lose Sidwell and have to reshape the team. It was a decision he got right though. In the case of Hunt and Shorey he got the same decision wrong.

[prostak]

That would be a valid statement if we knew how much money was available and how much Sidwell would have sold for.

[Ian Royal]

He wanted a lot more than we felt justified in giving before knowing if he'd be up to the Prem... then when he proved he was we offered him the contract he had wanted, but by then he wanted even more so declined and found himself another club.

So you could argue we were too cautious initially, seeing as it worked out that he was worth that first contract when we got promoted, but that's about it. And by the end of the season there was no way we could match either the wage offered by Chelsea or the opportunity.

[Hoop Blah]

That would be a valid statement if we knew how much money was available and how much Sidwell would have sold for.

What's the alternative? That Coppell just couldn't be bothered to deal with the situation and buried his head in the sand for 12 months and hoped it'd go away?

He must've felt (and I'm sure he's said as much since) that Sidwell was too good to just sell and try and replace, along with the issues of affording a replacement and bedding them in, and instead decided that it was better to keep him.

Our transfer dealings that year and 12 months later give a pretty decent impression of what money was available. Within those constraints it would've been very difficult to attract a better player, let alone one that (like brendys valid point about Hunt) you know can play in your side.

[prostak]

Not quite as cut and dried though - did he not state there was money available? While this is proof of Coppell's man management skills, it's quite possibly an indictment of his squad management. Indeed, you could turn this to say he had a year to find any sort of replacement, and ended up with Emerse Faé.

[Wimb]

Without being T'INTERNET POLICE can we not let this descend into another Why we got relegated thread/why didn't we do xyz .....

[Hoop Blah]

Without being T'INTERNET POLICE can we not let this descend into another Why we got relegated thread/why didn't we do xyz .....

Agreed, although I think we've proved that was because......

Not quite as cut and dried though - did he not state there was money available? While this is proof of Coppell's man management skills, it's quite possibly an indictment of his squad management. Indeed, you could turn this to say he had a year to find any sort of replacement, and ended up with Emerse Faé.

There was money available yes, albeit more in the summer of 2007, but you have to read into the fact we didn't look to sell Sidwell and replace him there and then as Coppell believing that was the better option because he didn't think we could replace him effectively. He made that decision because the £2-4m we'd have got for Sidwell at the time wasn't enough to warrent selling him.

Isn't the only other scenario that Sidwell said he'd refuse a move to maximise his signing on fee when on a Bosman and so we didn't have a choice in the matter.

[brendywendy]

The only genuis on Coppells part was making the call that he couldn't get a better player than Sidwell for the money we had and so he was more valuable to us playing for a year and going for nothing rather than cashing in on him (if he'd even have accept a move) at the time he turned down a contract.

Realistically Coppell didn't really have that much of a decision to make really, and he probably didn't want to lose Sidwell and have to reshape the team. It was a decision he got right though. In the case of Hunt and Shorey he got the same decision wrong.

imo sidwell wasnt as good in that season as he had been before either.


maybe its just never a good idea to keep a player that wants out.

[brendywendy]

Not quite as cut and dried though - did he not state there was money available? While this is proof of Coppell's man management skills, it's quite possibly an indictment of his squad management. Indeed, you could turn this to say he had a year to find any sort of replacement, and ended up with Emerse Faé.

scott brown bid accepted.just couldnt convince the player to come here.

[Hoop Blah]

That was the season after wasn't it? No bearing on the decision to stick with Sidwell for the previous 12 months.

We did look at Fae for the best part of a year before signing him though. That didn't work out well obviously!

[Wimb]

OI!

Take it outside you lot

[brendywendy]

That was the season after wasn't it? No bearing on the decision to stick with Sidwell for the previous 12 months.

We did look at Fae for the best part of a year before signing him though. That didn't work out well obviously!

scott brown- end of 06/07 season.


personally i thought fae started to show signs of real class- obviously there was a personality problem/clash- and these are much harder to pinpoint in an interview situation.

[Wimb]

Interesting that Jonny Fordham said in his webchat that he didn't expect Ivar to get a new deal, if that's the case at what point do we bring in Morrison?

[Wimb]

So Ivar could well be done, Armstrong looks done too

[loyalroyal4life]

Ivar is long gone, think we need to get a fresh look at the back, i can see Mills going in summer so could well end up with Morrison and Pearce

[Ian Royal]

Ivar is long gone, think we need to get a fresh look at the back, i can see Mills going in summer so could well end up with Morrison and Pearce

win win win win

didn't someone say Morrison is injured at the moment?

[Wimb]

Stretch retired, updated the front page