I am very happy with the Ashton sale.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

I am obviously in a minority in being pleased with the Ashton sale.

I am unhappy with the circumstances which caused the sale and these are down to Worthington and injuries.

The situation we find ourselves in means this is a sensible option.

The good financial management of the Club meant we could sell at ''our'' valuation.

If Green goes too then so be it and good luck to them both.

Sometimes in life you need to know when to hold your hands up and realise where you are.

Ashton IMO is a big injury risk, I hope not for his sake.

The nightmare scenario for me was to keep Ashton and see him get injured or his valuation fall.

Ashton was ineffective in the current Norwich team but will surely do well within the West ham set up.

Just think of the players Hammers have had to sell, they came back and are now buying other sides ''Quality.''  What goes around comes around.

I would be happy to see us spend absolutely nothing but I suspect up to four players are on the way and deals are already in the pipeline.

This is an honest club, stop whinging about being deceived it was buisiness and West ham would have expected confidentiality. If you want to be in the know you need to be on the Board.

Selling a player is NEVER the end of the world. The club is bigger than any individual and the ''team balance and resiliance'' which we have not had all season is more importat than a single player, however good he is.

Norwich City need balance and pace, they need hunger and drive, they have gone stale. They also need a new management and as I said I would prefer they spent nothing than spent badly. 

[YankeeCanary 0]

I''m also pleased, for similar reasons. Our current status could have been much better under different management but it was not to be. So let''s take the positives out of where we are at. 

Prior to last January, and before acquiring Ashton, we were sadly lacking a talented striker up front and we had a significant debt load to carry. Many wondered whether we would have the resources to acquire someone and, when we acquired Ashton, these pages were filled with happiness. A year on, despite our woes, we have more than doubled the money we laid out. If we choose to, we can attempt to acquire another young, talented striker for similar money that we paid for Ashton, except this time it''s paid for in total from business transfer profits rather than debt.

In my opinion Delia and the Board are doing the business and the club is positioning itself to build in the right way for the future. I hope acquiring talented management and coaching to replace what we currently have is also part of the plan. I am certain that it must be. 

[lucky green trainers 0]

agree rude old - deano not the same striker this season as he was in the prem.  mind you, this applies to the whole side. was awesome against soton, but thats the only glimpse we''ve seen this season of a city side gelling together and playing as one with him feeding off some good approach play.translate deano for an opportunity to rebuild the team - hopefully under a new manager.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Nice to see a bit of transatlantic accord Septic, first time we''ve agreed I think!

[a1canary 0]

wow, i find myself agreeing with YC as well! this is a strange day!

excellent post rudolph. i wondered if anyone was going to post anything to balance out some of the usual hysterical rubbish that gets put on here. I''m not sure i''m happy about DA''s departure but it doesn''t have to be a catastrophe either.

[Mello Yello 2,572]

I want the cash from Ashton to be spent on a new carpet in the Cathedral Lounge! The current threadbare morsel is absolutely dire! Bring back free programmes (loft insulators) free Latte''s, and top of the range cookie biscuits......Some serious ''Ruddy faced Tweedsters'' in the Lounge yesterday; "Guffaw, guffaw, oh really? absolutely! Spiffing and ''toodle pip!'' 

Anyway I digress....Yeah in reality, I''m actually pleased and relieved that the Dean has gone. He was a good purchase - but lacked a bit of pace...........Unlike me! At fulltime I vacated my ''plassy throne''; sneered and gestured at ''the well to do''ers'' behind the the armour plated big bay window........the affluent scoffers! and was in Scores for a bevvy and a moan in 4.2 minutes! Billy Whizz! ;~)

"I must not go on a tangent!"

"I must not go on a tangent!"

"I must not go on a tangent!"

"I must not..............whatever.......... 

[oh huckerby 0]

no sour grapes from me, all thre best deano and thanks for the memories man utd, newcastle etc,

from a business point of view it''s perfect sense as long as worthy has 5m + to spend, Jermone, eastwood, bring um in, lets not fall back into a selling club lets this one be a one off.

Deano, why hadn''t you come out in the last six weeks and say ''I wanna stay?'' cause you probably didn''t! mate you shouldn''t have signed an extention if it was in the back of your mind about about the future,

but you''ve still got to pass a medical!!!!!!!

all the best mate, lets hope you last more the 75mins for the hammers!!!

 

 

[0peteddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

Good business handled poorly.

[Alan Tompkins 0]

Yes you are in the minority.

So what if Ashtons valuation had of fallen if we had gambled and kept him.

The Board have just cost the club any possible chance of promotion and the £20m + that it would bring.In fact i''d be surprised if we avoid relegation and that will cost us more than the sale of Ashton bought in period.

If Green goes,the club will be totally screwed as both Ward and Gallagher are not alot of good,in fact when Ward has deputised,he has been nothing short of total rubbish(want to put stronger words but would then be censored)

Who will score the goals now as Mcveigh and Leon need a good target man to play off and Thorne is not good enough.

[Cheeky Monkey 0]

I''m pleased to.

Let''s face it, he aint gonna be the next Shearer - ever. He can''t turn and has poor ball control. Yes, he has good vision, insight whatever you want to call it. But, the next Shearer - haha - yeah whatever.

 

 

[Alan_Grey 0]

Absolutely the best decision. Ashton has been ineffective here, let''s face it, so it''s best to get the money at the height of the speculation, before his value goes down. And to all the people saying it''s Ashton wanting to leave - well, they only talked to him when they got an offer they couldn''t refuse, right?

[gazzathegreat 0]

[quote user="Rudolph Hucker"]

I am obviously in a minority in being pleased with the Ashton sale.

I am unhappy with the circumstances which caused the sale and these are down to Worthington and injuries.

The situation we find ourselves in means this is a sensible option.

The good financial management of the Club meant we could sell at ''our'' valuation.

If Green goes too then so be it and good luck to them both.

Sometimes in life you need to know when to hold your hands up and realise where you are.

Ashton IMO is a big injury risk, I hope not for his sake.

The nightmare scenario for me was to keep Ashton and see him get injured or his valuation fall.

Ashton was ineffective in the current Norwich team but will surely do well within the West ham set up.

Just think of the players Hammers have had to sell, they came back and are now buying other sides ''Quality.''  What goes around comes around.

I would be happy to see us spend absolutely nothing but I suspect up to four players are on the way and deals are already in the pipeline.

This is an honest club, stop whinging about being deceived it was buisiness and West ham would have expected confidentiality. If you want to be in the know you need to be on the Board.

Selling a player is NEVER the end of the world. The club is bigger than any individual and the ''team balance and resiliance'' which we have not had all season is more importat than a single player, however good he is.

Norwich City need balance and pace, they need hunger and drive, they have gone stale. They also need a new management and as I said I would prefer they spent nothing than spent badly. 

[/quote]

 

Rudolph

I applaud you for the post and most of your points.  However whilst I agree you cannot keep a player who wants to go, it''s the reason he wanted to go which upsets me.  We bought a promising young player and didn''t play to his strengths, resulting in him looking ineffective a lot of the time, coupled with injuries, some picked up in training, others, like the head injury as a result of bad luck, for which no one can be blamed.  What I do call into question is the reasoning Worthy used to justify buying him.  Yes, Dean Ashton came from a football club and played with the ball to his feet. So, we''ll go and change all that and hoof it up to him.  It''s easier and anyway we don''t have anyone who can cross the ball effectively (particularly from the right). 

The reason we are where we are are not Ashton''s - I wish him well, but sadly see this latest piece of business echoing the bad old days.  Should Worthington be given any of the proceeds of the sale.... God only knows what he might do with it.  Keep the money Delia and get rid of them at the end of the season.  We are never going to achieve anything with the present management team.  Worthington had all the ace cards this season and has continually played a pack of jokers. 

Time for the board to plan ahead, look around for someone new to fire up the talent we still have.  Then get rid of the dross and start rebuilding us as a football team.  If Deano was sacrified to this end then maybe I can accept it, in time.  If the proceeds are used for more knackered old donkeys then we are in serious decline.  I do hope the latter is not the case.

[A Load of Squit 6,260]

I agree and I think YC is right about the board, not sure about the last two sentances. 

[Bird Table 0]

Yeah, I think it''s a good deal too. I don''t think we''d have seen that amount of money for him again. When we fail to get promoted, Ashton would have wanted to force a move and any bidding club could have got away with a cut-price offer. Plus, I think Ashton is a little over-rated anyway. My only worry is that Worthington will be allowed to waste the money on more of his midfield cloggers.

But good luck to the lad.

[Northern Canary 0]

I have lots of different thoughts, good and bad at the moment and am yet to have really decided how good it will be.

I think that it is better selling now because we have got more money than we would have in summer,  and we have the money to buy a lot of much needed quality. Who we buy will really decide how good this sale is.

The sale would be fantastic if the money is put towards Jerome, Halford, Idiakez, Birchall etc. I feel we have a very average but young squad, with a bit of quality added then next season we may go somewhere.

If we sign rubbish players then we are screwed, and that is what i am scared of.

Ideally, i would have liked us to have built the squad around Ashton, but we simply didnt have the money. Now we do have some money so we should do our best to make the most of it.

[Branston Pickle 4,150]

There''s bound to be the melodramatic posts from some about how everyone should resign, we''ve been lied to etc etc, but for me those people just can''t see the bigger picture. 

The fact remains that we have made £4m+ profit in one year to sell someone who just didn''t seem to be producing the form we''d hoped for this season: he did almost help us to stay up, so we can all thank him for that, but I don''t think anyone would have had Ashton scoring only 11 goals for us by mid-Jan; to get anything like the £££s we are getting for him is  rather amazing when you bear in mind some of the lower fees that are being paid for other players at the moment.

I hope Worthy can pull off some more of his decent signings with the cash - some of the most recent ones have rather clouded his record, but I do think he has signed some very good players in the past (including Ashton himself).

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

gazzathegreat" wrote

Rudolph

I applaud you for the post and most of your points.  However whilst I agree you cannot keep a player who wants to go, it''s the reason he wanted to go which upsets me.  We bought a promising young player and didn''t play to his strengths, resulting in him looking ineffective a lot of the time, coupled with injuries, some picked up in training, others, like the head injury as a result of bad luck, for which no one can be blamed.  What I do call into question is the reasoning Worthy used to justify buying him.  Yes, Dean Ashton came from a football club and played with the ball to his feet. So, we''ll go and change all that and hoof it up to him.  It''s easier and anyway we don''t have anyone who can cross the ball effectively (particularly from the right). 

The reason we are where we are are not Ashton''s - I wish him well, but sadly see this latest piece of business echoing the bad old days.  Should Worthington be given any of the proceeds of the sale.... God only knows what he might do with it.  Keep the money Delia and get rid of them at the end of the season.  We are never going to achieve anything with the present management team.  Worthington had all the ace cards this season and has continually played a pack of jokers. 

Time for the board to plan ahead, look around for someone new to fire up the talent we still have.  Then get rid of the dross and start rebuilding us as a football team.  If Deano was sacrified to this end then maybe I can accept it, in time.  If the proceeds are used for more knackered old donkeys then we are in serious decline.  I do hope the latter is not the case.

Gazza,

I actually think we are of the same viewpoint only you are a little more disappointed in how we have got here than I will allow myself to be. I have the strong suspicion that players are already lined up and can see Worthington bringing in up to four new faces.

Look at all this another way. Would you rather have players so average (as we do) no one else wants them much less take them off you for money. It is better to have quality and lose it than never to have it at all.[;)]

[vos 176]

Yes this is a good sale. It is no use criticising the Board for mixed messages. At the end of the day they obtained a very good price and played their cards well. Ashton could see we have little hope of regaining premiership status this season and if he made it clear he wanted away then unfortunately thats football these days.

We only have a few days left before the transfer window closes and so I sincerely hope we do not dive in and make panic buys. My view is that we have a strong enough squad to achieve a comfortable place in the league and so we should concentrate on building up a bit of teamwork and then strengthen as required in the summer. I am  not a Worthy fan as he is too defensive but in view of costly compensation payments etc we will probably have to live with him for a bit longer. BUT we must replace the coaching staff.

Saturdays game was a classic performance where all the usual poor tactics were displayed i.e. wild high clearances from Green and the defence, passing to Huckerby when surrounded by 3/4 players, generally poor ball control, little support from midfield and full backs on the flanks. Adrian Boothroyds team had no stars etc. but they were positive, attack minded and quick thinking. As regards tactics as the match progressed Adrian won by a mile.