'You definitely shouldn't play poker with David McNally'

[PurpleCanary 5,562]

[quote user="ABC A Basingstoke Canary"]

Purple, I have taken the liberty of commenting as appropriate in red below.

Secondly, Hughton DID say he was worried we might be relegated. (No he didn''t - even you admit that further down) What else do you think he meant after the Villa defeat by:It is a must-win. We are where we are for the obvious reasons. We had a great run before Christmas, and we’ve found it very difficult since then. it’s a real battle that we’re in at the moment and the players are going to have to show plenty of character this week.” (I would say he meant exactly what he said - it''s only your interpretation that he said we were in a relegation battle)Thirdly, although "rushing around trying to spend £10m" is a tabloid phrase the fact is we did offer bid £7m for Hooper on transfer deadline day. (Seriously? You have proof of that? Or is that just a reflection of the media spin on the night?)

Finally, you claim there are other interpretations of those facts, but then your interpretation - "There is no denying that they were trying to get some reinforcements." - is my interpretation! I have just been a bit more specific. (Then we at least agree on that point - my apologies, I mis-interpreted your "rushing around trying to spend £10m" comment)

[/quote]

 

ABC, if you really don''t believe that direct quote from Hughton was an admission that we were in danger of relegation then I think you are pretty much alone in that. You think Hughton was warning we were in danger of not qualifying for the Champions League?The £7m bid for Hooper is not media spin. According to the EDP we made our third bid for Hooper on January 30, and then it was widely reported that we made a fourth bid on January 31. Hughton himself talked in the plural: "We put substantial bids in." And later on McNally said that during January we had made two separate bids for separate players of twice our transfer record. Which, it is generally accepted, stood at the time at the £3.5m we had paid for Earnshaw.So we made two bids of £7m. I assume one was for RVW. The other has to have been the final - unsuccessful - offer we made for Hooper. The player for whom we had made "substantial bids". Having had earlier, lower, bids rejected, we offered £7m.

[Yellow Shirt 17]

It''s so nice to see this lot have their heads screwed on-  the club was contacted some years ago and offered consultancy from one of the biggest and best negotiation consultancy firms around when they were looking at whether sport was a worthwhile market for them to move into and being told ''no thanks we''re great negotiators and don''t need or want any help''. It was clear at that time that they were missing a lot of tricks but McNally seems to have things a bit more in line!

[Bill 1,788]

I do like the way purple imagines (or would have us believe) the club is run.In this scenario Hughton makes a passionate speech to the board demanding money.A demand we must believe is based on the board not having a clue how things are with regard to the team, the squad or the league standing.A rather strange position given how they oversee the scouting network. But that has always been his modus operandi (as the welsh would say). a slight twitch here, a sleight of hand there coupled with a fair bit of misdirection and there you have it. - "He doesn''t use the word "relegation" but only an idiot wouldn''t realise that was what he was talking about."         His twists and turns with regard to the two recent stadium expansion debates were a master class in this duplicity - possibly making him a sort of thinking woman''s wiz.So I shouldn''t take his arguments too serious, more so if you bother to deconstruct them or if you have a memory beyond a couple of days.But, as with many, he adds to the rich tapestry that is this forum.