19 January 2011

LET'S BE REALISTIC ABOUT BENNETT

Some Albion fans won't like this but if Elliott Bennett wants to go to Norwich then the club will let him, simple as.

Poyet isn't the sort of manager who wants players at the club who don't want to be there - just think back to Calde last season.  If Bennett does knock on the manager's door, agent in tow, and honestly says "I want to play at a higher level for a bigger club" then that is that, his heart is elsewhere.

The soundbites from Bloom are largely empty.  Whilst we believe him when he says we neither need or want to sell our better players, money only talks to a certain degree; a move to a bigger club will always appeal to an exciting young player.

Think back to last year, Andrew Crofts was fantastic for us, perhaps our best asset.  Made captain by Poyet and only missing 2 games all season, he was a firm fans favourite and one most presumed would be leading us out this season.

But Norwich came calling and Crofts' ears pricked up.  The club did very little to stand in his way that time so what's different this time?  Falmer was on the horizon then too and we were certainly a club on the up.  Why did Poyet not "fight" in June - surely he was a big part of his plans for 10/11.  Where was the cliched hands off quote from Bloom last summer?  If a player wants out, there's little the manager and chairman can do to stop them.  In Crofts case it was more a case of 'how much can we get off them?'.

We can hope that Poyet mimics the powerful persuasion techniques of Sir Alex Ferguson when he convinced the wantaway Ronaldo to stay at Old Trafford for one more year, but don't be surprised if the biggest transfer activity at Queens Road this window will be outbound.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

difference with calde: he was out of contract
difference with crofts: it's january
poor article

i am sam said...

i think it's naive to use the contract issue as a key factor in how this will play out, crofts was signed for another year when we let him go.

good points though.

apart from the last one obviously.