Alex Scott - £25m to Bournemouth- Confirmed

[Kibs]

I think regardless of what NP said, the clubs preference was always to sell in this window. Better that it’s sorted now than on deadline day. 

What will be interesting is to find out just how well prepared the club were for this in terms of replacements - and we really do need to replace him. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Nugget said:

Could be an interesting few weeks of the window left. The club will surely wanna soften the blow of another AS going, look how the Semenyo money has been used. A real shame but like others have said if his head has been slightly turned (maybe even disguised as a knock whilst he mulls things over?) then cashing out at max value to a club he will leapfrog from vs keeping someone who’s contract is running down / not 100% focused makes this probably the right thing for all. 

quote from NP "better chance of success if we keep our best players" dont think he said better chance of success if we sell AS then try and get someone better for less money, yet again a king pin at this club has been sold off.

Note; All players contracts are running down from the moment they are signed, we 100% would have been better off with AS this season than without him, and to suggest his head aint here insults his pro status. We cash in under the cover of building better...AGAIN.

[JoeAman08]

We shouldn’t have put a price out there. 25m good money for sure but we’d have been fine ffp wise without the sale this season. We’d still have got 12-15m next summer for him anyway which would still be good money. 
 

It does seem to me that we are too quick to sell when momentum seems to be picking up. Webster coming off our best season in 10 years. Scott now that NP has gotten a side built in his vision. 
 

We will see what the plan is the rest of the window. Pass judgement then I guess. However the timing ain’t great. We don’t spend and falter the fanbase will turn pretty quick I think. 

[Engvall’s Splinter]

22 minutes ago, wtf said:

 

 

Quote NP Bristol live; "Planning to keep him" "Better chance of success if we keep our best players" now which ever way you cut it we wont get as good players for less than what we recieved for them, maybe you should think why clubs like Bournemouth take our best players ? wait I know........they are prem clubs we never will be while we continue with our mindset; bottom line WE DIDNT HAVE TO SELL SCOTT and wont replace him with better even if we spend every penny we got for him.

Please get it, we cannot continue to sell off our prize assets and hope to progress under the belief that we are building some awesome powerfull squad, for the simple reason when we do get anyone awesome we sell them off, that is not progress its going around in circles.

Better chance, yes. Only chance, no. 
 

Didn’t Luton lose their player of the year Kal Naismith and then get promoted? 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Kibs said:

I think regardless of what NP said, the clubs preference was always to sell in this window. Better that it’s sorted now than on deadline day. 

What will be interesting is to find out just how well prepared the club were for this in terms of replacements - and we really do need to replace him. 

See bit in red really, not to sell = ambition; always to sell = lacking ambition and belief to progress.

This is not a one off its what we do.

[Lrrr]

Just now, wtf said:

See bit in red really, not to sell = ambition; always to sell = lacking ambition and belief to progress.

This is not a one off its what we do.

Essentially you’re otherwise saying by not selling him this summer we’re sacrificing what is essentially a years worth of losses in the hope we have a good season, particularly where 3 strong teams have dropped down from the premier league making it all the harder. I think if we were genuinely in and around the play offs last season there’s a different case to make but off the back of a lower mid season finish it’s hard to make 

[Shauntaylor85]

1 minute ago, JoeAman08 said:

We shouldn’t have put a price out there. 25m good money for sure but we’d have been fine ffp wise without the sale this season. We’d still have got 12-15m next summer for him anyway which would still be good money. 
 

It does seem to me that we are too quick to sell when momentum seems to be picking up. Webster coming off our best season in 10 years. Scott now that NP has gotten a side built in his vision. 
 

We will see what the plan is the rest of the window. Pass judgement then I guess. However the timing ain’t great. We don’t spend and falter the fanbase will turn pretty quick I think. 

SL talks about the PL all the time, as does all of our PR. Reality is can you really see us getting there under him? Luton, Blackpool, Brentford, Bournemouth, Barnsley have all done it, all smaller clubs than City. 

He invested far too much time in the Johnson family IMO, then made the Fawthrop, Millen, Tinnion mistake again with Holden. Didn’t back Cotts after all he did that season prior to get the board out of the mess from the previous champ era ending, he finally has someone at the club who knows how to build for success and you just get the feeling we will throw it away. 

I know well that in 2016 after we sacked Cotts, Warnock wanted the City job, I was at Charlton and my heart sank when I heard LJ had been appointed. Warnock went to Rotherham, performed a miracle and then did the same at Cardiff next year with a 2nd placed finish spending half of what LJ had at City. Had we appointed Warnock we would for sure had been promoted by now, or at the very least a couple of play off finishes. The point I am making is the Nige and Warnock’s of the world know how to run a club at this level to achieve success, but for our board you seem to get the impression to be too outspoken. 

[Simon bristol]

Does anyone else consider that this already at the top of our wages budget is a smokescreen? We are hearing multiple examples of football club “statements” about swollen knees, i dont know how much the final bid is, etc etc, where clearly nige is putting out a line for the media,, and i dont have a problem with him doing that… but then we are having to take some things has gospel truth at the same time. They said months ago there are 2 transfer lists, one if scott goes and one if he doesnt, and while that may also have been a white lie, clearly that would make sense?

[Northern Red]

Running a football club is evidently a piece of piss.

[bpexile]

8 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

Hope NP doesn't do an erstwhile Wolves boss, and walk !

Or a Coppello 

[Midred]

At the end of the day Scott has got the chance of more game time with a team like Bournemouth than going to a "big club" where he may get to play in the second team or be loaned out.

[westonred]

2 minutes ago, Midred said:

At the end of the day Scott has got the chance of more game time with a team like Bournemouth than going to a "big club" where he may get to play in the second team or be loaned out.

Thats what they said about Semenyo

[Super]

If he isn't involved this Saturday may well make his debut at Anfield the following Saturday.

[mozo]

8 hours ago, petehinton said:

If the same people don’t let Pearson bring anyone new in that also signed off Marley Watkins and Engvall then we may as well pack up and go home.  
 

He’s waded us through a load of shite. We were virtually at rock bottom before he came in. Back him.  

I'm guessing Phil Alexander will have the most input re how much we can invest?

8 hours ago, formerly known as ivan said:

I don’t get this wage bill limit rubbish, but then again I don’t run a football.

However, if £20/£25m doesn’t allow you to change that wage bill I would be amazed!

You'd think so!

[JBFC II]

4 minutes ago, westonred said:

Thats what they said about Semenyo

To be fair, Scott is in a different league to semenyo right now

[RedRoss]

48 minutes ago, wtf said:

 

 

Quote NP Bristol live; "Planning to keep him" "Better chance of success if we keep our best players" now which ever way you cut it we wont get as good players for less than what we recieved for them, maybe you should think why clubs like Bournemouth take our best players ? wait I know........they are prem clubs we never will be while we continue with our mindset; bottom line WE DIDNT HAVE TO SELL SCOTT and wont replace him with better even if we spend every penny we got for him.

Please get it, we cannot continue to sell off our prize assets and hope to progress under the belief that we are building some awesome powerfull squad, for the simple reason when we do get anyone awesome we sell them off, that is not progress its going around in circles.

So that's definitely how it works everytime does it?

Brighton always sell their 'best' players and better the next season with new recruitment. Kal came to us after being Lutons best player and look what happened with them. Also you seem to neglect that Alex has his own aspirations, I'm not saying he would of been less professional but thats not the point. He clearly wants to play prem football like most players in the world and his head will have been set on that.

Good luck to Alex, arrived on a free as a boy. Smashed the last couple of seasons with us and grown into a very good player. Credit to him and our staff for basically creating £20+ million for our coffers and I'm sure a nice sell on if he progresses as we expect. Hope he smashes it!

[rednotblue]

I have been surprised by the lack of firm offers for AS from PL clubs. Perhaps the club are too?

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 hour ago, wtf said:

"Tinpot" Bournemouth dont always sell their best players = the difference between us and them. 2 of our best in a year must be a record even for us though?

Sadly NP can expect very little of the fees to strengthen our weakest positions,

We are building f all while we continue to sell off our prized assets and continue to go around and around while other tinpot clubs with ambition pass us by.

We didnt HAVE TO sell AS we could have showed some balls, for a change and gone for it this season, could write a list of prized assets plying their trade in the prem but cashing in is what we do, which is why we are still here going around and around

We have a better squad having sold Semenyo and it sorted out our ffp position. 

Edited August 10, 2023 by W-S-M Seagull

[johnheadbcfc]

This isn't fm , it's not as simple as we want player we keep player until he magically forgets he's been linked with prem clubs and inter Milan. You force him to stay when he's got the chance to play Premier league football and also more than quadruple his wages then whos to say we won't have another massengo situation.

[Open End Numb Legs]

Maybe the reason Nige is a but grumpy is we turned down offers just below this one weeks ago when there were possible targets available for him to go for as a replacement? Perhaps those players went elsewhere.

Maybe this is about timing. Just guessing.

[Chrizzler]

39 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

We shouldn’t have put a price out there. 25m good money for sure but we’d have been fine ffp wise without the sale this season. We’d still have got 12-15m next summer for him anyway which would still be good money. 
 

It does seem to me that we are too quick to sell when momentum seems to be picking up. Webster coming off our best season in 10 years. Scott now that NP has gotten a side built in his vision. 
 

We will see what the plan is the rest of the window. Pass judgement then I guess. However the timing ain’t great. We don’t spend and falter the fanbase will turn pretty quick I think. 

Completely agree, it's always one step forward two steps back with us. 

[johnheadbcfc]

The club does not stand in the way of talented players getting their big move, if we did then we wouldn't get those players. Pros and cons of the business model

[Crimson Crayola]

40 minutes ago, wtf said:

quote from NP "better chance of success if we keep our best players" dont think he said better chance of success if we sell AS then try and get someone better for less money, yet again a king pin at this club has been sold off.

Note; All players contracts are running down from the moment they are signed, we 100% would have been better off with AS this season than without him, and to suggest his head aint here insults his pro status. We cash in under the cover of building better...AGAIN.

Yawn, if you cant see the potential behind  spreading Alex's value across 2-3 signings that bring the quality of the 1st 11 up, then i give up.

[Johnny Musicworks]

I tend to think that the plan A (If Scott stayed) and plan B (if not)was a bit of a smokescreen. We knew that it would always be plan B but didn’t want to go public with it. The purchases in January and recently are getting plan B in place so we didn’t pay over the odds for replacements. I’m not saying that we won’t fund another player now but I reckon plan B going forward meant holding on to Pring, Conway, Bell etc, at least for this season and having some financial clout if necessary in January for a push.

[italian dave]

8 hours ago, Fuber said:

If he seriously couldn't see the impact of the inflated wages and what that meant for liquidity and FFP - then that's his problem. He outed that he had sign off on transfers. More than once.

Comparatively, NP has multiple times quoted the proviso of bringing parity of wages across the squad and the way in which it eases squad and player management, and the financial implications.

Anyhow - I won't derail this thread getting back unto the LJ/ MA critiques. The benefit here is we have time to resolve. Let's hope Tinns et al have targets lined up, still time to get some business done.

As I’ve said before on here, I don’t believe LJ’s objectives were around the finances. That sat elsewhere. His were around finishing top 6. And the Board’s failure to align those two became a real problem.

Plenty of people in football ‘out’ things that are probably convenient half truths - witness this past weekend on this thread!

What p…s me off is just this narrative that manager a is all good and overcomes every adversity and manager b is all bad and has none of the problems. All managers have their strengths, their weaknesses, and most of them have to contend with much the same set of problems. And, at a club like City, losing your best players is one thing that any manager is going to have to face. I’m sure NP is fed up to have lost Alex, but it can hardly have come as a surprise and presumably he buys into the reality of that situation too.

As you say, let’s hope we’ve got some targets lined up and can use the time available. 

[frenchred]

9 hours ago, Barrs Court Red said:

I’d love to know who in the club is making these decisions…

Only one.person, it's his club remember he told us

[JoeAman08]

I think the frustration is we have never really seen the club “go for it.” When have we had momentum and push on? Been here almost ten years and lucky enough my first season watching city was promotion and JPT. 
 

We had a young and hungry squad coming of massive success. Did we back that and make it stronger? No

We then solidified our position in the league for a couple seasons. Nothing wrong with that. 
 

Then we had a strong season where we flew through the first half of the year. We didn’t seem prepared for January and while we got players in, we ultimately fizzled out. 
 

That summer, we sold two top players for us but with that we strengthened a bit. We had a really good season and sustained it right the way through. Finished 8th I think? Good position to build on, right? Well we will just sell arguably our best player after only one season. Ok wasted the opportunity to get better with the money. 
 

Then few years of struggle after a pandemic. Ok, we sort the wage bill out. Bring through academy players. Start building a squad and a big part of that is this gem we developed. Financially we are ok. The squad hasn’t been this strong in years. He has two years left on his deal. What do we do? Sell our best player again going into what should be a season of success(whatever you think that is). 
 

For me, we sell at the wrong times for the most part. We also rarely get the right players with the money. I’d like to see us actually hold firm for once and say no, we want to see where this goes. 
 

Maybe we’ll be better for it down the road. That said just always feels like it is next season. 

[42nite]

26 minutes ago, Super said:

If he isn't involved this Saturday may well make his debut at Anfield the following Saturday.

Exactly this.

In a contact sport like this....his career can end at any time.

AS is playing his cards right. He will be set for life when he signs that contract. He will be playing in the top league with the big boys. If he proves that he can do it at that level...consistantly, they will then be banging on Bournmouth's door...and he will be off again.

Who on here would honestly refuse that chance?

Fair play to him, I wish him well.

[the1stknowle]

8 hours ago, Ska Junkie said:

I wish AS well but I'm in the FFS camp along with many others judging by the last few pages.

When will it be our turn? Sadly, I don't see it coming as we have to sell our best. The money and wages we cannot compete with, I understand that.

Im not anti Bournemouth but pro City.

Gutted, again. Shit week which sounds mad after a 5-1 win but fear for our club if we always have to sell our best.

Completely understood, but some silver linings:

1. Crazy good money in the bank for a championship player and, if he fulfills potential, I assume we have the chance to make another really good sum down the road.

2. Another high profile sale to the prem. Our reputation in that area builds. Promising players want to come to us because they see a pathway. Youth players want to develop here for same reason. That means more gems down the road. We have already signed some.

3. Related to 2, and the biggest silver lining for me, we now seem to have a recruitment operation that knows what a promising young player is and our transfer business and known targets are always really exciting now. Never trusted the football side of City so much as I do today. If Tinnion/Pearson say a player is class and I think he's onions, I know that I'm wrong. Even if they can only spend a fraction of that money over next few windows, I'm excited to see who they bring in. 

4. I know this isn't universal, but for me, there is a massive element of pride in seeing a youth team player achieving like this. I'm not on board with the 'just Bournemouth' stuff. Hope he smashes it in a fun Bournemouth team and is in the England squad in next few years.

5. Players want to play in prem and history says you have to take your chance or you could miss it. Short career that can be over in one tackle. One day, we will be in that league, and we will have a chance to sign the best players from much bigger Championship clubs and their fans will be shouting 'why Bristol City?' and we will love it. 

[johnheadbcfc]

Think the doom and gloom should wait until after the window closes. Pearson and Tinnion have been on the ball for a while now