Now Do You See What Happens..

[Bristol Boy]

when you leave everything to the last minute?

Panic, Distraction, Scrabbling around for what's left.

I hope for GJ's sake there is more to this than meets the eye and it's favourable for City because:

a.There ain't long left.

b.We're in relegation trouble.

c.We've got one striker that scores regularly.

d.If the guy's got injury, attitude or medical problems, then what happened to scouting, in depth checks and knowing who we want?

Seems a bit of a farce to me.

[Lordofthebling]

All roads hould now point to:

Hayter

[samo]

its true tht maybe we should have known more before he came but as someone has said in another thread he best thing you can do to suss out someone is to ask them yourself, and if we didn't agree a fee and get him down for talks then we'd get accsed 'tapping up'. personally didn't know uch about him and from all the hearsay he could have been anything from the next lee trundle to the next saddam! i don't think he was our last option and its at least uplifitng to see that we aren't just blidly following hayter till the last day.

your not wrong about the possible lack of scoting, just putting accross another point of view.

[Dinky Gems]

[Colemanballs]

when you leave everything to the last minute?

Panic, Distraction,

Where's the evidence for this?

Scrabbling around for what's left.

This implies that we could have signed what has already gone. Which players that have already signed and which we could have realistically attracted to City would you have signed? For all your continual bleating on this subject I do not recall you actually offering any positive suggestions other than a vague and ultimately distracting demand that signings are made quickly. Now that would fit in with my definition of panic.

[Guest Harry Dolman]

Where's the evidence for this?

This implies that we could have signed what has already gone. Which players that have already signed and which we could have realistically attracted to City would you have signed? For all your continual bleating on this subject I do not recall you actually offering any positive suggestions other than a vague and ultimately distracting demand that signings are made quickly. Now that would fit in with my definition of panic.

This is the point. Would the following players have come here ?/could we afford them ?

Leon Knight

Grant Holt

Jon Parkin

Alan Lee

Scott Taylor

Rory Fallon

The ony "maybe" in that list is Scott Taylor who has spent almost a season wasting his time at Argyle.

Anyone can see that we would benefit from a natural left winger & a pacy, prolific scorer, however we can't just magic them up.

Maybe we have been talking to prospects/thier clubs for a while - maybe some of the talk of teams waiting to the last minute has some truth (all the transfer speculation around Easter going to Oxford/Wycombe etc only started on Weds). The reality is that we have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, but irrespective of how much we want someone, if we can't afford them or they don't want to come to us, there isn't much we can do.

[RedTop]

Just who is panicking around here ?

Surely if the club was panicking, GJ and SteveL would have agreed whatever it took to get Easter to sign on the dotted line, regardless of whether they had reservations?

Calling the deal off smacks of not panicking, surely?

[Guest Harry Dolman]

when you leave everything to the last minute?

Panic, Distraction, Scrabbling around for what's left.

I hope for GJ's sake there is more to this than meets the eye and it's favourable for City because:

a.There ain't long left.

b.We're in relegation trouble.

c.We've got one striker that scores regularly.

d.If the guy's got injury, attitude or medical problems, then what happened to scouting, in depth checks and knowing who we want?

Seems a bit of a farce to me.

The thing is we don't & probaby never will know why the lad hasn't signed. You say its like a farce, but I disagree, clubs agree fee - but deal doesn't happen - not exactly rare is it ??

Oldham agreed a fee for Herr in the summer, but he went to Donny. 2 weeks ago Forest agreed a fee for Clingan, then it was of, then back on again (as could happen with Easter). A while ago we agreed a fee for Mclean - but he went to the Wendies for more cash.

In fairness to Johnson in the item on the main site last night he said something along the lines of "I would prefer not to go public till everything is sorted out" - however as Stockport went public with it - he had little choice.

It seems to me (not that we have any way of knowing) that the 3 most likely reasons for this are:

the player & Johnson didn't gell - if so, better we find out before spending £100K plus

the player is waiting for a bigger club/or to go on a Bosman in May - entirely beyond our control

the player wanted more money than we'd spend - we are usually generous in wages so if his demands are above us, they must be pretty big

the player failed a medical - plenty of tranfers fall down on the medical - often due to issue the player himself & his club weren't aware of - not sure how we could have anticipated this ???

It just seems to me that this is unfortunate, nothing more or less.

[badger22]

This is the point. Would the following players have come here ?/could we afford them ?

Leon Knight

Grant Holt

Jon Parkin

Alan Lee

Scott Taylor

Rory Fallon

The ony "maybe" in that list is Scott Taylor who has spent almost a season wasting his time at Argyle.

Anyone can see that we would benefit from a natural left winger & a pacy, prolific scorer, however we can't just magic them up.

Maybe we have been talking to prospects/thier clubs for a while - maybe some of the talk of teams waiting to the last minute has some truth (all the transfer speculation around Easter going to Oxford/Wycombe etc only started on Weds). The reality is that we have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, but irrespective of how much we want someone, if we can't afford them or they don't want to come to us, there isn't much we can do.

Just missed out on Dean Bowditch today too.

[milo1111]

ultimately we will all know for sure whether GJ did the business and kept his promises re: the transfer window by tea time tuesday. i for one cannot wait until it is all over either way, at least then we will be put out of our misery. just like i cant wait until this season is over, whether we stay up or not. supporting city is a labour of love at the best of times. this season is doing my ******* head right in!!!!!

[Nibor]

when you leave everything to the last minute?

Panic, Distraction, Scrabbling around for what's left.

I hope for GJ's sake there is more to this than meets the eye and it's favourable for City because:

a.There ain't long left.

b.We're in relegation trouble.

c.We've got one striker that scores regularly.

d.If the guy's got injury, attitude or medical problems, then what happened to scouting, in depth checks and knowing who we want?

Seems a bit of a farce to me.

I'm perfectly happy with a city manager finally killing a transfer due to the crap attitude of a player. That's not the sort of thing you can find out until you meet them and if you meet them before you have a fee agreed you're in trouble. Well done.

I'm far from happy about it being 27th January when he does so. Easter has been available all month, there was absolutely no reason whatsoever we had to waste three and a half weeks going after Hayter just to find this out. We could have found this out a couple of days in and spent more time looking for other players.

Pace up front will make a massive difference to our chances of staying up, but I don't think we have time to get it now unless we decide to start paying stupid money for Hayter. Please prove me wrong Gary.

Nibor

[Guest Harry Dolman]

I'm far from happy about it being 27th January when he does so. Easter has been available all month, there was absolutely no reason whatsoever we had to waste three and a half weeks going after Hayter just to find this out. We could have found this out a couple of days in and spent more time looking for other players.

Nibor

The interesting thing is though, that pre Weds, Easter was not on anyones radar. Then suddenly on Weds it goes public that both Wycombe & Oxford are interested & a day later we enter the fray.

Now maybe we were re-acting to the events, but for all we know this was an E.g of a club (I.E Stockport) wanting to keep a player as long as poss. Both Wycombe & Oxford could have also gone for him weeks earlier, but apparently didn't.

[Nibor]

The interesting thing is though, that pre Weds, Easter was not on anyones radar. Then suddenly on Weds it goes public that both Wycombe & Oxford are interested & a day later we enter the fray.

Now maybe we were re-acting to the events, but for all we know this was an E.g of a club (I.E Stockport) wanting to keep a player as long as poss. Both Wycombe & Oxford could have also gone for him weeks earlier, but apparently didn't.

I understand what you're saying Harry but the fact of the matter is they need the money, Easter was obviously on Johnson's radar before it was in the press and we could have offered them £120k take it or leave it in the first week. That might even have forced Bournemouth's hand.

With regards to Hayter, if we'd got our better offer in early before Stock was sold, and given them a deadline we might have had more luck and not wasted 3 weeks?

Like I said, well done to Johnson for pulling the plug. Shame that we've let ourselves get into the position we're in now.

Nibor

[RedTop]

I'm perfectly happy with a city manager finally killing a transfer due to the crap attitude of a player. That's not the sort of thing you can find out until you meet them and if you meet them before you have a fee agreed you're in trouble. Well done.

I'm far from happy about it being 27th January when he does so. Easter has been available all month, there was absolutely no reason whatsoever we had to waste three and a half weeks going after Hayter just to find this out. We could have found this out a couple of days in and spent more time looking for other players.

Pace up front will make a massive difference to our chances of staying up, but I don't think we have time to get it now unless we decide to start paying stupid money for Hayter. Please prove me wrong Gary.

Nibor

In fairness, I assume we only went in for Easter seriously when it became clear the Hayter deal wasn't going to happen. There is no way we could have found this out until a fee etc had been agreed, because it boiled down to a lack of enthusiasm when the club-to-club formalities were done and Easter wanted more time to think about it. And we wouldn't have got ourselves into a position of agreeing a fee for - who was obviously second choice behind Hayter - if we were still in with a chance of signing our preferred man. It's just one of those things.

I'm frustrated that we've not managed to sign the striker we need, but I'd rather that than sign another player with an attitude problem who doesn't want to be here for any other reason than to pick up his pay cheque.

[Nibor]

In fairness, I assume we only went in for Easter seriously when it became clear the Hayter deal wasn't going to happen.

Which is what I have a problem with. Why not do both at the same time?

There is no way we could have found this out until a fee etc had been agreed, because it boiled down to a lack of enthusiasm when the club-to-club formalities were done and Easter wanted more time to think about it.

I agree and made the same point.

And we wouldn't have got ourselves into a position of agreeing a fee for - who was obviously second choice behind Hayter - if we were still in with a chance of signing our preferred man. It's just one of those things.

Yes we could. Until something's signed we can cancel it and having two players on the go at once might help clubs to stop messing us about. Other clubs do this.

Nibor

[Guest Harry Dolman]

I understand what you're saying Harry but the fact of the matter is they need the money, Easter was obviously on Johnson's radar before it was in the press and we could have offered them £120k take it or leave it in the first week. That might even have forced Bournemouth's hand.

With regards to Hayter, if we'd got our better offer in early before Stock was sold, and given them a deadline we might have had more luck and not wasted 3 weeks?

Like I said, well done to Johnson for pulling the plug. Shame that we've let ourselves get into the position we're in now.

Nibor

I guess my point is that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. What if, from early Jan we were pursuing both Hayter & Easter. With Hayter we have to agree a fee, but Stockport say they won't enter into discussions till later in the month ???

[Nibor]

I guess my point is that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. What if, from early Jan we were pursuing both Hayter & Easter. With Hayter we have to agree a fee, but Stockport say they won't enter into discussions till later in the month ???

Well, if that was the case, and due to the timing I don't believe it was, I'd say thanks but no thanks and move onto the next target on the list. We should always have been looking to get someone in early in the month, we might have had 2 wins and a draw rather than 2 draws and a defeat in the last 3 games.

Nibor

[Guest mtraveller]

maybe we pulled the plug on easter because gary may have got the green light to sign hayter who knows.