Transfer Window Fume
Whilst personally I am as disappointed as most people that we didn’t manage to achieve our chosen targets and am annoyed with the way the window panned out, I do feel we need to have some perspective on this issue because of all the moans and ridiculous accusations being thrown around.
So here goes: We had an agreement with Zenit for Witsel but for whatever reason Witsel turned us down because he preferred to move to Juventus. This was the players’ decision (and he got his comeuppance on the last day when Zenit pulled the plug on his move to Juve.). NOT OUR FAULT!
Ghezzal: we had an agreement with his club also and made him an offer their Chairman said was almost twenty times his current deal. Yet the player turned us down because he wanted to play in Europe. All credit to the player for putting football reasons before person greed, very rare in today’s market. NOT OUR FAULT!
Perez: Again we had agreement with Deportivo and the player and it looked like completing. Yet Arsenal who said they were not interested in the player a week before, suddenly matched our offer. The player then decided to choose Arsenal because he wanted European Football. NOT OUR FAULT!
Gabbiadini: This deal was always dependent upon Napoli finding a replacement and according to his Agent Napoli really didn’t want to sell him. Hence they deliberately procrastinated throughout. NOT OUR FAULT!
Brahimi: This is a crazy one because of what happened. Initially we had a deal with the Club agreed and Terms with the player agreed. Porto suddenly decided to move the goal posts at the eleventh hour and increased the price. So we met that new asking price and agreed a new fee of 42m Euros. Yet again as the deal was about to be concluded they pulled out and said the price was now 50m Euros. Checking Portuguese Media I found that this was something Porto had done before, so it was not a surprise to the media. I also discovered that many African players have multi-owners and this also complicates such deals; in this case a Sports Company who had part ownership pulled the deal and asked for more money. They deny this however. NOT OUR FAULT!
Sissoko: This is very disturbing one for me because it seems clear that he and his Agent used Everton to secure a deal to Spurs. We had everything agreed with Newcastle and the player, even had a Private Jet on the runway waiting for him to bring him in for a medical. He didn’t show up and Koeman couldn’t get hold of him on the phone because he had turned it off. If people knew a little more about how Agents (the money men) work then these types of shenanigans will come as no surprise. Personally, I believe Sissoko’s attitude throughout this has shown that we have dodged a bullet and he is not the type of player with the right attitude for our great Club. His reason, he wanted European football. NOT OUR FAULT!
Does knowing all this make me less disappointed? NO, it doesn’t. But, it does allow me to apportion the blame squarely where it needs to be; with Martinez for destroying our reputation. If Kenwright had sacked him at Christmas last season instead of allowing him to make the situation worse we may have been able to salvage something from the season and therefore have been in a better position today to attract the kind of talent we required and wanted.
So I say to all the people fuming and blaming the Board and whoever else at the Club, please reflect somewhat and recognise the type of players we have been targeting, the likes of which we would never have targeted before. We showed our ambition but have sadly been let down by past failures. We will recover from this and learn valuable lessons. What we need to do now is pull together and ensure that we are in a good position fighting for Europe come January and then we may be able to strengthen the squad with the quality players we need and deserve!
Finally, Enner Valencia: When he signed for West Ham in 2014 he took the PL by storm. He was fast and scored some great goals and was entertaining and was an exciting player. Until he was badly injured that is. So let us give this lad a chance because he may prove to be an astute signing! He cannot be any worse than Kone or Niasse can he?
That’s it, my thoughts….