20/01/2009

Business? - as usual!

The blocking of the Bellamy move to spuds was a real demonstration of a feeling for the fans and Club history.
Or was it? With this risk free move the board could sell a player with quite a profit and still avoid most of the let down talk. Duxbury could save some face despite statements that no important players were to leave. This was also aided by the part Bellamy played in this transfer. By taking on the familiar role of the bad guy Craig gave our CEO a smooth ride. It even awarded Dux an opportunity to do his best "hardline CEO with principles" impersonation saying to The Independent "I'll go on record and say I want to avoid selling any of our best players to Tottenham ever again. I don't want to. Why should I? They are our local rivals. It would be a slap in the face for our fans. I want to finish above Tottenham. We did it last year and want to do it this year and every single year. It's nothing against Tottenham.". Allthough I find his statement slightly contradictory, vague and lacking in credibility.
Still, I'm not as disgusted by the way things are handled by the club these days, at least compared to their performance earlier this season.
If a replacement comes in, that is.

I have stated that we will not field a worse team come February, but I may have to do a tactical retreat on that one. We will be better off in February, but I doubt that we will have a player coming in that can match Bellamy's recent form right away.
Oswaldo, or any other possible replacement, will most likely not go straight into the first team and dominate our attack, neither did Bellamy when he came back from injury, but I bet they will be one for the not so distant future.

If the Club can restrain itself from cashing in on any more of our "backbone" players, the future looks decent and with Bellamy gone a little more predictable, and that is probably a good thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliantly handled by Dux! To get £14m for Bellamy seems like good business. In combination with rumours about Nsereko and others it also indicates that Zola and the board(!) follow a long-term plan. But I fear that Bellamy will be badly missed this season.

Joppe - said...

Yes, the organisation seems to be improving. I'll be back with a commentary on the Jason Burt article in The Independent last Saturday.
But it's premature to rate the doings during this transfer window. Too many if and rumours.