Rage Online

Bristol Rovers bid turned DOWN by Oxford, &quotOver the past season James has attracted interest from a variety of clubs and further interest is not really a surprise. We have received a formal offer for James from Bristol Rovers but we have turned it down.&quot is what Mr Thomas had to say.

I'm a very big fan of Beano and believe that he can definitely get 20 goals in this league, and I feared there was a chance that Wilder/Thomas wanted to sell up this summer but they can't be too desperate otherwise they wouldn't be rejecting a bid for him. My only slight fear is that by being so public they possibly could be almost advertising, saying that they're welcoming bids but this one wasn't enough. Am I reading to much in to it?

Oh and if anyone knows how much the bid was that would be interesting....

I also thought this might be advertising, but the club can't win: if some scroat gets hold of the strory, it then becomes 'Oxford in secret Beano talks' if we don't publicise it. I suspect anyway that Beano is prominent enough that any club which might be interested in him has CW's mobile number.

Possibly the most telling aspect of this is that the club's official statement said nothing about not wanting to sell Constable, merely that a bid has been rejected.

By contrast, Bristol Rovers' statement after they turned down a bid for Carayol ended with this statement: &quotManager Mark McGhee has pledged to do all he can to keep his best players at Rovers.&quot

&quotThe Boys from Up the Hill&quot wrote:Possibly the most telling aspect of this is that the club's official statement said nothing about not wanting to sell Constable, merely that a bid has been rejected.

By contrast, Bristol Rovers' statement after they turned down a bid for Carayol ended with this statement: &quotManager Mark McGhee has pledged to do all he can to keep his best players at Rovers.&quot

To play devil's advocate, I have no problem with the idea of selling him if the price was deemed sufficient. Also, Rovers are another D4 club, which is rather different to clubs from higher divisions coming in.

Comes down to one thing really I suppose. Does the club think they can use any transfer fee for Beano plus the wages that will be freed up to get in a better player? But that doesn't mean any new player will be a success does it. We've not got a great record with strikers have we? Who thought Smalley would do the bizz for us? Oh, yes we've got him back haven't we. Now if only someone would buy him.

When a bid comes in for a clubs best player (which imho Beano is for us - no surprise that our fall off in form last season was when he was sidelined) it is often rejected with a &quotwe're not selling him he's an integral part to the team&quot not only does this make the player feel wanted but it also makes other clubs realise they will need to pay quite a bit more for him - he still might be sold of course if the offer is right, no club is immune to this.

Whenever we get a bid for Beano it either gets accepted, or rejected with comments from KT which give the impression that the club don't really want to keep him and a half decent offer will mean he'll be off, hence the headline in the OM of Oxford wait for a new offer.

So we willing to sell our talismanic striker, top scorer for 3 seasons to a smaller club to us in the same division. Given the previous ability of the current management to bring in a decent striker long term (Beano scored more goals than than Craddock, Morgan, Smalley, Rendall Johnson combined) I have no confidence we will replace him with anyone better and am actually pretty narked off about the whole thing - I really don't see what he has done to pi$$ off this club so much instead of turning down a move to our local rivals out of loyalty to the fans when from a career move perspective it would've been better for him.

Oxford Mail website reporting that OUFC expecting improved bid from BR so there has certianly been no 'hands off' warning...

Well there are some reports of £120K but I don't know how true these are.

If the club think they're going to get offers close to what the Scum offered then that's wishful thinking in my opinion. After Beano's dreadful end to the season (granted, not helped by the Manager), that's not very likely. If we get an offer from a club anywhere close to £150K I'd be ripping their proverbial arms off. Unless the club don't want to sell Beano at any cost (and they haven't exactly backed him have they) then that would be a reasonable deal in my opinion, assuming Beano agrees to go of course.

&quotJohn Byrne's Underpants&quot wrote:Well there are some reports of £120K but I don't know how true these are.

If the club think they're going to get offers close to what the Scum offered then that's wishful thinking in my opinion. After Beano's dreadful end to the season (granted, not helped by the Manager), that's not very likely. If we get an offer from a club anywhere close to £150K I'd be ripping their proverbial arms off. Unless the club don't want to sell Beano at any cost (and they haven't exactly backed him have they) then that would be a reasonable deal in my opinion, assuming Beano agrees to go of course.

Sorry, but those are joke numbers for a player of Beano's ability.

&quotty cobb&quot wrote:When a bid comes in for a clubs best player (which imho Beano is for us - no surprise that our fall off in form last season was when he was sidelined) it is often rejected with a &quotwe're not selling him he's an integral part to the team&quot not only does this make the player feel wanted but it also makes other clubs realise they will need to pay quite a bit more for him - he still might be sold of course if the offer is right, no club is immune to this.

Whenever we get a bid for Beano it either gets accepted, or rejected with comments from KT which give the impression that the club don't really want to keep him and a half decent offer will mean he'll be off, hence the headline in the OM of Oxford wait for a new offer.

So we willing to sell our talismanic striker, top scorer for 3 seasons to a smaller club to us in the same division. Given the previous ability of the current management to bring in a decent striker long term (Beano scored more goals than than Craddock, Morgan, Smalley, Rendall Johnson combined) I have no confidence we will replace him with anyone better and am actually pretty narked off about the whole thing - I really don't see what he has done to pi$$ off this club so much instead of turning down a move to our local rivals out of loyalty to the fans when from a career move perspective it would've been better for him.

I couldn't agree more.

Beano has obviously been one of our best players of the last few years. His goalscoring record speaks for itself, and he is not so far away from becoming the club's all-time leading scorer. However, it is fair to say that he has not set the world alight since we've returned to the league - that's not to say he's been poor, and the rest of our 'strikers' have contributed much less, but we need more goals and he has not scored as many as hoped, for whatever reason.

Bearing the above in mind, you can understand that Wilder might think that there are players out there who will score more goals if we spend a bit of money to get them, and selling Beano would free up some extra money to spend.

My opinion is that our problems scoring goals are far deeper rooted than just the personnel selected to fill the forward positions each game, and until they are properly addressed (by changing either our coaching or formation, or both) there's not much point continuing the merry-go-round of strikers. However, towards the end of last season Beano looked very out of sorts, again for whatever reason, and that certainly needs to change if he's going to continue to be a key member of our squad.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bristol- ... story.html

According to this the improved bid was £150,000. Makes you wonder a) what the club think is acceptable and b) just how much Slumdon must have offered.

Also possible that Beano is (covertly) part of the decision-making process. If I recall correctly, KT said 'higher than one of the bids accepted'.

Put another way, the club cannot afford another situation in which a bid is publicly accepted, only for Beano to turn it down - especially since it would not have the Scum factor. So, if - for the sake of argument - Beano did not fancy the Gas, the it might be better for KT to reject the bid.

&quotJoeyBeauchamp&quot wrote:http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bristol- ... story.html

According to this the improved bid was £150,000. Makes you wonder a) what the club think is acceptable and b) just how much Slumdon must have offered.

£150k would be woefully inadequate. The club shouldn't even be thinking about it to any other team at that level.

If the club sell Beano for less than £500k and the club don't score a shed load of goals with the replacements, Thomas and even more so Wilder, will take a hell of a lot of heat and I doubt Wilder would survive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18448002

Should we be worried??? Seemed to remember their name linked in the past.........