Constable Gone?

[Mooro]

Club website:

&quot....it has been decided that James Constable will decline the opportunity to talk to Slumdon....&quot


Decided by whom?

[Snake]

And so the saga goes on.

The club says &quotyes please, we'd like your money you nice people from down the A420&quot, but Beano would rather not play for the scum.

Well done that man. No, not you Ian Lenagan.

I wonder why the club went public this afternoon with this information
because it would appear that JC was never going to speak with STFC.

Was JC fed to the wolves? Judging by twitter he was easy prey.

The club had to go public otherwise we’d have heard it from the Scum instead. Information is still scarce, but at the club there are clearly people who pull Kelvin’s strings and appear to want to sell Beano for the sort of cash that would not even buy a terraced house in Oxford (or ten houses in Wigan).

[joepoolman]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, who is it that actually accepts/rejects bids? Manager? Chairman? Owner(s)? Board? Or do we not know..?

[A-Ro]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, who is it that actually accepts/rejects bids? Manager? Chairman? Owner(s)? Board? Or do we not know..?

Or player?

[JoeyBeauchamp]

Legend. Never doubted him

[recordmeister]

Simply numb.

1- It's that lot
2- It's a promotion rival

Rumours that we're about to sign Lee Barnard from Southampton in the morning.

Smalley and Beano wages doubling up to pay for it.

So that would be getting rid of a 20 goal a season striker, and a former 20 goal a season striker, to get in a 10 goal a season striker.

If Beano goes for anythign less than £500k I am going to be seriously pissed off with those in positions of power at the club.

Let's not get weight down in stats, but he scored only 17 last season, ergo NOT a 20-goal-a-season striker in the football league.

Still good tho!

[recordmeister]

Much to the frustration of Thomas and Wilder, loyalty does still exist in the game. Full credit to Beano for having the bollocks to say &quotNO&quot

Who says we didn't offer him a better deal? I've used job offers / interviews to better deals I've had with employers. I wouldn't call it 'loyalty' at all... I'd call it very good business by Beans and his agent.

[dr ceri]

Well it's bleedin' obvious, and has been pointed out on here that Wilder wants to get some decent money, get shot of him and as he says, move on.

Here's what my source (an ex OUFC employee) has told me tonight what he's heard:

Beano will be gone before the window shuts.

There is another (higher) club interested in him, and vice versa, but they don't want to offer anything like Slumdon have offered.

Slumdon were fully aware of this and upped the ante.

The other club are now in a strong situation with an unsettled player and will offer a lot less than we want.

2 other good players were lined up to come in by end of play this Friday.

Nothing spectacularly insightful in all of the above, I know, but there you go...

[theox]

This does seem to have been handled badly by the Club. The original, very short, statement on the website gave everyone the impression that Beano was halfway to Slumdon to, at least, discuss terms with them. This sparked the outcry from a lot of fans.

Surely a sentence along the lines of 'we have granted permission for Constable to talk to them but he is yet to decide whether he wishes to do so' would have made this all a lot less of a panic. Certainly Constable himself would not have been hung out to dry in quite the same way.

Normally that sort of thing probably isn't necessary but when the bidding club is a local and promotion rival I think extra care should have been taken in how the news was presented.

[GodalmingYellow]

This does seem to have been handled badly by the Club. The original, very short, statement on the website gave everyone the impression that Beano was halfway to s*****n to, at least, discuss terms with them. This sparked the outcry from a lot of fans.

Surely a sentence along the lines of 'we have granted permission for Constable to talk to them but he is yet to decide whether he wishes to do so' would have made this all a lot less of a panic. Certainly Constable himself would not have been hung out to dry in quite the same way.

Normally that sort of thing probably isn't necessary but when the bidding club is a local and promotion rival I think extra care should have been taken in how the news was presented.

I agree that the club have handled this very poorly indeed.

Firstly, as has already been said, we should not be even agreeing fees to sell our best player to a promotion rival, which ever team it is. That it was Swinedown just made matters worse. If it had been to a higher level team, whilst we might not like it, as long as the club get decent money, then we would have to accept it.

Swinedown haven't helped by deciding to publish a story with a huge hint, particularly with Di Crapio repeatedly unsettling the player in public. Very unprofessional.

There also appears to be a number of leaks flying around that Wilder wants Beano out in order to fund other players in. There is no smoke without fire, and I'm sure we're all hearing these rumours. This is pretty unprofessional as well. If the club receives a bid for a contracted player, and it is not to a rival, and it is good money for the player concerned, they are right to let the player talk to the club, if the player wishes to do so, and the player is perfectly entitled to do so without recrimination. But that should be the limit, unless either the player wants to leave, or the club has no plans to continue using the player. This ongoing process of being unable to leave Beano out of the team because he is too good, but still pushing him towards the exit door, is pretty low on the scale of player management. you ar enever going to get the best from someone if you tell them you want them to leave.

[SmileyMan]

Totally predictable series of events:

1) Beano scores winner versus Hereford tomorrow
2) He kisses his badge in front of the fans, to the sound of an almighty cheer
3) By 9pm he's gone to a League 1 club

[Yankee Clipper]

I agree that this has been handled appallingly. By accepting the offer in the first place The Club have shown a staggering lack of understanding, care or empathy with the fans. It would have been devastating to sell him to S*****n. I don't accept any of the it's just business. It's poor business, grossly misjudged and shocking PR.

You would hope that if say S*****n offered £250k and another club £200k it isn't just a case of accepting the highest bid. Is creating that level of ill feeling amongst the fanbase which would lead to the rest of the team playing out a potential promotional push in an atmosphere charged with anger towards the Manager and Board really worth £50k.

Beano has cemented his legend in Oxford folklore by refusing to even speak with them. And good luck to him. But nothing will be the same again. The club have shown their hand and unfortunately this will signal his ultimate departure. I just thank him for not letting the club rub our noses in it.

Constable 3 Thomas/Wilder/Lenagan 0

[A-Ro]

I haven't read through the rest of this thread yet so apologies if someone has already mentioned it but could this not be an elaborate publicity stunt?

PDC is only doing this to stir up trouble, that is fairly clear, Beano knows that if he accepts the job he is going to spend a very long time warming the sub's bench, the club are desperate to drum up some (positive) excitement during the transfer window and cannot, for whatever reason, do it with a big signing. What better way of getting the fans behind a popular hero and the club than to set up something like this?

If Beano had already told the club that he wouldn't go there at any price then it would be a very simple thing to set up and relatively cheap. I don't believe that an increased offer of £50k would be enough to change our minds and PDC was only putting the price up in small chunks to ratchet up the tension so what better way to finish it all?

Offer Beano a wage increase to go through this elaborate charade. It finishes the troublemaking from down the A420, it gives us fans a real reason to be excited for tomorrow, it would have cost very little and it makes Beano an eternal Oxford legend.

If this is true then it is clever, very clever.

[Yankee Clipper]

I haven't read through the rest of this thread yet so apologies if someone has already mentioned it but could this not be an elaborate publicity stunt?

PDC is only doing this to stir up trouble, that is fairly clear, Beano knows that if he accepts the job he is going to spend a very long time warming the sub's bench, the club are desperate to drum up some (positive) excitement during the transfer window and cannot, for whatever reason, do it with a big signing. What better way of getting the fans behind a popular hero and the club than to set up something like this?

If Beano had already told the club that he wouldn't go there at any price then it would be a very simple thing to set up and relatively cheap. I don't believe that an increased offer of £50k would be enough to change our minds and PDC was only putting the price up in small chunks to ratchet up the tension so what better way to finish it all?

Offer Beano a wage increase to go through this elaborate charade. It finishes the troublemaking from down the A420, it gives us fans a real reason to be excited for tomorrow, it would have cost very little and it makes Beano an eternal Oxford legend.

If this is true then it is clever, very clever.

Can't see it, nice idea but very unlikely and a very risky ploy.

By cementing Constable's legend status the Club have seriously undermined their own with the fans for accepting the offer in the first place.

The venom towards &quotThe decision makers&quot tomorrow will not be a lot less obvious than the love towards Beano

[theox]

I haven't read through the rest of this thread yet so apologies if someone has already mentioned it but could this not be an elaborate publicity stunt?

PDC is only doing this to stir up trouble, that is fairly clear, Beano knows that if he accepts the job he is going to spend a very long time warming the sub's bench, the club are desperate to drum up some (positive) excitement during the transfer window and cannot, for whatever reason, do it with a big signing. What better way of getting the fans behind a popular hero and the club than to set up something like this?

If Beano had already told the club that he wouldn't go there at any price then it would be a very simple thing to set up and relatively cheap. I don't believe that an increased offer of £50k would be enough to change our minds and PDC was only putting the price up in small chunks to ratchet up the tension so what better way to finish it all?

Offer Beano a wage increase to go through this elaborate charade. It finishes the troublemaking from down the A420, it gives us fans a real reason to be excited for tomorrow, it would have cost very little and it makes Beano an eternal Oxford legend.

If this is true then it is clever, very clever.

Can't see it, nice idea but very unlikely and a very risky ploy.

By cementing Constable's legend status the Club have seriously undermined their own with the fans for accepting the offer in the first place.

The venom towards &quotThe decision makers&quot tomorrow will not be a lot less obvious than the love towards Beano

It also caused Beano to suffer some pretty grim abuse on Twitter (why players are allowed to use this I don't know but that's another argument) which could have (has?) caused a lot of ill feeling all round. Therefore would be a pretty dodgy tactic in this age of social networking.