[Confirmed] Slew to Blackburn

[Sothall_Blade]

but you can't keep a player who is unhappy. It disrupts the squad and his performances would not be good. We should now be trying the likes of Philliskirk and Tonne who at 21/22 are older than Slew and hopefully better developed. If they can't make it at this age, lets decide quickly, they should be cleared out and other players brought in.

I agree though about your general point re. lack of structured and considered team building/strengthening at first team level, BUT the "development squad" was put together in a quite thoughtful way. Bizarre really. I think Wilson should really be looking at those players to strengthen the first team before he goes into the loan market.

Yes you can keep him when he's just signed a new contract until 2013.
What was he going to do? Refuse to play (a la Tevez) and ruin his career as no other club would then want to touch him?
We'd already turned down one offer from a Premiership club, so why would turning down a second offer make him unhappy?
If we apply that logic, we should have sold Slew to Fulham for £500K and Quinn to Blackpool for £300K as you can never keep an "unhappy" player.

The truth is that United made no real effort to keep him as they thought it was "an attractive offer we were unable to refuse".
Wilson was left with an hour to find a replacement and turned to the Rangers midfielders who he'd actually lined up as replacements for Monty/Quinn/Williamson.
I agree with you on trying Tonne and Philliskirk before turning to loan players, who we'll then be developing for other teams.
However, Wilson clearly doesn't rate either as he has chosen Slew, Bogdanovic and even Mendez-Laing up front ahead of them.

 

[Rudders]

fair comment. I suppose the (financial) problem being that we are desperate to reduce the wage bill, but no-one wants to buy our over-paid old pros like Monty, Morgs, Creswell or Simmo. Other clubs are only interested in our better, younger players. At the time of any player sales Utd invent some cock and bull story to appease the fans, when it is probably down to the fact that we are financially screwed and will accept any cash offer for any player.

If wilson doesn't rate Tonne or Philliskirk he should get rid pronto.

I am also dismayed that we are not 'planning' for player sales by getting younger, cheaper players in now before we sell. By not doing this (viz Slew) we end up scraping the bottom of the loanee barrel, or worse still with nothing...

I think McCabe and Wilson should be held accountable to try and ensure better use of the transfer market.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

Cant believe some supporters still arent over this.

Slew had nothing more than a little bit of raw potential. Hype and speculation.

He looked ok and nothing special imo but I still wish him well.

With his head turned and an agent seemingly intent on getting him a move, £1M was a good deal.

Honestly believe thats the biggest fee he will ever be sold for.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Cant believe some supporters still arent over this.
Slew had nothing more than a little bit of raw potential. Hype and speculation.
He looked ok and nothing special imo but I still wish him well.
With his head turned and an agent seemingly intent on getting him a move, £1M was a good deal.
Honestly believe thats the biggest fee he will ever be sold for.

I'll never be over it. I still haven't got over Keith Edwards being sold ;-)
I'ts not unreasonable to talk about Slew when our manager says he needs a pacy striker but can't sign one.

 

[stannyblade]

But what did Slew do this season? Every game I saw him in he looked like he wanted away. The pace he had didnt show itself at all this season. He is regretting leaving now im sure. Would getting him back on loan be a good thing? Maybe if he came back as the hungry quick kid we saw last year but if its the "Im better than league 1" kid we saw this season then no way.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

I'll never be over it. I still haven't got over Keith Edwards being sold ;-)
I'ts not unreasonable to talk about Slew when our manager says he needs a pacy striker but can't sign one.

You make a fair point but I dont think Slew would have made a difference to recent results.

We are lacking pace but the biggest problems for me are movement and width.

A bit of nous up front and a bit of quality on the flanks would be a massive boost to us.

With all due respect to young Jordan I dont think he would have offered either of those.

 

[broomhillblade]

I understand Slew is alot unhappier now than he was when he was with us!

But he is financially a lot richer!

 

[Tuns]

I'll never be over it. I still haven't got over Keith Edwards being sold ;-)
I'ts not unreasonable to talk about Slew when our manager says he needs a pacy striker but can't sign one.

For me it's all about why the club sold him.

We hoisted up the white flag over BDTBL and the academy a long time ago when it came to fending off interest from other clubs and we happily send out very strong signals to other clubs and our own players that almost any price is right and the expectation is to be sold off as soon as.

However in Slew's case it is possible (though granted unlikely) that the management believed Slew not to be all that some others thought he was and that ultimatley he will drift into League 1 or 2 standard where most of our academy prospects end up if they are lucky enough to get a career.

And we cashed in in what was a small window of opportunity.

But why ever we sold him it is unforgiveable to not have lined up a pacey striker in his place.

And as for us having no choice in selling him...some people have bought too much rubbish from the club's spin machine.

He was under contract and his contract was not about to end. He was/is a young lad with lots to prove and needing first team matches. so the ball was in our court. He would have got over his mardy in time.

 

[Bladesway]

He was the next Jonathan Forte. Forget him.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

Dont think the majority of supporters see it as a 'no choice but to sell' scenario.

Its simply a case of is he worth as much as £1m now? - no chance!

Will he be worth a lot more in years to come? - who knows, probably not!

Any offer for a player should be weighed up and judged on merit. I think this one was.

The modern day footballer doesnt simply get over their mardy and get on with it.

Are you perhaps thinking of people who live in the real world there?

 

[norfolkblade]

£1m for an unproven striker? Sorry but as much as I didn't want to see him go due to the very reason that we need a pace injection in the side, we would have been silly to refuse that given our current state of financial affairs.

Saying that though, I guess the Kyle's were relatively unproven (Walker more so as he only played a handful of games), so it's all swings and roundabouts as we can't predict the future and how players will turn out.

 

[Ollessendro]

Hmmmm, is there a case for sothall to be able to say 'I told you so'? I think their might be. The big question is whether Slew would ave made a difference in any of the recent games? Would he have made an impact against either Walsall or Scunthorpe? Likely I say. Huddersfield or Charlton? Mmmm, possibly. His pace may have given the centre backs something else to deal with and lead to other opportunities.

The truth is (as is often the case) that it is not as simple as that. Would Slew have thrown his dummy out of the pram if we blocked his move. Did Rankine have that kind of hold over him? The club will have you believe yes. I was not overly upset by the move, but I did state at the time I would have prefered for us to have kept him until the summer. Perhaps we might have missed the 'window of opportunity', but he may also have been able to win games for us. I think the other factor is that of course we have not replaced him. Evans has come back and is doing reasonably, but Porter and Cresswell are out of sorts and Wilson clearly does not rate Tonne or Philiskirk. If we knew Slew might have gone then we needed a contigency plan. We did not have one. Then after Huddersfield it was glaringly obvious we needed new recruits, but we did nowt. It has taken us another 2 defeats before we really start to think about addressing the issue.