Why Slew MUST stay

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

I don't think we "wasted" the Kyles. A Premiership club made an offer we couldn't refuse - we accepted.
Is he referring to players like Nicky Law who were let go without a decent crack at the first team? Can't think of many though? Travis? Wedgbury? Annerson?

Maybe also Mellis?

 

[Darren]

Maybe also Mellis?

And where are Law, Travis, Wedgbury and Annerson now? Hardly setting the PL (or indeed Championship) alight are they? Which suggests we were right to let them go.

As for Mellis, he is now 20, been at Chelsea 4 years and has yet to make their PL team. He has played on loan for Southampton in the 3rd tier and Barnsley in the 2nd Tier. Perhaps he is not the superstar everyone thought.

 

[Bladesway]

SEB its not naive in the slightest. Its a contract and he should stick to it. The fact his is under 24 means we are also able to get compensation even if his contract expires. What is naive is to sell him and not invest into the first team. If we can get a couple of million and it goes into player purchases (not wages and all that bollocks), then yes, you sell. But I were DW I would be saying you sell no one. Because he must know as we all do that McCabe will pocket the money and then tell us all about the £70m he has ploughed in himself (I'm a massive fan of his school of accounting).

You mention Jeffers etc, but I don't buy it that a kid will sit on his hands for a season. What good will that do him? He runs his contract down and in a season everone will have forgotten he exists. He still needs United as much as we need him to perform. He is at a level where if he is any kop then it will shine through. Pitched the right way and in a "give us a season and we'll see you right or you can leave if you wish" would give Slew the platform to play his heart out for us.

And you say there are 20 for every Adams or Beckford, but you mention 1. Give me another 19 proven cases and I'll chuck Jagielka in for good measure (he extended his contract for another pop at promotion in 2005/6 if memory serves me). I also don't believe Naughton or Walker would have chucked their toys out of the pram had we decided to keep them. Its different with younger players because they still need to impress to get the profile.

A couple of other points if I may.

Batho is now an official club employee I believe, so that shows where independence gets you. And Grecian2000. Exactly as you call it. There will be procrastinations from McCabe and the player will leave. It won't be his fault (again), and it will be agents/other clubs/someone else/the media/devine intervention. You can only hear it so many times before you just roll your eyes and wait for the inevitable splintered broom handle to be administered to the fans once again.

I would ask if he does go, what the hell is the point of having an academy in the first place. It is of no benefit to SUFC but massive benefit to the McCabe family coffers.

---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 PM ----------

And where are Law, Travis, Wedgbury and Annerson now? Hardly setting the PL (or indeed Championship) alight are they? Which suggests we were right to let them go.

As for Mellis, he is now 20, been at Chelsea 4 years and has yet to make their PL team. He has played on loan for Southampton in the 3rd tier and Barnsley in the 2nd Tier. Perhaps he is not the superstar everyone thought.

This is why I would ask. Mellis isn't one we had an option with. His contract was up so we accepted the money on offer as compensation rather than chasing it through the FA and arbitration. I would argue that going to the Premier League and rotting on loan/in the reserves serves no one. The only exception to this has been Walker but he was and still is an exceptional talent above all the rest.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Even if McCabe only ever thinks in terms of money, surely he can see that Slew's value is hardly likely to decrease by playing 20-30 games for us in League One.
If he fails to set the division alight, he'll still be a 19 year old with bags of potential and first team experience.
If he plays well and scores goals his valuation could easily be treble what we could sell him for now.
Spurs took a gamble on Walker and even if he never plays for them, they've acquired an England International and quadrupled their outlay.
If McCabe has lost all interest in United as a football club, maybe he will at least accept that it's a bad financial move to cash in on the youngsters this Summer?

 

[shorehamview]

What was your e-mail to Batho about? Or was it private and of no interest to anybody else? Who gives a stuff if he replies quickly to personal e-mails - that is (or was) the problem with the whole thing - which as the great Len said, was a total joke all along.

It wasn't an interesting email to Batho by any means. I asked him a very long winded question along the lines of Robin Cooper's "Timewaster Letters" mainly to see if he'd read it and reply. He did, and answered a fanny-about question quickly and more politely than many of us would have done.

I think that Batho's role was perhaps over-estimated and the purpose behind it questioned a little too much, but I can also see why McCabe was derided for conducting the band while the ship sank. I think a fan's liaison was a good idea, but too much emphasis was given to his appointment by the club at a time when communication could have been made simpler. Having said that I think lenners simply took it as another stick to beat the club with any would not be happy under and circumstances. After all, he did have opportunities to question McCabe directly and publicly and yet chose to remain anonymous under the flimsiest of excuses.