ENIC

[Bishop]

Some of this is hindsight and history revisited though. Personally I would not have wanted rid of Eriksen at his height or Dele, would have been madness based on their peak, why would you other than on the basis of knowing what came after the event? Both were fine fine players who would have been near impossible to replace as the height on their appeal

Not hindsight in my case. I was never the biggest fan of Dele tbh and so was happy for the idea of him going and for a premium and Eriksen wasn't signing a new deal so again I was more than happy for him to go. Toby I wouldn't have wanted to sell but again you must realise from my various postings on these kind of matters I actually don't mind selling anyone if it's for the greater good and for me bringing in new faces is the greater good.

I didn't post on this forum back then I don't think but I did on Coys if anyone is a member there they will be able to find my posts from back then. I'm very consistent with my views.

 

[Bishop]

The above is just stating the players I advocated selling at the time. I would have sold anyone. Rose, Walker, Dembele, Wanyama etc etc. The only 2 guys that were probably untouchable for me were Kane and Son and even with those 2 I was advocating selling Kane to City when they first came in for him if the money was right and Son I said we needed to sell in 21 I think it was because I could see his legs were going.

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

Not hindsight in my case. I was never the biggest fan of Dele tbh and so was happy for the idea of him going and for a premium and Eriksen wasn't signing a new deal so again I was more than happy for him to go. Toby I wouldn't have wanted to sell but again you must realise from my various postings on these kind of matters I actually don't mind selling anyone if it's for the greater good and for me bringing in new faces is the greater good.

Not a fan of Dele at his peak?? Mate

I agree with selling Eriksen on the basis of him not signing a new deal, but thats a different argument IMO than one of selling at the peak of his powers, I wouldn't have wanted to sell either at the peak because both would have been irreplaceable. Eriksen was putting up numbers like KDB

 

[Bishop]

Not a fan of Dele at his peak?? Mate

I agree with selling Eriksen on the basis of him not signing a new deal, but thats a different argument IMO than one of selling at the peak of his powers, I wouldn't have wanted to sell either at the peak because both would have been irreplaceable. Eriksen was putting up numbers like KDB

Haha I know, it was an unpopular opinion. Sacrilege in our fan base but I'm not gonna lie to you now. Without going into it, he just wasn't my kind of player. Similarly I was never the biggest Lampard admirer, similar game styles that leave me a bit cold.

I get why you wouldn't have wanted to sell either but for me i've always felt anyone is replaceable if you scout well. It's not always with a like for like or an individual but a team can improve when it's best player has left, there are so many examples of this I'm not even gonna bore you with them.

So for me selling a Dele or an Eriksen even at their hight wouldn't have been the end of the world as long as we scouted and replaced them well. Now that in hindsight I'll admit we probably would have failed at that still tracks back to the heart of my issues with Levy.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Not a fan of Dele at his peak?? Mate

I agree with selling Eriksen on the basis of him not signing a new deal, but thats a different argument IMO than one of selling at the peak of his powers, I wouldn't have wanted to sell either at the peak because both would have been irreplaceable. Eriksen was putting up numbers like KDB

The uproar if we sold our best players would have been huge
And knowing ours fans the irk would have been directed at levy
So why would a chairman sell the best players he has if he doesn’t need too

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

The uproar if we sold our best players would have been huge
And knowing ours fans the irk would have been directed at levy
So why would a chairman sell the best players he has if he doesn’t need too

The thing is, I get looking back, we likely should have, but I can't in good faith say that at the time I would have wanted it

Eriksen was IMO the best player in the PL for two seasons, probably top 5 in Europe, the stats he was putting up was Insane

Games - Goals - Assists

 

[Bishop]

The uproar if we sold our best players would have been huge
And knowing ours fans the irk would have been directed at levy
So why would a chairman sell the best players he has if he doesn’t need too

But he needed to, you saw what happened when we didn't. The uproar is because of the timing of those sales and never seriously trying to replace them.

 

[Bishop]

The thing is, I get looking back, we likely should have, but I can't in good faith say that at the time I would have wanted it

Eriksen was IMO the best player in the PL for two seasons, probably top 5 in Europe, the stats he was putting up was Insane

That's fine, that's you, but I said it at the time and I feel a visionary chairman would have seen what was needed and made similar decisions. Not making a decision cost us massively and we still suffering from the fallout now.

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

So for me selling a Dele or an Eriksen even at their hight wouldn't have been the end of the world as long as we scouted and replaced them well. Now that in hindsight I'll admit we probably would have failed at that still tracks back to the heart of my issues with Levy.

So this is where I think its not all or nothing with DL in that respect because I think his ability pre stadium move, to sell and reinvent was largely why, before revenue, the reason we made strides forward. People always seem to say he got lucky with managers who over produced, but I also think at times we picked up good young players and sold to reinvest. There was a time to stop that to be ambitious which I can't argue with BUT we should have added to them, not sold them IMO.

The guy made massive mistakes, no one can deny that, but equally he did things contrary to all views which makes his time with us complex to unpick IMO

 

[Bishop]

So this is where I think its not all or nothing with DL in that respect because I think his ability pre stadium move, to sell and reinvent was largely why, before revenue, the reason we made strides forward. People always seem to say he got lucky with managers who over produced, but I also think at times we picked up good young players and sold to reinvest. There was a time to stop that to be ambitious which I can't argue with BUT we should have added to them, not sold them IMO.

The guy made massive mistakes, no one can deny that, but equally he did things contrary to all views which makes his time with us complex to unpick IMO

I agree in an ideal world we would have been adding to the team we had but as everyone points out we couldn't afford to due to the stadium build which is why you have to start boxing clever. What assets did we have that we could overinflated in the market to make as much of a margin as possible while bringing in more of those young but ready to go talents to actually strengthen the team?

As I say it's not even a revolutionary idea, other teams have done it for decades I see no reason why we were incapable of doing the same apart from the obvious reason of lacking the nous or courage to do so.

 

[Lemonade Money]

So this is where I think its not all or nothing with DL in that respect because I think his ability pre stadium move, to sell and reinvent was largely why, before revenue, the reason we made strides forward. People always seem to say he got lucky with managers who over produced, but I also think at times we picked up good young players and sold to reinvest. There was a time to stop that to be ambitious which I can't argue with BUT we should have added to them, not sold them IMO.

The guy made massive mistakes, no one can deny that, but equally he did things contrary to all views which makes his time with us complex to unpick IMO

At least he didn't sell Dele and Eriksen at their peak!

 

[Baleforce]

we’d reached a point where we could hold onto players other big clubs wanted, we’d not had that for decades

 

[Bishop]

At least he didn't sell Dele and Eriksen at their peak!

And we suffered from it but hey at least we kept players way past their sell by date. That was an amazing decision!