Hypothetic scenario, what do we do with a crazy offer for Rickie Lambert?

[Colinjb]

A premiership side needing a striker get desperate.... a bid for 10 million is submitted to us for Rickie.

 

1. We could accept it, reinvest the money in the hope of boosting the squad and going for a premiership push.

 

2. Or we rufuse, unwilling to sell our talisman as he has been key so far.

 

This quesion has been here before, but considering our situation now, with him out for 3 games (appeal pending... hopefully) and 11 days until our next league fixture, do we go sh*t or bust?

 

Personally, I feel it would be madness to let him go.

[Thedelldays]

you answered it yourself....

you are better than this thread colin....ffs

[Colinjb]

you answered it yourself....

you are better than this thread colin....ffs

 

I am having a bit of an argument with my Dad about this one, he is convinced that Newcastle are going to break the bank for him. It is a low-brow thread, but I want him to see the error of his rationale....... he would accept the sale!!!

[Thedelldays]

I am having a bit of an argument with my Dad about this one, he is convinced that Newcastle are going to break the bank for him. It is a low-brow thread, but I want him to see the error of his rationale....... he would accept the sale!!!

newcastle would probably buy an international striker from abroad, rather than throwing £6+ million on a 29 year old player how has done well half a season in division 2

[Lighthouse]

£10m for 30 year old Rickie Lambert?

 

You'd be MENTAL to bid that kind of money and we'd be just as mental to turn it down. Yes Lambert is vital to our success, but for £10m we could get 3 Maynards, Lutceiwicz, Sharps etc. who are about 5 years younger.

[Shrivvy Saint]

Bite there hand off.. IMHO I think he is monumentally overated, if he gave away possession in the prem like he does for us in the NPC the team would be crucified.

[Saint]

£10m for 30 year old Rickie Lambert?

 

You'd be MENTAL to bid that kind of money and we'd be just as mental to turn it down. Yes Lambert is vital to our success, but for £10m we could get 3 Maynards, Lutceiwicz, Sharps etc. who are about 5 years younger.

 

The key here is the word could. We could bring them in but, realistically we aren't going to bring in all 3 of those players. Would we really want to anyway? Two of them maybe, but it's doubtful.

 

I know this is an Adkin's cliche but we do have a settled squad of players who know each other well on a personal level and also know each others play styles well. Rickie even said so himself earlier in the season. I woul personally like to hold on to him for as long as we can and bring in just one new striker.

[Saint Garrett]

Bite there hand off.. IMHO I think he is monumentally overated, if he gave away possession in the prem like he does for us in the NPC the team would be crucified.

tool

[dubai_phil]

£10m for 30 year old Rickie Lambert?

 

You'd be MENTAL to bid that kind of money and we'd be just as mental to turn it down. Yes Lambert is vital to our success, but for £10m we could get 3 Maynards, Lutceiwicz, Sharps etc. who are about 5 years younger.

 

Yeah, the same way we spent that 15mil for AOC on, on .. uh hang on a moment on

 

oh yeah Fox & SDR

[aintforever]

Tell them to f*ck off, lambert is too important to sell.

[Lighthouse]

The key here is the word could. We could bring them in but, realistically we aren't going to bring in all 3 of those players. Would we really want to anyway? Two of them maybe, but it's doubtful.

 

I know this is an Adkin's cliche but we do have a settled squad of players who know each other well on a personal level and also know each others play styles well. Rickie even said so himself earlier in the season. I woul personally like to hold on to him for as long as we can and bring in just one new striker.

 

A settled squad is one thing, but offering £10m for a player just turning 30 is absurb money. As romantic an idea as it is to think we don't need the money and we aren't a selling club, it's just not true. If someone comes with a ridiculous bid like that, I'd take it. Decent England internationals have been sold for less than that.

[david in sweden]

£10m for 30 year old Rickie Lambert?

 

You'd be MENTAL to bid that kind of money and we'd be just as mental to turn it down.

 

Yes Lambert is vital to our success, but for £10m we could get 3 Maynards, Lutceiwicz, Sharps etc. who are about 5 years younger.

'

 

 

 

Yes, but none of THEM have Lambert's scoring history. If it's a striker they want - he's tailor made for.. AND.. by Alan Pardew. (His buy from Day 1)

Part of Lambert's success has been the partnership with (a) Lee Barnard and (b) David Connolly.

Barnard hasn't played a full game for 8 months, is still being treated for an injury and doesn't yet know the "treatment " he will get from the judge in March.

 

David Connolly (a great player IMO) class and skill but is the wrong age to re-start a career with yet another strike partner and only on contract till June.

 

Crazy idea, Colin?... maybe not so crazy. Newcastle have £35 million from that ridiculous sale of Andy Carroll, although £10 mill, sounds a lot..it might be interesting ..if it was, say £6 million ? (and a part-exchange player thrown in). That fee could buy at least TWO strikers from the list above.

[bjk]

Bite there hand off.. IMHO I think he is monumentally overated, if he gave away possession in the prem like he does for us in the NPC the team would be crucified.

 

You are having a laugh surely.Lambert is a great player and he wont be sold.Heard earlier Newcastle may be taking Andy Carrol back on loan as Ba has gone to the African nations cup.

[Lighthouse]

Yeah, the same way we spent that 15mil for AOC on, on .. uh hang on a moment on

 

oh yeah Fox & SDR

 

Just because we didn't spend that immediately, it's not to say we wont this transfer window. Plus some of that money would have been spent covering our losses for the previous year. Plus you forgot Hooiveld and Cork, two more quality signings with sizeable wage demands.

 

I'm not saying we would sell Lambert for £10m, then go and buy another striker for £10m the next day. However I do trust Adkins and Cortese to sensibly invest the money over time.

 

It's all accademic really, nobody is going to bid £10m for Rickie Lambert. We bought him for £1m when he was 2.5 years younger and a top L1 striker. A decent scoring run in NpC isn't going to negate his age and increase his value ten fold.

[Colinjb]

'

 

 

 

Yes, but none of THEM have Lambert's scoring history. If it's a striker they want - he's tailor made for.. AND.. by Alan Pardew. (His buy from Day 1)

Part of Lambert's success has been the partnership with (a) Lee Barnard and (b) David Connolly.

Barnard hasn't played a full game for 8 months, is still being treated for an injury and doesn't yet know the "treatment " he will get from the judge in March.

 

David Connolly (a great player IMO) class and skill but is the wrong age to re-start a career with yet another strike partner and only on contract till June.

 

Crazy idea, Colin?... maybe not so crazy. Newcastle have £35 million from that ridiculous sale of Andy Carroll, although £10 mill, sounds a lot..it might be interesting ..if it was, say £6 million ? (and a part-exchange player thrown in). That fee could buy at least TWO strikers from the list above.

 

None of them have Lambert's scoring history, but we could have two of them. It would risk destabilising the squad and without an at least equal replacement.

 

Whichever way I look at it, unless it was genuinely insane money, I wouldn't do it.

[Avenue Saint]

If promotion is worth £60m, when they stump up 60m for him, he can leave with my blessing but not for 59m or even a penny less.

[Jack]

You think we'd really be able to replace Lambert? 70+ goals from what, 115(ish) games?

 

I can't think of a player in the country has that kind of record (who would join Southampton in the Championship in within the wage structure we have)

 

Lambert isn't worth £10m, but he's worth at least that to us in terms of our long-term goal.

[pap]

I'd be interested to know whether Rickie would like to go to Newcastle.

 

Liverpool and Newcastle have a lot of mutual respect for each other. Very unlikely that his family would have received the same 'welcome' oop north.

[1976_Child]

No club would ever bid £10,000,000 for him. He is good, but not that good.

[Gingeletiss]

It's not a question of what we want, is it, who here would wish to deprive him of playing at the top level, should he get the chance. Not I.

[Jack]

It's not a question of what we want, is it, who here would wish to deprive him of playing at the top level, should he get the chance. Not I.

 

I would hope that Rickie would want to play at the top level with SFC

[Window Cleaner]

Take the money, anything over 5 million will do.

[Turkish]

I'd rather the hypothetical scenario that we keep RL and spend the Chamberlain money on players better than we have to play with him.

[skintsaint]

seeing as Defoe for example is being linked around to clubs for 6m...10m for Lambert would be a great sale for us.

[Window Cleaner]

I'd rather the hypothetical scenario that we keep RL and spend the Chamberlain money on players better than we have to play with him.

 

What Chamberlain money....it's probably all gone.

[1976_Child]

What Chamberlain money....it's probably all gone.

 

Where would it have gone to?

 

In fact it probably hasn't arrived yet. At least not all of it.

[Turkish]

What Chamberlain money....it's probably all gone.

 

25k + crowds and £12m in the kitty. If we have no money then something is seriously amiss.

[Big_Bald_Si]

If promotion is worth £60m, when they stump up 60m for him, he can leave with my blessing but not for 59m or even a penny less.

 

So you're saying you'd not sell him for £59 million??? Be pretty shocking turning down potentially the 2nd/3rd highest transfer fee of all time!!

[pap]

25k + crowds and £12m in the kitty. If we have no money then something is seriously amiss.

 

Online gambling out of hand?

[Rasiak-9-]

*facepalm* Lambert's good and an important part of how we play but he's nowhere near worth 10 milli.

 

Laugh our way to the bank.

[Window Cleaner]

25k + crowds and £12m in the kitty. If we have no money then something is seriously amiss.

 

we have made no doubt losses for 2 years running,plus there's the Staplewood project to be paid for,De Ridder,Jos and Fox didn't come free in a box of brekky cereal you know.The dogma that we have all the money we got for AOC still sitting in the bank waiting to be spent is ridiculous.

[Mattio]

Accept the bid.

[Lighthouse]

25k + crowds and £12m in the kitty. If we have no money then something is seriously amiss.

 

We did bring in 4 players. Cork, Jos, De Ridder and Fox probably cost about £4m and their combined wages will be substantially greater than whatever we were paying AOC. Could be to the tune of an extra £3m a year. Even only taking one years wages into account, that only leaves £5m for players in January.

 

Appart from Wham chucking silly money at their promotion push, nobody is really spending big in NpC. I doubt we're skint, but we haven't got sh*t loads of money to spend on players.

[Turkish]

We did bring in 4 players. Cork, Jos, De Ridder and Fox probably cost about £4m and their combined wages will be substantially greater than whatever we were paying AOC. Could be to the tune of an extra £3m a year. Even only taking one years wages into account, that only leaves £5m for players in January.

 

Appart from Wham chucking silly money at their promotion push, nobody is really spending big in NpC. I doubt we're skint, but we haven't got sh*t loads of money to spend on players.

 

Are transfers out our only income then?

[Window Cleaner]

Are transfers out our only income then?

 

If Bristol city have an annual salarial mass of 12.7 million £ can you imagine what ours must be? We were somewhere up around

11 million in our first year in League 1, since then we've got promotion and extended contracts for most players,no doubt with substantial salary spikes. We would have had to give Pardew a fair wodge and then pay for Nigel.Even with great gates and all the add ons we'll still be losing money, we're a premier league set up in the NPC,trouble is there's 35 million per annum of sky money missing.Our problem is that we have far too many players out injured, I very much doubt if they get just NHS sick pay you know, when you're paying injured players for 12 months a year and then again for new players to replace them you're in the brown.It's what led to the downfall of the last regime.Jaidi,Seaborne,Barnard...that's about 25K each week that goes out of the window for very little return,takes a lot of fans through the gate to just pay for that,cos there's VAT on football tickets so the

£22 you pay means about £17 into the club's coffers and a fiver for HMRC.Takes about 3000 fans every home game just to

pay the salaries of injured players.

[Turkish]

If Bristol city have an annual salarial mass of 12.7 million £ can you imagine what ours must be? We were somewhere up around

11 million in our first year in League 1, since then we've got promotion and extended contracts for most players,no doubt with substantial salary spikes. We would have had to give Pardew a fair wodge and then pay for Nigel.Even with great gates and all the add ons we'll still be losing money, we're a premier league set up in the NPC,trouble is there's 35 million per annum of sky money missing.Our problem is that we have far too many players out injured, I very much doubt if they get just NHS sick pay you know, when you're paying injured players for 12 months a year and then again for new players to replace them you're in the brown.It's what led to the downfall of the last regime.Jaidi,Seaborne,Barnard...that's about 25K each week that goes out of the window for very little return,takes a lot of fans through the gate to just pay for that,cos there's VAT on football tickets so the

£22 you pay means about £17 into the club's coffers and a fiver for HMRC.Takes about 3000 fans every home game just to

pay the salaries of injured players.

 

So you dont think we operate to a budget then? Dont forget we were told we didn't need to sell Chamberlain. Therefore we could still operate paying the wages we were and signing the players we did without that money.

[Window Cleaner]

So you dont think we operate to a budget then? Dont forget we were told we didn't need to sell Chamberlain. Therefore we could still operate paying the wages we were and signing the players we did without that money.

 

i never take any notice of the "not for sale because we don't need the money" signs.We made a loss in the year 2009/10, we no doubt made another loss in the year 2010/11.Perhaps those who govern NC have told him to cut the losses a wee bit.

[Lighthouse]

If Bristol city have an annual salarial mass of 12.7 million £ can you imagine what ours must be? We were somewhere up around

11 million in our first year in League 1, since then we've got promotion and extended contracts for most players,no doubt with substantial salary spikes. We would have had to give Pardew a fair wodge and then pay for Nigel.Even with great gates and all the add ons we'll still be losing money, we're a premier league set up in the NPC,trouble is there's 35 million per annum of sky money missing.Our problem is that we have far too many players out injured, I very much doubt if they get just NHS sick pay you know, when you're paying injured players for 12 months a year and then again for new players to replace them you're in the brown.It's what led to the downfall of the last regime.Jaidi,Seaborne,Barnard...that's about 25K each week that goes out of the window for very little return,takes a lot of fans through the gate to just pay for that,cos there's VAT on football tickets so the

£22 you pay means about £17 into the club's coffers and a fiver for HMRC.Takes about 3000 fans every home game just to

pay the salaries of injured players.

 

Exactly. That's a large part of the reason I was against new contracts for players like Connolly and Jaidi in the summer. We're paying them a pretty substantial wage and between they've been injured more often than not.

 

Right now we've got 5 centre halves and 5 strikers on the books, and people are talking about signing 2 more of each. It's not good for the balance sheets.

[S-Clarke]

Lambert is key to everything we do, take him out of our side and we really have no punch, no game plan and now attack.

 

Our entire team and how we play is built around Lambert, and has been for the last 3 years. Taking him out would ruin us really, as you can see when he doesn't play...

 

I also don't think anyone will bid silly money for him if I'm honest. The maximum I can see a premiership club bidding is around £4m, which we will laugh out of the building as it's not enough for what we'll loose.

 

So I think we're safe. He seems the sort of player that'll stick with us for the rest of his career if I'm honest.

[saintscottofthenortham]

Bite there hand off.. IMHO I think he is monumentally overated, if he gave away possession in the prem like he does for us in the NPC the team would be crucified.

 

Oh my god.

[S-Clarke]

Bite there hand off.. IMHO I think he is monumentally overated, if he gave away possession in the prem like he does for us in the NPC the team would be crucified.

 

Have you ever watched us play and the influence he brings to the team? It doesn't sound like it to be honest.

 

It's these sort of posts that do my nut in. ''Get rid of Bale and get the money, he's over rated and cannot defend and is too inconsistent'' ''Cash in on Jones, he's crap, not good enough''. Exactly.

 

People don't realise what we have until it's gone. Don't be so naive.

[SNSUN]

I'd sell him at that price (and even as low as £7million), but only if his replacement(s) were bloody good. When we bought him, other teams didn't bid for him because they were concerned about his resale value. Getting £10 million for him is stupid money, and I would take it.

 

Trouble is, it would disrupt a fantastic season, and we may well find ourselves having another season in this league. I doubt Adkins would sell though, even for that money - he knows how much we fans adore Rickie.

[LostBoys]

I have to admit I am quite worried that there will be offers from a number of prem clubs - certainly all the bottom 6 as well as Newcastle. In the end the player decides if the money is there. I would be devastated but it is a real risk.

[jampot]

I would be sad to see him go but any serious offers over 5 mil would have to be considered by the club and I am sure Lambert would seriously consider it too...

[david in sweden]

Exactly. That's a large part of the reason I was against new contracts for players like Connolly and Jaidi in the summer. We're paying them a pretty substantial wage and between they've been injured more often than not.

 

Right now we've got 5 centre halves and 5 strikers on the books, and people are talking about signing 2 more of each.

It's not good for the balance sheets.

 

 

OF course the main problem is that 2 of those CH are long term injured. Jaidi is unlikely to play again, and is due to retire end of season.

Seaborne's situation is clouded with mystery. No-one has suggested how long he may be out, IMO he may not even stay...

Fonte's injury is ..(hopefully)..short term. As of yesterday we had only TWO fit central defenders....Do you think thats OK ?

 

I'm trying to think who our fifth striker is ?

Lambert (suspended 3 games ), Connolly (when fit ) Barnard (long term injured-court case) pending .....Forte !...and ???

(Do you count Guly... I thought he was regarded as a midfielder?) ...Are you happy with that ..Don't need anymore strikers.?

[RobM]

Definitely do not sell, not even for £10m. It would destroy our chances of promotion this season and ultimately cost us more than it would make us, given our then extended stay in the NPC.

 

Our game is utterly reliant on Lambert, we're lost without him and even when he isn't available, we try and play as if he was still there. We don't play to the strength of whoever replaces him, we ask them to play like Lambert does. To change all of that in the second half of the season would set us back a long way, it would take a long time to learn a new game.

 

Keeping Lambert and adding additional quality where needed could see us promoted, that's worth a lot more than £10m.

[RobM]

I'm trying to think who our fifth striker is ?

Lambert (suspended 3 games ), Connolly (when fit ) Barnard (long term injured-court case) pending .....Forte !...and ???

(Do you count Guly... I thought he was regarded as a midfielder?) ...Are you happy with that ..Don't need anymore strikers.?

 

Doble. He has played a few times already and looked a decent prospect, certainly worthy of further chances and cup game starts.

 

We need another striker, one capable of starting immediately in the NPC.

[david in sweden]

Doble. He has played a few times already and looked a decent prospect, certainly worthy of further chances and cup game starts. We need another striker, one capable of starting immediately in the NPC.

 

..really, not for us as far as I can see... certainly not this season -.. last season he was on the bench a dozen times, but never got on the pitch.....or have I missed something?. He had a short loan with ...Bournemouth ??, but didn't cover himself with glory, and didn't score either.

[Lighthouse]

OF course the main problem is that 2 of those CH are long term injured. Jaidi is unlikely to play again, and is due to retire end of season.

Seaborne's situation is clouded with mystery. No-one has suggested how long he may be out, IMO he may not even stay...

Fonte's injury is ..(hopefully)..short term. As of yesterday we had only TWO fit central defenders....Do you think thats OK ?

 

I'm trying to think who our fifth striker is ?

Lambert (suspended 3 games ), Connolly (when fit ) Barnard (long term injured-court case) pending .....Forte !...and ???

(Do you count Guly... I thought he was regarded as a midfielder?) ...Are you happy with that ..Don't need anymore strikers.?

 

That's the point I'm making. We've got 5 of each and we're still short of cover in both possitions. Sure nobody could have predicted the injuries to Barnard and Seaborne, but that's exactly why we shouldn't have kept DC and Jaidi. They can't be relied upon to provide cover with their injury problems, hence we're now up sh*t creek.

 

Yes, those were the 5 strikers I was counting. I do include Guly as a striker as I think he is better there. Plus he has pretty much been forced to play up front for a couple of months thanks to injuries to DC and Barnard, not to mention Forte's inadequacies. Let's not go back to 2004 with our massive squad of crap or injured players.

[Chez]

25k + crowds and £12m in the kitty. If we have no money then something is seriously amiss.

 

really? The money will have gone on wages. It did in Lowe's day and it still does now. Anyone thinking that Lallana, Cork, Lambert and Fonte are on less than £20k a week are kidding themselves. Davis turned down West Ham to stay at our place. He aint on 5k a week nor are many others. Our wage bill is massive, that's why we lost £7m in the first year and god knows how much in the second. Yes the crowds have been bloody great, but we have spent a lot on transfer fees:

Richardson £450,000

Fonte £800,000

Jos £800,000

Fox £1.7m

Dickson £300,000

Cork £750,000

Hammond £400,000

Chaplow £50,000

SDR £1m

Forte £100,000

Barnard £200,000

Lambert £1.2m

Puncheon £400,000

Guly £600,000

Seaborne £300,000

Jack Stephens £150,000

and juicy signing on fees to the likes of Butterfield, Connelly, Jaidi, Davis, Chaplow and Harding, not to mention those for new contracts for half the squad, and then the ever rising wage bill on top of that for the last 2.5 years.

 

That doesn't mean funds won't be there to buy, but it more than likely will be from the loan from the owner rather than pure income from tickets and tv.