I was wrong

[Lord Kangana]

We're £96m in debt. Its all well and good saying sign him up, he conned a living for over 2/3rds his stay here, so he owes us this for that massive fee. He's a professional, I'd be out of a job if I was costing a company that much and producing nowt.

Only took 2 1/2 years to say "I told you so". Of a 3 year contract. Have a think about that.

And it had nothing to do with the gobshite of a manager we had before?

Its got everything to do with him.

It still doesn't change our debt situation or his making a living he wasn't earning.

[Odelay]

We're £96m in debt. Its all well and good saying sign him up, he conned a living for over 2/3rds his stay here, so he owes us this for that massive fee. He's a professional, I'd be out of a job if I was costing a company that much and producing nowt.

Only took 2 1/2 years to say "I told you so". Of a 3 year contract. Have a think about that.

And it had nothing to do with the gobshite of a manager we had before?

Its got everything to do with him.

It still doesn't change our debt situation or his making a living he wasn't earning.

Don't think it's right or correct to say he was "making a living he wasn't earning." I mean, if you're at work and have a boss who continuously makes your job shit, which impacts on your productivity, and then the boss leaves and suddenly you're able to perform your job at the optimum level, would you expect the company to make you pay back the wages or offload you for something that is done in the past and out of your control?

[Lord Kangana]

Times have changed, I know loads of people who've taken wage cuts in the last 12 months.

[Worthy4England]

Times have changed, I know loads of people who've taken wage cuts in the last 12 months.

On that basis, no footballer "earns" a living...

[Lord Kangana]

On what basis?

[Worthy4England]

On what basis?

If "earning" a living has anything to do with wage cuts...can't see many Prem footballers having felt that sort of "pinch" recently...

[Lord Kangana]

I'm referring to his poor displays for 2/3rds of his contract.

He was subsequently offered a reduced contract. I'm loathe to think we'll smash the wage budget for one wonder goal, and a dozen good games. Considering the financila state of the club. Its called urging caution.

[Worthy4England]

I'm referring to his poor displays for 2/3rds of his contract.

He was subsequently offered a reduced contract. I'm loathe to think we'll smash the wage budget for one wonder goal, and a dozen good games. Considering the financila state of the club. Its called urging caution.

Given that none of us will be privy to any negotiations, it's probably fairly moot.

Guess Coyle will determine what he wants to pay, based on his wage budget. If Coyle thinks he's worth keeping, then that's fine by me. I would have still probably tried to have flogged him last summer, but given Coyle didn't and it looks to be paying off, then fair-dos.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I'm referring to his poor displays for 2/3rds of his contract.

He was subsequently offered a reduced contract. I'm loathe to think we'll smash the wage budget for one wonder goal, and a dozen good games. Considering the financila state of the club. Its called urging caution.

I agree with what you say financially, but he didn't give poor displays for 2/3rds of his contract IMHO. He is the same guy, who put in the same effort, and played the same way for his country. It is the BWFC approach that has changed not him. Now we win lose or draw high scoring games not low scoring ones. Speaking of which, I believe we have lost fewer games than three of the top four teams atm (Chelski, the Arse and Citeh) - never thought I'd see that.

[FaninOz]

I'm referring to his poor displays for 2/3rds of his contract.

He was subsequently offered a reduced contract. I'm loathe to think we'll smash the wage budget for one wonder goal, and a dozen good games. Considering the financila state of the club. Its called urging caution.

I agree with what you say financially, but he didn't give poor displays for 2/3rds of his contract IMHO. He is the same guy, who put in the same effort, and played the same way for his country. It is the BWFC approach that has changed not him. Now we win lose or draw high scoring games not low scoring ones. Speaking of which, I believe we have lost fewer games than three of the top four teams atm (Chelski, the Arse and Citeh) - never thought I'd see that.

But too many draws, just think where we would be if we had won the games against Villa, United, Liverpool and Everton, that we deserved. Another 6pts and above United on 25 points.

[Hoboh]

I wish I could be bothered going into the archives to dig out some of the crap people wrote about Elmander.

Start diging my friend because he's got a lot more to do than a flash goal and a good start to a season after 2 years to prove 'owt, thats not belittleing what he has done so far but Ronaldoish he ain't yet!

[BWFC_Insane]

We're £96m in debt. Its all well and good saying sign him up, he conned a living for over 2/3rds his stay here, so he owes us this for that massive fee. He's a professional, I'd be out of a job if I was costing a company that much and producing nowt.

Only took 2 1/2 years to say "I told you so". Of a 3 year contract. Have a think about that.

Quite frankly LK I couldn't care less what he gets paid. Gartside, Duckworth et al can worry about that and I'll trust them not to give him a salary that cripples us or leaves us stuffed for the next 5 years.

What I am bothered about is that currently he is looking every bit the 15M striker that potentially we hoped he would be. The quality and effort he has produced so far thats the bracket I'd put him in for the start to the season, and yes its only 13 games gone but he's a massive massive part of where we are. When you look at some of the money spent on the likes of Jones at Stoke and even Fletcher at 7M sitting on Wolves bench Elmander is streets ahead of those two in terms of the form from this season.

What I'm saying is IF we need to sell in January to raise money then I'd rather sell Cahill and Habsi and hopefully get Elmander signed up for another 3 years.

[FaninOz]

What I'm saying is IF we need to sell in January to raise money then I'd rather sell Cahill and Habsi and hopefully get Elmander signed up for another 3 years.

Defenders and goalkeepers are relatively two a penny compared with a striker who can score in the premiership, so must agree that Elmander is above Habsi and probably above Cahill at present. Cahill is also much younger and has more years to offer us or any other club who will buy him so if we have to sell to help balance the books then he is the one who reluctantly has to go. With Habsi we have good cover in Bogdan so if Wigan will offer a good price we could let Ali go as well.

Plus of course the likes of Riga, but we would have to pay someone to take him off our hands.

[hisroyalgingerness]

On first viewing I thought we'd got ourselves a new Gudjohnsen

Clearly, I had it wrong

Elmander has pace Eidur could only dream of having


Sell him for 3 million?

Give your heads a shake

Thank goodness your beloved Megson got the sack, otherwise Elmander would still be playing like shit and you wouldn't be able to post sanctimonious stuff like this.

In the spirit of the thread HP why don't you just hold your hands up and admit that your view of "conference player" Mandy was wider of the mark than a Muamba left foot screamer

The only amazing thing about the Mandy episode is that the guy who did choose to pay £9m for him wasn't able to get the best out of him, either by man-management or playing a system that he could use his talents best.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Lots of people all over the interweb pretending that they've never called Elmander a shithouse......no-one ever truly thought that he was a bad player, just that he was playing badly.

Still, fantastic goal - had that been Mr Potato Head the world would have been creaming themselves

[H. Pedersen]

Lots of people all over the interweb pretending that they've never called Elmander a shithouse......no-one ever truly thought that he was a bad player, just that he was playing badly.

There's no need to pretend I didn't call him a shithouse. This wasn’t a scenario like Davies’ goal drought in 2004-2005 where he wasn’t scoring but was still important to our play. This was more like Nolan’s later years with us where not only was he not scoring, but he looked like he had no business being on a Premier League pitch for vast periods of time. And that’s when he was fit, which was never.

I’m glad Elmander has had a great season so far. Long may it continue.

[Tombwfc]

We're £96m in debt. Its all well and good saying sign him up, he conned a living for over 2/3rds his stay here, so he owes us this for that massive fee. He's a professional, I'd be out of a job if I was costing a company that much and producing nowt.

Only took 2 1/2 years to say "I told you so". Of a 3 year contract. Have a think about that.

That's all fantastic, but has no bearing on the situation we find ourselves in now.

Regardless of the last 2 1/2 years, Elmander is integral to our play because he's nigh on irreplaceable for the money we'd get for him.

All that said, he's never been as bad as people made out. He's always worked hard, just never had the goals to match it. IIRC back in the days of Worthy's post-match MoTM ratings, he scored pretty highly. People seemed to be happy with his performance straight after a game, but when looking back later forgot all that and just saw another game in which he didn't score. There have been very few games where I've felt we'd have been better off not playing him.

Although you'll find few who defend Megson more than I do, even I'll say that it appears from everyone (including his own quotes on the player) that he man-managed Elmander pretty badly.

[TKIZ!]

I'm definitely in the sell Cahill possibly Al Habsi if it means we could keep Elmo. Strikers more difficult to replace and once you've got one scoring hard to find another one who does the same job

[William the White]

The ball is emphatically in Elmander's court... Every goal potentially increases his salary in the next job and, unfortunately, doesn't much increase his transfer fee...

I suspect - but would be dismayed by - a January farewell and someone getting a bargain...

[Eborted]

Last season you could not fault him personally. Every game he played he was putting in the effort but could not score for shit. I've never hated him. Doubted him yes but never truly disliked.