Why can we not be more like West Brom who demand top dollar for their players and sting Fulham or whoever wants him for as much we can get £5 million at least. These clubs have the Premiership money so why don't we make them pay what other clubs ask for their players. Reid was sold on the cheap and if Sunderland really wanted him they would have paid more. Does anyone know if £4 million was Sunderlands only bid for Reid?
People were saying the same thing about Reidy, take the money, injury prone etc. We did and look what happened. We can't keep offloading our best players if we want to get back to the premiership. If by a miracle we sold and still got promoted we would be in the market for players like ZZ to add quality to the squad, but we would be quoted silly money to buy him back. Yes he tired badly but that's hardly surprising considering the players he was playing alongside in midfield. We need to get more energy in there alongside ZZ. Shelvy or Hoolihan could be the answer. I think it would be a big big mistake to sell ZZ
[quote He wasn't exactly on form last season was he? [/quote]
are you on another planet ?????.....our best player by a country mile and I'll be gutted if we lose him, of course he was shattered by the end of the season having spent most of it either carrying the rest of our midfield or traveling round the bloody world !!
are you on another planet ?????.....our best player by a country mile and I'll be gutted if we lose him, of course he was shattered by the end of the season having spent most of it either carrying the rest of our midfield or traveling round the bloody world !!
All this 'travelling around the world crap', he is not exactly teaming up with Biggles in a By Plane is he.
You train 5 days a week 9 till 12 or whatever, maximum two 90 minute matches a week and maybe 3 times a year you have to be waited on hand and foot on a business class flight two wherever, maybe even nick 5/6 hours sleep. Then you get two full months off through the summer.
Bet he must be proper fcuked, god forbid a footballer would ever have too do a 7 till 5 shift on a building site every day of the week then play at a fairly high standard on a sunday, thousands of semi pro players manage to get 90 mins under their belt without everyone saying 'our bless, look at him he's knackered'.
If he is our best player it is no wonder we couldnt manage two 'break into' the top ten in the championship.
I must watch completely different games to some people, ZZ is probably the one real class act we have in our side (squad) and IF we sell him, we wouldn't be able to sign anyone anywhere near as good for the money we'd get for him.
I'd bite their hands off at getting our 2million back never mind doubling it. The best thing we can do to get out of this championship is get rid of ZZ and get money for him too.
I think that when ZZ is on his game he is our best and most effective player, but last season he was either wonderful or terrible. That may have been down to a various factors such as injury or travel fatigue, yet £4 million up front is a no brainer for me!
i agree with a lot of the above, especially cfgs...
for my money he is our best player on his day and can do absolutely everything... take note Blackpool (home)... scored twice, goalline clearance, all action display
however, he can also be anonymous and too easily strangled in midfield when he isn't on his mettle
bottom line - if we get offered FOUR MILLION POUNDS, we will never see such a good return... as long as it goes back into the squad we are in a position where we have to sell to buy and regrettably i'd rather it was from a team paying "silly" money for Zheng than nabbing Bougherra or Varney for peanuts
getting rid will also force Pardew's hand to buying a midfield ball-winner, if Zheng stays alongside the likes of Holland and Semedo he might well (wrongly) see that position catered for
would be gutted if he went. imo is our best reader of the game.
if we did decide to sell, i'd hope we'd have lined up, and bid for a replacement (kyle lafferty please) before hand, as if whoever we went for, the selling club would know we have £xxxx in the coffers.
would the selling of zz affect any possible sponsorship from the far east?
If ZZ goes then we are going backwards, £4m or not. We got about that for Reid and we all know what happened thereafter.
I cant believe that we are even discussing this. I agree that if we all had the same opinions then football would be boring, but 300 million chinamen cant all be wrong.
[cite]Posted By: Charltonparklane[/cite]are you on another planet ?????.....our best player by a country mile and I'll be gutted if we lose him, of course he was shattered by the end of the season having spent most of it either carrying the rest of our midfield or traveling round the bloody world !!
All this 'travelling around the world crap', he is not exactly teaming up with Biggles in a By Plane is he.
You train 5 days a week 9 till 12 or whatever, maximum two 90 minute matches a week and maybe 3 times a year you have to be waited on hand and foot on a business class flight two wherever, maybe even nick 5/6 hours sleep. Then you get two full months off through the summer.
Bet he must be proper fcuked, god forbid a footballer would ever have too do a 7 till 5 shift on a building site every day of the week then play at a fairly high standard on a sunday, thousands of semi pro players manage to get 90 mins under their belt without everyone saying 'our bless, look at him he's knackered'.
If he is our best player it is no wonder we couldnt manage two 'break into' the top ten in the championship.
With the greatest respect, I would have shared the same opinion until I started doing a lot of travelling with my own job a few years back. I do a lot of travelling between here (Brisbane) and Singapore/Hong Kong (both 8-9 hour flights) and I can tell you that when you do that consistently it really, really knocks the wind out of you.
Last year, I did 4 return trips to SE Asia from here in the 6 weeks before Xmas and I have never been so knackered in my entire life - and I am just a desk jockey I don't have t run around keeping up with other super fit players.
The travelling, which ZZ is still doing and is due to arrive here in Oz in a couple of weeks, is a killer and would have been a key reason for him losing form.
[cite]Posted By: Salad[/cite]I think we actually accepted little more than £3m for Reid.
Possible add-ons such as not being relegated meaning it could eventually rise to 4m
And if we were to sell ZZ the deal would be similar. All in all I'd rather he stayed, on the pitch he should contribute goals etc, but also important is his off the pitch commercial value. This sounds mercenary but if we want to develop the profile of the club in China it might lead to the loss of sponsorship and other commercial revenue.
Golfie, I agree with what you say but maybe we all need a reality check. The club is in a serious financial hole judging by the finances recently released. We will be in a much deeper one if we don't go up. There is a very precarious balancing act here to be considered by the board, either
a) do they take the safe option and plan for not going up this season, if so they may need to cash in their assets now at whatever they can get for players?
b) do they spend money they haven't got with a real push for the PL and hope we make it? Failure meaning serious financial survival consequences.
c) do they augment the squad with some loanees, Bosmans and one or two hopefuls and try to keep the current team together, thereby taking a reasonable risk against not going up which will mean the club can survive with some pain if we don't; and hold out for top end values on players, selling them if clubs meet that target price?
If you were a board member and it was not just your money on the line, but the future of the club you love was in your hands, what choice would you make? Play it safe and cash in your chips, risk it all, or take an affordable risk and only cash in your chips if you receive over the odds?
Remember the parachute payment of around £10m will turn into a TV deal of £1-2m next year if we don't get up.
He's in the last year of his contract. OK, keep him but then there is nothing to stop him leaving on a free next summer. Then the moans will be "why didn't we take the £4m from Fulham?" That's a calculated risk but if we don't go up and lose the parachute money £4m is a hell of a lot.
I think he's a great player who could play in the prem and with a better team around him would do well. And there's the rub. Most likely so does he.
Ormiston makes a great point about the travelling - although I'd take bet ZiZi is fitter than Ormy ; - ). The other thing is that on top of the travelling and extra games this was his first season in a 46 game league season and one where too often he had to do the running for others.
I really don't want to see him go but the club also needs to balance budgets and decide where wages and fees can best be spent. Maybe Pardew will spend the wages that would be freed up on a Hoolihan or player X, Y and Z. Who knows? But I'd take a guess that the captain of China was getting more wonga than a certain Blackpool winger.
zz was our best midfielder last year imo scored when needed and was fckedfrom all the travel against palarse at home he was in china on the tuesday rtned on the weds played friday that must take an effect
ZZ is one of the better players, and under 'normal' circumstances would not be looking to sell. But when you consider all the travelling he has to do for China's games all the year round, he is in affect having no break meaning he simply cannot play 46 games a season. If the price is over what he is valued at I think the correct thing would be to take it.
If someone does offer 4 mil + for ZZ, i would have to say the board would accept that. He is in the last year of his current contract, and if he is picked to play in China's Olympic team, then he would miss most of pre season and the first couple of weeks of the season.
If we sell...big mistake. Unless we can replace him for less we will be proper f****d, and that isn't likely is it. I will be really gutted if he goes.
Looking at this deal from a purely football perspective is ridiculous. We're an indebted championship club who could easily go into administration in the next couple of years. We've taken big gambles and failed spectacularly, it's time to cut our cloth while still giving ourselves a chance of going up. ZZ can be replaced from within with Ambrose, JJ or even Holland. It's not a perfect situation but thats life.
Must admit I am puzzled by this, because of China's Ranking No Premier League Side will ever get a work permit for him. It's far more likely that he'll end up at a Spanish or Italian club.
As for those moaning about selling one of our better players, get used to it, we really have to tighten out belt this year & If you want players in, players have to go first, by selling ZZ for anything like £4m we can practically sort out the rest of our Defence / Midfield with that money. Not sure we'll get £4m for him from a Spanish or Italian club mind.
[cite]Posted By: Ketman[/cite]Must admit I am puzzled by this, because of China's Ranking No Premier League Side will ever get a work permit for him. It's far more likely that he'll end up at a Spanish or Italian club.
As for those moaning about selling one of our better players, get used to it, we really have to tighten out belt this year & If you want players in, players have to go first, by selling ZZ for anything like £4m we can practically sort out the rest of our Defence / Midfield with that money. Not sure we'll get £4m for him from a Spanish or Italian club mind.
In which case we keep him for one more season at least.
I really like Zheng - works really hard, has more good games than bad, can score a few goals and brings interest from a fair few fans from the Far East to the club, which is very welcome, BUT he has one more year to go in his contract, isn't he due to play at the Olympics for China and if we could bring in anything like £3-4 million for him, it would be too useful a war chest to turn down. For me, Hull, Stoke and to a degree West Brom have all proved that it is not about signing players for multi million deals, but constructing a squad that can get you out of this division. If we were to lose only Zheng and say Fortune (who needs a fresh start for his sake), whilst signing the 3-4 players that Pards believes we need to have a firmer challenge next season, then I'd take it. One right back, two solid midfielders and one bustling striker for me.
I am not sure how successful financially the ZZ/China thing has been for CAFC.
But assuming its not been a big income earner I would say with a smaller squad the last thing we need is a central midfielder who is going to be knackered some of the time or the Manager is going to juggle around it.
I want a settled first 11 with a decent 5 subs backed up by cover in each position. I think CAFC have tried to be too clever and should get back to the basics of a settled team. If a decent offer comes in take it.
Comments
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We should keep him if we can - he is definitely in my first XV1
We need to keep the nucleus of the squad and bring in just 4 or 5 to strengthen - none of this 7 in 7 out rubbish.
We can't keep offloading our best players if we want to get back to the premiership.
If by a miracle we sold and still got promoted we would be in the market for players like ZZ to add quality to the squad, but we would be quoted silly money to buy him back.
Yes he tired badly but that's hardly surprising considering the players he was playing alongside in midfield.
We need to get more energy in there alongside ZZ. Shelvy or Hoolihan could be the answer. I think it would be a big big mistake to sell ZZ
My opinion only of course,
are you on another planet ?????.....our best player by a country mile and I'll be gutted if we lose him, of course he was shattered by the end of the season having spent most of it either carrying the rest of our midfield or traveling round the bloody world !!
All this 'travelling around the world crap', he is not exactly teaming up with Biggles in a By Plane is he.
You train 5 days a week 9 till 12 or whatever, maximum two 90 minute matches a week and maybe 3 times a year you have to be waited on hand and foot on a business class flight two wherever, maybe even nick 5/6 hours sleep. Then you get two full months off through the summer.
Bet he must be proper fcuked, god forbid a footballer would ever have too do a 7 till 5 shift on a building site every day of the week then play at a fairly high standard on a sunday, thousands of semi pro players manage to get 90 mins under their belt without everyone saying 'our bless, look at him he's knackered'.
If he is our best player it is no wonder we couldnt manage two 'break into' the top ten in the championship.
for my money he is our best player on his day and can do absolutely everything... take note Blackpool (home)... scored twice, goalline clearance, all action display
however, he can also be anonymous and too easily strangled in midfield when he isn't on his mettle
bottom line - if we get offered FOUR MILLION POUNDS, we will never see such a good return... as long as it goes back into the squad we are in a position where we have to sell to buy and regrettably i'd rather it was from a team paying "silly" money for Zheng than nabbing Bougherra or Varney for peanuts
getting rid will also force Pardew's hand to buying a midfield ball-winner, if Zheng stays alongside the likes of Holland and Semedo he might well (wrongly) see that position catered for
if we did decide to sell, i'd hope we'd have lined up, and bid for a replacement (kyle lafferty please) before hand, as if whoever we went for, the selling club would know we have £xxxx in the coffers.
would the selling of zz affect any possible sponsorship from the far east?
If ZZ goes then we are going backwards, £4m or not. We got about that for Reid and we all know what happened thereafter.
I cant believe that we are even discussing this. I agree that if we all had the same opinions then football would be boring, but 300 million chinamen cant all be wrong.
Sell ZZ at our peril.
Possible add-ons such as not being relegated meaning it could eventually rise to 4m
With the greatest respect, I would have shared the same opinion until I started doing a lot of travelling with my own job a few years back. I do a lot of travelling between here (Brisbane) and Singapore/Hong Kong (both 8-9 hour flights) and I can tell you that when you do that consistently it really, really knocks the wind out of you.
Last year, I did 4 return trips to SE Asia from here in the 6 weeks before Xmas and I have never been so knackered in my entire life - and I am just a desk jockey I don't have t run around keeping up with other super fit players.
The travelling, which ZZ is still doing and is due to arrive here in Oz in a couple of weeks, is a killer and would have been a key reason for him losing form.
And if we were to sell ZZ the deal would be similar. All in all I'd rather he stayed, on the pitch he should contribute goals etc, but also important is his off the pitch commercial value. This sounds mercenary but if we want to develop the profile of the club in China it might lead to the loss of sponsorship and other commercial revenue.
a) do they take the safe option and plan for not going up this season, if so they may need to cash in their assets now at whatever they can get for players?
b) do they spend money they haven't got with a real push for the PL and hope we make it? Failure meaning serious financial survival consequences.
c) do they augment the squad with some loanees, Bosmans and one or two hopefuls and try to keep the current team together, thereby taking a reasonable risk against not going up which will mean the club can survive with some pain if we don't; and hold out for top end values on players, selling them if clubs meet that target price?
If you were a board member and it was not just your money on the line, but the future of the club you love was in your hands, what choice would you make? Play it safe and cash in your chips, risk it all, or take an affordable risk and only cash in your chips if you receive over the odds?
Remember the parachute payment of around £10m will turn into a TV deal of £1-2m next year if we don't get up.
He's in the last year of his contract. OK, keep him but then there is nothing to stop him leaving on a free next summer. Then the moans will be "why didn't we take the £4m from Fulham?" That's a calculated risk but if we don't go up and lose the parachute money £4m is a hell of a lot.
I think he's a great player who could play in the prem and with a better team around him would do well. And there's the rub. Most likely so does he.
Ormiston makes a great point about the travelling - although I'd take bet ZiZi is fitter than Ormy ; - ). The other thing is that on top of the travelling and extra games this was his first season in a 46 game league season and one where too often he had to do the running for others.
I really don't want to see him go but the club also needs to balance budgets and decide where wages and fees can best be spent. Maybe Pardew will spend the wages that would be freed up on a Hoolihan or player X, Y and Z. Who knows? But I'd take a guess that the captain of China was getting more wonga than a certain Blackpool winger.
he was a shining light imo last season
However, you could argue that £4M is a good deal for someone who at times flatters to deceive.
My view would be to accept if it ONLY if it means Varney and Boogy definitely stay, plus we have a strong new CM already lined up.
If he doesn't go, we need to extend his contract - otherwise he'll walk for nought at the end of next season, which would be very bad business.
As for those moaning about selling one of our better players, get used to it, we really have to tighten out belt this year & If you want players in, players have to go first, by selling ZZ for anything like £4m we can practically sort out the rest of our Defence / Midfield with that money. Not sure we'll get £4m for him from a Spanish or Italian club mind.
In which case we keep him for one more season at least.
But assuming its not been a big income earner I would say with a smaller squad the last thing we need is a central midfielder who is going to be knackered some of the time or the Manager is going to juggle around it.
I want a settled first 11 with a decent 5 subs backed up by cover in each position. I think CAFC have tried to be too clever and should get back to the basics of a settled team. If a decent offer comes in take it.