This is what the OS reports Parkinson saying about Andy Gray:
"Andy's a good lad and an honest professional. He would like to move back up north for family reasons. However, the deal to take him has got to be right for the club. If not, it wouldn't be doing justice to the people who have bought season tickets.I understand Andy's concerns but he's a Charlton player.''
Don't like this at all. We all know what Gray and his family are going through. he's not some jumped-up obnoxious kid like Jerome Thomas with an inflated sense of his own worth who thinks the lower divisions are beneath him. He's a mature family man who wants a move because he realises that his wife's health and his kids welfare are more important than football.
So Barnsley aren't offering enough money. Well, for heaven's sake compromise, drop our asking price and do the deal - and do it swiftly, for the sake of Andy and his family.
That would be 'the Charlton way'. Blocking his move when he has such compelling personal reasons for wanting to move back north just because we want more money is NOT the Charlton way. Hiding behind doing ''justice'' to s/t holders is pathetic. How many would actually support us blocking his move under the tragic circumstances he finds himself in ?
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I am sure there is a creative solution to this just waiting to be found by the clubs, and it is just a personal shame for him that his personal problems are significant enough to compel this move. (I'm not willing to be cynical enough to imagine that his rationale for leaving is anything less than completely genuine)
With the drop down the leagues, I never get to see the club anymore, and am always excited to see "highlights" on SSN when we get it once a day, so I've never seen him play. That said, he does sound like a model professional in every positive sense of the term.
Although football clubs (and all businesses) would be out of business quickly if they always act with compassion as their primary motive, I would think that this is a pretty compelling case on which to act with that compassion for someone who sounds like they have always worked hard for the club, even if his production hasn't been what the fans, the club, or indeed he would have liked.
Bang on.
We know:
his wife is seriously ill and the family needs to move back north to be near her folks
he wants to go to Barnsley and Barnsley want him
Charlton want more money than Barnsley are offering...
We also know:
we paid way over the odds for him (double what Burnely had bought him for...)
he has not set the Valley alight with his goals
his fitness record for us has been poor
he is one of our highest paid players when we are allegedly trying to cut the wages bill
oh, and he doesn't like jumping...
More important than any of that, we also know family health and welfare is more important than football.
All we are saying is be sensible, be compassionate and come to a compromise on the deal, asap so the agony of Gray and his family is not protracted any further. Can you imagine what it must do to him and his family when they hear Parkinson saying he might have to stay a Charlton player?
So pray tell us what further 'facts' we need? Bang on, Oggy ? It's bang off, I'm afraid.
I might suggest if Gray is so desperate to to move he agrees to a significant wage cut with Barnsely so they can afford to offer more - it's not like he's going to be destitute on £3k and week instead of £6K.
We're already agreeing to a price half what we paid for him and we stuck by him a were very understanding a supportive over the last 9 months or so. I don't agree that there is any great onus on the club to anymore. Like I say, there things Gray could do to make this deal happen.
I was though, a bit careless quoting CE.
Let me try again and be more specific.
Below was what I actually meant.
I believe that we as fans have taken a few snippets of information and automatically storyboarded a whole scenario in our minds. We naturally err to the compassionate side, and look at those snippets from the family angle.
However, none of us know the real story. We are presuming in our minds that Andy is keen on a move for better quality family life etc, but equally we have no knowledge of what role Andy and his agent may be playing, are they demanding certain payments from Charlton, asking for such a wage that any buying club would want us to sub his wages, put Charlton in a financial position it can actually deal with etc.
Its a grey area, and one none of us know the full facts to, and as a result i think we're generally best not speculating too much. I know there have been changes at Charlton in recent years, but its always struck me as a relatively compassionate club who i doubt would screw a player over on a family issue. In fact, i doubt any football club would.
Sums this and the whole sorry takeover affair up for me.A board,so desperate to get the money they invested so poorly back,that they will try and do it at any cost.Very Sad
I might suggest if Gray is so desperate to to move he agrees to a significant wage cut with Barnsely so they can afford to offer more - it's not like he's going to be destitute on £3k and week instead of £6K.
We're already agreeing to a price half what we paid for him and we stuck by him a were very understanding a supportive over the last 9 months or so. I don't agree that there is any great onus on the club to anymore. Like I say, there things Gray could do to make this deal happen.[/quote]
Totally agree.
Before we sit in judgement, do we actually know precisely the transfer fee offered by Barnsley.....?
Some reports suggest it might be as much as £600k ...... others as low as £250k.
Take your pick - which is the 'fact' .......?
We may very well have paid way over the odds for him, reported at the time to be a deal rising conditionally to a maximum of £1.5 million.
But whether the clauses involved, promotion, appearances or goals - it's very unlikely that we've paid anywhere near the full fee for Andy Gray. I heard a few months ago that the fee was actually £750k down + clauses.
Is that fact ? I don't know, and I suspect nobody else on here knows either.
An example: Francis Jeffers signed for us for a fee rising to £2.6million.
I heard that we paid £500k down, and never paid a penny more to Arsenal (which is probably why Curbs never picked him again, and he was farmed out on loan).
Was that true?
I don't know, and I suspect nobody else on here knows either.
But I also hope nobody is suggesting that Gray or his agent would be cynical enough to use his wife's tumour to further his own wage demands etc. (if he merely wanted the money, he'd surely just stay put on his v favourable contract?) The only cynicism here, as far as I can see, is the guff about doing ''justice'' to the s/t holders.
As Carly says, Gray was a poor investment in the first place. So please Parkinson and the board, can we bring this sorry episode to a rapid conclusion and let the Gray family get on with rebuilding their lives as best they can - and those that remain with us get on with rebuilding our football club?
The only good thing about this is that if a takeover is pending, we can't sell our best players.
Ha ha...if Parky cares to meet me at the usual service station on the M1, I'll hand over the package !!! The usual 10 per cent to your good self, CE...
Whoops. Perhaps I should have whispered that...
I know what you're saying Nigel and I agree in principal, but all I was saying was how can we judge when we don't really know the facts. We might want £600K, they may have offered £100K and asked us to pay half his wages. Andy's wife may have recovered, she may be very ill (let's pray not), we just don't know.
Anyway I'm off now.
I'm sure Barnsley are playing games, too, just as we are playing games, and just as every club involved in a transfer where serious money is concerned plays these games.
But I do wish that for once , under these difficult personal circs , the parties concerned could get it together to conclude the business swiftly and sensibly and spare the player and his family any more destabilising uncertainty. That's why I didn't like Parkinson admitting that Gray needs to move ''for family reasons'' - and then telling him that ''he's a Charlton player'' and might have to remain so. It's a football club, not a regiment on a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Oh for the days when Mike Gliksten was the Chairman, and Andy Nelsonout was the manager. *sigh*
;o)
I suspect that Barnsley are not only offering a bargain-basement fee of below 500,000 but also that they want us to tip in for his wages as well since they will get nowhere near his probable 12,000 per week in wages. Their top-earner would be lucky to be on 5,000 per week.
If Gray wants the move then he will have to swallow a very heavy pay cut and hope Barnsley pony up some more dough.
I feel very sorry for him but Charlton, quite literally, cannot afford to pay him thousands per week whilst he plays for another club, that is not going to happen not least because our bankers probably would not allow it.
This is what Simon Davey said today: ''We were expecting it to go through (on Wednesday) but again there have been more delays. Everything is agreed and we are just waiting on Charlton saying we can push it through.''
He goes on to say something v similar to ME14 above - namely that it's the takeover (and presumably the army of lawyers and bankers trailing in its wake) that's holding things up, rather than an insurmountable difference in valuation between buyer and seller.
So there you have it, your original argument rendered wrong by your latest argument. And round and round we go... ;-)