Curtis Nelson to Cardiff

DorsetYelloww said:
The only sensible policy is to never let your better players enter the final year of their contract. Even Man City reportedly have this policy, never mind a cash strapped club like ours. If they won’t agree a new contract they are actively managed out of the club, with only one or two exceptions.
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Yes; that's probably prudent - but alas, we're not Manchester City, and we don't have oodles of replacements in our paper-thin squad to replaced those who are 'training with the youth team'. 'Actively manage out' in this case means 'stick on the bench' until the inevitable free transfer in the summer, or accept a pittance immediately for an enforced transfer to Div 2 - really of no benefit to anyone.

I reiterate we CAN'T force players to sign contracts they don't want to, and our squad size doesn't permit players on gardening leave.

DorsetYelloww said:
Unfortunately too many players (Dunkley, Rothwell, Ledson, Lundstram, Nelson etc, etc) have been allowed to go for reduced or no fees in recent seasons, which has set the tone for others to watch and follow their lead.
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I doubt there's any following of leads per se, or that it's unique to Oxford United FC - unfortunately it's agents and the modern game, and the only option for us is to 'embrace' it; and bully smaller clubs in the same way.

DorsetYelloww said:
£500k would help towards, what everyone says, is extortionate ground rent fees for example. The reality is we have to start generating significant income from transfer fees for our better players when the time comes for them to leave. As I’ve said we have the disadvantage of high ground rent, no income from the stadium, lower attendances, so where is the money going to come from to fund the better players everyone wants?
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Agree with you to a large extent, but this would be a slightly different conversation if the subject were e.g. Gavin Whyte - much as we have all loved seeing Curtis Nelson represent our club, he is nonetheless just a centre-back, and he only cost £250k...if the £4m-rated Whyte walked for free that would be criminal beyond belief.

DorsetYelloww said:
I disagree that we only stayed up solely because of Nelson. The return of Eastwood, allied to bringing Long in as RB, made the defence much stronger and suddenly Nelson and Dickie found their mojo.

Unfortunately it’s hard to see how we are going to avoid exactly the same scenario with Dickie in 12 months time now unless he surprisingly signs an improved extension to his contract. These are players that should be generating seven figure transfer fees and there is no way our little club can afford to lose that revenue.
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Again you are right (although I didn't say 'only' reason), I definitely think he was a 'major' reason we stayed up. Let's not lose sight of the benefit of a settled back-four in the second half of the season, AND the move of Mousinho into the DM role. And the financial cost of relegation cannot be over-stated, probably far more than £500k; and I certainly never want to plummet to the pitiful standard enjoyed by Pighill ever again.

Whilst your stance is laudable, I just can't see that it's practical for a club of our size. What happens if KR stands Curtis down from playing duty in January due to his refusal to sign a new contract, and other players take his side, and strike? Since you make mention of others following leads, we can't be seen to be a club that obstructs career development (and it's probably not too good under employment law either).

So - a practical suggestion as to how Oxford United manages Rob Dickie now, bearing in mind he's presently our ONLY legitimate centre-back option who's old enough to drink beer?
 
DorsetYelloww said:
The only sensible policy is to never let your better players enter the final year of their contract. Even Man City reportedly have this policy, never mind a cash strapped club like ours. If they won’t agree a new contract they are actively managed out of the club, with only one or two exceptions.

Unfortunately too many players (Dunkley, Rothwell, Ledson, Lundstram, Nelson etc, etc) have been allowed to go for reduced or no fees in recent seasons, which has set the tone for others to watch and follow their lead.

£500k would help towards, what everyone says, is extortionate ground rent fees for example. The reality is we have to start generating significant income from transfer fees for our better players when the time comes for them to leave. As I’ve said we have the disadvantage of high ground rent, no income from the stadium, lower attendances, so where is the money going to come from to fund the better players everyone wants?

I disagree that we only stayed up solely because of Nelson. The return of Eastwood, allied to bringing Long in as RB, made the defence much stronger and suddenly Nelson and Dickie found their mojo.

Unfortunately it’s hard to see how we are going to avoid exactly the same scenario with Dickie in 12 months time now unless he surprisingly signs an improved extension to his contract. These are players that should be generating seven figure transfer fees and there is no way our little club can afford to lose that revenue.
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The only way to avoid players like Nelson leaving in these circumstances is to offer them bumper contracts when they are first signed but if we’d have given him a 5 or 6 year deal and he flopped then where does that leave us ?

If a player is set on leaving at the expiration of his contract then what can you do ? You could argue that say a four year contract is renegotiated after two years or a three year one after a year but it’s only being renegotiated for a reason and that reason is precisely why the player himself feels he can cash in further down the line.
 
Watching Reading vs Cardiff. Both Whyte and Nelson on the bench. Reading 3-0 up. Whyte an unused sub, Nelson came on in the 23rd minute due to an injury. Looks like he’s playing centre mid.
 
yellowbow said:
He’ll probably get sacked there and be back on the managerial merry-go-round at somewhere like Crystal Palace or Newcastle before September is out...
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wonder what woud happen to/with Whyte if that were to happen?
 
Nelson didn’t have the best of games. Mind you he was put in at right back and he is no right back.

I actually quite like Warnock and you can’t knock his achievements. Leaving Whyte on the bench though seemed an odd move given how little they offered up front.
 
DorsetYelloww said:
Nelson didn’t have the best of games. Mind you he was put in at right back and he is no right back.

I actually quite like Warnock and you can’t knock his achievements. Leaving Whyte on the bench though seemed an odd move given how little they offered up front.
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Centre mid wasn’t he? Unless he was just getting forward a lot in the last 10-15 mins that I saw
 

In that case he was caught very out of position for Reading’s third goal and some of their counter attacks!
 
HampshireYellow said:
In that case he was caught very out of position for Reading’s third goal and some of their counter attacks!
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Agreed. Hence comment about right back not being his natural position. Tbh Cardiff were all at sea by then trying to make up for a 2 goal deficit.
 
Would we take him back right now and upset Dickie playing so dominantly on the right with Mous looking so much more assured to his left, as well as Elliot Moore producing some very good displays and fighting for Mous' spot?
 
jal said:
Would we take him back right now and upset Dickie playing so dominantly on the right with Mous looking so much more assured to his left, as well as Elliot Moore producing some very good displays and fighting for Mous' spot?
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Nope
 
jal said:
Would we take him back right now and upset Dickie playing so dominantly on the right with Mous looking so much more assured to his left, as well as Elliot Moore producing some very good displays and fighting for Mous' spot?
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I think I would but only as cover but then again the bloke thought he was much better than OUFC we offered him new contracts and he wasn’t interested so yea bring him back to play u23s ?
 
I’d take him back, he was a good player for us and you can’t have too many of those. Obviously won’t happen though. I actually thought he acted totally professionally during his last season for us. He could’ve looked after himself and avoided injury while his contract ran down but his performances actually got better. He certainly never let us down.
 
oufc1991 said:
I think I would but only as cover but then again the bloke thought he was much better than OUFC we offered him new contracts and he wasn’t interested so yea bring him back to play u23s ?
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He was offered a job with a team just relegated from premiership who are bigger than us. Not worked out just yet but he deserved his opportunity at a higher level. Most us with whatever occupation we do would find it hard to turn down a chance for a job at a higher level. Great player for us and no issues with him.
 
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