[tuamigos]

How long before the club changes its name to Wet Bromwich Aldi-on?
Always long term thinking with short term strategy.
Sack the board

[Atomic]

It's the right decision. I know some fans will be disappointed but I'm afraid they have to get real we cannot afford to be paying anyone £55K per week in the Championship, we just can't simple as that.

[section5]

Dont buy it. Amount of wages that will be moved on this summer. With sensible negotiating this could have been very much on the cards

[GREGMT]

Gayle’s goal per minute ratio was far higher than Rodriguez.  Also he scored far more in open play.

Does anyone actually analyse output /perform stats at Albion?  If Gayles wages are x2 that of HRK then surely that’s a good deal as he’s probably x4 the player.  I would have liked to have seen HRK released, Rondon / Rodriguez sold for £30m and Gayle signed plus a young back up striker for a nominal £1m.

[tommcneill]

This is the news we all dreaded

As usual can only see cheap signings and ones that will keep us in the championship for a long time.

Most of you preferred championship football well your wish will come true now. If we don’t sign players of this calibre that’s where we are staying until this owner leaves

[baggies_24]

We shouldn’t be talking about transfers until the new manager is in place who knows he might want a target man up front so Gayle wouldn’t fit into his plans anyways. What this does highlight for me though is if we are unable or unwilling to pay the wages for someone like Gayle then we also need to shift out a lot of the higher earners at the club, I don’t know for a fact but i’d imagine Dawson, Livermore, Robson Kanu, Brunt are all up there with the highest earners and you’d have to question whether they are worth a starting place in first 11. The biggest wages need to be spent on the best players and if we can’t afford to pay Gayles wages because the 4 players above are restricting what we can pay then they need to be sold.

[Atomic]

This is the news we all dreaded

As usual can only see cheap signings and ones that will keep us in the championship for a long time.

Like Pukki at Norwich you mean?

[boinging_along]

It's the right decision. I know some fans will be disappointed but I'm afraid they have to get real we cannot afford to be paying anyone £55K per week in the Championship, we just can't simple as that.

Why can't we afford it? 

[baggie_liam]

This board will take us to L1 within the next 5 years, and still they’ll be people on here that back them and their decisions. This clownshow we have has no clue about anything! The feel good factor from the villa home game lasted all of a week! Gayle should have been priority! Build around him!

[hardtobeat]

Timing seems well off as it is a right boot in the nuts to fans who have had early bird renewals rammed in their faces for some time and also is hardly likely to be encouraging anybody to take the managerial reins. I am more resigned than ever now to the ' Having explored all the options the board have decided unanimously that Michael was the best option ' headlines !!!

[Atomic]

Timing seems well off as it is a right boot in the nuts to fans who have had early bird renewals rammed in their faces for some time and also is hardly likely to be encouraging anybody to take the managerial reins.

Not true. To be honest you should've expected us not to sign Gayle permanently if we didn't go up.

Some people are acting like it's the end of the world, it really isn't, Norwich didn't have Gayle in their team last season they went up. Same with Sheffield United. Villa and Derby didn't have him either and they are both one game away from the Premier League.

Gayle isn't some sort of god there are other players around that can potentially get us promoted and we won't have to pay them £55K per week.

[tuamigos]

I would imagine then, that the likes of Dawson, Hegazi, JRod, Gibbs, Livermore, Philips will also be moving on if its all down to lowering the wage bill?

[Atomic]

I would imagine then, that the likes of Dawson, Hegazi, JRod, Gibbs, Livermore, Philips will also be moving on if its all down to lowering the wage bill?

We all know some will move on, we've known that for months, in fact probably since we got relegated. Why these things come as a surprise to people I really don't know.

[tuamigos]

Like Pukki at Norwich you mean?

He's had a phenomenal season.
Lets see what he does next season

[tuamigos]

We all know some will move on, we've known that for months, in fact probably since we got relegated. Why these things come as a surprise to people I really don't know.

A thing called human nature.
Like having an aged relative pass away.
You know it's going to happen, but still a shock when it does

[skyclad99]

This board will take us to L1 within the next 5 years, and still they’ll be people on here that back them and their decisions. This clownshow we have has no clue about anything! The feel good factor from the villa home game lasted all of a week! Gayle should have been priority! Build around him!

I don't think it will take 5 years to get to L1 unfortunately. However, as I see it there are two problems with Dwight being on £55,000 a week, a) we cannot afford it, and b) all of the other players will be on half of that salary which will upset the team dynamics, either conciously or otherwise.

Last year we borrowed Sturridge and the Pole for ludicrously outrageous prices. Both totally failed to deliver but it dented our finances badly by the looks of it. I can understand the board not wanting to go there again.

As another posted has said, at least we are not going down the 'selling our ground to raise money' route, and I for one am pleased with that.

However, I will admit to being dissapointed in this news, even though I know it is the correct decision - I hope that Mr Dowling & Co have a 'cunning plan'.

  

[baggiejohn]

Not true. To be honest you should've expected us not to sign Gayle permanently if we didn't go up.

Some people are acting like it's the end of the world, it really isn't, Norwich didn't have Gayle in their team last season they went up. Same with Sheffield United. Villa and Derby didn't have him either and they are both one game away from the Premier League.

Gayle isn't some sort of god there are other players around that can potentially get us promoted and we won't have to pay them £55K per week.

I would imagine it would be possible to pay Gayle £55k per week for the next campaign, but after that, we lose circa £30 million in parachute revenue, which means a 3/4 year contract wouldn't be possible.
Our annual income, excluding media payments, is around £23 million ( based on last year's accounts).

[Atomic]

I would imagine it would be possible to pay Gayle £55k per week for the next campaign, but after that, we lose circa £30 million in parachute revenue, which means a 3/4 year contract wouldn't be possible.
Our annual income, excluding media payments, is around £23 million ( based on last year's accounts).

Yep exactly this. It'd be OK if we can guarantee promotion next season but no club can do that. We simply cannot lumber ourselves with huge wages with reduced money coming in. It'd be plain stupidity to do so.

[albion59]

He should have been the first one we made sure we kept. Disgusting from WBA again.

[darbolina]

Maybe controversial - Gayle is of course a very good player at this level but I think we need a player who links up better and holds up the ball better if we're to actually try to play football next season. His goals will be missed if we don't replace throughout the team (imagine a team which could score more from midfield!).

Gayle is a natural finisher and deadly at Championship level but it's the whole team which needs rebuilding and this decision will only be able to be judged when that rebuild is complete.

[BoingFlyer]

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/west-bromwich-albion/2019/05/19/west-brom-will-not-sign-dwight-gayle-permanently-this-summer/

Blimey. That's a downer. I'm all for honesty, but give us a bit of hope and time to enjoy the amazing atmosphere last week, before you kill it.

He's off to Fulham by the sound of it or Sheff Utd.

No swap deal means Rondon will end up at Wolves..?

Fair play for being straight with the fans some won't like it but they are the facts, our cloth must be cut accordingly. So I would expect J rod, Dawson and Hegarzi, Rondon and possibly Gibbs to go from that statement.

[WBAinDEVON]

He should have been the first one we made sure we kept. Disgusting from WBA again.

totally agree Keith, no wonder i cant be bothered anymore

[Dan]

Gayle is an excellent player, probably the best striker at this level, but 55k a week in the championship is the kind of deal that can quickly lead to trouble for the club, particularly given he's 29 so his resale value will plumet after a season of injuries or bad form.

The club needs to shop smarter from next season.

[NJS]

Gayle is a good finisher but I could not say that about his character after his suspension for blatant diving and unnecessary high tackle on Steer.  He also did not use his brain, on the throw in incident.  If the referee warns you then do as he says - did he think he was above all that?.  That's old fashioned thinking from me, I know, but he didn't actually pull up any trees for Newcastle in the EPL.

Players come and go.  It would be irretrievably awful if we sold and leased back the Shrine just for the sake of retaining/appeasing these mercenaries.

I'm just waiting to see what type of manager comes in.  That will be a real clue to Albion's near future.

[boinging_along]

Why do some people think we can't afford it?  We've been a well run club, financially, for years and now suddenly signing Gayle would put us so far into the red that we'll have to sell the ground and sack the tea lady and club staff.  It's laughable and it's clearly the club just setting the scene for us doing everything on the cheap, once again.

Put it this way, if J-Rod decides he wants to leave this summer like he considered last year, then that would leave us with HRK and Edwards.  Where are the goals going to come from?  £55k a week to guarantee 20-+ goals is fine.  To get promoted you need to score goals, it will only make sense if we replace Gayle with someone who will score a decent amount.