[baggiejohn]

But we didn't.

In fact, out of the scores of players we have been linked with, some ropey, but some seem to have credibility, we managed a loan signing, to replace Poco. A right back, that is cover for a central defender playing out of position; a wide midfielder in Chadli, when that is possibly the one area with the exception of goalkeepers we didn't need to strengthen as a priority, Brunt, McMannaman, Leko, Phillips, McClean and Saido has played there. A replacement for Vic and Lambert in Robson-Kanu, who isn't a full time striker  (see Chadli above).

Are you telling me Pulis vetoed all of them?

Jim, as usual on deadline day, there are some players you are linked with who may or may not come off, but we were allegedly seriously linked with Camacho & Carvalho. We allegedly made a bid of circa £25 million for Carvalho which together with his wages would have been about £30 million. You don't make a serious bid like that if you haven't got the money. It looks as though Carvalho was a step too far for us, as the bid was rejected, which left Camacho as a fall-back, allegedly TP said he didn't want him.
Somebody at the club decided they wanted to play the brinkmanship card this window, not sure who, but it's been a big time fail.

[baggiejohn]

You keep blaming Pulis for it all based on rumour and nothing concrete, what about the rumours we didn't meet the release fee, what about us reportedly offering £21m for Carvalho when they wanted £34m.

We as a club have messed around in another transfer window, one overseen by the same people who oversaw all the other recent ones.

The whole shambles is down to more than one man no matter how you try and pin it on him. The fact we have not allowed Saido to leave is another major factor in this disgraceful show of ambition.

It appears that we haven't spent our transfer budget, for a transfer strategy that is intended to maximise the budget, ie get as much as you can out of it, that doesn't make sense. Apart from Phillips & Chadli, we left everything until the final day, that smacks of a brinkmanship strategy, who's got a track record in brinkmanship??

[kc56wba]

Does anyone know why this proposed take over is taking so long. I heard last night that one problem was the small percentage of shares held buy a number of supporters. Surely the fit and proper thing should have gone though by now.

[WestBromJim]

Does anyone know why this proposed take over is taking so long. I heard last night that one problem was the small percentage of shares held buy a number of supporters. Surely the fit and proper thing should have gone though by now.

It does seem to be taking an age.

Just guessing here but could it be due to the buyers being a consortium, and the fit and proper persons test or whatever it is, has to be carried out on all the consotium members rather than an individual?

As for the 12%??? of shares not owned by JP i know nothing about that, but if they are holding out for more money good luck to them, that is afterall what JP would do.

[paulosull]

Might be that these new investors want to buy the club with a loan from club on future revenue.they have got no money

[Lloydy]

I tell you what, if the delay in completing the takeover is down to the small minority of shareholders wanting more money then they are an absolute disgrace and cannot call themselves West Bromwich Albion supporters.

[baggyman68]

Might be that these new investors want to buy the club with a loan from club on future revenue.they have got no money

Wasn't that the reason last seasons take over failed?

[paulosull]

Wasn't that the reason last seasons take over failed?

has anyone got a clue if these people have any financial muscle??

[Albion79]

Like i said above i think they have really missed a opportunity here.

Even if they takeover now, the potential feelgood factor has already gone, it was a nice touch with the scarves and free drinks but ultimately its what happens on the pitch and i think most Albion fans know no cup run to even look forward too, next few months are going to be boring and tedious, which in itself breeds negativity.

We should be dancing off the rooftops that we are starting a new era, an exciting time but instead with the transfer window being worse than normal on paper it all feels a bit meh.

[boingusmaximus]

I tell you what, if the delay in completing the takeover is down to the small minority of shareholders wanting more money then they are an absolute disgrace and cannot call themselves West Bromwich Albion supporters.

As one of the 12% I can categorically confirm that the smaller shareholders have  no financial benefit from the takeover, nor are we likely to. On the contrary , a lot of people bought shares to help the club when the finances were in a mess in the 1980s and early 90s.
Only one person has benefited, or will benefit, which is why we have Pulis in charge.   

[SmethDan]

Wasn't that the reason last seasons take over failed?

No, from my understanding the new buyers couldn't provide proof of funding.

[Lloydy]

As one of the 12% I can categorically confirm that the smaller shareholders have  no financial benefit from the takeover, nor are we likely to. On the contrary , a lot of people bought shares to help the club when the finances were in a mess in the 1980s and early 90s.
Only one person has benefited, or will benefit, which is why we have Pulis in charge.   

That's good to know, the one who was whinging in the media must be a small minority then.

[OldburyWBA]

It appears that we haven't spent our transfer budget, for a transfer strategy that is intended to maximise the budget, ie get as much as you can out of it, that doesn't make sense. Apart from Phillips & Chadli, we left everything until the final day, that smacks of a brinkmanship strategy, who's got a track record in brinkmanship??

You blame Pulis for everything, this is a bloke who according to some on here works with player who share the same agents to get deals done and takes a cut so if thats true why didn't we sign any players that fall into this category ? Now you are saying he won't sign anyone.

Fall guy for the window - Tony Pulis

Even IF and we don't have any facts just "rumours" he rejected Camacho, maybe Camacho was on a list put to him and he didn't want him in the first place yet now apparantely he rejected him.

Be nice for people to wait for FACTS before scapegoating on RUMOUR

[howard62baby]

Shares in companies are bought and sold every day at you can gain or lose value at
The touch of a button. The main problem for the situation that we are in is that the club was sold to closes to transfer window ending and the investigation into the fit and proper investors taking as long as it has , is there some reason for this ?

[Albionic]

You blame Pulis for everything, this is a bloke who according to some on here works with player who share the same agents to get deals done and takes a cut so if thats true why didn't we sign any players that fall into this category ? Now you are saying he won't sign anyone.

Fall guy for the window - Tony Pulis

Even IF and we don't have any facts just "rumours" he rejected Camacho, maybe Camacho was on a list put to him and he didn't want him in the first place yet now apparantely he rejected him.

Be nice for people to wait for FACTS before scapegoating on RUMOUR

Oldbury, lets correct 1 thing here, The working with players from his agent allegation, is from the secret footballer not users of this site and the oft forgotten dirty dealing at Gillingham.

I suggest last years court case with crystal palace PROVED that TP is sometimes less than scrupulous in his financial affairs. (carefully chosen words)

[OldburyWBA]

Oldbury, lets correct 1 thing here, The working with players from his agent allegation, is from the secret footballer not users of this site and the oft forgotten dirty dealing at Gillingham.

I suggest last years court case with crystal palace PROVED that TP is sometimes less than scrupulous in his financial affairs. (carefully chosen words)

I know where it came from and as with the Camacho stuff there seems very little in the way of actual "facts" in regards to the Camacho deal and the players we sign seem to have differing agents which again offer little in the way of fact.

What happened at Palace and Gillingham are at different clubs and I guess neither operate in the way this club does given Pulis does not have any involvement in doing deals for players.

[seteefeet]

On the face of it, it appears that our new owners either have no money or, if they do, are not willing to spend it on our football club, so begs the question: Why buy the club? Surely if we go down, our value goes down and they lose money virtually instantly.

Are they thinking, invest little, scrape 17th and milk the TV money? Lerner tried this and failed, so very risky.

Can anyone shed any light on what their intentions might be? Serious question, as I can't for the life of me think, why someone would buy something for £150m and let it go to pooh?

[Jimbo Baggy]

Does anyone know when the approval of our Takeover will be, heard its October, but when in October, the silence from John Williams, Mr Lai and Jeremey Peace is deafening. The hold up, is it because its a group of investors and the FA and Premier League has to look at everyone one of the group, make sure they are legitimate owners, and not crooks. Its dragged on for so long, and think its had a massive effect on our recruitment. I think if Mr Lai was in charge wed have had a good go at this window, Peace just was never going to spend.

[OldburyWBA]

On the face of it, it appears that our new owners either have no money or, if they do, are not willing to spend it on our football club, so begs the question: Why buy the club? Surely if we go down, our value goes down and they lose money virtually instantly.

Are they thinking, invest little, scrape 17th and milk the TV money? Lerner tried this and failed, so very risky.

Can anyone shed any light on what their intentions might be? Serious question, as I can't for the life of me think, why someone would buy something for £150m and let it go to pooh?

Seems Mr Peace was in control of the window finances, new owners still not fully took over

[seteefeet]

Seems Mr Peace was in control of the window finances, new owners still not fully took over

If that's true though mate, we wouldn't even have been linked with £30m players.
Just doesn't add up to me.

[OldburyWBA]

If that's true though mate, we wouldn't even have been linked with £30m players.
Just doesn't add up to me.

Being linked is the easy part, actually going for them is another thing.

A lot of things about this club seem not to add up lately.

[tuamigos]

If that's true though mate, we wouldn't even have been linked with £30m players.
Just doesn't add up to me.

How serious were the links/enquiries.
I could phone the Bently garage up in front of my mates to enquire about a new Corniche and only have Corsa money in my pocket

[Signor_Maresca]

I was under the impression Peace’s influence and control had been very much downgraded to a purely (distant) advisory role - Williams is the man who runs the club on a day to day basis now, or is he?  Also what to Mark Jenkins, is he still playing a prominent role within the club, has he resigned or still working his notice period? The respected Pat Murphy seems to suggest that Peace’s weight is still very much at the forefront of the club's operations, one thing is for sure it all appears very unclear at the moment as to who is running this ship and what their agenda is.

This transfer window has been an absolute shambles; no evidence of a cohesive recruitment strategy and an embarrassing scatter gun approach to buying at the death.  £15M net spend this summer, last year (without the new TV deal) it was £27.5M. 

We turned down a £22M bid for a player with a year left on his contract who doesn’t want to be here and it now seems that the said player might exploit a loophole in the tribunal system which will mean we won’t even receive compensation for him.  We desperately needed a striker, we courted Sakho but then pulled the plug when we found out he wasn’t going to be fit until September, and again this is looking like another poor judgement call.  We pursued Schluup for weeks and weeks only for it to fall away at the last minute – what a waste of time that was, again seems like yet another poor judgement call, were Leicester ever willing to let him go and if not why waste so much of the summer chasing him.  We activated Camacho’s release clause, this seemed like a real coup for the club, only for us to start flirting behind his back with a grandiose ideas of signing Carvalho and Sissoko, in the end we got none of them, again poor judgement calls – but by who?  Who is culpable for this utter mess?  None of us really know.   

[Mister AT]

I was under the impression Peace’s influence and control had been very much downgraded to a purely (distant) advisory role - Williams is the man who runs the club on a day to day basis now, or is he?  Also what to Mark Jenkins, is he still playing a prominent role within the club, has he resigned or still working his notice period.  Pat Murphy seems to suggest that Peace’s weight is very much still at the forefront of club operations, one thing is for sure it all appears very unclear at the moment as to who is running this ship and what their agenda is.

This transfer window has been an absolute shambles; no evidence of a cohesive recruitment strategy and an embarrassing scatter gun approach to buying at the death.  £15M net spend this summer, last year (without the new TV deal) it was £27.5M. 

We turned down a £22M bid for a player with a year left on his contract who doesn’t want to be here and it now seems that the said player might exploit a loophole in the tribunal system which will mean we won’t even receive compensation for him.  We desperately needed a striker, we courted Sakho but then pulled the plug when we found out he wasn’t going to be fit until September, and again this is looking like another poor judgement call.  We pursued Schluup for weeks and weeks only for it to fall away at the last minute – what a waste of time that was, again seems like yet another poor judgement call, were Leicester ever willing to let him go and if not why waste so much of the summer chasing him.   We activated Camacho’s release clause, this seemed like a real coup for the club, only for us to start flirting behind his back with a grandiose ideas of signing Carvalho and Sissoko, in the end we got none of them, again poor judgement calls – but by who?  Who is culpable for this utter mess?  None of us really know.

Whilst i agree with 99% of this post, I dont agree with us taking blame for the Schlupp deal, it was reported at large that Schlupp wanted to come and play 1st team football but after the meeting Ranieri refused to let him go, we cant be at fault for that.

[RogerBadoo]

http://www.wba.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/statement-west-brom-albion-chairman-john-williams-3286506.aspx

Interesting statement from the new Chairman - I suspect this indicates a level of frustration at Pulis turning down Camacho. Also indicates we will have significant funds in Jan. I wonder if Pulis will still be in charge come October when the takeover is fully ratified?