[A5HB]

Or D) It's generally bad practice to freeze out and/or not train one of your players when it's not 100% guaranteed he will be going, so he can go and start pre-season with them, and then we don't end up with a player 1-2 weeks behind the rest of the squad

Thats pretty much A) though isn't it. Nothing is agreed so he carries on as normal.

I can't imagine a club would agree a fee to sell a player and then just keep hold of them for a couple of weeks just in case, it wouldn't help anyone.

Yes it's bad practice to freeze out a player that has a slight chance of going, but once you agree to sell someone you would normally see the player go off for talks and medical pretty quickly.

[TheJacko2000]

Thorne played for us last summer during his transfer saga. No big deal.

[A5HB]

Thorne played for us last summer during his transfer saga. No big deal.

Of course he did, that's perfectly normal. I've had a few people on here make the same point to me now so I should probably explain what my opening post meant.

I'm not saying Phillips playing for QPR is unusual, it's absolutely right that he plays for them. All I'm saying is that, if there was a fee agreed, as was rumoured yesterday, I wouldn't expect him to be going on tour, just as Thorne didn't with us as we agreed the deal with Derby as our squad went to the States.

The fact that he is travelling with them suggests nothing is close. So I was simply trying to maybe give some evidence against those rumours that appeared, which did seem to be from fairly trustworthy sources. So whilst nothing is close, he will obviously train with them, because there is no reason for him not to.

So before anyone else thinks I'm trying to claim I'm expecting Phillips to be cast aside by QPR at the first sign of interest, that is absolute 100% not what I'm saying. All I'm saying is, rumours of an AGREED fee from last night don't look like they are correct as it stands.

Not sure why that is tripping people up so much, I thought my original post stated quite clearly what I meant but obviously not.

[AidantheBaggies]

To be honest i am not a huge fan of Matt Philips and wouldn't pay a penny over 5 million for him.
Personally i'd move on to other targets.

[Standaman]

To be honest i am not a huge fan of Matt Philips and wouldn't pay a penny over 5 million for him.
Personally i'd move on to other targets.

I'm with you although I think I would probably rate him a little bit more highly, it is not that we don't have a right winger. I was disappointed not to land Ba or Gignac but Phillips while not being exactly ten a penny Phillips is hardly of such quality that we would struggle to find an alternative and paying over the odds for an average player is nearly always a bad idea.

[Legend]

I can't see us getting a better winger than Phillips. Whats the alternative, Matt Jarvis? Antonio?

[Atomic]

I'm with you although I think I would probably rate him a little bit more highly, it is not that we don't have a right winger. I was disappointed not to land Ba or Gignac but Phillips while not being exactly ten a penny Phillips is hardly of such quality that we would struggle to find an alternative and paying over the odds for an average player is nearly always a bad idea.

Completely agree. All this fuss about Phillips ............. why? He really ain't that good. Yes I'd sign him to strengthen the squad if we could get him at bargain price but that's about it.

£5 mil buy anything more, forget it, not worth it.

[darbolina]

We'd be paying for the fact he's English, 24 and has potential to improve I imagine? We need signings who are less than 25 considering many of our current first teams are getting on for premier league players.

Winger-wise, I'm not sure who else we could get for around 5m who's played (well) in the premium league for at least half a season and wouldn't cost the Earth.

Remeber 6-8m this year is 2-3m a few years ago.

I'd expect a solid premier league performer (nothing special) for 8m these days looking around at what's been paid recently e.g. Snodgrass 8m?

[Atomic]

If there are no wingers good enough then don't sign any, waste of money. We will get by for another season if we have to, no point in wasting money.

[SmethDan]

While I am not a Tw@tter stalker, for those who are generally interested in such stuff, he posted this two hours ago:

"Off to Italy, bonding, game time and preparation! (thumbs up sign) "

https://twitter.com/phillips_matty

[caravanc58]

I wonder if we still have an interest in ex wolves winger sako, is phillips that much better than him at 5- 10 million whilst sako is available on a free.

[overseas baggie]

I wonder if we still have an interest in ex wolves winger sako, is phillips that much better than him at 5- 10 million whilst sako is available on a free.

Very good point although Sako isn't completely free as there would be a signing on fee payable to him.   

[caravanc58]

Very good point although Sako isn't completely free as there would be a signing on fee payable to him.

It might still workout to be a good cheaper alternative if the whole package is looked at.
signing on fee v transfer fee and I wouldn't think there'd be much difference in wage demands.
I can see us going for this if qpr play hardball for 10m for phillips.

[stokelad84]

To be honest i am not a huge fan of Matt Philips and wouldn't pay a penny over 5 million for him.
Personally i'd move on to other targets.

I can understand your pessimism Aidan, but I think you're downplaying how important he was to QPR last season. The team as a whole was poor, but Phillips and Austin did a really good job in difficult circumstances. If you take a look at the following link you will see how he compared to other good players in Europe in the 2nd half of the season:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/apr/09/cristiano-ronaldo-leo-messi-qpr-matt-phillips-assists

Total assists in Europe’s top five leagues since 1 January 2015

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 8
Matt Phillips (QPR) 7
Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg) 7
Franco Vázquez (Palermo) 5
Dimitri Payet (Marseille) 5
Marek Hamsik (Napoli) 5
Santi Cazorla (Arsenal) 5
Emil Hallfredsson (Verona) 5
Gonzalo Castro (Bayer Leverkusen) 5
Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea) 4
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 4

I'm not saying he's better than the players on that list of course. But who else on that list would be a realistic target for West Brom? Decent wages but no European football to offer. Phillips would add more goals and assists to the team. That's why he's worth more than £5million in todays market and I'm sure that's why Pulis has him as number 1 target.

[Adder]

Yes I tend to agree. If we move onto someone else then who ? ...when was the last time Matt Jarvis pulled up any trees or even played regularly in the prem ?
As for us not signing anyone, it's clear that our lack of pace in the squad is the major thing Pulis wants to put right this summer.

[Adder]

Not sure what our policy is on this one. We can't seriously have expected QPR to accept the £5m first offer .....just not the way it works. So presumably we knew we'd have to go higher and presumably we'd be prepared to go to £7m or £8m. I'm not aware of any further bid and it seems to have cooled off a bit.
As has been said, if we decide someone is our target then surely we have to be a bit more positive than this ?

[SmethDan]

As has been said, if we decide someone is our target then surely we have to be a bit more positive than this ?

Yes, but he may not be the number one target.
 .
And no, if he is not the number one target, I have no idea who is.
 .

[divinewind]

I wonder if this signing will beat the record it took us to get Dichio and Koumas? 

[Adder]

Yes, but he may not be the number one target.
 .
And no, if he is not the number one target, I have no idea who is.
 .

But why would we bid £5m in the first place if he's not our no. 1 target ?

[RedHead_Baggie]

Not sure what our policy is on this one. We can't seriously have expected QPR to accept the £5m first offer .....just not the way it works. So presumably we knew we'd have to go higher and presumably we'd be prepared to go to £7m or £8m. I'm not aware of any further bid and it seems to have cooled off a bit.
As has been said, if we decide someone is our target then surely we have to be a bit more positive than this ?

Very good point. If they value the player at £10 million then why start the bidding at £5 million? Ultimately it achieves absolutely nothing.

Its about time we started aggressively attacking a transfer window.

Last year when Derby (who are a Championship club) wanted Thorne they refused to accept no for an answer and every few days they increased the offer.

After 6 years in the Premier League why are we still seemingly stuck in a time warp? 

[Atomic]

Very good point. If they value the player at £10 million then why start the bidding at £5 million? Ultimately it achieves absolutely nothing.

Its about time we started aggressively attacking a transfer window.

Last year when Derby (who are a Championship club) wanted Thorne they refused to accept no for an answer and every few days they increased the offer.

After 6 years in the Premier League why are we still seemingly stuck in a time warp?

Lol. I hope you aren't holding your breath.

[B_H_Baggie]

Its all posturing. You don't go all out with a first bid or you quickly find yourself in financial trouble, you have a starting point and then negotiate from there to try and find a compromise. If we hadn't been given any encouragement from QPR and the player then we would have given up by now.

[SmethDan]

But why would we bid £5m in the first place if he's not our no. 1 target ?

To test the water I would imagine, I believe that's how 'negotiations' work anyway.
I doubt QPR would have accepted an initial bid from us even if it were for £10,000,000.
The opening bid is just a marker which nobody else will then go below.

Ed: as for the not first choice part, club's usually have several irons in the fire, some of whom they are willing to pay more for depending on their current contract and market value.

[Tipton Baggie]

You dont go in with your final offer from the start. You test the water, squeeze what you can out of them. They'll most likely want 10 we say no and offer 7M. Its £2M up on original offer and everybodys happy.

[Adder]

To test the water I would imagine, I believe that's how 'negotiations' work anyway.
I doubt QPR would have accepted an initial bid from us even if it were for £10,000,000.
The opening bid is just a marker which nobody else will then go below.

Ed: as for the not first choice part, club's usually have several irons in the fire, some of whom they are willing to pay more for depending on their current contract and market value.

Yes but if we have preferred targets but they are deemed too expensive to bid for then they are not really realistic targets and Phillips would by default become our number 1 target.