Albion’s bid to sign Northern Ireland winger Paddy McCourt has dramatically fallen through after Scottish giants Celtic swooped to hijack the move.
McCourt looked set to become Albion’s first signing of the summer later this week, after chairman Jeremy Peace agreed a £150,000 deal with Derry City to sign the former Rochdale man.
But the Old Firm club last night threw the proposed transfer into chaos, when their rival bid was accepted. Albion have since confirmed they have withdrawn from the race.
Manager Tony Mowbray said: “While we are trying to get the first team right for the Premier League, we are also looking to bring in players to strengthen the underbelly of the club.
“It’s a process we started last season and Pat was one of a few players we are looking to bring in - but on our terms.
“These are players who, while we are trying to develop their talent, can step into the first team at any given time.
“During the club’s discussions with Pat, it became clear he has other options where he feels he may have a greater opportunity to play first
team football. We wish him all the best.”
Reports in Scotland claim McCourt was due in Glasgow for a medical with Celtic this afternoon although Norwich, who would probably represent his
best chance of first team football, are also in the running.
The events of the last 24 hours will come as a blow to the Baggies, who believed the move was all but sealed, after they finally ironed out the details with Derry at the end of last week.
The first signs that the deal could be in trouble came last night when news broke of Norwich’s interest.
That was followed a few hours later by Celtic’s bid.
McCourt had been in the Midlands for talks with Albion yesterday and was due for a medical later this week.
The impending collapse of the deal with not impact significantly on Albion’s Premier League plans.
McCourt was set to be eased into first team action over his a three-year contract – but it will be a disappointment to Mowbray.
He first recognised the talent of the Northern Ireland international three years ago and tried to sign him for Hibernian.
76 Comments
he wont be heard of agen,he aint happy we cudent offer first team football,hes joing a league that aint no better than our championship,and we all know how bad that is dont we,aye boing boing
I suppose they offered £200,000 so we pull out, here we go again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Forget about him - you can do better quite frankly. An average player currently playing in a tinpot league - he’ll fit right in at Celtic! lol
Bovvered? If he’s good enough for Celtic then he’s probably not good enough for us - Hartson / Beattie are the evidence. I trust Mowbray & Peace but I was surprised that a 24 year old with his CV came up on our radar & I wont shed any tears now
………and?
No great loss, move on and good luck to the lad! He’d have probably only played in Carling Cup etc anyway!
Is this another case of Jeremys inability to close transfer deals ? or a change of mind by selling club/player.
I have applauded JP over the last couple of years for his brilliant financial wizardry in getting albion some very good deals on selling players but he seems unable to buy players with the same ability, is this going to be us losing out on a future gem or a case of “well he wasnt that good anyway and was a squad player”, only time will tell, I for one hope we havent just lost out on a George Best(without booze) and hope that future transfer dealings will not be so ridiculously long.
Cant even attract a pub player, never mind i,ve just been to Tesco’s and they have an offer on Clubs, 18p each…………
7.gold&black what are u chatting were in the premier league we mite av lost a pub player but atleast we aint a pub team
Re 6 - let me reassure you that you certainly have not lost out on the new George Best!! I am from NI and know a bit about Paddy McCourt, and I can unequivocally state that he is more like the new Anton Rogan. Who? Exactly…
you albion fans say wolves have no ambition and you can’t even stump up an extra £50 grand for a player, then you go on about he’s no loss but the other day some of your fans were calling him the nexy George Best
Reality check for you if you can’t get a rochdale reject what chance have you got getting premiership quality in before the start of the season
baggies coming down like a led baloon
Get a life number 8. Why does everyone jump on JP’s back.
The way I see it it was reported that he was unlikely to threaten the first team for some time and become part of the “underbelly” used to help improve the youth sides at the club. We need to be focusing on bringing players into the club that are going to be competing for first team places straight away and improve our current first team squad. I don’t see this as much of a loss to be honest.
baggiesteward said: Jun 19th, 2008 at 12:07 pm 7.gold&black what are u chatting were in the premier league we mite av lost a pub player but atleast we aint a pub team
Did you go to School??? Did you have an English Teacher??? I fear not…..
(NB : What does it says about your team if you can’t attract “A Pub Player”???)
Disappointed to say the least. Once again, Jeremy P£ac£ and the board are messing about over, what, £50k?! The lad got fed up of us messing about and joined a big club with big AMBITION (a word not known to our board evidently).
After this fiasco, bring on the new investors is all I can say. Fed up of this lack of ambition, we, and Tony Mowbray, deserve more.
PS if he was that good Mogga would of went in with a better bid.
8:YOU ARE THE CLOWN.DO YOU NOT REALISE THIS BLOKE WANTED A REQULAR FIRST TEAM SLOT WE WOULD ONLY OFFER A SQUAD PLACE UNTIL HE PROVED HIMSELF.
IF HE IS NOT PREPARED TO PROVE HIMSELF THEN ITS NO LOSS FOR A player who was only ever going to be cover in short term.
Why post without reading the full report? Or perhaps some of you have trouble understanding…
As TM points out, it was put to Paddy that he was to be part of “the uderbelly” with a view to being nurtured.
Paddy wants first team regular football, and feels he will have more chance elsewhere.
Simple really…
I do fear that this says quite a lot about Peace’s negotiating style. It’s very business-like and tough-minded, but sometimes that just won’t work in a footballing context where players often have multiple options and need some TLC to convince them who to join. So, we will win some and lose some, hopefully the right ones, but no guarantees.
My other fear is that this says something about Peace’s ambition too; if he can’t close a deal for a minor player when we have the weight of Premiership football and finances behind us what chance do we have of signing the bigger names we will undoubtedly need to survive and go on to establish ourselves in the top flight?
11. stuwolf. We are not really ambitious, oh, I have just discovered that we won the Championship last year & got promoted to the prem. Perhaps we are a little more ambitious than the wulfs who are nothing more than an olds folk home for ex Sunderland players. I am also guessing that you like heavy metal like “Lead” Zeppelin?.
Come on no.11,get it right.It’s LEAD ballon not led balloon.
14 Wednesbury.
And all the other Peace knockers (I used to be one too.) I’m sure if TM had wanted this player at any price, the deal would have been done by now. He was being brought in to strengthen the squad and as a 24 year old it’s understandable that he doesn’t feel he has time to kick his heels. Good luck to him but it’s not the end of the world.
ALL WE ARE SAYING
IS GIVE JEREMY A CHANCE.
19. Had the dictionary out?. Look up helium. On the way up, up & away the Mowbray way. In style of course, oh yesssssssssss.
sorry number 19 for the spelling error!!also number 18 the fact that you won’t stump up an extra 50k for a player shows to me that you show no ambition and that wolves are bidding quite highly on players does show we have ambition, I might add that we are also looking to expand the stadium because at the end of the day your attendance won’t be much better than ours this season even though you are in the prem, Mr Morgan nows we could easily sell out 35,000+ every week if we were in the prem which you would have no chance of
well thats football it is never over untill the final whistle which is why we love it so much looking forward to lots more twists and turns before we finally have our teams ready for a new and exciting season plenty of debate to come yet
It looks like Mowbray has told the lad he is looking for him to be a squad player until he can prove his worth, with other choices on the table reportedly Norwich and Celtic, he is looking at playing first team football, if that is the case fair enough, i dont think this deal has collapsed due to money reasons, more to do with Mowbray being honest and telling the lad he sees him as a squad player.
Time will tell whether we have missed out or not.
Have Rangers and Celtic something against Midlands clubs. They seem to ‘pinch’ players from us at regular intervals. happily the players who they steal tend to be failures and I hope this trend continues.
22 first problem with your comments promotion not as easy has it sounds which i thought you would have realised by now plus last year you did worse than the year before by the way look how much we spent last year long way to go yet
22. I am fairly sure that if we had a 35,000 + capacity ground we would fill it week in week out here in the prem. It’s a pity that you aint gonna be in a position to try out your little premiership / bigger ground scenario though…..
dream on.
Never mind, we have a few players you can buy if you want. We could even give you a bulk discount.
Take Thick Mick and we’ll give you 50% off
20, I understand that, and the lad is more than entitled to choose where he plays his football. However the fact remains that had Celtic not come in for him, he would have signed for us. Due to our messing about, the deal could have been wrapped up last week! Instead, after Paddy completed his Albion medical, he received a call from Celtic and went up there today.
Whatever his squad status would have been, he should have been signed, sealed and delivered last week. Poor dealings by Peace and the board. Again.
This happens every time, every summer we mess about. I’ve had enough of it. Even Wolves signed Vokes relatively easily, and they’ve got Moxey! What does that say about the mugs on our board?
Peace has had a chance. In fact, he’s had several. If we fail this season there’s only one man responsible in my opinion.
11 & 19 StuPidWolf.
I think its time to take your medication again.
It is clear that McCourt was not commited to the club so don’t pursue it. Makes ense to me. Talking of attracting players, I see that both that Derby reserve and Burnley’s non striking striket will not be coming to the custard bowl. What with SEB, Kightly and Hennessey going you will be a real threat at the top of the cola league nest season I dont think.
Wednesbury_Albion
Am I missing something? Where does £50k come into anything? There’s no £50k in the article or any relevant quotes. If you’re going to make a negative contribution to the argument, at least make it on fact.
One fact is we’re a well run football club, something which Peace should be given credit for.
Another fact is modern-day transfer deals take a while to resolve, not just the Albion’s.
I’m guessing from his name that the lad’s an Irish catholic, if Celtic show an interest, he’s probably going to want to go there.
Stop being so negative, it’s not even July. I hope this sudden explosion of season ticket sales isn’t going to bring about the sort of negativity from fairweather fans that reared its ugly head last time we filled the ground every week.
I am not too concerned about this, yes we might and I stress might have let a quality player slip through the net but would he have really played that much this season? i doubt it! and if JP and TM dont think he is worth £1 more at the moment then they are absolutely right not to spend it.
22 stuwolf anyone can make multi million pound bids for players that they have no realistic chance of signing….makes it look good for the supporters when season ticket sales and supporter morale are low and need boosting.
As for our supposed lack of ambition I dont think the transfer market for the sort of players that we are looking at will really get going until after the Euros so lets see what sort of bids we make then. Boing Boing
This just made my day! Absolutely hilarious!
Big club my backside!
The price was agreed and then Celtic came and gazumped it. Mr Peace and Mr Mowbray no doubt were offered the chance to up the already agreed fee and quite rightly in my mind told them to cart off.
Principles, everyone should have them.
End of.
Comment 32… what scintillating days you must have!
Cor stop loffin!
OO AR YA!
Im lovin’ it!
O well weve lost someone but its no big deal. GET JP OUT ASAP. He needs to start backing mowbray so we can actually compete in this division and stay up. And JP should stop being tight and give KP a new deal what he wants. Hes scored 20+ goals 2 seasons in a row. Weve been linked with Ameobi for 4Million. I can not see JP putting that “Massive” amount of money on the table. And lets help the smethwick out next season and SING
26. Like you filled it when you were embarrassing the Black Country with your antics in the 4th Division……”Spot the crowd” was really popular in your programme ole pal….;-)
I agree tipton baggie couldnt of put it better. We do need to get behind the boys next season so brummie,halfords and east stand…. SING FOR ONCE
canny not even get a pub player to sandwell aye boing boing
No big deal, looks like he has talent and obviously champions league football along with the fact celtic have a massive irish following has a lot to do with. Good luck to the lad.
30 (Warren).
£50k is the, and I quote, “derisory offer” we put in for McCourt at the very beginning of this farcical process. My point is, if Mowbray really wanted the lad (which he obviously did seeing as he tried to sign him for Hibernian) then why didn’t we bid £150k from the offset?
We spend year after year haggling over the sake of £100k, and usually end up losing many a target to clubs like Blues, that pay top dollar and reap the benefits.
We are very, very stingy when it comes to wages, more so than anyone else, its a well known fact in the football world. I for one am fed up of it. Yes we did well last summer BUT we still spent less than 50% of what we brought in!
As others have pointed out we should be in a position where we have about £25m to spend, instead we’ll spend at most £12m. Im convinced the board are just content to see us yoyo up and down.
Oh, and dont give me the old “stop being negative” rubbish, I’m one of the most positive Albion fans you will find. Unfortunately Peace and the board have managed to ruffle my feathers and I have to have a moan about them. Everything else I’m more than happy with, I just wish we had more ambition.
Still, could be worse I suppose. Peace could sell the club for a tenner!!
LOOKS LIKE US AND DINGLES HAVE LOST PLAYERS TO CELTIC..SO HOW CAN THEY COME ON HERE AND GIVE US STICK
1 WORD = PREM FOOTBALL
41,,like bomber said its got nowt to do with money,,the lad wanted first team football and mowbray couldnt promise him that,,if mow thought he was worth paying the extra for we would have bought him thats for sure,,,theres plenty more gems out there for mow to find so its no big loss is it,,,PLAYIN IN THE PREM THE MOWBRAY WAY,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOOH YES.
celtic v wba no contest champions league 60000 every home game its no wonder he changed his mind he is also a lifetime supporter of celtic
Sombody is so jealous of me there posting in my name agen,and they call me sad aye boing boing
38,smethwick,me n wporcester in brummie n we alwiz singing,aye boing boing
This another misleading headline McCORT DIDNT SNUB THE BAGGIES WE PULLED OUT.We couldnt offer Ist team football maybe he should try the wolves as you go staight in the team.
NO1/lost our football techincal director
SIMON HUNT to Ipswich.
NO2/lost out to CELTIC in our bid to bring
Patrick McCourt to the club.
NO3/We have no shirt sponser
NO4/We have no shirts to buy in the shops,not
even last seasons.
NO5/We have a Halfords Lane stand which wont be
finished.
NO6/We have lost our best midfeild player to
FULHAM.
NO7/We have not brought any players in.
NO8/We give KIM DO-HEON a contract,then he
wants to sod us off to go and play for his
country.
AND APART FROM THAT EVERYTHINK IS FINE!
3,
” An average player currently playing in a tinpot league”
and he still doesn’t want to play for you. Says it all.
Wednesbury.
It’s not the 1970s any more. You can’t just go out and close down a signing unless the player is keen to go. These days the agents tout the players around and all the cards are stacked in their favour. I read an earlier interview where he seemed to suggest that he was doing us a favour by signing and saw us as a stepping stone to bigger things. We may have missed out on a great talent or we may have escaped from a possibly injury prone, disruptive influence. No doubt we’ll find out, I’ll be watching his career with great interest.
PS Are you really one of the most positive Albion fans? Are you sure?
O deary me, you can’t even sign a Rochdale reject! As much as you Baggie fans will play it off saying that Celtic are a bigger club and that he wasn’t ready for first team blah blah blah i bet you are a little concerned that Gera has gone, this guy has snubbed you and you’ve signed real quality premiership players in Moore and Bednar lol. I reckon he drove round Sandwell and ran a mile, in fact all the way to bonnie Scotland! Who can blame him…………
super hoops at least ill see him at celtic park next season instead of the hawthorns.Good luck to the lad.
Most everything has now been said about McCourt, who for a ‘nothing player’ and ‘nobody’s ever heard of player’ has caused quite a stir on here. I’ll put a different angle. Our scouting system has produced some real gems for peanuts in the last 18 months. We make a bid for an ‘unknown’, the football world sits up and takes notice BECAUSE Tony Mowbray thinks he’s got talent. The bidding starts where before there was none. It’s a back-handed compliment really. This kid would NOT have walked into our first team and he’s been idolised in Derry so I question his attitude. I can’t for the life of me see where ‘Wednesbury Albion’ is coming from. JP has just signed up the best manager we’ve had in years, (maybe ever if he keeps it up), the club is well run, we’ve sold more season tickets than ever, the football is a breeze…
If Albion were a stockbroker they’d be world famous! Lay off man, please. The sensible Wulfies are seeing us as what they want, the dumbo ones are praying we shall fail, they have nothing else to live for.
Why the fuss, not a proven player in any league of note..100K or whatever it was is an appropriate fee…
We don’t NEED to end up in bidding wars regardless whether it’s 50K or 5 million..
Lets face it, no one was sure about this lad anyway!!
So stop everyone getting ya knickers in a twist. It’s funny how the wolves fans were saying he was a waste of money, now suddenly when he turns us down he’s the best thing since sliced bread!!
whats going on at this joke of a club.the sooner we come down and let wolves take our place the better.sorry but its the truth.
lucky escape this guys very average not in same class as kites or koumas seen him play several times.
43. one word……
Prem football????
Priceless.
43.
are you after the Colmanball’s Award or are you Sid Waddell(?) in disguise?
Cyril I think your getting a bit ahead of yourself. I’m not doubting whether TM is a good manager or not but to say the whole football world sits up is a fairytale. I doubt whether the name Paddy McCourt is being talked about ANYWHERE other than this site.
And anyway your post says its the scouting system that finds them so its not TM. Which is it??
“And anyway your post says its the scouting system that finds them so its not TM. Which is it”?? This manager set up this scouting system No.61 (S.W.)and I firmly believe that Celtic only took an interest because Mowbray rated McCourt. He’d shown an interest for 3 years so Celtic could have done it then, but their competition was Hibs in those days. McCourt’s choice has been reported in every National newspaper, not just on here. I shall watch with interest his progress and number of appearances at Celtic.
The board wants to start backing mowbray for once. JP has done well to keep the club healthy but he should now go. we need to compete. and i do not agree with 3million for luke moore who for me is a championship player. the fans deserve better JP
I’m thinking youv’e got 3 seasons in the prem…
AUTUMN, WINTER AND SPRING….
Oh yessssssssssssss…
Well, well, well, He obviously wanted to go to a BIG club. Terry you obviously got wrong information from your “FRIEND” at Celtic about Lafferty it was McCourt he was talking about.
Another thing that passed over your glazed eyes and into that hollow head eh!
Mowbray made it clear he was buying him as a squad player, he wasn’t proven but worth a punt for the peanuts we were paying. Don’t worry , we can attract quality players, and will pay for quality if we need to (Kanu, Koumas, Brunt, Morrison, Phillips, Koren, Miller, Bednar, C Davies, Barnett, Robinson …) We play football the right way , we’re in the best league in the World, we’ve got an exceptional manager, we’ve sold 21K season tickets, we’ve got 60million reasons to be cheerful … Oh I wish I was a bitter and envious Wolves fan, but hey, I’m chose to be a Baggie and I’m stuck with it!
64.
No you’re not thinking, you’ve just copied that off someone else.
64. just read your hilarious but old joke. Its worn a bit thin though now we’re about to start our 4th season in the Premiership. Remind me again, how many seasons in the prem have Wolves had ? Oh yes, just the 3 you mentioned!
66
you have NOT got £60million or anywhere near it even with the parachute you must have already packed.
So convinced are your board that you are offering £100K for players who mean nothing and even then they cannot be completed, you lost out to Celtic who even though they get an inflated 60K fans are not even good enough for the CCC.
If you are to survive then your ambition must be raised…its difficult to attract players to the boggies I am sure but you all must feel VERY EMBARRASSED….
Anyway keep putting your spin on it the Mowbray way……
69 SJWW.
Not quite reached the end of your self awareness course have you? If we feel VERY EMBARRASSED at our predicament (Prem League, astute chairman, good manager, good squad of players, attractive football, loads of goals, sound financial position, record season ticket sales, do you want me to carry on?) Then has the word yet to be invented for how you must be feeling.
Anyway, the point of my post is that what I find really EMBARRASSING is that your post is more positive than some of our own so called fans.
45.celt 67…. paddy might be good in that league. so good look to you. he might score against the big teams who are challenging you for the title? aberdeen,hibernian,hearts… there all the equivalent to division 1 teams in our leagues mate. and gretna if they were still going wouldnt get in our conference. Your league is rele challenging isnt it. Boing Boing doing it the mowbray way
71. Have you been having spelling lessons and grammar lessons from Terry the twit.
wats spelling got to do with talking about football .it doesnt matter does it. dont leave a comment if you havent got an opinnion on football
Mowbray is a good manager but its really stacked against him now. Last season the average defence was more than compensated by a strong attacking midfield and Philips. Replacement for that quality is hard to find and few of them want to come to the black country. This story just about sums up the problem all midlands clubs are facing.
just write your opinnion not what you think of someones spelling. idiot. boing boing staying up. forget mccourt we can get much better players
75.My opinnion! like it or not my “opinion” is, as I have said many times before you will NOT attract good players because you are NOT a BIG club Premiership or not.