Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Rangers steal Bougherra from Baggies
Friday 1st August 2008, 12:09PM BST.
Albion are reeling from another transfer blow after Rangers stepped in to steal Madjid Bougherra from under their noses.
The Algerian stunned the Baggies by signing for the Gers on a four-year contract last night, after apparently being on the brink of moving to The Hawthorns.
The Old Firm giants stepped in at the 11th-hour yesterday to agree a £2.5m fee with Charlton for the 25-year-old, before thrashing out personal terms with the player.
It is the second time this summer that Albion have missed out to an Old Firm side this summer, after Ulsterman Paddy McCourt turned them down in favour of a move to Celtic.
Baggies officials were confident of landing Bougherra, after the 6ft 3in tall centre back spent most of Wednesday locked in talks at the club’s training ground.
He reportedly even agreed the details of a contract, before leaving to make a final decision on his future.
Rangers boss Walter Smith then swooped to match Albion’s bid for the player and trigger a last-minute battle for his services.
Bougherra flew to Glasgow to discuss a contract with last season’s SPL runners-up. He wasted little time in putting pen to paper on a move from The Valley to Ibrox.
His decision leaves Baggies manager Tony Mowbray still looking for his first new central defensive recruit of the season.
It follows Celtic’s successful late move to sign McCourt after the former Derry City winger had looked poised to join the Baggies.
While the loss of McCourt caused little more than surprise at the Hawthorns, Bougherra’s move north of the border represents a serious blow to Mowbray.
The Baggies boss is a long-time admirer of the French-born Algerian and made him one of the summer’s prime transfer targets.
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gutting !! how come bougherra has to leave and ponder the contract at the albion but wastes “little time” in putting pen to paper at rangers, if mowbray wanted him so much we should have closed the deal there and then. Im gutted as this lad can play football which for a centre half is very rare.
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Theres always Gary Breen on a free…….lol
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Champions League football or a desperate relegation fight? Theres no contest i’m afraid.
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The problem is joining a club with little potential and in an area that is unattractive to the potential newcomer AND HIS WIFE/PARTENER.
Irrespective of Premiership football I know that given the choice of living/working in the Back Country or the big city like the modern and cultural city of Glasgow well there is none.
Fact
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It’s easy to blame the club on these type of things but the game has changed so much. With these kind of things I feel the player and agent used us to unearth another club then when a better offer comes in drop us like a stone. The same thing happened to Stoke with Carson, they had the bid accepted then opened talks then we came in matched it and saw us as a better alternative to Stoke it’s just the food chain that’s all. I think the same thing will happen with this Meite, other clubs are waiting for a bid to be accepted as soon as it is they will offer more money than us and we will loose him. It’s really difficult for a club like us to attract top players without breaking the bank. I’m not going to panic just yet but as we stand we are going to be bottom 4 or 5 at best. We need 2 centre halves, 1 central midfielder and 2 strikers. We need to sell Beattie, Slururski not sure about him, Hodgkiss needs to go to make way for new faces. I wouldn’t sell Robbo either he is a great squad player. We also should have kept Phillips but that is water under the bridge now.
Any thoughts?
Boing Boing
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darren moores on his way back problem solved
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Oh well time to move on aye lads. Upping our bid for Meite apparently. :D
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I’m sure he’ll have other players lined up who can come in. Looks like it is a bit of a blow for Mogga, but he’ll get it right I’m sure.
We need a player like Meite more than a Bougherra anyway, so I’ll have that one instead please?
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Easy choice really, rangers or one year in the prem lol
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why o why do we find ourselves in this situation! now to make things worse bet we’ll lose out to meite too! come on give then 3 million and lets have him before its too late. Then come other promoted teams and offer 8 million for a player … I wish we could do the same, do we ever learn? I wonder!
Apparently e-bay might have player bargains at the moment!
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Cant blame him, champions league football and guaranteed top 2 finish in SPL. Would have liked him to sign but plenty more defenders out there. In TM we trust
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What is it with the old firm teams pinching our targets at the last minute. I think its getting to the stage now we need to bring in a few players asap, so they can at least play in a few friendlies together, i really think now peace should stop messing about, if we really rate meite then lets pay the fee bolton want, and stop messing about before hull snap him up, or lets try & get Dan shittu or richard wood/beevers from sheff wed. boing boing
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Let’s be honest here.
The romance of football is dead.It’s all about the number of zeros on their wageslip.
Bougherra could have been playing away at Arsenal first game of the season.He chose away at Falkirk instead.
He certainly hasn’t chosen Rangers for footballing reasons.
Ask Albrechtsen,Phillips and Gera if they have chosen Derby & Blues ( a division below ) and Fulham ( who ? )for footballing reasons.
Let them sit on the bench and count their money.
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he’s chosen the easy option really hasn’t he?
i mean, apart from Celtic, who is going to be
competing for the top spot in the SPL next
season?
i reckon the guy doubts his own ability.
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4 – Dennis.
Have you ever been to Glasgow? I’d rather live in Heath Town!! The city centre is nice, I won’t claim otherwise, but there’s some horribly horrible areas of Glasgow!
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Who would chose SPL over the Premier league, i will never know, he sure did and has made the wrong choice i believe.
I know i sure wouldnt chose SPL over the Prem
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Stfusd, he doubts you’ll stop up, nothing to do with his ability.
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Unfortunately the chance of Champion League football told. Go for Meite and get him out of his present unhappy position .
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Nedball
I refer you to my comments made yesterday
Up The Wolves
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5 – Romsley.
Good points my good man.
We need 2 x centre backs, 1 x HARD midfielder and 2 x strikers in I agree.
We’ve spent some decent money this Summer (16m so far is it?), we may’s well spend 25 million and give ourseleves that bit better chance of staying up.
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Loffing Wolf! said: Aug 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm Champions League football or a desperate relegation fight? Theres no contest i’m afraid
There is a huge contest, champions leaue for 1 they wont get past he group stage, 2 we will be playing top 4 anyway, 3 look at first match of the season, Rangers have falkirk, we have Arsenal, i cant see us beating Arsenal but its a challenge, he will get no challenges in the SPL, oh he will Celtic WOW, thats it, Wrong Choice big time
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4. Glasgow is a horrible place, Edinburgh has more culture, and whats wrong with west brom’s culture a brand new art centre, queens square shopping centre, a modenised bus station and a football team thats plays some of the best sexy football in the world,
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Nedball
Yes I have been/worked in Glasgow and like many big cities it has its bad areas but the city/social life has more to offer than an offshot of B-ham.
I re-iterate that given a choice between Oldbury/B-ham and Glasgow/Edinburgh/Liverpool or any other city there is none. He lives in London and the city life is more attractive to a man with money.
Its just the same for teams like Sunderland/Stoke/Reading/ Blackburn and others of that ilk.
30000 attendances mean lower wages meaning inferior players and the net resul is mediocracy
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19 – Cornish. Which ones? Sorry, I’ve slept since then, so can’t remember the posts of every single Wolves fan on here……sorry.
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21, He could have had one season in the prem then back in the fizzy pop league. How has he made the wrong decision exactly by joining Rangers?
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Have to disagree with Dennis Nicholls. I doubt if he’d be living in the Black Country on his wages. Glasgow is hardly comparable with the upmarket areas of the West Midlands, Warwickshire and Staffordshire – Suggest you take a look at Glasgow , oh…. and don’t forget your crash helmet !!!
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Obviously you know best Dennis!
Sorry to see you think so little of our nations 2nd city and the West Midlands conurbation in general.
If I were you I’d move if you don’t like it here so much
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It said that he agreed personal terms if we were the only club interested he would have signed on the dotted line when ToMo and Madjid agreed terms.
Still…. Meite is better.
Boing Boing
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Once Rangers came in and matched or beat our bid then there was no contest really. Champions league football and silverware were bound to sway this. We move on.
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Dennis Nicholls
I don’t know how you can compare Liverpool or Glasgow to Birmingham – they’re not even in the same league! (If you’ll pardon the pun!)
Edinburgh is a stunning city I agree.
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Dennis
The reasons for Bouhgera`s decision will be related to Champions league, Financial, a couple of medals each year, winning on a regular basis,
or a combination of all of those.
It most certainly will not be the locale in which he chooses to live.
My guess he would have been on upwards of £20,000 per week, so it is a fair assumption he would not have bought a house in Oldbury.
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Don’t really think its got much to do with location, simple facts are Rangers is a massive club who pay high wages and play european football. Albion are competing for better quality players now and its tougher to secure the deal, there is a bigger chance of losing out to higher profile teams so don’t keep blaming the club all the time.
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22. Erm, whats right with it?
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look this so called footballer has gone to the third rate scottish football league to get fat like hartson did pick up easy money they only play two or three half decent games a season and thats against celtic the rest is just a laugh two or three thousand fans watching all the other third raters hope he likes fried mars bars and eveything else fried nearly forgot the scotch pies or do they fry them aswell
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Shame, I liked the look of him but he’s not Franz Beckenbauer and the fact that he’s chosen a footballing backwater says a lot about his ambition (lack of.) This is all about money and the fact that Rangers are gauranteed Champs League preliminaries every year gives them financial clout. Hope he thinks it worth it when his teeth are chattering on a January night in Aberdeen.
As for the big city point Dennis, Birmingham leaves Glasgow behind these days and I don’t think Bougherra would have been moving into Satellite City on the Oldbury Road.
Romsley.
While I think you’ve hit the nail on the head about the problems we have competing financially, why the negativity about our prospects? We haven’t kicked a ball in anger yet, the window has a month to go and sometimes attitude in a player makes up for an awful lot. I bet TM isn’t worrying today, Bougherra’s gone, his loss, let’s move on to the next target.
COME ON YOU BAGGIES.
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Can anyone explain we always miss out on players ,is because we don’t pay enough wages or because players don’t want to come to the baggies,there must be some reason why players are going to other teams
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frankthegas
its probably down 2 Money or if we can guarentee them first team football.
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Welcome back Frankthegas.
I think i speak for everyone when i say your optimistic and upbeat nature has been sorely missed.
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As Brian Clough said keep your mouth shut until its a done deal this transfer should have been done and dusted its been like this for years how many moore will slip away.
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I saw Rangers on the box last night drawing against some grubby little club in the European qualifiers. They certainly need some players but it’s true that they seem to enjoy pinching player targets from midlands clubs.
Mowbary and the board should accept that you are going to have to pay over the odds to get the players you need. It will be a good investment cos look at the cash that’s coming your way soon. You need to speculate to accumulate points….
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Well, thanks for getting back to me Cornish!! Your arguement is obviously that good it’s beyond words….looks as though he’s been put back in that padded room for the afternoon doesn’t it?!
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Oh yes – and about Rangers pay policy. Why do they never buy Premier league players if they are so flush with cash?And how come their players are rarely poached by Premiership clubs?
They can pay more than Championship wages but are challenged to match the premiership.
Bougherra probably knows he is not Premiership standard and has taken the easy option. It will be interesting to see how he and the other Rangers signings do in the coming months.
Meanwhile gentlemen, you are going to be shafted unless you get in the players you need. Pay the money.
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39 Baggieboy.
Those days have gone. The power is all with the players now. It doesn’t matter how quiet the club is, the agent will be broadcasting to all and sundry.
38 Forever.
I’d like to echo your welcome. It’s so good to have our little ray of sunshine back.
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Ally Robertson-come on down to the H*wth*rns !
Signing players the Mowbray way…..
oh yes !
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lets not get too downhearted.TM is one of the most honorable men in football.he has already moved on to his furthur targets.no moaning,no spouting off in the press.champions of ccc and f.a cup semi,s.best season for ages and great football.he WILL bring in better players than the charlton lad(cant bear to mention his name)and we WILL progress.keep the faith.
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Pity, Bougherra would have been a good signing for you boys, nevermind, there’s always the Bolton boy Meite and he’ll do you a good job by the looks of things, honestly thought the blue & white side of the black country would be the busier of the two in the transfer market but there’s always something around the corner to keep us guessing. Good luck for next season Baggies…
South Bank Wolves Forever
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Bougherra has taken the easy option. Another mercenary like Gera, Albrechtsen, Kamara, etc. However, an Algerian in January in Scotland? He’ll wish he’d stayed with Charlton or he’ll need a brazing job doing!
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5 Romsley Baggie. A good honest post there sir, if only all baggie fans could be so possitive with their post, instead of taking the p out of Wolves and visa versa we might have some decent banter on both our boards. Good luck anyway, to both clubs.
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I have a good mate who is a Charlton supporter and he reckons that Bougherra is rubbish and not up to playing in the Premier League. So maybe we have had a lucky escape!
Can’t help wondering though why Albion seem to do so much flapping around before signing a player?
We seem to be really dragging our feet when it comes to making any signings. Our defense needs more new faces – yet the season is now only two weeks away.
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The most sickening sight of the w/e as to be david bentley scoring for spurs then kissing his badge,aint he just everything thats wrong with football today,aye boing boing
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He obviously has no ambition. The Scottish Premier or English Premier? Duh! No contest. If that’s his attitude then you’ve probably not missed out too badly.
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50. Terry.
Here, here. And so say all of us.
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morning premership fans,(exc vile)morning chumpionship fans,aye boing boing
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I love it how a few of you are doubting Bougherras ability because he chose a massively better team than yours. Get over it, slagging players off isnt going to keep you up. Is it?
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Oh dear not another one that doesn’t know who WBA are!!.
Latest report says you ain’t going to get any Meate sorry Meite in your sandwich either. SHAME, SHAME. BING BONG, Ding Dong or is Hong Kong?
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apparently your chairman forgot to turn up to sign him!! thats why he didnt sign, and no one wants to invest in you,..”premiership were having the last laugh!!!”
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