No cheap exit for want-away Cech
Friday 22nd May 2009, 1:13PM BST.
Albion boss Tony Mowbray has warned potential buyers they will not get want-away defender Marek Cech “on the cheap.”
The Slovakia international looks certain to leave in the summer after one frustrating year at the Hawthorns, with Celtic reportedly keen to take him to Parkhead.
But while Baggies manager Mowbray is happy for the left-back to move on, he insists the club will not accept a sub-standard offer.
They paid Porto £1.4million for Cech last summer, but he has failed to displace Paul Robinson from the left-back berth.
Mowbray said: “Marek has made his situation clear to us. He has been very professional since he has been here and done his job and, when he has been asked to play, he has done very well.
“He did come here to play and unfortunately he hasn’t been able to break past Paul Robinson. I have no problem, if I feel it is right for the club and for the player then we will look at everything.
“Regarding where he goes I have an open mind, I haven’t had any contact from anyone at this moment.
“The bottom line with any player who leaves is we are not in the business of giving any players away who have cost us money.
“They need to match our valuation if they want Marek’s registration.”
Mowbray will also resist the temptation to blood some of the club’s talented youngsters when the Baggies end their season at Blackburn on Sunday.
He promises he will keep faith with the players on duty in recent weeks, despite the Ewood Park clash being a ‘dead rubber’ with the home side safe and the visitors relegated.
The manager said: “I don’t think it’s the time to look at some more of the younger players.
“If we’d got relegated a few weeks ago and there was a run of games to go there might have been a chance for one or two of them to play, as young Chris Wood did.
“We will probably keep going with what we’ve been doing.
“I’m not sure there are any great benefits from throwing a boy in for a one-off game at Blackburn in the Premier League.
“Potentially it could be more damaging than positive for them. I think the young players at our club realise there is an opportunity for them just around the corner.”
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Does anyone know where I can get a Mowbray mask from ?
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“We will probably keep going with what we’ve been doing”.
This just about sums this whole football club up.
NOT A CLUE !!!
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1 – You have to be an Albion fan and go to the match on Sunday, so that counts you out on both parts.
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(1) Brummie Rd, they are giving away the Mowbray Masks at the game on Sunday, so if your
going, youll get one.
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2- Yet another Alf Garnett-like slur about the way our club’s being managed that fails to include a viable alternative.
Do any of you have a better business plan? Perhaps spend beyond our means and get into debt? If we spend more money, someone’s got to subsidise it……any suggestions as to who?
As for the Mowbray-out brigade…..any alternative suggestions?
The club’s in the best shape it’s been in for 30 years, and some of you idiots won’t rest until we’re back at Twerton Park.
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5- Warren, you must accept that many albion fans, myself included, are very disappointed with the way that we prepared for this extremely important season in the Prem and the blame for that must lie mainly at the door of the club management. And it does no good whatsoever to resort to name-calling of your fellow supporters just because they don’t happen to share your point of view.
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“i’m quite happy to let Cech go”thanks for ruining a blokes place at our illustrious club.I don’t know whats gone on between the pair of you but to just let a guy of Cech’s ability go is beyond comprehension.Has he been so badley behaved as to keep him out of a struggling side,in the vain hope Robinson was ever going to get any better.He has had his day mate get rid of him and keep the Chec mate.If you don’t you will be writing a bigger bl00dy cheque to replace him (Cech)!!!!!!!!!!!
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(7) Absolutely agree, get rid of Robbo and keep Cech. Robbo does not have the right to expect his starting position in every match. He has made some costly errors for us this season. Time for a change at left back
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6- Dave
My post wasn’t meant as a personal attack on anybody, apologies if it’s perceived that way. The Alf-Garnett reference is more about the lack of substance in so many of the anti-Peace and anti-Mowbray comments posted on here rather than the fact people hold that opinion.
I completely share your disappointment about last season. But ultimately, we spent £21m in transfer fees, more than we ever have before, and more than teams around us. It wasn’t spent wisely, but by the very nature of our transfer policy i.e. looking abroad for bargains, and the time constraints with the window, a lot of those buys were always going to be gambles. For the fact many failed, TM must take responsibility, but even the best managers make mistakes in the transfer market, and I believe he deserves the chance to correct those mistakes and continue building whilst playing the great football we see week-to-week.
The other point about JP’s running of the club last year is the wage structure. It would seem ours was lower than most teams. A lot of posters compare us to Stoke and Hull, but both of those clubs gambled hugely. Bullard is on £40k a week, Beattie £30k a week, if Hull go down and if Stoke had, both will/would have accumulated some amount of debt by the time those players’ contracts finish. Personally I don’t think it’s wise to go down that route, especially if you consider the plight of Leeds, Charlton, Southampton etc etc.
Of the 3 relegated clubs, it will be likely that come-August, we’re in the best position of all 3 to go up, that’s down to Peace’s prudency. I’d rather not go Ridsdale-like and gamble the club’s long-term future……which if we ever did, someone (who??) would have to finance out of their own pocket. I don’t know if any of you read the accounts, but we had a slight net debt at the end of last year, it’s not that the money’s just sitting there.
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion Dave, and I completely respect yours or anyone else’s, but it’d be much less frustrating if people backed their arguments up with some sort of rational debate, which is surely the purpose of the board. “Peace hasn’t got a clue” doesn’t mean anything.
I apologise for the essay, but I think a lot of people are forgetting that this club is in the best position it’s been in for a very long time both on and off the pitch.
We could be and have been in a much worse state than we are now, do we really need wholesale changes or are knee-jerk changes the reason we spent so many years in the wilderness to begin with?
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Obviously TM has a problem with Cech off the field (lateness?) and TM’s clearly stubborn nature will not allow him to override this, even to the detriment of team results. In my opinion TM is a very fortunate man to have the majority support of the crowd, as the Prem is no place to be learning how to be a successful football manager (unless you have a chairman who doesn’t seem to mind too much what league you’re playing in, that is). Oh yeah,we do have one of those, don’t we……
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Am I missing something with Marek Cech??? Am I the only one that thinks he is not all what he is cracked up to be. I really dont rate him as a defender he is good at going forward but cant defend, just my opinion
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9-Warren, that’s a very good post! I agree with most of what you say, and yes, we are in a better position than we used to be, but as you know we’ve had 4 cracks at the Prem now and only stayed up once (and even then only by the skin of our teeth and with the probability that Portsmouth weren’t 100% committed on the last day). We just don’t seem to be learning much from our experiences, which is a shame, as we have now gained a reputation for it, and in the eyes of the majority we must now have become the plucky little club who always give it a damn good go but never quite make it in the end. Hopefully things are about to improve!
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Players have to be in by about 10am I believe. The training probably lasts two hours. Already I’m asking ANY player who can’t make that spartan regime, “What’s your problem? What time did you go to bed last night? ” When a player signs a contract, in the presence of his agent, he agrees terms. If he breaks those terms on a regular basis, he MUST be disciplined. You cannot have one rule for one and another for others, no matter how good he may be. Would Sir Alex Ferguson tolerate ANY misbehaviour? Then why ask our man to?
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10 dave.
It’s great to be flippant and sarcastic, but at the risk of sounding like Warren’s minder, you’ve just illustrated the exact point he put to you. Again you’ve criticised the Chairman and Manager but offer no viable alternative (don’t worry this is something you have in common with all of the armchair critics on here.) I am not a happy clapper, I was highly critical of JP when he got rid of Gary Megson and brought in Bryan Robson but since then he has been very good for our club. I too would love to become an established club at the top but there is no easy way to accomplish this, don’t blame our management blame the greed in the game that is personified and encouraged by Sky and the Premier league.
PS Along with 7 Santa, have you actually watched Cech? If it was Derek Statham we were talking about I could understand your moans but he’s had one good game against a 10 man Tottenham. Looks decent going forward but defensively he’s been a disaster. Don’t let your obvious dislike of Robinson cloud your judgement.
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No 9 Warren. Jeez i nearly fell asleep reading that post, yada yada yada. heard it all before.
zero ambition and it shows.
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Chech should have been first choice left back this season. I love Robbo, probably the last of the Stuart Pearce mode of left back. But he has been out of his depth this season & an international defender (possibly with Champions League experience) like Chech is the whole purpose of a squad is it not. Another strange TM decision.
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Bully- feel free to be my minder, we might need some if we keep upsetting too many armchair folk on here!! Are you having a drink before Blackburn tomorrow?
no 79- if it doesn’t interest you don’t read it. I’m sorry if it’s long mate, but I feel strongly about the whole thing. At least you’ve heard what I was saying all before, strangely I’ve not heard your argument in full yet, because like so many others, you post some smart little comment about falling asleep but fail to justify what your saying or offer an alternative to JP.
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17 Warren.
Sorry I can’t make it, I’m on nights this week. Perhaps next season.
PS Brilliant post on the Peace not for turning thread. DudleyBaggie, after condemning everything that the club are trying to do, ends up by saying that he won’t be going up next season anyway, was he there when we gained promotion the year before? Real supporter, says it all doesn’t it.
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