No free for Stoke’s James Beattie
Friday 21st May 2010, 11:28AM BST.
Albion have been warned they will not land Stoke striker James Beattie on the cheap.
The Baggies are plotting a possible move for the out-of-favour forward, but Potters chairman Peter Coates today dismissed speculation that the former England striker could leave for free.
But the 32-year-old still looks certain to exit the Britannia Stadium this summer, after a highly-publicised fall-out with manager Tony Pulis.
That has led to speculation a settlement could be reached with the club on the final year of his contract to be granted a free transfer.
But Coates said: “There is absolutely no chance of that happening. We value him as a player and, if he were to leave, we would expect a sizeable fee.
“Clubs are bound to be interested because he is a goalscorer and they are hard to find. Everyone is looking for them. It is the most difficult job in any football club to fill.
“The fact he is a year older makes no difference. He has never relied on his pace, but he has always had the ability to score. He has lots of football ahead of him.
“We will get approaches for James Beattie, so we will see how things develop between now and the start of the season.”
Coates’ comments will be seen at the Hawthorns as Coates’ opening gambit of a possible bargaining process for Beattie.
It now appears unlikely that Beattie will be able to negotiate a settlement on his contract.
But Albion and other potential suitors will be optimistic that Pulis’s desire for Beattie to leave will result in a low transfer fee for the player, who reportedly earns around £35,000 per-week in the Potteries.
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As old as he is it looks like he`s left that defender for dead,wonder who it is,aye boing boing
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Not too many clubs that want him will be able to match his wage demands. If you want to do a deal with JP you may have to lower your sights Mr Coates. Wouldn’t rule out you paying someone a fee to get him off your wage bill.
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Looks like we’ll be getting him on transfer deadline day then!
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No1. YowYow certainly know yowa defenders.!! Yow really are a clever clogs.
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I was very pleased to see that we at least enquired about Joe Hart and Ben Foster as we desperately need a new keeper and I am RDM looks like he is going to address this problem.
As for James Beattie, the only way I would like to see him at the Albion is to arrange the xmas party as they are that good they are worth disrupting the dressingroom for! I think by the start of the season we will have a keeper, Reid, Beattie and Steven Hunt, I personally think that will still be way short but lets hopethe club have something up their sleeves.
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I’m sure this must have occured to Mr Peace but, why not offer them a small up front fee like say £500,000 rising to maybe 1mil, or similar, depending on appearances, goals, Premiership survival etc? As we know the problems Stoke have had with him, they would save face claiming they’d received a good fee for him, and we’d have protection from shelling out a large investment on a player who may fade in his second season as Stoke/ Everton/ Blackburn etc have found, and we’d tie up the deal nice and early for a change? I do think he’d be good for Bednar and Wood to learn from, he would certainly be a player who fits our current search spec and would provide a credible goal threat, drawing away defenders and creating more opportunities for our midfield and possible second striker, he was never blessed with an abundance of pace, but has always scored goals, so his age shouldn’t be too much of an issue really. Come and hear the Smethwick sing!
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Looking on the bright side, there are lots of players being released and made available for sale this season, due to the new rules and tighter budgets, so if one deal doesn’t come off we can just move on to another target, but it’s still worth pursuing the right player to do a job for us. Also Beattie is a British player, which would help with our squad quota. Come and hear the Smethwick sing!
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7, and he`s mulumbu`s brother in law so im sure he will want to play for us aye boing boing
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i wish i was as clever as that Sir Terry bloke,he always gets the better of me and everybody loves him even the wolves fans,wish we had him on our pages.
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I know I’m being thick but I have to admit I don’t know the ins and outs of the new quota system.
Does it apply to all competitions?
How many players can you have in the squad and where is the line drawn between youth players and full squad members?
Do British players count as home grown or do they have to be English?
Can overseas players qualify as home grown if they join before a certain age?
Any other points that might help lighten my darkness.
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Sir Terry is a natural comedian, ie, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, you shouldn’t either. The snappy-catch-answers are funny, doesn’t matter who you support. Have a giggle, it’s free.
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The Express and Star should just forget about
the latest local transfer gosip and concentrate on England lifting the World Cup,
I cant really see any of our teams making any
progess on signings until after the lords mare
show!
I`d love to see an England blog on which team
Cappelo should start with.
MY ENGLAND STARTING 11:
GK.David James
RB.Glenn Johnson
CB.Rio Ferdinand
CB.John Terry
LB.Ashley Cole
LW.Joe Cole
CM.Stephen Gerrard
CM.Scott Parker
CM.Frank Lampard
RW.James Milner
ST.Wayne Rooney.
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Forget Beattie, no way will we sign him wages too high, allegedley bad news in dressing room.
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10 Bully-The new system is pretty simple,you can only play for an English team if you were born in England,or if you know someone who’s English,or if you speak English,or if you watch English games on Satellite.Which probably means nearly everybody.The exceptions that don’t qualify are non-English speakers like Geordies and Cockneys who can only join a club if they bring a translater with them.The amount in a squad depends on who turns up on the day for a game,but wolves were reported and disciplined recently when spot checks found they often had 15 defenders on the pitch,which is taking the mad mick.I hope this has cleared up the confusion.
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14 CR78.
Did you get that from the FIFA website as it sounds like one of their rulings.
Thanks, it’s been fantastically helpful.
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15 Bully-I have to admit it was really my own suggestions would you believe,but now that FIFA Officials have discussed them,they’ve decided the ideas are better than their own,so expect this to be the new set of guidelines.They have contacted me,and have expressed great concern about the wolves allegations of fielding so many defenders,but they say it explains the mystery of how they stayed up,which even FIFA thought would be impossible.
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CR 78.
Look again and you will see in the fine print at the end of the rules. Unlimited players may be fielded as long as they are Irish, have played for Sunderland or promise not to cross the half way line.
It’s there, have a look.
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CR78 and RBH. Read the fine print. You’ve missed, “must have mother-in-law’s brother’s sister who is friends with a Wulfie player who gets the occasional game, or not”. There is a 14 day cooling off period though.
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