Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Albion could make profit on Valero
Tuesday 20th July 2010, 11:28AM BST.
Albion could make a profit on Premier League flop Borja Valero after their club-record signing clinched his big-money move back to Spain.
The midfielder has joined top division side Villarreal on a season-long loan, but the Spanish club have a binding agreement to make the deal permanent next summer.
Although the transfer fee will not be revealed at least until the transfer becomes permanent, sources in Spain claim the 25-year-old will cost Villarreal around £5million.
That would represent a profit on the £4.7million the Baggies paid Real Mallorca for his services two years ago.
The move back to Spain ends an anti-climactic spell at the Hawthorns for Valero, who became Albion’s record signing when he joined in 2008 ahead of the Baggies’ last Premier League campaign.
Yet the Spainard failed to make an impact and fell out of favour following Tony Mowbray’s departure and the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo as head coach.
But Valero rebuilt his reputation in La Liga last season, impressing as Mallorca fell one place short of Champions League qualification.
Financial problems meant Mallorca were unable to exercise their £3.5million option to clinch a permanent transfer and Sevilla, who did qualify for the Champions League, refused to meet Albion’s valuation despite reaching an agreement in principle with Valero.
Now Valero has agreed a four-year contract with Villarreal.
And, having offloaded him, the Baggies will step up their own hunt for new faces this week.
Di Matteo still wants to add at least one new striker to his squad with former Baggie Jason Roberts of Blackburn, while out-of-favour Stoke forward James Beattie is still on the radar.
They are also keen to sign a new goalkeeper to challenge Scott Carson, with Preston’s Andy Lonergan still their top target despite having one bid rejected.
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That`s the way to do it now go as spend it on a striker and goalie !
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Am i alone in thinking valero had a lot to offer us ??
He is not the only victim of TM’s policy of packing the team with 5’6″ playmakers – even in defence….. remember Kim ??
Valero came with a good reputation, and still has a good reputation – it was just the year with us that didn’t go so well.
That said, he would struggle to get into the team now and £5 million is about right so i wish him well and hope we meet him in the Europa cup final in 2 years !!!
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got a feeling he will end up back at the albion again next summer.
By the way, what’s going on with Greening?
Has his move been made permanent?
Its all been quiet.
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ryan – Greening deal was unofficially permanent as from last year. I understand it was only a loan to start off with to allow us to benefit tax wise. Fulham couldn’t pull out the deal whatever. And yes the deal has officially gone through now – about 2 weeks ago.
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Re3 – Greenings has made the switch to Fulham permanently – Valero 5 million ! Hands up who would like to play poker with JP !! LOL
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he aint no good, better off in espana. Now lets get sum strikers.
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the greening deal is signed sealed and done , interesting to see if rdm joins him …highly likely and we need a striker!!!! break the bank and get the corporates involved to sign a big name eg drogba is 20 million but wouod almost guarantee premier survival is that a good deal ????? also we let koren go because he does not get on with rdm but if rdm goes we loosea 3 million midfielder also jo cole is not the finished article but earns 90k per week wish i was afootballer !!!! happy summer all
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signings needed and fast yet again no one in .need 2 defenders 3 midfeild and one fast forward with brains and heart .pull your finger jp or risk loosing the fans respect .all that money gone in to club over the last 4 years and no big names .
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I agree with Happy that Valero was a promising player.
Problem we have had is that TM looked for technical ability all over the pitch which is fine but you have to consider the physical make up of your team. Stoke to their credit have packed their team with mean 6 footers who are hard to shake off the ball and as a consequence can afford to be technically less pleasing. It certainly isn’t pretty to watch but it has proved more effective.
I hope like Borja, we can learn from this mistake – especially as we have a technical director. The role of TD is okay to transfer from Europe but he needs to understand that what makes a good European Premier League team is slightly different when we look at the premiership.
Valero whilst a great player in Spain isn’t suited to England due to the physical nature and pace of the league.Good Luck Borja – I’m sure Villareal will do well with you.
Whilst this deal may be done and it may be good for tax reasons to have the money next year it reduces the cash free to spend now. This may be a secure business model but it doesn’t make expansion easy.
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Item 5
Your right “flipperwba leave it to JP and he gets the job done….no fuss.
What a deal for a good player but not suited to the hard stuff dished out in the PL.
JP has got his money back….well done
We have a much better stronger midfield now than last time, we just need a keeper, striker and full back………team complete
Come on the lads.
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I feel that Valero wasn’t given a fair chance at Albion, and that Koren will be missed, but good luck to them both. Is it only me who is wondering where the £4-5m for Greening and the loan fee of £1m+ for Valero has gone. It would be such a positive statement if JP spent this and some of the Premiership money on 2 strikers,a left back etc,instead of once again seeming to be more botherered in restructuring the shares so that he can sell the Club at a huge profit. He is a very prudent man but we need to show more AMBITION or else it will be another relegation season. Please don’t let us down again JP we can build on last season’s success.
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5 million for a player who barely featured is very good business. I’ve no doubt Valero is a good player, and maybe under RDM he would’ve performed better, but at the end of the day his heart was always in Spain and he isn’t built for the Premiership.
Mark – what’s all this about RDM leaving and us signing Drogba?! What papers you reading lad?!
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I think Albion have been waiting for the Valero deal to be sealed before making decisions about who to bring in and how much we spend. We’ll probably see activity in the next 2~3 weeks
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Umm…the clocks ticking and still no-one any good on the radar…lets hope we don’t get to the stage we were some seasons ago when on the very last day of the window, our only option was Robbie Earnshaw, the last turkey in the shop. Weem on track to be the richest ever championship club unless someone extracts the digit !!
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(3)
Where have you been, camping on Mars. Volero is on a years loan then Villareal have to buy. Greening same deal. He’s sold.
Another superb business deal from our revered
Chairman.
(7)
You wish you were a footballer. I just wish you had a bit of common sense.
(8)
It Morgan you need, you’re on the wrong site.
Things are moving.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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5) FlipperWBA. “Hands up all those who would like to play poker with JP” ?
You might get trampled in the rush.
£5 million is only RUMOURED and not for 12 months. Invest £4.7Million in a Post Office savings account and see what your return is after three years.
This saga seems to have dominated minds in the boardroom for far too long, meanwhile we are not strengthening the side in the areas we all know it should be whilst a succession of maybes and hope-nots are supposedly on RDMs radar (now he’s back from holiday)However we have awarded Graham Dorrans an increase on a contract that had 4 years to run.
Is it me ?
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It’s interesting to note that Diego Forlan joined Villareal after a spell with Man U during which he also failed to cope with the physical demands of the Premier League. Forlan was voted the best player in the recent World Cup and the gifted Valero could also become a better player with his new club. With the continual clammer for new strikers I think we are overlooking that Ishmael Miller is approaching full fitness and has apparently looked good in pre-season. Whilst we are under strength in terms of numbers in the striking department I think that Miller could still be the main man.
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17. Time Bandits, yes it is you.
Another bit of very good business from JP.
As I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago, this new 25 man squad ruling is going to work to our advantage so let’s all be patient and see what happens in the next few weeks. It’s still another 4 weeks (almost) before the season kicks off.
I would also like to think that Dorrans and his agent asked the club about future plans/signings before penning his new deal and was suitably impressed enough to sign on the dotted line.
I would certainly like to see a quality striker, left back and goalkeeper added to our ranks.
On the other side, we have to work out what we’re going to do with certain of our current players in the way of loans / sales, so we can firm up our squad of 25.
Keep the faith folks.
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17.Time Bandits. Sorry mate, yes it’s you.
As we are playing ‘hands up’…..Hands up all those who buy a new car before selling their old one or at least do part-ex. Bank balance looking iffy ? Yeah, thought so.
I’ll compile the list of Poker Players with ambition. I’ve got a used 2pence stamp somewhere. I’d hate to think that these negative posters were really Baggies fans. More likely kids playing ‘I’m A Spy’ cuz they like dressing up.
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Valero has yielded two loan fees over over 1 million and as I have heard a 6 million euro fee (what this will be exactly in pounds depends on the exchange rate) from Villareal at the end of this season.
All in all profit from a player few seemed to rate (actually he had the skill and technique but his preparedness for the rough and tumble of English football was well below par.
Yet another victory for JP.
I wouldn’t want to try to negotiate bargain business with him, you can always get what you are after, but have to pay way beyond the market price – Davies, Ellington, Koumas, McShane, Kamara, Greening, Robinson, Valero…
Please, please, please stop the donkeys suggesting players like Drogba whose transfer fee would be way way beyond our range but more especially their salary would be five times our top paid players, let alone the lack of European football. It just makes you look like a total knowledgeless buffoon. Save that for the dreamland Wolves posts.
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A good return on what was an educated guess from the club. Some signings work, some don’t. At least we have him on a tight long contract that allowed us an exit fee.
The question is now what to do to the team. We have a great base but I’d like to see a couple of experienced premier league players come in and look after our younger stars. Why is no-one else really spending? Who could we pick from from Man City?
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Interesting to see how impatient some of us seem to be. This seasons transfer window was always going to be very different, there will be major activity in the last few hours with many “big ” names being offered out. Its the law of the jungle boys and until the leaders of the pack have made their moves you can be sure we wont be doing much in the way of strikers.
I’m very impressed once again with how J.P. has adapted quickly to the new demands of this new transfer situation, and you can be sure that behind the scenes there will be a short list of candidates that we will be waiting to pick off. Any player coming here will be sure of getting paid, sure of being appreciated by the genuine fans and hopefully playing more than one season in the prem. Yes the dark side might have made their moves but this could just be the season where prudence and patience will be the best way forward.
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2) I wouldn’t be too hard on teams that pack the midfield with 5′ 6” playmakers. It seems to be working quite well for the Spanish at the moment!
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17 Robin Brittain I’m sorry but I have to disagree with Miller being the solution,for me he just hasn’t got it,OK every 6/7 games he’ll score a screamer but overall he isn’t good enough but I hope he makes me eat my words.
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if you read what i wrote about drogba signing a player that could keep us in the league is what i was suggesting, i thought our technical director would ahve some irons in the fire by now but as the championship clubs generaly have no money where do our journeyman players go !!! ps i am not a buffoon !!! but enjoy free speech !!!
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IT ABOUT TIME J.P.GOT SPENDING IS WOD OF MONEY,BURNING IN IS POCKETS,SOLD GRENNING,SOLD VOLERO £5MIL,HI CAN NOT UNDERSAND THE LACK SIGNINGS,WE NEED A GOOD STRIKER,MIDFIELDER,BEST OF LUCK ALBION IN PREM & FANS,SHIFNAL BAGGIE
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Good reports 20 and 21 (Jonathan and Hilltop Baggie)
just wait and see our DA & JP ar as shrewed as the best.
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11 the greening money is coverig debts and the valero money is for if we get relegated.
The club can’t be any ambitious than it is with out the risk of going out of business.
you don’t have to spend big money transfers to get good players. Look at Dorrans, the investment in the scouting system worth every penny.
Inbanez would have cost several million if he was in contract. On a Bosman the only risk is his wages for 3 years.
7 What big coporates are you referring to? West Bromwich isn’t exactly full of them. Can you imagine the board meeting where an MD annouces he has given £20 mil to WBA to buy a striker!
Would you really put you eggs in one basket and spend all your money on one player?
Wolves have spent the second most in the Prem. But who have they signed, Fletcher who is not worth £7 mil and got relegated, and Hunt who has now been relegated twice in three years. Both decent players but for £12 mil plus the wages, no thanks.
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22. Hilltop unless you are getting 4-5 players of the quality of Ronaldo, Messi etc I think you should worry about Newcastle, Blackpool, Wigan, West Ham and Bolton before you worry about us. Our squad is considerably stronger than yours at the moment and as the league suggest you were way short of Newcastle who almost didnt take it seriously at times. A long-hard season awaits for Albion and I genuinely hope you can stay up but with 800k spent so far its not looking good especially with RDM being heavily linked with Fulham.
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28. Fletcher is the same age as Dorrans has played a full season in the Premier League with a relegated club and scored 12 goals in 31 appearances? Does that make Dorrans worth 3-4mil? Hull did not get a single point when Steven Hunt didnt play – fact. Hull fans were very angry when they found out that Mouyokolo had gone for 2.5mil as many feel he is a star of the future after his promising games in the premier league and Arsene Wenger had him watched quite a bit. Jelle Van Damme had a few games with Southampton when he was 19 and now at 26 with four years Champions League experience and an established international we hope that he proves to be a great signing.
The problem with Albions squad is either a lack of experience or players who are simply not good enough. Dorrans could be an excellent player but he has to prove himself along with Jara and Tamas. Pablo hasnt played in along time and dont forget Danny Mills was an international 4 years ago too!
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29/30…. how many point did Hull get when hunt did play ???? Not many – FACT !! (apart from the ones they got from you lot)
Your other drivel about us needing 5 players to compete blah blah is the same old dingle rubbish we hear every pre season…. just before we wipe the the floor with you home and away so keep it coming !!
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29 and 30 Happy Wolf. You make your points well about Wolves and their signings, but you do show a touch of spite in your writings too.
Newcastle took it VERY seriously, enough to irritate their older followers brought up on pure football in yesteryear. An analogy to a steam-roller is not too far amiss. Not pretty, but effective and THAT my friend should strike a chord with your team too ! I happen to rate MicMac quite highly and he surely has added what was needed last season to the mix for this season. Maybe your parked bus will be more mobile this year. Your final comment about van Damme says it all, “we hope he proves to be a great signing”. Yes, HOPE, not KNOW ! As are all purchases of new players. Good luck for the coming season, except when we play you. For those days, I hope every black cat in Alverwumpton is in hiding.
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28) What debt did JP need to cover by using the Greening money ?????
If you work it out over the last 4 to 5 years we have banked a hell of a lot more than we have spent.
Yes I agree the youth development is excellent, but JP has to learn from his past mistakes, take the shackles off and back the Manager….or else relegation will happen AGAIN.
We need to speculate within reason, £10m would give us a chance of staying up, we are currently the poor relations behind Wolves and Blues.
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33 – so £10 million would give us a chance eh ??? Pity the £23 million old long pockets spent last time we were up didn’t work then.
Also, who would you buy with this £10 million ?? Which £10 million rated player can we get, or should we buy 10 x £1 million players… just to keep the fans happy ??
If you haven’t worked out by now that just running a football club like ours costs millions a month then you aint been paying attention…. ask Pompy !!
That said, I still expect to see some cash being splashed – but I am more interested in who we get than what he costs.
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34 Happy.
You’re wasting your time. I’d like to think all of these people that can’t grasp the financial position of our club are Wulfies in disguise but unfortunately I don’t think they are.
Obviously a player that costs £5 mill will always be better than one costing £150K. Strange that the people that think this seem to be the same ones that slagged off Valero while lauding Dorrans. Veron cost Man Ure £15 mill while Scholes cost nothing.
Whatever happens this season, if we get relegated it will be JP’s fault, if we do well it will be in spite of JP.
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7 Mark.
No 12 asks what papers you’ve been reading. I wondered what you’ve been smokoing.
If it’s so easy to get the corporates involved and sign Drogba, do you not think every other club would be doing the same? Apart from the fact that Man City the richest club in the World at the moment can’t sign him.
Your suggestion that we’re losing a £3mill midfielder in Koren might be correct if he had 3 years on his contract, he had a 1 year option and so had no monetary value. You may also have missed that RDM played him in almost every game of the run in. He was released due to various circumstances, wages, midfielders in squad and homegrown rule.
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34) Happy.
Ok let’s give up and get relegated, and increase JP’s salary from £400k per year to £4m.
Where did the money from Kuczszak, McShane, Koumas, Kamara, Greening, Ellington, Earnshaw etc plus our promotion and parachute payments go ???
Mowbray may have spent a lot of money but we have made a lot more in income, so how can you say we are another Pompey ?
If you know the facts we are usually the club who pay the lowest wages (Chairman excepted) when we have been in the Prem.
No outlay + lowest wages = relegation. Simple really. Come on, Ebeneezer Peace is a very good Accountant who is looking after number 1 first and foremost !!!! He should have learned by now from his past mistakes, and RDM will be off to a London club when he realises he is working for a miser WITH NO AMBITION FOR THE CLUB OR ITS FANS.
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Happy.
Sorry missed out the £9m for Davies.
I JUST WANT THE CHAIRMAN TO SHOW SOME AMBITION TO STAY IN THIS LEAGUE, DON’T YOU ?
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Simon – no one is giving up except the fans who think we need £10 million added to the current squad just to compete…. I happen to think we aint too bad as we stand and with some reinforcements we will do just fine.
You still never said who this £10 million pound player is – although I see Sunderland just paid a million for Titus Bramble… maybe you would have liked him ??
As I said – it costs millions to run a club – and we are paying millions in wages too.
The fact is we don’t generate enough money to run the club at this level and so JP ensures the bills and wages are paid by using the money we generate…. if you don’t like this then go watch Palace or pompy.
You talk of ambition – yet wolves have spent about half of what we spent last time we went up and now say (in the SUN) that they have to sell to buy.
I don’t really care which league we are in – as long as we are in A league and not broke with a winding up order.
Finally. we seem so far apart in what we want for the club that I’m not sure if you are a Ding having a wind up or just blind the real facts of running West Bromwich Albion.
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38.Simon. Bending the truth can be as dangerous as a downright lie. The second is easy to spot. We did NOT get £9million for Davies. It was £5.5 million more likely as we did get a £3.5million player (so rated), as makeweight. I’ll sarcastically do the maths for you: 9 minus 3.5 = 5.5. Ignore the ‘millions’ word, it’s easier. Q.E.D.
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37 Simon.
You’re asking Happy what JP has done with the money.
I’d like to ask you what he’s done with it as I’m assuming you have an answer.
The gist of your suggestion seems to be that it’s disappeared, or am I wrong. Please enlighten us.
The wage structure in the last campaign was at the instigation of the manager Tony Mowbray, I heard him say so in an interview. The Chairman provided the paltry sum of £23mill in transfer fees and £26 mill in wages.
It’s very easy to sit on the sidelines throwing mud. Have you anything more concrete to offer?
Yes you do have the freedom to have your point of view but making unsupported slurs on a man’s character is abusing that right. Please feel free to produce your evidence rather than just listing a few transfer fees.
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39,40 & 41.
I’m not making any slurs on Mr Peace’s character, I just feel he lacks ambition to move the club to the next level.
I for one would rather be in England’s top Division, and to stay there you have to be prepared to speculate without putting the Club at risk.
The transfer fees received over the last few years far outweigh those paid, and allied to the Premiership and parachute payments WBA should be a very wealthy club !
I have a question for you “why does Mr Peace see the need to restructure the shareholdings every two minutes, and is this in the interests of the Club or him ?”
Happy – I didn’t say we should spend £10m on one or ten players, but I think we need another goalkeeper, a left back, a defensive midfielder (not George Boateng), and one or two strikers and they doesn’t come cheaply !
As for Pompey it is a completely different situation, we were probably the richest club in the Championship last year, but this is no good if we keep yo-yoing ! We need to build on any success we have. And no I’m not a Dingle i’m just a frustrated true supporter.
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Can somebody please explain why JP decided to refurbish the Halfords Lane stand and reduce the capacity of the Stadium ?
Perhaps had he spent a couple of million more increased the capacity to 30-32000 we would have more revenue and still been able to include corporate boxes.
Again smallest stadium in area = lack of ambition !
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