Marc-Antoine Fortune signs for Albion
Friday 27th August 2010, 11:00AM BST.
Striker Marc-Antoine Fortune has today rejoined Albion from Celtic for a fee believed to be around £2.5million.
The 29-year-old has signed a two-year contract, with an option for a third year in the club’s favour, after passing a medical this morning and agreeing terms on a second spell with the Baggies, where he spent the final five months of the Premier League campaign two years ago.
Fortune is returning to England with Celtic needing to raise transfer funds to finance their own team rebuilding plans.
The transfer fee could be as much as £2.5million, with Albion eventually getting their man 14 months after missing out on the striker after his solid loan spell with the club.
A deal has been completed in time for Fortune to travel with the Baggies to Liverpool on Sunday, providing he gets international clearance.
The forward played for Celtic in Holland last night as they crashed out of the Europa League with a 4-0 defeat to Utrecht, another of his former clubs.
But the exit from European competition increased the need for manager Neil Lennon to bring in money before pressing ahead with his own plans for strengthening.
Fortune headed straight to the Baggies training ground, where he tied up his move.
The French-Guianan made 18 appearances for Albion after joining on loan from Nancy in January 2009, but opted for a permanent move to Celtic with Tony Mowbray following the Baggies’ relegation at the end of the season.
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Finally, a top player to go with Pete up front i feel that we have a strong enough squad now to make a go of this because we have enough cover everywhere apart from CDM which isnt a priority at the moment, Fortune brings a style of play which will alloow messrs, Morrison Dorrans Brunt and Thomas to wreak havoc with defences, well done DA if he signs the dotted line, still a lot to do yet, Now Liverpool fans remember the grammar, is a field not an field
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Good business, now just a midfielder, sidwell?
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Very good signing for you, was impressed with him last time you had him. Had hoped we would sign him when we went up.
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I’m sure this will be brilliant business for us AGAIN!!
If he holds the ball up, and let’s the midfield and Odemwingie finish off the chances that he will create, we’ll be fine.
Very happy about this if it does come off.
We’ll have pace, power, brains and brawn up front and options from the bench too.
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Another Emile Heskey type, does a good job of holding and distributing, but can’t hit a barn door from 3 yards. However, if he makes some space for Peter Odem, happiness will shine forth. (and fifth).
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Good signing not an out and out goal scorer but he put 100% effort in when he was here before and brought other players into the game, notably Brunt. Just need a defensive midfielder now ….any news anyone ?
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Quality signing – was really disapointed when he followed TM to Celtic. Come on you Baggies !!
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Welcome back Marc, did well last time around, big, strong, holds the ball up with support from midfield. Im feeling a little better about things now with St Peter adding real options up front. Will fit into our system nicely. 1 up front with 3 attacking midfielders behind and 2 holding players the Brazil way! Boing Boing
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Excellent piece of Business for you. Good striker at this level and performed last time you were promoted!
Hopefully, with the latest editions WBA can make a fist of surviving and the Black Country Derby will be an EPL fixture for a long time to come =]
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I’m a real happy baggie now. Hopefully we can get a point at Liverpool?
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CARSON , MYHILL , KIELY .
JARA , ZUIVERLOON , TAMAS , MEITE , OLSSON ,
IBANEZ , CECH , SHOREY , MATTOCK .
MORRISON , MULUMBU , TCHOYI , THOMAS , S.REID , DORRANS , BARNES , BRUNT , BOATENG ,
MOORE , BEDNAR , COX , MILLER , ODEMWINGIE ,
FORTUNE .
If Albion can get this Derek Boateng it will
take us up to our squad of 25.
Fortune is a good player and very underated,
people who say he isnt dont understand football.Odemwingie and Fortune cost 5M and
I`d rather have those instead of Doyle and
Fletcher who cost 15M.
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Thank heaven for that. Mowbray was one of the worst managers we have ever had and Fortune one of the worst players. So glad to see the back of the pair of them. Fortune will feel well at home on the beach when Baggies play at Blackpool.
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Well that was wrapped up pretty quickly so well done Dan Ashworth.
Good player and a natural striker which as stated above will compliment Pete with his pace a treat. I was worried we would go down the route of lower league strikers but at last they have signed a striker of genuine pedigree.
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Agree with 5 – not an accomplished goal scorer but will hopefully link up well with Pete up front.
Another midfielder in before the deadline and Tchoyi when he’s match fit – yeah, looking good.
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Big Cyrille was born French Guianan. I’m pleased this has happened because like the posts I was sad to see him go. If he can do anything close to Cyrille we will have a helluva striker.
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I would like to propose a song
FORTUNE In French Fortuné and is pronounced FORTUNEAY
So how about:
THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON
HIP HIP HIP HOORAY
THE BAGGIES FOUND A KING TODAY
SING MARCO FORTUNE
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Celticbhoy
Don’t really understand how you can say he’s one of the worst players you’ve evr had when Samaras is your main striker!
I’m sure Fortune is thanking the heavens as well. Back playing in a proper league against proper footballers :)
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11 DorransLovesBrom.
I think you’re right about Fortune,although I didn’t see a lot of him I thought he held the ball up front very well.This is the type of player RDM wanted so all is looking good but I’ve got one gripe with your post, does it matter what the Wolves are doing,why mention them? if nobody acknowledged them or some their more pathetic posts maybe we would be rid of them from WBA pages and put an end to this “My Dad is Bigger” mindless c–p.
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congratulations on signing another top striker, 10 goals in the scottish league, wow please don’t play him against us :)
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very pleased with signing the big man,as many av already stated he will bring that physical prescence to the team that we need and will bring out the best in dorrans,morrison etc..jus wonder with us looking better with 1 up top where every1s going to fit in tho?? i thought pete lookd good off the shoulder of the last man bt im expecting he will fill in one of the wide front men roles then….good options either way.think giles barnes might have a bigger say than many are expecting too,he lookd lively when he came on against sunderland and hes no mug,hes a big powerful player to go with his neat touches n passing…the futures bright…and it most certainly isnt orange!!! boing boing come on u baggiiieeesss!!!
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Kev I agree with your post to a certain degree as it is quite childish however this is a West Bromwich Albion thread so any wolves fans should possible expect that kind of harmless banter.
If not why not simply stick to the Wolves headlines?.
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off course you would sooner have fortune instead of doyle & fletcher you should’nt covet what you cant afford.and fortune’s excellent scoring record in the mickey mouse league
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This page is like a big happy party full of smiling faces with a couple of bothersome flies buzzing about.
O FORTUNAAAAAA!
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Fair play to you Boingers with this one. I was very impressed with what I saw of him last time you were in the Prem. I’d be happy if he’d have come to us.
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Pye Green Wolf
I wouldn’t want to turn this into a my Dad is bigger than yours and I’m not trying to say one is better than the other (Sorry Kev, I partly agree, but I feel this needs to be said before the Wulfies throw this one at us incessantly), but Marc Antoine Fortune’s goals to game ratio for Albion is a fair bit higher than Kevin Doyle’s for Wolves…….so the sarcastic ‘excellent scoring record’ posts don’t really wash.
I should also say that I think Kevin Doyle’s a very good footballer and I accept that like Fortune, he brings far more to the team than just scoring goals.
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Good signing ideal with system we play the fact that hes not prolific wont matter weve plenty of goals in this squad any way if he was prolific hed cost £15ml our last two recruits better value than Doyle n Fletcher
Steven Reid will slot into midfield need a rt back. Give Dan a raise.
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Number 22: you make an excellent point, PYE. MAF’s English Premier League record of 5 goals in 17 games is indeed worrying. Nowhere near as good as Doyle’s (9 in 35) and Fletcher’s (9 in 36). Well done.
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Although I’m not always pleased to see players return, this is good news. You know exactly what you get with MAF which is 100% effort and good skill and pace.
I’ve got to say that looking at the team at Orient with 11 changes from Saturday as well as a couple of players Meite and Mattock missing. We are stronger in quality in the first 11 and have much more strength in depth as well than we’ve had before in the PL.
I’m still not counting any chickens about Saturday although in KevinKeeganspeak I’d love it, just love it if we beat them. I’d love it even more watching Lawrenson and Hansen choking on their excuses on MOTD. Well I can dream can’t I?
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Pye wolf, I can’t quite understand what it is you are trying to say?
check your grammar before you attempt to make humorous comments as you may just end up with egg on your face.
off course?
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keltickid thanks for all the cash for moanbray even if it is yuor funny money ! also how much did you lose on fortune? good luck in the SPL & domestic cups.
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Last time Fortune was with us he always worked hard.But most people seem to forget how many chances he missed.Odemwingie i was delighted with,but i think Fortune is a step backwards as he does not score enough.At least it is very clear now that RDM does not choose the players,it’s DA,and he is clearly JP puppet.If we are relegated,then DA should be sacked and no way should RDM get the blame.
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Last time e played for us was in prem league and e scored about 5goals from 15 games. Not a bad ratio = to fletcher and doyle
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Good signing for baggies, hopefully we can all push on and survive with ease.
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We need a goal scorer not another player who can hold up the ball!!.
Fortune did not set the Scotish Prem alight he will stuggle in our Prem.We should bite the bullett and go for Robbie Kean,Harry will do a deal on his wages.
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(5)
Cyril,
You mention Hesky, I saw the Villa match last
night and he was diving all over the place
and Curtis Davies was right out of his depth.
Which reminded me why our powers that be have to be careful when they spend cash on players.
We’d be up to our neck in debt if we’d have paid £10m for Davies and £5m for Hesky. I reckon it’s frightening to have those players for that amount of money. Something like wolves layout for the tripe they’ve bought. It’s great to have a system in place like we have in getting the right players in for the right money. We have a lot to be grateful for.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Great signing! Was a bit shocked to see this but he was great when he was with us last time.
No, he is not a prolific goal scorer but he hold up play and calmness on the ball is first rate! Some people just dont understand how good he is… what he lacks in goals he really does make up for. I remember in particular when we beat Wigan towards our last Prem season and how well he played, and thinking if we had signed him earlier we would have stayed up! He never seems to loose the ball or give it away and u can always trust him to do something with the ball. And for a team fighting the drop that means a lot.
Would liked to have seen a proven (goalscorer) come in just so we know where we stood and we would be sure of goals in our team…. but we do have to do things the hard way dont we! Now although im not sure or completly confident of goals, i am confident this guy will provide others with enough! We also needed cover because u can be sure all of our strikers wont stay fit all season!
And on the odd occassions Fortune does score he gets important goals… he reminds me of Kevin Campbell when we stayed up and thats what we need. Great signing!!
Now lets do them scousers its about time we beat em :) BOING BOING!!
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I think Roberto Di Matteo should ditch the
4-5-1 formation and switch to 4-4-2,
with the players Albion have now got this is
very possible.
———————————————-
ALBIONS BEST 18:
—————-
1.Scott Carson
2.Gonzalo Jara
3.Gabriel Tamas
4.Jonas Olsson
5.Marek Cech
6.James Morrison
7.Yousouff Mulumbu
8.Graham Dorrans
9.Chris Brunt
10.Peter Odemwingie
11.Marc-Antoine Fortune.
———————————————-
SUBS:
12.Boaz Myhill-GK
13.Pablo Ibanez
14.Nicky Shorey
15.Stephen Reid
16.Somen Tchoyi
17.Roman Bednar
18.Ishmael Miller.
———————————————-
That leaves us with Thomas,Barnes,Zuiverloon,
Barnes,Cox,Wood,Mattock,Kiely,Moore,Meite.
None of these 10 players are really good enough to get near the first 18.
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GLAD TO SEE A PLAYER LIKE FORTUNE BACK AT THE ALBION,HE WILL BRING MORE PLAYERS ON LIKE DORRANS-AND ALSO PETER THE GREAT,LETS HOPE ROBERTO BRINGS IN MORE PLAYERS,HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND TO ALL BAGGIE FANS,SHIFNAL BAGGIE.
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Well good to have another striker on board will be able to give support to Pete, Fortune work rate was good when he was with us last time but hopefully now he has signed for us he will give us some goals because thats what we need in the premership and he ow’s the fans that and he needs to support every one and prove he was worth bringing back to wba as he didnt seem interested when we went down.
so come on go to liverpool Marc and show the fans you can do it and be a great asset to the lads.
“Come on you Baggies” All the Best.
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Think this is a bad signing and rdm didn’t won’t him just jp did and ashworth .jp has you all fooled
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12 are you not forgetting they both got us up? under rdm he could be a better player.. playing where rdm knows his best qualities lie.
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GIO BAGGIE (WEST BROMWICH ALBION)
I CONSIDER THIS TO BE ONE OF OUR BEST SIGNINGS SO FAR.
FOR HIM TO FOLLOW OUR LAST MANAGER & GO THE MICKY MOUSE LEAUGE WAS A BIT
OF A COME DOWN FOR HIM. BUT HE’S NOW PROBABLY LEARNT HIS LESSON AND COME BACK HOME TO WERE HE BELONGS THE PREMIERSHIP!!!
COME YOU BAGGIES!!!
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16.
Please dont show us up more than we are already.
i hate these lame songs people make up, it looks like we have no life
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to celticbhoy M A F WANTS TO PLAY IN THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD, THE SCOTTISH PREM IS REALLY BAD.
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(22)
PGW,
Not so much can’t afford but more like “DO WE WANT TO AFFORD”. Can’t see yours being the type of players we’d go for to be honest.
Good business again Jeremy and at the right price.
Wolves have never spent as much as we have in one season. No matter how much they brag. £23m. So who’s the tight wad?.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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bad signing we need better than this,rdm didnt wont him just jp did,we need to spend some money on some decent players ,remember the money from davies kamara koumas that added up to over 20mil and the money from going up and down just dont add upp we should be richer than chelsea with the money that comes in and out of the club,
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He couldnt hit a Barn Door, but in the prem you need to keep hold of the ball,win free kicks etc.He will do that for you.
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Marc-Antoine Fortune played well for us last time out :)… and for all the Celtic fans commenting on this….your squad is shocking…Aiden McGeady has gone, who else have you got !?!?! oh that’s right gary Hooper from scunthorpe. yh great signing. pointless them being in Europe as well, knocked out every year
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21 astleistheking.
I must be thick,what are you trying to say with your final comment about wolves headlines?
25 Warren.
I know mate it’s very tempting to reply but doing so won’t stop the incessant reply’s,you’ll just get 2 sensible 8 my dad so I think it’s better to ignore all.
To all who say this is a JP/DA signing,do you really think RDM is a lap dog and has no say in the matter,I don’t think so!
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31.Woodman. PLEASE assure you me (and others), that you are a Baggies fan. Cannock and yourself depress me each time you post. I can’t rememeber a positive comment either has made in ages. First it was ‘no signings’, now we have signings it’s Dan who is in JP’s pocket not Roberto. Quite a few of us are delighted with how it’s panned out. Why aren’t you? I don’t even like The Prem with all the corruption, fiddles, biased refs, fewer matches, but our club is making a good fist of giving it a go. That’s worth applauding and supporting. JP, Dan and Roberto are a great team. Our problem may be in keeping them all.
Carly g41. Welcome back and well said. I thoroughly enjoyed the Mowbray years for the football alone. He wasn’t loyal in the end, but no one’s perfect.
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No pleasing some people is there? To all those who are moaning that MAF isn’t prolific – he hasn’t been brought here as an out and out goalscorer, he’s been brought because he’s a work horse, he’s big, powerful, holds the ball up and brings others into play. He will also enable us to defend from the front which will be invaluable in the Prem.
And besides, he got 5 in 17 for a struggling side lat time he was with us. That’s a strike rate of 3.4 and if he managed that rate again he would bag us around 11/12 goals this season…doubt you would be moaning then would you!
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50,Cyril,ive been a season ticket holder since the 1975 season,so i think i count as a fan.I suggest you read my comment again as you clearly missed the part about PO.Plenty of others agree too that Fortune(who is classed as a striker)does not score enough.We have plenty of strikers who do not score.Wood,though a bit young i know,should get more pitch time as he is a great prospect.RDM clearly had no say in this.He is a superb coach and if DA keeps picking the players we will lose him,that would be a tragedy.
I agree totally with you regarding the prem,it’s a fix.The likes of us,wolves,villa and blues never stand a chance of success.Money kills it as a competition.
As for “quite a few of us are pleased how it panned out”,there are many more of us who want to know where the huges sums of money we earn from the prem and transfers are going,as yet again,we are trying to do it cheaply.Now we can not afford Wilson.
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52 woodman baggie.
Do you truly believe DA picks the players we sign completely off his own bat?
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And the dingles can get lost cuz they was after him a year ago but he chose Celtic over them. So its no good saying he is rubbish now. Just shows he rates Albion’s chances of survival more than he did Wolves a year ago… and who can blame him because the only reason they stayed up is because it was the worst premiership ever!
To be fair I can understand peoples concerns. Fortune is not a prolific scorer and we haven’t got a proven one so we are relying on Odemwingie, Bednar, Miller, Cox & Wood (if these 2 get a game) to come up with the goals and if they dont then this wont have been a good signing. I would have liked to have seen a goalscorer in (who knows Odemwingie might be just that) but at the end of the day we were promised (proven) premiership experience which in my opinion we haven’t quite got enough of….
Its just a good job I happen to think Fortune is quality despite his lack of goals and will set up chances that will make it a lot easier on the other players and I think we might just be ok!
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50 Cyril. 53 Kev.
To paraphrase an old saying ‘there’s none so blind as them that don’t want to see.’
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Jack. Who is (not whos) this bloke Hesky. Do you mean Heskey?
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woodman52. OK mate, you sound real enough as a baggieboy. There are so many shadrag posters it’s easy to believe they aren’t Albion. We shall have to disagree about JP though because I am firmly a disciple. I see an emerging force in our club which without doubt, Paul Thompson started, but JP has continued the progress to where Peter Odem says “this club is massive”, as also said by our new goalkeeper. The good kids we have, signed new, improved and long contracts. They know their money will be there each month and if they’re sold as successful footballers, they’ll get more and the club that nurtured them will too. That is stability for all. The players being assembled right now should help us stay in this God-forsaken Sodom and Gomorrah League. I could turn my back on it but I’d only end up on everyone’s dinner, salted to taste. I also like my ‘strikers’ to score so to me Fortuné is a playmaker. Who knows, maybe young Cox will pick up the Fortuné scraps soon enough.
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AJ51. We see where you’re coming from but that doesn’t make him a ‘striker’ in my book. It makes him a playmaker as in Heskey, Emile for the use of. We can also hope that our coaches can improve his goal ratio, but again, goal scorers are mainly naturals, they can only be polished. One thing we can be sure of, whoever is chosen to play won’t be standing around watching it go on around them or they won’t get a second chance. We do have two kids in Cox and Wood who will benefit from the new guys.
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52 Woodman.
You seem to contradict yourself a bit. After saying that it would be a tragedy to lose RDM as he’s a great manager. You say ‘Wood should get more pitch time as he is a great prospect.’ Doesn’t this suggest you know better than RDM who is the man not giving him more pitch time. Are you really the greatest manager we never had?
Where the money has gone is there for all to see in the accounts. It’s getting boring repeating this fact but some people just continue to spread the rumours, half truths and downright lies because they suit their argument.
The reason the money is there in the first place is down to the way the club has been run for the last ten years but let’s change direction now and get back to square one ay, let’s go into debt and try to compete with the tycoons of the Prem before going back to shopping at Poundland with Leeds, Wednesday, Bradford, Forest, Barnsley, Leicester, do you want me to carry on with the list?
Players like Olsson, Odemwingie, Tamas, Jara, Pablo, Cech, Reid, Brunt, Morrison, Fortune aren’t here because of their longstanding love affair with WBA but because we’re a well run club that can afford to pay them. Most of them were unearthed by that idiot Dan Ashworth and signed with money provided by that Scrooge Jeremy Peace. If you’ve been coming sonce 1975 I’m sure you can remember the calibre of some of the players we could attract in the 1990s. If you can’t I bet Cyril will remind you
Is it a case that we can’t afford to buy Wilson or we’re not prepared to pay over the odds for players. Portsmouth did very well with this policy in the short term so I suppose your argument has an element of substance. As long as you’re happy with a cup win followed by bankruptcy.
Please try to look further than the the end of your nose at the way the club is run. Don’t listen to the know-alls in the crowd that only turn up when the good times roll around and moan when anything goes wrong. As you know the only way to support a Manchester United is to go and support Manchester United but if you were a glory hunter you’d have done it by now wouldn’t you?
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I think we have just thrown £2.5m down the drain!
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Liddypol 1- Wba 0 Ref: -4 for a nailed on penalty for us at the KOP end and sending off Morrison for a yellow card tackle. We played very well and did NOT deserve to lose, but will a ref ever give a penalty against ‘pool at the Kop end? Answers on a used stamp.
Watched on computer if you are wondering.
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Couldnt watch the game cuz im curretley in slovenia. I hear we didn’t deserve to lose?
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60 tesco carrier baggie.
Please tell us to whom you refer cause from what I saw, I don’t know.
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(56)
O.K. just to please you:
Who is shot hit the bar.
Instead of :
who’s shot hit the bar.
How’s that, or is it: how is that.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Josh62. Couldn’t you find a computer café Josh? I had quite good pictures for virtually the whole game. Definition is a bit 405 line 1950, but it is in colour and you can see who the players are most of the time.
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61 Cyril.
We wuz robbed.
Anybody expect anything else at Liverpool?
Thought not.
Well done Liverpool players getting a fellow professional sent off.
Having said that. The future looking very bright on that performance.
No weak links. Well done the players for effort and application.
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