This sale of Smithies to Cardiff is a sign that yet again we really don't know how to keep our best talent. Can you imagine Daniel Levy agreeing to this deal if he was a Spurs player? Would never happen, Bad business
No other way to look at this other than to say bad business. Can only assume we had to sell for financial reasons, so we were forced to sell low. Signed for £2m and had 2 years left on his contract. Sold for £3m with any profit being reduced due to sell on clause / money owed to Huddersfield. Just seems so cheap, especially when you consider how highly rated he is by everyone, as well as how loved by the fans he is.
I hope I am right on this...but I suspect that this is actually a move to keep our best talent Ellers. Perhaps our best talent is a 21 year old giant, who has won rave reviews from Blackpool during his loan and not a 28 year old relatively ( for a keeper) unimposing keeper who is very keen to at least have a go at the premier league, and is at his peak. ( He was not quite as good last year as he was the year before..imho) Also as far as I am aware Cardiff is the first and only offer we have had for Smithies even though we have been singing England's No1 for over 18 months. Perhaps others don't see him as we do. Finally we have 3 potential first team GKs, and a couple of rated u23s. One too many first team GK...one would have to go out on loan again...or sell one.. At this time...we would probably get 500k for Lumley, maybe the same for Ingram's....but we get a small profit and a high end earner of the wage bill for Smithies. I am afraid I have been expecting it for the last 6 months and am not surprised. It seems sensible to me...sorry Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk
Just about to post that mate. This was his first response. Replying to @tonyfernandes Tony, what are the facts then? The only facts I can see is we’ve gone backwards under your leadership. If you can give me something to be positive about I’d appreciate it. We were a premier league club when you took over, now look, debt, FFP, constant changing of managers. #Joke Surely he obviously knows what the facts are so rather than be cryptic why don't he say something like, sorry guys it had to be done to balance the books or he wanted out. Something that shows us this was not a bad bit of business.
I agree, a bit of transparency is needed. If he told us what the situation was then he might not get so much grief.
Agree, Nines a bit of transparency would go a long way. TF craves attention and wants to be loved by the fans, so he should try and communicate better. His Tweets don't do him any favours, in fact, they normally make him look stupid. After listening to his interviews about QPR's future, I really believe it's all a load of hot air. TF got the land and the contract for those houses/flats and I am seriously thinking that QPR comes in 3rd or 4th on his list of priorities.
I agree with you here Beth. I really hope lumley is number one next year , maybe that was a factor in smithies departure. Lumley has been raved about for years . Smithies was not as good last season as the season before that .maybe the club does know what it’s doing !!
Ingram looked suspect to me . Lumley looked good . Better distribution also . Did very well on loan and has been spoke. Highly of for a while now . He’s one of our own lol !
Both Lumley and Ingram looked nervous and suspect to me, not surprising really when they had played for us so little before. It will be big step up for either of them to replace Smithies, hope 1 of them at least is up to it.
The Cardiff goalie Etheridge has just signed a new three year deal. How desperate was Smithies to leave us to go and sit on their bench? Southampton are looking to sign Man City goalie Gunn who was on loan at Norwich last season for £15 million. £15m? We’ve been done here.
Get over it lads, he’s gone & fee was undisclosed so we don’t know exact amount, just move on he’s history now.
I would imagine the details of Smithies contract might be confidential. Is he supposed to break that confidentiality then?