Option triggered by appearances

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https://www.uptheclarets.com/westwood-e ... other-year

Excellent news. Currently the first on the team sheet for me. Hopefully it'll be for even longer, for that would mean he'd still be playing well.

UTC

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:32 pm

Option triggered by appearances

See link
https://www.uptheclarets.com/westwood-e ... other-year

Brilliant news. He is playing out of his skin. What a bargain.

Great news. Excellent signing> Top bloke.

Waste of £5m
No better than what we have
Why are we signing someone not even good enough for a poor Villa side that got relegated.
Cheap option

Just some of the hilarious comments from some of this site's sages upon his signing. As above fantastic player and definitely one of the first names on the team sheet at the moment, and comes across as a really good lad too.

Cracking s news and further proof (as if it is needed) as to the great work our manager / coaches / recruitment team do.

A real Dyche signing in many ways. Cheap, a grafter, team player.. a transfer to initially underwhelm fans. Arrives with 'we need better', and 'I'll drive him there myself' as references from former fans.

Then settles down and plays in the Prem every week while Villa play in the Championship before spending £130m on getting relegated.

Great player for us.

I never expected him to have such an impact after early games, especially getting bullied along with Barton in the Lincoln FA cup tie.

Great news .... Top lad who has overcome demons and become the player that showed promise as a youngster...

UTC

Some of the early comments were bizarre given we were signing a player with PL experience. It has worked out well.

He probably has always had the ability and desire to be a good player, but it seems from his recent comments his head was not in the right place. Obviously the family environment at BFC has sorted him out and long may it continue. Anyone who is happy in their workplace whatever that may be is going to give their best back

One of the best examples of the niche weve carved out in the transfer market, looking for good players in their mid 20s whose careers had stalled but whose ability was previously proven.

Given his recent fulsome comments about the club, I'd been much hope he'll put pen to paper on another longer deal - this is just a unilateral extension of his existing deal and was a racing certainty to be exercised. You'd like to think after how mutually beneficial the past 3 years have been, he would be keen to re-sign and that a deal could be done early.

Fantastic news! Was worried about this. Really good news.

UTC

I hope in the summer he signs an extension so we don't have another case like Hendrick.

lesxdp wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:20 pm

He probably has always had the ability and desire to be a good player, but it seems from his recent comments his head was not in the right place. Obviously the family environment at BFC has sorted him out and long may it continue. Anyone who is happy in their workplace whatever that may be is going to give their best back

Hounded by the Villa fans but he was there at a bad time I suppose as they went into decline and then relegation. I did something on radio pre-season and there was a Villa fan on and he couldn't believe he'd won a player of the year award at Burnley.

You won't find many players of Westwood's quality for the sort of money we paid for him.

Beautiful that we took him from Villa for 6mil and they spend a shed load on a team that might not even keep them up.

Dyche chased him for more than a year: we now fully understand why!

Yes excellent news. I suppose you could say we have what Villa are missing at present. An absolute bargain and it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't receive an England call up anytime soon.

CombatClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:18 pm

Beautiful that we took him from Villa for 6mil and they spend a shed load on a team that might not even keep them up.

6 million really? Thought it was lower than that

Top signing
Top Player
Top Bloke
UTC

DomBFC1882 wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 6:08 pm

6 million really? Thought it was lower than that

Maybe closer to 5m according the BBC.
I got the 6mil from the Villa forum, suckers

ashtonlongsider wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 6:07 pm

Yes excellent news. I suppose you could say we have what Villa are missing at present. An absolute bargain and it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't receive an England call up anytime soon.

As much as I love Westwood, I would be suprised if he got called up.

Has done very well for us and this is good news. Should be used as another example to potential players how you can turn your career round or reignite your career at Burnley even if we don’t offer the most cash. Of course any player needs to put the graft in, show the right attitude and be patient. ( you didn’t see Tarkowski or Ward moaning and look at how well they have done for us and then you look at Bamford and Gibson).

Has come along in leaps and bounds the last few seasons.

IMO he benefitted greatly from seeing Defour in action and stepped up the mark when D4 got injured the last time.

Good news and happy about it.

Interestingly though there was an article last week which compared each teams pivotal midfield players. Westwood was way behind them all except on goals created.

He’s quickly becoming my favourite player.

Good news , AW’s been solid,dependable and his corners have become real beauty’s .Earns the shirt every week.Needs a bit more creative class next to him and a good right side to really excel

ashtonlongsider wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 6:07 pm

Yes excellent news. I suppose you could say we have what Villa are missing at present. An absolute bargain and it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't receive an England call up anytime soon.

You won't be surprised if he's not called up ???
Damned with faint praise.

AlargeClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:35 pm

Good news , AW’s been solid,dependable and his corners have become real beauty’s .Earns the shirt every week.Needs a bit more creative class next to him and a good right side to really excel

Those corners. Nearly scored again last week. He’s just a very accurate distributor of the ball both from set pieces and in open play.

Great news.

Excellent
You can count the number of better English central midfielders on the fingers of one hand

SalisburyClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:42 pm

Excellent
You can count the number of better English central midfielders on the fingers of one hand

Jesse Lingaard obviously

I actually think if he went back to Villa that he would not even make the bench right now.

Burnley suits him-he has a great connection with his team mates and obviously loves playing for Dyche. He has been a tremendous buy and in the early days must confess I saw him as simply cover.Today he is the engine for our team with 100% effort-lets not forget the huge number of assists, and of course his ability to score from corners

Belgianclaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 6:50 pm

Has come along in leaps and bounds the last few seasons.

IMO he benefitted greatly from seeing Defour in action and stepped up the mark when D4 got injured the last time.

Defour bailed out because he watched Westwood in action more like

A good year. More to come.

When he arrived I saw him as a jack cork lite but now it’s very much vice versa. Shows where good attitude and hard work can get you. Really great news.

FactualFrank wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:58 pm

I hope in the summer he signs an extension so we don't have another case like Hendrick.

That pretty much sums up my take on the situation, without the verbosity. I'm happy that Westwood is part of our team, but a new contract would have made me a lot happier.

Westwood is a quality player who fills an important role our squad. We did very well to get him off Villa for such a small sum of money. Active discussions about a new deal have probably been going on for some time and for that dialogue to end with the simple triggering of an existing contractual option is something of a disappointment. It is another tick in the box for getting the bare minimum done.

Bolstering his current contract with an additional year or two would have represented an outcome beyond the minimum expectation. Westwood is currently a first choice squad member and we look poorer without him on the pitch. I could understand the simple extension of an existing option if he was a backup player, but he isn't. His current performances aren't giving any indication that he won't continue to play at the same high level for a good number of years. In fact he is looking better and better. Taking that into account our apparent inability to convince him to commit extra years to us is a bit worrying.

At the moment we might be looking at a potential loss of 10-15m for Jeff, which is what we could have got for him in the Summer. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to sign a permanent midfielder early in the window and that gave us no room to consider a sale. It has put us in a position where the majority of the power is firmly in the hands of Hendrick and it is looking less likely he will sign a new contract.

If Jeff does sign a new contract he will no doubt want a healthy signing bonus to offset what he could get elsewhere as a free transfer and if he doesn't we will lose a very valuable asset for nothing. Losing the equivalent of 10-15m is the same as losing all our profit for the whole of last season and it could easily put a very big dent in what we have to spend next Summer. That is why I can't understand people being comfortable with the idea of Hendrick leaving.

If Hendrick leaves for nothing the only way I can see us balancing the books is by bringing in a player of equal stature ( who immediately gels with the squad ) on a free transfer. Should we fail to do that we will have to spend money if we don't want to go back to the risky three option midfield we were left with when Defour moved on. That could involve paying out a large sum to bring in a younger player or a smaller sum for another last contract clogger. The net result is that losing Jeff on a free transfer could see us spending a sizeable chunk of our available transfer budget for the next window on a player that will only " allow us to stand still " instead of using that money to generate forward movement.

On the face of it we could find ourselves back in the same position that we were in last Summer, despite the addition of Brownhill. Bringing in one midfielder and hoping Westwood will sign a new contract or trying to bring in two midfielders, which would allow us to sell Westwood and avoid another big financial loss. For those with very short term memories we failed to get even one permanent midfielder through the door last Summer despite a year of planning, never mind two.

Obviously, the players / agents have a big say in things and we can't force them to do anything they don't want to do, but I can't help feeling very disappointed that we have only managed to trigger an existing contractual option for an important player like Westwood.

The prospect of the same contractual circumstances associated with Jeff being repeating with another player so soon is troublesome. We can't afford to lose two established 10-15m players in subsequent seasons ( which could equate to our total profit for both of those seasons ), but that is what might happen in the aftermath of this " good news ".

In my opinion we are still paying a very heavy price for our poor performance in the last window. The only positive note is that without the fortunate ( and somewhat unexpected ) addition of Brownhill in the Winter window things could be looking even more precarious for the future of our midfield and our developing financial position.

I'm crossing my fingers this is just an interim position and that Hendrick and Westwood will go on to sign new contracts with us, even if it means paying them sizeable signing on fees to do so. That wouldn't be ideal, but our lack of any clear transfer strategy ( other than chasing unrealistic targets and putting out fires ) is making a rod for our own backs. What we really need are some sub 5m players we can polish over a year or two ( with time out on loan ) instead of looking at young 10-20m analytical headline grabbers who might be able to make an immediate first team contribution; relegating high wage earners to the bench if they can.

I suggest we interpret this as a good thing and enjoy watching him play for us for another year.

UTC

How many more corner goals?

Never known us to be so deadly from corners. He must train for hours.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:15 pm

Hounded by the Villa fans but he was there at a bad time I suppose as they went into decline and then relegation. I did something on radio pre-season and there was a Villa fan on and he couldn't believe he'd won a player of the year award at Burnley.

I also remember when we signed Ings from Bournemouth some of their fans posted on here that they didn't think he'd make it.

I think he's more than proven he's premier league quality now and that was back in the championship!

superb news

warksclaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 9:42 pm

I actually think if he went back to Villa that he would not even make the bench right now.

I rather think he would, now.

Great news. Possibly the best corner taker in the Premier league.

Happy for it to be just the year but would have preferred a short extension to maybe a couple of years. I think his resale value is minimal. So it is a question of how long you are confident he will be our first choice CM. Next year I think it is nailed on but if we are moving forwards it would be nice to think we could bring in better to start in 18 months time. Whilst we may have got a fee for Hendrick bringing in a a Brownhill to replace him 6 months before the end seems prudent planning.

I reckon a similar player (same age, experience, position) would probably cost at least 15-20m in today's market.

HieronymousBoschHobs wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 28, 2020 9:22 am

I reckon a similar player (same age, experience, position) would probably cost at least 15-20m in today's market.

I agree if we were buying and I’d be disappointed to sell for anything less but it is not a age/quality market that is particularly active. If he was to move it would probably be his last move. Big wages, no resale value makes it commercially unattractive to a lot of suitors. More likely most Prem clubs would choose to take a punt on a young unknown Portuguese player...

It's true, there aren't many English equivalents (neither up and coming nor a faded 'legend') but i could certainly imagine a Westwood who had spent his career up to now mostly playing for mid table clubs in the German or Spanish top tier attracting a hefty fee from a West Ham- type club.

HieronymousBoschHobs wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 28, 2020 9:39 am

It's true, there aren't many English equivalents (neither up and coming nor a faded 'legend') but i could certainly imagine a Westwood who had spent his career up to now mostly playing for mid table clubs in the German or Spanish top tier attracting a hefty fee from a West Ham- type club.

That is working well for them . I think it shows how clever and careful our recruiting has been. I think Sean summed it up by saying we can’t afford expensive mistakes. And largely we’ve done ok. Even with a mistake like Wells we recovered. With a Vydra or a Gibson they have provided insurance. How that eventually turns out depends on the player involved. Total respect and support to Vyds for sticking with it.

Top bloke , the clarets are advertising for a groundsman,ash loves gardening that much he as applied,true

There is a real buzz around the crowd when Ash takes a corner.Often it has led to goals.