Sorry for another thread, but I've just got a piece on the site - you see, I didn't have one prepared

See link
http://www.uptheclarets.com/andre-gray- ... at-burnley" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Contributed fantastically whilst he was here, particularly that winner vs Rovers

Tara lad.

ClaretTony wrote:Sorry for another thread, but I've just got a piece on the site - you see, I didn't have one prepared

See link
http://www.uptheclarets.com/andre-gray- ... at-burnley" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But have you got one prepared for his replacement later this week?

I don't think we'd have got to the Premier League if we hadn't signed him in August 2015 so it's a thanks and good luck for the future from me.

Aside from the timing not being ideal and the need for a replacement, I'm surprisingly not too fussed by this.

Jay, Austin and Ings going felt far worse.

Winstonswhite wrote:I don't think we'd have got to the Premier League if we hadn't signed him in August 2015 so it's a thanks and good luck for the future from me.

I'd agree and I'd add Joey to that as well

Also not arsed.

There's better at the club and better out there.

top end Champ/basement Prem

ablueclaret wrote:The news just keeps on getting worse.

Poor harvest?

ablueclaret wrote:The news just keeps on getting worse.

It does. You're back online.

Thanks for the memories Andre. How anyone didnt rate him is beyond me played a vital role in our first championship win in years and first succesful top flight season in years too.

Will be hard to replace. A case of fans appreciating what they had once its gone i fear. I actually felt we needed to add to Gray.

As it stands we are extremely one dimensional without him and the easiest team in the league to defend against. Mike Garlick over to you.

The season of the tanks, heavy armoury and not much subtlety. We are Stoke City the side we used to deride.

Am I the only guy sad to see him go? =(

Good business in view of the circumstances - we should be able to get a more than adequate replacement abroad for that kind of money

Not devastated but we definitely need a replacement.

Thanks for everything and best wishes.
Key player at vital time.

Not sure he was going to make the team. Maybe late sub to maximise his pace.

We should have sufficient funds for a very decent striker and centre back now.

Up the Clarets.

Would anyone want to come here when the best players want out?

ablueclaret wrote:Would anyone want to come here when the best players want out?

No, you're right. Nobody would want to join us now! Jesus wept.

Good honest article and I agree he has been a success at Burnley.

We are a bottom 6 team, no more, no less and 9 goals from a player rarely played in a system to utilise his strengths is not too bad.

We move on and hopefully will find someone to continue the mantle of our past successes.

I'll thank him but I'm disappointed in the impression given that he was desperate to get away.
As he's gone to a rival I hope he has a stinker.

The announcement of Grays departure coincided with me opening a letter from the HMRC. I don't normally like it when I receive a letter from the tax office, but this one informed me that I overpaid last year and as a consequence I am due a healthy refund. Good result for the club and a good result for me, very happy with the events of today so far.

I appreciate the part that Gray has played for us while he has been here, thanks Andre. It would have been nice if he had chosen to sign an extension or a new contract with us (for a reasonable amount), but he obviously sees his future elsewhere. The writing was probably on the wall for his departure when he switched agents. I suspect the club have done everything they can to keep him with us, which could explain why he didn't leave earlier in the window. Waiting for a suitable offer must have played a big part in the timing of his transfer as well.

Taking everything into account I think his departure is a positive development. I would have liked to have seen him move to Fulham instead of Watford. Selling to a competitor isn't the ideal outcome but sometimes you have to take what you can get. A sideways move to a comparable club would seem to indicate that money and location where probably the primary motivators in his decision to leave. Whatever his personal reasons for leaving us might have been he obviously wasn't committed to being a part of our future.

Deciding to cash in our chips and take 12-18 million for a player that obviously wasn't onboard with our progressive aspirations could be a very good move in my books, but it will depend on the type of player we bring in and the qualities they add to the team in terms of flexibility and pace up front. We still have three weeks to go which is plenty of time to bring in one or two strikers. Letting the will he or won't he situation go on for any longer than it has done would have been the real danger for us.

No tears at all from me, happy to thank him for his past contributions, pocket a sizeable amount of cash that we can invest in a longer term replacement and wave him on his way. It would have been an entirely different response from me if this thread had been about the departure of either Barnes or Vokesy.

ablueclaret wrote:Would anyone want to come here when the best players want out?

No, they won't. We're definitely doomed. DOOMED.

Thanks for the memories. Can't blame him for going he will be minted.

Ablueclaret any decent player playing at clubs like Burnley will want out eventually. Look at Southampton. How many player have wanted out there?

ClaretSteve wrote:Am I the only guy sad to see him go? =(

No. But one minute we are doomed. Next minute hes a world beater. Then nobody rated him. Odd isnt it.

Long Time Lurker wrote: I would have liked to have seen him move to Fulham instead of Watford.

Oops, did I say Fulham, I meant to say Wolves. No idea why I have Fulham on my mind when it comes to a discussion about striker transfers.

I am sorry to see him leave .We haven't had a striker with pace and an eye for a goal.I think he will regret leaving as Watford will again finish below us.
The truth of the reasons for departure will take years if ever , to surface but spiralling wages elsewhere had turned his head so leaving was inevitable.We will move on and Sean will deliver a great season again starting on Saturday UTC

ablueclaret wrote:Would anyone want to come here when the best players want out?

One of our best players has taken a big step UP.

One of our strikers has taken the next step in his career, yes for more money on a 5 yr deal but he's convinced it's a better move for him and it is in some aspects.

The players get better moves if they play well for us, other potential targets will see this.

'Leigh-ann I've got some good news. You know how that Dyche geezer made you sit wiv ordinary people? Well I've left.
'That's great babes. Where are we now then?'
'At a proper club in the sarf where you can mix with important people like you.'
'Oh babes sounds wonderful. Chelsea? Tottenham? Arsenal?'
'Watford babes.....Babes?.....Babes?.....'

He was good at what was good at and pretty average everywhere else. But he was a threat with his pace, power and ability to get a shot away quickly. To survive this season we will need someone to get goals he would have scored which I am sure will not be missed by Dyche and co.

He tended to remind me of Johnny Francis. I absolutely loved him one minute and he could and did produce some magic and very important moments, but could be utterly frustrating at other times and almost so quick he forgot the ball! It might turn out to be blessing in disguise if we get the right man in, but it could also give us real problems if we don't as we'll be very pedestrian up front and selling him to a top 6/7 club wouldn't have been so bad, but selling to direct rivals is very unfortunate to say the least.

He's got better at this twitter malarky.

Good luck to the lad, he wanted out so what could the club do, just hope we don't let him run at us when we play them.

CnBtruntru wrote:Good luck to the lad, he wanted out so what could the club do, just hope we don't let him run at us when we play them.

Just throw bags of cement at him, that will distract him whilst he tries to trap them.

Very astute business from the board. I have to thank Gray for his goals that got us out of the Championship. That said IMO thats his level. I remain hopeful of a marque signing coming through the door before the window shuts but feel it's a question of remaining patient.

I am not that bothered TBH. I would have liked him to stay but if we get a striker in with speed and touch etc we will realise that Watford is about Andre's level. l

As a finacial decision it's difficult to argue with it, but £18m in the bank won't keep us in the Premier League.

What bothers me is that all of the other teams likely to be fighting the drop next season are showing a lot more ambition than we are. Why are we selling one of our prized assets to Watford - a club of (in my opinion) inferior stature who we should be aiming to finish above next season (again)? Why are Watford prepared to pay the wages required to get Andre Gray (plus ans 18m fee) but we're not?

scouseclaret wrote:Why are Watford prepared to pay the wages required to get Andre Gray (plus ans 18m fee) but we're not?

Because the Pozzo family are very wealthy owners who can do it. They sold Spanish club Granada last year, only own Udinese & Watford now. So it's not being prepared to, it's paying what, as a club, you can pay. We offered Gray a substantial long term contract but his advisers turned it down.

Brilliant bit of business. 18.5 million is a joke.
Good luck to him and hope Watford go down, he'd do well in the championship again.

Thank you Andre for your contributions to the club, in getting us up to the Premiership and helping us stay there. I'll be giving you polite applause when your name is read out in the Watford team and then have a wry smile as you miss control the passes that come to you during the game, or are caught off-side.

£18m for a player with one year left on his contract is a good deal.
We certainly can't be complaining when other sides are expecting big bucks for the replacement.

The current Watford manager rates him that's fine for now but what about the manager who no doubt will come in just after Christmas or/and the manager they bring in at the end of the season ? His advisors will be advising the deal that gets them the most money in my opinion not what is better for Andre.

Thanks for the memories Andre, all the best. £18mil for him seems like very good business on our part if he wanted to leave and only had 12 months left on his contract.

In Dyche we trust.

ablueclaret wrote:Would anyone want to come here when the best players want out?

So, not content with lies about Dyche wanting to leave you're now concocting lies about our 'best players' wanting out too, eh AblueLyingShit?

ClaretTony wrote:Because the Pozzo family are very wealthy owners who can do it. They sold Spanish club Granada last year, only own Udinese & Watford now. So it's not being prepared to, it's paying what, as a club, you can pay. We offered Gray a substantial long term contract but his advisers turned it down.

OK, but from apparently being the world's 5th most profitable football club, to securing a second season of revenues of c£150m and bringing in transfer fees over the summer in excees of £40m, at what point to do we commit to using some of this income to try and establish ourselves at this level? We all know abut the wage structure, but if we want to survive long-term at this level then we have to start paying the going rate. And before anyone starts, I'm not talking Neymar, but £50k a week is surely minimum for a decent Premier League striker these days.

At least now, I don't have to constantly stop myself from saying 'for ***** sake just control the thing and lay it off you ****, are you ******* stupid? Get him the **** off the pitch Dyche' in front of my 12 year old.

Taken a sidewards step for money, says a lot about the guy hes not ambitious an wanting to win things he's motivated by money, he's joined a team that we will finish above with or without gray.
He will be a flop there an drop back to the championship where he belongs

scouseclaret wrote:OK, but from apparently being the world's 5th most profitable football club, to securing a second season of revenues of c£150m and bringing in transfer fees over the summer in excees of £40m, at what point to do we commit to using some of this income to try and establish ourselves at this level? We all know abut the wage structure, but if we want to survive long-term at this level then we have to start paying the going rate. And before anyone starts, I'm not talking Neymar, but £50k a week is surely minimum for a decent Premier League striker these days.

It will be interesting to see the accounts for last season when they come out but they will show you we can't just go and do that. We've actually signed players on 4 year deals this summer which would take us beyond the parachute if we were to go down. We don't have a benefactor and so this is how it will be for us. We are paying very good wages for a club our size but when clubs with more money come offering three and four times more we will never be able to compete.

We are as wealthy as we've been but in Premier League terms we are not a wealthy club.

Some people just can't get their heads around football finances and foreign investment.

Frustrated me more than any of the other decent strikers we have had in recent years, his powershit first touch, his pointless offsides when looking along the line, his missed chances etc. However he was a game changer and at times took the game away from opponents, but anyone who doesn't want to be here needs to go, so in that respect i am glad so that we can use the money wisely to buy a better replacement.

bumba wrote:Taken a sidewards step for money, says a lot about the guy hes not ambitious an wanting to win things he's motivated by money, he's joined a team that we will finish above with or without gray.
He will be a flop there an drop back to the championship where he belongs

Behave, he's an average pro footballer who has been offered more money elsewhere.

Deal with It and get used to it or spend the rest of your football supporting life stood gazing into space with people thinking you're an idiot.