Latest update on John Campbell!

[Simon Pieman]

I can only imagine he's the next Lloyd Opara.

Or maybe we are keeping Austin after all

[Bogus Dave]

I can only imagine he's the next Lloyd Opara.

Or maybe we are keeping Austin after all

Get out of here with your crackpot theories.

[ronnie21]

What really pisses me off about all this is the work put into this by Ken Ryder and his scouts, just to dawdle along and then lose the guy, good or bad.  It would have been the same with Charlie had Bournemouth not been undder a transfer embargo!  Guess this is the harsh economic reality and Fitton is not prepared to take the gamble with a grand or so a week extra wages.

[Rich Pullen]

The scouts did their job. I imagine most of their recommendations don't get signed.

I always thought that we moved in on Austin BECAUSE of Bournemouth's transfer embargo as opposed to a 'two horse race' for his signature.

We're getting awfully grumpy about this.

[RobertT]

I like the way we assume we missed out.  It's much more likely we decided not to pursue the interest.  Wilson's comments from a week ago suggest he was not sure on him, saying he was too raw to be considered for first team action.  It seems he had a lot of work required on him to be ready and even with a small wage it detracts from the budget available to fix some much more pressing concerns.

If anyone was banking on this guy to be Austin's replacement, they are mad.  Austin looked ready from the word go, just lacked that level of fitness you get from a pro.

[Simon Pieman]

I am a little disappointed as he did seem like he could be the next big thing. I guess time would tell.

I don't think we really wanted him. As soon as Orient showed and interest we'd have surely signed a contract (if we wanted him)?

[Fred Elliot]

I am a little disappointed as he did seem like he could be the next big thing. I guess time would tell.

I don't think we really wanted him. As soon as Orient showed and interest we'd have surely signed a contract (if we wanted him)?

I agree Si

I mean we signed Dossevi on the back of two goals pre season and look how prolific he has been !

Anyways, at least it will stop his agent touting him all over the TEF

[Rich Pullen]

Anyways, at least it will stop his agent touting him all over the TEF

Which has been quite odd really.

Good luck to the guy. God only knows what we would have said pre-Austin if it was announced that the answer to our prayers was a Newcastle Benfield forward but that's irrelevant.

I guess it'll be the loan market for us if we're not prepared/able to put in a bid for an in-form(ish) League forward.

Either way the club don't have to explain every single decision to the fans.

[RobertT]

On £700k per week, add on top NI contributions and the like and you are much closer to £1k a week for the club.  £50k for someone who had problems in the past, according to Ball's interview, and was not ready for first team football.  Weight that up against signing a centre half who steps right in.  Budget decision vs long term prospect.  We clearly just didn't fancy him in the grand scheme of things.  he didn't get a phone call for a whole day? boo fucking hoo for him.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

I'm sure Wilson has targets for January. I agree that if Campbell was really high on our wish list we'd have offered him a deal here to be quite honest. We didn't waste any time with Austin or Dossevi as has been mentioned. Also we musn't assume that because of the success of Charlie that John Campbell was going to be just as good.

[Fred Elliot]

On £700k per week,

Fuck me

[Berniman]

Yaya Toure will be kicking up a stink if he reads that!

[Barry Scott]

Obviously there's a shit load of unreal expectation on the lad from us, because of Austin. I was also sucked into the excessive belief he was gonna make Austin look like Opara and would set the league on fire. It's just the [big] downside of forums and the internet. All opinions get blown so ridiculously out of proportion it's amusing.

Whatever, as others have said, if he was that good, we would have signed him. Onwards and upwards.

[Batch]

Can't see how Batch is providing sanity Reg..? I think he's pissing against the wind. For once most of the mongos have got it right.

Consensus seems to be that we needlessly missed out on a promising youngster.. surely you can't blame people for being annoyed about it

What I said was if we genuinely missed out by procrastinating too long then fair enough, have a go for allowing Orient to steal him.

However "consensus" isn't fact. An Adver headline without quotes isn't fact. Somebody who knows his agent said....Might be true, might not be. There is no indication we wanted to sign him, only that we looked at him.

It would be sane to allow the club to comment before slating them for "missing out".

[reeves4england]

I'm with Batch. We don't know what's gone on. We might have refused to pay what his club wanted, or we might not have thought he was up to scratch. If we've missed out through incompetence then fine, be angry, but we don't know that yet.