Thetownend.com

Greer reveals catalyst behind south coast switch
           


  GORDON Greer claims Town chairman Andrew Fitton’s refusal to speak to him about a new contract was instrumental in his switch to League One rivals Brighton.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/8269967.Greer_reveals_catalyst_behind_south_coast_switch/?ref=rss
           

So... are we the baddies then?

Two things about this. We don't know if Greer gave a strong indication he wanted a long term contract on silly terms, a bit like Paynter. Which means the board have cashed on rather than lose out altogether.

Secondly, it seems we are seeing where we are with the squad prior to offering new deals. Whilst this makes it fair to all playerswe have lost a few we wanted to keep. The policy could prove to be quite brutal to our squad. But I shall wait until October before complaining as everyone we want to keep may sign up again.

Fitton out

I don't see why he couldn't  wait until October. It's only a few months away and he had little competition... and he was captain!

Fitton is obviously showing who's boss. If you don't like it theres the door.

I totally agree.  The chances for him to get an extended contract should be good and a little patience is all that he needed.  I am disappointed to see that reaction from such an experienced player.

thats how it reads. Fitton has also stated he does his contract dealings in October once the pre season etc has moved ut the way.

Clearly GG used the Brighton interest to push contract negotiations and maybe try and get a better deal. Fitton said wait till Oct, GG walked off in a huff so Fitton accepted the next bid and got rid.

we'll be all the better for it i reckon. Regardless of how good GG was DW has proved he can find the replacements needed to push us forward.

Funny how a few people who were slagging Greer off saying we are fucked now, say oh we will be ok now becuase he left for more money or a longer contract???

It's human nature: jam today or jam tomorrow.  Put yourself in Greer's shoes.  You know that you will not have too many more pay days in your present career and your boss has told you he will talk about a new employment contract in 3 months from now.  He does not tell you how long this contract will be, but 2 years is probably the most likely duration.

At the same time, you know that another employer will offer you a three year deal right now.  What are you going to do?  Unless you have balls of steel like chalkies_shorts, you take the certainty of the new deal with the rival employer.  In Greer's position, I would have done the same.

I think it's because he's acting like it's Fitton's fault and almost trying to create an "are you with him or with me scenario". Most sane town supporters will side with Fitton everytime. If he (GG) expected fans to get on his side, you couldn't do much worse than act as if it's Fitton's "fault".

I don't care how much he's tried to butter us up in that article and get on side. Fitton is king, not you GG.

Bollocks Greer you cunt. He knows damn well we were offering a contract and sulked off saying he wont discuss it at all if not now.

As captain he should know damn well that if we were to start actuall talks with him now and not others what that would do to team spirit.

 

Sorry Gord the old wedge driving 'make myself feel better for taking the money' spiel doesn't rub. Whatever happend i'm 100% behind Sir Fitton and the decision he's made as i'm sure nearly all town fans are. Enjoy you time at Brighton.  :bye:

I like the fact we have a club who have a clear policy and are prepared to stick to it and don't succomb to players demands. 

Well done Fitton IMO!

What GG did, is what top players do. They get informed from their agent that club x are after you.

You go to the chairman, saying that club x are after me, and would you like to give me an extended contract with a probable pay rise.

Club either pays up, or sells you as you're not interested in playing for the club anymore.

You lot are idiots.

This "Fitton can do no wrong" mindset is embarrassing.Greer should have been given a new contract and Fittons inflexibilty could prove costly.

Perhaps we could merge this with the TEF suicide watch thread?

He obviously made his mind up that he was going to leave us over the summer now hes looking for reasons to put the blame for his leaving onto other people, and who better than Mr Fitton?

He can't blame anyone higher up in the club as there is no one.

IMO he can fuck off and waste his career elsewhere (whats left of the injury ravaged career he has had).

The only thing embarrassing is your blinkered view.... Greer was always going to go. If you take a few words spouted after he signs for Brighton as fact you're a muppet.  :suicide:

I'd be interested to know if Fitton said to him "look we will almost certainly offer you a new contract but we won't officially do that until we sort out all the new contracts in October" or whether he wasn't willing to discuss it even verbally.

Disappointed with Greer because it's almost certain he would have been offered a new contract in October. Surely he realised that? I guess wages would have been a factor.

OK it's only rumour, but if what DRS says is true, he was offered a contract, but refused to discuss it. Polar opposites.

Well he could only say it after he joined Brighton,it wasn't an issue before the Brighton offer was it.

You're the one with blinkered view my friend.

I think Greer is talking a load of shite, but I think yeo has a point, I don't think this instance will be too bad, but it could prove very costly sooner or later.

I can actually see the point here to be fair..... Everyone knows we have a gaping hole at the back now (which can hopefully be filled  internally) but is a gamble and makes us a marginally weaker team than last year at the back. That said. I think there is more to this whole thing that meets the eye.

Not saying he was offered as such but it's fairly clear and obvious that he would of got his contract and was told that.

Yeovil fwiw i agree we should be sorting these contracts out earlier but everyone knows the way the club do these things.

So you are of the opinion that Fitton just said "No. Come back in October". I'm sorry i don't buy it. Greer is going to say whatever it takes to make him come out smelling of roses when what it boils down to is that he followed the money. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, as previously discussed, but this poor neglected contractless wounded animal interview he has given just doesn't wash.

I didn't want Greer to go but i think it's good we have a strong transfer and contract policy in place.

Has Mr Fitton ever given a 3 year contract to anyone? I think its unlikely that he'd give one to Greer so why are people so upset that he decided to leave for a club that offered him stability,I just dont understand all the Greer slating.

If he wasn't a scruffy cunt you would be hunting him down Yeo.

Firstly i don't think we should have offered Greer a 3yr contract. Secondly i'm only slating his holier than thou interview, i like him as a player and was sad to see him leave.

haha, busted.

Meh, what it boils down to is that Brighton were prepared to offer him a 3-year deal, we weren't. Don't blame him for taking it - at his stage of his career that kind of security is invaluable. And I don't blame our lot for not offering it - we'd all be pissed off if he ended up doing an Aljofree for the last 18-24 months on massive wedge. So if Brighton are prepared to take that kind of risk, good luck to him.

It may well be that contract negotiations should start earlier, but the policy of the club for now is that they should start later, once the new season and squad have settled down.  We want the club/team to go on developing and getting better, so there has to be time to assess who is likely to have a longer term future and who is less likely to help us on to the next stage (in our case Championship football in 2011/12).  To start handing out contracts before the new season has begun would be mad; and especially bad would be to start implying that one player is more important than others - what a disincentive to the others.  To try to force the club into doing that is the worst part of modern player/agent power, which is so destructive in the higher echelons of football.  As AF said, there is no loyalty, and, as he might have said, no trust.  Sad, but I believe the club and Mr Fitton are absolutely right not to be held to ransom - by a player who, excellent as he has been over the past 18 months, was actually rescued by STFC!

 :cunt:

Why would it be mad? October is only 3 months later.

If it's the clubs policy then it's the clubs policy. But it's not mad to be handling contracts right now at all.

Its mad because the business of the moment is building and preparing the squad for the new season.  No-one knows until they start playing in earnest how they will get it together, or which players will look to be good enough for the next step.  That is bound to start becoming clearer as the season progresses - and given that the transfer window does not close until end of August, there has to be time for new players to come in and settle in up to that point.  Greer may have looked very good last year, but lots of people are saying he probably is not going to be good enough for 2011/12 in the Championship - but who knows?  Given a different set of players this season he might look much better or much worse....

Quite agree. Fitton knows what the score is, we will lose (good) players with this policy, but equallly won't get lumbered with an expensiv lemon for 3 years.

Is this the right policy for the club to have? I assume so financialy or we wouldn't have it. Is it frustrating as a mere fan that we lose good player? yes.


To those people I sat I'd rather have him here to help take us up, than not have him here because we might go up. Basically with so many personnel changes we may do well or may be mid table!

Would Greer have be offered a 1 or 2 year contract in October? If he was looking for security, he could have only thought he'd be getting a one year contract extension, otherwise he's gone for the £££.

We'll move on, like him.

Perfect.

Yeah but in a way it's less than a risk than bringing in a new player because we know what to expect from that player.

greer has done what any of us would have done(look after no1)his quotes are crystal clear so i suggest some of you actually read the article.
fitton has stuck to his guns and this is what has happend from it.only time will tell if he has fucked up or not.

i dont understand why he refused to get into contract talks, when a rival club is trying to buy his club captain.other clubs do this all the time to keep their best players.i think he wanted the fee offered all along as he has said nothing to the contrary over the past couple of weeks.he could have come out and said 'we dont want to lose greer' or something like that.

On the flipside Arriba Greer has said nothing at all as to whether he wanted to stay.

I think a couple of weeks ago when Wilson said every player has his price we should of seen this coming.

his quotes in the article say exactly that.

After the sale.Where were his quotes in the 3 weeks prior this?

Agreed, Fitton has made it clear in the past that he only wants players that want to play for Swindon. If Greer has gone to him and said Brighton are offering this 'n' that, it's in keeping that Fitton is going to say well fuck off then.

The article to me smacks of Greer getting his word in first, knowing that his move as Captain would be unpopular and trying to spin it as; "well I wanted to stay but..."

However as O'Hanlon and Mooney proved, the grass isn't always greener (or pink in this case)

True....



And you're basing this on what greer said following his signing on at Brighton? The only thing that is crystal clear is that Greer went for the money. End of. If Fitton had said ok here is a year extension leaving Greer with 2 years on his contract where do you think Greer would be now? Relaxing after making his debut at Whitehawk is where...

he was not back at the club for pre season then.fitton was though, and putting together what he said then,and how things have developed show exactly what happend.

i asked the other day where the 450,000 quotes from fitton are,as i aint read or heard them.just from posts on here.
did he say that or was it bullshit?

Come on Arriba fwiw i agree with you if he wants to go he wants to go i'm not bitter but just come out and say i wanted to go.

In the last 3 weeks, Fitton,Poyet,Wilson,The Brighton chairman have all given their opinions on the transfer don't tell me the Adver have not tried getting a response from Greer and what he thinks of it all.

greer has given his views on it.he's just waited until it's all done and dusted.we dont know if he was asked or not until then.(not that i think it makes any difference)

fitton liked the offer, and when the chairman does it only has one outcome.
it's his decision.i hope it's the right one.
greer didn't  have a choice really.he could have stayed,got seriously injured in august and been unemployed this time next year.

Conversely, we could have matched Brighton's offer of a 3-year deal, he gets seriously injured in August and we're left with a non-playing asset making a large dent in the wage bill for several years. Swings and roundabouts. He wanted a longer deal than we were prepared to offer, he got it elsewhere, he moved on. Don't see any blame attaches to either side tbh

what a lying cunt the man is.

Very reasonable, and difficult to disagree with.


I'm not getting in to a debate with you again Dave - I would recommend a blood pressure check though.

Well, its the usual stuff -if what I have been told is in any way true - then Greer is a liar.

Fittons refusal to talk about a new contract? wrong name there.

Its a big "if" there Dave.  I don't know what you have "been told", but if you have any doubts about its authenticity at all, as implied by the "if", I think you are on dubious ground calling someone a liar on this evidence.

no blame to anyone.it's a typical footballer moving clubs deal.just the way it is.
with regard to your first point,offering any player a deal comes at a risk.

I believe it, others might not.

Even if I believe it to be correct, its still an if.

i dont.

people are reading too much into it.didn't get on with other players,wanted silly money,etc,etc,.
moves like this have, and do happen like this all the time.
it's simply a combination of the chairman liking the offer, and the player protecting himself.

The level of personal offence you take at STFC's captain leaving is fucking hilarious

Where as, you are just dull as fuck.

 :D

Seriously, have a wank or something. cheer yourself up lad. Let it go.

Aprently greer asked for another contract, but fitton wouldnt give it to him untill october.

Really? Where did you read that?!

Nah, I heard he'd said "If the fans here are going to start turning up in pink jumpers, I may as well fuck off to Brighton" and that's how it all started

I heard he got fed up of shaky videos of his defending being put on YouTube

I heard it was just a greer move.