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No Contract for Davis?
Blues boss Lee Clark has told the local press that he can’t give any guarantees over the future of trialist Liam Davis despite the ex-Oxford United player impressing in Ireland. The 26-year-old, who can play at left back or left midfield drew plaudits from Clark but worries over financial constraints mean that as yet no concrete offer appears to be forthcoming.
From a fan’s perspective, I have to say that that sounds worrying. I know that there are people out there who aren’t happy that Blues are looking at players released by League Two sides as it is but the thought that Blues cannot afford to offer a contract to such a player surely must ring alarm bells – has the situation got so bad we’re struggling to offer contracts of circa £250,000 per annum?
Admittedly, the same article does infer that the deal to sign Shane Ferguson on loan from Newcastle is all but done – and one would think that if that happened Davis would only be seen as cover, particularly if Clark persists with a 3-5-2 formation that requires fewer wider players. However, the fact remains that Blues are woefully short of left-sided midfielders with no true left winger amongst the senior players – and one would think that Clark will want to have other options should a 3-5-2 not work out in various games.
One thing that does have to be said is that once again, Clark is not complaining about the situation. He’s stated the facts as they are, and he seems to just be getting on with what he has got. I think that this season is going to be harder for us in terms of not having the personnel we have had in the last few years and it would be easy for a manager to throw in the towel because they didn’t like the working conditions. I will place on record my admiration for Clark’s attitude in this situation because I think it’s the way us Blues fans have to be at the moment – a touch fatalistic but rolling with the punches as they come because it cannot last forever.
A report from the reserve friendly at Wast Hills mentions nine trialists playing for Blues against Worcester City. As of the moment I have no details on any of them but I suspect information may leak over the next few days; however, I think the usage of so many trialists should underline another issue with the squad being the gap between the first team and the academy. I think the usage of so many trialists was predicated by the fact the first team were in Ireland and the Academy in Slovenia – between those two squads there are very few players and it’s that gap that means Blues have a thin squad. For me, one of the first things a new owner will have to address is the lack of 18-21 years olds the club is able to keep on and how that affects the strength of the team when injuries and suspensions kick in.
Blues face Swindon Town tomorrow; however that friendly may turn to be a farce with the Robins also playing Spurs tonight at the County Ground. It would be a shame for Clark who is now looking to gear up his team to the season start if he has to play another game at training ground pace and I hope it doesn’t set back the plans for how the team will shape up.
Tags: Lee Clark, Liam Davis
77 Responses to “No Contract for Davis?”
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Fine, if Swindon want to field a weakened team of trialists etc, let’s be professional about it. If it turns into double figures for us, so be it. Get the job done and move on to Oxford. (I wonder if Davis will play for us in that match?)
I would venture to suggest that these trialists are young players released from mainly Premier League clubs and there may be further ones to be assessed yet.
This is a good move by Lee and his staff as if only 1 gem is found amongst the trialists the whole exercise will be worthwhile.
Being released by a Premier League club may be the wake up call a few of these prima donnas need to knuckle down and make themselves a career in football.
Another reminder of the perilous state our football club is currently in.
All we have left now is to defend the clubs Championship status for the coming season, & hope for new owners & happier days . Sooner rather than later..
We could always let McDermott go – and then get a player in who adds value rather than a coach who adds nothing !
Fans are judging TM on the way he sits in the dug out! Ridiculous. What we see of TM on match day is a fraction of the hours he puts in working for the club. I don’t know whether he is good at his job or not and, truth is, I very much doubt you do either.
Perhaps we should pay someone to shout and point about the pitch on a Saturday afternoon – this would no doubt reassure some fans that we have a good coaching staff.
I don’t really care about Swindon playing two games on consecutive nights, the guys will go out and do a professional job and it will give LC the chance to try different things which is what pre-season is about.
The major worry has to be that we haven’t started the season and can’t afford to take on a promising prospect at a cost of approximately £250k, it was bad enough not affording Paul Caddis for a fee of £250k, but then you had to add the wages to that
Surely that should be ringing more bells as to our financial plight.
LC has gone about the job in hand without moaning and deserves the support of every Bluenose, win, lose or draw, this is going to be a really roller coaster season but it excites me more than any other for many years.
KRO
What a shambles fair play to lee clark for sticking with it sell now pannu or we wont have a club someone must have offered what thsy want or does mr pannu want to be seen as a white knight saving our club your not mr pannu you or carson yeung are not wanted at our club
A very sad state of affairs, that we cannot take on board a lad who has [ so far ], done a good job for us to date, ?.
I take on board that IF we can still get Ferguson, We would definately want that, !!. — but as Dan points out, — We need decent players to fill in [ or bulk up ] the ranks, !!.
That is what this state of affairs with C,Y, in H,K. is surely bringing us to our knees.
Lastly;, My admiration for L,C. grows for his application and determination, !!.
i saw davis against alfreton and played well, but with fergie comming this week sometime
he would only be a squad player behind ferguson, murphy and hancox and those three are
far better in my opinion so not to worry and also looks like nothing to worry about on the
swindon front either so 4- 0 again by the looks of it.KRO.
The squad is wafer thin. With the injuries at present, Ryan Higgins will be playing at RWB and Reilly, Elliott and Shinnie as our midfield 3.
If we get anymore injuries, esp to Zigic I do fear for us this season.
Dan, I reckon it is more worrying than you point out. No chance that Davis would be looking to get £5k per week (average div 2 wage is a lot lower i reckon). I reckon he will be looking at circa £1k per week and the fact we are not prepared to pay £50k for a year is v worrying since our squad is paper thin!
I think we will be trying to get some of these free agents to play for us for free soon, a la Bury and Tom Soares etc last season.
We already did that. Ryan Higgins played for nowt last year, to earn himself a contract.
Why esp Zigic the most over rated over paid player we have we have not seen Green or
Novac perform yet in a competitive game yet i for one hope they work coz i am fed of people praising Zigic when he misses more than he scores cant jump and only does somethting every now and again
Trev,
Couldn’t agree more.
Zigic is the symbol of Pannu’s complete incompetence. £6million pound for a striker that makes Heskey look prolific and a salary that a lot of very good premier league players would kill for along with a poor attitude.
I can’t see him making a significant improvement this year. I hope the young lads are played and manage to make a fist of things.
He is here for at least another Season, he is getting paid in line with his Contract and you belly aching moaners have just got to get used to it..
Chas,
Your lack of manners is probably directly related to your lack of brains.
Ofcourse he is here for the next season, which is why we can’t sign any more players or pay them modest championship wages.
Chas witth respect i am not a moaner its just that
i dont rate him
I’ve never liked Zigic personally, he’s up there with some of the worst strikers we’ve had at the club imho… but at the end of the day, he’s contracted to the club till the end of the season and will continue to put a drain on our finances until then, so there’s not a lot of point going over what’s been said a million times over the last 3 years.
You can’t really blame Zigic, if rumour is true he actually asked for a pay cut but his agent refused to accept it,
His agent negotiated a top draw contract for him and someone at blues agreed it, he is honouring that contract something not many players did when we were relegated.
Maybe if we were not so quick to sell or they didn’t jump then we could possibly have got promotion.
Maybe I will win the lottery tonight, the important thing is LC is getting a group of players who want to play for the club and not for megga bucks, support the team and hopefully potential buyers will turn up too
KRO
Mac, if the Cap fits , and all that.
Trevor, if you re read your Post, it certainly comes across as moaning, but I will take your word for it , just let it drop about his wages, cos there is nothing we can do about them.
Chas re his wages if you read my first comment i only wanted to know why we would miss Zigic esp if he got injured
I said many years ago that I didn’t care who owned Blues,who managed Blues and who played for Blues as long as they did their best for MY Club.To managers and players its a job,just like we all have our own jobs.Our current owners,well theres been enough said about them but LC deserves our whole hearted support.So far,under the most difficult situation I think he has done a good job.He cares about his job.Im looking forward to the seasons start and seeing if these young,hungary plays LC has assembled can give us good entertaining football.Good luck to them all.KRO.
The point about McDermot is well made, it is well known he is a clown whos value is derived from training ground banter. Get rid of him and sign a player
I trust you’re at the training ground every day Tony and know that for a fact, hmm?
Dan, I was just going to say the same thing. I have moaned about McD as much as any , you replied in the same vein to me and ,as you go to the Reserves and I don’t, I took on Board what you said. Best to listen to those who at least go than spout off in ignorance. If Tony goes , all well and good, but if he doesn’t, well.
The only thoughts I’ve had about that, is, we all know that Lee Clark is an up-and-coming young manager, open to new ideas and new ways of training… as the trip to Barcelona proved. The same could probably be said about Steve Watson. But, I’m wondering if the same applies to McDermott and Fazackerley. They may be set in their ways now and no so adaptable? Still, as has been pointed out already… we’re not there every day to witness training.
Im going on comments made by supporters of previous clubs the clown has worked for his party piece is running round with a cone on his head. get shut of him.
In other words second hand and possibly third hand information?
You’ll have to forgive my scepticism Tony…
I’m not sure of McDermott’s title, but I would think that it’s maybe assistant manager? I think a lot of AMs over the years have been more of a father-figure/mentor/shoulder-to-cry-on/chief-cheerer-upper. Most clubs have that kind of character around to place to gee people up. Plus, he does have 30 years of experience. I think to really know, you’d have to ask Lee Clark himself.
Nepatism Staffs?
Eh? Surely you have to be related for it to be nepotism?
Staffs, Who mentioned Nepotism ? ;-)
Me dad. =)
:-) Are you sure he didn’t mention Nepatism ?
Nope. No such word. :s
we all want best for our club but has lee clark told his assistants to stay on bench match days because i never saw them accept before games and most of the time it was steve watson dont know what fazackerley and mcdermott do but im not at training ground every day cant see what input his matchdays hope lee clark gets chance to finish what he wants but new owners might want a quick fix situation if we ever get new owners kro
I think anyone that thinks Green would want £5k a week is being a tad naive. The lad is a free agent after stepping away from a lower league team. If we can’t pay £5k for a player who LC believes can make a difference then that’s a shame…. But if he really does want £5k a week then we should look elsewhere. Plenty of Premier League teams have squad players and youth players of decent championship quality and a £5k a week contribution in wages to a player in that situation might be a better use of the very very very little that we do have. All finance issues aside, our young squad might suppose a few, it might even let us all down…. But I’d still rather be a bluenose in this situation than a Villa or Albion fan!!! KRO
I think you’re talking about Liam Davis, not Matt Green.
Andy assume you mean Davis? We can’t afford him cos the budget is done unless we offload the immovable Zigic, and the four other high earners who are most unlikely to move anywhere right now perhaps with the exception of King, unless we loan them and share their wage costs. Suspect our playing staff budget this year is around £16m and I reckon 6 or 7 of that goes on 5 players the club could well do without for financial reasons alone if no other !
Just wonder what motivational effect it has on the rest of the team when we have high earning players at the club but not in the squad and / or not remotely worth their wages? Suspect that was one of the reasons for Clark’s Zigic outburst during last season. Difficult management challenges all round this season methinks?
It may have a galvanising affect on the rest of the squad. If I was on £5k pw, and I was keeping a £15-50k pw player out of the team… I think I’d be pretty chuffed with myself!
Doesn’t seem such a big issue. We’ve signed a heap of players over the summer — presumably, and I’m guessing, the club just think there’s a limit on how many new people we get in.
we will always be bluenoses fans are forever whoever plays for us and i would go with youngsters rather than mercenarys who only interested in money wasnt it roger johnson who said i want to play in premier league when he and others jumped ship 3 relegations later league 1 lets stick with it and who knows
………blues have turned over a lot of players in the last couple of seasons for players that of cost nothing but to blues fans are worth their weight in gold …..why, because they wear the colours …why, because they wear the B.C. badge………but for me there is a new meaning to football at st Andrews ….its called attacking football……for years before blues drop in status we have moaned about boring football………now we have a chance to change all that …the players in the present squad have a lot going for them .don’t take fallure as a possibility .you are squad of winners ……..take this chance to make blues history ….your future is calling ,cover yourself in glory …COME ON lets take this league on ..you are Birmingham city fc …you are loved ,wanted ,needed….lets get this show on the road your B.C. and smokin GET YOUR GLORY HERE…….kro
I wish we could sign Liam Davis. From what I’ve seen of him he looks a good prospect. However money is tight and given the choice between him and Fergie it would be Fergie everytime.
No good him being a good prospect at 26 years old, he needs to be demanding a place in the starting 11.
If it was me I’d pass!
Same here, Planty..If we find ourselves in need, there are always Loans to take up.
pos team pd w d l f a pts gd
5th blues 46 20 12 14 72 50 72 22
just thought i would throw that one at you to see what
you think of my mad prediction but dont call me crazy
just yet, im the forever optemist on the road to the playoffs.
lets wait and see if i need a mental examination! KRO.
PS, liam davis is worth keeping but only as squad cover
for what my opinions worth.
I wouldn’t argue with your prediction dave. I said myself that I thought we’d finish between 8th and 5th. Be nice to turn at least 4 of those draws into wins though. That extra 8 points would have made all the difference last year. It was the draws that did us.
Chas,
My original post was to support of Trevorblue’s comment that we wouldn’t miss Zigic if he wasn’t playing. He’s not very good!! The part about his wages was a condemnation of Pannu – not Zigic. If someone offered me the same money I’d snatch their hand off too.
Don’t want to fall out over a poor footballer and a dreadful administrator.
I withdraw the comment about the brains – sorry
Mac, water off a Ducks back. No offence taken , but thatks for the apology anyway ..have a Kiss X<<< Your Kiss.
Blues on TV.
http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20130716-bolton-game-live-on-sky-sports-917273.aspx
Im sure you knew what I meant Chas, and it applies to friends and family
:-) I know Tony , and know it was a typo , I was just joking with Staffs, but he missed it :-(
£250000 a year?! You are joking. Players in League 2 are lucky to earn £2k a week. Davis was on less than that at Oxford, Green definitely on much less in the Conference. Why would you be offering a basic of £5k a week?
i would not mind that me self tbh,
shabba now got three goals…………looking sharp i would say that’s a different a year makes……
“Blues face Swindon Town tomorrow; however that friendly may turn to be a farce with the Robins also playing Spurs tonight at the County Ground……..”
Swindon drew 1-1 with Spurs (Bale scoring).
Cooper has said that they will use the same squad against Blues.
tbh letsby – for blues it about getting their fitness levels up in match practice, and starting to gel as a team…….. for me the watford game is there i want us to rumble……..
i wonder if caddis will be playing?? hope our fans give him around of applause……..he deserve it imo
Paul didn’t play last night against Spurs.
Wasn’t on the bench either.
A work colleague was making banter that he’d had a medical at Blackpool — meaning that we were poverty-stricken if Blackpool could afford his wages AND a fee.
As I posted earlier, Cooper said he is playing the same squad as he did against Spurs.
Funnily enough a lot of Swindon’s loanees have suddenly come from Spurs, and not McDonald’s club, villa. Some Robin’s fans are saying the dumping of the villa loanees and the replacement by Spurs loanees was the reason that McDonald resigned/ walked out/ was pushed, whatever.
And the sudden “crowbarring” (as Colin Tattum said) of a Spurs fixture 24 hours before an agreed Blues fixture seems to look like an arrangement suited to Spurs and their over-large, development / Academy squads.
We will be playing against a shadow of last year’s Swindon, but, they held Spurs, so it might be a semi-serious match.
Thieir squad yesterday:
Foderingham, Thompson N, Ward (C ), Hall, Byrne; Luongo, Smith, Thompson L, Storey, Pritchard, Williams
Subs; Barthram, Collins, Waldon, McEveley, Agombar, Francis, Jackson, Bedwell.
Same players against us, but probably different starters.
:-)
I heard Blackpool wanted Caddis too. I suppose it takes him closer to back home in Scotland. There are an awful lot of Scots living in Blackpool. At the end of the day, I liked Caddis, but we have a more than adequate replacement in Eardley.
I’m going for a 3-1 win tonight.
http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20130715-surgery-for-specs-914438.aspx
Good news and bad news. Jonathan Spector will definitely be out for 6 weeks.
David Murphy and Will Packwood are recovering well and should be joining in training with the rest of the squad soon.
Nikola Zigic won’t be playing against Swindon tonight. He’s been left out due to stiffness in his back. (That’ll teach him to lift his wages all by himself.) :)
staffsblue – obviously his bonus tipped him over lol
joking a part – really pleased that Murphy and Packwood are both on the mend it will be like having new players back………..
Tbh mark, I see no reason for pessimism this season. We have a fast, young exciting squad, mixed with a few old heads and I can see us being one of the fittest, quickest teams this year. I think there’s probably a few teams in the Championship who wouldn’t mind the squad we have. KRO!
could not agree more staffsblue – its the fans turn to take a punt on our team, some them need to stop shinning the silverware, have a realty check- move on , and simply get behind this new look team that Clark has build out of the ashes imo………
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-tot-named-trevor-francis-5108906? maybe another TF to grace our stans……love it lol
Saw that. I think TF the Younger has more hair than TF the Elder. :)
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ex-birmingham-city-star-david-langan-5114261? our club not the only one with financial difficulties!!!!! what a great player Dave langan was loved watching this player………….so so sad……..best wishes for your future mate…………..
He’s not the first… and he certainly won’t be the last. Makes you wonder how many past players actually DO still have their medals?
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/birmingham-city-carson-yeung-wont-5116959 i wonder if this was the big announcement??
Thank heavens for that. At least it should finish a bit earlier than it would have done. But, they must be bloody confident of him getting off if he can’t even be bothered to defend himself. Or are they resigned to him going down?
Still, hardly a ‘big announcement.’
tongue-in-cheek comment staffsblue with all the hysteria of a announcement to be made lol
life full of surprises could we see end to the carsongate??? or is there still some more twists and turns…..is the game now up for carson???, has he’s wheels turely fell off??? or can he return though the back door…..will all those who have opposed him – have their arms wide open to accept if not guilty verdict should happen??? ………stayed tuned we got another three months to ago………..
THERE WAS NO FECKING BIG ANNOUCEMENT.
It was lies and rumours.
Jeez.
And that story was published on this site on Friday.
calm down Dan – you will give yourself a heart problem……..chill my son………….looking forward to the match tonight……kro
I’m not going Mark, I have work/family commitments.
Blackpool have offered £120k for Caddis, which has been rejected