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“I was at a club where regardless whether you took your opportunity or not there was politics behind it that you weren’t in the team for that reason or this reason”
Maybe backs up the claim of players starting because of the price tag?
Who says Kipre was MOTM against Pompey? Is this the same Kipre who lost his man, allowing them to score from a corner?
Don't get me wrong, he was decent overall (apart from a shakey start and that goal at the end), but MOTM? I'd give it to Matusiwa, personally.
Kipre played well and overall did a good job. He suited playing against Portsmouth’s limited attack, but was not MoTM for me. I also think he might struggle against more mobile forward lines. But he is a great asset and alternative to have. Flippin big bloke too with a smashing personality - wouldn’t want to annoy him!. I liked him.
I’d have preferred Woolfenden to keep his comments to himself or ‘in house’ and not use social media to express them. There’s nothing to be gained with that.
He got his move and gone to a good club. He should leave it at that.
Can’t comment further and I know it’ll be unpopular, but I have it on very good authority that price-tags played a huge part in why certain players were picked / continued to be picked. People can downvote all they want, but I’m team Woolfie/Burgess in this.
I still support the other lads though of course.
Save the conspiracy theories for the Team Woolfie family group chat.
if he's saying that in public, he was probably even more whingey in private.
a rotten apple infects the barrel, maybe it's best that we let him go
Agreed we don’t need people like that at the club , Woolfenden was a bang average championship defender who always had mistakes in him , the fact we got £4m for him was a major coup by the club ! Burgess on the other hand was disappointing to lose a much better defender who I would have preferred to Greaves personally
What he says here, and the team releases show he wasn’t really sold on on the ‘we’re in this together’ idea. I was sad when he went but I’m convinced now there was more to it than most of us knew, and that Woolfie wasn’t the blue eye’d boy we thought he was. Maybe there was more reason than we knew that other managers didn’t pick him all the time.
I think it was mismanaged but it was a difficult position for everyone to find themselves in, and subsequently trying to get it to work. Obviously a case of outside looking in, but losing Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Burgess, Broadhead and Chaplin despite seemingly wanting to keep all of them, not to mention the Morsy situation, doesn't suggest sunshine and happiness across the camp. As an aside, Woolfenden signing that contract baffled me then and still baffles me now.
It's my belief if they could go back and do things differently they would, and hopefully they'll pick up and learn for next season should we achieve promotion once again.
Don’t be baffled. Contracts work two ways but very often mean nothing if the circumstances dictate. Clubs are not charities and in this case it was a clear case of protecting their investment to ensure receiving a fee that they judged to be fair when the player departed.
Possibly. The only thing I can think of is Woolfenden was content to being a squad player here in the Premier League but expected to start should we go down as O'Shea would leave. O'Shea staying changed the mindset. For all the digs (not from yourself) about him being a squad player at Coventry, keeping him until the end of August rather than selling him over the summer meant he didn't get a pre season to claim a starting spot for a side doing well.
Can’t comment further and I know it’ll be unpopular, but I have it on very good authority that price-tags played a huge part in why certain players were picked / continued to be picked. People can downvote all they want, but I’m team Woolfie/Burgess in this.
I still support the other lads though of course.
Just doesn't pass the smell test, does it?
McKenna has always struck me as a man of integrity, more than perhaps anything else.
Can’t comment further and I know it’ll be unpopular, but I have it on very good authority that price-tags played a huge part in why certain players were picked / continued to be picked. People can downvote all they want, but I’m team Woolfie/Burgess in this.
I still support the other lads though of course.
With everything we know about McKenna, we can be sure that this is demonstrably false. It's just ridiculous.
Woolf fell out of favour, made a bad decision about signing an extension, and is pissed about it.
McKenna has always struck me as a man of integrity, more than perhaps anything else.
I’m not saying that there’s any huge conspiracy or weird underhand thing going on, but players which were brought for lots of £££ have been given more chances than those who were here before, regardless of performance - which is why many of the old guard looked to move away (Chappers, Morsy, Burgess, Woolfie).
Money talks unfortunately.
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With everything we know about McKenna, we can be sure that this is demonstrably false. It's just ridiculous.
Woolf fell out of favour, made a bad decision about signing an extension, and is pissed about it.
Nothing much to see here.
Fair enough, as I said I know what I have posted will be unpopular. It’s not a huge thing. It’s business, and as anyone knows, you have to try and stand behind your expensive outlays to save face. Nobody is being murdered and I’m not suggesting KMc has been nasty or anything - people are so quick to react!
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Can’t comment further and I know it’ll be unpopular, but I have it on very good authority that price-tags played a huge part in why certain players were picked / continued to be picked. People can downvote all they want, but I’m team Woolfie/Burgess in this.
I still support the other lads though of course.
Fair enough
Two sides to every story though, so whilst some people may be saying price tag is the reason, that doesn't necessarily mean it is. It's not like McKenna is going to say you're not getting starts because player X cost more. And there's obvious examples where more expensive players have been dropped such as Muric and Clarke. Or players on higher wages not playing like Phillips or Johnson
Of all the players to leave since the new regime took over, I felt saddest about Woolfenden because he had been here the longest and had lived through the lows as well as the highs.
That being the case, I do find strange some of the openly hostile comments on this thread about him.
Let's hope, when he returns he will get the appreciation his service deserves. But if Downes is the yardstick, and going by this thread, that may well not be the case.
Of all the players to leave since the new regime took over, I felt saddest about Woolfenden because he had been here the longest and had lived through the lows as well as the highs.
That being the case, I do find strange some of the openly hostile comments on this thread about him.
Let's hope, when he returns he will get the appreciation his service deserves. But if Downes is the yardstick, and going by this thread, that may well not be the case.
[Post edited 4 Oct 21:13]
I hope so too. He was a vital part of those two promotions, and is a local lad with a local family.
If he hadn’t signed that contract in January, he’d be coming back like Burgess, as a returning hero.
I don’t know what went on behind the scenes this summer, but I’m guessing all parties should’ve done things differently.
I’m not saying that there’s any huge conspiracy or weird underhand thing going on, but players which were brought for lots of £££ have been given more chances than those who were here before, regardless of performance - which is why many of the old guard looked to move away (Chappers, Morsy, Burgess, Woolfie).
Money talks unfortunately.
Just doesn’t seem to make sense, why would we weaken the team but because someone has a large price tag ? Relatively Taylor had a decent fee in 23/24 didn’t get a starting berth, Jack Clarke is a sub cost £15m, Philogene £17m has been benched in the past.
Kmac is a logical chap, why would he damage the team, results and morale picking a player on fee alone. Just sounds like people who can’t handle the truth, not quite good enough.
I mean does Wolfie seriously think he is superior to O Shea ??
I’m not saying that there’s any huge conspiracy or weird underhand thing going on, but players which were brought for lots of £££ have been given more chances than those who were here before, regardless of performance - which is why many of the old guard looked to move away (Chappers, Morsy, Burgess, Woolfie).
Money talks unfortunately.
it's pretty simple, o'shea is the better player as evidenced by being player of the season and prem clubs being interested in him in the window just gone. plus he's a team player and captain material.
woolfy's a talented lad at championship level, but the wolves/leeds/burnleys of this world didn't take a punt at sums which would be chicken feed for the prem. instead he went to the coventry squad, speaks volumes
axel wanted to stay in the prem, burgess needed regular first-team football in a world cup year (probably his first and last chance). they could both earn far more money in saudi if that was their motivation!
McKenna has always struck me as a man of integrity, more than perhaps anything else.
Indeed. I'm sure Swailsey has heard this opinion from his extremely reliable sources, who have tried to rationalise what they don't otherwise see a satisfactory answer for, because they saw training or match days differently to McKenna, and Swailsey shares that view.
But one person's inconceivable explanation can be another person's truth, and it seems far more likely to me that many of the old guard simply lost favour for on-pitch reasons. Perhaps some were deemed no better than their expensive replacements, rather than actually worse, and then contact situations would understandably become a separating factor. Going beyond that though, into active self-sabotage territory, McKenna denying himself superior players as he increasingly struggles in a league which he's desperate to impress in.. well it's preposterous.
Same will Burgess and a few others too. And Kipre now.
When it’s not a meritocracy and you’re losing games, that’s kills motivation.
What’s really concerning, is during the good times, players didn’t mind. Winning will do that. When you do well, the team doesn’t, and you get made scapegoat - that kills teams.
I don’t think I heard a single player, from our legacy group, when they left, mention KM at all, nobody singled him out to thank or praise him. Which was strange in the context of our relative success.
Pretty obvious most were moved on because they lost faith in the methods last season, and his ability to find solutions.
We can’t keep replacing and spending hundreds of millions, that’s the reality.
Most clubs wouldn’t move in entire squads and keep digging…, our senior management are clearly good at what they do…, they just aren’t Premier league good, or champions league contracts and £200 million investment in players level of good.
There’s such a football vacuum above Ashton and KM and they are so closely indexed, it’s left us with zero agency and accountability.
When things go wrong in those situations, they go very wrong.
Just doesn’t seem to make sense, why would we weaken the team but because someone has a large price tag ? Relatively Taylor had a decent fee in 23/24 didn’t get a starting berth, Jack Clarke is a sub cost £15m, Philogene £17m has been benched in the past.
Kmac is a logical chap, why would he damage the team, results and morale picking a player on fee alone. Just sounds like people who can’t handle the truth, not quite good enough.
I mean does Wolfie seriously think he is superior to O Shea ??
Do you have evidence that team selection choices were 100% down to KM only, and that there was no pressure on him from our ownership group or MA to give the expensive signings more game time?
Of course McKenna has integrity, but that doesn’t mean the soundest managers can always completely ignore their employers.
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