Linfield reject a second Thompson bid

[Raheny Red]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/irish/4601388.stm

Linfield have turned down a second offer from Scottish Division Two leaders Gretna for Peter Thompson.

Gretna's original bid of £50,000 was termed derisory, but despite doubling the offer plus other incentives, it has been spurned by the Irish League side.

A Linfield spokesman said that "the offer was still insufficient and Gretna have been informed".

Gretna say that the offer was their final one and that they would switch their attentions elsewhere.

Thompson's goalscoring exploits have attracted the attention of several clubs in Scotland and England, although Gretna have been the only club to make an official bid.

In November, the 21-year-old postman from east Belfast was called up by Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez, making his international debut in the friendly against Portugal.

Blues boss Jeffrey said Linfield would not stand in the way of any player who wanted to move to full-time football.

"Peter knows we would not hinder his progress by holding out for silly money," said Jeffrey.


Fair play to Linfield - for rejecting another bid even though it was twice as big as the first one! About time clubs on this island put an end to ridiculous transfer fees!!

[A face]

What did Gretna actually expect though in fairness ??

[Raheny Red]

Yes I know - the 50k was a joke but still holding out for more than 100k and incentives was good to see from both sides of the border!

[CollegeTillIDie]

Yes I know - the 50k was a joke but still holding out for more than 100k and incentives was good to see from both sides of the border!

Well Done Mr. Jeffrey and the board of Linfield F.C. the days of Irish players from either side of the border going to football in Britain for peanuts is over!;) P.S. Any Irish man who can score goals consistently is automatically worth £2 million :D

[pete]

Not too difficult to reject 50k offer. I doubt Thompson would have wanted to got to Gretna anyway.

[Raheny Red]

Yes not too difficult to reject 50K, but they went on to reject double that pus incentives!

[Gerrit]

Fair play Linfield. You don't release your goal machine for peanuts.

As for their statement on players wanting to go professional: I expect Linfield to become NI's only full-time club very soon.

[dancinpants]

As for their statement on players wanting to go professional: I expect Linfield to become NI's only full-time club very soon.

He'd do well there, as the Scottish Second Division would be of a similar standard to the IL. He'd certainly give Kenny Deuchar a run for his money (Deuchar scored 40 odd goals in the league alone last year in the 3rd div I think)

Anyays, with regards to Linfield going full time - didn't one of their supporters say that the bigwigs in the IL wouldn't let that happen?

EDIT: Found it, doesn't actually rule out going fulltime:


As for the reason Linfield are not a professional setup just ask the IFA. In the early eighties Linfield had a discussion with the IFA about fulltime football and the IFA told them that they would kill local football if they went fulltime.

Thats why for many years our local papers would print stories on Linfield maybe applying to join the Scotish League/ English League. But that was never going to happen.

Also Linfield just cant decide to go professional, they need the rest of the league or atleast a few of the other clubs to bridge the already big gap in finances and stadia. For a team to improve and for the league to improve you need to have a competitive league both football wise and financially. Even Chelsea are proving this, they are leaving the rest behind.

[Dassa]

turned down bid from QPR believed to be over £100,000. Jeffrey said that they must think were thick paddies or something to that effect very funny and typical jeffrey.

[Buller]

Fair play to linfield for rejecting those bids, 100k is a joke for a 21 year old hot prospect who is scoring goals...

[BleusAvantTout]

The Gretna bid was actually larger than the QPR one and both were unacceptable and derisory! :( I expect Pistol Pete to go in the summer but not for peanuts!!! Peter did not want to go to Gretna - well done Linfield you kept our interests to the fore and wouldn't be "bought" cheaply!! :cool:

[dcfcsteve]

To put all this into perspective - Luton Town have just turned-down an offer of £500,000 from Hartlepool for last years top scorer in the English First Division (i.e. the Second Division, or even the 3rd !).

I refuse to believe that that guy would deliver 10 times as many goals in a season for Hartlepool than Thompson would.

[pete]

While i think its good Linfield are upping the ante for future bids i don't think they'd be refusing if they had fulltime pro players to pay. Being semi-pro means a lot less costs.

[Dassa]

But if Linfield were FT then he wouldnt be going anywhere unless an exceptionally good bid come in. Not much sense spending lots of money on developing and training these players FT to sell them for 100K doesnt make sense.

[dcfcsteve]

While i think its good Linfield are upping the ante for future bids i don't think they'd be refusing if they had fulltime pro players to pay. Being semi-pro means a lot less costs.

Until someone else in the Irish League goes pro, why would Linfield be interested in doing so ?

They're winning the league hands down at the moment with amateurs. I'm assuming this is primarily due to their Setanta money. As long as they continually ensure they are in Setanta and Europe, then the revenue from those combined with a good manager (which Jeffreys is) should be enough to just keep on winning. Only ther Glens are realistically up to the challeneg, and they're having an increasingly poor season.

I can only see Linfield going full-time if they wanted to ensure they always won Setanta (a big cost for a small number of games a season) or if they expected to make serious progress in Europe - again a big gamble. The other requirement to go full-time of course being an all-island league - but that's a whole different scenario...

So to build on your point Pete, I guess the queston is - what do Linfield need money for really ??

[Thunderblaster]

Linfield needs the money to bring themselves into the 21st century in terms of development do better in Europe, Setanta, IL and a possible All Ireland League that Linfield are, according to the Daily Mirror, pushing for.

[pete]

So to build on your point Pete, I guess the queston is - what do Linfield need money for really ??

Exactly, don't really need the extra cash a transfer would bring to pay for better fulltime (or even semi-pro) players.

The Setanta Cup could be having adverse affect that Linfield don't see need for fulltime squad as €150k can subsidise them.

[glentoranfan]

Linfield needs the money to bring themselves into the 21st century in terms of development do better in Europe, Setanta, IL and a possible All Ireland League that Linfield are, according to the Daily Mirror, pushing for.
All Irish League clubs need money, not to succeed in competitions, but to survive.

Linfield would have been bust a lot of years had they not been getting money from the IFA, the Glens are up to their neck in debt, but still want a new ground, Ards are screwed, Omagh went bust and then there was the Coleraine saga.

It is good Linfield held out for the extra cash. The QPR's bid was a pure joke, insulting. To quote Uncle Fester, "we are not some cheap patties" that will take the first offer we get.

[Dassa]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/irish/4708018.stm

[CollegeTillIDie]

Well done IL clubs on not selling your players on the cheap. The talent that has left the Irish League for Scotland in the past few seasons have all done well. The lad for Linfield is a rare thing. A person from this island who knows how to score consistenly a large amount of goals.

Maybe someone will come in with an acceptable offer. In the meantime... Blues fans enjoy watching him while you can, he looks to be going places sooner or later!