Distin?

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Talking to a fella with good contacts at the club - he tells me he has anyway - and he says Distin is staying? Anybody else heard out?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

Answers

Your mate isn't Swift, is it?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

That fella needs to change his contacts heed..

Man City snaps up defender from Newcastle by Håvard Finstad 20.05.2002

Manchester City have clinched the £4M signing of French defender Sylvaine Distin.

Distin has spent the last season on loan at Newcastle, but couldn't agree personal terms to stay with the Magpies and has now officially signed for City.

Man City Director of football, Dennis Tueart commented: "We looked closely at bringing Sylvain to Maine Road before he went to Newcastle before Christmas but at that stage we were in the First Division and he was understandably looking for a Premiership deal.

"When is became clear that Newcastle were not going to take up their option on the player, Kevin moved very quickly and we a delighted to have Sylvain on board. He is a powerful, quick athlete who has already proved himself at the highest level.

"What is vitally important, too, in the strategy for team building, is that he is a left sided central defender who is a like-for-like swap for Stuart Pearce who has now, of course, retired."

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


hmm Kennyboy. This fella knows Paul Winsper(sp?) the fitness fella. Seems like he knows feck all n'aal. |$0)

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

The following BS is extracted from Man City website announcing SD's signing:

"Despite efforts by Newcastle to keep the player, he opted instead for Manchester City excited by the potential of the Keegan revolution".

Blah, blah, blah...............

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


Obviously not bothered about playing in the Champions League then.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


It'd be very interesting to know what City fans think of his wages and whether he's value for money. Anybody know a good forum?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

So he didn't want to go to them when they were in the First Div....what's he going to do if they get relegated next season?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

Well, I for one am upset to see him go. I thought he was, on the whole, wonderful last season. When he was on the ball I was far less anxious than when, say, Dabs or Elliot had it. He had pace and style.

It didn't work out, he got more elsewhere, so good luck to the fella. I'll admit to having moved jobs for money before (and I bet most of us on here too?) and it never turned out to be a bad move. It was best for me at the time, and it didn't turn me from being a good worker into a wanker overnight, contrary to some opinions at the time!

Thanx Silvain for a fun year and good luck mate

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


The problem, as ever, Nick is that we really don't what has transpired behind closed doors.

The media implication is that the Club had verbally agreed a wage figure with Distin, who then changed the goal posts after doing quite well during his loan period. Therefore, Mr Shepherd is now writing off the player as a disloyal mercenary.

Firstly, imo Distin owes no loyalty to the Club - who let's not forget could have signed him permanently from the outset, but preferred to hedge their bets until they'd seen him in action over an extended period. Fair does; however, from the player's perspective he will feel he took something of a risk in agreeing to such a move - if he hadn't performed well he could have found himself back at PSG, a club who clearly didn't want him, and who would have even more brassed off with him for screwing up their efforts to cash in on him.

Having done quite well during his loan period, it seems to me he was free to negotiate the best possible deal for himself. If we felt we had a verbal agreement with the player that he renegued on, then that is indeed unfortunate. However, if that is the situation then I would suggest we stop relying on verbal agreements and conduct our business more professionally. This was an international transfer, with inevitable cultural implications, and to rely on verbal agreements in such a situation - if indeed we did - would have been plain dumb. Having concluded business agreements with French companies I know for a fact that it is a little different.

BTW, we are also belly-aching about another player renegueing on a verbal agreement in the case of Gary Caldwell. Imo this simply adds further grist to the mill.

The other criticism of SD is that he is mad and/or lacks ambition by choosing a newly promoted Club in preference to one competing in Europe. I'm quite sure he is no fool and that he will have taken this into consideration. He presumably has decided quite simply that the financial security of a 3 yr contract at £25k pw outweighed the non-financial benefits of a similar deal at £18 pw - amounting incidentally to an an overall difference of £1m!

His decision, his choice; no reason imo at this juncture to be p***ed off with the guy.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


He's only 24 (?) three year deal at mega bucks will set him for life, will allow him to move on while at his playing peak if he does okay. Sound financial move for him.

On the footballing side seems pretty daft. CL/European football this year and only the passionate promise of such from his new manager. (Although I believe he can be quite persuasive).

It'll be interesting to see whether we return to our Scottish international centre half and point out to him that he is now far more likely to get a game next season than he felt he was last week. If Robson really does think highly of him he can do what he did last season and just pick O'Brien, Dabs and Caldwell in turn until he realises that the younger option is better then the Greek option.

I'd have to smile if our defence was Given, Hughes, Caldwell, O'Brien and Bernard, 4 internationals and Shay the oldest by three years !

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002



bollocks, frankly, i hope he fares as well as Goma and Domi.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

Did we not pay his wages for the time he was on loan?

We took Acuna on trial before signing him - he said at the time that was the major factor in him joining us rather than Man Utd who didn't trial him, as we had shown more loyalty. Maybe French minds work differently.

I have no qualms about him leaving, mainly because he isn't world class. His defensive abilities are hardly likely to develop under Kevin Keegan the world renowned defensive mastermind either.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


Keegan was talking to MArk Lawrenson about a money for old rope contract

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

Three years on good money then oblivion through the black hole that is Maine Road. And he could have had the Champions League and a move to Real had be played his cards right.

Personally, I don't blame the club for not giving in to his wage demands. The time is fast approaching where they wage chickens will come home to roost in a big way.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002


Clarky

JJ was signed by word of mouth - Freddie dealt with the Forest chairman while on the phone. Manure came in after the agreement and the Forest guy told them to 'go away'. Honest people can deal that way. Thats part of what p*ssed FS off I suspect.

LKD said weeks ago he didn't see any issues with a contract and so it has been signed - another example of honesty.

Its the scumbag press trying to sh*t stir that causes more problems as well as the agents.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002



Josh - I was fortunate to work in an industry in which in general the 'word' of the people I dealt with in other companies was as good as a contract. However, I quickly learned that this didn't apply universally.

Funnily enough, we dealt with several Arab Agents in the Middle East, including Iran, who were very honourable people. Conversely, I found the French generally only really respected a written agreement. The name of the game was that you could only trust people to honour verbal agreements who had earned that trust.

There are probably footy club Chairman who FS could trust, and I'm sure he knows who they are. However, it appears to be a 'dog eat dog' industry and I'd be surprised if there are too many people in it whose word you could really trust. Most certainly, I would have thought it was injudicious to expect many foreign players and their Agents to be a trustworthy breed - although I do accept your point about the media. As I said in my post, the real problem for us is that we never know whose words we can trust in the media.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2002


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