An monumental ■■■■ up not to sell Etheridge with sell-ons. We were going nowhere and to be fair his head and heart weren’t in it after the January. This was very different to the January before where we were in with a real chance of promotion.
Furthermore we had Mcgilvray and Roberts in reserve. The former has had a magnificent career since leaving and it would have given Whitney a chance to weigh him up ahead of the summer.
Even if we’d have got peanuts in a transfer fee at the time, the extras (e.g a promotion to Premier League clause) and sell-ons well worth it.
Potentially cost us between £1m and £2m, which for a club like us is a criminal dereliction. Quite who was responsible we’ll never know. Not selling some of our players the January before probably cost us a similar amount but the circumstances completely different.
However there were plenty saying it at the time. It was so different to either Jan2008 (which has also subsequently cost us millions) or Jan 2016 when we were genuinely fighting for promotion and were keen not to repeat 2008.
You gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em - as a famous philosopher once opined.
Well I wasn’t one them. The criticism of the club goes too far sometimes. If they sell they are wrong and now they are wrong because they didn’t sell!! I liked watching Etheridge play and least I had that pleasure for another 6 months. Mac Gillivray wasn’t in the same class and if had played in our team for the past year he would have been slated more than Roberts.
I liked Etheridge too. And he was an intrinsic part of that 15/16 Squad. But I also think he’d have gone with the rest if he wasn’t under contract for 16/17 so we were definitely in borrowed time territory.
With the perfect view that hindsight grants us the whole goalkeeping strategy in 2017 was flawed. The retention of Etheridge, the release of Mcgilvray, the signing of Gillespie have all proven to be wrong. Don’t know if that is on Cutler, Whitney, the board or all of those.
Good spot. Country and western singer-■■■-football philosopher.
Who can forget his other musings on stuff like “Coward of the (Notts) County” or “Ireland’s in the team” commemorating Stephen Ireland’s first start for Man City.
I was at a fans forum in the January transfer window when it was known that Cardiff had made an undisclosed offer for Etheridge.The case for and against a sale were discussed.
As usual Messrs Gamble and Mole played everything with a straight bat and gave nothing away-the transfer window was still open.I expressed the opinion that if he was not going to agree to sign a new contract we should sell him.He was going to be a free agent at the end of the season and we were in a comfortable position in the league.
Just think of the add ons we could have got for Cardiff’s promotion to the Premier and a reasonable percentage of any subsequent transfer.At the time the likelihood of their promotion would have been only slightly less than us being promoted to the Championships-we could almost have named our own terms.
A massive mistake which could have transformed our finances.Although the subsequent success of both Cardiff and Etheridge could not have been known at the time the possibility could certainly have been foreseen.
I therefore maintain that the criticism of the Board is totally valid and is not based on hindsight.
I was at that meeting too. I remember you making the point but I think most in the room disagreed. None of us know for a start what the offer was…it might have been derisory and Cardiff may not have been prepared to have the add ons you talk about. I don’t blame the Board on this one…imagine the outcry on here if he had been sold!!!
Indeed I think most of the fan base wanted to take the risk of him leaving on a free in order to chase that higher league position. Can’t blame the board here in my opinion.
Trouble was if he wasn’t sold in that window it wasn’t a risk he would leave on a free it was a certainty.He was never going to sign a new contract and who could blame him.He got the move he wanted,Cardiff got their man for free seems to me there was only one loser.
there will be some condemnation on here for doing that 
