Brentford broke away from their normal transfer announcement policy yesterday by running a news story from Mark Devlin, which announced that Brentford had accepted Wigan Athletic’s third offer for Adam Forshaw. The deal is not quite done and dusted just yet, but it would appear that it’s now just a matter of how much the player can shoehorn out of The Latics, how many Green Shield Stamps he gets per win and which gated five-bed new-build he wants.
Much has been written about Forshaw’s on-off move, so it will be good to put it behind us and move on… Unlike Walsall fans, who cried like newborns when we bought Will Grigg from them, apart from a statement of dissatisfaction from Mark Warburton about Wigan’s conduct, and murmurings and gripes regarding the disparity between the clubs’ valuations on social media, Bees fans have, thankfully, remained philosophically realistic about the situation. All good players will look for a move at some stage – potentially great ones certainly will.
Fact is, Forshaw has already been replaced… Brentford have not sulked, and have spent their time waiting for Wigan to ‘cough up or shut up’ preparing for the future.
The unfortunate thing is, however, that Forshaw has been a wonderful player for Brentford and has played a starring role in the club’s rise… He deserves a big-time move (not sure Wigan is quite that) and it is heartening to see our club will not stand in a player’s way, just as long as our valuation is met… Squad unity and a positive vibe is all-important. But did it really have to end like this?
Wigan’s antics have not helped Forshaw one bit… I’m sure the player cringed at seeing most of this deal being played out in the public domain… But this appears to be the Wigan chairman’s preferred style of business… Uwe Rosler doesn’t come out of this smelling of roses either.
Anyway…. Back to an outstanding player. On behalf all Bees fans we wish Adam all the best for the future… Thanks for giving your all for Brentford while you were with us, your part in the club’s promotion and progress will not be forgotten quickly.
Dave Lane
I must say that I find this whole furore over Forshaw rather confusing. Wigan submitted offers for the player that they deemed to be equal to the value of the player, as they are perfectly entitled to do so. Brentford rejected those offers, as they are also entitle to do so, until an agreement was reached.
We can only comment on what has gone on in the public domain but Brentford are the only ones who have commented on the transfer publicly. Wigan only commented on their bid after Brentford had made mention of it, they are well within their rights to make mention of interest in any player of course. Privately it may be a different matter, but if that is so then Brentford should have reported Wigan for making an illegal approach. The fact that this hasn’t happened makes me ever so suspicious of the PR spin that Brentford have put on this.
Speaking from the outside, the way that Brentford handled the player seems awfully heavy handed. Training with the youths? That is hardly going to convince a player to stay. Neither side comes from this with any grace.
Having signed the player on Warbuton’s recommendation himself, Rosler knew better than anyone that there was a hefty sell-on that was/is (rightfully) due to Everton and that Brentford’s valuation would factor that into the equation … to come in for Adam on the eve of the new season, when Wigan had all summer to sort this, smacks of gamesmanship… especially as he had TWO MORE YEARS on his contract. Forshaw leaving is not the issue here.. he’s a cracking player and was going to go at some stage, but Wigan purposely came in at a time that would cause disruption and a figure that they knew wouldn’t be accepted (not even in the same ball park)… if we aren’t happy about that, we’ll say so, and if you don’t agree with that viewpoint, hey ho.
Thought you said brentford fans handled this transfer well!
Listen to you….
Wigan are entitled to make an offer for the player of whatever they want. If Brentford reject the bid then they reject it.
Admit that you’re whining about it and move on!
Wigan’s opening 2 offers were clearly NOT ‘equal to the value of the player’ as they have now paid more. Wigan thought they could get away with bullying tactics but they reckoned without the strong management of Brentford. Forshaw was injured so quite reasonable to come back outside of the first team squad.
A players value is not objective, it is very much subjective. Brentford & Wigan’s valuations were different, this is nearly always the same in every transfer dealing. Negotiation is part and parcel of transfers these days, as such the buying party will always offer low and selling party will always demand higher.
I wasn’t aware of Forshaws injury so I will happily cede on that comment.
With regards to the veritable media circus that has surrounded what would otherwise be a low interest transfer. Wigan first mentioned their interest in Forshaw publicly in an interview with BBC Manchester on the 8th August (in response to a question about the widely reported bid). Brentford first mentioned the transfer publicly (although not Wigan by name) in an interview with BBC London on the 30th July. (Ref. Information & dates taken from http://www.newsnow.co.uk search for “Forshaw”) I expect that you will draw different conclusions from this depending which side of the fence you sit.
Obviously this is only what was made public, no-one can comment on what has gone on privately other than the involved parties. I will reiterate though, that if Wigan privately made an illegal approach, then they should be reported.
Your revised view on Wigan’s initial offers is different from your initial posting. Wigan always knew Forshaw’s true value and what fee they would need to pay. They adopted the buying negotiation stance you have outlined. Brentford have several players that could be attractive to other clubs. What Brentford have done is set down a marker as to how they will handle such situations. All should remember that Mark Warburton has spent many years in the tough world of foreign exchange and knows a thing or two about negotiations and relative values.
Finally I am pleased that you have accepted Wigan broke the news that it was they who had bid. Brentford I think only mentioned a bid had been made by another club to partly explain to their fans as to why Forshaw was not featuring in the squad.
I presume that comment about Walsall is being ironic. Brentford have done nothing but cry like babies over this whole saga.
Whelan has been in the West Indies for most of the past month and hasn’t opened his mouth once (and trust me I’ve no need to defend him if he does open his gob)
And for all the talk of “Wigan’s antics”, nobody appears to be able to tell us what Wigan Athletic have supposedly done wrong, apart from a bit of name calling from your end and some shrouded allegations which are nothing more than conjecture.
It’s not a crime to make a bid for a player and if that bid is perceived as being too low then surely it’s best to ignore it not start slanging matches all over social media and insulting Wigan Athletic (even your official site has been making snide digs.)
That is how the transfer market works. We bid an amount and if it’s too low you reject it until the bid is worthwhile accepting. We have (apparently) had up to four bids in from Burnley and Leicester for one of our star players James McArthur but our fans and club haven’t been kicking off about it. I say “apparently” as our club has not publicised these bids in a vain attempt to portray the bidding clubs as evil, bullying, predators.
We are a very well-run professional club which many smaller teams would do well to emulate and we have never had any problem of this sort ever before, all of which suggests that we are not the problem in all this.
WAFC have not commented about this once, we have quietly gone about our business. I would love to know exactly what Wigan Athletic have done wrong but it seems nobody at Brentford, despite constant manipulation and playing the victim in the media can specify what we’ve done wrong because there is no substance to it.
Your football club has chosen to play this out in the public domain not ours.
CRYING BABIES NORMALLY GET WHAT THEY WANT.after supporting brentford for fifty years and seeing them virtualy giving players away this saga makes a refreshing change, no longer so called bigger clubs push overs prehaps you PRESENT wigan fans can remember the feeling probably not?.WAY TO GO BEES
“I’m sure the player cringed at seeing most of this deal being played out in the public domain… But this appears to be the Wigan chairman’s preferred style of business.”
Show me one quote – just one – where Dave Whelan has mentioned Forshaw. Nothing has come out of the Wigan end on this deal – it’s all been Brentford trying to drive the price up.
”That is how the transfer market works. We bid an amount and if it’s too low you reject it until the bid is worthwhile accepting. We have (apparently) had up to four bids in from Burnley and Leicester for one of our star players James McArthur but our fans and club haven’t been kicking off about it. I say “apparently” as our club has not publicised these bids in a vain attempt to portray the bidding clubs as evil, bullying, predators”.
Well said Jimmy. Victor Moses, James McCarthy, Nathan Ellington, Wison Palacios – just some of the players we have lost in recent years and we handled our side of things much better than Brentford have dome over this saga!
Again I say to Brentford find one comment in the public domain from a Wigan official on this – bet you can’t!?
I think the original article says everything on this transfer.
Adam Forshaw WAS a very special player for Brentford but we are evolving and have our best days ahead of us unlike some other clubs. The standards will continue to rise and we will see better players than him now grace our team. No sour grapes from me.
Wigan bid for a player during the transfer window. Their offer was rejected by Brentford. Brentford then went public with this offer. Wigan came back twice more with higher bids until Brentford found the bid acceptable. Wigan only commented to the media in response to questions which arose because Brentford had leaked it first.
Reading/hearing what Mark Warburton has said during the whole sorry affair makes me cringe. So what if Wigan made an offer you deemed too low. Just privately decline. Neither player nor public need ever know anything about it.
Every year you see the same from certain clubs/managers. Publicly rebuffing offers with the sole purpose to drive the price up.
I’m struggling to see how any part of this gives Wigan a bad name.
I’m completely & totally baffled as to what my club, Wigan Athletic, have done wrong over the course of this transfer.
The manager wanted the club to bid for Forshaw, the chairman sanctioned a bid & the chief executive submitted it – yes it was no doubt well below what Rosler & the other 2 knew was Brentford’s valuation of the player but since when did a buying club immediately go in with an offer that matched what they knew the selling club were looking for???
Did the bid unsettle the player? It seems that way. Did Latics know that the player would look favourably at a move up north? Probably. But both scenarios are common place in all transfers.
Latics never commented publicly about anything until well after Brentford made the situation public at a stage of proceedings where they didn’t need to make any comment. They probably did so because they knew the player wanted a move & they were hoping to spark a bidding war between any interested parties. Again, absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.
Nothing appears to have happened at any stage which deserves the verbal attacks from Brentford’s management, website & sections of supporters that has taken place.
As others have pointed out if Latics have done anything that was out of order or against the regulations then state them & provide the evidence – as it is all that seems to be happening is baseless name calling. The original article states that playing out a transfer in public Whelan’s preferred style of business (yet no other incoming or outgoing transfer this summer at Latics appears to have gone this way) & that Rosler hasn’t come out of it smelling of roses either yet his only public comments was to say that it had been well publicised that they had bid for him & were still interested in bringing him to the club. I fail to see anything that warrants the grief latics have got from some quarters
This is whole transfer dealing is refreshing being a brentford fan. But I’m not having our club being made to look like the bad ones by Wigan! As all of us bees fans know there was bound to be interest from so called bigger teams for our star man and it came out that Wigan had made a bid! And to say that we went public with this is a lie after the 2 bids were made warbs was asked in an interview about it and instead of hiding it away he was brutally honest unlike some other managers and chairman.
There was a value on his head for a reason and for Wigan to have the cheek of to think we would sell for less is beyond me especially as uwe knew we had the clause with Everton.
We are not the bad club here and even though Adam will be missed we have to move on. Well done to warburton and Benham
Josh – I’m not saying that Brentford have been the bad ones in all this
However it is not a lie that Brentford were the first ones to release the information that a bid had been made because they were. Whether it was in a comment made by Warburton in an interview or not, that was the first official comment from either club. They’ve also been the first to divulge the other bids too. Nowt wrong with that but they have done it.
Like I said elsewhere, I’m just baffled as to how Latics conduct has warranted the comments which have come from Brentford from the very start. Warburton’s initial comments accuse the club of basically acting underhand & unprofessionally yet from what I can gather they merely submitted a bid which was well below what Brentford valued Forshaw at. And the insults & jibes have continued to come ever since even down to a petty comment on the official site yesterday or the day before that we sit however many points & however many places below Brentford.
What has driven these barbs I don’t know for sure although I have my suspicions its coz Rosler has pitched in way below what he knew Brentford valued him at & the bid has turned his head (again, it happens) and also because your club is ambitious & is disappointed to see a player’s head be turned by a “little club” many see on a downward slide.
Also I’ve no doubt you are proud to see your club stand firm on their valuation, although I suspect the accepted figure is some distance below the initial asking price but again there is the dig in your post that Wigan have had the cheek to think your club would sell for less than Brentford’s valuation of him. How is what Latics have done cheeky?? Pretty much every transfer negotiation starts with the selling club having a valuation, the buying club putting in a lower bid & then bids & rejections going back & forth until they either reach a figure they agree on or the buying club pulling out & looking elsewhere.
If Brentford always approach a club, ask them how much they want for a player & then pay it, then they are being very badly run. They seem from what little I know to be being very well run at present so I’m pretty sure they conduct themselves in transfers in the same way that the seem to be getting their knickers in a twist about over Latics
To all Wigan fans who are here to try to piece together what exactly it is that your club has done wrong to warrant such a verbal backlash from the Brentford club/manager/fans.
Here it is……Wigan bid for a player and it was not what Brentford had valued him at! That’s it. End of story.
How dare you Wigan! Anyone would think that Wigan wanted the best deal possible for themselves. Discraceful behaviour! Fair play to Mark Warburton for publicly slating Wigan over this disgusting display of self-preservation.
If I wanted to keep hold of a star player,I’d do exactly the same thing as Warbuton did. I’d cry to the media about how naughty Wigan are. That’ll work!!!
I share the view with fellow Latics fans that I don’t see what we’ve done wrong. Yes, Forshaw is your star player, but he’s not immune to a bid from another club. If that bid is too low you decline it, and then you either ask for a higher price or say he’s not for sale. I don’t understand why the manager had to come out publicly and demonise Uwe Rosler and Dave Whelan just for making a low bid for the player. All clubs will try to get the best deal for a player, so bidding low is not wrong. Wigan Athletic are a responsibly run club, so I find it pretty offensive that Bees fans and the manager suggest otherwise. Whenever our star players, e.g. McCarthy, McArthur, Kone, N’Zogbia, are approached by other clubs we try to get the best deal possible and then move on. We don’t hate clubs like Everton because they bid for our best players. If Callum McManaman, our current talisman, is approached by another club (which I’m surprised hasn’t happened yet) I would be fine with selling him as long as we have got the best possible deal.
It is true that the first official comment from Brentford on the matter was made on 30th July, and that the first official comment from Wigan on the matter was on 8th August. Those facts are not really relevant however, as the bid was first made public anonymously on 28th July by a West London media outlet: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/brentford-reject-wigan-athletics-bid-7522271
No one knows who has leaked this information to the press: I’m sure both Warburton and Rosler have contacts with the press in West London. Brentford fans assume that Wigan must have leaked it to unsettle the player, whereas Wigan fans assume that Brentford must have leaked it to drive Forshaw’s price up.
Given that the fee will remain undisclosed, and we don’t know what the valuations of the player by either club really were, we will probably never find out who has really benefitted from the initial leak. I’m sure the fans will continue to argue about it though!
@Alec, I rather feel my initial posting on the matter was not well worded, so please accept my apologies for that.
@Rory, what is suspicious is that nothing came out in the northern media until after it had come out darn sarf. Wigan Evening Post, BBC Manc and the MEN made no mention of him as a possible target at all. Even our resident oracle on all bullsh*t transfer rumours, Alan Nixon, made no reference until after the reports in London.
If the news came from anyone it is probably from someone working in admin at one of the clubs. The fact that the story started in London would suggest a Londoner but that is purely speculation.
Wigan have not said a word about the transfer other than in response to specific questions after a week in which two and two had been put together. Yet Mark Warburton has been very vocal about it all, that is refreshing for the Brentford fans as you know you are getting a good deal. I cannot understand how Wigan are being besmirched for what seems to be a pretty normal transfer process. This is to the extent that I have seen some blog articles flirt rather dangerously with libellous territory.