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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 14:27 29 Jan 2026
What is wrong with signing RND permanently (if the fee is reasonable). As we’ve seen for the last decade, I really don’t think we’ll find better than him at an affordable price. We hadn’t in the decade before. He’s not perfect and we shouldn’t break the bank to sign him. But I wouldn’t be upset if we did for a reasonable fee.
Got to sell someone if we’re going to keep signing players… |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 14:25 29 Jan 2026
Possibly for the 2019-20 season, yes. Although he had Hugill and Wells up top and a pretty strong first team. And he had Eze at his peak for us.
But for 2020-21 and 21-22, we’d sold Eze, invested some of that into the playing squad, brought in 4 big salary loans half way through the 20-21 season, and then made them permanent in the summer for that big play off gamble.
I think those two years are quite similar and the most comparable to the situation Nourry has had last season, this season, and will be in next season. Broadly comparable and more so than other years in recent memory, so I stick by my assertion that a top half finish should be the target this year, and play offs next. If we fall well short of top half this season (hopefully not!), I think you’d have to judge that as poor. Although I agree with others that full judgment can’t really come until towards the end of the 26/27 season. By then we’ll know whether we’ve progressed on the pitch and whether his player trading model is working, and where the finances are at. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 11:43 29 Jan 2026
It is what Brentford did. Think it was Maupay they sold for big money, replaced with Watkins, replaced with Toney (and promotion). Might have the order wrong. And there might have been someone before Maupay. They also did similar with centre haves, I believe.
Their access to data, and especially Brighton’s through Tony Bloom’s betting set up, is miles ahead of anyone else’s, including us. That’s where the risk comes in.
And, as I keep saying, whether it’s right or depressing, by taking an amortisation approach to transfer fees spent, it is a MUST that you sell players for decent money every year. No other options. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 11:37 29 Jan 2026
Yeah, agree with you on all of that.
A decade on and in the same position, although we should be looking up not down now, whereas ten years ago due to the challenges discussed, it did feel like we had to look down.
I also think it’s interesting going back to the 19-20, 20-21, and 21-22 seasons, under Warburton (with Les as DOF and Hoos as CEO), when we finished 13th, 9th and 11th. Again, are we any further on, on the pitch? I don’t think we should be doing worse this year and next. Personally think we should be around that level this year as a minimum, and actually pushing higher next year. Let’s see. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 10:18 29 Jan 2026
Important context though. Those first 4 years of Les and Hoos involved them taking an annual wage bill from £70m to £17m in order to meet FFP, which was a necessary to avoid a relegation determining points deduction after the previous FFP breach (Redknapp) which landed us that £40m fine (most in sports’ history, etc, etc).
They spent some money on transfer fees here and there (Conor Washington was a £4m flop). But they never spent £25m over 18 months! And they didn’t have Eze money coming in, in those first 4 years, like they did later and the club has had more recently. Eze was sold in the summer of 2020. We’d had 5 years back in the Champ before Eze was sold.
My point is, I’m not sure it’s a fair like for like comparison. I think we *should* be doing better than we achieved in those first few years.
A fairer comparison IMO is the Warburton gamble year (we actually finished 11th on 66 points having been top in Jan) and the year before (20-21 - COVID disrupted year) when we finished 9th on 68 points. In the 21-22 season we lost £20+m on FFP that year through splashing the cash on salaries without selling anyone (making permanent those loans). In the 20-21 season we invested some of the money we made from the Eze sale on players (Dykes, Bonne). So, in those two seasons we spent money. We invested into the squad, and we had forwards we’d spent money on.
That, for me, is the best comparison to make.
2015-16 through to 2017-18 was effectively managed decline of the first team in order to meet FFP and not get a points deduction through to League One. Our squad was poor in that 2017-18 season (JFH then Holloway). 2018-19 was that weird McClaren year when we had decent young players coming through but he alienated them (BOS, Manning). We started terribly (7-1 loss to WBA), then went on a great run to the edge of the play offs, then fell away to finish 19th with only 51 points. The 2019-20 season was Warburton’s first, the year Eze was at his best, and actually that said was decent without us having spent loads of money. You had Hugill and Wells up top (on loans) and Eze, BOS, Chair behind them. The squad depth wasn’t really there but the first team was decent. The we sold Eze invested in the squad and had those two Warburton season’s I mentioned above.
Personally, I think the Nourry years are most similar to those two Warburton years, not the early Ferdinand years when the goals, challenges, and ability to spend were all very different. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 00:38 29 Jan 2026
So, it’s our risk taking that is causing injuries? I wasn’t aware how much more daredevil we were compared to the league.
And, if the club hire someone, we should trust them and not question it at all because they know better. That’s what you’re saying, yes?
And they are giving 100% so what more can we ask?
How about be better at the job, as opposed to the straw man of being asked to try harder? No? Okay.
You’re aware of the personal relationship between the CEO and Williams? |
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Reply | Christian Pullella
at 22:44 28 Jan 2026
The strategy is fine, if niche when you factor in our labour costs to make it happen (including Nourry - time is money.
The issue is 4 Aussie signing from the same agent. None of Jen
First Team players. Data led? Remarkable coincidence.
Someone is making money somewhere. They always are. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 21:51 28 Jan 2026
Mr Realist, you haven’t answered my questions? You’ve only answered whether you agree with me about bringing someone in from the football world and giving him 3 years.
What about all those questions at the top?
Please could you answer those and follow them through to reach the conclusion you are pushing?
Happy to discuss in person if you’d prefer. [Post edited 28 Jan 21:54]
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 21:48 28 Jan 2026
But is he learning? Are we improving on the fitness and conditioning front? To use your own words, where is the quantitative evidence? |
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Reply | Christian Pullella
at 15:37 28 Jan 2026
That is really good to hear, BAW. Hope it’s true.
Obviously, it would be mad of an agent to bad mouth a club he’s doing business with, even to friends, so a small pinch of salt required, but genuinely hope it’s true.
And, as Clive has said, several things can be true at once (good atmosphere, good signings, bad signings, poor performance function, etc). |
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Reply | Christian Pullella
at 14:40 28 Jan 2026
Registered address and office address are different things. I doubt they actually work out of there. |
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Reply | Christian Pullella
at 14:00 28 Jan 2026
Centre Circle Consulting Ltd. Registered address in Pinner. Led by a Matthew David Moore. They have more than just these 4 Aussie lads as clients, about 35 in total. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 12:10 28 Jan 2026
Yes, the accounts, if they are transparent, for last season (including the summer when we signed Celar, Madsen, Dembele at al), should be enlightening. Should be March. The accounts released in March ‘27 for this current season with all our signings, will even more interesting. We’ll also know by that point where we are league wise and whether we’ve sold anyone in the summer of 2026 or Jan 2026 for big money. So March ‘27, after over 3 years in the role, would seem like a very fair point to judge based on outcomes.
In the meantime, you can only judge on inputs, which comprise of two things, broadly: actions and behaviours. Everyone knows where I stand on those two. |
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Reply | Frey
at 09:16 28 Jan 2026
As has been said, we don’t know if he moved for a “fee”, just that the deal was worth £500k to us, which could be a fee or could be the value of his contract we’re no longer burdened with.
Good spot about the ownership though. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 07:29 28 Jan 2026
What do you think about my post at the bottom of page 2? Do you agree? |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 21:55 27 Jan 2026
Good question.
Is Stephan ignoring the advice of the Performance function or is that function not giving the type of advice previous managers/head coaches received?
I don’t know.
But I absolutely agree that Burrell’s injury was coming. I was exasperated that he wasn’t taken off at HT against Leicester. Perfect moment to rest him.
Agree that Kone, and Madsen, are ticking time bombs regards injuries unless they get a break soon. Feels inevitable. Varane was the same, but that’s already happened.
Dunne is another. Widely known to be playing through a hip problem. Worry he could aggravate it and be out for a while.
But like I said, no idea what the answer to that question above is.
What I would say is, if Stephan is ignoring Ben Williams, I would imagine BW is in Nourry’s ear fairly regularly about it, and it could shorten Stephan’s reign… |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 21:05 27 Jan 2026
So you don’t think it’s possible to have fewer injuries at this stage of a season? You think the Performance function is doing as good a job as is possible?
That is effectively what that post is saying, isn’t it?
Fair play if you believe that. It’s quite depressing and defeatist, imo.
But also, no matter how well you do at something in a professional capacity, you should always be striving to do better, shouldn’t you? That is the job. And it is also the whole point of competitive sport. So surely the rhetoric should be about aiming to do better next season, by doing something different. Not arguing there isn’t a problem.
As an aside, I think we are one of the only clubs in the land whose performance function is led by a guy whose entire career background was in cycling, and who came in and said he was going to bring principles from that world into football as he believed it would give us an edge. Call me a lunatic, but perhaps he’s wrong and it’s disadvantaging us.
And, further to that, why not put it to the test and hire someone who’s spent their career in football to lead that aspect of the club and see if it improves it? Give them 3 seasons like Ben Williams will have had. Then we’ll know for sure. Agree? You might be proven correct! |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 20:53 27 Jan 2026
Talk to people who work at the club. Not sure you’ll find a huge amount of agreement there.
And the pitch doesn’t strike me as something that would happen at a well run club.
I grant you that he has a plan. I don’t think it’s wildly different to the previous regime’s plan, and it’s too early to say if he’s on course to executing it or not. We haven’t sold any of the players he’s signed yet for big money, and we don’t know if we’re going to finish in a similar position to the last two seasons or finish top half.
The key point that has been raised is trust. Personally, I don’t see much effort being made to rectify that and build trust (yet!). How he handles this season’s injury and conditioning issues could go a long way to rebuilding that trust, but it will require him to put club over colleague/friend. |
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Reply | Frey
at 07:13 27 Jan 2026
I’m sure it’s what Dave has been told/leaked by the club too, hence why he is reporting it as such. |
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