Karlan Grant moves to Huddersfield

I realise the internet is somewhat detached from reality but I find some of the comments here bewildering.

Grants departure confirms the nature of the organisation we now support. It confirms the continuing failure to support the clubhouse, at key decision points, in achieving playing success.

People can rightly point to the acquisitions made in Steer, Ward, Bielik, Cullen, Purrington, Maxwell, Taylor, Pratley, and Williams. We will likely sign just one loan replacement for Grant. The Gallen comments on Phillips, Aribo and Lapslie re new contracts was a "good news" fluff release for a reason.

So 10 signings with two already gone and only two under contract for next season.

The players are here to play and build/ refresh their CV. They are but commodities being put in the shop window. In a business plan structured around player development & sales they are now not even our commodities.

It is an "open door" business . The door is the exit door. When "one of our own" steps up then there is no long term stable plan to even consider.

This message board has unrelentingly condemned the working environment in which our players have had to operate for 4 years! How can you possibly isolate such a working environment from how employees perform and decide their futures.

How many businesses in any industry change their bosses 9 times in 5 years, change the support functionaries in even greater number, then with a staffing requirement of circa 35 bodies facilitate staff turnover of 500% in the same period? Loyalty? Loyalty to who exactly?

It is operational carnage...….. for which you pay a price.

It is an industry governed by contracts. Nearly every contractor I met in the last 4 months of their contracts were crawling all over their next one.

What do you suppose Phillips, Bauer, Aribo, Jake Forster-Caskey, Lapslie, Marshall, Fosu, Reeves, Clarke, Williams, Hackett-Fairchild, Vetokele, Ajose, Bowry, Yao, Cummings, Mascoll, Umerah (18 players ) are regularly evaluating once they leave the training ground.

With the 5 loans, the Grant departure, and the Williams short term contract, a total of 25 players, as a minimum, had/ have no guaranteed long term future with the club. All will have family & financial commitments and career ambitions to consider.

As to the specifics in terms of his professional employment Grant;
- as a 17yr old was thrust up front for 2 Championship (CL) starts due to the feeble* attack options under Peeters (2014/2015)
- was up close & personal with 7 starts in the footballing fiasco of the CL relegation under Luzon & Fraeye (2015/2016)
- started 1 League game alongside the most stagnant midfield seen at the club in living memory constructed by Slade (2016/2017)
- was selected to start 4 League games in Robinsons' manufactured, malfunctioning, robotic 4-2-3-1 system (2017/2018)

*who can forget the desperate random sorties of Bikey going AWOL in blind frustration at a powder puff attack

Grant has profited from playing with Taylor and a revised playing formation. Maybe "half a season of performance" correlates to half a season of the right opportunity & stability under Bowyer & Jackson.

Can someone please point me in the direction of the last Charlton forward who scored 22 goals in his last 40 League starts (Wright Phillips in 11/12?) let alone when the Academy last produced a youngster with the same statistics.

If you think his contribution this season is easily replaced maybe you should reflect during his development Grant has watched (with the rest of us) no less than the FIFTEEN (of Ghoochannejhad, Parzyszek, Tucudean, Vetokele, Makienok, Vaz Te, Sanogo, Best, Watt, Magennis, Novak, Ajose, Dodoo, Mavididi, Zyro) deliver what exactly?

NB. Taylor at the age of 27 after playing for 12 clubs has scored 26 in his last 68.

Grant brought the balance of pace & penetration to an otherwise limited final third of the pitch. He was an integral part of how the team played. His departure will disrupt the attacking balance & understanding. It is an unwelcome disruption.

I have no idea whether Grant will make it at the "next" level because I do not know the lad, his temperament or work ethic. It is a tough ask in a tough industry. I however respect a) the results he has delivered this season with his goals and assists specifically contributing to the team securing important points b) the judgement of Andy Hughes who as squad player/ coach contributed greatly to Powells' squad.

That someone was prepared to invest money on him suggests they will be focused in using Grant in a system which best suits his strengths and on his development. Why would he not want to engage with such opportunity and be well paid for it?

It was the same opportunity Bowyer was only too keen to exploit in his career.

A firm offer on the table concentrates the mind - 95% of us given the same opportunities would have done precisely the same.

Against such an offer, please sell me your compelling proposition for signing a new contract for next season with a club still operating under the confines of a supposed takeover, where you have absolutely no guarantee who the owner, manager, coaches will be, or what the squad will look like.

Of course in certain circumstances virtually every club is a selling club. It is how the process is managed in furthering the footballing ambitions and the financial stability of the organisation which matters.

Is it easy? No, of course not. It is a hard, ultra competitive environment where everyone largely faces the same challenges. It is not a place however where you can succeed unless you are fully committed to the process.

The decision point on extending contracts rarely ends well when they are allowed to enter their last 12 months. It does involve a range of difficult decisions but it is what people in empowering the football clubhouse and managing club resources are paid to do. It particularly references the role of a CEO and Director of Football who live and die professionally by such decisions.

We will all have our subjective views how this administration has managed such process in recent years. This week will provide another chapter in positioning how their approach will serve our future.

As AFKA suggests "we move on". Some will shrug their acceptance, others will be annoyed they once again thought "this time it will be different" while a few more will simply walk away.

For all the funding in place and the great work of Avory & Euell, at a senior level, we can too easily blinker ourselves to the reality that beyond the passion, endeavour, hard work and skill of Bowyer, Jackson and Gallen, all of whom could be gone in an instant, the club remains in a state of unstable takeover flux where in reality there is nothing of genuine substance there.

Many seem to have lost sight of how a normal club of our former standing operates.

It is perhaps appropriate Ms Meire, on the back of a high profile cup tie, chose to emerge this week to try to further her image in The Telegraph, confirming she simply had not understood the culture of English football, conveniently ignoring the fact she had not understood the role & responsibilities of the job either.

It is a pertinent reminder her erstwhile employer remains in place who, from his recent comments to Jim White, can be seen to be still locked in the same victim mindset thus deflecting accountability to wherever he can.

He continues to operate to his own "unique" agenda.

I seriously hope Gallen and Bowyer are able to secure the resource they seek and their work this season deserves. I fear however they have a difficult sell.

Genuinely people on what basis, having lived through the past 5yrs, would you sign a contract extension with this regime if there were other options on the table?

Karlan I wish you well with your endeavours.