Sidelined duo "have been treated with respect"

1:00pm Saturday 18th August 2012 in Albion By Andy Naylor

Free to leave: Matt Sparrow Free to leave: Matt Sparrow

Gus Poyet insists Matt Sparrow and Romain Vincelot have been treated with respect by Albion and are not being forced out of the club.

The manager revealed in Wednesday’s Argus that Sparrow and Vincelot should leave if they want to play and said the Seagulls have been “too nice”.

The names of the pair are missing from the first team squad list and profiles on the official website but Poyet has kept them involved.

He said: “Other clubs left players behind on tour. We took everyone. We could easily have left four or five players behind.

“There are other clubs where, when you are not in the first team, you train with the reserves. They don’t, they train with the first team.

“Sometimes you think because we do that they don’t want to leave. Do they want us to start doing that, pulling them out, training twice a day, making their life hell and then they will leave?

“I think they should realise that we are being nice and normal. If they don’t accept that they push you to be the other way. I don’t want to be that way, because we didn’t put a gun to the head of Matt Sparrow or Vincelot to sign.

“We agreed, in a friendly way, a contract and we need to respect it. Also, we respect a lot and we help a lot when they are professionals like Matt and Romain. If it was a bad professional or a nightmare to deal with as a person they would probably be training with the kids.

“That’s what I mean when I say nice. Sometimes we are too nice and it looks like nobody wants to leave the football club.”

Other unspecified players are in a similar situation to Sparrow and Vincelot, including, The Argus understands, Ryan Harley and Will Hoskins, after Poyet held talks with each member of the squad at the end of last season.

He added: “I am not going to say names but we’ve told everyone where they are, then the players have made their own decision. That’s fine.

“There are probably similar situations (to Sparrow and Vincelot) but not as drastic.”

Comments(9)

fretlessbass says...
1:18pm Sat 18 Aug 12

Yes - not the first time this issue has arisen - think of Whing and Sandaza in the last season or so. Clearly there is an issue with player / manager relations and a bit of PR spin in the argus is not going to make it go away.

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VegasSeagull says...
1:23pm Sat 18 Aug 12

So it appears that possibly as many as four players were told at the end of last season that they do not have a future at Brighton. I guess that all four did not want to be on the transfer list and the club is being respectful of their contracts.
I hope that the players in question want to play, that they have zero interest in just picking up a pay cheque until their contracts expire. There are still clubs looking for players, yes maybe in a lower devision but if the players love the game then they should go, and go with our good wishes for their future.
.

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SMF20 says...
1:24pm Sat 18 Aug 12

Im not sure naming a player that you wish to leave the club is showing that player respect in any shape or form. Whilst i appreciate that sometimes a relationship breaks down and you have to make that person 100% aware that their future lies elsewhere, I do not think that this is the way to go about it. We are bigger and more professional than this.

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pte says...
1:30pm Sat 18 Aug 12

They'll go but they are probably waiting for the club to cover their drop in wages to a lower league. Can't blame em really because a contract is a contract. Its all very well castigating a player when he wants to get out of a contract he freely signed, but castigate a player for sticking to a contract? They can't win

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Zamora25 says...
1:33pm Sat 18 Aug 12

Did Poyet really need to come out in the press and say that these players had no future at the club? His man management skills are lacking are shown by the extraordinary high number of players going in and out of the club. Why could he not make these decsions before geting them to sign new contracts? It is not as if these four players are going to attract much in the way of a transfe fee.

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VegasSeagull says...
1:41pm Sat 18 Aug 12

At the end of the day if the club is going to continue to respect their contracts, and by that I mean pay them, would we not be better off buying out the contracts, a lump sum payoff and let them go as free agents. Yes it would cost us some money but if we are going to pay them anyway, why not. ,

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sidtheseagull says...
1:46pm Sat 18 Aug 12

This should all have been publicised long ago - not on the first day of the season. Very poor in my view.

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Alan G Skinner says...
2:05pm Sat 18 Aug 12

Matt Sparrow could still do a very good job in any League 1 side. Romain, in my opinion is good enough to stay in the Championship.

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Dingbat99 says...
6:08am Tue 21 Aug 12

At the end of last season, all I read was that Poyet should get rid of the dead wood. He has told the players who is needed and who isn't, and now people are complaining?

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