Jefferson Lerma

[billythekid]

Strange ending to his time at our club.

The last home game of the season it was still unknown if he was staying or going and the whole team walk around the pitch for me was very muted with a good number of fans who already left at the end or just before the end of the game.

Watched the Everton game live on Sky but they were covering more of Everton than us, so no idea what happened with Lerma and our fans after the game, but by then he must have known he was on his way to Palace.

 

[table]

On one level it's disappointing, someone you think is a bloody good player puts himself in the market place and the best offer he gets is from a club not that much different in scale than us. Bit of a blow to the "soccer ego", someone I thought was a tip-top player, ends up only being good enough to play for a club like us. I liked it more when our "top rated, by Bournemouth fans" players went to clubs better than us : )

The other thing is, when he comes back here, doing all the shuthousey things we used to cheer him for, I'm going to have to booooo him. I don't need a pro-footballer to highlight my hypocrisy, it's what social media's for : )

 

[DJ]

I don't need a pro-footballer to highlight my hypocrisy

He’s done a good job of highlighting his own.

“New challenge”, “once a cherry always a cherry” well…until next season when I’ll be trying to send afcb down to save my new club from relegation.

You’ve moved for the money, you were always moving for the money. Don’t do the kissing the badge crap.

 

[table]

He’s done a good job of highlighting his own.

“New challenge”, “once a cherry always a cherry” well…until next season when I’ll be trying to send afcb down to save my new club from relegation.

You’ve moved for the money, you were always moving for the money. Don’t do the kissing the badge crap.

Yeah but he gets well rewarded for his hypocrisy, I just get an endless internal monologue, A bit like Druss, ND and SDD all locked in a bucket hat shaped room and the only thing they agree on is "it's all my own fault" : )

 

[ANWardy]

Disappointed he didn't stay here as he's still in the country, but he stuck around when we went down and then when we didn't immediately bounce back up so slightly confused.

If it was all about the dosh I'd have expected him to have left with Ake and Wilson etc when we went down so assuming as a family they want to try the London life.

 

[DJ]

Disappointed he didn't stay here as he's still in the country, but he stuck around when we went down and then when we didn't immediately bounce back up so slightly confused.

If it was all about the dosh I'd have expected him to have left with Ake and Wilson etc when we went down so assuming as a family they want to try the London life.

Run down the contract for the big signing on fee. The others made better moves for their careers.

 

[ANWardy]

Run down the contract for the big signing on fee. The others made better moves for their careers.

Is it worth it though? He'd have taken a big wage hit in the Champ, if he'd wanted more dosh he'd have gotten more wages and admittedly a smaller signing on fee going as soon as we went down by following the others out the door?

 

[Neil Dawson]

He served out his contract and stayed when he could have left to help us get back. No player owes a club a fee as well as 5 years hard work.

I’m in the group of people on here who think he was an excellent player and more important than some might have realised.

He did have limitations though which is why his career path was Levante, Bournemouth and Palace as opposed to Athletico Madrid, Tottenham and Man City. That’s good news because it means he should be easier to replace than Nathan Ake or Callum Wilson were. Over to the recruitment team!

 

[rgb]

Is it worth it though? He'd have taken a big wage hit in the Champ, if he'd wanted more dosh he'd have gotten more wages and admittedly a smaller signing on fee going as soon as we went down by following the others out the door?

Why would he have received a signing on fee?

 

[Druss_the_Legend]

Boo. And also disappointing.

Jefferson Lerma to join Palace in July - News - Crystal Palace F.C.

www.cpfc.co.uk

 

[DJ]

Is it worth it though? He'd have taken a big wage hit in the Champ, if he'd wanted more dosh he'd have gotten more wages and admittedly a smaller signing on fee going as soon as we went down by following the others out the door?

He was regularly quoted as being on about £70k even in the championship. He may not have had that “much” of a reduction. So played the longer game for the cash, rather than seek a move for the better of his career.

 

[ANWardy]

Why would he have received a signing on fee?

He might not have, I had things like loyalty bonus, joining fees whatever other clauses from FM going through my head. I'd have certainly have expect him to have upped his wages a lot though.

 

[ANWardy]

He was regularly quoted as being on about £70k even in the championship. He may not have had that “much” of a reduction. So played the longer game for the cash, rather than seek a move for the better of his career.

I know Max did stick his hand in his pocket as well as us selling some players when we went down, that's scary though. Some of the smaller teams in the prem wouldn't have been paying that kinda wage, I guess he was our biggest signing, though I'd have thought part of the reason we could pay the big fee was the wages weren't terrible?

For what it's worth FM has him on 45k with a 45% relegation wage drop, but I bet if I go back FM version it changes every year

 

[USCherry]

He served out his contract and stayed when he could have left to help us get back. No player owes a club a fee as well as 5 years hard work.

I’m in the group of people on here who think he was an excellent player and more important than some might have realised.

He did have limitations though which is why his career path was Levante, Bournemouth and Palace as opposed to Athletico Madrid, Tottenham and Man City. That’s good news because it means he should be easier to replace than Nathan Ake or Callum Wilson were. Over to the recruitment team!

Exactly

 

[DJ]

He served out his contract and stayed when he could have left to help us get back. No player owes a club a fee as well as 5 years hard work.

Personally, I don’t believe that to be true. He didn’t stay through any form of loyalty to “help us get back”. He stayed because financially it made sense to. He signed his contract and the plan was to always see it out and make a move at the end of it where he could get a hefty sign on fee etc.

If he had better options available he would have left as well.

Which I have no issue with, Nathan Ake and Callum Wilson both left for better career moves.

The issue I have is the fake “love” for the club and “new challenge” crap. He’s moved to a club that we will play twice where the sole challenge is the exact same one we have.

But as supporters we’re suppose to lap that up rather than the reality of it, which is it’s the best move he can make financially. That’s what it’s always down to.

 

[wellsworld]

the people that really matter are the long term club employees, the programme & raffle ticket sellers, the riverside rocketeers, the shedders, even the queens park'ers. and all those fans, with all their own personal stories, that turn up year in, year out. players are just bit part actors. the word legend is somewhat overused in my opinion!

 

[KingKieffer]

Personally, I don’t believe that to be true. He didn’t stay through any form of loyalty to “help us get back”. He stayed because financially it made sense to. He signed his contract and the plan was to always see it out and make a move at the end of it where he could get a hefty sign on fee etc.

If he had better options available he would have left as well.

Which I have no issue with, Nathan Ake and Callum Wilson both left for better career moves.

The issue I have is the fake “love” for the club and “new challenge” crap. He’s moved to a club that we will play twice where the sole challenge is the exact same one we have.

But as supporters we’re suppose to lap that up rather than the reality of it, which is it’s the best move he can make financially. That’s what it’s always down to.

Completely agree. No player in a relegated team stays ‘out of loyalty.’

One thing that you also have to factor in is that for us to sell Lerma we would have had to have actually received an offer that the club deemed to be acceptable. The reality is that we overpaid for Lerma quite substantially, making a permanent transfer while he was contracted very difficult. Nobody was ever going to pay anywhere near £25m for him and it would never have been in our interest to make a loss on him. I think it sometimes gets forgotten that the player doesn’t actually have all of the power, while he’s contracted to the club they have the power. There are other examples of this in recently relegated teams, namely Sarr at Watford and Berge at Sheffield United (purchased for £40m and £25 respectively.) Are we to believe that these guys stayed out of loyalty too? Of course not. Both should be nowhere near the championship, but both of them have played multiple seasons in that league now. When you overpay for a player and then get relegated, unless you are desperate to offload them then that player is kind of stuck at the relegated club, Lerma very firmly falls into this category. Loyalty had very little to do with it, had a PL club bid £25m the day after we got relegated then he would have been off like a shot, and rightly so. But they didn’t because he’s not worth it!

 

[Neil Dawson]

Personally, I don’t believe that to be true. He didn’t stay through any form of loyalty to “help us get back”. He stayed because financially it made sense to. He signed his contract and the plan was to always see it out and make a move at the end of it where he could get a hefty sign on fee etc.

If he had better options available he would have left as well.

Which I have no issue with, Nathan Ake and Callum Wilson both left for better career moves.

The issue I have is the fake “love” for the club and “new challenge” crap. He’s moved to a club that we will play twice where the sole challenge is the exact same one we have.

But as supporters we’re suppose to lap that up rather than the reality of it, which is it’s the best move he can make financially. That’s what it’s always down to.

I understand the logic in what you say, you also may well be right! This is one interpretation of the events though.

I’ve moved companies on average every 6 years for a new challenge without changing much about what i do. It must get dull playing in the same environment week after week and I can understand wanting to move after five years. This has to be longer than the average stay at a club.

I think as well ‘playing for a new challenge’ might constitute a different size of fan base. A lot of fans criticised Matt Ritchie for leaving us and dropping down a level but he was really open about wanting to not play in front of 9000 home fans any more. The same fans said that was rubbish it was all about the money.

None of us really know of course but it is possible to be loyal to a club for the right reasons and move when getting more money is one of the reasons you do it, not the sole one.

My interpretation is therefore different to yours! Trouble is…. We will never know the truth.

 

[DJ]

I understand the logic in what you say, you also may well be right! This is one interpretation of the events though.

I’ve moved companies on average every 6 years for a new challenge without changing much about what i do. It must get dull playing in the same environment week after week and I can understand wanting to move after five years. This has to be longer than the average stay at a club.

I think as well ‘playing for a new challenge’ might constitute a different size of fan base. A lot of fans criticised Matt Ritchie for leaving us and dropping down a level but he was really open about wanting to not play in front of 9000 home fans any more. The same fans said that was rubbish it was all about the money.

None of us really know of course but it is possible to be loyal to a club for the right reasons and move when getting more money is one of the reasons you do it, not the sole one.

My interpretation is therefore different to yours! Trouble is…. We will never know the truth.

For what it’s worth, I also think the excuse Ritchie made regarding the move was rubbish and it was all about the money.

It’s convienent to say “ohh big stadium, lots of fans” as it wins his new fan base over instantly. The reality was they offered a boat load of money to chase promotion in a lower division and it worked. I bet if there were clauses in his deal and they hadn’t bounced straight back up he’d still be there playing in front of the “big crowds” and being loyal…he would have left in search of the next pay packet.

 

[Neil Dawson]

For what it’s worth, I also think the excuse Ritchie made regarding the move was rubbish and it was all about the money.

It’s convienent to say “ohh big stadium, lots of fans” as it wins his new fan base over instantly. The reality was they offered a boat load of money to chase promotion in a lower division and it worked. I bet if there were clauses in his deal and they hadn’t bounced straight back up he’d still be there playing in front of the “big crowds” and being loyal…he would have left in search of the next pay packet.

Part of the interest of football is how people see things differently! I genuinely believe Matt moved for money and the facilities/crowd. He has stayed loyal to that even though not playing.