Sheffield Wednesday News 24/7Writer: Nick 
Date:Monday July 26 2010
Time: 6:37PM
UK time is: 21:59:32
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Irvine Unhappy With Grant Fee
Wednesday manager Alan Irvine has revealed he's unhappy at the fee agreed between the Owls and Burnley for the services of in-demand goalkeeper Lee Grant.
The Clarets had a fourth offer accepted by the Owls yesterday and the former England U21 looks set for a move to Turf Moor this week once personal terms have been agreed.
The fee is reported to be around the £1m mark with add-ons, but was undisclosed by both clubs.
But Irvine insists the offer for Grant was too low as far as he was concerned.
He told BBC Radio Sheffield: 'Personally, no, no I'm not (happy with the fee).
'But I understand the circumstances, I don't think it was enough but I fully understand exactly what the situation is and so it's one of those situations where I can't argue with the decision that's been made by any means.
'But we move on, the money is obviously important for the future of the club and that's the most important thing.
'The fact that people are able to strike at a time when it may have been difficult for us to have reject offers, that's probably their good luck.'
Grant had been rated at between £2 million - £3m last season when Birmingham City had been linked with his services.
But it appears he's about to leave Hillsborough for a much lower sum than that, with it coming hot-on-the-heels of the news that Wednesday faced a winding-up petition for an unpaid tax bill at the end of last week.
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Your Comments
What a bunch of incompetents our board are . No doubt we have agreed to unrealistic add ons. Also no doubt we will have not got a sell on clause when he goes for 5 mill in two years . Arrrggghhh
Aston_Owl
I am starting to think the board we have are so backwards that the club can never get investment with them lot there.
jamesc1905
I suppose the board will be slapping their pockets and gettin the chappers out and I bet AI does not get a sniff at any of it to replace Granty.
it will not supprise me more clubs will jump on the band wagon to get their hands on more of our stars and AI says thats enough and goes
Owlet
Weve just rejected a bid for JJ (Forest) - here we go AGAIN!!!
ShawnOwl4Eva
Bottom line, if club 9's bid was accepted this would not have happened. We are stuck with a board who care more about their own pockets than the club, and sadly we will never get investment, because they dont want to give up their small bit of power. If Irvine is coming out with these statements, then it looks like he will walk, and I cant blame him.
owl1
looks like he will walk? a touch dramatic maybe? he knew the financial issues when he took over, admittedly, i am worried about the jj bid.
dezzyp
your complaining about the board but they have backed and supported you with 8 brand new signings after relegation and a big loss of revenue without any sales first...all of a sudden you are quick to turn. 2 days ago you lot were bragging saying how good you are and what a great team you have...surely you have to put that down to the support of the board..how can you now slate them?
bladesforlife1889
Blade for life in sensible post shocker? Whatever next?
newman87
hate to say it but ballbag that is BFL is right, we are a very fickle bunch, 2nd only to newcastle fans.. Still, at least we dont still sulk about tevez.
dezzyp
I hate to say it but BFL actually makes sense. We have signed 8 quality players this pre season, one of which (Clinton Morrison) I still am amazed by that we actually signed him. As much as we slag the board off now for leting Granty go and maybe Johnson they have coughed up some money to support these 8 top signings we have made. Unfortunatly going down to League 1 dont often come without sacrifice, but if I look at the bigger picture 2 out in order to strengthen the every other area of the team aint that bad biz. I am gutted Grants gone but chins up and move on we still have a cracking team worthy of Championship football net alone League 1. Its still gonna be a tough season but we in with a great chance I feel. Would take Weaver as Grants replacement any day if we could get him. UP THE OWLS !!
stevetheowl
agree with stevetheowl, would hate to see jj go though, that 6 weeks out injured towards the end of the season was what sent us down. would much rather see tudgay go if anybody, not even sure he will catch the first 11 with a mellor/morrison forward line. jj is such a menace when he's on song, he will tear through that league if we keep him
dezzyp
irvine cant have had a say in any of this the board are a disgrace i think we should have some sort of protest if jj goes then am going to be a very angry owl we are the joke of the football world !
retfordowl1867
The board didn't pay for the 8 players, they haven't put their hands in their pockets for years. It was us, the fans, (and the co-op extending our credit) who have financed our business this summer.
The way Grant has been sold is absolutely diabolical, and there was absolutely no need to do it. As has been widely published the co-op have provided us with another 3m of finance for this season, why didn't we use this money to pay HMRC, rather than panicking and having a fire sale and losing Grant for less than half his market value.
The culture at SWFC is rotten to the core, until this is rectified in the long term were going nowhere.
tommyg
Sadly, I agree with you tommyg. 8 signings are great, but if we truly want to get back to the prem. we need to remove the people who make these decisions, and get real businessmen running this club.
owl1
you will find the reason the board won't go or won't accept any takeover bids is because they have lent their own money to the club in the past and are owed considerable amounts. the parties attempting to take over do not want to pay their loans back. must as i hate to say it, what would any of you do, write your cash off? the sad fact is tho, they will never get their money back as we are simply not making any
Hirsty's Shinpads
wow, calm down chaps. It was pretty obvious that Grant was gonna leave sooner or later, so at least we're getting something for him. Personally i'm still optimistic about this season. I wouldnt of believed it if someone said a few months ago we'd have mellor/morrison/tudgay as our strikers for next season in Lg1
Norman
700,000k on jeffers.... that was our last big spending. So I can't blame the board for wanting to spend money on useless tat again
Norman
I fear there is plenty more drama in store in the not too distant future, but for now let's be thankful we at least have a quality manager and players who should be more than capable of doing things at this level. Here's to a (hopefully!) great season ON the pitch!
tommyg
Yes we have taken 8 players, and 8 reasonably good ones for our postion I think, good job done there, but we have 2 or 3, and only 2 or 3 opportunities to gain valuable revenue through transfers, if we are to move forward and get out of the mess we are in we need to maximise these opportunities, it is the job of the board to do this, and at this critical stage with our finances we hope and need a board with good financial accumen in all areas of the club to move forward, we need them to do a brilliant job making the right decisions all the time, not some good ones and a few not so good, only then will we move forward. And what happened to having an open club between the board and the fans, we are told very little about why and how they are doing what they are doing, if they did we may understand more and be more supportive, but by not communicating with the fans leaves me to believe there is stuff we would never be supportive of.
Donny Owl
Can I remind everyone that we could've sold grant for 2-3mil last season but all the fans were saying we shouldn't sell our best asset, so we can't have our cake and eat it...
Norman
If anyone thinks that this board have put any more money in, they are deluded. All they are hanging around for is their loan notes to be satisfied then its happy days for them.
BFL, just F*** off and worry about your own scabby existance.
Grant going was like night following day.
fed_up_owl
Sorry but the signings were all free and, I would guess, due to the excess cash freed from the wage budget by letting out of contract players go. So no high five for our financial experts on the board there. Then we go and follow useless advice from the bank to skip a payment on HM govt, I tempted to write "f***ing idiots" but will try to stay clear of such inflamatory language. Then we sell our one prize asset at a bargain basement price in order to pay the arears, court costs and fine levied by HM's govt. F***ing priceless! I'm not against selling players, indeed have advocated it as the way we get out of trouble (though any sales would no doubt be returned to share holders in a raised dividend rather than invested in the club or paying off the debt) BUT what I really object to is a firesale of assets because the club is run by a bunch of incompetent clowns. Oh did I mention that taking the aforementioned action is a really good way of p***ing of your manager who will take the next chance to jump ship because all trust in those above him has been lost. Now the poor sod has no more money, save Grant's wages, with which to find a replacement keeper. Nice going Wednesday, Warnock once said he'd like to run our club into the ground, why when those who own it are doing such a fine job already.
robc
The sad thing is that the incompetants on the board hold enough shares to vito just about anything. Greirson is the main culprit, but by no means the only dead wood on the board. And to think we all slagged Dave Allen, me included I may add, just for transparency reasons.
Yes the manager may decide enough is enough if the trend continues, but what about the likes of Mellor and Morrison, will they want to jump?
fed_up_owl
Burnley have had there bad luck as well boys it about time we got the rub of the green........ now about Tudgay
hollinsclaret
I've been listening to this "board don't put their hands in their pockets" rubbish for years.
Football clubs are businesses and for 99.99% of businesses, the board members don't keep pumping their personal money into the enterprise. They may invest if there is potential for a healthy return but with Wed there isn't.
Football fans need a reality check, there are very few Jack Walkers or Abramovic's out there. Clubs need to operate as businesses first and foremost and stop dreaming of some incredibly rich yet somehow incredibly stupid saviour.
sameoldboringsh*t
Old*****, at what point did I ask the board to put their hands in their pockets? All I ask for is competent management which means not selling your prize asset at half his market value (specially when clubs are queuing up for his services)when because you've avoided paying your tax bill. If you want to run a club without putting your hand in your pocket then it is imperative to make the most of your saleable assets and not let them go for a song. If we had sold Tudgay last year would we have been any worse off? All we were quibbling about was the price (that and the woefully disloyal behaviour of the player and his agent, at least Grant has acted with dignity). Our board just don't seem to know what they want, do we attract investors? Are we a selling club? No we're a fallen giant who doesn't know how to get back to the big time so will just act like a Charlie in the lower leagues. Lee Strafford had a business plan only to find it blown out of the water by an incompetent manager (good luck hollins) and a sudden change in the financial situation that nobody told him about. Is there any wonder that Football fans are disillusioned by the clowns running our clubs and (after this summer) the game in general.
robc
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