Great article DH. Unfortunately his impact at Girona fell off after that, possibly because he never managed to get going scoring or because of relegation pressure. The answer may lie here: "He’s a very determined player, and when he starts scoring he’ll be even better. And, despite being 21, he has his head in the right place. We had seen videos of him playing for Celtic, out on the wing, dribbling past three or four people then finishing. But since he came here we’ve also seen him knowing when to run, when to hold his position. 21-year-olds are usually all about explosiveness, but we’ve seen him going: ‘OK, now isn’t the time to go on a run, I’ll hold the ball. Now I need to keep hold of possession’. Playing like a veteran.” That's what DF and his coaches will be working on so he fits into the balance of our play against PL sides. His time in La Liga will have shown him that and now he needs to develop that instinctively into his play like our own players have done.
Benefit to us can surely be measured in more ways than just £s tied to a particular player? Man City seeing their loaning Gunn to us as a success has contributed to their willingness to entrust us with Roberts. Even if we don't sign Roberts, another similarly talented Man City youngster might end up in yellow and green. It was just such a relationship with Spurs which led to our acquisition of Ian Crook for example.
Phil Mulryne and Paul McVeigh also came from Spurs, though they were released from the Academy. For those who don't remember Crookie, here's a quick background: "In 1986 Crook moved to Norwich City for a fee of £80,000, which would prove to be one of the best bargain buys for the club. He was at the hub of the most successful team in Norwich's history. During his eleven seasons at the club, he helped them to three top five finishes in England's top division and played in the club's UEFA Cup run in the 1993-94 season."
Boro confirm John Obi-Mikel will be a free agent this summer. I'd have no qualms on a shortish 1 -2 year deal. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the page, let's sign Gary Cahill..... https://readnorwich.com/2019/05/30/middlesbrough-confirm-john-obi-mikel-departure/
Sure I get it and I am sure it’s fine. I know this is exactly how it’s done now. I’m just griping because we see teams like Chelsea and Man City hoover up all the youngsters, sell them for profits when they’ve never had sight of the first team, and I can’t help but think the footballing world would be better and more evenly spread if they couldn’t do it. Angus Gunn’s the perfect example - our club put a lot of time into developing him young. He then up sticks to Man City (yes, good move for him no doubt from a contract point of view, but still highly unlikely to play for them) then he goes on loans, including to us, cuts his teeth and has other teams put their faith into him and allow him to get the experience. Then Man City sell him for a profit. No real risk for them. Hardly played any games for their first team. Yet if he’d stayed with us all that time the profits would be more evenly spread. I get what you’re all saying, I really do, but there needs to be a tighter limit on how many young players these big clubs can buy and then loan out. Football finances are distorted too much as it is.
Cracking post / rant, Rob Agreed and all credit to James Maddison for joining a club which will help, not hinder his development. I guess with young players, they are too easily swayed by their self-fulfilling agents, who want them to go where the biggest wedge (and therefore agent's commission) is, which often does nothing for the player's career progression - just ask Shaun Wright-Phillips
I'm sure I read somewhere that they are going to limit a team's squad to stop the bigger clubs from hoovering up all the youngsters just to send them out on loan!
I’m sure I read a few weeks back that Rodgers wanted to sign Roberts for leicester for in the region of £20m! Not sure we will get him on loan if that’s the case
I can’t find the source quoting that figure now, but there are reports saying that Rodgers wants him at Leicester and the fee could be £4m! That seems within our grasp surely?!
And Culverhouse and Gary Brooke, who were at the club with Chippy and Bowen, though Brooke stayed only a short time. A striker, whos e name elud... Fenn?
I can see this argument but it has to be balanced with doing what we can with the £20m available, as DH says. Citeh paid Fulham £12m for Roberts 3 years ago and could lose him a year from now without having anything much for their £12m other than loan fees.
We signed a £12m player without touching our WAR CHEST , I fail to see many negatives on this bit of business. Looks like a Hernandez Buendia rival .
