I used to get told by someone close that he was the most promising of our academy lads. Left for next to nothing (or was it even nothing)?
He was going to be next big thing for about ten years, before not being the next big thing. We got £400k in compo when he went to Vitesse. He obviously done well in Holland, but he ain't no Chilwell.
And now he is again? He maybe ain't Chilwell (actually, no maybe about it) .... but £400k? The club should have been building for the future around players like him, not pushing them out for next to nothing. Another 'one of our own'. Penny wise pound foolish? Best run club and all that .....
It was crazy to lose someone who played most games for us that season. Particularly a young player and a local lad. But we do it a lot in recent years. New squad every season for absolutely no reason. It'll be crazy when we lose a load more first team players this summer too.
He wasn't very good that season though, we'd signed Kingsley to be first choice and then he got injured and we had to use Clark instead (though as it turned out, he was probably better than Kingsley anyway). I wasn't that bothered about him going at the time though, I'm more disappointed that we'll lose Batty this summer.
I think Batty is a good holding midfield player who can pick a pass well, he is a good player to have in the engine room, sadly McCann doesn't rate him. Batty will get a new deal elsewhere and we will get some compo for him as he is under 24.
I think they're very comparable situations. Even if he'd only been 2nd choice at the time, it still immediately gave us a problem in replacing him, and it isn't exactly shocking that a young player who was getting games early in his career has gone on to improve. Letting him go for compensation was mental. It's these careless losses that leave us needing to sign 10 players every summer and never actually developing a squad with any sort of continuity.
Brenda is no mug, if he thinks Max is good enough to fill Chilwell's boots then good luck to him. Future England left back?
Shock horror. City talent let go gets chance at bigger club. Not a surprise at all. As an aside, Chilwell should be England's first choice LB. Clark is alright currently, but nowhere near his level.
I thought he had had less caps than that to be honest. In my head Danny Rose is still considered first choice by most and the World Cup just happened.
When Elder was playing well earlier in the season.. I think he looked better than Clark did for us... I don't know where Elders head went...
I was disappointed to lose him (and will be if/when Batty is also allowed to leave). I thought he showed promise and felt he was likely to improve. I remember people criticising Robertson when he was with us (not suggesting Clark was quite that good BTW) and people said he wasn't good enough to go to a 'big' club. Even having gone to Liverpool many thought he wouldn't get many first team chances. Same also with Harry Maguire. Sometimes you just never know eh?
I was sorry to see Max go at the time, but as OLM said he is not in the same league as Chilwell, unless he has really improved a lot in Holland? However, I still think he would have done an OK job for us if he had stayed. I also agree with Tigerscave. what I have seen of Elder he looks to be a better prospect.
Regardless of how much we do/don't rate Clarke, we have to stop letting players go for peanuts just because we don't have the foresight to sort out deals.
Sorry to pile it on, but Rose didn't even play much at the World Cup. Ashley Young was left wing back for most of it.
We were spoilt by previous left backs. Ever reliable Dawson followed by Brady, Rosenior (filling in) Robertson, Tinion (0ne for the future). Clark had tough acts to follow, he struggled at times in his first full season, but wasn't out of his depth. For years, he was always a stand out player in every age group with City and in a variety of positions. As an aside for real anoraks... Half a dozen of us watched City play West Ham in the Youth Cup semi at KC around 2013/15 Ish. We lost on pens. One blonde haired lad dominated the midfield for us. There were no programmes/ scoreboards, so we never worked out who it was. The only player we had heard of was Max Clark, so never quite sure it was him. Anyway I digress! we invested years of nurturing him which was just coming to fruition, and we let him go for sweet **** all. There was recent paper talk of Liverpool wanting him as cover for Robertson, and now Leicester. And we let him go for sweet **** all. Maybe they negotiated 80% of the sell on fee? Geniuses...how could we question their cv?
And I don't rate McCann - let us not forget the dire form we've been in since the New Year. Clueless.
