To be fair, Barmby had earned his wedge before he came to us and had tested himself at the top level. Opposite of KLP
I remember Roy Keane when Manager of Sunderland bemoaning Players partners making the decision as to moving to Sunderland. He said we where offering 3 year contracts on 1.5 million a year(then) and where getting turned down as the shopping wasn’t good enough.
I really like Keano but I think some of the numbers and price tags mentioned around him are just mad. This is a kid who's only scored 8 goals this season. Everyone compares him to Bowen, but he's not even close to Grosicki's Championship numbers. Yes, he's still young, but he's played over 100 games for us now and to be worthy of his price tag, he really should be much further along with his development. His end product is still too erratic and he misses way too many chances. It's a huge step up to the PL, or even to a good Championship side. We've seen this year with Rogers at Bournemouth that even for a special young talent that it's difficult to play regularly for a top side. If we get £15m guaranteed, it's an unbelievable deal in this post covid market. He's also had a good slice of fortune that the options for England u21s are somewhat depleted but it's still great to see a local lad in there. To be honest, this is also why I think we'll keep him, I just can't see why anyone would offer us enough. There's better options out there like Brennan Johnson.
The teams spending the huge money aren't the kind of teams that would come in for him though. Imo he's a top end champ player and with a lot of hard work and some luck could be a prem player for a bottom end/yo yo team (the hopefully with us). As shark said... Anything £15m with a sell on would be a great deal for us. But I don't think he'll go in summer ( next season will make or break him as teams want to see him in a better team with better players before they make a move ) anyway unless he really pulls up trees in the final part of the season.
You’re missing the point He made a point as though teams aren’t spending in a post covid market They clearly are
It’s pointless comparing him to Bowen in the sense that the players he played with are miles better too. Scouts will see a 21 year old lad who has 8 league goals in a team who hasn’t left the bottom 6 all season. Bowen had Campbell, Grosicki, Wilson, Abel when he came through. KLP has Eaves and co. The figures aren’t crazy if you actually look at it beneath face value.
First choice Stoke keeper First choice Leicester Left back Chelsea loanee at Hudds Man City Loanee at Stoke Man City loanee at Cardiff Liverpool bench player Villa starter Arsenal loanee at Boro Wolves loanee at Sheff U PSV starter Southampton first choice right back Big club bias…
We were in a world of ****e in Bowen's first season. We were really struggling under Slutsky and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that without Bowen's goals, we'd probably have gone down or survived by the skin of our teeth. The year Bowen left we had a worse squad than we do now and I don't think there's much to debate in the that.
There can be no complaints about Madueke, Elliott and Balogun starting ahead of him, they're all better players...
