The only part of my post that related to what you wrote was the bit about lone striker where I asked how many times he actually did it - because I don’t remember but I didn’t think it was that often. Especially not when he was dropped at the end of the season (when I thought we went back to two) My entire post wasn’t meant as a reply to yours The point remains that for his sake the issue better not be being played as a lone striker if his plan is to join West Ham. Although maybe being a loan striker under moyes will be different?
It doesn't bother me either way, the lad has left and was never likely to sign for us. I enjoyed his play and goals whilst he was here and wish him well for his career which i've no doubt will be a very successful one. He left a very nice message for the club and fans and always struck me as being a nice humble lad and it's funny that these negative rumours always surface after a player has left.
There doesn't always have to be blame attached to either party. Sometimes it's just a combination of circumstances. After his brilliant run we obviously wanted to push him to commit to us and try and get a deal done which is completely fair enough. On the other hand he knew his stock were rising and that he'd likely have better offers with bigger clubs should he wait it out until Summer. Which again is completely understandable. So you end up with a stalemate. And then his form drops off a cliff and he spends less time in the first team in the final part of the season.
Fab Romano is suggesting that Tuchel doesn’t want him to leave. Which pours cold water on my implication that he might not want him. I still don’t think he has trained fully under him yet. But this might just be that they haven’t brought a new attacker in yet West Ham are apparently lead bidders for Scammacca from Sassulo. 40m Euro. Difficult to see them signing both and reports out there suggest they won’t. I expect the issue is the Italian might be holding out for a bigger club
Yeah I don't think he ever had any intention of staying beyond his loan spell. And I doubt we expected him to be as good as he was when we brought him in either. Just one of those things imo.
Also Chelsea knew his stock was rising and likely wanted to hold out for more. The flaw with loans with no option to buy. I can’t imagine we will be doing that kind of deal again unless it was for a player that we were unlikely to want long term
Another academy theft, I mean transfer. Is it just me or has this type of deal suddenly become much more prevalant this Summer? I can't recall it happening on this scale before. Is it related to the Brexit impact of signing youth from abroad perhaps? I wonder if the powers that be will allow this to continue unchecked or whether something needs to be done to protect, or at least better reward, smaller clubs who put 10 years in with a player only for them to leave for next to nothing at 16.
Could be those factors playing a part but also just the sheer amount of social media/reporting being done this summer seems higher than previous. Deals like this would be known by the clubs fans involved but seem to be getting reported at a much wider level nowadays
It isn't all one-way traffic, as evidenced by us poaching two of Tottenham's top scholars...something their fans are really quite unhappy about. Ironically after what was said around Dibling, the rumour is that we're smashing their youth wage structure by offering big pay packets: https://thefightingcock.co.uk/forum/threads/spurs-youth-2022-23.45625/post-3477755 I don't think that anything should be done to prevent it. I'm totally fine with players being able to move a bit more freely than once was the case, and I think ultimately it will benefit the domestic game because teams will have more incentive to actually play their kids before their 23rd birthday or something. The compensation structure under EPPP likely needs to be increased, however.
I wasn't referring to Saints when I said smaller clubs. These sort of deals between Prem teams is fine as we are all rich compared to the football league. My worry is that there should either be protection or greater rewards to protect smaller clubs lower down the pyramid that may put 10 years of resources into a young player and then see him move on for very little. Interesting point about the pathway and regular football too. Either the likes of Spurs/City take note of their players leaving and start giving them better opportunities (good for English football) or we continue to take advantage and mop up the best youth talent because we give them a pathway (great for Saints). It's win-win!
Jesus Forest apparently offering Lingard 180k a week. He's not worth anywhere close to that. Stupid from Forest.
I wonder if this is a Leeds situation where the FFP rules are more malleable because of being in different divisions during the assessment period And I expect they are starting from a much lower base. But surely such an offer would agitate lots of their squad ?
The person suggesting 6k a week might just be getting that figure from what was rumoured for Dibling. Because they also suggest it is money + pathway If that were true then we could have matched Dibling’s offer and he may well have stayed. Unless that offer was actually even higher. But more likely we aren’t paying that Or maybe our academy is a rung above spurs and then Chelsea and city’s above ours Very intriguing and mysterious
I'm guessing that neither suggestion of massive wages is true, and in both cases it's just a player doing what they believe is best for their career.
Maybe I'm overly cynical, but it is likely (in my opinion, fwiw) that such stories of massive wages are spread by agents of other players in the same club, in order to get the club to raise other players' pay, so that these players are more inclined to stay where they are. Or maybe I'm over-thinking things
With youngsters, I'm guessing it's more that people want to feel better about their club. The player didn't leave because the other club has a better reputation of developing talent or something, they left because they're greedy and the other team is ruining the sport by giving a 16 year old 400m a year, which our club would never do because we have too much respect for the game. Spurs' Academy fell into a bit of disrepair, and players perhaps unsurprisingly questioned whether it was the right place for them. We're improving our reputation for talent development, but that doesn't mean that there won't be kids who think that their future is better-served elsewhere. But because we've improved our reputation, that'll be mostly offset by kids elsewhere who think their future is better-served with Saints. So long as we follow through.
Chris Richards, the centre back from Bayern we were linked with earlier in the summer, is joining Palace for €15m
