Think he's been England since his youth days so would be quite delayed homesickness if so!! Seems the sort where I'm not sure if he'd even ever come back - Irvine another. Both started their careers in the UK rather than being recruited from Aus so probably don't have the same pull home.
because he's not at the level required to push for promotion and doesn't justify another long-term contract
Personally, I don't think we should be selling Greaves to another club in the Championship, as probably they would not pay the money he is worth, I would sooner keep him for the time being. If an EPL club came in for him then I think for the club and for him personally, as long as the fee was good enough then probably best for both parties he goes.
He scored 4 and assisted 2 when he'd only had 1 senior goal in league 2 in his career before last season. He's added strings to his bow and shown versatility. No way its dropped as I'm sure will be reflected in any offers.
He had a bad injury, then it resurfaced, the club gave him an extra year IIRC but we loaned him out to Cheltenham. He fell out of love with the game after he was released and had to drop to Gloucester. Hopefully he can kick on now.
When they offered £7m, he had had a full season playing in central defence/ back three. He has since had around 3/4 season (?) not playing there. The quarter which he did at the start of the season we had the worst defence in the league.
Hope you’re right, though just can’t see it. Not sure a few goals increases the value of a defender, it was fairly obvious he would start scoring a few once the cork was out the bottle. I’d rather us hang on to him for another season, As the new inverted left back role becomes more popular (which it will as Man City have adopted it), do think another solid season playing there would enhance his value further, whereas now his playing at left back could be seen as trying to find a place for him, but he’s not first choice.
He's proven himself at centre half. Everyone knows he can play there and did again in the final game. He's added goals and the ability to play left back this season also. It's called player development. I can't imagine we'd be entertaining offers less that what boro bid last year.
Nearly 4,000 replies to this thread now and still not a sniff of an incoming signing. Hopefully after tomorrow things start to get more serious.
His value has gone up in the last 12 months without a doubt, like you said he's added goals, has the ability to play LB and his all round game has improved. He's probably not jumped to the level I think we all hoped for but he's still improved. Like I said, it seems popular to overly criticise him but he's better than Harry Maguire was at that age for us too.
And Maguire excelled at Leicester and earned a big money move to United, and a key role in the England team. Was that the point you were meaning to make?
Time will tell. Personally I thought the beginning of last season exposed him as not having the strength to be a top class centre back, hence the move to left back and as a result we stopped shipping goals. And yes he is probably more suited to the new inverted left back role.
If he improves as much next year as this then it will be good progress. Remember centrhalves fldont reach their peak until 27/28 so there should be a lot more to come from him in the next few years.
Probably the same point Steve Bruce had when he wanted to flog him to Boro the year before we sold him to Leicester, that people at the time didn't think he'd make the step up to the PL (and it wasn't an unpopular opinion at the time)
Indeed. Though in a scenario where clubs don't meet our valuation will mean he stays, but just the length of his new contract adds value compared with last year when he was entering his final year.
