Summer window

Off to see his specialist in London

that is what uphere posted over the road

 

I don't think his potential is questioned. I think it's factored in to a £15m valuation. He was £2m last summer and he had the same potential then.

In his 3 seasons of professional football, he's managed a maximum of 31 league games so I don't think you can say his injuries are purely down to bad luck with any certainty either. He's a player who seems to have a lengthy spell on the sidelines each year.

 

Souttar is a one off really though. Plenty of PL teams have signed good players with champions league experience for £20-25m. Whilst I’d love for us to get more he’s only ever played at championship level.

You could sit here all night comparing transfer fees of whom you think is worth less than our players but it works both ways. Palace only paid £8m for Olise therefore Burnley shouldn’t be paying more than that for Clarke..

 

Respect your opinion but have to disagree mate.
Sanderson is nowhere near Ballard level.
In light of Danny B potential departure I’d be very reluctant to lose Ballard this season.

 

Could be a partial solution to big clubs pinching players. If a player comes through your academy, you automatically retain a 20% sell on clause. Get it legislated

 

Souttar wasn't worth £18m. Also, it's not an exact science to compare one deal with another - if you were to do that then the best comparison is Ballard now v Ballard last summer. Why is he worth £16m more than last year?

 

For me this comment hits the nail on the head with certain sections of our fanbase though. When we had Sanderson people were acting like they’d never seen a CB like him.

Then Ballard comes along and he’s undoubtedly better. What’s to say one of the new CB’s isn’t as good if not better than Ballard, and isn’t injury prone.

 

You missed out "Callam Doyle will play 100 games for England" about a week after he signed.

I love this team, I really do and most of these players but if you listen to Sunderland fans, we have players who would command the highest Championship transfer fees of all time. It doesn't stand up to logic (with a couple of exceptions) given that we finished 6th and 30 points off the top of the league. We're a very good team, but we've built this entire squad on the fees we're talking about for Ballard and Clarke. It needs to be put into perspective.

 

No problem at all mate.
If Baath is away I would be much more concerned about losing Baath. I also think Ballard is better than Sanderson, although Sanderson has attributes Ballard doesnt.

Really for me it is a money thing. It is such a big profit after a season. Plus if it West Ham we should be able to get the majority up front after the Rice deal. Could be a telling factor in if we sell, based on the FFP and the current economy. I would think as well the club may opt to only sell one and I would prefer Ballard to Clarke for example.

 

Totally agree mate. A talented group of lads who you’re actually proud of representing Sunderland and make us look forward to the season starting. But some folk are getting far too caught up in the whole “we don’t need to sell anyone” crack. We aren’t Man City nor do we have an endless pit of cash.

The club is a business at the end of the day and £15-20m for a player would be massive in terms of revenue for what it could allow us to spend on and off the pitch. I’m sure the clubs turnover last season was only about £25m.

 

I agree with all of that except that 'it needs to be put into perspective'.

People are excited after years of seeing every player, in the squad, being worth less than we paid for them. It's now almost the reverse which is an incredible achievment, really incredible imo.

So it's no surprise that people are chipper especially when average PL players are fetching ridiculously high fees ...

... in reality it doesn't need putting in perspective, what people think doesn't really matter, they're just having a bit if fun.

 

Sorry but anyone with eyes can see Ballard is of a higher standard than Soutar and wether he was over priced or not, that should be the benchmark.

What's the cost to replace him and the potential he has?

 

If we let Ballard, Clarke and Stewart go in the same window we are ****ed

 

You'd assume so, although we bought him for 350k so maybe there are some hidden gems out there........

 

Seems a poor show, we were told the store was opening on the 6th, now it is the 12th !!

 

20m+ each and wouldn't blame the club for selling Clarke and Ballard. Rosco 10m+ same again. All accepted subject to us having replacements signed.

 

Sell one, not the other. Not a chance we get £10m for Stewart. That ship has sailed with the injury and the contract stand off

 

I don’t believe we’d get more than £5m for Stewart in this window. Not saying he’s not worth more.

I don’t believe we’d be ****ed if we lost both Clarke and Ballard by the way, considering they were signed for about £5-7m between them and we’d have £30m+ to replace them.

obviously I’d rather keep them both.

 

I suppose the club will have players lined up if we DO lose them. That seems to be the way we operate these days

 

I get your point but, really, who you buying with £30 million to replace those to if same or higher quality?

You can’t. We are hoping that the scouting team finds a gem who is first team ready. It’s not happening.

There isn’t another Clarke waiting in the wings. Jewi may well become a baller but we don’t know.

£30million doesn’t buy a lot nowadays. We may invest that in several younger player who could hit or miss, but facts are if we lose Jacky and/or Ballard we are severely weakened.

People have talked about Souttar on here. I agree Ballard is a more complete CB. That’s the fee to replace him at a level. We’d lose out. It’s short term outlook that would take us back a step.