Yeah but I would have thought we pay higher wages than Lyon. Maybe we don't rate him as highly as others
Not necessarily if we have a strict structure at youth level and they don’t. It’s probably like with other free transfers- they can take the compensation they would have to pay if they were a U.K. club and give it to him and his team directly. Similar to how free agents command higher salaries because of the lack of transfer fee From a little I’ve read he sounds like someone who hit puberty very early and so absolutely dominated youth football. I saw something about him being played out of position to improve his positional awareness and technique. Which at least implies his main thing was just being bigger and more powerful than most other youth players in sort of a “man vs boys” idea . No idea if that is true but there seems to be an indication of it It’s always tough at that age group. I bet you can go back through youth championship winners and find just as many who got absolutely no way near the top level as those who did. Likely way more. And I’m talking youth World Cup winners for national sides
If it is true about him dominating because of maturing at an earlier age, it would be similar, iirc, to Francis Benali. He started out as a striker then moved backwards through the team when his peer group caught up with his physicality.
We don't have to pay him any compensation as he is our player, so that argument holds weight as to why Lyon could offer more than English clubs, but not us. I do agree about your points on his physicality though. It may well be that he looks so good in his age group because he has the physical traits of an adult yet is playing against kids. I hope that is the case if he leaves for nothing!
https://x.com/SaintsSocialite/status/1811773247244910747?t=VgcY9ssngN0XCifEGpHZZQ&s=19 No wonder he walked. We offered him less money than we did for previous scholar contracts. Not the player to reset your wage structure on.
Was going to say, not sure what we are paying nowadays but I know that 12-18 months ago we were refusing to go over £3.2k a week for youngsters signing their first pro deal and a couple left over that.
They do seem to be going down the route of signing players who have proven themselves at Championship level with their signings/targets (Greaves, Delap, Philogene now Szmodics) and someone like Johnson aswell who has a reasonable amount of PL experience (can see him having a similar path as KWP when he left Spurs for us) So far we’ve added more PL experience in Taylor and Lallana and probably not as highly regarded lower league talent in Wood and Edwards. Still a month til start of the season but on paper at least I like the direction they are taking.
Yeah it is a solid strategy. A lot of football league players make the step up, as we saw last time we were promoted! But if they don't and you get relegated, you have a brilliant championship team to go straight back up. It worked for Burnley and some it was championship proven talent that fired us straight back up too.
