... if we bought them as they are now, how would that affect financial regulations and would they choose to come here. Just back from a long solo drive and started totting up what this squad would cost us now. For example I doubt Ballard would opt for Sunderland if he was playing at his present level and worth his current fee. I came to a figure of £88m at current value and guessed at around £30m paid out. I haven't a clue how accurate that is but my point is that I don't believe we could've built a similar squad by paying lots more money to bring players in who are ready immediately ... ... and I don't think Clarke, Ballard, Cirkin, Hume, etc, would come here now. Hope that makes sense, bit of a ramble but I've just dashed it off cos I'm starving
I got closer to £136m Smug. With so many youngsters on an upside, that amount is likely to rise even further, especially if some of our walking wounded get a full season under their belts. Clarke £22m, Neil £20m, Ballard and Jobe £18m each, Patto £10m, Hume and Rigg £8m each, Ekwah £5m, Huggins, Poveda, Cirkin, Alese, O'Nien, Seelt, Browne all £3m, Roberts £2m, Rusyn £1m, Others (Embo, Matete, Hemir, Mayenda, Anderson, Bennette) £3m The good thing is that there aren't many listed above where you can see their price falling (injuries permitting)
Yeah, I was trying to be conservative but you're closer to the truth Banky. What I was wondering is how many of these players we've 'brought on', like Ballard, would choose to come here at their present level. I'm all for signing players who are 'oven ready' but we can't realistically be buying players like Hume who, if he was available, wouldn't be chomping to come to Sunderland imo. We're trying to buy well and develop players by playing them slightly before they're ready in some cases. I thought Hjelde was a poor buy, because of his tendency to rush things and his poor first touch, but he seems much better now. We suffered from a lack of central defenders, a critical area, when we failed to win the play-offs under Mowbray. We have much better cover now with Hjelde, Alese, etc, perhaps even Triantis. Some people keep looking at our signings and saying 'that's a replacement for Clarke/Ballard/Neil etc but I don't think that's true. If we sign Mendy I'd hope we sign another striker tbh, Hemir/Mayenda can still remain here and play cup games and sit on the bench ... they might learn as much that way as going out on loan. We also need to avoid burning players out at a young age. Jobe, Neil, Ekwah, etc shouldn't be playing game after game in a league like this. If we don't trust the likes of Ba, Aouchiche, etc we should allow them to leave as much as I'd hate that, they both have bags of talent imo.
I think trying to work out if our players would come here now is a difficult one to predict. There's a few of those players who chose to join us in League One, so may well choose to join us in The Championship. Players will also look at our record of bringing players on and join us for that reason, as well as the fact that we are still potentially one of the top ten clubs in the country, with the greatest support. I agree that we need Mendy plus 1 other striker. Looking at the other thread, Bordeaux have just gone under, so we might get some joy there with a striker we were previously linked with. No doubt about it, our policy of buying young up and coming players or ones who are young but their careers have stalled, has definitely reaped dividends, so I would like us to continue with that once we've added some more experience. I'm please you've replied, because you've made me realise that I left Ba and Aouchiche out of those valuations so we could be looking around £140m! Happy Days!
Yeah mate, I agree. If Alese, Rigg, Jobe and Cirkin have good seasons and Huggins comes back strongly, you could add another £65 -£70m to that total quite easily just for starters.
should be a good discussion this one smug... personally i have zero idea when it comes to fees etc, i am always of the understanding a player will only get what another club deems is a fair price, the 'best' part about the current squad is that nobody really wants to leave, how often over the years has the club found a real gem but as soon as some offer comes in that player cannot wait to leave, of course, every man has his price as far as the club is concerned (it is a business after all) but the club now looks to support the lads all the way and it seems they are getting that support back from the lads with these new deals. unfortunately, football is football and some lads will have to be away but being honest, i can't think of a single player i would be happy to see leave and i am sure when the club sits down to negotiate that both them and the players get the best deal they can.
