The only REAL reason I can think of for selling Clayton is to raise £2m to £3m to use for bringing in at least twelve new players. You can only think that Colin has his eye on certain players and must know what uplift his budget needs to get the squad he wants in place. I am disappointed as I feel Clayton has a great future as a footballer, but my instinct says Colin is rolling the dice to raise capital, and Clayton is the one who has to make way. Once he decided to list Clayton, it was obvious Brown would stay, which disappoints me. Still, we have to trust Colin and see where this leaves us come August, but I fear that Snods won't sign a new deal, and if that happens McCormack will probably follow suit. Oh damn, can't we ever do something predictable and simple at Leeds?
Krap!!! His wage demands didn't match what the club currently value him & what the club can currently afford. That said, let's hope that if he does go, we get in credible replacements
I think he's good, and has the potential to be very good, but if we want promotion we need players that can run the game 100% of the time, not 50% of the time, when he's having a good game. If we get a good price and reinvest it in someone who can produce the goods everytime, I'm fine with that.
Gradel and Howsons money should still be on the table too and the excess from the sale of Kasper all under 12 months ago, I dare say Clayton wanted a bigger wage and contract than Neil valued him at...
Wage demands? You believe Yorks Radio? Clayton's agent has said he hasn't been offered a contract. Always we hear about wage demands and nothing else, our top players are always "sold" to us as greedy by the Bates propaganda machine. Clayton said a couple of months ago he'd like a new deal and to stay, same timing as Gradel. No, until Clayton is on Sky saying he was offered a poor contract I refuse to believe what Ben Fry says. Anyway, offering a poor contract is a tactic to sell!!!!
exactly. If Warnock says he's not worth 15k or whatever he's asked for, then I'm fine with that. Now it's just up to him to find someone to replace Clayton who IS worth the 15k a week.
Clayton's been a bit of a disappointment for me in the latter half of the season after a bright start. He's a marketable player and assuming its him who's after the big wage hike, offloading him will free up more funds to help finance the restructuring...or the casino.
That's White and Clayton both apparently asking for £15k pw. Same as Snoddy's been offered. Their agents seem to think they're as good as him. Shows you how little agents know about football, and how decdicated they are to trousering as much cash as possible. So they can either lower their demands or go. I'm not possessive, and like Kiwi, I trust Warnocks valuation capabilities. There's always someone else round the corner.
We have offered 5 academy players a professional contract. So we only needs 2-3 signings and then the squad will be at the numbers of players that Bates want us to have
Clayton will go for less than a million. He's good, but he's underdeveloped, only had one good season (average when you consider his form in some games), and most importantly he's been listed. As soon as you list a player their value goes down. He's been listed as part of the "if you want that much you can **** off". Instead of keeping one of our best players who Warnock appears to actually want to keep except for his demands, a player who has publicly stated he is eager to stay at Leeds, we take the safe route and sell him because "well we can either sell him now and use the money on players or he could go for a free at the end of the season" - when you think the money gained for him wouldn't pay for a better player, considering a player of equal quality is likely to cost more any way just because of the fact that Clayton is one we've developed and won't be on that much, then this move makes absolutely no sense, unless the club are playing hard ball and listing him to test his resolve, test if he really wants to stay. The best (but unlikely) outcome is that Clayton sees the transfer listing and tells his agent to stop salivating and get him a more reasonable contract. The more likely outcome is that we sell him because it's "good business", we lose yet another one of our diamonds in the rough that we found practically from nowhere, and are left rummaging around trying to find another unproven youngster who turns good. What we should be doing with Clayton, again considering his current contract won't be particularly much, is just saying **** it we're keeping you. Don't list him, don't pressure him into a new contract but keep him any way and gamble on the Premier League. If we make it he'll sign, if we don't make it we haven't lost much - in fact we've probably gained something, like I say another player of equal quality is likely to cost more, so our only option is gambling on another unproven player, or getting someone who isn't as good. Clayton is a player with the credentials to get us there, all he needs is some competition for his first team place, which if Warnock is to be believed he'll have next season. All the noise about Zac Thompson suggest he'll have at least some competition. But it's not going to come from Danny Pugh - why are we keeping this useless player? He's no good at left back or left mid, only half decent in central mid, Warnock's said he wants flexible players and Pugh isn't one of them judging by how much of a disaster it is with him at left back.
I'd agree that Pugh wouldn't be competition for Clayton, but I can kind of see why Warnock is holding onto him as a utility player. He might not shine in each position, but he can cover them. I don't see him as a starting 11 player, but on the bench to give good coverage. If Clayton stayed I'd see Brown and Clayton competing / rotating in one of the positions, and a new CM and Thompson in the other, Pugh would only ever be backup. If it is wage demands, then I would say it could be worth a gamble keeping him and hoping he re-signs on a reasonable deal if we get promotion, as Clayton is a good player . However, the money could be useful with such major restructuring (to the team, not the ground) needing to be done. That being said, it doesn't bode well for Snoddy and Rosco signing on with such a promising player potentially leaving... unless of course they know who the transfer targets are and think they match the ambition they want to see...
If they keep Clayton, without offering him a new deal, then fine. He's good, but not great and certainly not good enough to win us promotion. Even if we keep him we still need to sign 2 CMs as far as I see it - a playmaker to replace Clayton, and a second holding player, to rotate with Brown who obviously won't be able to play every single game.
please log in to view this image Andrew Haigh ‏ @AndrewHaigh @ephemeraljoy Think you've sunk into the Leeds United mentality whereby future potential isn't considered & £9k a week is a fortune! Sounds like Clayts wanted 9k per week
the money we'll get for Clayton is not going to be enough to fund any sort of player that it would be worth selling him for. A player of equal quality is going to cost us more on wages.
Fair enough Marko I guess he probably is on pretty low wages at the minute. 9k per week doesn't seem too outrageous to me if that turns out to be true though...
I see where you are coming from Billys, but I don't think £3m is what we would get. Morelikely the £1m or less mark that Marko states. But if we are to try and build a club, we need young, fit players who have the ability and the potential - Clayton fits every one of those criteria, and as such, it is a shame (and madness) to sell him.
I agree - but Warnock's not here long term, he's only interested in building a team that can get us promoted. As it stands, Clayton is not the creative midfield general that will get us promoted. He may well be in a couple of years, but he's certainly not now. Warnock will want to keep him, but not if he feels his wage demands are unreasonable. He'll find someone else who is capable of running the midfield instead.
Like Marko says, keep Clayton for another year then see where we are at the end of next season. If we sold him now we'd probably end up paying his replacement £9K pw anyway, so I can't see the logic in selling Clayton when we can just keep him on £3k pw. It's total madness to get rid of a young player who'd be perfect back up at the very least. I must say people are placing a hell of lot of faith in Colin, who I feel is demonstrating a certain short termism. I hope the believers are proved right, but it's a high risk strategy he seems to be employing. An 'all eggs in one basket' approach for next season, and should we fall short of promotion, he'll be off, with all our saleable assets long gone.
