We are a bunch of hypocrites. Well, that's too strong, but we are guilty of double standards. In the recent discussion about Kerim Frei we were saying that the fees being quoted for a possible move were way too low. But if we were linked with a 19 year old winger with only a couple of dozen first team games under his belt, we'd be horrified at the thought of paying anything like the £10m or so that we think Frei is worth. We'd probably grumble if the club paid much more than the £2-3m in the article. Frei is a huge prospect who could make a big impact, but we're kidding ourselves if we think we're going to get that kind of money for him until he's proved himself a bit more (which is a good argument for not selling him). It's not just us. That Ipswich fan commenting on our supposed interest in Cresswell and Thomas (two good signings if we went for them, in my opinion) said that we'd have to double the reported offer of £5m for the pair. Similarly the Hull fan who asked if we would drop our fee for Stockdale to something more realistic (I think he suggested £1.5 rather than our valuation of £4m). We all inflate fees for our own players and expect low fees for other teams. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I suspect if Stockdale goes, it will be for between £2.5m-£3m. If we sign the Ipswich pair it won't be for £10m, but it may well be somewhere between £6m-£8m. And if Spurs want Kacaniklic, they can start the bidding at £25m (which is still less than a third of what they're asking for Gareth Bale).
Captain - your overall point I fully agree with, I for one think £4 million is to much for Stockdale and about half of that is more realistic but with Frei I disagree.... You describe him as a 19 year old with only 20 odd first team appearences, this description doesn't do him justice IMO it should be more like kerim Frei is a highly promising teenager, who is the brightest prospect to come out of Fulham Fc for over twenty years, despite only being a teenager he has already made his senior international debut after excelling at all international age groups. European giants Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray are a few of the clubs chasing this exciting prospect who many believe will become a star of the future!!!! It's not as if we are bankrupt and need the money and he isn't in the last year of his contract if we sold him for only £2 million I would be angry with my club for the first time in my life! I personally rate him over kaca and if we sold kaca for only £2 million there would be outrage on the terraces!
But Frei hasn't really done anything tangible, apart from put in a couple of decent cameos. He went on loan to Cardiff last season and didn't do anything. If he was that good, he would've been playing a lot more for us. I agree he's talented and he could turn into more than a very decent player, but as things stand he needs to prove himself. And I agree Captain, but football fans being hypocrites isn't new - you see and hear it every week. When we get a decision go against us it's a travesty, and when one goes for us it's "about time", which everybody says. If we'd done to, say, a Championship club what Spurs did to us with the whole Dembele thing, we wouldn't have batted an eyelid. It's part of the, er, 'magic' of football!
The problem is that, that is how other clubs view him and no club would be willing to take such a risk on Frei to pay 6-7million for him and that is why he is being valued at around 2-3million. Frei has potential and that is why I think we should keep him as he could one day turn into a 10-15million player.
And that's my point. When we're interested in players from other clubs, particularly foreign clubs where most of us aren't as well acquainted with the player, we take a very different view of how much we should pay. The thing with Frei (and others at the club) is that we have an emotional investment which makes us push up the price we expect to get from him. The buying clubs don't have that emotional investment and see it more objectively. As I said before, I agree that if we sold him now any fee we could expect to receive would be far lower than his potential warrents, which is why we shouldn't sell him now. I'd still start Kacaniklic ahead of him this season, though. Admittedly, that may change in a couple of years but for now I think Kaca gives us more.
What a nonsense article. Frei is a full time international, has PL experience and is very young. Why shouldn't we want more than a measly £2m for him? Etuhu went for more than that last summer to Blackburn. Frei is relatively untested and has a history of injury problems, which is why you won't see anyone on here demanding £10m upwards but the £2m quoted is an absolute joke. I don't think we have our heads in the clouds over valuations of our own players, rather the fact that we have been caught with our pants down on the last few players that left the club, Dempsey was worth more than the £6m Spurs paid for him, and the same with Dembele too. Why shouldn't fans expect more money from other clubs? £4m wasn't an unreasonable price quoted for Stockdale either. Kaca has proven over the last few games for Sweden that he is quickly becoming one of their better players, take his PL form last season into account as well as his age and we should be looking at recouping at least £7-10m. These aren't unreasonable figures, unlike Spurs's valuation of Huddlestone, a reserve player with a history of injury problem valued at £10m plus. I don't really see an issue here.
I have watched both the aforementioned many times,and i would rate kaca as a much better prospect. Agree both have the potential to make their mark, so it will be interesting over the next 3 years to see if they both live up to our expectations. "Me" I expect to see Grimmer, Burn, Dembele, & Handyman, surpass them.
I have watched both the aforementioned many times,and i would rate kaca as a much better prospect. Agree both have the potential to make their mark, so it will be interesting over the next 3 years to see if they both live up to our expectations. "Me" I expect to see Grimmer, Burn, Dembele, & Handyman, surpass them.
There are two issues here. One is the issue of whether we should entertain the prospect of selling Frei and/or Kaca, and the other is whether we have realistic expectations around transfer fees. One the former point, if we are to cut spending and play our youngsters we absolutely should not be immediately selling our youngsters for small fees. It just doesn't make sense. Kaca showed signs on turning his potential into production at the end of last season and on international duty and Frei is still only a teenager. We should either keep hold of them, or make funds available for transfers immediately. We can't have our cake and eat it too, Mr al Fayed! On the latter point I think the Captain is right, however it is natural to value your own players and this is not an issue unless we actually do continue to sell players on the cheap. On the youngsters point: Ros, did you mean Hyndman? If so, I agree. He's a bit small, but he is technically very good and I've enjoyed watching him play.
Roscafre You state it will be interesting to see how both develop over the next three years.... I would totally agree with you if it wasn't for the fact I'm panicking a bit over the fact they both only have two years left on there contracts!!! If we tied them both down to four year contracts it will be the best bit of business this summer I'm interested to see the others you mentioned like most I read as much as I can about the youth players but have rarely seen them
Roscafre You state it will be interesting to see how both develop over the next three years.... I would totally agree with you if it wasn't for the fact I'm panicking a bit over the fact they both only have two years left on there contracts!!! If we tied them both down to four year contracts it will be the best bit of business this summer I'm interested to see the others you mentioned like most I read as much as I can about the youth players but have rarely seen them
But if we were linked with a 19 year old winger from, say, a mid-table Spanish side, who hadn't played many first team games, would you be happy for us to be offering between £6m-£8m for him? I'm not saying Frei is only worth £2m, merely that we can't expect to get a massive fee for him right now. So lets not sell him!
The Turkish papers are certainly bigging our Kerim up: "Kerim was called up for his first international on 15 August 2012 against Austria and made his first Turkish national team appearance against Denmark in November 2012. The Turkish international came on in the 65th minute and made his mark instantly, dazzling spectators and Danish defenders alike with his mazey dribbles and silky skills. Since then he's been called up to the national team regularly and totally skipped the youth national sides. Despite leaping into the senior team Kerim accepted U20 Turkish national team coach Feyyaz Uçar's invitation to the U20 World Cup. The inclusion of Kerim in the squad is undoubtedly a huge boost and adds strength to the Turkish teams attacking options. There is no doubting Kerim's potential, he has the ability and talent to become one of the tournaments stars and is a name we could be hearing a lot more of over the next few seasons." Here is a link to the full story including background stuff about Kerim: http://www.turkish-football.com/news_read.php?id=4739 This kind of exposure can't but add to his value but, more importantly, it will hopefully re-inforce for the powers that be at Fulham the need to hold on to him.
