Anyone heard anything...? Was all the rage leading up to the Everton game and haven't heard anything in the week and a half since, when Bruce was hoping to have news about a week ago... bit concerning.
Whatever is happening, you can be be pretty sure there is some agent involved trying to line his own pockets.
Might not just be the agent this time. This site claims he is only on a little more than 13,000 pounds a week. I would have thought he would be on a lot more than that. http://matchincome.com/2013/02/13/sone-aluko-salary-or-income/ I could see the sticking point being the amount of the raise. His stats are not that special if you only look at the stats. We all know that stats can be deceiving. Championship Total = 22 games played 9 goals. PL Total = 8 played 1 goal. Total HCAFC = 30 games played 9 goals. Pretty good Championship total not that special of a PL total. You could see if that if someone was only looking at his stats perhaps there could be a difference in opinion over value. A differnce could also occur if they were comparing people on our team. Take Brady for instance. Championship Total = 71 games played 7 goals. PL Total = 8 played 3 goals. Total HCAFC = 79 games played 10 goals. Brady appears to be the better goal scorer in the PL but weaker in the Championship. Between Aluko and Brady, Brady appears to be the better PL player. If you only look at the stats. And the same site has a very similar salary for Brady http://matchincome.com/2013/02/13/robbie-brady-salary-or-income/ Do the Allams deal with contracts? Because you could see that if someone who did not really understand football might think that Aluko has not earned a raise yet. Or you could see a that same person saying that Aluko has not earned a salary larger than other players on the team. Of course if that website is wrong on salaries I would have to rethink my conspiracy theory.
I think it's fairly obvious we're not offering him as much as he wants and he knows other clubs are after him and he can leave for free in a matter of months.
He's a decent player but he's not yet consistently proven PL quality. I'd offer him a fair deal but wouldn't succumb to agent pressure.
If nothing can be agreed and we're in a decent league position in January, I wonder if we'll consider selling him for a few million? I really think he'll do well in this division, but he's so injury prone.
It'll cost us several million to replace him, he should be on a par with our better earners and I doubt £13k puts him there, it can always be appearance related.
Whether or not we keep Aluko could, in my opinion, determine whether we stay up or go down this season. He's certainly our most talented player and quite frankly we look a much better outfit when he's in the side. Despite our strong start, we should make it an imperative to tie him down to a new, long term deal.
Personally I was always surprised that he only signed a two year deal initially, but that was probably the preferred term for Aluko and his agent, it was always going to be more favourable for the player rather than the club, and so it has it has transpired! Aluko could now basically hold the club to ransom should he so wish, the alternative, as Lambo has pointed out, could turn out to be very expensive. Our ace in the pack, as is usual of late, is Stevie Bruce and the long standing relationship that he has with the player.
If he's holding out for stupid money that we shouldn't be paying, **** him. Hope that isn't the case though as he is a fantastic player and doesn't strike me as being motivated by money.
I doubt he'll be looking for Bullardesque money. If he's on £13k now and Huddlestone will be on what, £25k? He'll be looking for something similar to that won't he?
