Sell or keep? Callum O’Dowda at Bristol City as contract expiry looms January is fast approaching and with it the winter transfer window meaning EFL clubs may soon have some decisions to make. At Bristol City, action may soon need to be taken about Callum O’Dowda’s future as the winger’s current contract is set to expire in the summer. The Robins do have the option of a 12-month extension but with money relatively tight at the moment, they’ll be weighing up whether it’s worth keeping hold of someone that managed just 19 appearances last term and has made only seven in 2021/22. If they don’t plan to trigger that extension then cashing in on him in January is an option as it would mean they don’t see him walk away for nothing in the summer. With that in mind, we’ve outlined the pros and cons of selling or keeping O’Dowda… Sell City fans have been waiting for O’Dowda to live up to his potential for some time now but due to a number of factors and despite multiple false dawns, that has not yet happened. Nigel Pearson has spoken a lot about changing the club culture and moving on an attacker that has contributed just two goals and two assists since the start of the 2019/20 campaign may be no bad thing. The Republic of Ireland international has made 162 appearances for City across an five-year stint with the club and is 26 now, so can no longer really be considered an up-and-coming player. A fresh start elsewhere could be the best next step for O’Dowda, while his exit would free up some space on the wage bill and should bring in a fee, even if it is a nominal one, which may allow Pearson to sign some reinforcements. There have certainly been high points, including the 2018/19 campaign and the 2017/18 EFL Cup run, but you wonder whether the time has come for City to offload him. Keep There is a distinct lack of pace and width in attacking areas in the City squad at the moment, particularly while Antoine Semenyo has been injured. Keeping hold of O’Dowda certainly gives the Robins coaching staff another option in those areas and that could prove vital as the season wears on because they’re only a few places above the relegation zone at the moment and getting sucked into a battle for survival is not off the cards. The Robins have played hardball with the 26-year-old in the past and he ended up signing a new contract so there’s no reason that can’t happen again – particularly as given his form and injury problems in recent seasons, he’s unlikely to be inundated with offers from other clubs. They have the option of triggering a one-year extension in his contract as well, which would keep him at Ashton Gate beyond the summer and mean they’re likely to be able to demand a slightly higher fee. https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/s...wda-at-bristol-city-as-contract-expiry-looms/
I totally agree, but as I've said on a number of other threads, we shipped out Diedhiou and Paterson without replacing them. If we do the same with Callum (and the others) then we are just narrowing our options and it would be plain stupid.
I agree for the January window but I think he needs to be told in no uncertain terms that he is playing for his future and really needs to belatedly step up to the plate or he can move on during the summer IMHO.
Move on with at least 5 other players-but we need to replace these underperformers with much better quality.
can agree with Simpson "my old mate"! .... Palmer, we have a lot of options for the space he would play in/ at. At the mo the first thing we need to establish is Plan A [ OR plan Aa ] presently does not work. How many times in the past has a manager left and back up staff have tweaked it a bitfor a couple ofgames before the new boss and gained more points than they have dropped! Wells, a victim of of a lack of a solid Plan A This is a trait that seems to follow city around .. getting rid of odd individuals [ not all ] that we seem to not to be able to replace in the immediate future .... classic Hindsight syndrome! We did better with Fammy in the team than we have with CM [ SO FAR ! ] CM is approaching the twilight, if not it. Can he replicate Wilbs? I doubt it. Wells [ via Wiz ] however is the head on the block! Again victim of no Plan A . Paterson, NP comment? or a point was raised at some point, "may have not had a fair crack as injury restricted" what NP could see of him! However query is Callum, prior to injury and a season or so back [ pre covid ]was unused sub / sub/ odd start for us quite a bit but made it starting line up for EIRE! and as a team did quite well.
Wells a victim? he has missed a hatful of chances so far this season, people who watch games will have seen that.
Absolutely woeful-never done it here-big wages need to move him and Palmer on again big wages two dudd ducks for us.
The trouble is these players are on high wages and are not producing value for money. They need to be moved on imo, but as RR said we have to replace them with better value for money players. If we just get rid without replacing with better quality we’re going to be in big trouble
I quite like O'Dowda, always have, he has suffered injury woes but I think he has still got something to offer, so yes I would extend his contract.
I would have extended Paterson's before O'Dowda's. But that ship has already sailed, so I agree - extend unless there is a better option in the pipeline.
OUR INJURY WOES were hopefully behind us with the renovation of the backroom medical /wellbeing staff. We have been woefully unlucky with long term [ 3 months+ ] injuries to KEY players ...... AFOBE/ FAMMY/ MARTIN to name 3 of about 8 -10 in past 4 seasons. Individually we all see differences in players, IMO we need a Plan A squad of 11 players, backed up by Plan A 's team of ...... 2 defenders 3 midfielders 2 forwards [ on match days subs will have 1 goalie and 6 outfield ] injuries / banned would allow rest of squad to enter the 19 thats 19 players for Plan A ............. Callum would be plan A team OR plan A subs on a 2 years plus 1 year extension.
Going back in time there was a point after SCotteril when the 5 pillars [ Tranche 1 ] was bandied about, we are setting out to "buy in /acquire inexpensive, young worthy players, whom we can bring on and train in a certain way [ the way we wish to play ..? PlanA ?... with no bad habits ingrained] SO THAT THE CLUB HAS a continuous and seamless progression in the football team ... players managers coach's .... Paterson and O'Dowda both part of that. makes you wonder NP has totally different outlook, plan A [ or B or C or ....] did he get it wrong in the summer ... should have got rid of all the players academy ones [ over 18's ] as well and started from scratch , brought in 22 players , ex mates end of career players, journey men that were likely to fit his mould, and a couple players younger, like he did with Tanner etc.. let academy staff start new recruiting drive to bring in 20 players under 20's .... hey we wasted 5 years of training, modernizing, and getting back to the black.... all the players have been trained wrong ...!!!!
Unless we can find a better like for like type player as ODowda, i would keep him until one comes along.. We need pace and energy IMO, which we don’t have a lot of currently.. imo his best position is out wide, old fashioned winger
All entitled to our views, I think on balance I disagree, especially on the inflated contract he’s on, if he agreed to cut it, like Weiman and Baker did, then maybe.
Been giving opportunities to play on either wing It is not as simple as that by a reasonably longish chalk ............... so off you go Callum bye bye .. right new player needed ah there's one only £3million as good as Callum [ fingers crossed he fits in and fits the bill ] so lets give the agent his fee, [ 10% 15% or X% ] agree a lesser wage [ you get what you pay for mind you! ] maybe £5-6k pw ... and a 2 year plus 1 or 3 year plus 1 ... analysis 156 weeks at £6k = £936,000 saved v agents fee say circa £300k = miserly £2000 a week Transfer fee £19,3oo a week so far saved less than £1m and paid out £3.3 have I missed any payments? are my fee's correct like agent gets more... or less .. is saving on Callums wages £6, 000 or more or less? On paper financially the result is a loss the only gain [ which is an unknown] is should his replacement be the messiah and we get better, stay in the championship our gates go from 20k average to say 23k adding maybe less than £500k to gate income ... or we can resell for more than £6m and recoup our expenditure ...............
