It's about right though, isn't it? It's the same as we paid for Adams (23 yo) and Armstrong (24 yo). And they had the added benefits of still having more significant question marks at Premier League level. Tella (turns 24 in first week of July) has already played over 30 times at PL level and did very, very little with it. He's also scored less goals at Championship (his PB is 17) level than either Ché (22) or AA (28).
Yeah i mean there is a good chance that Tella has improved in the last year with regular playing time etc but when he did play for us in the Prem he never looked like being good enough to make the grade. Fair play to him that he has had a great year with Burnley but if we can get a decent fee like £15m I think that would be good for all parties. I can see the counter argument that money shouldn’t be an issue this summer as we will have a lot of players leaving, some for possibly much larger fees than we would need to spend on players for our level, so we should keep him. I’m not against keeping him but won’t be upset if he does go either. My main concern atm I guess is that we are allegedly asking for higher prices for our players than teams are willing to pay. These scenarios tend to drag on all summer/end of transfer window until one side blinks near deadline day. I’m not saying we should be selling off players really cheaply but with what looks to be a pretty big rebuild on our hands I’d be tempted to be trying to ship out the players who aren’t going to be here ASAP to get the group together who are, rather than spending an extra month haggling over a few million more
The idea of getting something in the £15m bracket for a 24 year old with 33 PL games for Saints and only one goal to his name... ...we would rightly have snapped their hand off last year, especially given we picked him up for free. I'm not convinced that scoring 17 goals (which is good going, to be fair) in by far the best team in the league and having only one good season to your name at 24 means we should start to get silly with the asking price. He might continue to climb but he could also be a flash in the pan.
He was Burnley’s top scorer in their promotion season, which surely pushes his value to them up, despite his lack of PL credentials. I would have thought £20 million wouldn’t be too much to ask, especially if we want him ourselves.
I would hold out for £20m (even if it's with realised add-ons), absolutely. As you say, there is the pre-existing relationship/success he has with Burnley which should (in theory) push them a little bit higher than other bidders. But he is definitely not unsellable and I don't think he is really worth that either. Maybe Burnley are prudent and know when to walk away.
We would be foolish to let him go on the cheap, better to wait and see how he performs for us next season. It would cost us more than that to get a player that made the Championship TOTS.
£15m rising to £20m based on appearances etc. maybe a sell on too just in case he has finally found his feet and does start performing in the PL. Like some others, I’d be happy either way with Tella. But if his heart isn’t in it here then sell up for sure.
Considering how much his proven Championship form and experience of promotion last year is worth to us + his relatively young age anything less than £15m would be criminal. But Burnley probably need to stretch a relatively tight budget across bringing an entire squad up to scratch for the PL, so can understand that they may want to look elsewhere. Would be a win for us in my mind, Tella being here next season would be utterly massive.
Yeah I agree, under 15m is cheap. If we were in the market and paid £20m for a striker who scored 17 goals in the championship we would feel we had overpaid.
hmm...you're all talking about Tella as if he's an out and out striker. He certainly wasn't for us in the PL and hasn't really been for Burnley either (although admittedly playing in more of a front 3).
Exactly. Scoring that many goals from out wide is so impressive. It is so obviously a stupid decision to sell him for anything around £15m-£20m.
Right, and saying "he's almost 24" as though that's over the hill. He was only 22 when he last played for us. He's not a big lad so it's understandable if he is a late developer. Most players hit their prime in the late twenties, which would suggest Tella will keep improving. Mental if we don't keep him. Bet we'd spend the 15m on some useless f*ck from abroad with 'potential', and zero passion or loyalty.
When Ivan Toney was the same age as Tella is now, he'd just finished the season scoring 16 goals in 44 league games. In League One. And he's a out-and-out striker. You could argue that Tella is ahead of Toney in his development, seeing as he has better stats, in a division higher, playing primarily as a winger. Yes, of course Tella was playing in a title-winning team. But Toney's Peterborough finished 7th in the season in question, so not exactly shabby either.
