That would be a massive punch in the guts for me. Think the lad is the most talented across the entire club. His future is so bright. I am not at all surprised Bayern are looking, at least one top prem club are too. I have always felt he would sign, and I still think it most probable. However, when Dodds was talking about why he must stay at Sunderland in the media recently I had alarm bells going off in the back of my head. If we lose him now I will be really upset, not at the club, but at not getting to see him develop for a couple of years in our colours.
I’d be gutted to lose him but not at all surprised. Should’ve been in the side sooner and isn’t he currently playing out of position? Not a chance is he a wide man imo. Get him in the 10, would help if we had a proper centre forward to play off mind. I couldn’t complain at all if he left. Dodds was talking ****e about Sunderland being the best place for his development.
Would be beyond gutted if Rigg left but no longer think the club can be blamed if he does. Has had plenty of game time, even if out of position. He's only 16 so shouldn't expect to be starting week in week out in the middle of midfield. Its just a shame that pro deals are signed at 17 and not 16!!!
Rigg is a tough one for me. He’s not good enough to start IMO if we’re serious about promotion next year but if we want him to stay we need to play him. There’s no chance he’ll be a regular for anyone better than us at the minute they can just afford to buy him and loan him out for years until he’s ready whereas we can’t.
Depends on what you’re getting though. Coventry spent about £10m on Haji Wright, I don’t think anyone would argue that Diallo for £15m represents incredible value based on that. If we were to bring in something daft like £60m in player sales and we were looking to put £40m back in then it’s definitely feasible to leave £25m for other transfers. We don’t need to go and sign loads of players every window who end up sitting on the bench we’ve already tried that.
And what happens to to our wage structure? What does his agent want? I just don't think we can do it regardless of sales personally. That's a massive outlay for a championship club without parachute payments.
I don’t think you can criticise the club for his development but the mistakes made this season that affected performances have not made us as attractive as the club last season.
I’ve no idea, does anyone exactly know what his agent wants? As far as I’m aware we paid the majority of his wage when he came on loan so if he wasn’t to pick up a rise I can’t see it being a massive issue. We have one of the lowest wage bills in the division it needs to come up anyway if we’re to improve the squad. I do think it’s a lot of money to spend on one player at this level but it’s one I believe, with a few other smart additions, would turn us into real contenders as opposed to signing more 10 players and only starting 4 of them.
Aye had plenty of minutes for his age and stage of development for me. Club couldn't have done anymore on that front!
So many good points being made. Our attractiveness being lower than it was even 6 months ago is quite alarming. Part of it is this stubbornness...how do you expect to be so successful with such a strict idea of recruitment? Dodds has come out and said the players deserve more blame from fans. Stinks of a coach that's leaving, which I heard could be a possibility. He's forgetting how hamstrung we've been as a team, given the age of the squad, leaving O'Nien to be our only ever present senior player with lads like Roberts, Dack and Evans being absent. We are sending funny signals.
i seen a thing last night on twitter from a reims page it's hard to tell with it being in a different language but it's seem it gets stuff. but back in december it said still fell out with the board because we promised him he could build his own coaching team here but reims wouldnt let him do the same , ever since then he's wanted to come here
I think we will still be attractive enough to young palyers wanting to start their career with being in a first team as opposed to warming the bench or under 21's football. Where we may have lost it is players who are now established at this level staying any longer or joining! This season has made us look (to any casual observer) a bit like the basket case club we used to be! They won't see the other stuff that's looking positive off the field, all that will be seen is we sacked TM who was doing well enough (again I think the signs of a downturn were there even under him but the casual observer won't have noticed as they won't watch SAFC regularly), appointed a manager who was sacked quickly after not working out and not being wanted by the fans from the start and then the amount of points dropped since TM went. The football on display is ****e compared to last season when at times it was hard to believe it was SAFC putting on such displays! Let's hope they get the new bloke in quick and it works for once!
You might be right but part of me thinks this summer could be seen as an opportunity to clear out as many players as possible, blood fringe players and recruit new ones. Patterson Hume Ballard Ekwah Dan Neil Roberts Clarke Jobe All of these would demand a reasonable fees, allow us to blood the likes of Ba, Jewi, Aouchiche, Pembele, Mundle, Seelt, Hjelde as well as recruit a few new players. EDIT I assume this would be an unpopular strategy but young players often go from having iffy seasons to suddenly being first team ready after a summer off and good pre-season, young players improve, so we shouldn't expect them to stay at the level they're at right now.
I agree mate. I think any player of any sort of age would be impressed by us if we invited them for talks.
