We can't, we have to be patient, keep developing the players we have and wait for a reasonable offer to come to us. We're doing brilliantly keeping players tied down to long contracts meaning that their value isn't falling through a floor. The club have explicitly stated that they're willing to do this, they're not actively refusing to trade or entertain any approaches. I don't see many clubs at all that have made a big sale in this league which has enabled them to spend that have failed to get value. None of Blackburn with Wharton, Bristol with Scott, Watford with Joao Pedro, Hull with Greaves or Lewis Potter have short changed themselves. Maybe Philogene was under value but those waters were muddied by the agreements already in place with Villa. I personally wouldn't advocate selling an asset at below value just to get the ball rolling, it sends out completely the wrong message (especially for the first big sale for the regime and with a fanbase that are going to need training into accepting the trading model) and will only cause us issues going forward. What's the relevance of the £17m figure? Have we had a bid for one of our players for that amount?
We were linked a year or so back, maybe January, not now. No need to get wound up over imaginary links man. The article literally says eight clubs in League One and Two
Wharton and Greaves were undersold, Wharton has played 4 months in the PL and is being linked with 100m moves now. The 17m is what I would accept for Clarke after Spurs take their cut, nothing to do with any offers. So what do we do in the meantime? Continue to leave ourselves short in crucial positions while clubs who are actively trading have 3rd choice strikers that would start every game for us? I think fans are more pissed off about having no competent forward than they would be about underselling someone. A sale of Ekwah would be good enough.
Are all 18 year olds ****? I hope we don’t sign that Spanish kid, I prefer late twenties Roberts because he shaves more
I think it’s a tough balancing act for the club tbf. They’ve never explicitly said that we buy players in order to sell for profit. Indeed they an actually gone out of their way to deny that a few times in the past. All they’ve said is that they prefer to invest in young potential and that they won’t spend money the club doesn’t have. Ultimately I think their timeline isn’t as rushed as that of the fans. They’d prefer to let the current squad ride it out as far as they can go before taking bigger offers down the line. Also I do wonder how much is an element of fan management. They could have snatched at the Lazio suggestion for Jobe but it was barely over £10m. They could have sold Clarke for £15m plus add-ons. But when they’re dealing with a fanbase where a significant portion steadfastly refuse to acknowledge how modern football works - and will bleat about penny pinching at an owner who has funded the club to tens of millions already - do they really want the chew of selling our star players for ‘a pittance’? The sales will most certainly come at some point. They may not end up being at a time to help us this window, but they’re gonna turn up eventually.
I agree with everything you have said. I'm not trying to bash the club, their policies in terms of recruitment is exactly how I would run a club if I was in a position to do so and you are right about the fan management stuff which is what i'm trying to help with when people are talking about Boro showing 'ambition' (hate that word) when in reality they are just spending what they have brought in. Just a personal belief that the club can't compete with a lot of Championship clubs for players until we sell, so I would like us to sell.
If Mendy is a very good striker, worth more than whatever we are offering, why have we not heard of any other Championship Club going for him and making a higher offer. If they want about £4 million or whatever it is I imagine he is not brilliant, just better than what we have now. The same as we thought about Rusyn. We seem to be offering somewhere about half what they want which means we think he’s about a £2 million player. That’s not really much if he’s any good, less than half the Conway fee at ‘Boro. if we really rate him and think he’s the answer then at least go to £3 million. Offer Hemir on loan. *I don’t know what offers we’ve made and am just going on what appears on this forum so I could be way out. The same way that we will not sell Ekwah for 5m euro can be said about Caen not selling Mendy for whatever we’ve offered. I know one wants to leave and the other doesn’t appear to want to leave but if we refuse to sell because we think he’s worth more then Caen can refuse for the same reason.
You're using the benefit of hindsight with Wharton, do you genuinely recall people claiming he was undersold at the time? After Spurs take their cut for Clarke? So you'd need the buying club to be offering a fair bit more than the £17m. So to use Ekwah and the underselling proposal, would you accept the 5m euros we've apparently been offered for him? Would you have accepted the supposed £7m for Hume? Would you have accepted the £15m for Clarke? Where is it you draw the line? Just to reiterate, I'm wholly on the same page as you in terms of acknowledging we need a big sale to evolve and progress as a club but I just believe you can't make other clubs buy your players and I personally wouldn't advocate underselling anyone.
Yep. You’ve been very clear for a while about what we need to do - and that until we do we can’t operate at the level that other clubs can. Makes the job of Speakman and Harvey so much harder. Still think we can have a decent season, though.
