He’ll have 2 years left on his deal at that point so they may be open to selling him cheaper. But yeah if PL teams are interested we won’t be getting him.
I have to be honest and say I didn't really see much in him at men's level yet, but he is also still quite young. However, if he is refusing to sign a contract and thinks he should be playing, and two very different managers clearly disagree with it, then better to cash in and get a good fee
I get why he wanted to go, and with 18 months left on a deal why we cashed in. I’d imagine he wasn’t interested in a new contract; and can understand why if we weren’t playing him (for whatever reasons). Not a bad solution all round.
The mistake we made with him (and others) is not finding them loan moves I think. Easier said than done obviously but I think if Doyle, Meghoma and SAA had had loan moves to L1 or the Championship where they could either shine and make a case to play higher or get a bit of a reality check then we may have kept them. Doyle and Meghoma are now both on loan at lower league clubs, I doubt there was much talk of them playing for Brighton or Brentford’s first team when they moved. Again too much we don’t know behind the scenes, maybe we tried but couldn’t get them a loan. Loans are hard to get for young players I suspect so maybe we did try and it was only after (relatively) big money moves for unknown youngsters that maybe helped secure the loan deals they now have Another reason why B teams should be a thing
Can agree with that. Sam should've been out on loan midway through last season, or this summer at worst. Then we'd at least have six months or so of tape to judge him on in the men's game, rather than a couple of very small cameos and a load of academy football Although the fee is pretty good, I think. And I assume we have clauses in there to get further cuts of fees down the line, if he does mature into a good player
And yet we’ll hear now about how it’s a terrible move and our owners are worse than Chansiri for allowing it.
Yeah we have been poor with the loan market I think. Maybe it’s a club decision thinking players are better off training at our facilities/with a better quality of coaching and players than they’d get at a lower league club. Then you get these scenarios where clearly the coaching staff don’t think a player is ready, but the player wants to play. And there becomes little option for the club but to sell when their contract is running down. As I said I appreciate it is hard to get loan moves for young players. After all the club loaning them also has their own objectives and might not want to trust a 17/18 year old with no real mens experience no matter how talented they look. There also is (a minimum of) 19 other PL teams with their own talented youngsters who are looking to be loaned so the chances of one of Saints players getting picked gets slimmer SAA clearly a talent at u21 level and may very well grow into a good player, shame it hasn’t worked out here but there are lots of reasons that could be the case
