I like Watson think there is a good young player there who may develop into something special. Or he may dissappear into the footballing wilderness as has happened many times. Good deal for us at this moment in time. Good deal for his agent. Wether it's a good deal for Watson only the future will tell us that.
Just catching up on the thread. Is it rumours circulating about mepham deal or ppl heard the club are trying to push it through? Be good start to the summer window to get him signed if true.
The academy staff may well feel cheated. I suspect though they also feel pride. They have developed a player who has been chased by a top end premier league club for some time, a club well regarded for identifying talent. They should also feel satisfied at the £10m the club have just banked. In times like this academy coaches should receive a bonus imo. A job very well done. We are very lucky to have them and it may not be too long before other clubs are looking at some of them.
Players come Players go Nothing lasts forever Enjoy what we have, when we can. We know only too well how bad things can get. This is a good time enjoy it.
They seem pretty keen on him though, don't see why they wouldn't be giving him minutes in the prem and if he did go on loan that's a year of development and he's still a Brighton player afterwards. They're a very good prem side and it's a great move for anyone from the championship. Besides he's behind Mundle with us so it's not like he's going from starter to bench warmer. Maybe he feels Brighton rate him more than we do, they're certainly willing to pay good money for him. Whatever the case, he's fulfilled one of the main purposes of signing players and made the club a sizeable profit. He's not played enough to earn much good will but he's doing nothing wrong either.
Seen as Watson is our first significant academy sale, will the club treat the money slightly differently to other departures? For example, The Clarke and Stewart money gets split into 50% transfer kitty and the rest goes into other stuff like data, academy, contracts etc. Will they use this to put more money into the academy structure, seen as hes an academy product? Not sure if I've worded that correctly to be honest
In the eyes of PSR/FFP the sale is 100% pure profit as he's an academy product. I'm sure the Owners will just see it as funds coming in and distribute it as the club needs it
I trust these guys to use it sensibly to develop the club. I hope we don’t get the Where’s the Watson money gone quotes in a few weeks time. The club have earned my confidence over the last few years so let’s trust them to put it to good use.
Now I'm not certain on this but I read somewhere that it cost around £2M to run the academy per year,. I'm not sure if this is just the cost for the facilities, coaches, outreach, and all players across the age groups from dribblers up. Or, if it included data and scouting as well. It's not a cheap operation and whilst it's funded as part of the running costs of the club I would have thought that a proportion of any fee received from player sales would be allocated to running the academy. If I understand matters correctly the objective is to make the academy effectively self funding, if so theres still some way to go but it is the future of the club. I may of course be talking out of my ar$e
Many on here think Tommy will be loaned out to a Championship Club next season. Wouldn’t it be something if Brighton loaned him to us for the season.
Hope not. Nothing will be gained by doing so. If it comes to it, and he goes through one on one with the keeper at Wembley in the last min, I want him full of confidence and scoring.
I don’t get what people don’t understand about it it’s a 4 year deal at Brighton and at a modest 15k a week in the modern game that’s over 3m, at least 1.5m net and with some good accounting easily 2m net. life securing, changing and means he’s not down Nissan post career or sooner should injury or potential not be realised. look at Ross Stewart, he does his injury six months earlier, he doesn’t get the Southampton move, he finished and he’s up Rosyth working on the fishing boats.
wouldn't want him on a loan a team chasing promotion can’t be starting him religiously which would be the aim of the loan
No point wasting a loan spot for someone to play backup and not feature. Now we aren't interested in developing him he doesn't really off a whole lot unless Mundle is shattered or injured.
I wish the lad well and no malice, he has set himself up for life and his family probably, I think its a good move for him and the club. We both benefit. If your sitting on less than a grand a week and are offered 15 grand a week and a shot at the bigtime you have to be simple in the head not to take it. The keyboard warriors would more than likely make the same decision, if he was my lad I would be telling him to take the opportunity any good parent would. Lets not forget he is still a kid and some of the arseholes wishing he gets injured etc really need to get a grip. I agree he shouldnt stand in the way of any of our other young lads career progression and I dont think he will looking at RLBs comments.
Yeah I trust them too, and have the same concerns about they possible complaints. I was just wondering if they used this sale to put more funds into the academy as he's an academy sale. For example, hoping 2 mill to the academy to cover the costs, or possibly 4 mill to cover 2 years and spread the rest accordingly.