After watching last nights game one thing really stood out for me, and that was how overated Connor Wickham looked! Sunderland paid £8 million rising to £12m for a player that looked like he lacked composure, finese, a good touch and hunger to play football at the highest level. I hope it was just an off night but on the eveidence of that game Marvelous Marvin would command a fee of around £15 million! When you compare Wickham to DG how can he be worth 3 times as much (wickham got 9 goals and DG 27)? I know his age will put his valuation up but DG still has 4 to 5 good years in him and could command a good sell on fee should he do well. Wickham reminds me a little of Jonothan Stead and Franccis Jeffers who both commanded big fees only to fade away and end up in the championship and league 1, I hope I am wrong but just dont get it with him..... Come to think of it there have been some very strange player valuations over the years, some for me that stand out as being slightly strange when you compare them are: Andy Carroll @ £35m ! when you compare this to Luis Suarez & Juan Mater (proven world class strikers) both costing in the early £20s it does seem to be far too much money .. Alex Oxlade Chamberlain @ £15 million (half a season in league 1) Versus Ashley Young £18million (4 seasons at the top of his game in the prem) £20 million for Downing seems to be steep as well (never really understood the hype with Downing, only ever seen him step up to it twice) Another one that stands out for me is how little Villa paid for Shay Given, @ £3.5 million compared to £18 million Utd paid for De Gea. I know there is a massive gap in age but Given has a good 4 years left and is a proven No 1 goalkeeper in the premiership, DeGea could be good but £18 million is too much for a teenage keeper that has only played 2 season. Below are what I would say are Some of the biggest transfer flops with the largest transfer fees..... Andry Schevchenko to Chelsea @ £37 million (47 games, 9goals and never looked like a quality player) Zlatan Ibahimavic to Barca @ £59 million (42 games, 22 goals. not a bad ratio but sold on to AC milan for closer to £20 million) Fernando Torres to Chelsea @ £50 million (prob one of the biggest flops so far! could come good but £50million looks like daylight robbery at the moment) Kaka to Real Madrid @ £59 million (not done anything at Madrid yet) Juan Sebastien Veron @ £28 million to Man Utd (played 40 odd games and was then sold to Chelsea for £15 million where he played 14 games) so a flop at both clubs. Can you think of any other players who have cost too much money and seriously under performed (we could do this for both WFC & World players) WFC biggest failure has to be that great big useless lump known as Nathan Ellington @ £3.5 million! when you compare that we sold DG for the same amount we really did have our pants pulled down and our bare bums spanked (prob went a bit too far then ) I actually think West Brom owe us a great big favour! not only did they sell us Nathan Ellington they also took Robbo for a measley £200,000... Grrrrrr ..... Over to you guys .....
A player is worth simply what someone is willing to pay for them, and often nothing to do with their 'talent'! We felt DG is was undervalued - but his contract undervalued him further. No-one else seem to value DG at £3.5m or more, so that is all we got. I have never seen anything from Wickham to justify his price tag, but someone has and were willing to pay that amount. Chamberlain again I think was far overvalued, but if Arsenal are willing to pay that much for him, then so be it. When Sordell comes to being sold, we obviously would rather a Man City or Arsenal come in for him, as we can demand more, but only time will tell on that one. Let's hope we put a rediculous valuation on his head, and say 'come and get him'
It's as said above - supply and demand - if a club desperately needs to buy - they will have to pay more and if desperately needing to sell to raise money you will get less
The thread is not really supposed to ask why, as it is fairly obvious that it's down to the points made in SalsburyKevs post. I was just trying to bring on the debate of player valuations and seeing if we can get examples of over priced players for both our club and in the world in general! We could also bring in examples of players that have been a bargain that have gone on to make a club huge money. Ronaldo being a prime example for Man Utd, Purchased for £12 million, Played around 200 games and scored loads of goals. Was then sold for £80million, that has to be the best bit of business ever! .....
I think you can argue pretty much every player is overpriced really, as very few players 'pay back' their transfer fee. You will get the minority - a David Beckham or Cris Ronaldo who will sell their fair share of merchandise, or they may bring in those extra thousands of supporters (maybe like Bellamy did for Cardiff last season, and Becks at LA Galaxy). Very few players will actually 'win' the cash to pay back their transfer fee and wages - so it is really only the 'sell-on' where a player individually adds a significant value to a team! One over valued player at the moment, I'd say, is E'too... what a rediculous amount of wages he is on. Just one week of his wages would make most of us comfortable for a very long time. As for our club, the obvious example is Ellington, but pretty much every player we have paid a transfer and/or wages who hasn't featured for the club can be classed as overvalued. Tom Aldred, for a start you could say. Jure Travner another. Then comes to the point, so do they have to be a failure to be overpriced (eg, a Travner), or overpriced to be a failure (eg, an Ellington)? If someone who comes in on a free but never plays a game for us, is that overpriced, a failure or just never given the chance.... when we have still paid them a decent weekly wage (decent in comparison to a lot of our wages)?
Simple either the clubs agree to disclose the fee or not. Disagree strongly on aldred- this was simply a develipment player taken on, didnt step up and was released. Really you want anyone signed by vialli. Plus ne and sadler
