Strong rumours that Man City are about to bid for Pat Roberts!!! I was wondering at what price would you sell him??? I know that some fans will be unhappy with the club and blame them for a lack of ambition if we sell him but let's be realistic we are a championship side and they are Man City. People will argue that he shouldn't go to Man City as he will just sit in the reserves but that is what he is doing at Fulham. Yes he has massive POTENTIAL but at the moment that's what it is potential. For me £8 million with lots of add ons, large sell on clause, first option of a loan back, extra payments on international caps etc etc
I suspect if Ruiz moves on that Roberts will get more of a chance at first team places, we couldn't afford to have two creative in the same team, neither player has the physic for strong tackling. The plus side for him to go to City would be he would progress quicker training with better world class players, but there is no way in his present form he would ever get near the first team in the next 2 seasons, and there's been many a player who has crashed after joining a bigger club. We need a creative player in midfield if they don't think he is going to take the place of Ruiz then they might as well sell and get money (£10m + add ons) in to get the required player, and hope there is another player coming through the U21's U18's
Find it sad that clubs like Man City can do things like this where the motive is only to satisfy the ‘home grown’ rule and FFP wages. While I still believe it would be the wrong move at the wrong time for Pat, I wouldn’t blame him one iota after the way he’s been mis-managed last season.
That's one of my points Cottager, people will say why go to City and just sit the reserves, but last season he was just sitting in our reserves and if he thinks he might not get many first team games this season he might as well do it at City training with world class players and getting ten times the money! The only thing that will keep him at us is first team football it's just a case of whether the coaches think he is ready!!
The opinion I seem to have drawn is if you have the slightest amount of talent you wont get into one of KS teams
Shame if he goes. We've always been a club that sells. We're never going to hold o n to talent like PR whilst in the championship. Take the money I say.
Yes I am afraid that Pat probably be on his bike very shortly, would love to see us get 10m+ and stay at the cottage for 15/16 season, But my natural cynicism tells me that if he stayed he would not get much game time under Kit who would spend about 2mil on 4 or 5 has beens, Khan adding the remainder to his coffers.
Not sure I’d agree Craving. Certainly not in recent (5?) years. Apart from Smalling, we’ve not sold any youngsters. And indeed all of the ‘good’ ones we’ve simply released - David, Tanovic, Islamovic and Frei come to mind but there is a string of others. At a senior level it’s a similar story. You’d be hard pushed to find many players we bought and sold at a profit. Dembele being the exception; Dejagah, Dempsey and Kasami to lesser degrees. No doubt we'd lose him at some point if we stay in this League. However, if Pat won't sign a new deal (reputedly £5k per week on a 5yr contract) then yes, take the money now.
It's a fair point from C58, I'd say we are a club that releases rather than sells. We should aspire to be a selling club, it's the next step. I vaguely remember posting on this topic 2/3 seasons back.
We should aspire to be like Southampton a club roughly the size of ours, in all our footballing aspects,
Pat Roberts this morning officially turned down Fulham's offer to sign a new 5k per week contract. this appears to pave the way for Arsenal ,Liverpool and the Man city the favourites to pursue what many coaches are saying is one of the most exciting talents in English football. It appears that City are appealing at Fulhams valuation of 8/10mil,citing the fact that he has not appeared in many 1st team appearances, (could we be screwed for a second time 1 kit not giving him enough pitch time & the FA coming down in favour of one of the big clubs )
Good luck to him. His manager obviously can smell the money. But Kit has a portion of blame as he effectively sidelined him last year in favour of our star Ruiz!
£5k a week is a poor offer, he might not have experience but he's got value - we've given much bigger pay packets to inferior players.
It looks like he ha gone according to Sky Sports News 17:07 CITY 'AGREE ROBERTS DEAL' Manchester City have agreed an £8million deal to sign Fulham's Patrick Roberts, according to the Daily Mirror. Roberts, 18, has turned down a new contract at Fulham to push through the deal to City who are set to sign him - and then immediately loan him out. England U19 starlet Roberts is regarded as one of the country's best prospects and will also help City boost their home grown quota. A great pity but I wasn't sure he was a Championship Type player.
I don't know if a lack of playtime is the issue here. If it is, City would be the last place in the world he'd go.
One positive spin on it: we're moving up in the world. It used to be that our most promising players moved to Spurs to disappear into the reserves, now they are wasting themselves at genuine title-contenders.
I have no great problem with the likes of Roberts moving on with the proviso that we get the maximum amount fee wise and it is wisely spent say 8m we could buy 2 quality players and not 6 discards
