Fair play. Either of those would be a cracking move for him. He's given us a good five years and I wouldn't begrudge him a move. Can't remember him ever speaking out of turn, either.
Hmm, Ryan turns 30 before the start of the new season and will have less than two years to run on his deal. It's not too bad.
If Bertrand moves on, I'd think that we'd need another left back. Targett just isn't particularly good defensively, and Targett/Vokins on one side with Valery/Ramsay on the other stands a good chance of leaving our CBs even more exposed.
I wouldn't begrudge Ryan a good move either...he's played well for us and we've never heard a moan. He didn't get a move or even publically ask for one during a period where others were leaving and his reputation was at its highest. Good luck to him if it happens.
I'd feel sorry for Targett if Bertrand went ... hes going to be the new shipping boy next season. Hes ready getting a lot of unjustified criticism and hes not even playing.
It's bollocks all this talk of "only 2 years left", "he's 29" etc. Even if he left for free in two seasons, 7.5m per season for a quality wing back in his peak, is not bad value. Last time we did this (Clyne), we ended up with Cedric, who was nowhere near as good. People saying our defence is weak as it is, now we risk losing our best defender. Madness.
You could even argue we should have kept Mane. We sold him for 30m cos he only had 2 years left. Right? His likely 15 goals a season has got to be worth 15m a season.
Bertrand was at his peak about 2 years ago, he has noticeable declined since then. Also, last time we did this with Clyne, he went on to do bugger all at Liverpool which partly justifies his sale.
What happened to Clyne at Liverpool is irrelevant. He was quality for us. Would you say it was a good thing selling Morgan, because he turned out crap for Utd? Bertrand is still quality; the whole team's form was off, not just his.
Fair point about Morgan I suppose - although just because we ended up with a Cedric after Clyne doesn't mean we will end up with a dud to replace Bertrand. And even under Ralph, when the whole team massively improved, Bertrand was average. If we keep him for another year or 2 he will be worth nothing. It would be more sustainable and better business if we were sell for £15m, invest that in a younger, quality replacement that will hold/grow value for many years to come.
Absolutely we could unearth another gem. Vokins or A.N.Other could fit right in. However they could also be another Jack Stephens-level player. And with our defence as it is, I don't think we should take the risk.
Bertrand is probably our highest earner, captains tend to have that in their contracts. I think he's been too average the last couple of seasons to justify that. He's not a good leader neither.
You don't know that. Just cos he's not shouty-shouty on the pitch, we don't know what he's like in the dressing room/training pitch/with youth players. Last season just 3 extra points would have earned us over 5-6m more. Think about that when writing off our best defender.