At least the club are showing willing to keep their star players. £75k would surely make Townsend the highest paid player in the Championship? Hope he stays... but would understand why he wouldn't. http://www.footballinsider247.com/n...r-pay-rise-in-bid-to-keep-him-at-club-report/
rumoured that Palace will meet the £10.5m release clause and give him £80k per week. Would make sense with Palace's policy of only buying wingers and midfielders and having an irritational phobia of signing strikers. Can't imagine Palace being massively tempting for him, another season of scrapping against relegation around the bottom vs the likelihood of coming back up at the first attempt and likely going on to better things beyond that.
I think its starting to sound increasingly likely he will be on the move. The money is no problem and PL teams will pay the premium wages to secure a sub 25 yr old home grown player. I think we will lose Andros personally.
He is the one player I would love to keep who i am expecting to leave. Still can't see him being with us next year but really hope I'm wrong.
If it's true he wants to stay, then I take my hat off to him. Playing in front of 52,000 means more to him than money and hopefully next season is the start of a new revolution at the club. If Rafa gets us rolling from the start then the likes of Palace won't attract our star players. Don't know if it's just me but I'm excited for next season and can't wait for it to begin and I think Sissoko and Cisse may be the only ones who WANT to leave.
I'd be surprised if he really is still here next season but if he stays then full credit to the lad. On a positive /optimistic note, I actually think the timing might be in our favour. The fact he is nof in thd Euros means he's not potentially making an even bigger name for himself. But more importantly, the fact that the Euros are THIS summer means he has no rush to jump to a Prem team. If the Euros or World Cup were next summer, then he'd want to be in the top flight this coming season, in the hope of being in contention. But as it is 2 years until the next tournament, he can afford a season of being guaranteed regular games in a side that 'should' have plenty of attacking opportunities. Maybe clutching at straws but it might just work in our favour.
I went higher because of the English/Home Grown factor. So whilst he would not start for 90%, he'd still be a good signing for their squads to help them meet quotas.
Actually, you can see a certain sense in him staying. We're offering him good money so he isn't going to get much more anywhere else. He has just come from rotting in the Spurs reserves. His choices are to go to a poor PL club and start, go to a good one and risk rotting on the bench or stay with us for a season, be a hero and hopefully be playing for a goodish PL team in 2017 - 8 Would still be a bit surprised but less so than I was that Rafa stayed.
This is the thing with Andros - he has suffered the whole watching from the 21's scenario. He was professional about it but clearly having seen what it has done to his burgeoning international career, why would he want to return to that scenario? There is the next bracket down with the likes of Southampton (could potentially replace a Mane or Tadic if they get the big moves). Largely it depends on who is in charge at these clubs. Foreign managers coming in afresh tend to look abroad, normally with players they have worked with or admired in the league they have been plying their trade. So really he is probably looking at the lower for a guarantee. Given the next international competition is 2 years away, perhaps he thinks that a year spent a league down with a top coach, could be an ok price to pay and preferable to a season struggling with the also rans. If the money is good then perhaps he'll give us that year to sort ourselves out (you are running out of time to enter the euro sweepstake Freddd)
I can see him deciding to stay and then late in the window a big cub like Man Utd or Liverpool coming in for him and him being unable to say no, despite him likely being a bit part player there. Having said that, if he did stay that would indicate a deeply committed player and the sort of team spirit in the squad that's been lacking for years.
Thanks for the add General. Still making my way round this gaff. Oh, and I agree that a heed turning proposition will spill out in the closing stages of the window. Here's hoping Rafa has done enough with his hard sell. Reet.....off to test the swear filter
Welcome on board Guesty. There are one or two on here that will give your profanity laden posts a run for your money.
