You’re right of course. But I’ve seen the likes of Steve Jenkins talk about how Jeff was a wiley auld fox in the transfer market, especially with all of the add ons. I’m hugely unconvinced. And whilst to get mega bucks players usually need to prove themselves a division higher, you do see some clubs (Peterborough are a fine example) get the big wedge immediately rather than having a bi-annual “let’s hope one of our old players gets sold” lottery.
He’s certainly an old fox, maybe all of the add ons etc are now sat in his bank account.
I can’t see one example of the club actually benefiting from any sale in the past 20 years.
Those might be reasonable price tags on those players right now (their actual values are what any buyer is prepared to pay, and the seller be willing to accept, rather than any guide price others put on them), but probably not when they were still with us - and no guarantee they would have become worth that much if they had stayed here longer.
Regardless of how accurate the values you give are, we may have got more than your estimated >10% of current value if we had stuck out for higher transfer fees, but no guarantees - look at Stuart Ryder, Don Penn, Ian Paul, and most recently Kory Roberts for examples of promising players that had their careers cut short after we hung on rather than sell at the first sniff.
And then there is the player themselves to consider. You mention Dan Fox who was one who was determined to go no matter what - so we took the offer on the table rather than let him walk out on a free a few months later (and not be in the right frame of mind to play for you in between). Yes we could have insisted on him honouring his contract, stuck him in with the stiffs, etc (like Liverpool did with Courtinho) but what would be the point if he still went for nothing and we didn’t get any use out of him ourselves? Same goes for anyone else with that mind set - players are workers like any other, not slaves!
If we disregard those examples, then in the general case yes we probably don’t always get the best price we could have got, which then makes it harder to put the price up on the next one as other clubs build up an expectation of what we will accept. It becomes a gamble on whether we stick or twist - and financially we have never been in a position where we could blow it off if we took the wrong option.
4 Likes
I agree.
I believe we should ask what we want for a player with no add ons or other incentives.
We always put add ons in our contracts, does it pay off? Of course not, we don’t have that kind of luck.
If we want 2,3 0r 5 million for one of our players, that’s what we should hold out for, not cave in at the first derisory offer like we have done in the past.
But the add ons are never really disclosed , and are usually way on after we have ’ hopefully ’ all forgotten about them , but then sneak under the radar and into someone’s bank account maybe …
1 Like
Can really see him staying a year, and then going on a free.
All of this is academic, Jeff would get the money anyhow.
1 Like
Hearing Deeney is of interest to the Tesco Bag Ladies.
1 Like
The way our contracts have been structured in the past is to load them up at the back end with add ons and other incentives, meaning we get very little up front.
Of course, all that is based on if the buying club selling that player, that has proven to be a big IF over the years.
In this day and age where clubs are asking outrageous amounts for average players, surely we can do the same if one of our talented youngster happens to catch a Premier club’s eye or two.
1 Like
Agree totally , and all the past about Watford not selling Deeney because we would get a big chunk in the sell on , but they agreed to all of that surely when they brought him off us.
Then just leave him to run his contract down and end up getting nothing at all for him 
To get those sort of fees you’ve really got to be a championship club. Way to do it was go up ion 15/16, get another year out of Henry, Sawyers, Etheridge and Bradshaw and then sell them on regardless of fate and that would’ve been 15m for sure as they’ve all proved to be capable players at that level.
Just looking at the news this morning and seems Brentford are close to signing Ivan Toney for…4m (plus add ons). So four years on not that much more than what they signed Rico for and he’s a 25 goal a season striker at league one. Huddersfield when they were in premier league signed Karlan Grant from Charlton for about 3m.
Unless you mean sell on fees of course which is where things are really unlucky. Deeney goes to Watford and does well for a 5 year period but never moves due to loyalty from them not sacking him when he was sent down in 2012 (which I presume would’ve made any sell on null and void). Paterson starts well at Forest scoring hat trick v West Ham in FA cup in his first season then Stuart Pearce comes in and completely freezes him out so he goes to Bristol City for little. Bradshaw goes to Barnsley and scores a few goals but then gets crocked etc…
Even a sell on for Romaine wouldn’t have got much as think he went to West Brom for about 4m. Etheridge was looking good in premier league but lost his place this season and Cardiff reserve goalkeepers don’t tend to go for much if he leaves this summer.
Rico is last hope now so Brentford will probably lose tonight, he’ll get another long term injury next year and Brentford will completely implode and end up in league 1 by time he gets back.
With sell on clauses and Walsall stranger things have happened…
BTW today marks one year of Leigh Pomlett.
Whatever your thoughts on how things continue to operate behind the scenes no doubt July 29th 2019 was a good day in Walsall’s history, reflected by taking a good away support to Northampton 3 days later where it was bouncing all afternoon.
Hopefully LP can get a promotion under his belt in near future to get more people onside. I think back in league 1 and things would get more interesting e.g. outside investment.
There has been a lot of speculation on this and the Rico thread (with some people even stating is as fact rather than opinion) that Bonser will have retained some or all interest in any sell-on clauses for players sold during his chairmanship of the club.
Apart from hatred towards Bonser, what evidence is there that this is indeed the situation? For a start, would it not breach FIFA’s Third Party Ownership rules?
2 Likes
Then there is the issue of his fitness. With 2020/21 looming in September, Deeney is heading for the operating table in an attempt to fix a knee injury that hampered his season. He missed around nine games early one and had he played, his goals would surely have kept Watford up.
Beyond playing, Deeney is a really intelligent, motivational leader. I think there’s a manager in there somewhere.
1 Like
It has been Watford’s greed that’s got in the way how much money has he earns them via promotions and staying in the prem
1 Like
Strikes me this is clear example of how big the chasm is between the top flight and us mere mortals when it comes to finances.
So a £16M bid, would have meant a £3.1M cut for us (20% of the £15.5M “gain” in value for Watford) and £12.9M cheque for Watford.
In other words a £12.4M profit for them, yet they perceive the 20% to be the barrier?!
1 Like
It needn’t have been if Watford had coughed up. Clearly members of the Greedy League want to hang on to their (our) money.
How many offers did we turn down for Buckley because of sell on clause ?