Search results

And now he’s back on the first ferry to the French second division. £2.5 million well spent?

My argument is that young players that Championship teams sign for seven-figure sums tend to be considered as viable first team options for Championship clubs. Certainly true for the Sunderland players you listed, but sadly not true of Bassette.

And they were signed with no expectation of contributing to the first team? If so, then yeah, fair play to you.

Which is fine, except a) £2.5 million is high for a Championship development project and b) his current ‘development’ trajectory has him back where we found him after one year, with a deal already in place to sell Maybe you think that’s a good use of the cash - I don’t!

Because it’s quicker to ask someone who clearly has an in-depth knowledge of Sunderland’s squad I don’t want to turn this into a “He’s 28 until he’s 29” debate but £1 million is not “in and around” £2.5 million imo… Sunderland are clearly operating under different parameters from us (and most...

Or I can blame the scouts who were convinced we were buying primo talent that turned out to be a development project at best? I’m not going to get too annoyed at the two different coaching staffs for not turning him into a Championship striker if we’ve actually been sold a pup.

Hence why I asked what they cost - was it around £2.5 million?

And these players all cost £2.5 million and played badly for Sunderland before being shipped out again? I also don’t think we should pretend that Sunderland’s transfer model is the typical Championship approach - it’s certainly not ours.

It was a risk though? The kid is going to spend this season back in the French second division where we found him. We took a sizeable gamble on him and halfway through his four year deal he’s contributed nothing to us. £2.5 million!

So in your view we can just spend £2.5 million on a youth player without King or Austin having to make any considerations about how it affects our future business?

On which players?

There is if you overpay for it and it prevents you from strengthening a squad that’s a couple of signings away from promotion. Anytime you spend £2.5 million on a player in this division, you should expect better than what Norm’s shown us. We’re not Chelsea, this team does not have the...

I don’t remember us doing it before, nor can I think of other teams in this league doing it. You must have other examples? The alternative explanation is that we spent good money on a player we thought would be first-team ready and got it very wrong.

Championship clubs don’t tend to spend these kind of sums on development players who don’t also contribute in the first team, do they? Or am I wrong?

If he’s a young kid who’ll take two years before we even think about him playing effectively in the Championship, why did we spend that kind of money on him? It’s a huge waste of resources when you see how else the money could have been invested.

You talk about him like he’s some academy kid, but he was signed for a substantial fee - more than Torp, Sakamoto or Thomas - and he hasn’t delivered on it. I know he’s a young player and he has a lot to learn, but if you spend £2.5 million on a player in the Championship then you should expect...

What’s the Irish flag doing up there? Did I miss a late deal in the August transfer window?

What have I said now in this thread Dom? I hate it when you get this upset. What's with the 26? Did you have a bit of trouble registering in the assumption there were 25 other SkyBlueDoms on here?

It's my initials! Didn't really twig they were the same as the whole forum at the time. Happy to change it...

Think you're being harsh on fatso here personally