I'm fairly sure I read that Glavin was paid very well indeed, more than he was paid by Celtic. When Allan Clarke asked Ronnie what he could do to persuade him to sign, Ronnie quoted a salary that he never dreamt he would be offered, because he wasn't really that keen on joining us and thought that he wouldn't be pestered any more, if he asked for what he ended up getting. I also remember reading that Newcastle's interest in signing Ronnie from us waned when they heard how much we were paying him.
Totally agree. My nephew is an Ipswich season ticket holder, and he says he'd like Ipswich to sign Mads if he becomes available, as he really rates him.
The question is though, what is a fair fee? We got £3.5 million for Roberts, over £2 million for Lindsay, £5.5 million for Mawson. Duff says Mads is the best centre back in League One and I doubt that he would be impressed by, for example, a £1.5 million fee for him.
If Peterborough can claim one of their players is worth £10m, and keep away the vultures, I'm sure we can.
Don't forget though, you have to sign a replacement, which may include a transfer fee, and then you've got to pay the player.
None of those only had one year left on their contracts though, I don’t believe. As I’ve said, that just about halves his value straight away. In any case, I doubt Duff has any real interest in the fees paid or received. It’s not for him to dwell on. He’s a head coach, not a manager. He doesn’t sign players or negotiate deals. All he will be concerned with is who is in his squad at the beginning of august. If that doesn’t include Mads I’m not sure Duff will be any more or less bothered if the fee was £1million or £5million. He will be interested in the replacement though. We might go into the season with Moon, McCarthy, Cundy and Kitching. Three to play and a backup, with further support from the younger players. I doubt it - but it’s possible. That might bother him, but the fees, I doubt it. Comes across as a guy who worries about what he can control, and someone that leaves the other stuff to those who’s job it is.
Probably irrelevant but if I were Mads I would be staying with us and letting my contract run down. He’ll be in the strongest position to negotiate if he can leave on a Bosman, whichever league we’re in.
That's true, although it always has to be balanced by the fact that he could pick up a serious injury next year, or suffer a catastrophic loss of form. If he's offered a £15k a week contract now it would be prudent to sign it as opposed to a potential £20k contract a year down the line.
Overall yes but the teams demoted plus a few others are not the same standard as at least two of the teams that were promoted from League One and I suspect not as good a team as Barnsley. Both Leagues contain dross. There is a gulf overall, I agree, but nothing like that between the Premier League and Championship.
Agree with this. If those are the available centre backs, he’ll feel he’s taken us as far as he can as we’ll simply concede too many goals. Particularly if Cotter is the right wing back as well. My hope is that the club have a list of centre backs they are targeting and Duff is happy with it, knowing we’ll need two of them.
I think that Blackpool have solid foundations and are likely to be challenging, even if they can't hang on to Yates. Wigan and Reading's ability to challenge will depend on whether they are able to carry on cheating to recruit players on the never never. My mate who supports Reading reckons they may well go straight through to L2. Fingers crossed he's right.
Don't forget to subtract from that the cost of fetching a replacement in plus the new players wages though.
Put it this way, if we continue to sell for peanuts (anything below £2m) for Mads, I can guarantee that the Championship club that buys him could sell him on 12 months later for double that.
I doubt he is either. Convincing him to stay would probably involve some kind of pay rise though, and I doubt it would be much less than that.
Yeah but at that point, it would be a Championship Club selling a Championship centre half, who would have several years left on his contract. We're selling a L1 centre-half with 12 months left. The value is completely different. It's just the way it is. Carlton Morris a classic example.