I honestly think if we were offered 2 million from a premiership side, we would have accepted it and so would brian and he'd be off. Now what i think is that no one has come in for him this summer. Brian would stay with us but he is pricing himself out of a new contract for the reds. I think he has been offered a contract that is either the best paid player or on par with the best paid player. Brian thinks he is worth more. This has affected his performances. Now for me you shouldnt break the bank on wages and spoil the atmosphere in the squad. Brian is not worth more in money than anderson or anyone else. Yes he should be offered a new contract but dont over pay him. We know that we cant afford to pay a pler £15000 a week and if we could then we wouldnt be where we are in the table. Sheff Utd have come in with a offer to take him on loan with view to a permanent paying him somewhat near what he wants. Why, cos they can afford it (especially with the tevez money even more now). Will we get what we want in terms of transfer fee for him? No we wont. We ill let him go for around 600k i think. He is worth more but only with a 2 year contract round his neck something he hasnt got. 600k is better than keeping him here with his head and heart in the wrong place and letting himperform below par and letting him go for a free in summer. I'd like him to stay but if he is pricing himself out of a contract then no player is bigger than the club. The club can only pay what they can afford and if we cant afford brian then he has to go. Will he fit in at sheff utd. I think he will. He will not be the star player though at sheff utd.
RE: Pat said he was worth 10mill i disagree with that. He said that if tonge was valued at 5 mill then howard is valued at 10mill. Tongue in cheek comment i think. Patrick has made millions on business decisions and he should know aswell as everyone else that if you get a 2 million offer for a player that has 1 year left and know that you cant afford to offer him what he wants to stay then you pull the plug and take the money and run. If it was me in charge and i got offered 2 mill for him and brian had overpriced the wage structure for him to be offered an improved contract then id offload him. we never get told the true story in football and opinions will differ. That is my opinion
kevin phillips wags yes would have been big but would have been a free transfer and a player we need howard in all truth i dont think will be missed plenty of back up
Brian Howard could get better money at almost any other club in the Championship - there are some extremely wealthy teams in this league. The only thing that we could hope to keep him here with is good money (as opposed to mega bucks) and regular first team football, combined with a situation where he is happy to be at a club which is enjoyable to play for (good fans, good setup etc). We fall down on this equation on more than just money. How we could hope to keep hold of Howard is beyond me. He's not Barnsley born and bred. He has been excellent for the last few years - he owes us nothing. I couldn't give a toss whether he fits in at United or not.
i think that if you can afford phillips then you can afford howard. Thing is brian want more than we can afford. If we could afford it then that contract would have been offered and he would have signed it by now. Hes a footballer and wants to play at a high level and get paid high for doing it. Most footballers are greedy. Brian looks like hes fallen ito this category
He'll get what he reckons hes worth if and when he goes? and that personally is what I've always found to be fantastic self motivator.... He'll fly when he finds he's loved again....
i agree but why should we break the bank to keep him. If we could afford phillips on top wages then why wasnt howard offered equal terms? I think hes priced himself out of a new contact. If sheff utd can offer him what he wants then fair enough. We cant compete with sheff utd financially and he wont be guaranteed football there. He will not be the star man.
The point I was really driving at was that if Howard was genuinely happy with us, and the club was a great place to go to work, and his relationship with the manager was superb, he was in love with the fans and the fans gave him the proper amount of appreciation across the board - maybe a couple of grand here or there wouldn't have made the difference. As it stands, he can get much more than we can afford to pay, we're not going to ruin to the club, he owes us nothing because he has been brilliant for years - it's a straight forward career decision and we've (the club collectively) actually not made it all the difficult for him to trust his head over his heart really. If you want to keep players like Howard there is more to it than money, but you have to be able to pitch a lot of money in too. Remember, we nearly broke the bank for Glavin. Star players are like that. And having said that much, at one point we were breaking the bank over much worse players than Brian Howard. Good luck to the fella. Can't really knock him. Just couldn't give a toss what happens at Bramall Lane.
Can't agree. Even if everything in the garden was rosy, a footballer would still go where the few extra bucks were. Unfortunately Brian's ego has swollen far greater than his footballing ability, especially after the cup run. What Sheffield United will find is that they have acquired a player who doesn't produce the goods often enough. Their demanding fans will soon be on his back.
