Is Daryl Dike really worth £10+ Million?

It is interesting how Toney and Fletcher’s careers have gone - Fletcher looked miles better to me when he was with us

 

Application, belief? Ivan Toney cones across as very self confident (and rightly so!) whereas Ashley seems to need more reassurance and belief from others.

 

The way I see it, FWIW, and my opinion is only worth tuppence .......

In recent years we have had forwards such as Kiwomya, Armstrong, Toney, Fletcher and that tall lad from Stoke who we have to say were all experiments. They were never ours, and during their time with us, the jury was out for most of us as to whether we should ever take a plunge on signing them full time.
The lad from Stoke suffered with injury, otherwise I think he might have had a career. Most of us wanted to sign him.
Kiwomya was fast, but not very good at football. We didn't see anything, and he is now in non-league.
Armstrong, the jury was out - but we contributed to his development and ultimately to his current 'worth'.
Fletcher was wanted, I believe, but we knew he was more than likely destined for 'bigger' things. Again, he has made a career and we contributed to that.
Toney - the jury was definitely out during his time with us, he was Marmite, but ultimately successful and again, we contributed to his development.

There will be other examples.

The point I make is that rather than gambling on future potential that other teams will ultimately benefit from, I'd like us now to be an a position to sign players who have already done the hards yards elsewhere. And if splashing out on Dike shows that sort of ambition and operating model, then I am all for it.

And to add to the players above, I'd like us to consider Ike Ugbo. He did his early stint in the big Misters league with us, and to be honest, looked lost. Same at Scunny. But he was a kid, and a kid who now seems to have stuck at it and turned into a big mister himself. Two years testing himself abroad have proven their worth. I don't want us to sign another 18yo Ike Ugbo, but I would love us to take a punt on an already developed 22yo Ike Ugbo.

 

John Walters, Chris Woods, Jay Rodriguez, Ivan Toney,
None of them looked like they'd end up in the Premier League.

Ashley Fletcher did and I was also impressed with Armstrong when we had him and thought he'd do better than Blackburn. The moral being that some players don't mature till they're well into their 20s.

 

I don't think the transfer fee is the problem it's the personal terms. You can bid £30 million but it's no good if the player wants to go to Everton, Wolves or Man Utd.