Transfer News Transfer Window Summer 21

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For a relative comparison, Im sure Dortmund wished they lived in a world where they could hold onto Sancho, Pulisic, Dembele, Aubameyang and really compete with Bayern. They can’t.
Dortmund sold Dembele, a player who wasn’t proven, had only been there a year, who was young (all just like Rob Atkinson) for about €100m with €40m of add-ons. That’s only a relative comparison to Rob Atkinson if we sell him for about £5m with £2m of add-ons. What they didn’t do, is sell Dembele for say €50m, which is what we’re proposing to do if we let Atkinson go for £1.6m.

Although they did sign Dembele on a 5 year contract, so had much more leverage. We seem to only be able to sign players on 2-3 years, even if they’re a cheap pick up from non league. (Well, we signed Jamie Hanson on a huge long contract, and since that has burnt us we seem to have decided to never again give anyone more than 3 years.)

Basically, any club can be a selling club, but it’s nicer when you actually get a decent fee for your players - or even a good one! We’re arguing about whether we’re getting a poor, or just about OK fee for Atkinson - Why can’t we be a team who everyone says ‘How did they get that much for him?’
 
Well it looks like Atkinson is gone, good luck to the lad, we move on. Anymore on Sykes going?

5 weeks to bring in 3 (or more) defenders and depending on Forde/Sykes situation maybe another midfielder and then obviously a winger as Robinson can never have enough, with pre season and the takeover situation at least it’s not boring.
 
Head gets it but heart is very sorry at the thought of him going.

Having to replace half of the back four seems less than ideal.

That said, we were deficient defensively last season. Obviously there's more to it than just the personnel in the back four but we need to ship far less goals this season.

Onwards and upwards I guess. Maybe.
 
If we play hard ball with him then two things will happen; he will resent OUFC for not letting him take a shot at the championship

The guy's 22, not 32. You're writing as if you think this is his last shot at a professional contract before retirement! His NEXT contract is bound to be in the Championship, whether he bails on this one, or honours it.

Prospective players will think that we'll stand in their way and choose not to come to us.

Or, they may see us as an ambitious club prepared to have an actual stab at promotion, prepared to play hardball to get there.

Rob Atkinson doesn't owe us a thing and standing in his way would be selfish on our part.

Yes, he does. He owes us two more seasons, on the contract he's signed, on the terms he's signed to. Conversely, we owe him two more seasons of wages and benefits if in the service of Oxford United, he becomes so injured that he can no longer ply his trade. Them's the breaks.

OUFC have a really positive reputation and I think that's something that should be celebrated, not vilified every time we succeed at turning a nobody into a proper player.

Respectfully, the Oxford United you are describing herein is called a 'feeder club'. I, and I'm sure many other forumees, don't want to support a feeder club.
 
Bank the money, move on and replace.

The club could and should have asked for more but we’ve a history of being soft touches and that gets around. We get bullied by more experienced clubs and the people who do their negotiating for them.

That said, 2m or thereabouts is very good and used correctly across the club will help us move forward.

Use it to tie Moore up with an understanding he can move next summer if we stay in L1 and if he fancied a move. Likewise, Brannagan.

Person my, I don’t feel nearly as disappointed with losing the player as I did with Nelson or even more so, Dickie.

Simply because the two of them were better than him.

Atkinson will be a good defender in the championship and maybe even the PL, but at the moment, he’s way off that and I’ll be surprised if he makes the impact that Dickie or Nelson made.

You only have to look at the play off games to see how he was exposed with a modern day forward.

Simms had him on toast.

He was powerful, direct and two footed and Atkinson simply had no answer to him. Good luck stepping up to the championship and dealing with that week in week out.

More importantly for us it’s how quickly Robinson and his team replace him.

McNally is the obvious one to step up and to keep the model working but it’s a gamble.

A gamble which we will have to take otherwise there’s no point in the model and him having 6 months or so learning the role and adapting to English football and the club.

We need someone else at the back, ideally someone who will fill in across it. I’d have asked Bristol city for Robbie Cundy and shave off a couple of hundred grand from the Atkinson fee but it looks like that’s not the case.

Big few weeks for the club and if they get it wrong or don’t learn from last year, we could be set for an average season.
 
The guy's 22, not 32. You're writing as if you think this is his last shot at a professional contract before retirement! His NEXT contract is bound to be in the Championship, whether he bails on this one, or honours it.



Or, they may see us as an ambitious club prepared to have an actual stab at promotion, prepared to play hardball to get there.



Yes, he does. He owes us two more seasons, on the contract he's signed, on the terms he's signed to. Conversely, we owe him two more seasons of wages and benefits if in the service of Oxford United, he becomes so injured that he can no longer ply his trade. Them's the breaks.



Respectfully, the Oxford United you are describing herein is called a 'feeder club'. I, and I'm sure many other forumees, don't want to support a feeder club.
This ✅
 
Dortmund sold Dembele, a player who wasn’t proven, had only been there a year, who was young (all just like Rob Atkinson) for about €100m with €40m of add-ons. That’s only a relative comparison to Rob Atkinson if we sell him for about £5m with £2m of add-ons. What they didn’t do, is sell Dembele for say €50m, which is what we’re proposing to do if we let Atkinson go for £1.6m.
You're suggesting that the relative comparison is 5% of BVB. What's that based on?

A quick Google shows they have €370m of revenue in 2020, which does not include transfer income.

5% of that would be €18.5m.

I dont think OUFC publish their turnover figure, but another Google suggests an average figure for League One somewhere between £6-8m. The average includes the likes of Sunderland, and suggests to me we are nowhere near €18.5m.
 
Bank the money, move on and replace.

The club could and should have asked for more but we’ve a history of being soft touches and that gets around. We get bullied by more experienced clubs and the people who do their negotiating for them.

That said, 2m or thereabouts is very good and used correctly across the club will help us move forward.

Use it to tie Moore up with an understanding he can move next summer if we stay in L1 and if he fancied a move. Likewise, Brannagan.

Person my, I don’t feel nearly as disappointed with losing the player as I did with Nelson or even more so, Dickie.

Simply because the two of them were better than him.

Atkinson will be a good defender in the championship and maybe even the PL, but at the moment, he’s way off that and I’ll be surprised if he makes the impact that Dickie or Nelson made.

You only have to look at the play off games to see how he was exposed with a modern day forward.

Simms had him on toast.

He was powerful, direct and two footed and Atkinson simply had no answer to him. Good luck stepping up to the championship and dealing with that week in week out.

More importantly for us it’s how quickly Robinson and his team replace him.

McNally is the obvious one to step up and to keep the model working but it’s a gamble.

A gamble which we will have to take otherwise there’s no point in the model and him having 6 months or so learning the role and adapting to English football and the club.

We need someone else at the back, ideally someone who will fill in across it. I’d have asked Bristol city for Robbie Cundy and shave off a couple of hundred grand from the Atkinson fee but it looks like that’s not the case.

Big few weeks for the club and if they get it wrong or don’t learn from last year, we could be set for an average season.
Absolutely; on all points. And we ARE a soft touch, and yes, Championship clubs know
It and will continue to come fishing here for cheap bargains. Scotchers will claim otherwise but he knows it’s true. It seems we’ll just have to suck it up.
 
Whilst understanding the disappointment at Atkinson going it does make me laugh that people are sad that we are selling a player for circa £2 mill with a hefty sell on clause. If he does a ‘Webster’ and Bristol sell him for £20 mill in two seasons time we are looking at another £4 mill if we have a 20% clause which we should be insisting on.
Christ if people said we would be regulars at selling 7 figure players back in the dark days when we bringing in the likes of Lee Jarman and Ian Mcguckin….. we like wouldn’t have been offered a bag of chips for the pair of them let alone £2 mill. It’s sh1t selling your best players but it’s what we do, we are a selling club and need to do so to survive, just be thankful that we now turn out players that others want to buy.
 
£1.6 million is pretty decent business from the football club. Despite RA having a couple more years left on his contract, it’s hard to sell a defender from Lge 1 for a north of £2mill.

Matt Clarke left Pompey for £2million, and I’d say that’s about the going rate for a top Lge 1 defender.

Bristol City are buying potential, and we’ve gone for a 10% sell on clause. Which is better than a promotion clause. There is no way Bristol City will be getting promoted anytime soon.

I think we’ve done well after only playing one season for us. All it takes is a freak injury ie Nelson, and you lose him not only for the season but the financial gains too.

The conveyor belt continues, and it’s how we operate as a football club currently. What attracts these young talented players to us, is that we promise not to stand in there way if a big move comes along.

Reinvest the money wisely, and bring in a couple of experienced heads, to push on next season.
 
Too many on here seem to think we’re playing Football Manager
Exactly this. Too many on here not thinking about the real world consequences for not selling Aktinson and not trying to be a self-sustaining club. Just because we have rich owners doesn't mean we should rely on them to dip into their funds to bankroll the club, and you can't silence a player who has the chance to triple his wages by saying 'you're not leaving and that's final'.

I really can't be bothered to have a debate about our model again as we seem to go in circles time and time again. But what I will say is this: even if we keep Atkinson, it doesn't mean our chances of finishing in the top two are massively increased. Keeping our best players and rejecting million pound bids all for a shot of the Championship is a ludicrous way to run a football club.
 
agree 100% ... other 'selling' clubs (posh as an example) appear to get more realistic fees when they sell an asset than OUFC do
Peterborough recruit promising young forwards, knowing their value will be a lot higher.
If successful.
 
If Atkinson is the only significant sale then I can live with that.

It's unlikely that a direct replacement will be as good, but it's not impossible that the overall squad could be improved by his sale. What I mean is that the fee may enable us to look at higher quality replacements in other areas that makes us a more competitive squad. Maybe the fee will allow us to get our 1st choice left back, or 2 centre backs etc?

I just don't see how, particularly in the current climate, you can stop a division 1 player (£100k ish a year?) signing a deal that could set him up for life. Surely he'd be looking at £8k + per week, a signing on fee on a 4 year deal? Plus he'd be one step closer to a premier league move, he'll know that premier league teams are looking at Dickie after only 1 year in the Championship etc.

I'm not sure how possible it is but could we do any deals where a player is sold, and loaned back to us for 6 months / or a season? Gives the player the comfort of securing the deal, the buyer can see the player develop further and our squad is not immediately ripped up. etc. I could see deals like this working for young keepers, but probably not for players in Atkinson's scenario.

If he is 1 of 2 or 3 significant summer sales then that is a different scenario, again I'm not how you avoid that if offers come in that treble / quadruple a players salary but that is a scenario we need to avoid.
 
Are you seriously suggesting that these players would not progress with other clubs?

so their sole reason in coming here is so they can go when they want and they're not prospects in terms of playing higher up with us they're prospects with £££££ on their head.

so we're not looking to build a squad to progress with the odd tinker we're effectively a meat market with hopes of a chain of stores.
Of course we're trying to build but your response is seeming to suggest that we should be in absolute control of a player's destiny.
There's a balancing act to be had and how many players out there are not going to put themselves before the club?
I couldn't care less whether a player progresses with another club, it's all about OUFC but of a player thinks they may not progress with us then that will surely influence their desire to come here.
 
Glass half empty - "Selling club", "feeder club", "lack ambition" blah blah blah..........

We're in League 1 which makes us a selling club by definition and out of necessity and we're lucky to have sellable assets.

BUT Glass half full - we're also a buying club, feeding club and ambitious. I bet some fans over in Ireland are sick of the sight of us nicking their better players, as are some in the SPL, Conference......

Food chain..... We feed higher clubs and feed on lower clubs, things like financial "fair" play sees to that.

If we're lucky enough not to be one of the 21 clubs in L1 that don't get promoted this coming season and we go up, I bet there'll be lots of conversation along the lines of....."what are the club doing, there's no way we should be signing a kid from L1 with only 1 years experience of league football for £1.6M"
 
Dortmund sold Dembele, a player who wasn’t proven, had only been there a year, who was young (all just like Rob Atkinson) for about €100m with €40m of add-ons. That’s only a relative comparison to Rob Atkinson if we sell him for about £5m with £2m of add-ons. What they didn’t do, is sell Dembele for say €50m, which is what we’re proposing to do if we let Atkinson go for £1.6m.

Although they did sign Dembele on a 5 year contract, so had much more leverage. We seem to only be able to sign players on 2-3 years, even if they’re a cheap pick up from non league. (Well, we signed Jamie Hanson on a huge long contract, and since that has burnt us we seem to have decided to never again give anyone more than 3 years.)

Basically, any club can be a selling club, but it’s nicer when you actually get a decent fee for your players - or even a good one! We’re arguing about whether we’re getting a poor, or just about OK fee for Atkinson - Why can’t we be a team who everyone says ‘How did they get that much for him?’
£2m for a L1 Centre back is a very good fee (especially with add ons)
He has big potential, but defensively has a lot to learn.
Look at previous sales for L1 defenders. I would guess that £2m would be in the Top 5 fees for a L1 CB?
 
I'm not sure why people are convinced we are 'a soft touch.' I understand the disappointment of losing our best players, we all feel this. However, as several people have pointed out, this is not a simple market-place. It is lopsided, because the player is being offered a huge pay rise. Add the relative glamour of moving up the leagues and the seductive tones of the player's agent, and it is hard to stand in the way of a move. You can do it, but it helps if there is a bidding war so that you can say to the player, 'We will let you go, but it might be to Club X or it might be to Club Y'. It seems to be recognised as fact that we did a deal with Rob Dickie along the lines of 'just give us one more season', and such an arrangement is attractive to the club. However, for the player, during that year they are only one serious injury away from losing their chance.

I'm no expert on relative values, but as others have said, Peterborough are an interesting point of comparison. It may simply be the case that they have been operating the model longer, and investing a bit more money in it. So they offer rather higher contracts to rather better young players, who in turn attract higher fees.
 
money doesnt win you promotion, keeping the best players wins you promotion.
Tell me how you keep your best players when they are offered triple what we can pay them
There you have it in a nutshell we scout good players and pinch them for a fee
Take Atkinson at Eastleigh, we come in with an offer and are able to offer him double what he’s being paid and it’s a chance for him to prove himself.
It would be hypocritical of us to not to let him further his career when BCFC come in. Who knows in a years time a Premiership club come in for him, guess what he will move again,
That’s the way it works
 
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