Joseph Tulip says…
I’m both understanding and very comfortable with the way we operate as a club these days. We invested a sum of money in a quality young player, knowing full well that if he was successful, his value would increase and he would attract attention from other clubs.
I’m content with that approach and understand that as much as we’ve all really taken to Sadiki, there’s a real possibility that the likes of he and others — such as Robin Roefs — could potentially be moved on as soon as this summer.
While I have every confidence in our recruitment team, especially after the superb work of last summer in preparing us for a successful season of Premier League survival, I acknowledge a few other key factors.
It’s always a blow to lose any good player, and Sadiki would be no exception. It’s also a calculated gamble to sell on, even at a considerable profit, without any guarantees that replacements will be up to the same standard.
It doesn’t worry, me though. While the current regime are in post, I have every faith in their business acumen and footballing know-how to get things right.
Malc Dugdale says…
We have to adjust to the understanding that if we unearth great players for good prices, they’ll move on at times, but we must remember that the profit will keep feeding our Premier League progress, so if we receive a stupid offer for Sadiki, it makes total sense to take it and repeat the cycle.
He’s a great asset but no player is too good to bust the model for when silly figures are tabled. Those of us who remember the Lamine Kone saga have learned that lesson well; a player is only worth what someone will pay — and that can change very quickly.
The recruitment department has a good strike rate under Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ ownership — be that with Kristjaan Speakman or Florent Ghisolfi — and I’m sure they’ll have options in the pipeline if we need them.
The onus will be on Ghisolfi and his team to bring in a backfill with plenty of time for integration across summer and pre-season training in order to hit the ground well come August, and if we receive daft money and have a plan B, we’ll be fine.
Other clubs have successfully used this approach and we can too. When we get to the point this isn’t relevant to us, we’ll be winning the Premier League — looking forward to that very soon!
Matthew Crichton says…
When it comes to the future of Sadiki, I feel very relaxed as I feel the club have gained more trust from the fans with their recruitment over recent years. The Congolese international has been a brilliant find, adding relentless energy to our team and becoming a very reliable figure.
Having said that, as we all know, there’s always a right time to sell a player and should a Champions League side decide they want to splash a ridiculous fee on him, I would like to hope we will have targets ready as a succession plan.
In a PSR world, you do have to sell as you need to turn profits on players in order to reinvest. So with that in mind, if the club can generate an outrageous level of profit for a player on the back of one good season, it’s not the worst thing that can happen.
Of course we want to keep our best players and we don’t want to be seen as a club happy to just sell at the first offer, but losing a couple of players in order to strengthen the whole squad and increase the overall quality is a happy medium for me.
Look at Bournemouth — they sold their entire back four all for ginormous fees, reinvested across the squad and now they’re on the verge of Champions League football.
I’d like to see Sadiki stay and be a part of our growing project, but like everyone else in the squad, there can always be the right price and unfortunately without European football, there’s always going to the potential of better suitors turning their heads.
Martin Wanless says…
I think we need to shift the narrative a bit here – because we’re a bloody good club to play for. Premier League football, a great atmosphere at the ground, an exceptional manager who’s got the trust of the club and isn’t going to be given the boot after a bad result, and an environment in which young players are trusted, given opportunities, and are allowed to make mistakes.
Granit Xhaka leads the players, and the atmosphere around the place always seems to be spot on.
That’s exceptionally appealing, and for the likes of Noah Sadiki, Robin Roefs, Habib Diarra and Brian Brobbey, who are all young players, the question really has got to be not would they leave, but why would they leave?
They’re all young, and in their first seasons of English football. Yes, if big clubs in the Champions League come knocking then they’ll likely seize the opportunity – who wouldn’t? But I don’t believe any of them will be seen as good enough yet to command a regular first team place at a Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, so trading being a regular to being a bit part player will come into their thinking.
Take Sadiki for example. He’s going to be a far better player in 12 months time if he’s played another full Premier League season with us rather than playing 25 games for Manchester United. He’s got loads of time, and football’s littered with players who’ve taken the big move at the wrong time.
And yes, we’re likely to receive bids for them, and that’s a good sign. So the real question for me isn’t whether we can ‘keep hold of them’ it’s a question of whether we’ll accept bids for them – because a theoretical £60m bid for a young central midfielder who’s impressed in the Premier League but has one assist and zero goals to his name is a tough one to turn down to reinvest.
Make no doubt about it, our recruitment team will have a whole host of players identified to come in should various scenarios play out – but equally, we’re not a plate of food waiting to be picked at.
For these players, we’re an exceptionally good place to play at this stage of their careers, and we should not underestimate that.
