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Jack Clarke

DonaldDownTheWing said:
But the “model” isn’t ready for the sales to start. We currently have 12 players who are good enough to start, a couple more who are injured and a couple who could just about get by.

Sell Clarke, the replacement is Mundle. Mundle isn’t even as good as Clarke was for us in League 1. Most of the players we’ve bought who should’ve been the replacements for the likes of Clarke, Neil, Stewart, Ballard aren’t ready yet.
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He’s never going to be ready until he’s starting every week
 

He'll be gone because Harte wants him gone. Even if we gave him a new contract this same issue will crop up next window and the one after as that's how Harte will make his money (serious money). Yes he'd take a cut of any improved contract but that's not the big money plus still moving him on gets him double whammy.

The ony way of keeping Clarke is by getting promoted, the lad wants to play in the PL as any player would want to. He's happy here so if he thinks we can go up, and stay up, we've a chance of keeping him beyond the next couple of windows (assuming we've improved his contract to get through this one).

On a slightlly separate issue, the model of steadily improving and selling then reinvesting is good, but the way we're doing it is too slow with the modern game riches. The longer you're out of the PL the more you fall behind as even the relegated teams are coming down with massive resources through what they've earned plus the parachutes. We really need to invest more than we are to have a serious attempt at the top 2 and very worse case scenario, the playoffs, and a serious go at the playoffs if that's the worst case scenario.
 
wackyjacky said:
He'll be gone because Harte wants him gone. Even if we gave him a new contract this same issue will crop up next window and the one after as that's how Harte will make his money (serious money). Yes he'd take a cut of any improved contract but that's not the big money plus still moving him on gets him double whammy.

The ony way of keeping Clarke is by getting promoted, the lad wants to play in the PL as any player would want to. He's happy here so if he thinks we can go up, and stay up, we've a chance of keeping him beyond the next couple of windows (assuming we've improved his contract to get through this one).

On a slightlly separate issue, the model of steadily improving and selling then reinvesting is good, but the way we're doing it is too slow with the modern game riches. The longer you're out of the PL the more you fall behind as even the relegated teams are coming down with massive resources through what they've earned plus the parachutes. We really need to invest more than we are to have a serious attempt at the top 2 and very worse case scenario, the playoffs, and a serious go at the playoffs if that's the worst case scenario.
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All fair points, good post.

The thing that’s super frustrating is the constant low ball offers from Burnley, Southampton and now Ipswich. 10m - 15m - 18m. Surely they know by now what our asking price is.
ned_werby said:
Owt happened between pages 88 and here (114)?
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Ian Harte furiously wanking over the thought of Clarke moving and him getting a 2m pay out.
 
Surely has to be £20million cash up front and £5million in pretty much guaranteed add ons (not things like Ipswich winning the league and Jack winning Balon dor type addons).

I see other players with no where near the stats he has, going for similar fees.
 
I can see someone really testing us on deadline day if he doesn't move before then and a bid will come in which will be hard to decline as will be very close to our valuation..I just hope we have a plan on a replacement behind the scenes if that was to happen.
 
safcyank said:
Above I've added notes of the age at time of transfer and fee for reported for each. These numbers aren't all rock solid because I'm doing this really quick and half of them are guesses from media outlets or ITK rumors.

Given we spend very little on fees and invest mostly in very young players - why are you surprised that there are players who don't pan out or are still early in development? Are Speakman and Co expected to only sign future PL players for under $5 million? Should we not add depth to our squad even if they aren't potential world class players? We were in League One for a while. We have the youngest squad in the Championship by some distance. Context matters.

  • Ross Stewart: 350k ---> sold 9m
  • Patrick Roberts: Free ----> valued between 2m-5m
  • Trai Hume: 240k ----> valued between 5m - 10m
  • Cirkin: ? -----> valued between 2m - 7m
  • Clark: ? ------> valued between 15m - 25m
  • Dan Ballard: 2.3m ----> valued between 8m - 15m
  • Aji Alese: 590k ----> too soon, valued around 1m
  • Ekwah: ? ---> valued between 5m to 10m
  • Mayenda: 800k ----> too soon, but probably will be worth a couple million by end of season if he can get 7 to 9 goals
  • Bellingham: 1.5m ----> valued between 10m and 20m?
  • Seelt: 2m ----> too soon, high ceiling

And if you're including loans that didn't work out - what about Simms, Diallo, Broadhead?

In past years - here's been our reported spending on transfer fees:
2020-21 - 350k
2021-22 - 240k
2022-23 - 6m (promotion budget)
2023-24 - 12m (sold Stewart, Gooch, Lihadji, Pritchard for somewhere between 12m and 14m)

And so far this window, we've not spent anything on a fee.

I don't understand how people are so negative about our recruitment all the time, when the reality is our return on investment has been very, very good in recent years. I guess they actually just want the owners to splash cash like Ipswich? I wouldn't mind a bit more investment, but if it were my money I'd probably opt for a similar approach. What we've done relative to the lack of paying transfer fees has been excellent. We have gone from having a squad value of around 15m in 20/21 with our most valuable asset being Will Grigg to now being worth around 100m - with Jobe, Rigg, and Neil running our midfield. All while spending very very little on fees and offering wages that are probably less than average in the Championship.

Errr, settle down now.
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Yeah, but except for giving us a first team squad of quality exciting players that we all love and will improve and are worth many millions more than we have spent , and selling the club so players like Rigg / Bellingham / Ballard etc believe in his vision and want to stay, signing long contracts, all within a sustainable framework , so we don't need to sell players like several championship clubs do, what's KS really done for us?
 
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Don't even mention an acceptable figure or give clubs any encouragement.
Just reject all bids.
If we keep saying no they'll have to keep increasing the bids or look elsewhere.
 
safcyank said:
Above I've added notes of the age at time of transfer and fee for reported for each. These numbers aren't all rock solid because I'm doing this really quick and half of them are guesses from media outlets or ITK rumors.

Given we spend very little on fees and invest mostly in very young players - why are you surprised that there are players who don't pan out or are still early in development? Are Speakman and Co expected to only sign future PL players for under $5 million? Should we not add depth to our squad even if they aren't potential world class players? We were in League One for a while. We have the youngest squad in the Championship by some distance. Context matters.

  • Ross Stewart: 350k ---> sold 9m
  • Patrick Roberts: Free ----> valued between 2m-5m
  • Trai Hume: 240k ----> valued between 5m - 10m
  • Cirkin: ? -----> valued between 2m - 7m
  • Clark: ? ------> valued between 15m - 25m
  • Dan Ballard: 2.3m ----> valued between 8m - 15m
  • Aji Alese: 590k ----> too soon, valued around 1m
  • Ekwah: ? ---> valued between 5m to 10m
  • Mayenda: 800k ----> too soon, but probably will be worth a couple million by end of season if he can get 7 to 9 goals
  • Bellingham: 1.5m ----> valued between 10m and 20m?
  • Seelt: 2m ----> too soon, high ceiling

And if you're including loans that didn't work out - what about Simms, Diallo, Broadhead?

In past years - here's been our reported spending on transfer fees:
2020-21 - 350k
2021-22 - 240k
2022-23 - 6m (promotion budget)
2023-24 - 12m (sold Stewart, Gooch, Lihadji, Pritchard for somewhere between 12m and 14m)

And so far this window, we've not spent anything on a fee.

I don't understand how people are so negative about our recruitment all the time, when the reality is our return on investment has been very, very good in recent years. I guess they actually just want the owners to splash cash like Ipswich? I wouldn't mind a bit more investment, but if it were my money I'd probably opt for a similar approach. What we've done relative to the lack of paying transfer fees has been excellent. We have gone from having a squad value of around 15m in 20/21 with our most valuable asset being Will Grigg to now being worth around 100m - with Jobe, Rigg, and Neil running our midfield. All while spending very very little on fees and offering wages that are probably less than average in the Championship.

Errr, settle down now.
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Naughty calling Rusyn experienced before he signed
 
Listened to a podcast from Clarke one thing he says he loved about been here is all he’s family live in York and in he’s terms it was down the road so Easy to go and see them on a weekly basis now which was massive for him after been at Tottenham where he couldn’t do that Ipswich he couldn’t do that

Clarke is 23 now one of the best players in the league plays with quite a lot of freedom idolised by the fans no pressure on him what so ever already filthy rich after the spurs move where he’s rumoured wages were 80k a week I generally believe we will get one more season out of him then he will want the premier league test again
 
£15m will be the opening bid to test the waters from Ipswich. They seem to have almost unlimited funds so if McKenna wants the player I’m sure they’ll be back with higher offers.

It’s horrendous and fascinating this whole Clarke saga in equal measures.

I was completely at ease with him leaving this summer when last season ended as we seemed miles away from being able to field a side capable of even challenging for the top six.

When you watch Clarke now, refreshed, playing in a side properly coached and playing with confidence you start to think we’re not that far away.

There’ll be a touch of irony if he does go to Ipswich mind after all the posters on here last season confidently predicting Ipswich were on the road to hell, overspending and destined for bankruptcy.
 
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