As much as it is nice to see lads from the youth team come through I think that taking 2 million is a good thing, I honestly couldn't see him playing for us this season and if he was to go on loan I doubt he would have come back and been good enough to break into the team with the attacking options that we have. Even if he was to bag 20 plus goals in league one we would still do well to get 2 million for him. Although I haven't seen much of any of these guys it does seem that Ikpeazu and Mensah are rated as better prospects.
This thread is a good illustration of why I enjoy this forum so much. I'm teaching all day and get an SMS from a friend telling me the news..I'm like WTF?! Then I get home and log in and read the comments here and see things from other perspectives and angles, and end up agreeing with a lot of the posters here. Agree very much with Hornetboy..it's a business and our club feels well run. If the Pozzos and Zola decided it was fine to let him go, then in them we trust, though I'm a little sad to see 'one of our own' leave us, without really having had a chance to prove himself. As Hb says, we won't know yet whether it was shrewd business or a case of selling a player too early. Time will tell. All I know is it's been the most incredible summer I can ever remember as a supporter..nearly every day something has happened..even this week started with us praising our big squad only to now lose two players in two days! All this drama and the football hasn't even started yet! Wow! The last summer I spent teaching in Malta, 2011, about this time we'd just signed Joel Garner and sold Danny Graham..now, as I sit on the same terrace reading the forum we've signed a full Italian international striker and sold our 5th, you could argue 6th, choice one for 2 million! The times they are a changing!
Good deal for us. if it's around 1.5-2 million, we've just got a good chunk of change for a striker unproven at our level. By taking the money now, we've made sure we don't lose out in future if he doesn't turn out as well as people hope. By including a buyback clause, we've ensured we can buy him back if he does turn out well, without us needing to get involved in a potential bidding war. I'm sure the buyback clause is higher than the sell price, but I doubt it's significantly higher. This is a great deal for Britt and the club, especially because we had three promising young strikers on the books. Ikpeazu and Mensa are still looking very promising indeed. I really hope this goes well for Britt. EDIT: lets also not lose sight of the fact this is a success for our youth coaching. Having a player bought by another club for their club record fee before he plays any significant football for us reflects well on our academy setup.
Great deal for all round really if you put into perspective. I spoke with a posh fan earlier in the summer and said that they'd probably take Assombalonga on loan if they could, in no way was I expecting a 4 year deal!! Hope he takes his chance. A conga is easier on a terrace.
I was thinking the same ... it's almost worth lending money to clubs to buy our fringe players (or have some kind of buyback agreement) ... Sshh!
Th surname or the forename Birdy ? If it is the forename you can pretend you are a fan of Ms.Ekland. One for all the teenagers on the board.....
Dissapointed to see another academy product go, but at least 1.1m for a player with a year left on his contract is excellent business. Assuming he could be free to leave or ask for extortionate wages in 50 weeks, 1m is 20k a week plus his wages we now are in profit for a player who would be on the bench.
Silly money for him - good work all round. Good luck at posh - I like them as a club and a great chairman
This is pure speculation, but, I wonder if what we have done here with Brit, who I am very disappointed to see go, has some parallels with what we have done with the Ude players we have signed. Being allowed to go to Peterborough, on the understanding that we have first dibs, but also with a hefty sell on clause, which means if another club came in for him at £8 million, we would either buy him back less 45%(?), or allow the sale and get 45% of the value. They get their player for a fee they are happy with as well as a future reward for his development, and we get first dibs on a player we can instantly double our money on, or add to our team. Everyone's happy except for Holloway! Not to say that this is the actual type of deal we have done with Ude, which I would imagine would be more of an inside agreement, but more that it is done for the same type of reason: development at a team that can potentially bring the player on in keeping with our own ideals, and guarantees that if the player is required at a future date, he can be re-signed with relatively few formalities. Not saying Peterborough are now Udinese C, but it seems like a genuinely new approach to the development and sale of players in England. It could even be the start of the Pozzos winning people over.
Surprised we let him go, but considering the money on offer, it's hard to argue against letting him go. Zola has hinted on occasions that he had high hopes for Britt, so I can imagine it was a tough decision to let him go. Whether we sell a player after he's played 100 games for us, or 100 minutes, it's a success story for our academy process when we bring in good money for somebody we've developed. It's a shame we won't see his development in a yellow shirt, but all the best to him and I hope he goes on and makes us a load more money in the future.
Good argument. It might be speculative but if it wasn't pretty close to how the deal was actually put together it ought to have been! A deal like this has all the hallmarks of a Pozzo transaction - creative, viable & lucrative - and perhaps a first hand example of how we'll start to profit from our assets going forward.
The buy back may equally have just been a sales technique to raise the perceived value of a player in a negotiation I don't think Udinese have ever bought back a player once sold, its not how the business model works
I know what you mean, but I am thinking that our latest 'loophole exploitation' must include reassurances that the players will return to Ude, if things don't work out, as I think was hinted at regarding some of the new permanent signings; sort of keeping it in the Pozzo family. So I wonder if this is a way of doing something similar, but using a willing third party. If we do follow the Pozzo/Ude model, we are going to have to look at ways of developing our youngsters whilst tying them to us in some way, loaning being the main method. Effectively we have tied Brit to us for another four years, at no cost to ourselves (indeed at a profit) but if he doesn't work out, nothing is lost. As the mighty Oly Phillips would say, it's just a thought.
I am a little disappointed. Even more so than with Hogg. I was hoping to see Britt break through this season and make a name for himself at Watford after so many loans. Having said that, I don't think he would have had many chances to play given our squad and also the fact that we probably can't afford too many experiments given our aim of promotion. If we were a mid table team it is easier and with less consequence to play a youngster once in a while. As I have read it we were more inclined to let them have him on loan but P'boro pushed for a permanent transfer. As we probably don't need the money we have been able to dictate much of this. That coupled with P'boro's 8M stash I'd say we have got as much for Britt as we possible could expect or hope for. But for me what matters is that we will see if Britt is good enough. We will see him play a full season as a number 1 goal getter for a good side in L1. If he turns out to be a 25 goal striker securing them promotion an getting sold for 8M to a premiership side that is just fantastic as we will have another of our academy prospects in the PrL - if he turns out not to set the world of 'boro alight then we have done a great bit of business. As someone else have said: We have chosen to sell rather than being forced to do so.
I think your making it more complex than it really is. But your entitled to and who's to say I'm right We've sold him and made a few quid. Britt now belongs to Peterborough, he's their asset. When Posh sell him on in 3/4 years we'll make a few more quid.
This deal was a no brainer to me. If he is was only contracted to us until 2014 and refused to extend his contract further then anyone could have picked him up for nothing at the end of the season (other than any development fee applicable). Unless we had a lot of injuries, there was no way that he would have had any significant playing time and might have even been behind the Reading lad in the pecking order. Looking at it from another perspective, would we have been over the moon had we SIGNED a player from Southend who had scored 16 goals for a fee in excess of £1.5 million? Finally Britt may have been keen to move as he knew his chances of playing this season were minimal and was not prepared to extend his contract.
According to reliable sources and twitter £1.55million. Has to be a great deal for the club as obviously not ready for the Championship and the next year who knows the Prem??
He is no longer in the mixer for Watford He is no longer in the shirt He cannot kiss the badge or give 110% for that reason we must boo him
Good luck to him, but of the little I've seen him play we've completely ripped off Peterborough in getting >£1.1m. I just can't see him turning out to be worth £2m+. He's decent. That's about it. We've sold far superior players for less.
How so? Has he proved himself at Championship level then? If he continues this good form and gets sold for big bucks then we can either buy him back or cash in on our hefty sell on fee. Reminder that this is exactly how he started his spell at Southend.
