Debt Free In 12 Months (15 June 2024)

I wouldn't read too much into it - they say pretty much the same every year

Dux copying and pasting as part of his million pound a year efforts

 

Delusional but it’ll keep the clappers in line for another year. They’re out in force today on social media. A great unwashed combo of ‘we have one of the best managers in the league’ and ‘I prefer this squad to the Capoue/Deulofeu ones’.

Just the weirdest.

 

Thanks for bursting my bubble.

 

Promotion to the PL for the 2024/25 season. ie. The aim is be promoted this year. As you later point out though it’s boiler plate copy and paste nonsense anyway.

 

Good spot. It is clear that he is saying the aim is promotion this season, and he also states he is committed to upgrading the squad. The spin master has no shame, but then not would I for a salary of £955k to operate a struggling Championship club.

 

Bloody hell. Lot of your time for your opinions - but you’re miles off with the valuation of Asprilla. And can say with some degree of certainty it’s way above what the club would take - he’s not even playing every week. Unless he breaks out massively over the second half of the season and scores and/or assists in large numbers, we won’t get bids of anything over 50% of the prices you’re suggesting. Just no chance/

 

Duxbury's take home is £1989 A DAY!

 

Disgusting. If he truly cared about the club it would be £1881 a day.

 

But - and I say this as someone who doesn’t like Duxbury historically - what if he is the current voice of reason at boardroom level? Overpaid sure…but what I hear is that he’s one of the few who is holding things quite tight right now and there’s been an attitude check.

Now I won’t fall over myself to give credit there. But I’d rather someone than no one.

 

He might not be starting every week, but he's practically playing every week (playing in 28/30 so far), JP had only played slightly more minutes (18.8 full 90s vs Asprillas 18.1 full 90s) at the same stage and Asprilla is still only two goals off JPs goals (7 + 1 pen) + assists (2) at this same point last season.

Alex Scott went to Bournemouth for £20m in the summer with only 1 goal + 5 assists last season (starting in 40 games!). Adam Wharton who's a few months younger than Asprilla just went to Palace for £18m (different sort of skillset mind you). Would be interested to know what the rumoured bids of Sporting + Everton were in Jan, I'd estimate around the £12m-£14m mark

I don't think we'll get as much as £25m for him at the end of the season but I think £20m is definitely achievable.

 

Alex Scott and Adam Wharton would have undoubtedly carried a premium though as English you’d think? And I think Scott also has a bit of the ‘next Bellingham, don’t want to miss out’ factor as well. Think once you factor in that Palace maybe overpaid for Wharton and we have people overvaluing Asprilla, there’s a range that’s more realistic.

Achievable to get more? Maybe. I think it’s a wise investment - don’t want anyone thinking I’m talking down his talent or prospects.

But for where we will be financially? And what he will likely to have achieved by that point? Those points coupled with who our owner is?

I think he’d cash in on preferable payment terms above £12m personally - and I think that may be why we have bought Chakvetadze now.

Sure plenty will disagree - fair enough. Happy to be wrong on this one! Just my ‘hunch’!

 

You’ll have the stats for this, but I thought both of those players were both more CM/DMs (or at least played there more than Asprilla) and isn’t Asprilla meant to be much more of an attacking creative threat, so are assist stats really that comparable? (And as Burnsey says both English anyway)

Pedro also had a fair bit of PL experience, which wilder helped his value.

 

I don’t think Wilder helped at all.

 

Fair points for sure - Wharton definitely is more of a deeper role, Scott is more similar to Asprilla as he played a majority of his games as a #10 last season for Bristol City, but definitely did also play a bit deeper a fair bit as well. It's a fair point about the English tax as well, but in a world where Carlos Alcaraz is potentially getting sold from the Champ for €50m, I don't think £20m or thereabouts is out the question for Asprilla!

 

Will Asprilla count as homegrown in the way JP did at some time?

 

He turned 18 in November 2021, and we signed him in January 2022, so given that it's 'three years before the age of 21 at an English club', I presume he would miss the cutoff for designation by a matter of months.

 

All part of the Pozzo master plan

 

I think it’s three years between the ages of 15 and 21, so usually if you buy a player when they’re still 18 and they stay for three years then it counts, but if he’d been 19 then it wouldn’t. My source for this is Football Manager rather than a detailed knowledge of the rules, but I think he will count as home grown

 

My initial source of clarification was an Athletic explainer article (**), but after your comment I went back to a Premier League source which expanded slightly more/properly, and it looks like you're right, because indeed, it runs until the end of the season in which the player turns 21 rather than cutting off at their own birthday, thankfully:



The lights can stay on at London Colney for a couple more months with the extra premium that will get us!