I agree that all those points are involved in determining transfer fees and it’s ridiculous to try to draw direct comparisons but ability does come into it. That’s the start; if a PL club makes a bid, they are effectively saying they believe that player is either good enough for the PL, or has the potential to be. Then, all the other factors come into play. The alternatives can be a very important factor and can often lead to clubs paying a premium, where there isn’t an alternative. Like Maguire going to Man U, they overpaid because they couldn’t find anyone else available who they thought was as good and they desperately needed to strengthen.
Another big factor is how many clubs are interested. If it was just Spurs, and Ramsdale wanted to move, they’re in the driving seat to an extent. If there are three clubs, it’s effectively an auction.
I think Norwich were quite smart with Buendia. They set a price and told him that’s what they wanted and they weren’t going to budge. It seems they also convinced him that if he stayed and helped them go up, his price would be met and they’d let him go for that, even if he was arguably worth even more. I think, generally, established players are more receptive to this, they’re already on decent money and tend to believe they’ll be plenty of opportunities if the just continue to play well. It’s harder with young players as they’ve earned very little and see it as their big chance to become rich and successful. Unless a club can offer them a hugely improved contract, it’s difficult to keep them. A club doesn’t want to get a reputation for holding their young players back, or they become a less attractive option at youth level. The fact we can point to all the PL players who’ve come through our academy is a selling point for young players deciding which academy to chose.
Rammers seems fairly happy to be with us, will have earned a reasonable amount by now and will be on decent, but not spectacular, money. I think we could probably talk him into staying for a season and trying to get us up, on the basis that if we don’t go up, we’ll listen to reasonable offers. The big question for us is how much do we need to raise and can we raise it by selling other players?
I’d like us to keep him if we can, if only because if we don’t go up, we might need to sell to finance next season’s campaign. And he’s a good keeper, I doubt there’ll be a better one in the championship and having a good keeper is important.