Slew

[Bergen Blade]

What's the odds of £1Mill + Add-Ons + Bjorn Helge Riise??

Riise said in an interview yesterday that he was staying at Fulham next season. He enjoyed his stay here, thought we are a fine club and he gained some good friends, but he didn't want to spend another lengthy period on loan away from his familiy etc. He's got one year left on his contract.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Q&A with DW today has given a slight update:

There has been interest from Fulham in one of those kids, Jordan Slew. Any developments on that?

Jordan has a year left on contract and I had a meeting with him on Tuesday. I then have a meeting with his agent next week. With a bit of luck, we can get them to sign a new contract that was agreed before I came here. There is a fantastic opportunity here for the likes of Jordan and others from the youth team. The support the fans have given them has shown these boys that they can make a big name for themselves here at Sheffield United. I believe it’s important for their development to stick around. What they might regard as bigger and better things could turn out to be sitting on their backsides waiting for an opportunity. The bottom line is that every kid wants to play football. At times they are too easily led for other reasons and later on they will regret it.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

"What they might regard as bigger and better things could turn out to be sitting on their backsides waiting for an opportunity. The bottom line is that every kid wants to play football. At times they are too easily led for other reasons and later on they will regret it."

How true. All Prem teams want to do is pad out their squads and they sign young English players in the hope that one of them might turn into a world beater. If they dont its no big deal because they've usually paid only a nominal fee for them anyway. At worst they provide cover for a year or two before being released. The best thing Jordan can do is build his reputation here first and get lots of games under his belt.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Jordan Slew or £1.5 Million and Kevin Phillips. If you had the choice which would you pick?

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

Jordan Slew or £1.5 Million and Kevin Phillips. If you had the choice which would you pick?

Tough call. I would have to say Jordan Slew, taking the long term view. Tempting though.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Tough call. I would have to say Jordan Slew, taking the long term view. Tempting though.

Long term? Slew wants out and has a year left on his contract.

Phillips for me, Slew isn't as good as he thinks he is. Potentially another Littlejohn, and the fact he only has a year on his contract tips the balance.

 

[Torrix1889]

Can I say both Bob, or is that being greedy.....

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Long term? Slew wants out and has a year left on his contract.
Phillips for me, Slew isn't as good as he thinks he is. Potentially another Littlejohn, and the fact he only has a year on his contract tips the balance.

Phillips is 38 in July and he's started only 12 league and cup matches in the last TWO seasons.
Selling young players with the potential to improve and increase in value is not the way forward.
Signing ancient, half-fit players on large wages with no resale value is a fine way of throwing money down the drain.
The last three seasons show us that and it's supposedly what the club is trying to move away from...

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Can you please explain how a player with a year left on his contract is going to increase in value?

 

[Balham]

Can you please explain how a player with a year left on his contract is going to increase in value?

As he's under 23, wouldn't a fee be set by tribunal? There's ample potential for it to rise if he did stay and scored 20+ goals next season.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

have you seen what the tribunals set for fees? we wouldn't get anywhere near the couple of million

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

Long term? Slew wants out and has a year left on his contract.

Phillips for me, Slew isn't as good as he thinks he is. Potentially another Littlejohn, and the fact he only has a year on his contract tips the balance.

Who says he wants out? Phillips is probably going to retire shortly and any fee we bring in for Slew will probably be wasted.

If the kid can be persuaded to stay on a good contract then I think we should do all we can to keep hold.

Whether hes another Littlejohn or not remains to be seen but I think hes worth taking the chance on financially.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Can you please explain how a player with a year left on his contract is going to increase in value?

First off, you’re assuming that Slew won’t sign the improved contract we’ve offered him, while speculating that Phillips would sign for us.
If the choice is between offering Phillips big wages or spending the same amount on persuading Slew to stay, I would much rather keep Slew.

Assuming you’re right and Slew doesn’t sign a new contract. We got £1.3M compensation for “out of contract” Mellis before he’d even played a league game.
So, worst case scenario we should get at least a similar amount for Slew.
The more experience he has and the more goals he scores, the more of an attractive proposition he becomes for other clubs. Ergo, his valuation will go up.
Best case scenario, Slew sets the division alight. All the big clubs come clamouring for him and start a massive bidding war. We could always sell after six months if necessary.

Regardless of whether Slew turns into the next Adrian Littlejohn or the next Thierry Henry, I still wouldn’t sign Phillips as old players on big contracts is dead money.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Agree with Sothall. Kevin Phillips scored four goals last season, and four the season before. Admittedly it would be easier for him in League One, but there ususally comes a time when these goal getter types just stop scoring, as we saw when we had Ian Rush here, and Robbie Fowler is another examle. We should learn from our mistakes now and build for the future.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Will the fact Mark Hughes has just resigned mean the Fulham interest will disappear? Can't see Hughes being as interested at Villa.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

I would have thought one of Hughes back room staff might have brought up young Slew, rather then Hughes himself.

Not sure if he has left yet, but I thought think he would be walking as well.