Celtic interested in signing McGree
- Thread starter parmoboy
- Start date
Redwurzel
Well-known member
McGree for me is a very good Championship player who is entering the best part of his career (he is 26 in November).
For me he is first 11 for Boro and first 11 for Australia.
I would not be selling him for £2m or £3m, even with 1 year left on his contract.
Chuba went for £10.4m with 1 year left and Chuba was older. OK Chuba is a natural goal scorer, but that doesn't knock 80% off McGree's value.
McGree has improved and developed since coming the Boro, witness his performance at the Watford away game.
For me he is first 11 for Boro and first 11 for Australia.
I would not be selling him for £2m or £3m, even with 1 year left on his contract.
Chuba went for £10.4m with 1 year left and Chuba was older. OK Chuba is a natural goal scorer, but that doesn't knock 80% off McGree's value.
McGree has improved and developed since coming the Boro, witness his performance at the Watford away game.
Player valuations aren't linear. They are more exponential as the amount of money available to spend increases exponentially up the ladder.
A player that is judged a good championship player might be worth £3million.
If they can make the jump to a lower half Premier league team level that valuation will triple to £9mil.
If they could make the jump to a top 6 side it would likely triple again to around £25-30m
And if they can make the jump to be in one of the European powerhouses it will triple again to £80m+
It also works the other way. A top League 1 player is probably £1m.
McGree is in the top Champo player category. Unless he's valued at being able to step up to PL level he's not going to be worth anywhere near £10m and I don't think he's at thay level. Akpom was clearly good enough to make that step up. There's obviously other factors such as age, experience, contract status and postion that also affect valuations.
But my point being you can't just say McGree isn't far behind Akpom so his price tag shouldn't be either. If he's not PL level, then the ceiling is pretty low. Akpom also had the goalscoring premium.
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
The bottom line is that Akpom was a goalscorer. Those cost more than any other type of player.
On top of that, Akpom was coming off a wonder year in which he was recognised as the best performing player in the league. We'd have gotten a pittance for him without that single year.
RM, by contrast, has had an injury hit year in which he's shown what he can do in flashes.
On top of that, Akpom was coming off a wonder year in which he was recognised as the best performing player in the league. We'd have gotten a pittance for him without that single year.
RM, by contrast, has had an injury hit year in which he's shown what he can do in flashes.
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indeedido
Well-known member
Presumably they will all be trying to sign him then?
Some bidding war coming up...
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
RM clearly aspires to top flight football, but I don't think he's done enough consistently for a PL club to be interested.
Possibly top flight clubs outside of the elite leagues (I do think he can do better than the SPL, Holland maybe) might be interested.
I don't think RM would be interested in a sideways step to a championship club, and I certainly don't see them paying more than £2m for him. Very few of them can actually afford a fee of £3-4 million now, so the fact he would improve them is irrelevant.
For the record, I rate him as a player, and I hope he signs a new contract and stays. I just don't think there's a huge market for him based on what he's done so far, and not one that is prepared to pay £££ for him.
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Cornholio
Well-known member
My brother is a huge Celtic fan(By proxy if you will I somewhat pay attention to them as well haha) and has resigned himself to the fact that O'Riley is gone; just a matter of time. He is way too good for Scotland and is a top talent.
As far as McGree goes, we both agree he would fit in well in Rodgers system. Not sure how much faith put in these sources mind, could be just simply rehashing things as Celtic wanted him before.
As far as McGree goes, we both agree he would fit in well in Rodgers system. Not sure how much faith put in these sources mind, could be just simply rehashing things as Celtic wanted him before.
Much rather have McGree than Giles
Scrug
Well-known member
Not if Celtic come knocking he isn’t.
‘Are you sure you want to bid £25 mil lads? He’s not that good’
Redwurzel
Well-known member
Wonder year is actually more of a negative with a 27/28 year old i.e. he hasn't performed at that level previously which left some doubt with everybody was 2022/23 a bit of a one off year. I believe he's scored 73 goals over the last 9 years, just over 8 goals a year since the age of 19.
I fully agree goalscorers are worth more that attacking midfielder (in general), but is the scale of difference say 4 or 5 times more
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
I'm not sure you really mean "negative"? You're surely not suggesting we'd have got more for Chuba if he'd carried on with his previous form?
I think you mean it counts for less when an older player doesn't, in which case I agree.
I'd also point out it's better to have one than not, and RM has yet to have one
Redwurzel
Well-known member
BG - you know I didn't say he was worth near £10m. I said he was worth more than £3m to Boro. Even in the transfer market I was not sell him for £3m or less. He's a regular International at a team that plays in World Cup final competitions. I think he's played 25 times for Australia in the last 3.5 years
FH - there are teams than can pay more than £2m to £3m for a player in the Championship, Old Firm, European Leagues, without him going to the English Premier League. Btw I don't want to sell him and I prefer him to stay. Silly me just realised the title of the thread is Celtic interested in McGree!
Attacking players aged 25 with decent experience that have proved they can fully compete in the top half of the Championship (7th, 4th, 8th) (12 goals in 76 league games) are a pretty valuable asset. I do assume he has recovered from his injury.
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Redwurzel
Well-known member
If Chuba scored 27 goals a season for the last 3 seasons before we sold him his value would have been higher is what I mean.
No you didn't. My post was in response to this line
My point being that Chuba was Prem quality. McGree isn't. Player values don't increase proportionally. If a player is Prem quality their value is far higher than a player who is considered a top championship player.
Let's use Giles as an example. He's a top end championship player. The general consensus is that Luton overpaid at £5mil and Hull have probably overpaid at £4mil. As hes not premier league quality. If he was slightly better defensively and more athletic he would be a Prem player and worth £10m+. But he's not so he's probably more like £3m.
McGree is similar in my opinion. Loads of quality at Championship level but lacks pace and athleticism required for top level football. He's not aggressive without the ball. Too many holes in his game to play PL football. Therefore he's a £3-4m player instead of £10m.
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Redwurzel
Well-known member
Just to make it 100% clear - My main point is the player (McGree) is currently worth more than £3m.
Chuba is an interesting one - he isn't a EPL player and never been anywhere near a regular one. For information posters have put up on here he struggles to start games at Ajax. I have fond memories of Chuba (and believed in him when other did not on here) but I am not convinced he would be a regular striker at an established EPL team.
Chuba is an interesting one - he isn't a EPL player and never been anywhere near a regular one. For information posters have put up on here he struggles to start games at Ajax. I have fond memories of Chuba (and believed in him when other did not on here) but I am not convinced he would be a regular striker at an established EPL team.
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Sammy Silvera has played 5 times for Australia this season and weve just loaned him to Plymouth. Caps for Australia hardly add a lot of value. Our first team would probably beat Australia.
I like McGree. I think he's a great championship player and I think a well motivated McGree next season would be a massive asset. I just don't see how he's worth any more than £5m max and given his contract status he's probably available for less.
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
I agree, but few do. 7 championship clubs signed a player for more than £3m last season, including us.
That of course included all 3 relegated clubs, and I don't think Luton and SU can splash the cash like those teams did.
My point is that it's a very small pool that could afford to pay £3m+, and most of those would have to decide they wanted to make RM their big Summer signings. I don't see that as likely.
My solution has long been to offer RM a release clause of about £7-8m in a new contract, with a couple of caveats:
1. It's voided if we get promotion
2. It only activates if the bid is from a team in the top 4 divisions.
It's far more money than we'd get now.
We could keep him this season
He'd know we wouldn't block his top flight ambition: that's a small fee for a PL club.
It would only kick in if he were playing well and attracting top flight interest, so extra motivation for him, which is good for us.
That's surely a big improvement on the current situation?
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I think it's a big improvement for us but probably not McGree if he's eyeing a move abroad or thinks he could play above the Championship.
If he doesn't sign a renewal he will either:
Be sold this summer
Or
He'll leave on a free next summer.
If it's the latter, he will probably be able to negotiate a better contract for himself. I think if he's selfish (and why wouldn't he be?) He would stay another year with Boro and see if we get promoted. If we are promoted there's every chance he could sign a renewal and play PL football with Boro. If we aren't he'll be in a position to negotiate a big contract on the continent or with Celtic or whoever.
parmoboy
Well-known member
I definitely wouldn't be accepting any less than £4m for him. Were it not for his injury record I'd be saying no less than £6m.
I do rate him but if a decent offer comes in for him we need to be saying to him either sign a contract now or we are accepting the offer. We don't want to find ourselves in a situation where we knock back an offer, McGree doesn't sign a contract, and then another club comes in with an offer late in the day and he says he wants to go.
I do rate him but if a decent offer comes in for him we need to be saying to him either sign a contract now or we are accepting the offer. We don't want to find ourselves in a situation where we knock back an offer, McGree doesn't sign a contract, and then another club comes in with an offer late in the day and he says he wants to go.