Spurs open talks on Spence

Britt had Traore and Downing feeding him in his first season - can't accept there was little creativity. Britt was a £15m striker who could not hold a ball up.

Kris Boyd was too slow for the Championship, even at Rangers he tended to used a sub.

Rhodes form and goal scoring was dipping at Blackburn when we bought him. I got the impression he was bought for Karanka which was not a good start to his Boro career.
Half of that first season was under Monk though (and we know how good he wasn't), and the rest was Pulis trying to make a team out of that squad. Agree on Traore though, he was unreal second half, but Britt still got 15 goals that year, only two less than lord Bamford's best year. The strange thing is Assombalonga got more goals under Monk, maybe he is better under bad managers, or maybe didn't suit our largely defensive/ Pulisball. He didn't play as many minutes for Pulis of course (only started 9 games and was hauled off early in all but two), but was averaging a goal <200 minutes. Downing was past it.

As for Boyd, if you're good enough, you don't need speed, and you don't need speed to be a good poacher, which is what he was meant to be. He was just not good enough, in any aspect.

Agree Rhodes was not a Karanka player, but don't agree on dipping form, he was pretty much averaging a goal every other game, he had a solid record so was no doubt catered for by opposition. The main reason he tailed off slightly was that Blackburn sold Gestede to Villa, they were a great pairing at that time.

Other teams seem to play to suit their strikers, where as for most of the last 15 years we've played to suit our defence, largely as our defence has been well above average and our creativity well below average. I'm not saying we shouldn't have played to our strengths, as we should, but equally we should not expect 25 goals from strikers if we're not playing attacking football/ styles (or not doing well).
 
So, what price is Spence actually going to go for? According to Spurs reporters it is £10M. According to Forest reporters it is £15M with add ons, to take it up to £20M!
 
I'll certainly grant that Rhodes was better for us than Britt.

However, his previous goalscoring was prolific; for us it was merely adequate, and I don't think we paid all that we did for adequacy.

As and when we next break our transfer record for a striker, I'll be wanting something above a 1 goal in 3 games ratio.
 
Spurs clearly want him, and are in the Champions League.

Forest (if they go up) will be desperate to keep him.

Arsenal interested (apparently). Leeds and Brentford have allegedly been monitoring him. Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea have supposedly sent scouts. Even Bayern and Barcelona have been linked. Probably loads of others I haven’t mentioned.

I don’t understand why we shouldn’t get £20m for him, plus a sell on fee. Whether we think he’s worth it is irrelevant, it’s simply that those clubs won’t want to miss out on him.

The complication might come with Djed himself and where he wants to go. If he has his heart set on Forest or Man Utd for example and categorically tells Boro where he wants to go, it doesn’t really matter how much other clubs offer.
 
If we haven't learned and **** away all the money on strikers then we may as well give up. Davenport to Payton to alves to Britt. Time and time again. Money wasted on chasing that elusive 20 goal a season man. It's only a year since we lost the previous proven quality for nothing. It's not that we don't play to their strengths. It's that we overpay for bang average goalhangers.
 
Makes me laugh when people say we should demand a sell on fee! Firstly, that would reduce the amount we get up front - we need cash up front not a potential of cash in several years time. And what if the players stays at the buying club for the rest of his career, or his form drops and he gets sold for a loss? Secondly, we are not the one holding the cards in these negotiations -get real! :ROFLMAO:
 
Spurs clearly want him, and are in the Champions League.

Forest (if they go up) will be desperate to keep him.

Arsenal interested (apparently). Leeds and Brentford have allegedly been monitoring him. Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea have supposedly sent scouts. Even Bayern and Barcelona have been linked. Probably loads of others I haven’t mentioned.

I don’t understand why we shouldn’t get £20m for him, plus a sell on fee. Whether we think he’s worth it is irrelevant, it’s simply that those clubs won’t want to miss out on him.

The complication might come with Djed himself and where he wants to go. If he has his heart set on Forest or Man Utd for example and categorically tells Boro where he wants to go, it doesn’t really matter how much other clubs offer.
Some of them might be interested, but even then it likely wouldn't be £20m as he's not proven, and unlikely to enter any of their first teams, not for a while it least.

Wherever he goes, he should want to play and be guaranteed a certain amount of match time, most won't give this, so it limits options and brings the price down.

I watched him for Boro and didn't think he was all that, then after all the Forest hype, I watched him again and didn't think he had came on much, and didn't particularly stand out in that side (who were a good side once the new manager came in). He still looked half a asleep defensively, but someone should be able to sort that out.

Teams sends scouts to watch hundreds of players in the champo, they have to, as it's the only way to see what a player is doing for the whole game, TV doesn't cover this.

I really think he just gets noticed more by comms, as he stands out a mile with that hair cut.

Got to remember that a lot of clubs will be quite strapped for cash due to covid etc, and not sure how FFP comes into it after that, they may get dispensation.

I really hope I'm wrong, but I think it will be more like 10-12m, maybe with addons (but they're irrelevant to us this year, when we need it most).
 
Some of them might be interested, but even then it likely wouldn't be £20m as he's not proven, and unlikely to enter any of their first teams, not for a while it least.

Wherever he goes, he should want to play and be guaranteed a certain amount of match time, most won't give this, so it limits options and brings the price down.

I watched him for Boro and didn't think he was all that, then after all the Forest hype, I watched him again and didn't think he had came on much, and didn't particularly stand out in that side (who were a good side once the new manager came in). He still looked half a asleep defensively, but someone should be able to sort that out.

Teams sends scouts to watch hundreds of players in the champo, they have to, as it's the only way to see what a player is doing for the whole game, TV doesn't cover this.

I really think he just gets noticed more by comms, as he stands out a mile with that hair cut.

Got to remember that a lot of clubs will be quite strapped for cash due to covid etc, and not sure how FFP comes into it after that, they may get dispensation.

I really hope I'm wrong, but I think it will be more like 10-12m, maybe with addons (but they're irrelevant to us this year, when we need it most).
Spurs will know that we need the cash up front to rebuild so will try and squeeze us as much as they can. I'd much rather he goes to Forest if they get promoted, they are rumoured to be prepared to offer £15m.
 
Makes me laugh when people say we should demand a sell on fee! Firstly, that would reduce the amount we get up front - we need cash up front not a potential of cash in several years time. And what if the players stays at the buying club for the rest of his career, or his form drops and he gets sold for a loss? Secondly, we are not the one holding the cards in these negotiations -get real! :ROFLMAO:
Regarding a sell on fee, I don’t mean reducing the up front fee. If Spurs (or anyone else) offer £20m, we accept as long as a sell on fee is added. If they want him, they’ll agree.

Secondly, I couldn’t disagree more about who’s holding the cards. We have a young, talented, English player who has bags of potential, is still at the start of his career and will only get better. He is contracted to us for 2 more years. Most top European clubs are monitoring him.

Why are we not holding the cards?
 
Spurs will know that we need the cash up front to rebuild so will try and squeeze us as much as they can. I'd much rather he goes to Forest if they get promoted, they are rumoured to be prepared to offer £15m.
Any club can try and squeeze as much as they want. With so many clubs supposedly interested, we can play hard ball.
 
Spurs will know that we need the cash up front to rebuild so will try and squeeze us as much as they can. I'd much rather he goes to Forest if they get promoted, they are rumoured to be prepared to offer £15m.
Yup, they will.

There's a big difference to having a player for free on loan, to saying you will pay £15m, to actually paying £15m for one, and the wages that go with that. But if they think he's worth it, fair play. I would say other areas would be a priority for them, and they might want better defensive qualities as they're going to be on the back foot for 75% of games. He could end up being a weakness, rather than an asset etc.

He needs to go to a side who will have a lot of the ball, but equally one where he will get plenty of game time.
 
Regarding a sell on fee, I don’t mean reducing the up front fee. If Spurs (or anyone else) offer £20m, we accept as long as a sell on fee is added. If they want him, they’ll agree.

Add ons always mean reducing the upfront fee.

If they're prepared to pay £20 million plus and add ons, they were also prepared to pay £22 million up front with no add on.
 
Last edited:
Lots of teams will be keen on Spence, because his value is rising or certainly has the potential to. He performed well against Arsenal, Leicester and Liverpool. He looks most of the way to a Premier League player and looks very strong and quick going forward against £50m opposition players.
 
Add ons always mean reducing the upfront fee.

If they're prepared to pay £20 million plus and add ons, they were also prepared to pay £22 million up front with no add on.
But not necessarily…

Lets say someone offers us £20m. We say we also want 10% of any future profit if they sell him. If they sell him for £40m then we get £2m in future. If he has 2-3 great seasons in the Champions League and wins 20 England caps he might go for £60m, and we then get an extra £4m. Unlikely of course but not impossible.

Of course, he may not be sold in future for more than £20m. Whoever buys him may sell him for £10m in a couple of years. Djed may run down that contract. He may stay at the next club until he retires. That way we get nothing extra.

That £20m + a sell on clause is completely different to £22m or £24m now. It is better for the buying club as extra payments are reliant on his performances and effectively both us and whoever buys him from us will cash in.

As far as Boro are concerned, I assume we’d want as much as possible now. But once you get to an agreeable figure, we should try and add a clause in as it’s only relevant if he is a success.
 
People mix up Fees, conditional add ons and payment schedules.
If Boro agree a fee of £20m regardless of when that is paid, they will book that Profit in Player Sales as £20m in this accounting year. It will immediately impact the FFP assessment in full.
If there are conditional add ons they will be booked in the year that they are actually triggered.
When clubs actually pay in terms of instalments does not impact the P&L or FFP.

If Boro get £20m fee for Spence it will ALL be booked in the year of sale.
If Boro commit that £20m in fees for players over 4 year contracts, then the P&L is hit by £5m amortisation in the season they buy those players registrations.

There are so many posters who haven’t a clue how buying and selling assets impacts P&L’s and hence FFP.
Boro are so dependent on Gibson O’Neill for its funding, the cash flow dimension of when payments are made versus when transactions are agreed is relatively unimportant.

Gibson May have made some godawful decisions on who to employ, who to sign and how much to pay, but I am certain he knows exactly how to structure and best finance deals.
 
Back
Top