[Albion] Napoli interested in Billy Gilmour **Sold 30/08/24**

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Just a few of his impressive stats

Hurzeler's tactics are all about getting the ball from back to front as quickly as possible, no dawdling in the middle third of the pitch.

He also wants his two centre midfielders to be pushing up high, creating assists and scoring goals.

Billy's game is big on controlling the middle third through possession, but not really suited to Hurzeler's tactics.

Compare his stats to Diego Gomez's.

 

[Weststander]

But he is a defensive centre midfielder. In nearly every game he has started for us he has been one of two pivotes in front of our back line.

[I’m aware that there are several football definitions of pivot. It’s subjectve].

Did RDZ play two pivots in anyone’s eyes? To me it was:
2022/23 - Caicedo and Mac taking turns in play to pivot.
2023/24 - various attempts at one, either Baleba, Gross, Gilmour, Milner, Dahoud, Moder, even Bounanotte I think. In the main pretty poor defensively. Often overrun by three CM powerhouses for the opposition. I don’t do away games, but at the Amex punters we spoke with sighed an hour before KO when it dawned on us all that an incredibly slow player was tasked with protecting the CB’s. Almost throwing the points.

At Amex games, Gilmour usually was further upfield, buzzing about the centre circle, attempting to give tempo and get a passing game going.

 

[Han Solo]

Hurzeler's tactics are all about getting the ball from back to front as quickly as possible, no dawdling in the middle third of the pitch.

He also wants his two centre midfielders to be pushing up high, creating assists and scoring goals.

Billy's game is big on controlling the middle third through possession, but not really suited to Hurzeler's tactics.

...assuming Hurzeler will be using the same tactics and formation as in St Pauli. Which is what most of us has been thinking because it gives a chance to get a grasp of what will happen, but there's no real logical reason why a manager who has been described as tactically flexible will actually go with the same formation with his entirely new set of players.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

...assuming Hurzeler will be using the same tactics and formation as in St Pauli. Which is what most of us has been thinking because it gives a chance to get a grasp of what will happen, but there's no real logical reason why a manager who has been described as tactically flexible will actually go with the same formation with his entirely new set of players.

Looking at the profile of players we are targeting, it seems a reasonable assumption.

 

[StonehamPark]

$8m? Lmaooooo.

 

[Han Solo]

[I’m aware that there are several football definitions of pivot. It’s subjectve].

Did RDZ play two pivots in anyone’s eyes? To me it was:
2022/23 - Caicedo and Mac taking turns in play to pivot.
2023/24 - various attempts at one, either Baleba, Gross, Gilmour, Milner, Dahoud, Moder, even Bounanotte I think. In the main pretty poor defensively. Often overrun by three CM powerhouses for the opposition. I don’t do away games, but at the Amex punters we spoke with sighed an hour before KO when it dawned on us that an incredibly slow player was tasked with protecting the CB’s. Almost throwing the points.

At Amex games, Gilmour usually was further upfield, buzzing about the centre circle, attempting to give tempo and get a passing game going.

If you haven't seen this 100000000 times the last two seasons -

...then what do you need? Roberto De Zerbi standing in front of a big tactical board showing his two pivot system?

Ok.

 

[DJ NOBO]

Swansman‘s valuation of WBG is mental, not as mental as Napoli’s though.
I hope he stays as he is close to being a high end player. He just needs to improve (ahem, start) his goal count. Fine margins. People mention McTominay - not so long ago he was a non-scoring midfielder.

 

[Weststander]

If you haven't seen this 100000000 times the last two seasons -
View attachment 185895


...then what do you need? Roberto De Zerbi standing in front of a big tactical board showing his two pivot system?

Ok.

View attachment 185896

That’s at one moment in an entire phase. When we have the ball, the beginning.

In general play and when we lost the ball, never in a month of Sundays did we have two deep lying CM’s protecting the defence.

And that absolutely does happen under other managers. If you read about how Arteta sets up for quality opposition, he obsesses with both Rice and Jorginho protecting the defence.

RDZ’s football was a million miles from. A high stakes risk-reward.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I like WBG and would be sad to see him go and can't imagine what it would do to THPP. It would be dreadful having to walk past him each week as I take my seat, but I really find it unbelievable that we would let him go for £12M

 

[Oh_aye]

That's one take. Here's another:

With his current quality and development trajectory, he should reach the level Mac Allister had when he really started to show he was a world class midfielder. He is already a high quality player in the Premier League. When he was missing for a seven game spell in February and March, we played Championship level football every week.

His passing, positioning and reading of the game is elite tier stuff and his duelling has improved a lot. He is a key player for us and one of the most promising defensive playmakers in the world. There is no chance we are letting him go for any less than £50m.

He seems to always be quite divisive. He was one of my favourite players last season.

 

[Van Cleef]

Exactly, unless Chelsea have been very stupid (which let’s face it is a possibility) then the norm is for sell on clauses to be paid on all future profitable income on the player.

Sorry, I was chatting at the back and not paying attention, but is this a thing now?
I always assumed the selling club would just receive a percentage of the next sell-on.

 

[Mr deez]

Sorry, I was chatting at the back and not paying attention, but is this a thing now?
I always assumed the selling club would just receive a percentage of the next sell-on.

No it's the profit. The sell on clause is to benefit if you think a player will become more valuable. Most players should realistically lose value over the course of a contract, so to have a sell on when you are already making a loss isn't that good a deal for the purchaser.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Sorry, I was chatting at the back and not paying attention, but is this a thing now?
I always assumed the selling club would just receive a percentage of the next sell-on.

It's always been a thing. Although it's a sell on clause and applies only if a profit is made, it will be paid on any profit (so will include if the selling club get payments for a set number of appearances or someone winning a trophy etc)

See Bozza's post (http://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/threads/napoli-interested-in-billy-gilmour.408872/post-11218433) which explains how the returns will diminish with each subsequent sale as the profit for each club will be less and less. There is a potential for a ever decreasing run of payments coming in longer after a player has left a club. They will come to a natural end as there comes a point where it's no longer possible to make a profit on a player, or they become a free agent etc.

 

[MJsGhost]

At Brighton or in general? The most for a Scottish player so far is Tierney going from Celtic to Arsenal for £25m

It's possible that I was just on the wind up regarding the standard of Scottish football / footballers...

 

[Littlemo]

It's possible that I was just on the wind up regarding the standard of Scottish football / footballers...

Ha ha I thought it was a straight question. I am terrible at making out tone in posts.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

It's possible that I was just on the wind up regarding the standard of Scottish football / footballers...

To be fair to you the fee we paid for WBG makes him the 25th most expensive Scottish footballer ever.

 

[Pavilionaire]

If £8m really was their opening gambit, then Napoli are a bunch of timewasting tyre-kickers. That is absolutely DERISORY for a 23 y/o PL regular 1st-team starter, and a full international (albeit for the scotch), with 2 years still on his deal.

TB should tell them to think about tripling that bid before they bother coming back to the table, PLUS add-ons, or bog off back to their mediocre ice cream.

Indeed. The next bid will probably be £10 mill and a tub of ice cream.

While they're on the phone we should offer £20 mill for Kvaratshvelia.

Absolute bunch of Cosa Nostra Clowns.

 

[NorthStanding]

Hurzele’s plans, it’s a seaBut is BG really a deep lying playmaker though or did he just play there for us as we had no-one else? Horses can and do have more than one course.

If he could score goals

Starting 23 year old playmakers playing in the premier league with two years on their contracts don’t go for £12m even if they were considered surplus on a new playing style.

Gilmour is a lot more important to us than he’s clearly given credit for. Would be a mistake to let him leave for this.

Alex Crook has a direct line to PB so normally quite accurate with all things Albion, the “£12m maybe enough”! Sadly hasn’t come from nowhere

£12m is a joke, English clubs would be queuing up to buy him for £20m. However, a low value sale, with a low value buy-back clause, is possible. Only if Hurzeler doesn’t have Billy in his plans, surprising considering Billy’s passing abilities.

(I don’t believe the £12m valuation. If anything else, that would cause a huge congestion problem on the A27 with both Premier League and Championship recruitment teams queuing up in order to buy the wee laddie.

However, I’m coming round to the idea that the club could compromise on the fee if the following criteria were true:

1. The player is an incredibly nice guy. One that the club would like to see prosper from a human perspective.

2. The buying team is not based in England. We don’t want Billy coming back to haunt us next season!

3. We already have at least two options for their position.

4. We agree a 50%+ sell-on fee.

5. The player/agent has approached the club and indicated the Conte/Napoli destination is wanted.

6. Hürzeler has told the Tony et al that WBG is surplus to requirements and will struggle for squad time, let alone game ti

 

[Van Cleef]

It's always been a thing. Although it's a sell on clause and applies only if a profit is made, it will be paid on any profit (so will include if the selling club get payments for a set number of appearances or someone winning a trophy etc)

See Bozza's post (http://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/threads/napoli-interested-in-billy-gilmour.408872/post-11218433) which explains how the returns will diminish with each subsequent sale as the profit for each club will be less and less. There is a potential for a ever decreasing run of payments coming in longer after a player has left a club. They will come to a natural end as there comes a point where it's no longer possible to make a profit on a player, or they become a free agent etc.

Thanks. That's interesting. I knew the sell on only applied to any profit but I didn't realise the clause could roll on. I had assumed that chelsea would receive a fee when/if we sold on to Napoli, but I had assumed that Chelseas interest would then end.

 

[Han Solo]

He seems to always be quite divisive. He was one of my favourite players last season.

Yes, and that is usually the case with defensive midfielders.

A lot of them doesn't score goals because they rarely get into the penalty box and they're rarely targets on set pieces.

Dale Stephens and Yves Bissouma also had their doubters. One of them was great at controlling the game and the other a complete monster and by far our best player for a while. "His shots always go over the bar, he's not as good as the Dutch Volvo we're playing as right back". Deary me.