[Albion] Are we destined to become a 'selling club'?

[brightn'ove]

In the same way that every single club outside of the 'big 6' are, yes.

not just that, the even the big clubs are now feeder clubs for the oil clubs like PSG, City & probably Newcastle in the not too distant future. And then you have clubs that draw based on prestige like Barca, Bayern & Real Madrid.

 

[Swansman]

Obviously its a selling club. Always has been and always will be. Not like you sat around in the 90s saying "nah, we'll reject this £10m bid because we have a sign saying 'not a selling club'". Every club except a very limited number of top clubs would always sell if the price is right.

Decent business model.
The only major downside, is if we sell more than one player per window in my opinion.
We have been aware of the interest in Biss for a couple of seasons, we have brought through suitable and able replacements.
LWB is a position we have struggled with for AGES.
To finally get a decent one and lose him the next season is pretty shit, unless there's a replacement being lined up...we sure ain't got one here at the moment

Unfortunately, at times, this is going to happen. Two transfer window per year (and I don't expect Brighton to sell key players in January that often, but lets ignore that for now)... Sanchez, Webster, Lamptey, Cucurella, Bissouma, Mac Allister, Caicedo, Mwepu, Trossard... which one do you tell "yeah no Real Madrid for you, it will be your turn in... five years."

Not too worried about Cucu. If he leaves, obviously the club will sign a new LWB. May or may not be an instant success like Cucu, but even if not, there's always Solly March who is a very good LWB.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

In the same way that every single club outside of the 'big 6' are, yes.

I meant to add. To most clubs in Europe and the Championship, we're also a BUYING club. That is our place in the food chain.

 

[Glawstergull]

Man U sold Pogba & Ronaldo. Man city are selling Jesus, Liverpool sold Sterling & Suarez.
Chelsea sold everyone...including De Bruyne & Salah.

 

[el punal]

That's the model though. Buy at reasonable prices, develop outstanding talent, sell talent on and unearth another gem, rinse and repeat

This is what Southampton were particularly good at until recently. They shipped out Van Dijk, Mane, Lallana, Shaw, Lovren in short order but replaced them with very average personnel, be they cut price bargain basement transfers or not up to scratch players from their development squad.

I trust that we don’t encounter the same problem.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Great recruitment and development, but as soon as we have an outstanding player the 'big six' vultures start to circle. It's pretty depressing really. If Bloom really wants to establish us in the top ten we need to hold on to our best players, but it seems impossible.

Isn't being a 'selling club' another way of achieving the goal of a top-10 club? TB is clearly playing the long game, where incremental improvements every season are the goal. Not just going all-in and spaffing hundreds of millions on players. The sales that have been made have yielded big profits, with replacements/other options in those positions being acquired at a much lower cost. Carry on like that and the squad will improve overall and players will be sold for more money, which means there are relatively more funds to spend on replacement to prevent falling behind in the whole 'top-ten established club' aim...

Bottom line is, players come and go. Evidence suggests that the Albion have bought and sold pretty well in recent years, so I trust that trend to continue.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

The big 6 revenue streams far outstrip ours.
Even if we continue our improvement, we will only be able to compete, by generating revenue from player sales.

 

[Comrade Sam]

I understand we create talent and sell it on. It's not the fact when we develop world class talent that will be sold on before we can fill a team with them, or even just enjoy them for longer. What guts me is the fact these big clubs can just spunk oil or hedge fund money. Man City did fine without Cucarella and know we want to keep him. It's like a billionaire paying for a night with your wife because he can.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Yes, but to be fair, that didn't work out too well back then!


N.B. That's not a criticism of our current buy cheap(ish), develop and sell-on policy, which I'm fully on board with.

Yes. …. What happened to the cup final money?

 

[Dave the OAP]

It's like a billionaire paying for a night with your wife because he can.

Fabulous song btw

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I understand we create talent and sell it on. It's not the fact when we develop world class talent that will be sold on before we can fill a team with them, or even just enjoy them for longer. What guts me is the fact these big clubs can just spunk oil or hedge fund money. Man City did fine without Cucarella and know we want to keep him. It's like a billionaire paying for a night with your wife because he can.

And they face no restrictions such as FFP or having to pass an owners test in the first place. Yes it is galling. I mind less when losing players to a proper club who have earned their money with something other than environmental annihilation

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

More interesting to me than are we a selling club (because clearly we are). Is, are we a club who will regularly make a net profit in the transfer market?

Obs 3-5 years ago we were net down about £60m per summer. Then last couple of years, we'll have made a profit, transfer wise. Is this just an anomaly?

 

[Perkino]

Every member of the squad has a value to the club which is impacted by a range of factors, Selling Bissouma might mean we value Trossard a little higher next week, but if the club feel that they can recoup a good sum for an individual they will do so. Our challenge is to ensure that the squad quality doesn't drop significantly in the longer term, Caicedo will get more game time and develop to reduce the gap but ultimately we hope he will surpass Bissouma. Age is a huge factor in the value of a player, in 2019 we signed a Championship CB for £20m to replace our Player of the season and broke up the D&D partnership at a time where many thought we may lose one of them to a bigger side, However 3 years later that looks like a genius move.

Money doesn't buy you a readymade superstar, the Premier League is full of players who haven't adapted. We have a model to buy very talented youngsters and give game time to anyone who is good enough to be involved in the squad knowing that when our better players reach their peak and are identified by others to be poached that we have players waiting in the wings ready to play. Some positions we are ready to replace from within but others we would need a stop gap or replacement to be signed

 

[Lenny Rider]

Every club is a selling club if the price is right.

 

[GT49er]

Isn’t Leicester the better model to follow once you start selling at high prices you can go into the market and replace with better players to keep the first team squad competitive. Without Cucurella and Biss that’s £100m worth of talent out the door that needs replacing with some like for like talent, as much as he tries March isn’t the replacement to keep us pushing up the table and I’m not sure Alzate is either.

£100M worth of talent that we won't be getting £100M for.

 

[American Seagle]

Isn’t Leicester the better model to follow once you start selling at high prices you can go into the market and replace with better players to keep the first team squad competitive. Without Cucurella and Biss that’s £100m worth of talent out the door that needs replacing with some like for like talent, as much as he tries March isn’t the replacement to keep us pushing up the table and I’m not sure Alzate is either.

So far we have been keeping the squad competitive. I see no reason why that will not change. As for pushing up the table, well, I hate to tell ya but, realistically, we are about as close to as high as we can get. Well without selling out to big oil or some crocked government that is. Personally I would take 7th-12th or something over that.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

£100M worth of talent that we won't be getting £100M for.

1) How do you know? The club never say how much any transaction is. That said it's quite feasible that with add ons the combined sale could well be 100m.

2) They cost us a combined 30m. We've got way more value out of them than that.

3) You're on a lot of these threads making comments about how we're not getting value. Whether it's squad players, first teamers, star players or development squad. Presumably you think we should be getting more and should be doing something different? What exactly is it that you'd do that Bloom and co aren't?

 

[Russconha]

I want my cake and I want to eat it.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Great recruitment and development, but as soon as we have an outstanding player the 'big six' vultures start to circle. It's pretty depressing really. If Bloom really wants to establish us in the top ten we need to hold on to our best players, but it seems impossible.

So are you depressed because we aren’t big six or big ten ? You yourself have said it’s the big six that will buy our best players. No-one at the club has ever talked about being big six.
Football clubs buy and sell footballers.

 

[dazzer6666]

We’re not ‘destined’ to become a selling club with the negative connotations that has. We aspire to, and have planned all along, to become a selling club - it’s 100% part of the strategy. Grow or recruit and then nurture talented players, get some use out of them and then, if they’re in demand, rinse a top 6 club whilst allowing the developing player to achieve their ambitions (and show to others that we won’t stand in your way) whilst at the same time have a conveyor belt of replacements from clever recruitment or the academy ready to step in. Rinse and repeat = sustainable club. We all need to get used to at least one of our best players leaving every summer.