[Albion] Toby Collyer - move to Manure

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I have no idea what went on but it is really quite bizarre.

He was a 1st-year scholar in 2020-21 but signed a professional contract during that season (as evidenced by the PL retained list at the end of the campaign). He couldn't have signed before Jan 3 2021 as you can't register a player as a professional before his 17th birthday.

However, he played the first half of the U-18s' second game of the following season - and that was that. He never featured again and when the Premier League Squad Listing was published in February 2022 he was no longer shown as being registered with Albion.

Given that he was very highly-rated (he had featured for the U-18s when he was still an U-15 schoolboy and he had played 8 times for the England U-16s in 2019-20 and was called up by the England U-17s in October 2020), and that he was already on a professional contract - it is difficult to make much sense out of the situation.

Makes me think the contract he signed at 17 was a 1 year deal. We then went to extend it and he wasn’t interested and made that very clear, thus us not playing him and him effectively being released by the club when that contract expired around his 18 birthday.

 

[albionalex]

Makes me think the contract he signed at 17 was a 1 year deal. We then went to extend it and he wasn’t interested and made that very clear, thus us not playing him and him effectively being released by the club when that contract expired around his 18 birthday.

If that was the case, we would have been due compensation.

 

[AZ Gull]

Makes me think the contract he signed at 17 was a 1 year deal. We then went to extend it and he wasn’t interested and made that very clear, thus us not playing him and him effectively being released by the club when that contract expired around his 18 birthday.

We'll never know, but I don't think I've EVER heard of a club offering a player who they take on as a scholar, a deal that includes a professional contract that is only two years in total (ie one-year scholar plus one-year pro). A three-year deal is pretty common (either one-year scholar plus two-year pro or two-year scholarship plus one pro year). Given how highly rated he was, I just don't think they would have offered him such a short pro deal.

 

[AZ Gull]

If that was the case, we would have been due compensation.

We would be due training compensation anyway, but the fact that he was no longer registered as an Albion player as of the end of the January 2022 transfer window, and he didn't sign with United until March 2022, has me wondering if United even needed to agree a deal with us or whether he was a free agent and could agree a contract with anyone.

 

[AZ Gull]

Makes me think the contract he signed at 17 was a 1 year deal. We then went to extend it and he wasn’t interested and made that very clear, thus us not playing him and him effectively being released by the club when that contract expired around his 18 birthday.

The other point here is that contracts run until June 30 (apart from short-term contracts offered to players, often youngsters, who are essentially trying to prove their worth). That is another interesting aspect of this situation - why was he no longer registered as an Albion player as of January 2022? Was that a mutual decision between the player and club (difficult to imagine given his footballing pedigree and Albion's model) or did one party - Collyer? - seek a termination?

 

[GT49er]

I'll stick with my original "undisclosed" - and it won't be!

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

The other point here is that contracts run until June 30 (apart from short-term contracts offered to players, often youngsters, who are essentially trying to prove their worth). That is another interesting aspect of this situation - why was he no longer registered as an Albion player as of January 2022? Was that a mutual decision between the player and club (difficult to imagine given his footballing pedigree and Albion's model) or did one party - Collyer? - seek a termination?

I see what you are saying but if it was only a years contract signed around the time that he turned 17 then it would have expired before the normal end of June date.

Granted it would seem odd that we’d have given a young player a shorter deal like that rather than 18 months at least to bring it into line with it ending in June, but then nothing about this whole thing seems to fit into the norm of contracts and transfers, so maybe all we could get him to agree to at first was a 1 year deal. There was never any fanfare when he signed a pro deal and given his high potential that seemed odd too.

 

[AZ Gull]

I see what you are saying but if it was only a years contract signed around the time that he turned 17 then it would have expired before the normal end of June date.

Granted it would seem odd that we’d have given a young player a shorter deal like that rather than 18 months at least to bring it into line with it ending in June, but then nothing about this whole thing seems to fit into the norm of contracts and transfers, so maybe all we could get him to agree to at first was a 1 year deal. There was never any fanfare when he signed a pro deal and given his high potential that seemed odd too.

In recent years the Albion have very rarely publicised that 1st-year scholars have signed their first professional contracts. Joe Belmont, Zane Albarus, Evan Ferguson, Casper Nilsson, Marcus Ifill, Todd Miller, Antef Tsoungui - ALL of them signed pro during their first scholar year and the Albion didn't publicise a single one of them. (They did announce that Jacob Vickers had signed pro in July of this year but even that wasn't DURING his 1st scholar year, as such).

And I'm 99.999% certain Collyer's contract, however long it was, was until June 30 of the relevant year.

 

[AZ Gull]

Collyer called up to the England U-20 squad.