Ollie Watkins

[Red Bill]

If the club did sell Ollie in this window, IMO it would be the stupidest thing they've done for years. Tisdale has said he doesn't want to lose anyone and that we don't need the money, given how the board have backed him recently in the face of an ever increasing weight of criticism and calls for his head, I'd be very surprised if they didn't respect his wishes now.

I fully expect to see him run onto the pitch tomorrow night!

 

[Snoop Fog]

If the club did sell Ollie in this window, IMO it would be the stupidest thing they've done for years. Tisdale has said he doesn't want to lose anyone and that we don't need the money, given how the board have backed him recently in the face of an ever increasing weight of criticism and calls for his head, I'd be very surprised if they didn't respect his wishes now.

I fully expect to see him run onto the pitch tomorrow night!

It would only be the most stupidest thing the club has done if the price was wrong. If he was sold for 4m it wouldn't be stupid would it!

Anyway, people have got well carried away and well ahead of themselves with this.

Ollie Watkins is a really good player at L2 level and has good potential but he's not Ronaldo or Giggs and I'm confident he won't be either so talk of 10m to Villa is just ridiculous.

 

[Red Bill]

Yes any amount would be stupid at the moment unless you think his value will go down between now and the summer. Yes he could get a career ending injury in the meantime, but he most likely won't!

 

[Pobbop]

It would only be the most stupidest thing the club has done if the price was wrong. If he was sold for 4m it wouldn't be stupid would it!

Anyway, people have got well carried away and well ahead of themselves with this.

Ollie Watkins is a really good player at L2 level and has good potential but he's not Ronaldo or Giggs and I'm confident he won't be either so talk of 10m to Villa is just ridiculous.

I don't think anyone on here seriously said 10 mil, it's speculation from another site, possibly meant as a joke.

Yes you're right, silly money and he goes, but I think the point is unless it's massive there's no reason to sell, he doesn't want away, we could get promoted and if he carries on playing like this we'll get plenty in the Summer. I think we can risk a Beer/Rowbotham situation injury-wise and not panic.

It is an healthy situation to be in, no-ones going to get the lad on the cheap.

 

[007]

cant see anything happening now, my impressions of the situation is that getting it 'right ' for ollie would take precedent and that would take a reasonable amount of time in negotiations and i'm sure we'd have got some sort of 'sniff' and dont look like we have so,, so my gut's telling me it aint gonna happen.. ,, famous last words. just a question, how many goals will ollie end up with for the season? , i'de go 25.

 

[Banksy]

Good point 007 , let's hope eh?
I'll say 19 if he stays.

 

[Gordon Dale]

Banksy : I'm having problems backing ECFC @ 5-4 on the bookies website . Has asked me to contact customer services . Anyone else experiencing similar issues? Could be 'cause I've been backing the grecians each match since Mansfield? Very strange ? They normally bite my hand off !

 

[C j phill]

When Watkins does go (either today or at some stage in the future), this will be a test of how much TT&P have learnt from seasons past.

In my view, one of their collective largest failures occurred during season 2010/11, when we finished 8th in league one, just outside the play-offs. It was common knowledge that Hamer, Matt Taylor, Harley and Cureton would be off, at the end of the season. TT&P attempts to cover those departures failed to the point that relegation followed.

When Watkins goes for a reasonable fee, given that this will have been known for some time and TT&P will have a good idea of the fee value, I hope that their "scouting arrangements" will have identified player recruitment, either to maintain or promotion aspirations this seasons or build on however we finish at the end the season.

 

[Jason H]

In my view, one of their collective largest failures occurred during season 2010/11, when we finished 8th in league one, just outside the play-offs. It was common knowledge that Hamer, Matt Taylor, Harley and Cureton would be off, at the end of the season. TT&P attempts to cover those departures failed to the point that relegation followed.

Hamer was never ours, of course, but Jones left then too.

I do have to take issue with this somewhat though. Taylor and Harley in particular, as two of the key spine members of the side, were essentially on non-league wages. To replace them adequately with L1-standard players we'd have had to pay L1 wages, which would have decimated our budget. Hence replacing Matt Taylor we had, er, Danny Coles. Yay. Cureton would have been on a decent wage but even then we signed him from L2 Shrewsbury (where he had been an abject failure), and unfortunately also 20 goal strikers don't grow on trees, we'd have had to either sign someone else's cast-offs (and clubs don't "cast off" 20 goal strikers) or spend a hefty fee in getting an untried at league level striker.

 

[arthur]

Hamer was never ours, of course, but Jones left then too.

I do have to take issue with this somewhat though. Taylor and Harley in particular, as two of the key spine members of the side, were essentially on non-league wages. To replace them adequately with L1-standard players we'd have had to pay L1 wages, which would have decimated our budget. Hence replacing Matt Taylor we had, er, Danny Coles. Yay. Cureton would have been on a decent wage but even then we signed him from L2 Shrewsbury (where he had been an abject failure), and unfortunately also 20 goal strikers don't grow on trees, we'd have had to either sign someone else's cast-offs (and clubs don't "cast off" 20 goal strikers) or spend a hefty fee in getting an untried at league level striker.

In football, just as in other business, good succession planning is absolutely essential for any sort of success. The Liverpool boot room and Alex Ferguson are the best examples, but we' didn't do too badly ourselves during the journey to 8th in L1. Mackie's departure down the A38 in particular springs to mind. A conveyor belt of young players coming through, a pool of reserve talent happy to be peripheral for a bit, an extensive and well resourced scouting system and ready cash to spend when necessary are all needed for this to work. How many of these ingredients do we have in place at the moment - quite a few I'd have thought.