Ollie Watkins

[John William]

There is also the Jay Stansfield money from Fulham to take into account.

I was assuming (?hoping) this would be earmarked for the Academy/

 

[Saint James]

Watkins won't be going anywhere in January in my opinion, players don't sign new 4 year deals if they're planning on moving on in a couple of months. On the other hand if a big Prem club comes in with an 'offer we can't refuse' you may well be right, but I don't see that happening either. Having just lost Maupay, it would take a monstrous offer for us to let go of Watkins. From memory, we turned down a £12m offer from Crystal Palace in the summer window, being valued at around £15m at that time. If he successfully transitions into a Championship striker, you can double that.

It's not always easy to hang on to players though when higher league clubs come knocking, as you well know yourselves. Maupay is a good example—we actually offered Maupay higher weekly wages than he was offered at Brighton, but he wanted to go to a Prem club and off he went. Too early for him in my opinion, he needed another year or two in the Championship as is the case with Watkins and I think Watkins has been smarter than Maupay in staying in the Championship. Watkins will ultimately become the more successful of the two in my opinion, he's a more all-round player and is now adding striker/No. 9 qualities to his skill set.

Watkins isn't a natural striker, so he's having to learn/add those skills to his game—positional, movement, hold up and lay off play and it's taking him time to adjust to his new role.

The good news for you guys is, once he's adjusted and knocked in 20+ goals for a couple of seasons you'll be looking at 20-25% of c£30m.

Add that to the initial fee paid and you'll start to see what a really good deal you got. No-one pays (initial fee - sold price + sell on %) c£10m for league 2 players, no matter how good they are. That's a nice sum of money for a League 2/1 club.

i wouldn't pay too much attention to the Barnsley result, they're a very young and inexperienced side and lack the skilful, quality players you need at Championship level. We moved into a higher gear in the second half and blew them away, should have had 5 or 6. Barnsley are nailed on relegation candidates in my opinion. That's not taking anything away from Watkins, his goals were well taken and clinical, but he's still got work to do in terms of his movement and positioning in and around the box if he hopes to score 20+ goals. Not many Championship sides are as sloppy at the back as Barnsley were!

Bee, the new contract is much more of an indication that Watkins will be Leaving not that he's staying. Brentford have secured a much higher transfer fee as a result and the player would only be advised to sign if the contract has the clause in the players favour meaning he can talk to other clubs

 

[LDNGrecian]

I highly doubt a championship striker will go for £30m

 

[BerksBee]

Bee, the new contract is much more of an indication that Watkins will be Leaving not that he's staying. Brentford have secured a much higher transfer fee as a result and the player would only be advised to sign if the contract has the clause in the players favour meaning he can talk to other clubs

That's one way of looking at it but I'm not sure it indicates he'll be leaving. You're right in the sense that it means the club would get a higher transfer fee and I also suspect there may be a 'buy out clause' in there as well that could trigger a transfer if the valuation was met. But it's not generally the clubs policy to offer players new contracts if they're either happy for them to move on or are looking to move them on and players don't generally sign new ones either if they're looking for a move, better to either run the contract down and leave on a free or wait for offers to come in when there's a year or so left—as was the case recently with Sawyers who moved to WBA with a year left on his contract. I'm pretty sure the club offered Sawyers a new contract, but he decided not to sign.

The offering and signing of a new contract (with better terms) is a statement of intent from both club and player, that the player is valued by the club and seen as part of the future and the player committing their services to the club for the term of the contract. AFAIK the new contract is until 2023 with the option of another year, so that's a long term contract.

It's important to point out i think that the club doesn't stand in the way of players when the time comes for them to move on to better things. We desperately wanted to keep Maupay and did everything possible to try and keep him including offering him more wages than the club he was going to, but he wanted to go. The club could have been awkward and said, you still have 3 years left on your contract, you're not going anywhere, but that doesn't do the club or the player any good in the long term. Players are told when they join we have that policy in place and it's one of the reasons we're able to attract them to the club in the first place. They now, and we know, their time at the club is a stepping stone to an ultimately better club.

Watkins knows this as well and he also knows he's highly valued at the club both as a person and as a player. But he's going about it in a smarter way than Maupay did in my opinion and spending more time in the Championship to hone his skills. Maupay wasn't ready for the Premiership and neither is Watkins in my opinion.

 

[BerksBee]

I highly doubt a championship striker will go for £30m

You're probably right. But you're assuming (probably wrongly) that he'll be a Championship striker when he gets sold!

 

[Grecian Max]

I highly doubt a championship striker will go for £30m

Maupay went for £20m and Ollie is English....

 

[andrew p long]

I am with Berks Bee on the new contract. It shows that Brentford and Watkins rightly trust each other to do the right thing when offers come in. If it’s for the right amount, from the right club at the right time then Ollie will move on. But if it isn’t, he won’t.

 

[SEA Grecian]

I'd have thought the new contract doesn't make it any more or less likely Ollie will leave in the future but was simply a reward for not signing for Palace.

 

[IndoMike]

I'd have thought the new contract doesn't make it any more or less likely Ollie will leave in the future but was simply a reward for not signing for Palace.

Could be that, but the bigger the contract the more the buying club has to pay.
It's a win-win for Ollie and for Brentford.

 

[muppetdodger]

Could be that, but the bigger the contract the more the buying club has to pay.
It's a win-win for Ollie and for Brentford.

.....unless he gets injured of course.