A shame but can see why we've sold him. He wasn't going to play for us this season, it was pretty clear on social media that he was unhappy with how he was treated so doubt he'd have been up for another Championship loan. So a young player that couldn't quite hold down a place at two promotion chasing Championship teams wants a permanent move so gets it to a mid table team. He would've played more if we'd carried on with three at the back but in a back four he was our fifth best centre back. Makes sense all round other than the fee being less than we'd hoped but clearly Championship teams have been worse affected than Premier League teams by lockdown. I'm more baffled as to how Stoke have sold a 20 year old centre back I've never heard of to Burnley for £12m!
I wanted him to do well but lets be honest he's not even close to the level Sierralta is, and that must be the bar. No room in PL football for sentimentality if we want to stay in it. I'm more concerned with who partners Sierralta....
This time last year we had never heard of Sierralta, new we are concerned as to who partners him, funny old game!
Well I'm assuming Xisco made it clear to the club that Ben wasn't in his plans and Ben probably told us he didn't want a loan again. I can't explain the small fee though as I can't believe Stoke were the only club interested in him. I was thinking maybe we owed Stoke some money due to Bachmann's appearances at a major tournament, so we let them have Wilmot on the cheap if they waived that. But then I remembered we got Dan on a free!
£5 million for a championship squad player? I think that’s very optimistic. Basically I think the club, (not simply Xisco), have decided he is not going to be part of our first team squad, so best for all to move on. If others were interested (Swansea) I still doubt we would have been looking at much more money for him. No doubt Stevenage we’re hoping for more premie4 league appearance add on fees.
If as has been reported we paid Stevenage anything close to 1 million, they can count themselves very fortunate as there aren’t many League 2 players that go for that sort of money!
I'm a little sad to see a young,ball playing defender leave. However he was bullied on occasions last season I'm not sure he has improved as much as we'd hoped he would have. Good luck to him.
It's obvious what's happening here - we can't shift any of our strikers so we let a centre back leave and convert Deeney into a defender for the last year of his contract ala Marcus Gayle.
Well I think buying young players from lower divisions you think can step up is still the way to go. Any Premier League team taking on a player is likely to pay a premium. Of course the problem is that fees and deals don’t seem to have the transparency of the past. On this occasion it looks like we got our money back. I honestly don’t think we sell players on the cheap. Fees do reflect the market though and the context of the time.
I slag off dog **** like Perica, for example, who I'd never seen play because they're in their mid 20's and have never done their job in terrible leagues, never mind the level we're at. Very different to feeling it's blatant stupidity to sell a 21 year old, Championship level centre back with years and potential to become far better, for relative peanuts.
No winning though, is there? Nath voices dislike of a player "omfg ur so negativ m8 support da boys!" Nath shows support of a player and thinks low cost sale is a poor decision "omfg wots wrong wiv u m8 he suks who cares!" Yawn.
Disappointing that he didn't progress as hoped especially when he had the chance with us in the championship but still young and may yet prove our owners wrong.
He couldn't even lock down a place last year, so there's no chance of him doing it this year. I doubt most Championship or lower clubs have two pennies to rub together right now, so it was never going to be a large fee. Sizable back end clause and that's probably the best we can hope for. I'll be surprised if he ever makes the Premier League, or even a top class Championship CB, but then Cathcart looked beyond awful at his age so he's got time on his side.
Everyone knows how I feel about him. So I’m disgusted at this. Clearly our best defender outside of Sierralta, yet wasn’t given a proper chance. Said it multiple times throughout the season that he should have been playing instead of Ekong. We are going to regret this when he absolutely destroys the championship this season. £1.5mil that could rise to £2mil is pathetic. The boy is a massive talent. Watch Stoke sell him for £10mil+ in 2-3 years time. Would much rather sell a 32 year old Cathcart or a 30 year old Kaba, then sell Ben. Just stupid!
Its not always down to the club, sometimes its a circle you can't square. He has one year left on his contract and can imagine he wouldn't sign a new one unless he's playing. The coaching team don't think he's at the level to play. Sell him now for something or lose him next summer for £0. You sell players if no one wants to buy them.
Was strange he didn’t even get a look in under Munoz even on the bench even when we had injuries or playing weaken teams. Considering he played umber Vlad a fair amount of times. Must have been right out of favour and we just want to sell/get rid .
At the start of the season when we were playing negative football, Ben looked to be the one defender who was prepared to burst forward and actually try and attack the opposition.
If you take the emotion out of it, we sold a player who has never been good enough for us, even when in the championship to a team that is probably his level. The fee is lower than I'd have liked, but I was talking to someone at work about how hard it's going to be to sell anyone to the championship this season because not a single club has any money. If we kept him his value would just depreciate even more.
I would disagree with that. I'd argue he was probably our 3rd best centre back this season. He is also 10 years younger than a few of our centre backs. There were certainly times he made defensive mistakes but lets not pretend WTE and Kabasele haven't had their fair share of howlers. I can see why he wants to move on and I can see why the club want to cash in, but don't understand the desire to suddenly pretend he is ****. If we were linked with an English U21 ball playing centre back for £2m everyone on here would probably be buzzing.
If said defender was Marc Guehi then I certainly would be - but then Guehi is already a much better defender than Wilmot will ever be, hence why one is worth comfortably more than £2mil and should be playing in the PL next season, and the other isn't and won't be.
I never said he was ****. I think Stoke is exactly his level atm. I always wanted Wilmot to do well but I can't really remember a performance from him where I've been really impressed and never seen anything to suggest he's better than mid-table championship. We've also signed another promising young English CB in Pollock which is why I also think we were happy to let Wilmot go.
The fee is stupidly low - but he has shown very little so far that indicates he will ‘destroy’ the Championship next season…and I don’t think it was at all clear that he was our second best defender last season. And again - he may have been better that WTE ability-wise. But WTE leads the line, he’s the vocal aspect of the back four and that is key to why he played. I suspect Sierralta looked as good as he did because he had WTE alongside him.
It's a low fee but all fees are stupidly low in the champ and lower prem at present. In the same way that we are selling him for less than we'd have expected 2 years ago, we will probably be picking up a few new signings for less than we'd have had to pay 2 years ago.
Agree with this. I don't get why people on here think WTE is bad. He was a key component in one of the best ever championship back lines. I feel like people think he's bad because his passing was a bit dodgy. He would give the ball away a fair bit, but he's a very good defender. Far better than Wilmot.
I seriously worry about T-E in the prem due to a limit on his technical ability and decision making. He’s physically impressive and did an ok job in the Championship but still looked suspect at times next to Sierralta who is imo, clearly a complete beast. I like T-E for his leadership qualities, what he supposedly brought to the team when we needed it most and also the fact that he’s clearly working on his game with his own coaches etc. That said, apart from Striker he would be my next weakest link in the expected starting 11. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sorry the **** bit wasn't directed specifically at you - but what I have seen from some on here and on twitter. Yeah I think Stoke probably is his level right about now which I dont think is necessarily a bad think for a guy who is still pretty young.
