True. The issue becomes if other PL clubs are interested in signing that player. It will be very interesting to see if Hughes signs his contract. Personally I wouldn’t if Villa are going to him a contract without any relegation clause.
Why on earth would a player accept one if an offer is there without one though? Having belief in your ability only gets you so far, a player could suffer a serious injury at any time, and the best contract offering them the highest guaranteed amount will always be a priority, specifically when the choice is to join us vs any other premier league club.
Thought he'd been a bit part player since 15/16 under Poch too, due to injuries, depression, etc though he played 26 games in 18/19 (18,10,26,12,11 prem games in the last 5 seasons. I guess my point was that he's not as established as he was say 5 years ago and falls under the "fallen greats with a point to prove" category.
Surely it’s far more circumstantial than that? A player may well want to live near London, they may think our facilities are amazing, they may want to work under our manager….there’s any number of reasons why a player may accept a deal with a relegation clause as opposed to a deal elsewhere without one.
It’s a short career and I think most players think about money first and foremost. They can live where they want when they retire. A player on a four year deal on £40k per week could potentially lose £3m quid if we were relegated after their first season. A player would also have to be mad to want to work under a Watford manager because they won’t be here for five minutes, but I appreciate that was just an example. Let’s face it there isn’t anything that elevates Watford above any other premier league club, especially when you then chuck in a 50% wage reduction. When it comes to players like Rose and Young they’re getting close to the end of their careers, however much they back themselves, their careers are only going to go one way from here, so in all honesty I think either would be mad to choose a 50% relegation clause over one without it.
It’s the sensible approach to put that clause in - and I do prefer that approach - but there could well be consequences e. g players not signing/leaving
Not hat arsed whether we get Young or not I only wanted him for sentimental reasons and if he don't sign then it was false sentiment anyway.
But if we lose high quality signings to relegation rivals because we’re adding a clause they aren’t, it could be a very counter-productive measure. It feels like the club are setting ourselves up to be financially viable in the Championship and are willing to sacrifice our competitiveness as a result. But like the last time we were in the PL, where ten million pounds would probably have saved fifty, it feels like by being prudent now we may be setting ourselves up to fail, and therefore need to be prudent. Like a business that only looks at the bottom dollar annually and forgets to invest in itself when it is really required.
Well we will hopefully learn from giving silly wages to those who aren’t worth it. Bubble might burst soon and players will have to accept that but probably won’t !
The most important thing is that they don't kill the club, not which league we are in. £10m might have saved £50m. Or it might not and we would have had an extra £10m to find which could have been the straw that broke the camel's back if we hadn't got promoted. However I guess you'd argue that another £10m would have guaranteed promotion....but it might not... now an extra £20m to find. The 2nd and 3rd tiers are full of clubs who felt that an extra £1om here or there would guarantee success only to find that it didn't. If we are going to stay up we are going to have to do it as we did before, by spending less than our peers and getting more from every £ spent.
I suspect most PL clubs who would consider themselves potentially viable to relegation will be putting these clauses in on a wider scale.
Young might take one of the wing spots then - it still makes some sense for him to be a winger in a 442, less so one of the wide forwards in a 433. They might be worried about losing McNeil in which case Young could be his replacement.
I would never have blamed Young for staying in Milan or picking Miami over us. But he’s clearly mental if he picks Burnley over either of those 2 destinations at his age.
Lol at Ashley Young if he leaves Inter for Burnley. Coming here from Inter was bizarre enough but at least there was some sort of (false) reasoning behind it.
Will make the almost inevitable home defeat to Burnley even more Likely . Young cross, Barnes header on 80 minutes
If he goes to Burnley it will be for one reason and one reason only, money, whether that be through higher wages or a longer contract. As I said previously, money will rule 95% of decisions made by footballers, there of course exceptions like there are with everything, but in most cases they’ll pick the better contract.
Or he doesn’t want to live in Italy anymore? Or first team football? There are a number of genuine, normal reasons surely that make it far less than 95% driven by money!
As mentioned by some, I also feel that the relegation clause is a bit of an own goal or self fulfilling prophecy.
But presumably the offer is there to play for us, the club he said he apparently wanted to come back and play for, and the place he is actually from. So logically it can only be money? I shouldn’t imagine a 36 year old would be a guaranteed starter for Burnley either, considering they’re actually a stronger better established PL club compared to us.
Unless the ‘offer’ from us was never there or no longer exists? I’d say there’s an equal, if not more, amount of logic to that. I’m not at all convinced our interest was ever as far along as people think.
But we didn’t have those clauses in most contracts 2 years ago and we managed to get relegated just fine. At least this way the club will be more secure.
I obviously see the logic of relegation clauses, but the club would be just as well off not giving out 5 year deals and contract extensions like sweets.
It’s not but it came up in the wider discussion. Plus the story is Burnley are willing to offer him a two year deal, which presumably if we agreed to match we’d at that point want one for the second year.
