Will say that I have watched Sarr play for Senegal several times, and the difference is mostly just that he still bothers to make some effort for them and attempt, at least, to utilise his ridiculous pace. He hardly turns into Ronaldo when he's representing the Lions of Teranga - he still displays similar levels of close control (or lack of it) and (strangely low) 'skill'. And, as mentioned, this is often against far inferior opposition. Obviously he has some raw attributes (at 24...) that could well still be coached into being a more effective player at Prem level than he is currently, and we are a pathetic basket case of a club and environment for player development, so there's blame to be shared everywhere, as ever. But there's so much of what he does that seems mental, and from an attitude that just doesn't seem that bothered and/or is prone to wilt generally more often than not. And Gray's description of him as being 'like our Messi' is certainly detached from any reality we've witnessed whilst he's been here. I'd still be a bit surprised if he became anything like the player the Pozzo suggested/anticipated when they spaffed a (relatively) enormous, club-ruining amount of money on him.
He still looks sh!te against any opposition. Very raw like a young kid with no football intelligence, except he's 24. That's partly down to us, we've ruined him during important years of his development. I'd take £20m and run.
I know Newcastle are in a bubble - but they are paying £15m Matt Targett and Sarr ended his Villa career. We should be getting at least £100m from Newcastle for Sarr on this basis. In all seriousness, £20m is a lot of money to Watford. History tells us that. But modern fees are crazy - we’d be getting totally mugged off if we sold Sarr so cheap in this day and age. I fail to believe there isn’t anyone willing to give us £30m for him. And I suspect that’s the clubs thinking as well. I don’t think they will sell him if they don’t get that.
But whatever the most they can get now is, that figure will reduce if we keep him and send him off to Udinese for a season as he’ll then only have 18/12 months on his deal when we can next try to sell him. So if they don’t sell him now because they’re holding out for £30m, then they’ll never get £30m for him, so I don’t get the logic really. Whatever they can get now is the most they’ll ever get.
That’s a rather skewed view though - in my opinion. It discounts a myriad of other options that while perhaps unlikely, aren’t impossible. I’ll also say 1 thing - we won’t send him on loan to Udinese (or anywhere) without an extension being signed. Been told by more than one person/source that Sarr stays or he goes for £30m+. And the latter is most likely…all this talk of no one being interested or him only being worth £20m is wide if the mark. Obviously plans develop as the window fluctuates but I’d be staggered if they let him go on loan or sold him for less than £25m - and I say this as someone who has a rock bottom opinion of those running the club. (I also think it’s overstated that clubs won’t pay a good fee for someone who has 12 months on their deal)
I think he’d have to be clinically insane to sign an extension with us, short of us offering him £200k per month, which we don’t have, he won’t be signing a new deal, objectively he’d be completely mental to tie himself to the Pozzo network for a second longer than he already is. I do appreciate what you may have been told, and I know you’ve come up with plenty of good intel on many occasions, but I suspect that’s just the party line, at least at the moment. I suspect given time reality will turn out very differently.
I was always of the opinion that the bigger PL clubs wanted to have another look at Sarr playing for us in the first half of last season and, if he had looked good, would have come in with an offer in January - just as happened with Ashley Young. As it turned out, he only looked reasonable sporadically at best and was actually outshone by Dennis. Then he was injured, so no bid was made. The fact that he has been even worse since returning has diminished his reputation as a PL player and our chance of getting a big fee for him.
But this completely ignores the simple fact that we are seen as a basket case club who go though many different styles of coach in a short period of time. It would be difficult for any player to progress. Clubs will know their own resources in terms of being able to progress a talented but inconsistent player. And that will override any doubts about last season in my opinion.
That's my take too. His game is shut down when he's double marked, and our lack of attacking threats when Dennie/GD weren't around meant teams could double mark him in complete safety. You can see what a good player he is every time he turns out for Senegal, because the likes of Mane mean it's not feasible to double mark Sarr.
Don’t see a big issue either way with Sarr, and don’t buy into the negativity. If he stays, I think Rob can get him back to his form from our promotion year - he clearly lost his way last year, but not sure I blame him. At his best, he can rip to shreds most left-backs in the PL, never mind the Championship. If he leaves this window, then we will get close to what we paid ( but clearly less in a years time).
So the consistent change of manager is the reason why Sarr usually get missing in those games when we could still have survived with a little bit more of an effort. The consistent change of managers is the reason why whenever we have a rare chance to counter attack a team and any of the players pass the ball to Sarr (with the expectation that he will use his pace), he will stop the ball, thereby allowing the opposing team's players who might have overlap to regroup and mark out the few players we have in the box before passing the ball back to Kiko? Change of managers is responsible for that? Why don't you just easily accept that Sarr is an average player and he lacks commitment. Sent from my AUM-L29 using Tapatalk
We didn't ruin him though, wasn't he getting his wages weekly despite usually giving 10% whenever he is on the field? He ruined himself by not being committed. Sent from my AUM-L29 using Tapatalk
We will only get 100m for Sarr if the club signing him gets a guarantee that they will be playing against Matt Target every week. Sent from my AUM-L29 using Tapatalk
So why didn't they just renew his contract when we secured promotion? Even if he had the same number of goals and assist with Dennis, I don't think any team would still have paid more than 30m for him with 2 years left and us getting relegated Sent from my AUM-L29 using Tapatalk
I'm not sure double marking is even a thing, or indeed any kind of man marking these days. Teams seem more concerned with closing space and passing lines down. And there have been innumerable occasions where he's been up against one defender and either dribbled straight into them or turned back. His best season for us was when we had Sema on the other side in the Championship so everything came down the right. I think he just generally struggles a bit against Premier League defences but how much of that is ability and how much is us sucking the confidence out of him is open to debate.
Out of interest, how is Matt Targett suddenly worth £15 million? He could never get into Southampton’s team and so dropped down to the Championship with Villa to get a game.
It'll be £20-25m without issue. Then an extra £5m or so in some performance-based add-ons I suspect, it'll be the add on's that drag this out.
OK. But I really him to go before July even if it's for 20m. As for Dennis am really relaxed about his situation, even if he is still here by August, lots of teams in the EPL and laliga will still be interested and for more than we will get for Sarr. Sent from my AUM-L29 using Tapatalk
Literally no one is worried about this, though, because there's no chance he stays and plays for us in the Champ. That's been both logically clear and ITK rumoured/reported for a year now, even, theoretically, had we not been relegated. It's just not the issue under discussion/debate.
That’s correct, but the worst-case scenario is that the transfer (whatever it turns out to be) drags on until after the season starts - for up to a month. Then either he plays badly because he doesn’t want to be here, he plays well and leaves behind a last minute hole in the team or (most likely) doesn’t play at all for fear of injury and everybody moans about us having an unused asset.
Don’t agree that there is no chance he stays. That is clearly an incorrect statement. I agree he is unlikely to stay, and by far the most likely scenario is that he leaves. But if a suitable offer is not received, he will stay? Appreciate that if he kicked up a fuss to leave, that would weaken our hand - but I have seen nothing from him to suggest that is likely. Of course we may have to take less than we would like, but if we sell Dennis and others we don’t have to sell. If we don’t have to sell, why get rid of a player, who would help us get out of the league. A number of members in this forum said he would leave last time we were relegated!
True, but in fairness the only reason he didn't was a ludicrous collision of factors thanks to COVID affecting the market on both sides of the equation that will not be present this time/ever again (short of another lovely pandemic) plus Sarr is two years older than he was then. Leventhal reported just a few days ago that selling him is literally part of a two-pronged strategy to absorb the costs of relegation, along with Dennis. I hope we do get a suitable offer, but a lowball would still represent an amount of money we have no other way of bringing in, so to my eyes the question is not whether he leaves, but whether we end up getting slightly shafted or not - something which only time will tell, of course.
Dennis will have plenty of suitors for sure. Again, given his age I imagine there'll be a lot of incentive-based bonuses in there. As for Sarr, with a World Cup in November I don't think he'll want to drag this out till September 1st, I don't think we will want to either. He may end up returning and training hard with us as it suits him too be in the best shape possible for November, I highly doubt he plays for us again. Agreed, it would be ideal if it's all sorted by July. I have no theory to base this on but I do believe a lot of the significant outgoings will all be concluded in the space of the same week.
We need to sell Dennis and Sarr, we’ve just been relegated and lost as an absolute minimum £60m if we bounce straight back up. I know we supposedly had relegation clauses written in to player contracts, but we have debt secured on absolutely everything and all future incomes, so in order to meet those commitments both absolutely need to be sold. it’s ignoring reality to countenance either will stay, but at the moment in order to get the best price for both, the impression from the club needs to be we don’t need to sell them, even though we absolutely do. It’s just basic negotiation. We were a selling club even as a PL club and always will be, Dennis and Sarr would’ve been sold for the right price even if we’d stayed up, when we’ve lost over half our income we’re a selling club by necessity.
