Sam Jones, Asante and Osborne

Sounds like Solihull may have gone up a level on the playing side recently but are still amateur in the way they do business.

Obviously they do not want to sell their players for peanuts but looking at Marcus's involvement with the club I am convinced we will have offered something sensible. I just wonder how much emotion surrounding what Omar "could" go for and what they stand to make on any sale is involved in this?

Osborne looks like a decent player at that level but there are lots of players about at this time of year and judging by yesterdays reserve game Marcus & Gary Wilde will have a back up plan.  

IF Osbourne is as good as Solihull think he is then there will be other clubs interested and maybe they will be prepared to give them more by way of cash?

They probably think they let Omar go too cheaply given his current predicted value which is understandable. When you are buying anything you usually have a value you think is reasonable whilst the seller also has a view. If you are too far apart you move on.

Not sure I am totally convinced about whining in the media despite not mentioning any club or player

If the player wants to come, he will join us. It's all games to get the best deal.

Yeah i think it's important that we maintain a balance here. Yes we want us to sign this player/these players from Solihull, but we shouldn't just expect that they'd let them go for less than what they value them at.

Don't forget we're going to be in the same position soon with Bogle. And there may be fans of teams like Norwich, Forest, Brentford etc coming out with comments that we should stop standing in the players way and let him go to whichever 'big club' is in for him. We as fans probably won't know what's been offered, just like we don't in this instance where we are comparatively the big club.

Quoted from Cloudy

IF Osbourne is as good as Solihull think he is then there will be other clubs interested and maybe they will be prepared to give them more by way of cash?

They probably think they let Omar go too cheaply given his current predicted value which is understandable. When you are buying anything you usually have a value you think is reasonable whilst the seller also has a view. If you are too far apart you move on.

Not sure I am totally convinced about whining in the media despite not mentioning any club or player

I think they also need to consider that when they let Omar go they where in the 2nd tier of the National League and a deal and price would have been negotiated which relates to a club at that level so if they are narked about maybe missing out on a "Bogle pay day" then they need to get over it , Feels like it's got to "take it or leave it time" to me.

Quoted from TheGoalKipper

Didn't arsenal only pay £50,000 for that young non league player they just signed?

They paid £40,000 for him. Was reading about it last week and it's a great story. He was only spotted accidentally by an Arsenal scout that was looking at someone else and usually only works on the continent. Think he was home for the holidays.

The lad got laid off from his job at Bentley cars a week before Christmas and 2 weeks later was training with the Arsenal first team. There were probably one or two Bentley's in the training ground car park.

I think Marcus could perhaps learn from PH on this one !!!!!
It's not just if he p1sses Solihull off. It's about being seen to be discreet.
Other clubs will look at the way he does business and judge accordingly.
It's obviously nothing major. But he might like to watch the wording on future statements.
To my mind, a simple statement such as below would suffice.

'it's frustrating for both us and the player concerned, but at this stage the selling club don't seem to be playing ball. From our point of view there is nothing more we can do.'


That says just as much. But in a far less confrontational way.

Hurst often had a go during windows, especially at agents but never specified who and which clubs, the only thing Hurst was indiscreet about was the ear-cupping after Nath's goal at Wembley, for all I supported him I found that a bit distasteful. I'm not sure these are the wisest words to utter but if it comes off it'll have been a masterstroke.

Just hope their forum isn't too representative of their club. They're a bit weird on there, not to mention a little 'green' on how football, particularly money matters work. They sound like they've been watching football for about 18 months.

I'm not even sure how a club puts a value on a player. Rather like a house for sale at a notional price, in the end the house/player is sold for whatever a buyer is prepared to pay. The difference is that a house always has some value provided that it remains intact. However, with the Bosman rule or even a career-ending injury, this is not the case with a player. Should Osborne be on a contract until the end of the present season and decline, or not be offered, a new one, he will be a free agent in May/June and the club will receive zilch. In the present case, if the Solihull valuation is higher than any club is prepared to pay in January, they may well receive zilch in the summer anyway. Assuming Marcus is quite prepared to play 'hardball' over this, perhaps he should give/may already have given Solihull a deadline date for their decision and walk away if Town's valuation does not match theirs. It is possible that Osborne may then refuse a move to another club even if another bidder is prepared to pay the valuation price and walk away in disgust in the summer. Solihull are clearly playing a risky game and may well have an extremely unhappy and de-motivated player on their hands over the next few months.