Pollock

Slightly disappointed it’s only 100k but we’ve just received 100k purely off the back of Dembele getting promoted so if the add ons are anything of that sort we’ll likely see a fair bit more than that over the coming years.

Good luck to him, always gives me a sense of pride when somebody we sell at a young age goes on to achieve something.

We've got idehen and gouldry as well.  So probably be breakthrough season for them.

Quoted from Meza

We've got idehen and gouldry as well.  So probably be breakthrough season for them.

From what I saw from Idehen he's a million miles off at the minute. Holloways fault for chucking him in the deep end mind you, but he looked absolutely all over the place.

Quoted from ska face

We also got £100k for Rumarn Burrell, Siriki Dembele and I think £150k for Jack Barlow. Just goes to show, there isn’t a “going rate” for these kind of deals.

Anyway, the fee increases “substantially” according to the reports. So if he’s any good we get a load more money, if he’s no good we’ve got £100k for a busted flush. Win win.

A busted flush in the Premier League might well not have been in League One though, where we'd have had a significantly better chance of getting a decent sell on. No point on dwelling on it, it's irrelevant now. We can't really be turning down six figure fees let alone be holding out to choose what level/club we sell to.

I guess we can look back at the time we didn't sell Michael Reddy to Bristol City for 300k at the end of the 05/06 season and then he fell off the face of the Earth. Sometimes it's just better to get that money in. Good to see that the reports have now been caveated with the "rise significantly" bit now.

Not properly read this thread, but to me, 100k is a good deal all round.

Pros for Watford:
Young
Played 50? senior games already

Cons:
Just had a relegation on his CV
Injured for 2/3 months of the season

To us, you take into account the injuries
he's got 1 year left, and come next year can leave on a free
he has big potential, so 100k, plus 'significant' add ons is a good deal for both parties IMO

When you look at some of the fees that have been chucked about, £100k does seem a bit poor.

But we don't know the inner details of the deal.  A lot has been said about the add-ons, it may well be that Town insisted more on the add-ons than the actual deal, preferring to take a little less now in the hope that the add-on value will far exceed it in the future.

Dembele felt like a low fee but that's looking likely to net us a windfall far greater than we could have hoped for from the initial fee.  

Much said about Pollock's form last season, he was injured for most of it.  Carrying a hernia I believe.  On a bad day, it's painful getting up the stairs with a hernia problem, never mind playing professional football.  He was badly exposed due to this around him as well.  I still think his lack of pace may be the thing that prevents him making it at a higher level, but who knows what better facilities will bring.  

Good luck to Mattie.

I suggested months ago that he would be better off finding another club.
I don't see why he can't make it at that level.

I really hope he does and prove the football 'experts' on here wrong.

Agreed, as strange as it may seem to some, the boy will be better suited to playing at a higher level IMO. Hope he does well!

It’ll be another season of not playing in front of fans for him though at U23 Premier L level. Hope he’s ready to make the adjustment, footy at that level is very different to the do or die of the lower leagues.

People on here not rating him reeks of the old classic "Rob Atkinson is better than Ryan Bennett" line that used to get thrown about on here when we sold Bennett.

He's clearly got a lot of talent and a mature head on him for someone his age..remember he is only 19 and has loads of time to improve. I also think he's a good passer of the ball!

Good luck to him.

Quoted from sam gy

People on here not rating him reeks of the old classic "Rob Atkinson is better than Ryan Bennett" line that used to get thrown about on here when we sold Bennett.

He's clearly got a lot of talent and a mature head on him for someone his age..remember he is only 19 and has loads of time to improve. I also think he's a good passer of the ball!

Good luck to him.

Whilst I don't remember conforming to that view personally, it has nevertheless surprised me just how far apart the two ended up in their respective careers. Age 30, one was playing in the Premier League whilst the other was knocking about in the Conference North for Guiseley.

The crucial thing to remember is that Bennett was three years younger than Atkinson - that's significant in the context of central defenders. There are very few centre-halves who have the physical and mental maturity, let alone the talent, to play regular EFL football to a competent level at age 18 / 19. Look around the rest of leagues One and Two - it's literally exceptional.

Of course there are flaws in his game, his lack of pace being the obvious one. But in this modern age there's a lot you can do to improve that with the right facilities and conditioning - speed isn't a purely innate quality. He can also build on other areas of his game so that those weaknesses become less of an issue; it's a classic and almost cliché example now but Paul Futcher had no pace whatsoever by the time he rocked up at BP, but it was largely irrelevant as he was intelligent enough to avoid getting into situations where he was exposed.

Pollock has another decade to hit his peak. No guarantees by any means but that's ample time to improve to an unrecognisable degree.