The importance of selling on good young players

Revenue or capital is essential in these troubled times just to survive.

We have some very good young players that might earn the Club a good windfall in the future.

As an example, Brentford have sold Ollie Watkins, Championship player of the year, to Villa this week for £28 million.  Exeter sold him to Brentford 3 years ago, as a 21 year old, inserting a good sell-on clause.

Exeter are now to receive more than £3.5 million.  

One very extreme example, but this shows what dividends selling a good young player or 2 can bring.  And survival for a lower-league club.  

Olly stated in one of his interviews recently that he sees us following the Brentford model : bringing on young players from the youth system and non-league and selling them for big fees. Not only does it keeps us afloat financially, but also funds the development of our club to compete at higher levels - just like Brentford.

Trick is to sell at the right time for the right price plus generous add ons.

Quoted from mimma

Trick is to sell at the right time for the right price plus generous add ons.

Agreed. The good thing is that with Olly involved I don’t think we’ll see £1m players going for £100,000.

Quoted from joe56

Agreed. The good thing is that with Olly involved I don’t think we’ll see £1m players going for £100,000.

When did that happen before Ollie?

Quoted from joe56

Olly stated in one of his interviews recently that he sees us following the Brentford model : bringing on young players from the youth system and non-league and selling them for big fees. Not only does it keeps us afloat financially, but also funds the development of our club to compete at higher levels - just like Brentford.

Also shows to players that it’s a good stepping stone for their career. How many players would now choose Brentford (or even Peterborough) before the likes of Birmingham city or forest.

Quoted from pen penfras

When did that happen before Ollie?

The fees that we’ve been reported to have received for a number of players over the years have, in my opinion and that of many others on here, been disapponting. In my post I was  a actually thinking of Kevin Drinkell, a £1m footballer in the eyes of many who reportedly went to Norwich for £100,000. Within a year or so, Bryan Robson was touting for his inclusion in the England team. I know that the final fee was the product of a tribunal hearing, but were we somehow legally bound to let our most valuable asset go for peanuts? Anyway, my point really was that with Olly around we’re unlikely to be undercut in the sale of our better players. I stand by that.

One of the best periods in our history came on the back of youth development.

There where a few others but Moore D, Moore K, Ford, Drinkell and Donovan stand out. Then as time went on we reared Wilco, Oster etc.. and a few like Danny Butterfield who went on to have decent senior careers.

It’s in our DNA but times have changed though and big clubs would rather bring in a couple of “Carlos Kickabouts” from overseas than take time to scout out talent from the lower leagues so it’s made selling on and getting decent fees much harder. What’s even more galling is that more money now leaves the game lining overseas agents.

What we’re left with is selling our talent to “aspirational” clubs like Peterborough and ending up getting ripped off when they sell them on.

The Prem clubs come across as being “state of the art” but they could do a lot worse than forgetting looking abroad and start looking at UK talent and pushing some of the gravy train money back down the pyramid.

It will never happen though!

We turned down £350,000 bid for Drinks from Middlesbrough before Norwich bought him. We produced the written bid from Boro to show what we turned down. The tribunal set the fee at £100,000. We lost £250,000 on the deal.

Bloody daylight robbery

Then Norwich sold him to Rangers for £400k I think a few years later?