Selling our marquee players

[Danny 0]

It's a trend, in the modern era, which started as far back as Barry Ferguson to Blackburn for �£8M. Since then we've made a habit of breaking our fans hearts by selling off our top players for vast sums.

 

Boumsong, Cuellar, Hutton, GVB etc have all gone on for massive transfer fees and gutted every fan in doing so.

 

They all say 'I'm here for life' or 'I love this place, I'm staying' but naturally the big boys come calling and we bow to money and sell off our prized assets.

 

Sometimes it really works out - the Boumsong money went to getting back Barry, bringing in Kyrgiakos, Wattereus etc who all won us the title.

 

But it never gets any easier to take.

 

So when I woke up, on Friday the 13th to hear Jelavic happily telling the world Man Utd are supposedly interested for �£13M I really didn't know what to think.

 

If a club that big want you, for almost every player it's a dream come true. And Jelavic has been honest about wanting to play in England - he's good enough and it's his dream.

 

I guess I just hoped we'd get more than an injury disrupted solitary season out of him.

[Cotter 0]

You're right mate, it certainly has become a trend in the last decade or so. So what do we do? We hope that the new owner and the board take a look at the situation, get a proper scouting network in place and make the situation work for us. We moan constantly about the inflated prices and wages of Premiership players when conversely, we should be happily milking dry our position as one of the most obvious and viable routes into the premiership. I for one am desperate for a signing policy that takes advantage of our unique position. It might not sound like an attractive proposition to be the ultimate feeder club to the premiership but that is what we can be. We can make a fortune and enjoy the level of success we crave along the way. Such a policy requires fairly large initial outlays on young players that are already well known within their own leagues/countries. However our position as a highly successful club with a huge support competing in Europe should allow us to persuade the types of players we should be farming to come here.

 

We have to be honest about where we stand in the grand scheme of things and start spending big on 22-24yr olds like Jelavic. This is where our pot of gold lies and it's never going to happen without a scouting network.

[rbr 1,247]

The only real way for us to properly survive and flourish is twofold IMHO , firstly to have a decent scouting system where players such as Jelavic can be identified and bought for decent money , then given a platform to perform before getting sold at a profit .Secondly and in tandem with the first , we need to keep bringing through good young players such as Ness , Wylde , Hutton etc who after a few years can also be sold at a healthy profit .

 

All of which would let us continue to be successful domestically whilst still being competitive in Europe , we can never hope to match the EPL or Championship money wise so we need to start being very clever and use our scouting properly .

[bluedan 93]

I don�´t think this problem will ever go away. We will always struggle to In the case of with the EPL teams. In the case of Jelavic, well i hope this isn�´t true. Having recently played in Australia a couple of leagues below A league, clubs handle transfers in a slightly different manner. They are aware that players may move on but make sure they get a guarantee of a couple of seasons out of them before letting them move on with thier blessing.

 

Might be worth looking at? I mean if we are going to sign a foreigner the question should be asked before signing him,just like any employer would do in an interview. What are your future plans and ambitions? Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?? Is it at Rangers??

 

Try and get an idea of what the players wants and that way the club can assist in this, providing we get a respectable service from that player.

 

Example, sign a player on a 4 year deal but have it written into the deal that a minimum of 2 years playing must be completed before a transfer can be brought up(unless he�´s gash). This way the player gets the security of the contract and the club gets more than a season out of the player and with 2 years remaining on the contract and the value most probebly going up, all parties can be kept happyish.

 

Every so often we will get a Bougy type player who has given us good service and im sure could have left after only playing with us for a year but these types are few and far between.

[Guest Dutchy]

The only real way for us to properly survive and flourish is twofold IMHO , firstly to have a decent scouting system where players such as Jelavic can be identified and bought for decent money , then given a platform to perform before getting sold at a profit .Secondly and in tandem with the first , we need to keep bringing through good young players such as Ness , Wylde , Hutton etc who after a few years can also be sold at a healthy profit .

 

All of which would let us continue to be successful domestically whilst still being competitive in Europe , we can never hope to match the EPL or Championship money wise so we need to start being very clever and use our scouting properly .

 

That says it all really. It's the way it goes. We're big in Scotland, but with England just next door, we don't stand much of a chance of keeping really great players for very long, unfortunately!