League 1 transfer fees - have we all been blinded by the Prem?

[Jim D]

Looking at the discussion over Norwich's rejected offers for Bennett it's clear that most on here expected a fee of well over £1m. But looking at the fees that have been mentioned for other players I wonder if we haven't been blinded by the ridiculous money changing hands in the Prem. Of the League 1 players I'm aware of the only one that went for more than £1M was Charlie Austin (£1.2M?). Of the others..

• Craig Noone £400K
• Ryan Harley free + loanback
• Gary Madine (Carlisle to Sheff W) undisc
• Bradley Wright-Phillips (Plymth to Charltn) undisc
• Jermaine Easter (MK to Palace) undisc
• Theo Robinson (Hudds to M'wall) undisc
• Marc Tierney (Colch to Norw) undisc
• Josh McQuoid (B'mth to M'wall) undisc
• Reda Johnson (P'mth to Sheff W) undisc
• Craig Mackail-Smith (to us - rumoured £750K + £250K if promoted - and Posh were near to selling at that price)

I doubt if any of them went for anything near half a million so why are we so outraged when Bennett is 'only' priced at £1M? I think Poyet knows the real value of league 1 players and realised that the fee Norwich were offering was very competitive.

Perhaps we need to readjust our valuations (unless of course you're SCC and still think the chambermaid is worth £8M).

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I think it's very easy to spend other peoples money. Throwing around figures like £1.5m like it's nothing is a bit mad.

 

[andywhing4england]

Looking at the discussion over Norwich's rejected offers for Bennett it's clear that most on here expected a fee of well over £1m. But looking at the fees that have been mentioned for other players I wonder if we haven't been blinded by the ridiculous money changing hands in the Prem. Of the League 1 players I'm aware of the only one that went for more than £1M was Charlie Austin (£1.2M?). Of the others..

• Craig Noone £400K
• Ryan Harley free + loanback
• Gary Madine (Carlisle to Sheff W) undisc
• Bradley Wright-Phillips (Plymth to Charltn) undisc
• Jermaine Easter (MK to Palace) undisc
• Theo Robinson (Hudds to M'wall) undisc
• Marc Tierney (Colch to Norw) undisc
• Josh McQuoid (B'mth to M'wall) undisc
• Reda Johnson (P'mth to Sheff W) undisc
• Craig Mackail-Smith (to us - rumoured £750K + £250K if promoted - and Posh were near to selling at that price)

I doubt if any of them went for anything near half a million so why are we so outraged when Bennett is 'only' priced at £1M? I think Poyet knows the real value of league 1 players and realised that the fee Norwich were offering was very competitive.

Perhaps we need to readjust our valuations (unless of course you're SCC and still think the chambermaid is worth £8M).

Well done. You listed a load of transfer fees who are 'undisclosed' and got noones transfer fee wrong. You have provided no information at all to try and back up your initial theory. Try harder i say.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Its getting unreal.

Bubble is going to burst sooner or later.

 

[Mendoza]

If we tried to buy a player of Bennett's quality for over £1million, most of our fans would be having a go at the club for spunking the money

He isnt worth over £1million. He is a third division footballer. But then again, Andy Carroll who was outscored in The Championship by Charlie Adam, Gary Hooper, Michael Chopra, Peter Whittingham and Nicky Maynard isnt really worth the tag of 7th most expensive footballer EVER

 

[The Grockle]

Well done. You listed a load of transfer fees who are 'undisclosed' and got noones transfer fee wrong. You have provided no information at all to try and back up your initial theory. Try harder i say.

A bit harsh mate.

 

[Rookie]

Money gained from promotion = x amount
Poyet may believe Bennett difference between achieving that promotion.
Therefore Bennett is worth the promotion figure, League 1 or not

And the original post - how many of those had a long term contract (or their club was not in the shit e.g. Plymouth)

 

[severnside gull]

I think that quoting £1m+ for Bennett was an expression of the esteem we hold him in rather than his transfer value. He is worth that and more to the club in its current position. And not to forget that because of Norwich's situation we nearly got it............

Even assuming we get promotion his value in the market may be considerably less in the summer because we will be rebuilding and replacing and transfer values won't be so over-inflated by panic and immediate aspiration.

 

[Da Man Clay]

A bit harsh mate.

Is it? A selection of undisclosed fees, a complete rumour and a transfer of ours which is the wrong value is an odd way to back up a point.

 

[Fitzcarraldo]

[*]Craig Mackail-Smith (to us - rumoured £750K + £250K if promoted - and Posh were near to selling at that price)

I am not sure about your sources. Football Transfer Rumours Football News ?

 

[bhaexpress]

Whatever else the figure that Rotherham want for LaFondre now looks utterly ridiculous.

 

[Gritt23]

The point is that "we don't want to sell him, and we don't need to sell him" therefore it needed to be a shocking offer that made you jump up and take notice. £1m, seems to be close to his value (I'd say £1.5m is about right) but seeing as we are not looking to sell, then it has to be significantly above a players value in my mind. That's why I thought it needed to be an offer of more like £2.5-3.0m.

As for being blinded by the Premiership transfer fees, no I don't think so. Look at the figures that were bandied about for Oxide-Chamberpot. Ok, an offer of that size never materialised, but no-one was putting bennett's value into the realms of those numbers, and EB has proved himself a lot more.

 

[seagull_special]

The asking price was irrelevant - the idea was to frighten them off, a player is worth how much a team is willing to spend whether a team gets value for money is completely different matter. If any team wants to buy Elliott in the summer they will still have to pay a premium as he is on a long contract and brighton are not under pressure to sell.

 

[Pantani]

I think that quoting £1m+ for Bennett was an expression of the esteem we hold him in rather than his transfer value. He is worth that and more to the club in its current position. And not to forget that because of Norwich's situation we nearly got it............

Even assuming we get promotion his value in the market may be considerably less in the summer because we will be rebuilding and replacing and transfer values won't be so over-inflated by panic and immediate aspiration.

Exactly this. The thing with Bennett is not just what he is worth, but what he is worth to us.

Fees in January are generally higher, we do not want to sell, he is key to the way we play, promotion would net us £4m (at least), we would not have time to replace him. All this adds up to £1m+.

Andy Carroll is not worth £35m, but for Newcastle to be willing to sell him in January with no replacement available, to a club who have £50m to spend. That is the price.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Oxide-Chamberpot.

Oh I love this player, he is the gift that just keeps on giving. I wish we could make a compendium of all the names used for him on this site

 

[Brovion]

If we tried to buy a player of Bennett's quality for over £1million, most of our fans would be having a go at the club for spunking the money

He isnt worth over £1million. He is a third division footballer. But then again, Andy Carroll who was outscored in The Championship by Charlie Adam, Gary Hooper, Michael Chopra, Peter Whittingham and Nicky Maynard isnt really worth the tag of 7th most expensive footballer EVER

Agreed. The whole question of 'worth' is almost impossible to quantify. On one level, assuming Bennett is worth £1mil, there is no way that Andy Carroll is 'worth' 35 Elliott Bennetts. But balanced against that is the fact that, as you say, Bennett is a third division footballer and third division footballers generally aren't worth £1mil. There are exceptions of course but if Craig Mackail-Smith is worth £750k plus add-ons then as a non-Premiership player Bennett is probably worth around the same. On the other hand he's probably 'worth' about £4mil to us as he could be the difference between us getting promoted or not, consequently we would consider any bid of less than that as too low.

'eees complicated. (Which is the new 'simples', but means the opposite)

 

[Pavilionaire]

We're talking about the most creative player in a side that has a handy lead at the top of League 1, a player whose input has been instrumental in building that lead. An Elliott Bennett comes along once every 5 years, and even then we paid a pretty big fee for him ourselves.

It's about playing in the Championship and adding a few '000 fans onto the gate every week, it's about giving kids a hero player they can look up to. If we get promoted and the 2 clubs get round the table again £1 million will have just become £2 million.

For a club with a new ground trying to bring back fans and win over kids selling Bennett would have been a disaster, even if we still end up getting promoted.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

A player is only worth what someone is willing to pay for them, we may have valued Bennett at £1.5mil but as no one came in and brought him for that price then you could say he isn't worth that much.

However transfer fees for different players are not so black and white and therefore easy to compare, for example a player signed for a couple of hundred thousand pounds may have been worth far more if under a long contract and the selling club could have let him go at a low price to try to cash in before he walks for nothing.

Bennett is under a long contract, we are unwilling to sell as it could have jeopardised our promotion push so it would have taken a large offer to persuade us to sell him hence the high valuation figures given in this case, they were designed to stop clubs from buying him. If no one was willing to pay the asking price he stays put as happened here.

 

[the right footed denilson]

Erm, i don't believe we were prepared to pay £1 million for CMS.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Looking at the discussion over Norwich's rejected offers for Bennett it's clear that most on here expected a fee of well over £1m. But looking at the fees that have been mentioned for other players I wonder if we haven't been blinded by the ridiculous money changing hands in the Prem. Of the League 1 players I'm aware of the only one that went for more than £1M was Charlie Austin (£1.2M?). Of the others..

• Craig Noone £400K
• Ryan Harley free + loanback
• Gary Madine (Carlisle to Sheff W) undisc
• Bradley Wright-Phillips (Plymth to Charltn) undisc
• Jermaine Easter (MK to Palace) undisc
• Theo Robinson (Hudds to M'wall) undisc
• Marc Tierney (Colch to Norw) undisc
• Josh McQuoid (B'mth to M'wall) undisc
• Reda Johnson (P'mth to Sheff W) undisc
• Craig Mackail-Smith (to us - rumoured £750K + £250K if promoted - and Posh were near to selling at that price)

I doubt if any of them went for anything near half a million so why are we so outraged when Bennett is 'only' priced at £1M? I think Poyet knows the real value of league 1 players and realised that the fee Norwich were offering was very competitive.

Perhaps we need to readjust our valuations (unless of course you're SCC and still think the chambermaid is worth £8M).

Madine = £800k