Jon Rudkin Appreciation Thread

[Realist Guy In The Room]

5 hours ago, Abrasive fox said:

You were right to be fair. Think we were canny this window, so many average players bought for inflated prices, i dont think we were stung too bad. They'll be money to spend if the right players become available but i like the way we're being very choiceful on who we're going for and not panicking.

Exactly.  £30m for Alex Iwobi????  That’s just stupid especially when you consider what we’ve paid for Praet.

[MPH]

48 minutes ago, Realist Guy In The Room said:

Exactly.  £30m for Alex Iwobi????  That’s just stupid especially when you consider what we’ve paid for Praet.

it’s actually £34m... which is just downright scary for Iwobi...

[Collymore]

Iwobi is a good player I think and underrated 

 

Great work by Rudders with the Praet deal. I can just imagine him next to the fax machine with his game face on... 

 

I hope they've factored in a little back office in the new training ground full with 1990s ISDN line, fax machine, several reams of paper, yellow pages, coffee machine and a shelf for Rudkin's glasses. 

Edited 9 August 2019 by Collymore

[Collymore]

I wish I could track down that footage that Sky Sports News had of that staff member (forgot his name) running to his Ford Focus in the dark with Silva's papers at Belvior Drive!

 

He had to follow the highway code of belting up and cautious start because all the cameras were on him. Comedy gold now but not at the time! 

[Chocolate Teapot]

1 minute ago, Collymore said:

I wish I could track down that footage that Sky Sports News had of that staff member (forgot his name) running to his Ford Focus in the dark with Silva's papers at Belvior Drive!

 

He had to follow the highway code of belting up and cautious start because all the cameras were on him. Comedy gold now but not at the time! 

Jon Sanders.

[49er]

3 hours ago, Realist Guy In The Room said:

Exactly.  £30m for Alex Iwobi????  That’s just stupid especially when you consider what we’ve paid for Praet.

Everton have a recent history of paying over the odds for players. Not expecting them to do too well this season. I think Silva will be one of the first to be sacked

[Collymore]

1 minute ago, Abrasive fox said:

Jon Sanders.

Why the hell were they having to drive across Leicester in this day age with paper! ?? 

[49er]

10 minutes ago, Collymore said:

Iwobi is a good player I think and underrated 

 

Great work by Rudders with the Praet deal. I can just imagine him next to the fax machine with his game face on... 

 

I hope they've factored in a little back office in the new training ground full with 1990s ISDN line, fax machine, several reams of paper, yellow pages, coffee machine and a shelf for Rudkin's glasses. 

Not forgetting his Walkman

[Raw Dykes]

6 hours ago, Chrysalis said:

Thanks for clarifying what you think is a reasonable fee. the difference between 65m and 80m is not even 25%, so its interesting you think a modest 25% extra changes a reasonable fee to insane.

 

VVD went for 75m, but hes not currently valued at 75m, that you have to bear in mind, market value inflation in football is very high, plus I dont rate VVD much different to maguire.  If liverpool sold VVD today he would go for alot more than 100m, never mind 75m.

 

I never said the club didnt do well to get that fee either, however I dont think the aim of football is to make as much money as possible, I think the aim is to build the best team possible and win things, but maybe I am mistaken as to what the aim of football is.

 

The rodgers interview is on the sky website, its recorded, so he hasnt been misquoted.  He stated the club did well to get the money they did, but distanced himself from the deal, he stated, he was disappointed to lose the player and he also stated he expected someone else to get signed given the time available to prepare and over 10 names were drawn as replacements.  Of course we now know none of these were signed.

 

What we will never know as fans is what rudkin's remit is behind closed doors, the club speaks of ambition, but the net spend and record of selling first team players contradicts that, however there is no question we have managed to sign some gems in recent seasons which has clouded those facts.  If rudkins remit was simply to keep the books balanced whilst managing to appease fans, he has done an outstanding job.  If his remit was to to supply the manager with the support he needs in the squad I would say his job has not been so astounding.

We're talking about £20m here. That's not to be sniffed at. That's what we've just paid for one of the best midfielders in Serie A, and he's 25 years old with his best years ahead of him. And I was saying I think it was insane to prefer the club to forego that amount just to get a deal done a few weeks earlier than a week before deadline day. That makes no sense to me.

 

I agree re: VVD - you'd have to pay at least twice that amount in today's market. But still, my point remains - we got a world record fee for Maguire, who is not the best CB in the world. He wasn't even the best CB for us last season.

 

You're right - the main aim of football is not to make as much money as possible. However, the club is a business, and does have to be sustainable. Until we are regularly getting into Europe, we will have to sell the odd first team player. I think we're doing very well to only lose one per season currently. I hope this continues. That £80m pays for Tielemans, Perez and Justin. Those players will soon be worth around £200m or more.

 

Re: Rodgers's interview. Nothing surprising about that. We did get a great fee. Of course he's disappointed to lose a good player. At the time, I'm sure the club were looking for a replacement. I think it probably turned out that none of them represented value for money. The club probably decided that it was best to just work with what we've got. Fortunately, we planned for losing Maguire last season by bringing in Soyuncu and Benkovic. They will now get plenty of minutes. I'm fine with that. If neither are up to it yet, Morgan will step in and we can get someone in in January.

 

I think you're being slightly unfair in your last paragraph. You're questioning the club's ambition over its net spend and the sale of one player. We are spending big on the infrastructure, with a state-of-the-art training ground being built, and a stadium expansion on the horizon, so that might have something to do with it. Even if it hasn't, I think the club is investing in players very well by buying great, young players who have lots of potential and high sell-on value. We are improving, slowly but surely, and are not overspending in the process. It is possible to do too much too soon, as we saw when Sven was manager. That's a high-risk strategy that puts the club's future in doubt. I don't want to see a repeat of that.

 

One thing you seem to be avoiding is that Maguire wanted to leave. There's really no point in keeping a player at the club when he doesn't want to be here. He's not going to be at his best, he's going to be worth less at the end of the season when he's not played as well and he's got a year less on his contract, and also, it sends out a message to other players that this is a cul-de-sac of a club that you can't escape from.

 

I think it's obvious that we did the right thing by selling Maguire. To get a world record fee for a want-away CB, who was ranked 12th, I think, by the fans, of our players last season, and to lose no other first team players was a fantastic result. A replacement would have been welcome, but it's not like we're desperate, and it could be worse - look at Everton's CBs.