Nathan Baker

[Davefevs]

6 minutes ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

Do you think Benkovich would come back with our terrible style of play and the club being a shambles, if he wanted to improve his prospects?

The fact that he went to Oud-Heverlee Leuven Cardiff (first of all) rather than have another year here says it all.

Fixed

[The Constant Rabbit]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Fixed

Ok - he played one game for Cardiff, then went to Belgium.

Pedant! 

[Merrick's Marvels]

1 hour ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

Baker will be offered 50% of his current wages - he will accept too - who else will pay 20K a week for a player who is often injured?

Baker knows this, the club certainly know it.

He'll stay, but on a huge wage reduction.

There's probably a promising centre half or two in the lower leagues who can do what Baker does. And do it for a fraction of the price.

There's probably people on here who can identify them for us, too.

I wouldn't bank on our "recruitment team" being able to, though.  

[Davefevs]

8 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

There's probably a promising centre half or two in the lower leagues who can do what Baker does. And do it for a fraction of the price.

There's probably people on here who can identify them for us, too.

I wouldn't bank on our "recruitment team" being able to, though.  

Exactly.  Where’s the next Ethan Pinnock?  The Pinnock who was at FGR, not the one Brentford got from Barnsley.  Got to get them from your FGR’s of this world.

Problem is as a fan base we are so snobby....we’d turn our nose up had we signed him when Barnsley did.  We are even snobby with players from Prem League.

 

[Red-Robbo]

We miss Baker's last ditch tackles and he's second only to Fam  at cutting out crosses into the box. 

BUT Nathan has a pretty horrific injury record.

If we are making economies then, reluctantly, I'm for out. 

[Nogbad the Bad]

I should hope Baker wouldn't be offered any kind of contract - very much time for a parting of the ways.

[Davefevs]

7 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

I should hope Baker wouldn't be offered any kind of contract - very much time for a parting of the ways.

And along with Fam, that’s £9m currently expected to “walk” this summer.

[Taz]

9 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

There's probably a promising centre half or two in the lower leagues who can do what Baker does. And do it for a fraction of the price.

There's probably people on here who can identify them for us, too.

I wouldn't bank on our "recruitment team" being able to, though.  

I get the feeling that Cundy is one of those that the club hopes will come good. 

In a few years he's gone from playing for Bath, was out on loan in League 2, and now to Gillingham in league 1. The league 1 loan is great for us and him, as it will show exactly how far he has come, and give us more of an idea as to whether he would be ready/good enough for us. With the situation around contracts, finances, and even Covid, maybe the club are looking at Cundy to be the next defender to make the step up and as a result save us a few quid as well. 

I don't know how likely it is that he will make the step up (haven't seen much/anything of him - maybe a few highlights), but to recall him and send him back out on loan higher up the pyramid, it would suggest that he is maybe too good for L2 at least.

[The Bard]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

And along with Fam, that’s £9m currently expected to “walk” this summer.

It walked ages ago

[The Bard]

2 hours ago, Taz said:

I get the feeling that Cundy is one of those that the club hopes will come good. 

In a few years he's gone from playing for Bath, was out on loan in League 2, and now to Gillingham in league 1. The league 1 loan is great for us and him, as it will show exactly how far he has come, and give us more of an idea as to whether he would be ready/good enough for us. With the situation around contracts, finances, and even Covid, maybe the club are looking at Cundy to be the next defender to make the step up and as a result save us a few quid as well. 

I don't know how likely it is that he will make the step up (haven't seen much/anything of him - maybe a few highlights), but to recall him and send him back out on loan higher up the pyramid, it would suggest that he is maybe too good for L2 at least.

If we didn't think he could make it to Championship standard then why on earth was he signed?

If he gets a few games and does okay I expect him to be in the squad next season. 

[Taz]

1 hour ago, The Bard said:

If we didn't think he could make it to Championship standard then why on earth was he signed?

If he gets a few games and does okay I expect him to be in the squad next season. 

The same reason Eisa, Szmodics and a few others have been signed. Some on the off chance that they are/will be good enough, and if not will be sold at profit.

The other reason is pure profit. You sign some players, knowing full well that they are better than the level they currently play at, train them, mould them, loan them, sell them at a profit. These players are never good enough for the level you are, or want to be at, but from a purely financial point of view are ready made money machines. Why do you think Chelsea signed so many youngsters up over the years that had little to no opportunities in their first team? Pure profit.

The level we are at, whilst trying to be financially dependent will mean that some players are bought and sold whilst playing little to no first team football.

Returning to Cundy, I agree. If this loan at Gillingham goes well, expect to see him given some action over pre season to see how he fares. Worst case scenario is he then goes out on another loan to L1 or Championship next summer. It didn't do Vyner much harm did it, and in some ways Moore as well.

[The Bard]

10 minutes ago, Taz said:

The same reason Eisa, Szmodics and a few others have been signed. Some on the off chance that they are/will be good enough, and if not will be sold at profit.

The other reason is pure profit. You sign some players, knowing full well that they are better than the level they currently play at, train them, mould them, loan them, sell them at a profit. These players are never good enough for the level you are, or want to be at, but from a purely financial point of view are ready made money machines. Why do you think Chelsea signed so many youngsters up over the years that had little to no opportunities in their first team? Pure profit.

The level we are at, whilst trying to be financially dependent will mean that some players are bought and sold whilst playing little to no first team football.

Returning to Cundy, I agree. If this loan at Gillingham goes well, expect to see him given some action over pre season to see how he fares. Worst case scenario is he then goes out on another loan to L1 or Championship next summer. It didn't do Vyner much harm did it, and in some ways Moore as well.

If city are still deluding themselves that there is money to be made by signing League 2 players then selling them to League 1 then someone needs to be removed from their role.  
 

[The Bard]

19 minutes ago, Taz said:

The same reason Eisa, Szmodics and a few others have been signed. Some on the off chance that they are/will be good enough, and if not will be sold at profit.

The other reason is pure profit. You sign some players, knowing full well that they are better than the level they currently play at, train them, mould them, loan them, sell them at a profit. These players are never good enough for the level you are, or want to be at, but from a purely financial point of view are ready made money machines. Why do you think Chelsea signed so many youngsters up over the years that had little to no opportunities in their first team? Pure profit.

The level we are at, whilst trying to be financially dependent will mean that some players are bought and sold whilst playing little to no first team football.

Returning to Cundy, I agree. If this loan at Gillingham goes well, expect to see him given some action over pre season to see how he fares. Worst case scenario is he then goes out on another loan to L1 or Championship next summer. It didn't do Vyner much harm did it, and in some ways Moore as well.

The difficulty with your theory about buying low and selling higher but not at our level is:-

1.  You have to pay them not to play for you whilst they are being trained, moulded or loaned out and they will expect decent wages.

2. There is so little money beneath us you really only can sell to Peterborough.

So there is little prospect of getting a big fee and any profit has to take account of the £100,000s in wages paid to the player who didn't actually contribute anything.

The difference at Chelsea and now Liverpool is there has been enough cash at championship level to make this worthwhile. I can't see that continuing.