Quote Originally Posted by WBA123 View Post
I completely agree with this. Look at a team like Brentford and what they have achieved with good recruitment. They've followed a very statistical route to sign their players and they have bought low, and sold high.

Scott Hogan - Cost £750k, sold for £15m
Benrahma - Cost £2.7m, sold for £28m
Maupay - Cost £1.6m, sold for £20m
Watkins - Cost £1.8m, sold for £30m
Ivan Toney - Cost £9m, worth how much??

Meanwhile, we bought Burke for £15m. We were linked with Toney, but many thought it was a gamble paying £9m for a player who had never played above League One before. How we could do with a player like him now.

Recruitment needs to be improved massively if we are to go forward as a club. And as fans we have to understand that when a high offer comes in for a player, it is sometimes in our interest to sell. We have consistently got that wrong. Evans we could have sold for £25m+, we got £3m. Berahino we could have sold for £23m, we got £10m.

We are never going to be able to hold onto our best players, so why not try and polish some younger gems from the lower and foreign leagues and sell them on for a profit, reinvesting it into other players to do the same. Whilst meanwhile getting results on the pitch. The only way their price increases is by performing well on the pitch. It's in both the clubs interest and the players.
I think Newcastle did bid £23m for Bambino and there were rumours of Man City and Arsenal wanting Evans for £25m but from what I recall the Newcastle offer came in too late and so we said no as we couldn’t get a replacement and TP just said no to the Evans sale.

I recall the Toney fee being only £6m upfront, :but having given HRK another year we couldn’t get both in him and Grant.

It is very surprising how we haven't sold a player for over £20m imo given the amounts the Bees have got for their players, but that ie down to their ownership caring and putting a coherent moneyball type of system in place and scrapping their youth team.