We wouldn't pay £1.5 million for him, where it all started to go wrong.
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Must be very soon now surely
Finn Azaz to Saints £12 million
- Thread starter GreenTom
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Because we couldn’t find the money and match his wages what Middlesbrough was offering
The point is we had the option to sign him permanently in the summer (actually I think for £1m) but chose to take him on loan instead. Agree by January we had no chance given the growth in his value and in face of Middlesbrough interest.
Thats a version of events that has appeared since he was signed by Boro,
We could have had him in the Summer and he would have joined, instead Mumba became a possibility and thats where that went. Boro were (to begin with at least paying 9k week), so about par with Whittaker and less than Mumba.
Counterpoint here, my boss is a Boro ST holder and says whilst he has a high number of goal contributions, he goes missing a hell of a lot.
He says before he scored in Saturdays game at Norwich he was utter garbage. He thinks he's he's luxury player and won't fit in to the high pressing style of Rob Edwards and £12 million is a pretty decent piece of business.
Not signing Azaz was probably the very start of a decline in our fortunes.
Whether we could’ve afforded him is for another discussion but that was clearly a turning point.
I think it signalled to others the ambition of the club.
Whether we could’ve afforded him is for another discussion but that was clearly a turning point.
I think it signalled to others the ambition of the club.
Ironically very similar to what many of us were saying about Morgan when we sold him to Boro....
In hindsight not signing Azaz permanently in the summer of 23 was a mistake but it is easy to forget at the time he very much looked third best behind Mumba and Whittaker and given what we had spent on them taking Azaz on loan seemed a reasonable decision. It was only really in the championship that Azaz became an obvious multi million pound player. I dont think it is fair to say not signing him signaled a lack of ambition.
We couldn't afford him because there was a chance to get Mumba and I guess Dewsnip and Schuey either trusted him more to deliver or maybe thought there was a more saleable asset there.
He actually appreciates the effort he puts in believe it or not and still hopes he'll see something out of him.
I
I’m not saying I agree that it showed a lack of ambition but I do think it was looked upon as being unambitious by previous managers.
Hindsight’s a wonderful thing but he was worth the rumoured £1M all day long.
An outstanding player for us, remember his final goal for us on New Year's Day 2024 in the pouring rain against Watford at home? Everyone was calling it goal of the year already on New Year's Day, unfortunately for us though it almost came at a bad time in as much as showing everyone what he's capable of.
A truly great person all round, who deserves the very best for his career
A truly great person all round, who deserves the very best for his career
You can't risk blowing the wage structure apart for one player. That would lead to a very unhappy camp
This. It’s a total PASOTI myth that we were stupid not to sign him on a permanent. He had a good start in league one and then broke his foot if I remember rightly (against Shrewsbury?) and wasn’t quite the same player after. I’m pretty sure 99% of Argyle fans would’ve picked Mumba over Azaz. Like Green Flash wrote, it was only the when we got to the Championship he flourished.