Goodbye Freddie (signs for Rotherham)

[Knibbsworth]

The price needs driving up. How much would Exeter want for a top League One goalscorer without pen duties? They certainly wouldn't be driving him up the M5 for £500k. We have a very strange approach as a club at realising and valuing our playing assets.

 

[Mark Pedlar]

Should be gutted to lose our top scorer but really not, I think his goals often came at the expense of the team. Some money in and another wage off the books to build an effective squad.

This

 

[Quintrell Green]

Never mind, I think 500k (hopefully getting up to 750k if we can start a bidding war) will come in VERY useful.

That's how I see it. With potentially 6 clubs interested let's see who'll go the highest.

Exactly, with so many clubs apparently interested at £500K, if Argyle cannot extract an additional £100K, then they need a new negotiator, whilst they are at it. The Club does not want any instalment payments, nor extra tranches dependent on games played for the new club. Cash is king, especially for RL wanting to build a new team.

 

[Adam R]

The price needs driving up. How much would Exeter want for a top League One goalscorer without pen duties? They certainly wouldn't be driving him up the M5 for £500k. We have a very strange approach as a club at realising and valuing our playing assets.

We always complain about "Plymouth prices" yet we downplay all of our players and say we'd drive them to whatever club for peanuts.

12 months on we will be complaining that some generic club sold their 15 goal striker for 1m+ and we only got 500k for Freddie.

Whether or not you like the guy, his stats would point towards a figure far higher than 500k. Most other clubs probably arent expecting a goal scoring, defence pressuring, team player, goal creating striker. Just someone who can put the ball in the net which undoubtedly this guy can.

 

[TinTin]

I have my concerns

[And having typed it out already and somehow 'losing" it, I do not want to do it again !!]

 

[GreatYarmouthGreen]

Must mean there are others on there way surely?

Strangely not sad he's leaving. Never warmed to him but best wishes to him and good luck at his new club wherever he goes.

 

[Adam R]

I think his goals often came at the expense of the team.

Don't quite understand this Deacster. How did his goals come at a detriment to the team. In 2017/8 we scored 58 goals and came 7th. Last season we scored 56 (Freddie scoring just under 1/3) and we finished 21st. Without him last season we would have been much worse off.

 

[Cult Of Personality]

Shame I liked Freddie but half a million for a guy who's price will be dropping all season because of his contract. Probably a wise move to sell now then lose for less or nothing later

 

[Voice of Reason]

Somewhere in amongst the "he's not that good", "take the money", "Argyle price" - you have to factor in the player himself, if (and its a big if) if an established Championship Club has shown an interest, he would rightly want to move on for his own gain, that has to be expected when you are in League 2.

He has 12 months left on his contract, we price him out of a move, he can sulk, do the bare minimum and move in January for far less and everyone loses.

I dont think he has the ability to step up to Championship level, however, i think i'd put a clause in any sale for 15% for any future sales, just in case. We have seen over the years even at that level clubs spend big 7 figure sums on average players out of desperation.

Let him go, add the money to RL's budget and move on.

 

[Biggs]

I think his goals often came at the expense of the team.

Don't quite understand this Deacster. How did his goals come at a detriment to the team. In 2017/8 we scored 58 goals and came 7th. Last season we scored 56 (Freddie scoring just under 1/3) and we finished 21st. Without him last season we would have been much worse off.

I think the point is that he may have scored a lot of goals himself, but the team didn't play as well and the goals weren't as spread out.

Especially conceding so many goals, a target-man who could have held the ball up and stopped it coming back into our half would have been valuable. In particular with all those lost leads.

 

[Leo's Grandad]

As said by others - take the money and run.

 

[Ave IT]

Somewhere in amongst the "he's not that good", "take the money", "Argyle price" - you have to factor in the player himself, if (and its a big if) if an established Championship Club has shown an interest, he would rightly want to move on for his own gain, that has to be expected when you are in League 2.

He has 12 months left on his contract, we price him out of a move, he can sulk, do the bare minimum and move in January for far less and everyone loses.

I dont think he has the ability to step up to Championship level, however, i think i'd put a clause in any sale for 15% for any future sales, just in case. We have seen over the years even at that level clubs spend big 7 figure sums on average players out of desperation.

Let him go, add the money to RL's budget and move on.

Agreed - and good point. It's a shame in some ways as a motivated Freddie would have scored a lot in L2 and some continuity would be good....... but he's far from being irreplaceable and he's not a great team player. We have to take the money if he wants to go but I do agree with the sentiment that these days £500K for a 19-goal striker in a relegated team who didn't take pens seems remarkably cheap - indeed chicken-feed for most Championship clubs. Other L1/L2 clubs seem to get million-plus for players that have had a decent season especially strikers.

 

[The Doctor]

I’m thinking there’ll be no bidding war, even though multiple clubs are interested because there is a trigger price in his contract that once paid allows him to leave. This is pure conjecture on my part but it fits the way that the Herald article is written.

 

[Willis88]

Somewhere in amongst the "he's not that good", "take the money", "Argyle price" - you have to factor in the player himself, if (and its a big if) if an established Championship Club has shown an interest, he would rightly want to move on for his own gain, that has to be expected when you are in League 2.

He has 12 months left on his contract, we price him out of a move, he can sulk, do the bare minimum and move in January for far less and everyone loses.

I dont think he has the ability to step up to Championship level, however, i think i'd put a clause in any sale for 15% for any future sales, just in case. We have seen over the years even at that level clubs spend big 7 figure sums on average players out of desperation.

Let him go, add the money to RL's budget and move on.

Agreed - and good point. It's a shame in some ways as a motivated Freddie would have scored a lot in L2 and some continuity would be good....... but he's far from being irreplaceable and he's not a great team player. We have to take the money if he wants to go but I do agree with the sentiment that these days £500K for a 19-goal striker in a relegated team who didn't take pens seems remarkably cheap - indeed chicken-feed for most Championship clubs. Other L1/L2 clubs seem to get million-plus for players that have had a decent season especially strikers.

Freddie showed exactly this when we turned down the bid from Sunderland, from February through to May he wasn't the same player, clearly upset about missing out on the opportunity to earn more at a "bigger" club.

He's worth more than £500K and if there's more than one club in the market Argyle should play them off to get the most, the more in the budget for more reliable players with potential (even if some is used to off-set Adams' and RL's costs).

 

[arrythewurzel]

Gutted, and gutted on the whole no-one's that bothered on here. We should press the club to be renamed Plymouth Apathy. The first decent striker we've had - bang - give him away. £750K for useless Steve Maclean and we sell our star man at bargain basement prices.

I like to think of it like this. Could we go out and spend that £500k on an equivalent player - I'd say no we couldn't. He'd tear up league 2.