Marvin Sordell - Future at BWFC

[LeverEnd]

Must admit LK I haven't spoken to Watford fans, as I've never paid much attention to other clubs' players. I just look at the stats though and clearly they suggest potential, but hardly shit-hot considering they're at Championship level. Saw him a couple of times for the u21s and thought he never looked a threat. As for Ricketts, he wasn't much of gamble as he was free wasn't he?
I just hope that the £3m plus fee was heavily incentivised and we end up paying nowhere near that, unless he comes back and proves he's worth it. Can't see him ever doing anything at Prem level, but there are obviously those who see something in him.

[BWFC_Insane]

He was a Ricketts-style gamble at the time. He probably thought he just had to turn up and within 18 months he'd be turning out for Chelsea, back on home soil. Really didn't work out like that. Clealry theres some problem beyond the managers, as he's not done owt for either of them. And considering they are oh so different in their approaches....

Can't really go with that, Ricketts cost a few hundred thousand, Sordell a few million.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Sometimes it just clicks when a player signs for a new team despite being surplus to requirements at their previous club.

Like Kevin Phillips, who only scored in two of his 16 appearances in his final season for Watford before disappearing to Sunderland... whose fans probably wondered who the hell they were signing.

[Lord Kangana]

He was a Ricketts-style gamble at the time. He probably thought he just had to turn up and within 18 months he'd be turning out for Chelsea, back on home soil. Really didn't work out like that. Clealry theres some problem beyond the managers, as he's not done owt for either of them. And considering they are oh so different in their approaches....

Can't really go with that, Ricketts cost a few hundred thousand, Sordell a few million.

I didn't think you would.

And in context, at the time (12 years apart) our record signings were Dean Holdsworth (at about £3.5m) and Johann Elmander (at about £9m). Compared to £400k and £3m. The former for a player not exactly ripping up trees at Walsall, the latter for a promising U21 player.

I leave it to the audience to decide

[BWFC_Insane]

He was a Ricketts-style gamble at the time. He probably thought he just had to turn up and within 18 months he'd be turning out for Chelsea, back on home soil. Really didn't work out like that. Clealry theres some problem beyond the managers, as he's not done owt for either of them. And considering they are oh so different in their approaches....

Can't really go with that, Ricketts cost a few hundred thousand, Sordell a few million.

I didn't think you would.

And in context, at the time (12 years apart) our record signings were Dean Holdsworth (at about £3.5m) and Johann Elmander (at about £9m). Compared to £400k and £3m. The former for a player not exactly ripping up trees at Walsall, the latter for a promising U21 player.

I leave it to the audience to decide

Fabian De Freitas cost the exact same fee as Ricketts. So a football price inflation argument won't cut it.

£3M in 2012 is not equivalent to £400K in 2000.

£3M was half the money we got for our now Champions League, UEFA Cup and FA cup winner.

It was and is a significant amount of money for Bolton Wanderers and cannot be brushed away with a comparison to a player who cost almost 10 times less.

One can question how much you can spend to still qualify it as a gamble at Bolton. I'd wager that at no point in our history have we been able to gamble with £3M fees. And I'm 100 percent confident in that assertion.

And further, if you really want to claim that football inflation is roughly 9/10 times that of 2000, then we would now be relative paupers if Freedman was given 9/10 times the amount Allardyce had at the time. How much did Allardyce spend? Couple of million maybe? Yeah.......

[Lord Kangana]

It'd be moronic to continue with a discussion that didn't recognise that every transfer is a gamble, as we've seen umpteen times every season since Jesus was a carpenter. But of we're to persevere, interestingly, as it happens, they'd both played almost exactly the same amount of times for the club we signed them from, wih Sordell scoring 27 in 73 for Watford versus 14 in 76 for Ricketts. So in that respect, you're right, Sordell was less of a gamble than Ricketts.

As an established Premier League club, £3m for an u21 striker with a 1-in-2.7 ratio in 2012 constituted no more of a gamble than £400k for a Walsall reserve with a 1-in-5.4 ratio for a penniless second tier club in 2000.

[bobo the clown]

None of which explains why, having taken that chance, he was not played.

One day, that story may get told.

[BWFC_Insane]

It'd be moronic to continue with a discussion that didn't recognise that every transfer is a gamble, as we've seen umpteen times every season since Jesus was a carpenter. But of we're to persevere, interestingly, as it happens, they'd both played almost exactly the same amount of times for the club we signed them from, wih Sordell scoring 27 in 73 for Watford versus 14 in 76 for Ricketts. So in that respect, you're right, Sordell was less of a gamble than Ricketts.

As an established Premier League club, £3m for an u21 striker with a 1-in-2.7 ratio in 2012 constituted no more of a gamble than £400k for a Walsall reserve with a 1-in-5.4 ratio for a penniless second tier club in 2000.

Every transfer is a gamble. But there are gambles where if they don't come off one might be prepared to give the benefit of the doubt.

Ricketts falls into that category in my view.

Sordell does not.

But I'm not going to continue an argument based on the premise that chucking 3M quid at a player, as a premiership side in big trouble in the league and with over £100M worth of debt, then not playing him in the premiership that season, was anything other than a flagrant misuse of what at the time was very precious and relatively considerable resource.

[LeverEnd]

This could turn into a fascinating argument about who least wants to carry on arguing the point in question.