Thetownend.com

Ritch fee?
           
           


  SWINDON Town have turned down a £900,000 bid from an unnamed club for a senior member of Paolo Di Canio’s squad, the Robins boss has revealed.
  The offer, which the Advertiser understands was lodged for winger Matt Ritchie during the club’s tour of Italy last week, was immediately rebuffed by Di Canio - who is keen to keep all the key
  members of last year’s League Two-winning side with Town ahead of the 2012/13 campaign.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/9821780.Ritch_fee_/?ref=rss
           
           
           

£900K + 2 players from an unnamed league 1 club. It may not be over but this board are really backing PDC and the club.

That's quite a lot of money. Time to discuss a new deal perhaps?

I don't think two players were actually offered, that was just Di Canio saying 'even if, they offered money plus two players...'

Yeah that's how I read it too, OST.

BBC wilts said two players plus 900k.

Right, fair enough. I was only going on the Adver report.

I wonder who the club/players are??

Yes sorry was taking that off BBC RS not Adver. The Adver article definitely says "if.." so either BBC are in the know or missunderstood what PDC said.

There was a rumour on OBIT that the Slave Traders were tabling a cash plus player deal - but the radio said it was a league 1 club..

I think we safely assume the league 1 club wasnt Pompey.

I would guess Bournemouth. They've openly made bids for Ritchie in the past and have about 50 strikers, so are probably wanting to offload some.

The only other team I think that could offer that money is Sheff Utd, but I think they're cutting their costs as their premiership parachute payments are finishing soon.

A £900k IOU, Tal Ben Haim and Nwankwo Kanu?

Its crawley

If a club was to offer a million + add ons I think we should take it.

Nope wouldn't take that (unless we have to and the noises coming from the club at present are that we don't). The key thing is this is must be is Richie happy here? If so then go out of our way to keep him. He's a player who I don't think some town fans will really appreciate until he's gone.

That reads like your talking about caddis not ritchie.

I appreciate him but at the same time he gets on my tits sometimes for being too damned selfish sometimes, going for the wonder goal rather than an easier pass. He also whinges like ab absolute pussy sonetimes.  That said he scores a good amount for a winger so swings and (magic) roundabouts.

a million with a one million add on up front I might take

Sell him and sign Harry Kewell.

A million for a player who's only done anything in his career at league two level is great value

Maybe same could apply but it's definitely referring to Richie, trust me!

Lets face it most wingers are frustrating, in fact name me one who isn't. For every shot he has when he fucks up when he should have passed there's some match winning goals to counteract this (Pikey's home, Rotherham away etc). Would rather that than a winger with little end product. We've had enough of them over the years.

As for the whinging, who gives a shit? We all like a good whinge at times, especially at the ref.

Thank you Mr. Banker, deal.

No chance! Harry's wages would be massive and he's most likely to get a twisted sock in the first week of PDC's training!!!

A six minute bite, that has to be a first?!

Didn't Crewe get £4mill for Nick Powell?

Yeah, yeah, i know, i know!!!

Indeed, we (like every set of fans) over value our own players. His market value is probably about £1m so this mystery team has put in a fair offer and our board have shown their intentions by rejecting it.

Agreed. His market value is not necessarily the same as his value to the club, in terms of the board's goals for the season.

By way of some comparison though, Darren Ambrose just went to Birmingham for £250k so a bid of around a million for Ritchie is certainly decent.

If indeed it is a league one club then the only team likely to bid are Bournemuff, possibly Sheff Utd or MKD at a push but very unlikely IMO.

Glad the club have not rolled over and played dead like the previous owners would have done at a sniff of a fee over £250k.

I personally still think Bristhole Shitty may be in for him.

Not a chance Franchise have £900k

Richie is one we need to keep to build on last years success. Glad to see that offers are refused.

Good as Ritchie is, he is no Nick Powell!

Yeah, I was guessing PDC meant L1 standard players, so it could have been City! The only L1 club will silly money is Bournemouth.

I thought they said the offer was £900,000 made up of cash plus two players, not £900,000 in cash.

Are they? What the fuck has happened there then?

(Apologies if I've missed it previously)

Keep him for another year, he's young enough to improve.

If he has another good season at League 1 level he'll attract interest from Championship clubs.

Something to do with Russian backers, some of their fans really do think they are just 2 years away from The Premier League. From what i remember, the chairmans wife did a half time team talk last season.

Billionaire Russian co-owner Maxim Demin wants to turn them into Chelsea by the Sea.

Didn't their chairman go on the pitch all pissed up and told them to go support Southampton and offer to have a scrap with a fan?

More entertaining than the Rockettes or whatever they are called

Thats how I understood it too TBH. But someone said it was on BBC RS that it was a league 1 club.

Certainly fell in to that one!  :smugfu:

Hasn't Ritchie only got a year left on his contract? If so, either he signs a new one or we should take the money.

He would still be under 24 so we would still get a fee if he didn't sign a contract and left next year, although obviously not as much.

I would imagine if we are well off the pace come January that is when we would look to cash in

If we can get around 1.2 million for him I'd sell him. It's normally only strikers at this level that go for over a million.

Clearly the club has to protect its revenue potential on players and everyone has a price. Particularly players with 1 year left.

But I'm not sure selling for £1 million is worth more than a key player if you are serious about promotion. For me it has to be more than good money, silly money as pdc put it.

If this were January and we were well off the pace then I'd take it, though his worth would be lower then...

The way I look at it is will we be in a position to sell him for a higher price in the future? He has a year left on his contract, so if he doesn't sign a new one it will be Billy Paynter all over again. Or he might sign a new contract and either A: have a great season and increase his value, or B: have an awful season, we go down, and his value halves. It's all about taking a calculated risk.

It will be interesting to see how Ritchie does this year. When he was on loan he couldn't get in the team ahead of Ward and McGovern and that was a play off team. I think he's got better since then but i think his lack of pace will make the championship a step too far, the same as Paynter

WORD!!!

Disagree. Ok he's not the quickest but he's not a winger who particularly relies on pace and he's not slow either. I think he could play championship in the next few years!

As long as he stays at SN1 he will play championship in the next few years!! :nod:

I don't think Ritchie is particularly slow and you dont HAVE to have pace to be a good wingers you need a good delivery and footballing brain.....which Ritchie does have 90% of the time.

Chris Waddle and John Robertson never had much pace about them but did well.

I would rather have a Ritchie in the team....who can run with a ball and cross it (often on the cut in) and also shoot than I would have a Macnamee who could dribble with the ball half the time, couldnt cross and got a nose bleed when he was in a shooting position.

Adje is going to kill you ;)

Good offer for a good player....DiCanio could well be looking for more players after a few weeks if his summer signings fail to inspire...not saying they wont but £ 900k could buy some one quite decent at League 1 level. Please NOT Kewell that would be ridiculous...

:D

That's what we like to hear, a positive outlook and a sunny disposition. :)

David Beckham never really had pace and he did alright for himself as a winger.

I always thought becks was more of an inside right player.

I personally would never call Beckham an inside right, much more winger. he did evolve into a more central role later in his career but most definately started as a winger/right midfield.

Mark Walters was past it when he came here and was still ace. He showed you didn't need pace, just create some space to cross the ball. Ritchie is older and more experienced so I don't see League One being a problem for him.

Not sure I'm that bothered about him staying, we've got a stronger squad now including other wingers that can step in. Plus they'd bring in a replacement who would be just as good. I have total confidence in Wray and PDC.

Thats ridiculous. We'd definitely miss him, but 900k is getting near the amount of money we should be looking to cash in on

Dont you get it?.....we dont need to sell...we need our best players to make the Championship....what is the point of a million in the bank but one good player gone.

Its time to sit on the talent we have.
We dont need to take risks on outgoing or ingoing players.....also it dosn't make sense to sell to another club in the league you are in...it will come back to bite you in a lot of cases.

Exactly. For the first time in the club's history, we don't need to sell players. Players are more important than cash at this point in time. In 12 months time when the investors are looking for a bit of a return, it may be different, but for now, we don't need to 'cash in'.

And I'm loving every second.

I disagree. I don't care how good a player is, there should always be a price at which an asset is saleable. The price we've today seen isn't too far wide of what I consider decent business.

Ritchie is good, don't get me wrong, but as was proven while Caddis was injured, Ritchie was not the same player without Caddis. He needs Caddis to make the space and divide the oppositions defence, which gives him the opportunities required.

What I'm getting at, is I think Caddis is more crucial and Ritchie, although possessing game changing ability and match winning potential, is not irreplaceable (at the right price).

So what would you sell Caddis for :hmmm:

Personally i wouldn't sell him....the great teams of Swindons past have been sold on....this could be one such team.

Lets keep them all.

A bag of chips

Once again I say 'exactly'. For once let's see what we can do with a decent squad which is kept intact.

and a packet of salt & vinegar crisps

Don't get me wrong, I'm just playing devil's advocate, I'd love the team to remain together.

However, It's a bit like (theoretically) paying £800k for Matt Tubbs - it would make me feel quite uneasy. I think turning down bids of around £1m for Ritchie is similar and I also find it quite disconcerting.

We might have money, but I don't see having it as a reason for not receiving money when it makes business sense - our books have to balance one day.

And I'd sell Caddis for around the same, but I'd find justifying it a lot harder. :)

Yes, but not just yet ;)

From another point of view no club in our division would pay that kind of money unless it expected that it would make some kind of profit from the deal at some point  or they have ambitions which would mirror ours such as prem/champ football. Either way it makes no sense to sell, in the event that he is destined for ultimate football greatness then a club from the Prem/Cham will be in for him soon enough and with this news we've created a good starting point in the auction

ritchie probably is worth close to that figure, yes.  caddis is probably same ball park.  together you can add that much again because of their understanding.

i wouldn't sell either of them right now because i really think we'd have to come up with close to half the money we'd take to find a player close to being able to fit in with our regime and style.

it really is a case of the sum equalling more the parts and given we don't have to sell why should we have to and spend time and money trying to get an adequate replacement in?

also, going along with barry's argument, or against... ritchie looked good with caddis, not so much without - i'd argue that our left hand side wasn't as good as our right so having caddis injured balanced that out... i digress... we don't know how well caddis could work with a replacement, what we do know is that together we have a dynamic right hand side that, along with ferry can cause opposition no end of trouble.

is 900,000 ritchie's market value?  close to, yes.  is it the worth he has to the side? no.

as people have said, now's the time for building a team, let's do that

And he only had one leg.