Burnley have just bought Northern Irish CB Daniel Ballard for £2 million from Arsenal. They're in massive financial trouble with Nick Pope just gone to Newcastle for a paltry £10m. Looks to me like Collins is on the way out.
Burnley have just bought Northern Irish CB Daniel Ballard for £2 million from Arsenal. They're in massive financial trouble with Nick Pope just gone to Newcastle for a paltry £10m. Looks to me like Collins is on the way out.
I suggest that foot.ie buy Nathan Collins and loan him out, South American Style ~ ~ Perfect opportunity for Bielsa’s Irish to prove his bone fides. I only want 10% for this tremendous idea.
Pope has always looked a good traditional style goalkeeper to me ~ ~ I don’t know too much about his distribution / ball foot work, because you wouldn’t have seen too much of that at Burnley. I like big / calm / assured looking goalkeepers and Not Jordan Pickford style goalkeeping. Not saying Pickford doesn’t have some good points but, calming down his defence certainly isn’t one of them.
As a goalkeeper Pope could have 5 years or more left in him so it does seem a good deal for Newcastle. Are prices getting a bit more sensible at the moment ~ ~ Below the upper echelons anyway ?
Last edited by seanfhear; 24/06/2022 at 10:20 AM.
Pope at £10 million seems cheap to me.
In fairness, for Burnley, he was competing against their best player (Tarkowski) and their captain (Mee) for 2 slots - and not bringing him into the fold earlier is probably what cost Dyche his job.
What I've seen of him in recent months indicates he'd go into chelsea's team. Honestly I'd have him over every centre half they have: Thiago Silva (37), Malang Sarr, Trevor Chalobah, Levi Colwill - it's not an impressive list. They lost Rudiger and Christiansen this summer, having sold Timori, Guehi and Zouma last summer. If they were to bring Collins in as one of two additions, I'd be confident he'd be playing regularly
They’ve agreed a fee to sign Irish Centre half Luke McNally from Oxford.
That'd be a very sensible move for him I think. Slight step up from 12 months ago and a chance to show what he can do in a passing team who have a habit of selling on to the big clubs.
Solid move, happy to see. Robbie Keane still the highest irish transfer fee? Adjusting for inflation of course which isn’t done traditionally when considering transfers fees
Duff still the highest adjusting for inflation. Collins the highest if you don't take that into account.
I guess those rumours of a contractual relegation clause must have had something in them; £20m seems inordinately cheap for a player of Collins' potential. There can't be many better young centre-backs in Europe right now. His goal against Ukraine showed exceptional ability.
There are very few risks involved in signing a player who's only going to get better, and it wouldn't be hugely surprising to see him move on for double Wolves' initial outlay in a couple of years' time.
Seems like a great piece of business.
The reports are that there was no clause. Plenty of clubs took a look but it seems only one made a bid in the end. Burnley's relegation will have contributed also but at the same time - and in know it's a bit of a cliche - but you can't help feel that if he was an up and coming English player he would have gone for a lot more.
Even yesterday Keane Lewis-Potter's transfer was a bigger news story in the British football media despite him having never played in the Premier League and Collins being a senior international - but then Lewis-Potter has England Under 21 caps. Will be interesting to see what level both players are at in three years time.
I expect the 20M means more to Burnley now than a potential 40M in a few years. Their need may have surpressed the price a little. Still, how many players of any calibre or age move from the Championship for that kind of money? Transfer fees are crazy, but you can't pay €100M for everyone!
You can't spell failure without FAI
Bookmarks