njligernj
Player Valuation: £15m
Only Survival Is Acceptable. I don't want to sell Stones because it will stop us from getting better. I don't think we'll get relegated if we sell him. We'll buy a defender approx. as good as Stones now with a much lower ceiling. We'll get some other players who are about as good as our current players. We will continue to hover around 8-5 in the league.
Our only shot at top four is having players like Stones playing for us. That's it. At some point we have to take a stand or we'll be going in circles until we are all very old.
Even the "breaking" aspect ... it's what we said immediately. Weeks ago. It's only because they got bored writing the stories about how inevitable it is and someone said "anyone got a new angle on this Stones to Chelsea thing?" and someone said "do you know Everton actually say they don't want to sell him?" and everyone in the newsroom laughed for 30 minutes and then someone said "sure kid ... write that up in a tweet."
Great! If people think we will accept 35m and one we give Barnsley their cut we can use almost all the Stones fees on him. SELL TO BUY! CHAMPIONS LEAGUE HERE WE COME!
Sure ... but those odds are absolutely lower than the odds of the unknowns we will get in with the money. Sure Stones could not work out. Some people here thought Rodwell would be world class (and some did not too TBF).
However Stones: works in our team, likes the area, can play in the Prem, has a very high ceiling.
Replacements: no idea if they work in our team, no idea if they like living in the area, possibly no idea if they can play in the Prem if we buy them outside the league, almost certainly have a lower ceiling than Stones, and (because we'd likely spend it on more than one player) would cost more than even a renewed contract Stones in salary.
There is risk in everything we do ... but risk-wise it's a riskier move to sell.
