it will cost in excess of 500k to replace Collins he is only 26 and the last 3 seasons has been in the form of his career - we already need 2 forwards so losing the only decent one we have would be madness before replacements are bought in
Indeed, sometimes a statement saying 'not for sale' actually means, 'how high will your offers go?'. This is especially so when more than one club is sniffing around. But I'll take them at their word until they do otherwise. I've never forgotten having to explain to a very angry 11-year old why Tubbs and Barnett were sold. It was difficult because I felt angry too (some of us never grow up, do we?)
Isn't that what clubs usually say? Every player has his price, hopefully ours will scare off the bidders.
Your spot on Simon we must surely want 500k + i doubt you would pick up a player of the same sort of quality for less would you?
To be honest...yes. After all we got Collins for nothing after Shrewsbury let him go. Also Tyrone Barnett was around £100K IIRC.
Also I reckon Rhys Murphy is a 20 goal a season forward if played in the right position and we would probably get him for nothing. Maybe take a punt on a lower league forward like Tarpey or Cheek.
£500K is a lot of cash to play with at our level (but I doubt we would get that anyway).
I think Murphy is as good as Collins. Dont forget the one advantage a striker gets at Crawley is a lot of games. Collins played almost every game bar suspension. It means plenty of opportunity to find form Mcleod also had a similar run when he got 19.
If Collins is still with us next season, he will obviously be our main striker. He can play up front on his own, he brings a lot to the team with his work rate and his goals. If we sell him, he will be hard to replace and I can't see us reinvesting the money into another striker.
If he was to leave, I still think someone like Murphy could do a job for us, but he needs to be our main striker and I think he would benefit having someone up front alongside him.
But like all forwards he needs a run of games not 20 mins here and there which DD gave him. Still perhaps wasn't DD's signing 😉
Murphy is a decent League 2 striker. Even last season, when he tended to be played sporadically and in a deeper role, I thought he did okay, he had energy and always tried to make things happen, which was more than could be said of a few of his colleagues... maybe not a spectacular success but certainly not a failure.
With the payments getting even bigger from the Premier League for league two, clubs will start to look at the value of staying in the league even more. We can't lose a 20 goal striker even if they offer more than £300k.
It really isn't worth it, take £300k now and if last season is to go by, we will be facing to lose £430,000+ a year falling out the league.