Sam Allardyce has slapped a £20 million price tag on Winston Reid depite him being free to walk away for nothing in the summer.
Whilst admitting that neother he or the club can influence Reid’s decision-making process the manager said: “He isn’t going anywhere unless someone bids £20m or something like that.
“If somebody flirts around with a measly offer because he is in the last year of his contract, we would make more money by keeping him and finishing where we are in the league than selling him and putting our good season in jeopardy. Because replacing him in January – replacing anybody in January – is a very difficult job indeed.”
Eight wins in their opening 15 games have left us in fourth place and Allardyce hopes that a continuation of that form could tempt Reid to stay, even if the negotiations are out of his hands.
He said: “I just don’t pay too much attention to it now it has gone on so long. I just hope that the phone call is a yes when the chairman rings me up at some stage. At the moment it is neither a positive nor a negative. It is neither a yes or a no from Reidy at the moment.
“In the end, I just hope he decides what is happening this season here and what is happening with us now has a telling factor on the decision that he makes in the end and it is not just money.
“After a difficult start after an injury and a difficult back end to last season, has started to show some reasonably good form – and that is why I say reasonably good – we have only got three clean sheets, so they do get a bit of stick from me.”
Perhaps the genius can explain how if Reid is that good,we aren’t getting clean sheets,he hasn’t accepted the offer,there have been no bids and why he hasn’t got a replacement lined up.Why price yourself out(when there are no bids)? Take £5-8m and replace him accordingly.We won’t drop down the division just because of Reid ,that’s Allardyce job to do that and he will.
Not sure what slapping a £20 mill price tag on Winston achieves now.
As it has become increasingly clear through the long and protracted negotiations, there was little the club could do to influence things and a Doris Day approach, what will be will be situation was quickly formed.
Therefore imo the time when all our best offers had been rebuffed was the right one to slap on the £20m price tag.
Although I fully appreciate and admire the club’s stance that they would rather run down his contract so that clubs couldn’t cherrypick Reid on the cheap in January.
I like that the owners have confidence that the final placing monies( if we finish high enough) would compensate for his potential lose in the summer.
It is also worth remembering that even if he runs down his contract and leaves without a transfer fee, reid’s wage demands will be the biggest financial outlay and make any potential transfer that much more of a gamble.
I’m getting to the stage now where I believe that Winston is showing the club little regard and as such if he doesn’t respect the club/fans and clearly doesn’t want to be here then we should just get rid of him!
Under such circumstances I hope he does run his contract down and his unrealistic wage demands coupled with the fact he isn’t that good a player( a decent stopper only) make him not worth the gamble.
Then for these reasons nobody comes in for him. Meanwhile we bring in a replacement who is not only a decent stopper but can play football out from the back too.
Reid then becomes just another squad player kicking his heels on the sidelines wishing he hadn’t been such a greedy bas€