As much as the club are in money trouble, I would say no.
If they did it would cause such an out cry from the fans and would tell evey other club what a state we are in. Maybe in a season or two when he has made a name for himself the club would take £5-6m.
No, I don't think so. He's clearly needed as a CM player and if his improvement continues then he'll be worth a lot more than that in a few years. Short-term gaining say £2m will be nothing as we'll need at least that to replace him in centre midfield. Therefore it's a zero-sum equation and you are better off keeping the player you have.
As I mention on another thread the clubs have more power over players up to the age of 21 than for players after that age.
If he is as good as we and everyone thinks he is then he'll have plenty of time to make his money, in the meantime we'll have to hope that his agents and advisers are playing the long-term game as well.
He'll learn more playing frequent first team football at The Valley, than stuck in say, Chelsea's reserve team for the next 3 years and going out on loan, like Sinclair.
There are plenty of players who go to Prem teams from lower league clubs, but Charlton have one of the better set-ups if not the best set-up, outside the Premiership.
That doesn't mean that he'll stay if he get's a stupid offer or if the club get greedy, just that if he is any good then a couple of seasons at Chjarlton will bring his game on much faster than spending a chunk of the season living out of a suitcase on loan somewhere.
I'm going to start a thread in a minute called "If someone fired a gun and blew my right foot off... would it stop me driving people around the bend with hypothetical worst-case scenarios?"
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If they did it would cause such an out cry from the fans and would tell evey other club what a state we are in. Maybe in a season or two when he has made a name for himself the club would take £5-6m.
no seriously, i don't think they could, as the new Hero of SE7, surely there'd be revolution!
One thing's clear though - if we don't regain Prem status and progress as a club, we won't be able to keep him.
Even if only for the mid term.
If he is as good as we and everyone thinks he is then he'll have plenty of time to make his money, in the meantime we'll have to hope that his agents and advisers are playing the long-term game as well.
He'll learn more playing frequent first team football at The Valley, than stuck in say, Chelsea's reserve team for the next 3 years and going out on loan, like Sinclair.
That doesn't mean that he'll stay if he get's a stupid offer or if the club get greedy, just that if he is any good then a couple of seasons at Chjarlton will bring his game on much faster than spending a chunk of the season living out of a suitcase on loan somewhere.
Eh?