£8.5m price tag for Ince? no wonder we sign foreigners

Article from the Mirror:

We’re doing a lot of soul-searching right now about the neglect of young British players.

How, we ask, are they supposed to develop their skills at the highest level when Premier League clubs are barring their way by tossing all their wealth at every Tomas, Dirk and Ari from abroad?

The wisdom goes that there’s nothing wrong with buying foreign talent at the top end of the market.

Indeed, bringing the Hazards and Higuains over here benefits the national game, but bringing in unknowns who aren’t that special just ends up blocking our own kids’ progression.

And we’ve known for years that’s true.

We didn’t need the dismal showing at the Under-21 Euros, the wafer-thin squad Roy Hodgson took to Brazil, or the fact that only three Brits – Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale and Leighton Baines – figured in a recent performance-based list of Europe’s top 50 players, to realise our home-grown talent pool is seeping into a puddle.

Plus, with this new bumper TV deal burning holes in the pockets of managers hoping to discover the next Michu under the radar, it’s going to get worse.

At the time of writing, 32 players had been signed by Premier League clubs this summer but only five were British.

Nine teams had bought only foreigners: Liverpool (four), Sunderland (four) Fulham (three), Manchester City (two), Chelsea (one), Manchester United (one), Norwich (two) Southampton (one) and Swansea (one).

But is this all down to foreign sweatshops flooding our market with cheap gear or is it partly down to us making our own young talent unaffordable by inflating their price through greed?

I’d like to hear Ian Holloway’s take on that.

In an attempt to strengthen newly-promoted Crystal Palace, he asked his old club Blackpool how much they wanted for Tom Ince and Matt Phillips.

He was reportedly left reeling after being quoted £14million for the pair.

He’d valued them at half that.

Ince is a classic example of a bright young player’s development being stymied, not by hordes of foreigners but a Championship chairman trying to play the “English premium” card to screw as much as he can out of top clubs.

Ince could have been a Premier League player for the past six months if Karl Oyston had told Liverpool or Spurs they could have him for £6m in January.

But he’d set his mind on £8.5m for a 21-year-old with no Premier League experience and just a handful of Under-21 caps.

Considering Oyston didn’t spend a penny developing him and bought him two years ago for £500,000, £6m would have represented great business, even after settling the sell-on clause.

But both Liverpool and Spurs baulked at the £8.5m demand, with the Reds preferring to sign a cheaper Under-21 international, Spaniard Luis Alberto from Sevilla.



And with the scars still raw on the £71m Liverpool’s American owners were persuaded to splurge on Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, who can blame them for believing that (even with Daniel Sturridge’s success) there is a vastly unjustified mark-up in the English market?

Cardiff are the only serious buyers now for Ince, and he may well prove to be worth that £8.5m.

But that’s what Sunderland thought when they forked out a similar amount for Connor Wickham.

Ask them if they’d take a similar risk again.

Or ask Manchester City how they feel about blowing last summer’s budget on the over-hyped Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair and whether they’re rushing out to buy young British talent any time soon.

It’s easy to put all the blame for our home-grown players’ lack of chances on an insane rush to bring in foreign mercenaries.

But don’t underplay the greed and the madness of our own.

Got to agree with that. Still astounds me that Zaha cost so much.

Got to agree with that. Still astounds me that Zaha cost so much.

Agree Zaha is so over rated.

Comparing ince to wickham is shocking though, ince is a far better player.

The greed starts at the top though, lets not lose sight of that.

Got to agree with that. Still astounds me that Zaha cost so much.

Never mind Zaha, I'm still gobsmacked at what Liverpool paid for Joe Allen for £15m .............. it really is madness the price of british youngsters, I still feel there are way too many forgieners playing in the PL ...... no wonder the british teams are all piss poor

Got to agree with that. Still astounds me that Zaha cost so much.

Never mind Zaha, I'm still gobsmacked at what Liverpool paid for Joe Allen for £15m .............. it really is madness the price of british youngsters, I still feel there are way too many forgieners playing in the PL ...... no wonder the british teams are all piss poor

Not to mention £35m for Carroll. Only to sell him for £15m

TV Money is the problem for British clubs, the fact that beyond the Premiership, they don't see it.

There's also the ruling that the Premiership forced on the smaller clubs, allowing them to pluck the cream of the youth players from the smaller teams for peanuts.

So yes, the smaller clubs now hold out for large amounts to make some money when they can.

Fair article. The amount of people on here whoop whooping at the thought of tom ince signing for us at 8 mil plus and a reported 40 grand a weak makes me worry about their mental health.

Great article. The Dutch, German, French, Belgian and Danish markets are where we should be looking.

Great article. The Dutch, German, French, Belgian and Danish markets are where we should be looking.

definetly