Interesting to assess Anis Memeti’s start at Bristol City. He has the number 11 shirt playing on the left hand side. He has featured in three games so far and has a made very positive contributions, he has two goal assists, one cross headed in for a goal and a second cross that was handled for a Bristol penalty that was converted. Apparently their first for many months. Watching game highlights he looks as if he has played in the Championship for some time as opposed to starting at that level. Good videos available of his interviews, first day at the club, manager interviews etc. Suggest Utube for viewing match highlights and other related material. Proud he has started well at his new home, after all he was nurtured and developed at Wycombe when other sides would not give him a chance including two higher level academies. Comments from fans very positive too.
My Wimbledon mate is chuffed to bits with Ali Al-Hamadi. Four goals in five games now. My reassurance that he has great potential thoroughly vindicated.
I’m pleased for AAH as he seemed a down-to-earth lad with his head screwed on, but I couldn’t honestly say I saw the potential when he was with us, that said I think I only saw him start a couple of games (incl. pizza cup) plus cameos.
It is going to be fun to follow Mehmeti's career, as he was truly discovered by Wycombe. I love Eze and follow his career too, but he never quite felt like ours owing to being on loan and the much shorter spell.
I think Anis would get roughly half way up this list in terms of his dribbling ability. That probably says it all. He’ll be sold for c£10m one day in my opinion (assuming he doesn’t pick up any major injuries).
Is it possible to have a release clause in a contract that says a player must be sold if a club offers say £1m AND 20% of sell-on proceeds? It would be nice if we'd specified something like that though as @Chris says the club would likely have been clearer about it in their press release.
If there was a release clause and the release clause didn't specify a sell-on, negotiating a release clause would surely have meant we were the best negotiators in the history of negotiating.
The fact that Andrew Howard was brought in just before the start of the window would suggest there was either no release clause or at least one with wiggle room for negotiation.
I guess we will not know at least until Anis is sold on to better things.
His Agent may have, when negotiating his contact with us, insisted on straight £1m with no add ons.
Alternatively, there was nothing to stop both parties agreeing to a reduced initial fee of say £500k in consideration of Bristol City including a sell on clause.
The more I see Anis make the step up so easily the more I feel we were short changed. We've never managed to get that life changing transfer have we. When you look at Exeter and how well they've done in the transfer market we've never got that huge amount that could, I dunno, build an academy.
I watched the Crystal Palace documentary about their development kids. They have an AMAZING training centre. The chairman proudly said it was on the back of one transfer. Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Anis should have been our Wan-Bissaka.
AWB grew up in the Crystal Palace Academy and signed his first professional contract with them before rocketing into the first team in the Premier League and being signed by Man Utd.
Anis Mehmeti had a checkered beginning in youth football before joining us from Woodford Town as a bit of a punt. Having shown his potential in League One, he signed a new contract with us when he was holding many of the cards when he may or may not have demanded a release clause. He moved on to Bristol City.
Quite a big difference between the two players sale values and negotiating position surely?
Anis will end up going anywhere from 10-25 million if Bristol City sell him on to a PL club. Just look at their own transfer history and the supposed 25m level of interest currently for Alex Scott. If we fail to get a piece of that, we might as well shutter the development program.
What I don't understand is why a sell-on would be hard to negotiate with his agent. I understand the release clause bit, but why would Anis and his agent play hardball over a sell on? That is a future sale that is unlikely to affect his salary at Bristol City the way the immediate transfer fee would.
To me it would be absolutely incredible if we only ever see around 1m for Mehmeti, when we knew all along he was probably PL bound.
There is still a big if in your first sentence @Shev
At time of negotiating new contract, Sell on clauses in release fees reduce potential profit for buying club and hence value of transfer for them and hence salary value they may offer the player.
At time of sale, obviously no interest for buying club in agreeing one unless they need to to get the deal.
We may have one, we may not. I am sure we would have liked one but it may or may not have been possible.
I agree on the above, @DevC - all I am saying is that if we let our crown jewel go without finding a way to get more than 1m, we need to take a long hard look at ourselves. The sale of Mehmeti should have set the club up. If we are only going to get 1m for a talent of his level, why do we even have a development program at all? I am hardly on the edge of my seat waiting for Forino to be sold for two acorns and a rusty nail.
By being better at negotiating with Anis and his agent. I know the line is that Anis had us over a barrel, but if we are really that weak, again, why even bother with the development squad?
Comments
Shame Anis is cup-tied tonight
Interesting to assess Anis Memeti’s start at Bristol City. He has the number 11 shirt playing on the left hand side. He has featured in three games so far and has a made very positive contributions, he has two goal assists, one cross headed in for a goal and a second cross that was handled for a Bristol penalty that was converted. Apparently their first for many months. Watching game highlights he looks as if he has played in the Championship for some time as opposed to starting at that level. Good videos available of his interviews, first day at the club, manager interviews etc. Suggest Utube for viewing match highlights and other related material. Proud he has started well at his new home, after all he was nurtured and developed at Wycombe when other sides would not give him a chance including two higher level academies. Comments from fans very positive too.
I've been following his progress as well and it seems as though he's absolutely tearing it up already.
Don't think he'll be there too long
Let’s hope decent sell-on percentages were agreed.
My Wimbledon mate is chuffed to bits with Ali Al-Hamadi. Four goals in five games now. My reassurance that he has great potential thoroughly vindicated.
I’m pleased for AAH as he seemed a down-to-earth lad with his head screwed on, but I couldn’t honestly say I saw the potential when he was with us, that said I think I only saw him start a couple of games (incl. pizza cup) plus cameos.
It is going to be fun to follow Mehmeti's career, as he was truly discovered by Wycombe. I love Eze and follow his career too, but he never quite felt like ours owing to being on loan and the much shorter spell.
Sadly, I think Anis is now already worth the £5m to £7m that Gaz was pitching him at in January. Let’s see what happens.
The more he’s worth the better!
I think Anis would get roughly half way up this list in terms of his dribbling ability. That probably says it all. He’ll be sold for c£10m one day in my opinion (assuming he doesn’t pick up any major injuries).
Why's that out of interest?
You don't tend to get sell on fees where release clauses are involved.
I thought we had confirmation that some form of add-ons were included in the deal, if not the detail.
The deal includes the potential for future payments depending on various landmarks being reached in Anis’s career.
This is very vaguely worded.
It'd be very unusual to have a sell on though wouldn't it? 1m fee, 1m bid, case closed isn't it?
Unless either 1) The contract clause was a bit more involved, or 2) Bristol City out of the goodness of their heart threw us a few sweeteners!
Eiffel Tower 500k, Empire state building £1m, Sydney Opera House £5m
I would have said it is very unusual not to have a sell-on for a young player these days.
The clause is the point. A clause is an amount you get the player automatically at when triggering the value set.
We'd presumably have no room for negotiation beyond that.
Is it possible to have a release clause in a contract that says a player must be sold if a club offers say £1m AND 20% of sell-on proceeds? It would be nice if we'd specified something like that though as @Chris says the club would likely have been clearer about it in their press release.
If we did not negotiate a sell on with Anis, we are the worst negotiators in the history of negotiating.
If there was a release clause and the release clause didn't specify a sell-on, negotiating a release clause would surely have meant we were the best negotiators in the history of negotiating.
The fact that Andrew Howard was brought in just before the start of the window would suggest there was either no release clause or at least one with wiggle room for negotiation.
I guess we will not know at least until Anis is sold on to better things.
His Agent may have, when negotiating his contact with us, insisted on straight £1m with no add ons.
Alternatively, there was nothing to stop both parties agreeing to a reduced initial fee of say £500k in consideration of Bristol City including a sell on clause.
The more I see Anis make the step up so easily the more I feel we were short changed. We've never managed to get that life changing transfer have we. When you look at Exeter and how well they've done in the transfer market we've never got that huge amount that could, I dunno, build an academy.
I watched the Crystal Palace documentary about their development kids. They have an AMAZING training centre. The chairman proudly said it was on the back of one transfer. Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Anis should have been our Wan-Bissaka.
AWB grew up in the Crystal Palace Academy and signed his first professional contract with them before rocketing into the first team in the Premier League and being signed by Man Utd.
Anis Mehmeti had a checkered beginning in youth football before joining us from Woodford Town as a bit of a punt. Having shown his potential in League One, he signed a new contract with us when he was holding many of the cards when he may or may not have demanded a release clause. He moved on to Bristol City.
Quite a big difference between the two players sale values and negotiating position surely?
Anis will end up going anywhere from 10-25 million if Bristol City sell him on to a PL club. Just look at their own transfer history and the supposed 25m level of interest currently for Alex Scott. If we fail to get a piece of that, we might as well shutter the development program.
What I don't understand is why a sell-on would be hard to negotiate with his agent. I understand the release clause bit, but why would Anis and his agent play hardball over a sell on? That is a future sale that is unlikely to affect his salary at Bristol City the way the immediate transfer fee would.
To me it would be absolutely incredible if we only ever see around 1m for Mehmeti, when we knew all along he was probably PL bound.
Most clauses are x% of the profit arent they?
If he goes for £1M we'd get nothing. If he goes for anything above, we get a percentage of that.
There is still a big if in your first sentence @Shev
At time of negotiating new contract, Sell on clauses in release fees reduce potential profit for buying club and hence value of transfer for them and hence salary value they may offer the player.
At time of sale, obviously no interest for buying club in agreeing one unless they need to to get the deal.
We may have one, we may not. I am sure we would have liked one but it may or may not have been possible.
I agree on the above, @DevC - all I am saying is that if we let our crown jewel go without finding a way to get more than 1m, we need to take a long hard look at ourselves. The sale of Mehmeti should have set the club up. If we are only going to get 1m for a talent of his level, why do we even have a development program at all? I am hardly on the edge of my seat waiting for Forino to be sold for two acorns and a rusty nail.
How would you have gone about securing more than £1m (if that is what we got), @Shev ?
By being better at negotiating with Anis and his agent. I know the line is that Anis had us over a barrel, but if we are really that weak, again, why even bother with the development squad?
The simple crux of it is, if a sell on was in the contract, brilliant.
If it's not in there, and it's a straight 1m release, we're screwed.
You'd feel more confident with the current regime to get it right, than with all due respect hard working amateurs in the past.
However, if it was a simple scenario where Mehmeti's agent insisted it's 1m, nothing else, or he wouldn't sign, our hands were tied.