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DumbleDelia is Magic

£1.75M "take it or leave it" offer for Francis

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Now I''m keen to get rid of Francis too, but I think £1.75m is an insult. However, throw Primus in to that deal and now you''re talking.

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[quote]For god''s sake TAKE IT !!!![/quote]

Why?

How will that put us in a good position for next year? Jesus, I''m beginning to feel sorry for Francis! Shows how fickle some fans are - immense for a good season and a half, then poor for a while, and he''s suddenly Satan himself! Yes, we know he didn''t seem to be trying when we needed him most, but I''m afraid the responsibility for our relegation rests with the entire team not performing consistently over the entire season, not one player for a few months!!

Up the offer to £2.5-3 million and I may join you on that, but what real replacement can we get for £1.75 million, other than Koumas, who''s own work-rate and attitude is questionable too.  Splash a little cash and have them both, along with Safri and Jarrett, and suddenly we have immense midfield options!

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We should definately accept it. 1.75million now could easily turn into 300,000 after another half-season of no-shows and prancing about

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"I agree. In fact I''ll drive down there and pick up the cheque for them if that helps..............."

No need, I''m off work today as I''m watching Oasis at the Rose Bowl later (I''m really too old for that sort of thing but all the lads are going and you know what it''s like....................) so I can just pop down to Fratton and pick up the cheque.

Not only that, but I''ll get it split and deliver it to Tranmere and WBA for Taylor and Koumas !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Mark .Y.

  

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[quote]For god''s sake TAKE IT !!!![/quote]

No, No, No DD!.

That''s not early enough IMO, for Damo. I wouldn''t even speak to Portsmouth for less than £2.5 million.

Francis, despite this strange ''witch hunt'' against him by City fans, is easily worth that, and more!.

I just love the guy, and would rather have him stay here, but then again, I''m a fan of his.

If Pompey are trying to get stroppy in all this, then City must tell them to take a running jump!.

Sorry mate.

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[quote]Why? How will that put us in a good position for next year? Jesus, I''m beginning to feel sorry for Francis! Shows how fickle some fans are - immense for a good season and a half, then poor for a whil...[/quote]

It''s not just his poor performance though EM, it''s his general attitude towards the end of last season.  We had potentially the biggest half a dozen games in our clubs history and he wasn''t bothered.  That''s pretty unforgivable in my eyes

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Difficult one this

On one hand we all know what Francis can do when he puts in 100% which values him at £2M +

On the other hand we all know that he doesn''t really want to be here anymore and his commitment in the last half of the season showed that and as someone has already said £1.75M could easily become £300K after another season in the champ.

I think I will join the get what we can for him now camp.

Safri and Jarret will still be chomping at the bit and wanting to perform for us and any new signing will do the same.   Francis will probably just go through the motions if he stays now.

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[quote]No, No, No DD!. That''s not early enough IMO, for Damo. I wouldn''t even speak to Portsmouth for less than £2.5 million. Francis, despite this strange ''witch hunt'' against him by City fans, is easil...[/quote]

For once, I agree with the Wiz.

The first half of the season with Francis was almost like having Stevie G in our side. He lifted the team, he dragged the other non-performers kicking and screaming and bossed the team about. A player of his ability is hard to come by, and £1.75mil is an insult!

If Carter''s worth £1.5mil, then Damo should be £3mil.

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Some people''s ideas of footballers values are very very strange - seriously, £1.75m is a very good fee for a player of Francis'' standard and ability, and despite the fact that on his day he is worth every penny of that money, I would snap their hands off right now.  I have never been truly convinced by him as a player - he disappears during games far too often for my liking, and only seems to show any interest in the game when the ball is around the opposition penalty area.

That said, I won''t be disappointed if he remains as a City player, as I think he is more than good enough for the Championship.  I just think a more realistic valuation for him is around the £750k-£1m mark.  Face it, would you be happy if WE paid that sort of fee for Francis?

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I agree with everything evil monkey and 1st wizard have to say. It is an absolute insult to consider anything under 2.5 million. Unless Primus is involved in a swap deal. how can we replace a player of his quality for that amount of money.......... if he stays i think we will have arguably the best centre midfield partnership/options in the league

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I think this is a tough one for Worthy and the Board. While I, like many other posters, would not miss Francis, any transfer fee must reflect his true value. Is Francis only worth this? I seem to remember figures of 2.5-4 million being spoken of not so long ago. Letting him go at a cut down price will free up funds for several players, mentioned on this board, but is it good business in the long run? Do we really know if he wants out anyway? Has Charlton''s interest cooled?Hmmmmm......I''m undecided. Glad I don''t have to make the decisions^^.

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2.5?!?!?   3.0?!?!?  your all living in cookoo land...no-one in their right mind would pay that for francis. i rate him highly, but for 1.7 id snap there hands off.

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[quote]Why? How will that put us in a good position for next year? Jesus, I''m beginning to feel sorry for Francis! Shows how fickle some fans are - immense for a good season and a half, then poor for a whil...[/quote]

Blimey. Who would have thouht it. ME, AGREEING with 1st Wizard. All players have there off days. But who could we realisticly replace him with?? Sidwell?? Unlikely. Koumas??

Lets stick with Francis. Better the devil you know!!

But only if he wants to stay. If he doesn''t, he can pack his bags.

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My view is that £1.75m is enough money - and we should take it ONLY if we believe that Francis is no longer committed to the club. If he''s in a want-away frame of mind, and he wants to go to play in the Premiership then we''re better off without him.

However... if we lose Francis, we''re yet another player short, and more than that he is a key player who has helped us win promotion out of this division before. Replacing him won''t be easy.

I''d like to think that we are now a club that can hang on to our good players and build up the side to go up and stay up next time round. If we keep letting our good players go because the cash is dangled in front of us, then we''re doomed to stay in a lower division.

We could play hard-ball and remind him he has a contractual obligation to us - but if he wants to go we should definitely not keep him unless he''s going to perform.

So, he is one of the key players we need to get promoted. Weigh up the benefits of £1.75m versus the Premiership money - Premiership wins every time.

It surely must come down to the player''s desire to win another Champions medal with us or get nothing from Portsmouth except a fat paycheck. That has to be why Jarret came here - he wants a winners medal... Francis wants to play in the Premiership - but does he want to work for it and play there with us, or is he only interested in the shortcut via a transfer?

The board have consistently said we don''t need to sell our best players, so let''s try to hang on to him. Portsmouth seem equally reluctant to lose Linvoy Primus, so let''s play the same game too. Reject their final offer, and get promoted as champions.

Dave.

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It''s not often I agree with Wiz but I''m with him on this one. I think the vilification of Francis by some people on this board has got quite ridiculous.

Yes he didn''t play as well when he came back after injury, but considering he had been playing like a god before he was injured that''s perhaps not totally surprising. And if it hadn''t been for his two goals at home to Southampton and his brilliant late winner against West Brom that game at Fulham would have been totally irrelevant because we would already have been relegated!

As for his performances in the last few games perhaps my eyes deceived me when I saw him pick up the ball at Palace, burst into the area past two of their players, get to the byeline and put it on a plate for Deano. Perhaps I imagined it when I saw him win a big tackle on the halfway line against Birmingham and put in an excellently weighted first time ball to Hux which led to our penalty.

Or our these facts being conveniently ignored by many of the posters on here because they don''t fit in with the the fact that Francis is this board''s scapegoat at the moment?

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It is a fair price for a temperamental indifferent performer whose heart is not in the club.

Primus as part of the package, say £1 million plus primus, and job done.

Their valuation of him is fair considering that :-

1) He goes missing in games

2) He has not been the same since his injury

3) He doesn''t want to play for the club

4) He prances about like he is afraid to get his shorts dirty.

Do it Mr Doncaster!!

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[quote]2.5?!?!? 3.0?!?!? your all living in cookoo land...no-one in their right mind would pay that for francis. i rate him highly, but for 1.7 id snap there hands off.[/quote]

It''s a moot point really - the club claim not to have received anything in terms of an offer.

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Sounds like a fair price for a player of his ability given his habit of going missing at the crucial times. The number of clubs who are willing to pay much more for a player who, and lets be realistic here, has had a handful of good Premiership performances is small. We know the likes of Charlton have had a look and walked away already, our potential market is shrinking. I expect he''ll get some stick next year if he stays and I''m not sure he''ll cope with that given what we''ve already seen. Better to sell now as opposed to getting a fraction of this value later. Worthington has been criticised for only ever losing players on frees well now it''s his chance to do a bit of wheeling and dealing.

Sell him on, wish him luck and invest in the future. If we can get a sell on fee or an additional payment on the number of appearences all the better.

 

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Mr Rosario, don''t attempt to make a normal debate about a players worth into an argument as to whether he is the reason we got relegated.   None of the posts on this thread have used Francis as a scapegoat so why bring that up?

I for one don''t think Francis is a major reason why we got relegated, but I know if he had been more consistant throughout 90 mins, let alone every game then he would be worth £2M +, but who would pay that much for someone who plays in fits and starts?    It is also interesting how you can come up with a handful of moments when Francis performed brilliantly as his defence - come on we could do that for almost any player in the squad.   A great midfielder should be remembered for 100% battling performances from start to finish, not the odd flash of brilliance.

No, a few people have got carried away with a few good performances in the Prem and think we can demand mega bucks for what is only a very average midfielder.

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I am glad we have told Pompey to clear off.  We know that there are at least 2 other clubs interested in him and rejecting an announced bid makes good sense unless is far outweighs you valuation on him. It should drive up any fee we get for him in the long run. If some one was too exceed £2.25m then I agree that would be stupid money but when the likes of steve sidwell - unlike damo unproven at prem level) is attracting more than £1.5m I agree that £1.75m is too low.

Damos inconsistency was highlighted by several posters (incl myself) since 10 games into his city career - there was nothing different in those early games than the end of last season, other than RUMOURS of a transfer.  Damo will remain one of those frustrating players - talented yet inconsistent.  Accept that is what he is and then ask yourself whether we know if Jarrett is any better?  Koumas - so widely touted as a good signing - is a known shirker yet we want to buy him when we have a far more talented players at the club in damo who knows the squad , tactics, manager etc etc.   On his day Damo remains our BESTcentral midfielder, and the only midfielder who contributes goals - a rare and much prized talent.  Of course I want him to play like partrick vieira week in week out rather than his invisible man alter ego but thats how he is - frustrating but what the heck - so was loui donowa but god he was exciting! 

Move on from the fulham game - damo was joined by 10 other non triers in that game with only greeno coming out with any credit and no one else has had this level of vitriole - at least damo was doing what he has done before! 

We would have to spend at least £1.5m in replacing damo and even then with no assurance they will add to the team or even settle - better the devil you know is my motto..  

OTBC

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If Damo goes it will be to a london club.. He won''t be interested in portsmouth, and this is something Worthy will talk over with him.

Once the offers have been made and rejected maybe Francis will appreciate where he is playing and the facilities at norwich available to him and kick him into playing with a bit of heart this season.

Hope he stays personally and proves alot of doubters wrong.. He wasn''t to blame for the fulham match, just because the guy isn''t in tears at the end of the match everyone presumes he has no passion for the club.. Well, if you''ve ever seen him in interviews he''s a very nervous guy who''s always grinning as a result of his nervousness this is part of his character, its how he deals with things... Sure this may be different to how the majority of us react, but dont give him a hard time over it, he may be the kind of person who''d smile as his true love walked out of his life... We''re all different.

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[quote]I am glad we have told Pompey to clear off. We know that there are at least 2 other clubs interested in him and rejecting an announced bid makes good sense unless is far outweighs you valuation on hi...[/quote]

Spot on Zipper, you''ve pretty much hit the nail on the head there, as far as I''m concerned! Nice one!

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Sorry DD, have to disagree on this one, £1.75 mill for Damo is not enough for a player who''s contracted to City until 2008. I think if Damo stays (I do not think he will) I would expect him to perform brilliantly next season – he will have to if he wants to play Prem football as he will either help get us there next season, or he will attract the attention of the Premiership clubs all over again. Therefore we would have a premiership quality player with 2 years left on his contract (still able to command a large transfer fee) and both club and player would be happy.

On another point valuations on players depend greatly on the financial state of the 2 clubs in question – if Chelsea were interested we would be expecting nearer 6-7 Million Likewise, if we were in the same financial situation as Ip***t – I would agree that we should “bite their hands off”.

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[quote]It''s not often I agree with Wiz but I''m with him on this one. I think the vilification of Francis by some people on this board has got quite ridiculous. Yes he didn''t play as well when he came back ...[/quote]

thats a very good point about wot he done against palace and brum. its shows he has still got the quality. he always looked good on the ball. but it was simply when he was off the ball, he just didn''t seem interested in the game at all.

and that quality is wot the other clubs see in him.

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[quote]If Damo goes it will be to a london club.. He won''t be interested in portsmouth, and this is something Worthy will talk over with him. Once the offers have been made and rejected maybe Francis will a...[/quote]

Total sence and a slightly different slant on things, wish I had written it!.

Well done and belated greetings Skijumptoes

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I suppose i would be happy with the money so take it. Could have been more but £1.75mil would get us Taylor + Kristiansen - Fantastic bit of business

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