Leeds "must pay £5m for Jonny Howson"

[Lessingham Canary 99]

Howson did not want a new contract, what is the club supposed to do in that situation, sell now for the best price seems best option to me, £5m (would have a like another £2m on top) now might be a lot less come January or next summer.

Also joining Boro will mean he is just an hour to their training ground and living back in his native land.

[Indy_Bones 441]

If it was purely about being back ''home'', then surely he''d have pushed for a move back to Leeds with an agreement to forego that part of his existing contract in exchange for us potentially taking a lower transfer fee than we may want.Boro is certainly closer to Leeds than Norwich however, and if it means he can maintain his current wage (or very similar) for a longer period whilst being nearer to Leeds then I can understand the decision.Not sure why some are claiming that Archant/NCFC are basically pushing out lies about the player (despite ZERO evidence to suggest this) just to ''soften'' up fans, we know this is already a period of significant change, and it''s certainly not unreasonable to accept that the player may well want to move and possibly get a better long term deal than we can offer at this stage.

[Jim Smith 2,322]

[quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"]So you have no proof the smear the club, something you accuse them of doing to Howson, other than your ''belief'' that he hasn''t pushed for a move?[/quote]

No I have information but not information I am at liberty to put on here given the basis upon which it was given to me.

[Captain Birdseye 0]

Our rolls Royce of a player. Our chateau de pape 1934, our Michelle keegan of a player and we only want £5 million

How much more must we accept from this inept board of directors.? How much longer must we endure the unendurable and accept the unacceptable?

Delia out, rich Arab investor in

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]No, I have information, but not information I am at liberty to put on here given the basis upon which it was given to me.[/quote]Ah, that old chestnut is it...maybe you''re secretly Howson''s gardener and happened to overhear the conversation where he said it was all untrue, maybe you walk a dog in the neighbourhood and bumped into Howson or his agent who decided to tell you all that was happening, or maybe you do genuinely have a contact at the club somewhere who is giving you this information, but one question for you:Why is it, that if both Archant and NCFC are spreading lies and printing libellous statements about a player, no action appears to be being taken by said player to deal with this???Surely your ''source'' should be able to advise if we can expect to see Archant forced into a retraction or the club to apologise to Howson if what you''re saying is true???

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Lessingham Canary"]Howson did not want a new contract, what is the club supposed to do in that situation, sell now for the best price seems best option to me, £5m (would have a like another £2m on top) now might be a lot less come January or next summer.

Also joining Boro will mean he is just an hour to their training ground and living back in his native land.[/quote]

How do you know Howson didn''t want a new contract? Seems more likely the club wanted the money. Sod £5 milllion, he''s worth more to us playing next season.

We''ve allowed a promotion rival to strengthen, whilst weaken ourselves in the process.

Terrible decision to sell. Absolute joke.

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

£5 million..... joke of a fee.

Do we have no body at the club capable of negotiating a good deal?

How do we get held to ransom by Wigan over Wildshut and roll over and get our bellies tickled when a rival comes calling for our star player??

Pritchard will be next. Really p44ed off with this.

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="lincoln canary Golden Coppel"]We''ve allowed a promotion rival to strengthen, whilst weaken ourselves in the process.

Terrible decision to sell. Absolute joke.[/quote]No, what''s a joke is that people can''t grasp the fact that Howson not only helped us get relegated twice, he also failed to help us get promoted again last season, but we''re just meant to ignore that and slag Russ Martin off instead aren''t we...We''re not talking about f**king Yaya Toure here FFS, Howson is a good player, but he isn''t the absolute world beater that you and others want to make him out to be.

[KeiranShikari_2 0]

Can''t wait for Vrancic to outperform Howson next season.

[Jim Smith 2,322]

[quote user="Indy_Bones"][quote user="Jim Smith"]No, I have information, but not information I am at liberty to put on here given the basis upon which it was given to me.[/quote]Ah, that old chestnut is it...maybe you''re secretly Howson''s gardener and happened to overhear the conversation where he said it was all untrue, maybe you walk a dog in the neighbourhood and bumped into Howson or his agent who decided to tell you all that was happening, or maybe you do genuinely have a contact at the club somewhere who is giving you this information, but one question for you:Why is it, that if both Archant and NCFC are spreading lies and printing libellous statements about a player, no action appears to be being taken by said player to deal with this???Surely your ''source'' should be able to advise if we can expect to see Archant forced into a retraction or the club to apologise to Howson if what you''re saying is true???[/quote]

Nobody has printed lies or anything libellous, its spin (he probably does not want to sign a contract extension that sees his wages cut to less than half their current level in 2019 and the "believed to want to return north" has always been portrayed as a rumour) and from what I understand Howson is not the type to kick up a fuss about things but personally I have little doubt that the motive has always been to soften the fans up for a sale.

[JF 694]

For what is going to be a make or break season we are certainly taking a massive gamble. were going to need some experienced players with championship knowledge on the pitch!

[Highland Canary 76]

Another Chris Sutton, Chasesc, £5m sale moment, that didn''t end well for us.

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="Highland Canary"]Another Chris Sutton, Chasesc, £5m sale moment, that didn''t end well for us.[/quote]Not even close.In today''s money, Sutton would easily be a 30-40mil+ striker, whereas at no point in his career has Howson come even vaguely near this sort of valuation or performance level for that matter.Howson''s sale would be more akin to us selling Robins to Leicester or even Fox to Newcastle.

[Guest]

I don''t get the idea that £5M isn''t enough. I think that it is pretty fair value. Just because we paid silly money last season for Wildschut doesn''t make him worth it.

And looking at transfer sites, Howson seems to be valued at less than that.

I am impressed with Webber so far. He isn''t hanging about in getting rid of players and he isn''t slow in bringing new ones in. And if it is true about McGovern, Wildschut and Jarvis, then he is cleaning house comprehensively.

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="keelansgrandad"]I don''t get the idea that £5M isn''t enough. I think that it is pretty fair value. Just because we paid silly money last season for Wildschut doesn''t make him worth it.[/quote]BYG earlier clarified that Wildschut was apparently 3.5mil upfront, with a further 3.5mil in addons, so it wasn''t that silly in reality, simply the price of doing business in the Jan window, but I do agree with your point ref Howson [:)]

[Baldyboy 0]

Howson a new contract was at a lower pay so can anyone really blame him for not signing a new contract when he still had 2 years left on his current deal? Of all those moaning he didn''t want to be here, how many would take a pay cut in their job and stay where they were?

[king canary 7,609]

It was silly whatever price we paid- there was never any need for yet another attacking midfielder.

£5m odd for Howson sounds fair- he isn''t getting any younger.

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Indy_Bones"][quote user="lincoln canary Golden Coppel"]We''ve allowed a promotion rival to strengthen, whilst weaken ourselves in the process.

Terrible decision to sell. Absolute joke.[/quote]No, what''s a joke is that people can''t grasp the fact that Howson not only helped us get relegated twice, he also failed to help us get promoted again last season, but we''re just meant to ignore that and slag Russ Martin off instead aren''t we...We''re not talking about f**king Yaya Toure here FFS, Howson is a good player, but he isn''t the absolute world beater that you and others want to make him out to be.[/quote]

IB, lol. How simple are you? Howson helped to relegate us twice and failed to gain promotion last season, and??

What about the times we stayed up in the premiership with him, and the time he helped us to promotion?

Your talking rubbish if your suggesting Howson is not worth keeping because he was part of a side relegated from the premiership twice. Any sane person can see he was one of the better players, and the blame was very much at the inability to sort the defence out. He was also key to our promotion season at Wembley.

Last season we narrowly missed out on a playoff place, so clearly Howson is a very good championship player. And being in the championship, very good championship players come in handy.

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Baldyboy"]Howson a new contract was at a lower pay so can anyone really blame him for not signing a new contract when he still had 2 years left on his current deal? Of all those moaning he didn''t want to be here, how many would take a pay cut in their job and stay where they were?[/quote]

Exactly.

Club spin - ''Howson rejects new contract and doesn''t want to stay''

Reality - ''Howson rejects pay cut offer, and happy to see out contract''

[ZLF 274]

we need to stop this we narrowly missed out on a play off spot; we were 10 points and 2 places off a play of spot and defensively (midfield and back 4) awful.

The table does not lie, the squad, incl Howson, were simply upper mid table ability at best, with a superiority complex that costs us nearly as many points as inability against the far superior teams that made up the top 6.

Reading and Huddersfield have shown what can be achieved by a well coached squad, committed motivated squad. While players of Howsons quality would be a loss he is far from irreplacable, not even the most key players we have and if we end up with a more balanced hungrier squad due to his sale thats ok for me.

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="lincoln canary Golden Coppel"]Your talking rubbish if your suggesting Howson is not worth keeping because he was part of a side relegated from the premiership twice.[/quote]Funny how people were more than happy to apply this rule towards players like Bassong, Martin and Whittaker though isn''t it? and a key part of our defensive frailties was down to lack of genuine support and cover from the central midfielders which very much includes Howson rather than sticking all the blame on Tettey.I''ve never said Howson is a bad player, or that he isn''t a good champs level player, what I have pointed out is that he''s inconsistent with his level of contribution, absolutely nobody seems to know which role in the midfield genuinely suits him best, and despite all the claims that he''s more than good enough for the PL, why have we never had any serious interest in his services? because let''s face it, if someone in the prem truly wants a player, they''ll happily pay 5, 10 or even 20 mil for a player (even if they are in the champs at the time) and can easily unsettle someone to push a move through, and in Howson''s case we''ve never had this.Howson has been a good servant for us no doubt, but I think it''s time to move on, and if he''s not wanting to sign a new contract AND would prefer a move further north in the process, then it''s the most sensible time to get a fair price from him, rather than hoping he''ll be decent his season but we''ll have to let him go for virtually nothing next year...

[norfolkngood 1,087]

The club needs funds

the only player worth anything other than Murphy''s that other clubs want are howson and Dorrans and that was a give away price

if we could sell Naismith / Jarvis we would then maybe keep Howson but that is not the case

the only thing i would say is the 6 million ( approx ) we get from them both must be on players bought not loaned

if we loan players we will spend the money without owning a asset to sell on at a later date

this is no surprise to some we were told last year that these cuts would have to be made and the wallet was empty

[Wishbone 8]

I think we need two midfielders that can boss a game. Vrancic might be one. Howson isn''t a flair / creative player like Pritchard or Wes and he isn''t a mopping up or deeper lying playmaker.

He''s clearly decent but I don''t think he fits into the system we''re about to see. Makes sense to sell now while we can get a decent fee. Bit annoying he''s going to a rival but I guess you can only sell to a team that wants him.

Has given us good service but, let''s be honest, he''s had multiple seasons to show us what he is. A decent midfielder that never surpasses a motm display every 7-10 games and has a cracking shot on him. Move on...

[GJP 79]

If Howson is "inconsistent" I don''t what what it says for anyone else.

His ball retention, decision making and selfless running are excellent. He lacks a bit of flair but he is, more than anyone else, a team player in the way he looks to help and make the game easier for his team mates.

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Indy_Bones"][quote user="lincoln canary Golden Coppel"]Your talking rubbish if your suggesting Howson is not worth keeping because he was part of a side relegated from the premiership twice.[/quote]Funny how people were more than happy to apply this rule towards players like Bassong, Martin and Whittaker though isn''t it? and a key part of our defensive frailties was down to lack of genuine support and cover from the central midfielders which very much includes Howson rather than sticking all the blame on Tettey.I''ve never said Howson is a bad player, or that he isn''t a good champs level player, what I have pointed out is that he''s inconsistent with his level of contribution, absolutely nobody seems to know which role in the midfield genuinely suits him best, and despite all the claims that he''s more than good enough for the PL, why have we never had any serious interest in his services? because let''s face it, if someone in the prem truly wants a player, they''ll happily pay 5, 10 or even 20 mil for a player (even if they are in the champs at the time) and can easily unsettle someone to push a move through, and in Howson''s case we''ve never had this.Howson has been a good servant for us no doubt, but I think it''s time to move on, and if he''s not wanting to sign a new contract AND would prefer a move further north in the process, then it''s the most sensible time to get a fair price from him, rather than hoping he''ll be decent his season but we''ll have to let him go for virtually nothing next year...

[/quote]

Its not a general rule though is it. Bassong for an example had been relegated at several clubs, therefore the rule apply.

But at the end of the day, Good players can be relegated in poor sides. Good sides can also be relegated in the correct circumstances. Your suggestion that Howson''s ability should be judged on being part of a relegated team is daft. Especially when you choose to ignore the fact he''s also been part of teams that have won promotion and secured safe premiership finishes.

The truth is IB, your too blinkered and pro club. Sometimes you need to take a step back.

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="GJP"]a team player in the way he looks to help and make the game easier for his team mates.[/quote]Where was the help for the defence then???Tettey was constantly working his socks off to try to provide more defensive cover and clear up in the middle of the park (btw, he made more average interceptions per game than any other player last season despite people saying he was past it), but the truth is that with our fullbacks bombing forwards, there was no way he could ever cover everything on his own and needed help from players like Howson and/or Dorrans, yet how often did we genuinely see this?Tettey retained the ball better, had better passing accuracy (even if these passes weren''t killer through balls etc - that''s not his job), and made more passes per game than Howson, yet people were getting on Tettey''s back whilst Howson got off virtually scot free...

[GJP 79]

I''m not getting on Tettey''s back. But you should also realise they have different jobs. Tettey is going to operate more in our half whereas Howson covers the whole pitch. He can play in all three thirds of the pitch and you are clearly showing a lack of understanding and appreciation for that.

Also, too much blame for the shortcomings of the defenders is going on the midfield. You defend as a team but defenders are there to defend.

[Rich T The Biscuit 562]

I thought defenders were there to point their fingers as others for blame... 😬

On a serious note Indy does have a point about the need for midfield to support and help out the defence, look at what Kanye did for Leicester, however this has always seemed to have been Tettey''s role in the team.

There is no doubt in my mind that we were a better side last season for Howson playing, my view of course.

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="GJP"]I''m not getting on Tettey''s back. But you should also realise they have different jobs. Tettey is going to operate more in our half whereas Howson covers the whole pitch. He can play in all three thirds of the pitch and you are clearly showing a lack of understanding and appreciation for that.

Also, too much blame for the shortcomings of the defenders is going on the midfield. You defend as a team but defenders are there to defend.[/quote]There''s no lack of understanding or appreciation for what Howson does (or doesn''t do), but ask 50 of our fans where Howson''s best position/role is and see how many different answers you get. Then ask them how often they''ve seen him genuinely falling back alongside Tettey to help defend and you''ll get far fewer answers.As for his attacking contribution, it''s very telling that he can hit 6-9 goals a season in the champs, but only 1-3 a season when in the PL.So he''s not defending as much as he arguably should, often doesn''t contribute to attacks as much as he should, has worse passing, interceptions and ball retention than Tettey in the centre of the park, and you think it''s ME that''s not understanding the situation...???Also, we cannot place all the blame for our defensive failure on the midfield, but they were an essential part in supporting the defence when they truly needed it, and far too often they simply didn''t give that support, leaving them instead horribly overstretched (especially if Pinto/Olsson had bombed forwards just before) and trying to cover too much at once.

[GJP 79]

But that''s your assumption or expectation of what the midfield should have been doing. We don''t know what AN''s instructions were or what the triggers were etc.