OUFCGav
Well-known member
- Joined
- 6 Dec 2017
- Messages
- 2,325
He was our best player against both Man City and West Ham. The way he moves with the ball, controls it, twists and turns, breaks the line and moves past multiple players in a single dart... the fact that he scored that type of goal against anybody, let alone twice in one season, is something none of our other players can do. That is the point. You say “Yeah it was only Hartlepool” and my answer is “Yeah, and West Ham, and also none of our other players can do it like he can at all, and that is kind of more the point than who he does it against”. None of our other players can do what he does, full stop. I didn’t make it about the quality of the opposition at all, but if anybody DOES want to go that route, then he can back it up all by himself with the way he has played, and indeed scored, against sides from the top division. I’m merely saying that until our other players can do what he does at all, let alone regularly, let alone against top level sides as he already has done, he’s hardly looking ordinary. Or anything close to.
Ademola Lookman went from Charlton to Everton for over £7m plus add-ons taking it to £10m plus a couple of years ago, with less games under his belt than Baptiste at the same level we operate at. And he hadn’t bossed games against top level opposition the way Baptiste has, so what’s fanciful about it? Alli went from MK Dons in League One to the Spurs starting lineup over the course of a summer. So there are recent precedents, and combined with the ability he shows plus the fact he’s been our best player against two PL sides already, I don’t think there’s any grounds to call Baptiste being sold to a PL side fanciful at all. Nobody can say for sure it will happen, but to say there are strong reasons that he won’t... well, that’s the genuinely fanciful claim, imo.
If only I had any grounding in scouting at any level, and therefore ever spoke to anybody from clubs and recruitment departments full stop, maybe I’d be able to substantiate my claims more. Oh well.
Lookman had started 32 games for Charlton and scored 10 goals, a chunk of which were in the Championship (15/16 season), the rest in L1 (16/17 until his transfer). That is more, and at a higher level than Shandon. Not saying he can't or won't do it, but Lookman had more games under his belt.
The one interesting thing about any transfer might be whether any "development compensation" is due to Reading (where he was at the academy).