It’s little wonder that Simon Jordan is in a bad mood today. Firstly, he has to read in the papers about one of his players revealing a trial with Fulham through the medium of Facebook. Then, to compound matters, the Football League have urinated on his bonfire from a great height after deciding that Tottenham should pay the Championship club just £700,000 for John Bostock.
The Daily Mail report that the transfer fee had gone to a tribunal after the two clubs had vastly differing valuations. In time-honoured fashion, it was the bigger club who picked themselves up a bargain, especially as Palace had estimated the player was worth around £2million.
‘For a tribunal to reward a purportedly bigger football club in Tottenham to take one of the most gifted young English players in the country for a sum of £700,000 is nothing short of scandalous,’ said Jordan, who sent manager Neil Warnock and chief executive Phil Alexander to the meeting at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.
‘You get players like Aaron Ramsey, who has gone for £5m from Cardiff to Arsenal because that is the UK transfer market.
‘The tribunal, in my view, are supposed to reflect the conditions of the transfer market place. And they came up with a figure of £700,000 for a player who has captained his
country at Under 17 level, who is perceived to be one of the best youngsters in the country and is being chased by Barcelona, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea.‘We had a £900,000 offer from Chelsea when he was 14 which we turned down. It’s beyond me and it makes me question why I bother with football.’
Isn’t it always the way with these tribunals? They always seem to rule in favour of the big clubs and there’s little that can be done about it. No wonder there’s an increasing gulf between Premier League clubs and everyone else when this sort of thing goes on.