I think comparative prices are void.

It does not matter how much other players are going or have gone for, or how much another club prices Wilf at.

As far as we're concerned, Wilf may just be worth up to £100 million for us and if noone is going to match that then it makes no business sense whatsoever to sell him.

It's unfortunate for Wilf, I wouldn't begrudge him a move to a Champions League club (as much as I love him) and I think CPFC are taking the same stance - if the right offer is made he can go. Just looks quite unlikely to happen.

I think comparative prices are void.

It does not matter how much other players are going or have gone for, or how much another club prices Wilf at.

As far as we're concerned, Wilf may just be worth up to £100 million for us and if noone is going to match that then it makes no business sense whatsoever to sell him.

It's unfortunate for Wilf, I wouldn't begrudge him a move to a Champions League club (as much as I love him) and I think CPFC are taking the same stance - if the right offer is made he can go. Just looks quite unlikely to happen.

I don’t think they’re void, particularly when making a valuation - that’s typically how valuations of anything work; you look at comprable transactions.

Having said that, their are massive outliers when it comes to transfer fees, so I would agree that comparing one v one doesn’t hold much weight - mapping out a market with multiple conparables is certainly not void though.

I accept the logic that Wilf is worth more to us than what his ‘market worth’ might be - the point I’m making is that if we are not perceived to be reasonable in these negotiations by clubs, players, agents, it affects how we are perceived in these circles and can play a part in players chosing whether to join us in the future, or whether to sign longer contracts with us etc etc.

Taking a hypothetical; if I’m Max Meyer, and have a big breakthrough year next year, kicking on to show the potential he did when he first burst onto the scene at Schalke... Palace sit him down in January to try and tie him to a new long term deal.. he’s going to look at how Wilf was treated and how reasonable we were in allowing him to move upwards when making that decision.

Likewise, if I’m Ryan Sessengon, and palace are selling me a project to come and get PL first team football for a few years with the.. I’m going to look at how easily Zaha was able to move on...

The reputation we give ourselves is hugely important in who we recruit and retain in the future.

The Academy facilities at Southampton are probably the best in the country and I believe Southampton may also run a 'Shadow' academy in London.
Until the Palace Academy is upgraded (which I think is a work in progress) Palace will continue to fail to attract the young 'gems'. The competition in London from Cobham, Hale End and even Motspur Park is too great an attraction for young players and their parents who normally also have to 'endure' the numerous training sessions each week. In the Academy facilities league, Beckenham is presently below Charlton and probably on a level with Millwall. Yes we have a great catchment area but at present we don't have the infrastructure to exploit it. Maybe after a few more years in the Premiership this will change.

I cannot agree whatsoever with what you've said in bold.

The value of a commodity is always relative, it's supply and demand that dictates it's value, not comparable transactions. Potatoes and livestock are not sold for the same price worldwide for instance. The supply of players that can single handedly make a difference to US staying in the premier league is extremely limited comparative to a winger that can add a bit of flair to an established 'top level' side, which is the bracket Wilf falls in to (unfortunately for him). Our demand for the aforementioned is far higher than the latter situation as we stand to potentially lose far more from Wilf's sale than a top side potentially would gain from his purchase.

Therefore the value of Wilf to us as a team and business is far higher then it is to a top six side. Better players may be sold/bought for lesser monies but even if we were able to successfully import one with the money for Wilf, they may not provide to us what we know he probably will.

It's no secret we flirt with relegation every year and that he is by far our outstanding player; I always struggle to see how we will even get into the final third without him sometimes and this was evidenced by our losing run in his absence. To replace Wilf we would probably need the equivalent of two but more possibly three quality players. AWB, Perez and Mings cost a combined £100 million and I would be pulling my hair out if we spent that sort of money on the three of them to replace Wilf.

I do however very much agree with your latter statement. Not something I have really considered and could potentially cause massive problems for us. Having said that though, we have no track record whatsoever of buying young up and coming players and then selling them on.