Tottenham will land Crystal Palace youngster John Bostock in a deal that could rise to £5m.
so is he any good Palace fans ?
The short answer - Yes he is quality.
But..........................................time for a rant.
This is all that is wrong with football nowadays. C Palace have had this kid at their academy since he was 7 years old. He and his dad have both been season ticket holders for many years. He was not allowed to sign a contract with the club until he was 16 years old. He made all the right noises about how he wanted to be a C palace player and captain the club in future years. But for some strange reason an agent was brought in to represent him. Nothing for 4 months and then we hear that he is on his way to Spurs.
The initial fee is likely to be about £500,000 with future payments for appearances, Spurs trophy wins (not much coming our way there then
) international appearances and a future sell on percentage.
The FA bang on about how clubs need to bring through the youth players, but there is no protection against the money bags Premiership teams coming in and nicking the best players on the cheap.
I dont blame Spurs for this, because if it wasnt them it would be another club. I do blame the FA for allowing it to happen, and i do blame John Bostock and his father for moving purely for financial reasons. if the family had any sense of loyalty then he would have signed a contract with C Palace before leaving for a substantial transfer fee. He is rated higher than Walcott was, so it is likely he would have gone for around £8 - £10 million.
As a club, Palace will move on, bring through more youngsters for the big boys to steal on the cheap and remain as they are, a skint yo yo club.
Football is on a fast downward spiral at the moment and something needs to be done fairly quickly before the divide between the top clubs and the rest becomes so great it makes dreams non-existent.
Rant over.
Kev, Bostock has a very good chance of playing for England one day. The only thing i see holding him back is if he spends the next 2 or 3 seasons stuck in the Spurs youth and reserve teams and no first team football.
Remember Wayne Routledge. 3 years ago he left us for Spurs due to money. he had been a regular for 3 seasons in our team and now look what has happened to him - joined A Villa and cant get a game there either. If the same happens to Bostock it will be a crying shame for English football.
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