Just in the interest of balance. How much would the club get for Dijksteel and Bola now they've established themselves as solid second-tier players? Or what about McNair? We'd surely make money on the £5m it cost to sign him from Sunderland. If Watmore continues his good form and we don't go up then clubs will be sniffing about. He was a very good free transfer.
Going back over the years, the club have squandered a lot of money on players that haven't worked out but this is a football-wide thing rather than something that is exclusive to Boro. As s_j_b said earlier, Arsenal spent around £70m on Pepe. Plus what will be an astronomical contract. The league is littered with players like Borja Baston at Swansea. Clubs don't do due diligence at times - because they're in need of a few wins, trying to replace a key player lost to injury or sale, trying to back a manager, 'showing ambition', etc. You see clubs wasting Premier League money left, right and centre. It is why overseas clubs are rubbing their hands together whenever an English club shows an interest in one of their players. It isn't just because they have more money to spend, it is often because they know English clubs will pay it without thinking properly. The next batch of Premier League money is always around the corner.
Bournemouth spent £15m on Jordon Ibe, Sheffield United spent something similar on replacing Henderson with Ramsdale. Bournemouth also made a massive profit on Nathan Ake and Sheffield United had a few years of picking up bargains like John Fleck. But they were risky deals in their own too I suppose. It is hit and miss.
I think sometimes we forget that pretty much every other club makes signings that don't work out, just like Boro. And Boro have also added a little bit of balance by bringing in quite a lot of money in sales since we came back down.
Our signings in the PL years were mixed and resulted in a big P&L hole, but at least they sustained PL football and our most successful years for decades.
There was no money to spend until Karanka and his signings were eventually recycled at their combined cost.
The real tomfoolery started with the appointment and support of Monk, allowing him to blow the proceeds of the Karanka era.
pulis talked about doing the job Mowbray actually did and yet blew another £20m plus loan fees on going nowhere.
Viv, we've already dropped tens of millions in transfer dealings on signings since 2017.
Guedioura -£4.7m.
Gestede -£6.4m.
Braithwaite - £4.5m.
Shotton -£2.9m.
Randolph -£0.8m.
Flint -£3.1m.
Assombolonga -£15.4m, Fletcher -£6.5m and Johnson -£2.4m are all out of contract in summer, nobody would buy any of these in January.
Howson is under contract, cost £5.1m and we would struggle to raise £3m for him in the summer given his age. He has been the pick of those buys by far.
I think we'd do well this summer to get a quarter of the £8m ridiculously blown on Saville (-£6m).
That is -£54.8m in fees for those 11 players, before agents fees and of course wages.
McNair is the one buy since Monk where the Club might make some decent profit, if sold now.
The profit we have made in recent years has been on Academy players notably Gibson; or on gambles like Traore and Bamford, or frees like Ramirez and Espinosa.
The Club I think have been burnt and changed course and in Dijksteel, Bola, Browne, Watmore and Fisher there looks to be real upside in value. There is also real value in Tavernier, Fry and Wood.
Of course Boro are not alone and the staggering incompetence at Stoke is even more incredible on PL monies. Bournemouth have indeed had their fingers burnt, as have the Geordies etc etc, but we did get things spectacularly wrong from Monk until Warnock arrived.
