J Lingz

[wassy04]

I think we've structured this pretty smartly. It's a risk for both us and him and the money involved is still eye-watering, however a one-year deal safeguards us from being stung with massive wages should the worst happen. If he does well and keeps us up then he's done exactly what we paid for and he leaves with our best wishes - or could even decide to stay.

This is an interesting read about his time at Man U and the loan to West Ham:

Good read this, impressed at how open he is about his mental health situation, suggests a high level of maturity. A few cringey moments but really good insight. I can't help but think he fits the type of personality that Cooper has had success with so far (Spence for example). I honestly think this is a pretty low risk move.

My only slight concern is simply on why he has picked us over West Ham? Is there something we're unaware of? Is he really just getting silly money compared to what WH were offering (doesn't appear to be what the media are reporting)

The consensus seems to be he'll be getting £115k a week from us. If West Ham were offering him £75k that's a massive difference.

In real, non-football life, if someone were offered around 40% more wages to join a 'not as good' company, chances are they'd still take it. That doesn't automatically mean they wouldn't give their all for their new employer though.

Agreed and if that is the reason then I'm fine with it. If you look at the non financial intangibles though, it's harder to understand. West Ham being where he clearly enjoyed, was made a focal point of the team and played every game. They're also in European competition, even if only the Conference League. You've got to think in terms of ambitions of getting back into the England squad it'll be less likely from Forest than West Ham. At WH he'd have been directly playing with a number of England players already, Rice is one of our most important players, so from that perspective it's more confusing. 

Maybe West Ham weren't willing to offer the short contract and that's what he wanted? It sounded like he was being offered to be their highest paid player so you'd assume a guaranteed starter. 

Maybe we won't find out the above, just feels like on paper the extra 40% pay doesn't fully explain it.