Today or rather more specifically tonight marks the start of my interest in the Euro’s with the Boys in Green taking on the Croats. Have to say the excitement is building even though I don’t usually take much of an interest in International football. Tomorrow marks the beginning of England’s campaign and should see Theo start after missing out on the last big international tournament. Personally I don’t think he or his teammates will play in more than 3 games but that’s not the point.
Early this week I took a slightly less than serious view of our English winger and his present contract situation, today I wish to look at things in earnest. We all know Robin’s deal expires and that every team with a Billionaire owner wants to sign him but very little has been made of the lack of talks regarding Theo’s contract, whether from the media, club or the player himself. I find this slightly surprising, especially the lack of media coverage given the fact Theo is currently one of our main first team players who also happens to be English.
Theo first joined the club as a 16-year-old in 2006, his current deal expires after the end of next season in 2013 when he will be 24. This will mark the end of his second contract with the club. The general figure bandied around on the interweb as to Theo’s current earnings seem to put him on a wage of 60k a week or 3 million a year. While this is a nice wage by anyone’s standards bear in mind that Chamakh is rumoured to be on a wage of roughly the same value. Reports in various media outlets suggest that Theo is looking for wages of roughly 100k a week on a 4 year contract. While some people (myself included) may question if he is worth this outlay, I personally would offer him close to what he is looking for or perhaps meet in the middle from his current wage and land at 80k a week.
If we look at his stats from last season where he assisted on 8 goals in the premiership, this puts him ahead of other players including Van Der Vaart, Ashley Young, Downing, Dempsey, Yaya Toure, Steven Pienaar & The Forehead. His 8 goals scored in the Prem but him only 1 behind Welbeck, Bale & Bent and only 2 behind Crouch, Hernandez & Odemwingie despite not playing as a striker. I don’t think there is another player we could easily bring in that could replicate his contribution from a purely football sense. While he is by no means the finished article, he is considerably more polished than some of those around him.
The decision to award Theo his new contract can also be looked at from a purely financial point of view. If we were to offer him a 4 year deal on between 80 & 100k a week this amounts to an outlay of between 16 – 20 million over the lifetime of the deal which would expire when he is still only 28 and reaching his peak as a footballer. The cost to bring someone in as well as pay signing on fees and wages would surely vastly outweigh the cost of a new contract for Theo. In the current transfer market where Ashley Young, Downing & Henderson are all worth £20 million, what could we expect to receive for a fully tied down Theo, £30 million perhaps from Chelsea or even Barcelona who are known to be admirers of our flying winger. Also bear this in mind: The Park signing has been widely speculated to be a ploy to eat into United’s stranglehold on the Asian market. In Theo, Ox and Jack we have a trio who are perhaps the most marketable group to any English supporting populace, this equals sales that in merch that while not on the Asian size still produces a vast amount of income and revenue for our glorious club.
I hope this has given some people a bit of appreciation for Theo and reminds us that Robin ain’t the only one that it would be disastrous to lose for nothing next season.
Later Folks
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