I sat in the car on the way to watch Lincoln City and Doncaster Rovers with a proper face on.
Advance notice of the team had revealed that we’d be playing six trialists, including a 30-year-old who struggled for games at Cambridge (Fejiri Okenabirhie) and Mickel Miller, a player who I’d vehemently (and correctly) argued we weren’t in talks with. I knew there would be Twitter backlash from that.
It felt like the least of our worries, with Peter O’Rourke suggesting Jack Moylan was talking to Cardiff City. O’Rourke usually only tweets nonsense with random teams, or even divisions attached, or he’s dead specific because an agent has told him something is happening, so Cardiff do look likely to sign Moylan. Cardiff bloody City, a side which finished below us in the table last season, a team we feel might be in our cohort this time out. It’s a direct sale to a rival, and while I can understand the move, the optics aren’t great.
Two weeks until the league season, and we’d feel weaker in an attacking sense than four weeks ago. A player we’ve all backed to be a success is likely going to a direct rival, and the undisclosed fee (inevitable) wouldn’t even give us a sense of satisfaction. All in all, I wanted nothing less than to sit through two friendly games with that hanging over us.
There were mitigating circumstances over the course of the afternoon, with links to a big striker and a couple of on-field positives (though not many), but it gave me plenty of chance to think about the possible Moylan exit. Look, I really like the lad, and I’ve backed him to be a success. I’m not going to try to diminish his ability, his value, or his impact, but I am going to address a few things I’ve seen, heard, or feel need addressing.
Lack of Ambition
In terms of ridiculous statements, this one stands out over and above all else. On a day when Lincoln City’s first-ever seven-figure signing made his first outing in a City shirt, there are claims of ‘lacking ambition’ on social media. Come on, have a word with yourself. We’ve paid over £1m for a player, and 12 months ago almost to the day, we were wetting ourselves with excitement because we sold a player for £1.2m. The last 12 months have seen our value rise, have seen our players’ value rise, and we’re oozing ambition.
The ground is being brought up to scratch. We’re being linked with strikers that cost £2m or more. Our recruitment has been affected by the World Cup, which would never usually be the case. The last thing selling Moylan would demonstrate is a lack of ambition, and saying ‘you have to keep your best players’ is screaming a lack of acceptance of the food chain.
Clubs sell their best players. Coventry City bought Gus Hamer for £1.5m, sand old him for £15m three years ago. Did they lack ambition? Or end up in the Premier League? I’m not saying we’re Premier League bound, but buy, develop and sell is what we have done to get here, and it’s what we might need to keep doing, no matter how much it stings.
Player Wanting a Move
Lincoln City would prefer to keep Jack Moylan; that is obvious. We’re protected in terms of value; he signed a new deal offering us that protection and putting us in a bargaining position. However, if he wants the move, what can the club honestly do? Would you, as a supporter, want to keep a player who wants to move away? Jack is 24, and as yet, he’s not earned real money in his life. What is he on here, £3,000 a week? Maybe £4,000? Cardiff could likely double or triple that and stay within the rules, given the size of them compared to us. If you’re Jack Moylan, what do you do?
I’m not saying he’s agitating for a move, but we’re talking about a job for Jack. I said this about Michael, and I’ll doubtless write it 1000 times before I finally close down my laptop for the final time when my writing days are done: it’s a job, and if you were offered triple your wages to go somewhere else, you’d have no loyalty either. The saying ‘money talks’ when used in a derogatory sense is nonsense. Of course it does; that is life.
The sad thing is we buy into the ‘player loves the club’ too much. We hear what a great dressing room it is, what a great set of lads, how happy a player is, and we feel like they’re one of us. They’re not. They’re employees, doing the best for their own careers and while you might feel that’s mercenary, in literally any other business, you’d respect it.
Cardiff City as a Rival
Cardiff were a rival last season, 100%. Why? Because we battled for the title, and we won it. We beat them twice; it feels like they’re a similar-sized club to us. They’re not, let’s be honest; they’re bigger. Their ground is bigger, they play in a capital city, and the year we won League Two, beating Stevenage, Yeovil and Macclesfield, they were in the Premier League playing Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. They’ve been in an FA Cup and League Cup final, and my bet would be the wages they’re offering Jack Moylan are five figures per week.
I find some of the sense of what we are challenging at the minute, and I’m as much to blame as you. I see Bolton and Cardiff, rivals last season, as in our ‘group’ of teams to beat. Throw Portsmouth into that, maybe Preston, possibly Blackburn and Stoke given how they did last season. Now read that back. Teams with FA Cup wins, Premier League wins, and years of top-flight experience in the last 30 years. Teams we used to draw in the cup and feel like we were having a day out.
We’ve come into the Championship with a ‘little old Lincoln upsetting the applecart’ mentality, something we need to shed, and yet as soon as a club we’ve overperformed against underlines that little old Lincoln tag for us, there’s uproar because they’re confirming it.
Here is a fact: Every single Championship club is bigger than us. There isn’t a Blackpool, Oxford, Wycombe or Peterborough where you can reasonably say ‘that would be a sideways step’. Sadly, we have to accept that and set about changing it by establishing ourselves in the Championship.
The Model
I hate this phrase, but we’re in a situation where we have had success bringing in players, developing them, and selling them for a profit. Roughan. Makama. Scully, Edun, Erhahon, Sorensen. Jensen. The list goes on. We started buying for £50,000 or so and trying to sell for £500,000. Now, we’re up a league, and we’re trying to buy for £1.5m, £2m and possibly sell for £20m.
Anyone telling me it’s impossible, I point again to Gus Hamer. I point to those fans who, 13 months ago, said getting more than £1m for Makama was fanciful. It could happen: Andrei Coubis might be the next £20m player. Someone we sign might, and when their time comes, they will go as well. Players sign for us because they can move on and improve, because we develop and sell, and stopping Moylan from moving would send out a message to prospective purchases that actually, we’re not developing you. When you pay lower wages, and development is your USP, that would be a big red flag.
Jack Moylan signed for what, £50,000? We’d get what, £2.5m? £3m? £5m with add-ons? I don’t know, but he’d 100% be a record sale. That’s a big profit, and it’s there to reinvest in two, maybe three players, all of whom add value to the team. Jovon Makama’s sale allowed us to bring in Ivan Varfolomeev, Deji Elerewe and Josh Honohan, three players we expect to play a role this season.
That’s the circle of football life.
Championship Level
This is a bit of a cheeky one, because I actually believe Moylan is Championship level and will thrive, but the offer on the table here is for a player whose primary football experience has come in League One. Let’s assume we’re talking around £3m, plus add-ons; that’s for a player who has had two injury-hit seasons, one really good campaign, but is unproven at the level above.
Let me put it another way. Would you be entirely convinced if we paid £2m to Bradford City for Bobby Pointon? Younger than Jack (22), with one goal fewer, but played more matches. Would you think that was a solid investment? What about Charlie Savage? Same assists, same age. Neither proven in the Championship.
Look, I know those wanting a fight will say there was no debut international hat trick, and those teams didn’t win the title, but my point here is from the inside looking out, Moylan’s actual value compared to risk is probably a little different from the outside looking in. I argued he was worth £5m on our Patreon Discord earlier in the summer, and to me, to us, I think that is fair. But, if we’re the buying club, and it’s Pointon or Savage, the fee drops because of risk, etc.
It’s Not All Mitigating Factors
I’m putting one side up here, but it doesn’t hide the fact I’m gutted. I love Jack because he was intrinsic to our success last season. That commentary: Moylan, Championship, is iconic, even if, with respect, we’d have been Championship without the goal. He’s an attacking spark, one of the only players we have with the little bit of magic to turn a game. He’s obviously a big loss, and whatever the fee, it won’t feel like enough. He and Skubala going feels like the heart of the title-winning alliance being ripped out, something we didn’t expect. If we’d stayed in League One and they’d gone, sure, I’d get it, but this stings.
That’s why some of the comments I have seen, in my eyes, are weighted with anger bias. We love Jack, and he’s leaving; that’s the club’s fault. I’ve seen anti-Jez and anti-Liam stuff already, ironic given they’re the people who brought Jack here, but there we go. I suppose, to go a bit Danny Murphy on you, it’s like a cat running away when you’re a kid. Your parents get the blame and the anger; even the cat has made the decision to go, and they bought you the cat in the first place.
We are light ahead of the new season. We haven’t signed the volume or quality expected at this stage. We have had two (frankly) crap pre-season results, where processes and performance were almost as poor as the result. That’s all fact, and that makes this situation worse. If Jack Moylan was leaving, but we’d signed Barney Stewart, Oumar Diakite and Mikkel Ladefoged, as well as a loan from a Premier League club, the blow wouldn’t feel as bad.
But we haven’t, and sequentially, this news has fallen at a really challenging time. A year ago today, we sold Jovon Makama, having not replaced Ethan Erhahon yet, and that felt like a blow as well. I know they’re different players (can’t deal with that backlash again), but the principle is the same. Attacking threat, young talent, even of the season. The only difference is Makama split opinion (still does) while Jack Moylan is a beloved figure.
A beloved figure who isn’t fighting to stay at the club. He wants his move, and while it will hurt and fans will be angry, life goes on. The last thing a team like us needs, successful on togetherness and unity, is a player who wants to leave.
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