Out Of Contract

[Tord31]

Great news on the new deal. If he stays fit until Christmas hopefully we can offer him a two years further.

i wouldnt be worried yet about him going to a bigger club. how many games has he played in the last five years? I presume about 20

Edit: the answer is 36 games in the last 5.5 years. 90 odd games at professional level so far.

He's a long long way away from being a £5k/week player.

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

17 hours ago, WesthillWanderersFC said:

Only another 6 months.

I wonder if that’s our choice, or his?

It means he can sign a contract in 3 months time with an English club & fuck off for nothing 

Wouldn't blame him.

We got him for fuck all. We get a very good player for fuck all for a season and he gets to rebuild his career then go make some money in England. 

[WesthillWanderersFC]

9 minutes ago, Byrne Baby Byrne said:

Wouldn't blame him.

We got him for fuck all. We get a very good player for fuck all for a season and he gets to rebuild his career then go make some money in England. 

Aye there’s two ways of looking at it I suppose.

He owes us a wee bit of loyalty as we helped with his rehab & gave him a chance to resurrect his career.

The other side is he might feel he’s missed enough of his career & needs to cash in whilst he can. 

[WesthillWanderersFC]

11 hours ago, Andy_123 said:

Hoban is better than McKenna who just went for £3-6m down south.

Once / if he proves he can stay fit, he’ll be moving on to a higher level than us.

Maybe, here’s hoping he does that whilst under contract to the Dons 

[Chewie37]

Who's going to be our next backup keeper?

[maryhilldon]

2 hours ago, Byrne Baby Byrne said:

We get a very good player for fuck all for a season 

Didn't realise he was playing for free?  Some boy. 

[maryhilldon]

2 minutes ago, rocket_scientist said:

 

You're just filling up the place with shite. 

? That's a bit rich.  You write a dissertation everytime a thought comes into your head. 

[JazzaBett]

Tommie is quality. Reckon he deserves his own song for when we get back to games. Can base it on the Clash and Tommy Gun!

 

[maryhilldon]

30 minutes ago, JazzaBett said:

Tommie is quality. Reckon he deserves his own song for when we get back to games. Can base it on the Clash and Tommy Gun!

 

He'll probably have moved on by the time we get back to games. 

[JazzaBett]

You ain’t happy unless you got one

Tommie Hoban

Ain’t gonna shoot in Pittodrie

He tackles just for fun

Maybe he plays for no money

Tommie Hoban

Whatever he wants he’s gonna get it

 

[Sonoftherock]

Pity we couldn't get Hoban for longer... but probably a queue of clubs of waiting for him, if he can prove his fitness. Our best player.  At least we've got 6 months to find a replacement.

[Tord31]

i'm not giving up on Hoban and i'm hopeful he will stay

[Ten Caat]

7 hours ago, Sonoftherock said:

Pity we couldn't get Hoban for longer... but probably a queue of clubs of waiting for him, if he can prove his fitness. Our best player.  At least we've got 6 months to find a replacement.

I just totally disagree. EPL and Championship clubs just don't need to bother with a guy with 2 knees held together by meccano. Remember he was already at Watford (at that point with only 1 fucked knee) and barely played at Championship level. At his age he should now be at his absolute peak but although he's performing well at the top end of Scottish football, top level English clubs won't even notice. They'll just bung £4-5 million at teenage prospect from EFL1 or £20million plus at an established international player from abroad.

Hoban (assuming he remains fit) will either have the choice of staying with us for another 2/3 years or sign for someone like Doncaster/Gillingham/Swindon. They can match the wages we would offer. His choice is to play at a high(ish) level with us, realistic chance of a medal or 2 and guaranteed European football every year or earn broadly the same in the EFL nearer to his roots but with the prospect of winning nothing of any great note (I suppose actually winning EFL1 isn't a bad thing to have on your CV but top players would consider it a Mickey Mouse achievement)

[Tord31]

13 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

I just totally disagree. EPL and Championship clubs just don't need to bother with a guy with 2 knees held together by meccano. Remember he was already at Watford (at that point with only 1 fucked knee) and barely played at Championship level. At his age he should now be at his absolute peak but although he's performing well at the top end of Scottish football, top level English clubs won't even notice. They'll just bung £4-5 million at teenage prospect from EFL1 or £20million plus at an established international player from abroad.

Hoban (assuming he remains fit) will either have the choice of staying with us for another 2/3 years or sign for someone like Doncaster/Gillingham/Swindon. They can match the wages we would offer. His choice is to play at a high(ish) level with us, realistic chance of a medal or 2 and guaranteed European football every year or earn broadly the same in the EFL nearer to his roots but with the prospect of winning nothing of any great note (I suppose actually winning EFL1 isn't a bad thing to have on your CV but top players would consider it a Mickey Mouse achievement)

100% this. He's still only played 87 pro football matches and he'll be 27-28 when he comes out of contract at AFC. 

If we see him continuing to play and develop and are brave enough to offer him a three year contract on big money for us then I think we'd have a good chance of keeping him.

[aberdeen1970]

Hopefully he falls in love with the club/area like Joe Lewis did and decides to stick around. 

[Sonoftherock]

45 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

I just totally disagree. EPL and Championship clubs just don't need to bother with a guy with 2 knees held together by meccano. Remember he was already at Watford (at that point with only 1 fucked knee) and barely played at Championship level. At his age he should now be at his absolute peak but although he's performing well at the top end of Scottish football, top level English clubs won't even notice. They'll just bung £4-5 million at teenage prospect from EFL1 or £20million plus at an established international player from abroad.

Hoban (assuming he remains fit) will either have the choice of staying with us for another 2/3 years or sign for someone like Doncaster/Gillingham/Swindon. They can match the wages we would offer. His choice is to play at a high(ish) level with us, realistic chance of a medal or 2 and guaranteed European football every year or earn broadly the same in the EFL nearer to his roots but with the prospect of winning nothing of any great note (I suppose actually winning EFL1 isn't a bad thing to have on your CV but top players would consider it a Mickey Mouse achievement)

Do you watch much English football?  I do and the standard of CB's in the EPL is appalling right now.  I think it's at a low point in the last 20 years actually.  Even the top billionaire teams have a few haddies between them!  if it's that bad in the EPL, imagine how poor it is in the championship! 

He'd have been an EPL regular if he'd not had his terrible injury problems.  The boy has been incredible for us - and has hardly kicked a ball for the past few years!  Imagine how good he would have been if he'd not been a sick note? 

I'll be interesting to see how this plays out... If he stays fit for the rest of the season, he will get some decent offers from down south - much better than we can afford.  Will be stay up here out of loyality?  Other side of the coin - he knees go again next weekend at Celtic - and maybe decision to only give him 6 months was a good one!

[aberdeen1970]

We had this chat a couple of weeks ago. 

He's easily good enough to play Championship every week. 

[Tord31]

We hold a lot of the cards. Let's see where we are in December.

[Ten Caat]

Being good enough isn't the only consideration though. Miller was easily good enough to have played for Liverpool or Arsenal  in the early to mid 80s but they didn't even make an offer. McKenna...an established first choice Scotland international but signs for a club that look likely to finish in the bottom third of the Championship (and maybe even borderline relegation difficulties). England just don't rate players from up here.

As I've already said...he hardly played at Watford even before his knee troubles. I guess we will see at the end of the season who is proved right (it'll be me)

[Tord31]

I'm very confident also. If he proves he is worth a £250k/year salary at Pittodrie I presume we'll offer it when the economic outlook improves. 

He's not getting that in League one or League two and I'm just not convinced a higher club will give out a big contract to such an inexperienced player.

 

 

[aberdeen1970]

He's good enough to play in the Championship. 

If he stays fit for us he'll likely get offers from the Championship. 

He's not from up here. He's from down there. 

They'll happily take a player on a free as it is a low risk. 

You can't compare Tommie Hoban in 2020 with Willie Miller in 1983.

And you can't compare top flight 80s Liverpool and Arsenal with current day championship clubs. 

[Tord31]

11 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

He's good enough to play in the Championship. 

If he stays fit for us he'll likely get offers from the Championship. 

He's not from up here. He's from down there. 

They'll happily take a player on a free as it is a low risk. 

You can't compare Tommie Hoban in 2020 with Willie Miller in 1983.

And you can't compare top flight 80s Liverpool and Arsenal with current day championship clubs. 

We certainly could get unlucky if a coach who has worked with him before is at a Rotherham, Charlton etc and makes a huge play for him.

We could get unlucky if a similar situation to Jack Ross going to Sunderland when he suddenly outbid us for Dylan McGeouch from no where.

 

With no previous connections I just cant see how his CV so far merits a good contract offer from a top 30-40 english club.

We've got players in the squad who are more likely to be playing in the english championship next season than Tommie Hoban.

[The_Next_Legend]

Sign Scotty Wright up pronto.

[Ten Caat]

Sorry but you are just wrong. Of course he's a risk as his knees could go at any time. At the level of finances that we operate at he is a huge risk but one we are probably forced into taking because he is such quality.

But Championship clubs in England just don't need to fuck around with that sort of risk. They have enough financial clout that they can sign players with either proven ability/experience to go straight into their starting 11 or take £5million punts on teenagers with potential that they can develop. In both situations...they want to recruit players who have a residual financial value. 

He will NOT be at an English Championship club next season

[aberdeen1970]

Just now, Tord31 said:

We certainly could get unlucky if a coach who has worked with him before is at a Rotherham, Charlton etc and makes a huge play for him.

We could get unlucky if a similar situation to Jack Ross going to Sunderland when he suddenly outbid us for Dylan McGeouch from no where.

 

With no previous connections I just cant see how his CV so far merits a good contract offer from a top 30 english club.

We've got players in the squad who are more likely to be playing in the english championship next season than Tommie Hoban.

Why top 30?

There are 44 clubs in the top two divisions in England.  

The standard of championship centre backs is poor. And most clubs need 4 or 5.  That's over a hundred spaces at championship clubs for a centre back to get a gig. 

[aberdeen1970]

1 minute ago, Ten Caat said:

Sorry but you are just wrong. Of course he's a risk as his knees could go at any time. At the level of finances that we operate at he is a huge risk but one we are probably forced into taking because he is such quality.

But Championship clubs in England just don't need to fuck around with that sort of risk. They have enough financial clout that they can sign players with either proven ability/experience to go straight into their starting 11 or take £5million punts on teenagers with potential that they can develop. In both situations...they want to recruit players who have a residual financial value. 

He will NOT be at an English Championship club next season

Firstly I said if he proved his fitness. 

Secondly there are lots of English clubs struggling financially.  Of course they will take a freebie if they can. This is 2020 in the middle of a pandemic, not last year or the year before. 

[Ten Caat]

1 minute ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Firstly I said if he proved his fitness. 

Secondly there are lots of English clubs struggling financially.  Of course they will take a freebie if they can. This is 2020 in the middle of a pandemic, not last year or the year before. 

Of course Championship clubs do have room for "journeyman" pro's as squad fillers. If clubs start going to the wall there will be a surfeit of such players. Most of whom won't have dodgy knees. That is the big difference. And is why no matter what happens between now and next summer...I will be proven correct

[Tord31]

3 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Why top 30?

There are 44 clubs in the top two divisions in England.  

The standard of championship centre backs is poor. And most clubs need 4 or 5.  That's over a hundred spaces at championship clubs for a centre back to get a gig. 

I edited it to say top 30-40. Clubs at the bottom of the championship this season will be worried about their finances for next season and wont be signing a player from us on a pre contract of over £5k/week. If a club nicks Hoban from us then it surely has to be a pre contract in January or February (March at an absolute push). He'd have the worst agent in the land if he decided running down his contract was a good idea with his injury history and the state of the economy. 

[aberdeen1970]

Just now, Ten Caat said:

Of course Championship clubs do have room for "journeyman" pro's as squad fillers. If clubs start going to the wall there will be a surfeit of such players. Most of whom won't have dodgy knees. That is the big difference. And is why no matter what happens between now and next summer...I will be proven correct

We'll firstly you said he wasn't good enough. Then you said they wouldn't take a risk. Now you're saying they might take a risk.  But if course you're still convinced you'll be proved right. 

 

 

[Ten Caat]

Read back. There's nowhere I've said he wasn't good enough. I have pointed out that he barely played for Watford before his injury problems.

And I have certainly not said anywhere that they might take a risk on him. I've consistently said they definitely wont. Because they don't need to.

Yes I'm convinced I will be proven correct