Palace chairman continues Bostock rant
Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has continued his slating of the Football League tribunal for their valuation of youngster John Bostock.
Jordan told BBC Sport: “I use the word scandalous – it’s a panel of halfwits.
“And while I wouldn’t want to waste my breath giving advice to John, look at Wayne Routledge. He took the chance to join Spurs, but where is he now?”
He continued: “When Spurs came knocking I told Wayne to stay and learn his trade at Palace.
“But he went, he grabbed the money, and now he’s at Villa not getting in the first team, just like he didn’t get in the Spurs team, just like he didn’t get in the Portsmouth team and just like he didn’t get in the Fulham team.”
Back to Bostock, Jordan said: “We thought about a valuation – a reasonable one in our eyes, having looked at the benchmarks – of £2m up front, £500,000 more when he signed his first professional contract, and another £2m when he had made 40 first-team appearances.
“If you make 40 first-team appearances for Spurs in midfield, you are a £15m-£20m player, not £4.5m so we were extremely reasonable and far from over-zealous.
“Look at Aaron Ramsey. He is 17, played 17 games for Cardiff last season, and Arsenal have just paid £5m for him.
“The tribunal valuation clearly doesn’t reflect the transfer market. Their reasoning was that their previous highest valuation was £400,000 for Jermain Defoe seven years ago so, in terms of inflation, this is a decent fee.
“Well football doesn’t run like inflation does it? The market now is 10-fold or 20-fold of what it was then.
“What this does is send out a message that academies and youth development policies are not worth investing in because perceived bigger clubs can come along at any time and do what the hell they like.
“It really is making me consider my position in football because the one thing that kept me focused in my time at Palace is producing my own players – but what’s the point?”
Tags: John Bostock
