Not many agents will say a deal is done before it is. But it can be very close. Calvert Lewin will not go for more than £50m. If we get relegated, it will be even less, around £40m if i had to guess. Ben White cost £50m. He was 23 and was playing for England while at Brighton. DCL has not been named in an England team in over a year and has not played often this season.
Bamford outscored DCL last year and has had a difficult campaign too this year. I do not think any team will be knocking at Leeds door to offer such a big fee for him either.
DCL was the backup for Kane in the England squad. Neither Abraham (now rated at £60mil+), nor Watkins or Bamford were regarded as highly as him.
Ben White is a centre back and £50mil for a centre back is big money. If you look here, hes the 7th highest fee for a centre back ever:
https://www.transfermarkt.com/trans...ion_id=3&altersklasse=&jahrgang=0&leihe=&w_s=
On the list of centre forwards, once add ons are factored in DCL would be about 10th
https://www.transfermarkt.com/trans...on_id=14&altersklasse=&jahrgang=0&leihe=&w_s=
If Arsenal want to go down the track of signing the next wave of England players and have White, Smith-Rowe, Ramsdale and Saka on their books already then I think they can stump up £80mil for DCL.
Also, i think Newcastle would jump at the chance to bring him in for that fee.
There seems to be a weird divide here with him. He's never been crap so if you're saying that you're flat out wrong but he's also not been amazing or anything like that so to jump straight on the defensive is a bit weird. He's benefited massively by being our focal point these past few years with Digne, Sigurdsson and James among others there to provide assists, all the while having no competition really and with no one else scoring nearly enough. Without those 3 players this season Dom isn't half the player because he can't do things himself realistically Townsend is the only attacking player in the squad that compliments his play style, he's our best striker since Lukaku but that's not exactly much of a compliment given we weren't exactly blessed in the position.
Mentioning Lukaku too, at times he was a truly awful footballer on the pitch, we seem to forget that a bit but with him on the pitch you'd always have a chance of scoring, again though we had a far better and more creative team then. The best way to put it was Lukaku was a Champions League level striker playing for us when we were a mid-table / Europa League team, DCL is a mid-table / Europa League striker playing for us when we're relegation candidates.
It's not exactly a case of bad mouthing good players, Rom was great for us but poor at times because we were a worse team, he went off to United for a massive fee for us and did alright but went to Inter and was great because the step up in quality that suited him too, DCL will do the same, he's been poor at times for us and probably doesn't suit us playing wise and he'll move on for a good fee and probably be decent. I think Arsenal wouldn't be the spot for him, they're too much of a footballing side, he'd tear it up at Spurs, West Ham or even United honestly I think though although I don't think he'd hack the pressure at a club like United.
The snag we have with DCL is that he doesnt really create his own chances so isnt going to be in that very top bracket.
Those top premier league forwards over the years have all managed to create their own chances. Whether its from dribbling, positioning or long shots they have something which DCL doesnt have in his locker.
Now i think hes a good player. Lukaku was a top 4 level player while DCL is probably a top 7 level player.
Richarlison has created some chances for himself which shows that he 'may' have a higher ceiling...but again hes not in that very top bracket of forward players.
With Thelwell and Lampard having just joined and also the team doing so poorly this year it does feel that this may be the time for clubs to put offers in for them that we may accept.
£150mil for the pair would be an amount that we 'may' be able to use to bring in players with a higher ceiling. Who knows.
