Middlesbrough's insurers shell out £4.5m to Man United youth team star in "would he or wouldn't he" have made it settlement

Almost impossible to know if this is right, or not. I mean if the lad had made it, he'd have earnt a shed load more than £4.5m.

Then again, he could have been playing for Rochdale by now and driving a Sierra, married to a community nurse.

Still, nice to know that United have supported him, and that he's now learning English at college. Why didn't they try and get Wayne Rooney on a similar course?

That's basically an 8 grand a week pay out for a ten year career. Which isn't massive by footballers' standards, is it?

It's fairly massive if he'd turned out for Rochdale, even if it's peanuts by Man United's standards. There can't be many players below Championship level on as much as £8k a week.

I guess the point is that there's no way of telling if hed' have ended up playing for Rochdale, Preston or Manchester United. I've no doubt that they played up his ability slightly and thus inflated his pay out, but what were they meant to do, say "Nah, he was shit."?

If he was that good you'd have expected him to make his reserves debut before the age of 23. Still you're right, it would have been shit of them to not big him up.

hobbes wrote:

QUOTE:
If he was that good you'd have expected him to make his reserves debut before the age of 23.

He was injured at 18, wasn't he?

He did. He was 18.

as a guide to how much money he would have made, lets have a look at that jimmy ryan young player of the year award that he won.

1990- lee martin (retired due to injury)
1991- ryan giggs
1992- Ryan giggs
1993- Paul Scholes
1994- phil neville
1995- terry cooke (wound up in america)
1996- ronny wallwork
1997- john curtis
1998- Wes brown
1999- wes brown
2000- bojan djordic (er, either in sweden or serbia)
2001- alan tate (224 appearances for swansea)
2002- Paul tierney (now unemployed after loan spells, then livingston and blackpool)
2003- ben collett
2004- jonathan spector
2005- giuseppi rossi
2006- Darron gibson
2007- Craig cathcart
2008- danny wellbeck

there are some real ups and downs in quality there aren't there. basically the other people to win this award have either become seriously rich, or have carved out a more than decent career for themselves.

His contemporaries in that team that won the FA youth cup were Luke steele, kieran richardson, chris eagles, phil bardsley, Sylvan Ebanks-blake and PAUL MCSHANE!!!!
So, better than kieran richardson, and not a total cunt, £4.3 million might be about right.

though most of the ups in quality are prior to 1995...

well jonathan spector is a premiership footballer with west ham (just about) and is probably a millionaire. Giuseppi Rossi plays for villarreal, and has two goals for Italy at the olympics, and he's definitely a millionaire. Darron Gibson will almost certainly have a decent top flight career, and big things are expected from cathcart and wellbeck, and that wes brown is doing ok for someone that has broken both legs, both ankles and done both cruciates.

if you want to look at the graveyard of shattered dreams look at these squad lists

Most professional players are in action for 15 years, not 10. This guy has had his career absolutely wrecked and is well entitled to his money.

Bojan Djordjic is a Sweden having been released by Plymouth Argyle.

"His contemporaries in that team that won the FA youth cup were Luke steele, kieran richardson, chris eagles, phil bardsley, Sylvan Ebanks-blake and PAUL MCSHANE!!!!
So, better than kieran richardson, and not a total cunt, £4.3 million might be about right.

You can't really say that - Owen Garvan is the only one of Ipswich's Youth cup winning side to carve out a career, and wasn't man of the match - that was Cathal Lordan, now at Cork City. The academy player of the year was Billy Clarke - now on loan to Darlington with a view to a permanent transfer.

There is a huge difference between the best at 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.

QUOTE:
This guy ... is well entitled to his money

That's the interesdting point of this thread, actually, notwithstanding the musing over whether young Ben whoeverheoncewas has had a fair payout.

This sets an enormous precedent - in the High Court - for clubs having to pay other clubs over injuries, because they accept liability for the actions of their players.

Man United themselves would have had to pay Alfe-Inge Haaland how much, after Roy Keane tried (well, succeeded) to kneecap him? How much would Norman Whiteside have been able to sue the club for for over-training him as a youngster and then allowing him to go out on the piss?

The list is almost endless, if you follow the way these kind of "claims against employers" payouts have gone in some other sectors since a gang of lawyers took over the UK government in 1997.

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

QUOTE:
Man United themselves would have had to pay Alfe-Inge Haaland how much, after Roy Keane tried (well, succeeded) to kneecap him?

They would have had to pay Haaland a nice round number -- zero.

That's because his retirement was caused by an injury to his other knee.

Paul Elliott tried to sue Dean Saunders for similar reasons, but without success as I recall.

And Elliott could point to a genuine top-flight career, rather than just youthful promise.

This is sure to set a precedent and lead to a rash of similar cases.