There is a strong possiblity that someone will make ICT an offer for Billy before the end of January.

 

If you were in charge of ICT, how much would a club have to offer to tempt you to sell our star striker during this transfer window?

 

The way we know this squad can play his price is increasing all the time.

 

We really need a quality replacement if he goes, worth paying someone with a proven current record if only 'till the end of the season so we need every penny we can get.

I can't vote 'til I get home but would say this: The club have no debt, made a small profit last year and are one game away from a national cup final and could be set for another top four finish and have a chance of another cup quarter final. Billy is an integral part of us being in this position. How do you put a price on this?

Edited January 20, 201412 yr by Big G

All good points. I suppose you can try to put a financial price on it by looking at the league and cup prize money we can hope to get by keeping him and comparing it with the prize money we'd expect if we had a replacement (a less prolific one, being realistic). And then do the same for next season.

Hoping he's staying but if sold it has to be by a certain date surely allowing a replacement to be brought in?

Giving Gareth Bale moved for £86 million I reckon something close to that would be acceptable.

this will be a predictable post to many lol.

 

I don't think hes a million pound player at all, in Scottish terms you'd expect them to either by ultra clinical or very strong and quick, Billy is neither.

 

He's intelligent and moves around aswell as anyone but he's had some really poor finishes in his time here that youd expect a top player to pounce on.

 

Do any of you think Dennis Wyness in his prime was a million pound player?  His movement was just as good as Billys for a couple of years, his finishing was better.  I guess you could argue he had his best years in the 1st division but you could also argue the 1st divison of the day was a hell of alot stronger than it was when we last played there a couple of years ago.

 

Is Billy better than Adam Rooney was?

As for what we should sell him for if an offer comes in:  all the points raised are spot on, we have nobody to replace him and without a decent striker we will probably finish about 30 points worse off by the end of the season from whatever we end up with.

 

If we have somebody else available to come in who is good enough and hungry enough, I think we should cash in.

 

One of the main selling points of ICT as a destination for young players from England is the opportunity to be put in the shop window, if Billy gets a big money offer and we deny him the chance, then there could be question marks from the rest of the squad considering long term deals.

 

 

One of the main selling points of ICT as a destination for young players from England is the opportunity to be put in the shop window, if Billy gets a big money offer and we deny him the chance, then there could be question marks from the rest of the squad considering long term deals.

 

I think that's a very good point.  However, I think it is a question of timing for me.  You've got to get the balance right between having the player contributing to the success of the side and selling them so that the club picks up a profit and you're not seen as holding up a player's career.  In my view it is too soon to sell now although if the offer was significantly above the club's valuation they would be foolish to turn it down.  It is such a gamble though.  If he keeps scoring at his current rate his price goes up but if the goals dry up it goes down.  Not too many players keep scoring well season after season, so there would be a strong temptation to cash in.

 

Another factor here is what is in his contract.  Players have all sorts of weird and wonderful things in contracts and it might be that he agreed to a longer term deal at a certain pay level provided that if an offer above a certain amount came in, he could go if he wanted.  Contractual agreements can be the reason for otherwise strange decisions.  I've voted for the million for this transfer window but I would expect the club to accept significantly less if Billy wanted away. 

 

Mind you, I would hope Billy would want to stay.  We have very strong attacking midfield options and it is clear that the new manager wants to play an attacking style of football that plays to Billy's strengths.  If he is going to score a hatful of goals anywhere, it is going to be here.  He should stay put for a while and really make people sit up and take notice.

CH2 makes some good points.   I think Wyness was a better striker than Mckay, albeit predominately in the lower leagues. 

 

Was Rooney better?   Not much in it imo.  Both took a season or more with us before they started scoring regularly.  I wonder if Rooney's  scoring to chances ratio might have been slightly better.  I think Mckay's is relatively poor from the matches I've seen (live or on TV).

 

Rooney hasn't been a runaway success in Englandshire, and I honestly think McKay would struggle too.

 

But that doesn't mean I would sell him without a replacement in the offing.  But  he goes in this window,  I can see us being offered, and accepting quite a bit less than £1m for him. As DD said, if he stays till the end of the season and bags another 15 or so goals by then, that could be a different story.

I believe it's true that you don't see an accurate representation of a game and individual performances on TV.  Mckay's a far better striker than Rooney IMO, far quicker and has a far better work rate.

I believe it's true that you don't see an accurate representation of a game and individual performances on TV.  Mckay's a far better striker than Rooney IMO, far quicker and has a far better work rate.

Agree with this entirely. Anyone remember Rooney hardly breaking sweat the 2 nd half of season before he departed? Seemed terrified of getting injured. Billy Mckay probably the hardest working striker we've ever had IMO!

I wasn't talking about work rate.  I agree Mckay is second to none in that department.  I was thinking more about his ratio of goals scored to the chances he has had. I think most people would admit he misses more than a few!   However, I do concede that maybe his work rate helps in creating the chances in the first place.  I would just like to see him convert a few more.

Hoping he's staying but if sold it has to be by a certain date surely allowing a replacement to be brought in?

 

Do you mean you don't want him to go past his sell by date?

Billy is a more determined striker than Rooney was.

 

If the offer , which will always start considerably lower than the current club evaluation, can be ramped up to close to one million pounds I think the club should accept because that kind of money does not come into this geographic location  too often.

 

Then we would have to have another proven striker in place and where would John H.  go to get him? ---Stevie May is "something else" and could replace Billy for a few seasons whilst we dub him the "Flying Scotsman"  and could replace the steam flowing out behind him with his hair.

 

OR John could unearth an English player with great potential and groom him ... would take time; and meanwhile who would score the goals to keep is where we deserve to be --top of the heap?

 

Comments?

As I recall if you looked at Rooneys stats most of his goals were scored against the bottom club then reduced in goals as you went further up the league, only 1 top six goal and that was during a 4-0 win over united. Where as Billy Mackay scores when he wants.  425K

A fair % of Rooneys goals came from the spot too.

We will never get a million for Mckay, football works in a funny way, play for Celtic and your value is much, much higher, the likes of Celtic can also afford to run down bids for players that don't meet their valuation. 

 

ICT are run in a very astute way and if the club were offered £300K I think they would way up the fact that they will get nothing for him in the near future and take it, bidding clubs know we are not cash rich and bids will reflect that. 

 

As for where he is in comparison to Wyness and Rooney I think a more natural goal scorer than Rooney and certainly a harder worker, difficult to compare him with Wyness as played in different divisions but both quality finishers, although Wyness was very much a confidence player and if that dropped so would his finishing.

Did we not turn down a £300k plus bid in the summer?

Some good points in posts above and I suspect ICT would accept an offer way below £1M. As with all transactions, "value" is a combination of what one club is willing to offer and what the other is willing to pay. An excellent example was Carroll who went to Liverpool for £35M, simply because Newcastle knew that Liverpool had just received £50M for Torres. The flip-side is that small clubs are always more likely to accept a lower offer (hence if McKay had been playing at Celtic, he would be "worth" several million....look at Hooper). The only way the value would rise were if more than one club were interested and a bidding war developed...

Does he want to leave ? When will his next realistic chance be to appear in semi finals/ cup finals?

Potentially Europe too, or will he end up on the  English league one scrap heap like so many others.

 

Football or money?? It actually must be a difficult decision for these guys to make when & if the time comes.

For ICT to sell Mackay in this window the offer would have to be £1 Million, with how we are doing in the league and the cups. I would expect the club to hold out for the higher premium due to this being the January window and the teams who would be looking for a proven goal scorer are going to be teams pushing ofr promotion or trying to avoid the drop and would be willing to pay to have him.

 

However I can see accepting less in the summer depending on how the rest of the season goes, though would still expect about £500k, though if he has a stormer of a 2nd half to the season, £750k+ is a possibility especially if we make Europe.

Maybe he needs to take a leaf out of artist Jack Vettriano's book and change his name? plain old "Billy McKay" will never be sold for £1m even if he is worth it.

 

having said that, lets just say "**** it" and not sell him unless we get a ridiculous offer. Think Yogi was right to tell clubs to put up or shut up, speculation can be disruptive.

Let's hope that Caley D is not asked to assist in any offers as he is the only **** who knows how to spell is name !!

If we have a million pound player in our ranks then its Shinnie.

Take it these offers for Billy have remained non-existent?

If we have a million pound player in our ranks then its Shinnie.

Take it these offers for Billy have remained non-existent?

I sooo hope so!