Levi Ives?

[TUST_Member_Rob]

I wonder if this agreement is timebound?

£10k per 10 appearances but over how many years? I'd be surprised to see him rack up 10 appearances in the next 3 years unless he has a dramatic turn of form. Greg Cunningham and Joe Bryan are the regular full backs and he's not at their level.

I fear we'll end up getting very little from this.

pretty sure theres no time limit and will last for as long as he's a Bristol City player.

If he does develop and goes onto a prem club a 30% sell on could return us a lot of money!

[Jeff]

I don't think it's a bad deal for the club. No young players move without appearance related bonus these days, I think it's a pretty standard deal.

That said, I didn't rate Ives that highly from what I saw, so the chances of us receiving anything more than the basic £10k will be slim to none

[ferrarilover]

Hull have rejected a £2.5m bid from Bristol City for defender Harry Maguire.

This is the level at which BC are operating, lobbing about millions of pounds for established Championship players, not **** about with freebies from the Conference. We've given away for free yet another player for whom any other club would have scored 6-figures or a signature.

Meet the new boss...

Matt.

[Burnhamgull]

Spot on Matt.

City have taken a punt on a "star" player. If he develops, brilliant. But if they have a problem at left back, trust me, they'll splash some cash and bring someone in. They won't use Ives.

He probably thinks he's hit the big time but I reckon he'll be playing for Linfield or Dundalk within two years.

[arcadia]

Ives was the best left fullback we had in the club last season and he gained experience in a bad side. Bristol City is a good move for him but as Matt says Torquay are the losers as he is a player developing and could have brought the club much needed cash if he'd signed a contract, only time will tell.
I think a lot of supporters expect to much from youngsters but if they can gain experience at an early age the chances are they will progress to a higher level if they are looked after.
I said this after his first game in the first team, as he has a lot going for him and one is, he believes in himself. Dan Lavercombe is an even better prospect.

[tommyg]

Ives' head was turned a long time ago - he'd made his mind up to leave long before the new manager and consortium came in. I don't see how we could have got six figures if he refuses to sign a contract. He's only been with the club for two years and was on a youth contract so we would have been lucky to get anything over £10,000 up front.

Ives was our best left-back for most of last season because after Cruise got injured he was the only left-back we had. And I actually thought Cruise performed well in the first 10 games before he got crocked.

[Dave]

Matt's right in sense that Levi Ives isn't going to get near Bristol City's first team anytime soon, in my opinion probably never, do not think Matt is in anyway right to suggest we've some how missed out on a six figure sum here.

For a start, for Ives to be worth that kind of money, he'd have to be regular starter for a lot longer than just 20 odd games in the conference, here's a problem, Ives didn't want to stay, the only way he would have done, is if TUFC had made a significantly better contract offer than the £125 a week rumoured to have been offered.

Here lie's another problem, with such a restricted budget, would any of us really want have seen PC spunk a large amount of cash trying to persuade a young player, with some, but not very much potential, thinks he's better than he is. In all honesty Ives really isn't that good, a player with all the positional sense a blind man trying to drive a car, and probably lose to a 30 st man over 100 metre race.

TUFC have lost nothing here, we've gained a 21 year old left back with 60 senior games under his belt, 34 in League 2 last season, meet the new boss indeed.

[ferrarilover]

I'm not necessarily saying he was worth a ton of money, but we've managed to get nothing, absolutely literally nothing for him.

We could have had him killed, removed his organs and sold them on Lithuanian eBay for £500, so to get nothing really is genuinely impressive.

Matt.

[Dave]

Not disagreeing with your sentiment Matt, not sure how the whole EPPP thing works, his two seasons with us although now with the academy closed, were under the EPPP banner, so would there have been two seasons of compensation due, would the closure of the academy mean that we're no longer entitled to that compensation.

If not, then we're looking at a 17 year old left back, with a hand full of conference games, some of those performances were questionable to say the least, I would say we have got nothing for a player, who at his current level in his career was actually worth nothing.

EDIT; Just a thought, as he was under 24, surely there would have been some down payment/fee/compensation due under the Bosman thingy.

[Kit_robin]

I'm not necessarily saying he was worth a ton of money, but we've managed to get nothing, absolutely literally nothing for him.

We could have had him killed, removed his organs and sold them on Lithuanian eBay for £500, so to get nothing really is genuinely impressive.

Matt.

Undisclosed fee, rising with appearances. I imagine the Undisclosed fee would be similar to the one Bowman went for, maybe a tad more. Exactly the deal I expected.

[Dutchgull]

We are lucky to get anything for Ives. So overrated.

[hector]

Hull have rejected a £2.5m bid from Bristol City for defender Harry Maguire.

This is the level at which BC are operating, lobbing about millions of pounds for established Championship players, not f**king about with freebies from the Conference. We've given away for free yet another player for whom any other club would have scored 6-figures or a signature.

Meet the new boss...

Matt.

How have we given him away?

He didn't sign with us. He was no longer our player.

The reason we didn't get a 6 figure sum for him, is because he isn't actually very good and nobody is going to pay 6 figures for a short, slow left-back who couldn't tackle, passed the ball to the opposition all the time, and was always out of position. The fact we may end up with anything is a bonus.

If he manages to stay at Bristol City for the next 8 years, he will probably feature even less than Ashley Yeoman. He will be back playing for Glenavon, if he is lucky.

[nickbrod]

Ives' form/potential clearly divides opinion. I saw him for the majority of his 20 appearances and he can tackle, he can run, he can pass and crosses the ball from the wing in the opposition's final third.
In many of the closing matches his positional play improved and he was on hand many times to clear up the messes his older pros, Pearce and Downes, were prone to making.
Why would a club like Bristol City take on what many seem to think is a 'no hoper' even if it's for little or no money?

[royalgull]

Answers on a postcard what the club should have done? We've offered him numerous contracts over the last year and he's made it clear he wasn't signing any of them, with him out of contract the only thing we can get for him is the tribunal fee that we are owed, that's it.

It's crap but if he's not our player anymore there's nothing we could have done.

Only saw a bit of him but he's got a hell of a way to go, only played last season because we'd re-signed Cruise who was incompetent and our team was horrific. He's nowhere near ready for playing a decent level of football and had he stayed I don't think he'd have got in our side this year either.

[Dave]

I actually think Levi Ives has potentially screwed his own career with this move, I hope not, because if he makes the grade there is a decent pay day in it for TUFC.

Why have Bristol City taken him on, well, it's been said by a few, myself included, they've taken a punt on a young development player, premiership/championship clubs do this every year, no longer are they forced to shell out £1million for a promising 17 year old, they can take on 8-10 development players a year for little financial risk, Bristol City have probably signed a few on like Ives, they know most will not make the grade, they only need 1-2 development players to come through and they'll make 10 times the money they shelled out for the lot, the rest of them will end up in an exit trial.

Last season I didn't think in any way that Pearce and Downes were the route of all our defensive problems, if I was given £1 for every time either Pearce or Downes had to cover across to bail out their full back I'd be pretty rich now. I'm certain both the right and left back positions were a huge problem all season, hopefully Hurst will be fit soon, along with Butler think we'll see a huge improvement at the back this term.