A few reports suggesting West Ham will bid £10 million for Tom Heaton

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... -joe-hart/

He can go for me

That'll be about £8m short to start with...

They can bid 10m, but I think they'll be laughed at.

If one of our two keepers has to go, it'd be Pope for me.

We'd get good money for him, as he's younger and is now part of the England squad, and for me I think Heaton's the better keeper.

Would like to keep hold of both, but it might be a bit of an ask having such a top goalie (either Heaton or Pope) on the bench for long spells.

Not a chance I’d let him leave. Our best keeper, club captain and vital personality around the squad.

As he's our number one keeper I would expect him to start next season.

Pope has just won various player of the season awards and is looking odds on to be in the England World Cup squad. As good as I think Tom is we have to prioritise Nick Pope now. He could be our number one for many years to come. In the perfect world we keep both by offering them game time across all competitions next season but that might be fantasy! Heaton's injury plays a big part here as well. A shoulder injury for a goalkeeper is a bad thing. How can we be sure he'll be fit enough to be first choice now? Charlie Austin used to have regular issues with his shoulder and he's a striker!!

One way of looking at it is that if Pope continues to develop he will eventually leave for a bigger club, perhaps the end of next season. Heaton on the other hand may be content to end his career at Burnley, perhaps giving us another five or six years (assuming complete recovery from his injury).

Get rid for that price. Good keeper but more scared of crosses than a Christian at Easter. Pope is the one we want to keep for as long as we can

A hell of a keeper but if we get somebody come in with a seven figure fee then he can go for me.

Why? In Pope and Lindegaard we have two good keepers who are first team ready. We have young Connor Mitchell in the U23 squad who is coming along well too. Finally it is unthinkable that we don’t already have our eyes on a young keeper who we can buy and develop into a better player....

Can't believe some of the comments about Tom. "Get rid". He deserves respect both as a player and a man.

The people who are saying get rid of either keeper are the same people who will moan if we start losing. We have 2 fabulous keepers, lets try keep hold of both of them.

They have described Pope as 24 years old, he’s 26. They also say that Heaton was sidelined four five months. Four five? What’s a four five?

What a problem to have! Once we had Joe Neenan and Tony Woodworth now we have two YES TWO England goalkeepers. Of the two, I think Pope edges it because he is so secure in the air, but Heaton is still a great keeper and a leader, and I would be happy with either.

jlup1980 wrote:Pope has just won various player of the season awards and is looking odds on to be in the England World Cup squad. As good as I think Tom is we have to prioritise Nick Pope now. He could be our number one for many years to come. In the perfect world we keep both by offering them game time across all competitions next season but that might be fantasy! Heaton's injury plays a big part here as well. A shoulder injury for a goalkeeper is a bad thing. How can we be sure he'll be fit enough to be first choice now? Charlie Austin used to have regular issues with his shoulder and he's a striker!!

Agree. Never know how the shoulder will hold up. Think we can keep both for next season or window at least.

BurnleyPaul wrote:A hell of a keeper but if we get somebody come in with a seven figure fee then he can go for me.

Why? In Pope and Lindegaard we have two good keepers who are first team ready. We have young Connor Mitchell in the U23 squad who is coming along well too. Finally it is unthinkable that we don’t already have our eyes on a young keeper who we can buy and develop into a better player....

You'd sell Heaton for £1m when it is being reported West Ham are set to offer £10m? Seems an odd sort of transfer policy to adopt in my opinion.

LongsideClaret wrote:They have described Pope as 24 years old, he’s 26. They also say that Heaton was sidelined four five months. Four five? What’s a four five?

45?

Firstly I would like to keep both.

If we have to choose I would keep Heaton. He is club captain and an organiser of the defence whereas Pope is just a damn good keeper. Also, Heaton is more likely to be loyal in the longer term and Pope will always be targeted by the clubs who will pay more than us in wages. If we sell Heaton I can see Pope going next year and we will be without a keeper.

Finally, Heaton has been a top keeper for us for a number of years, Pope for just one. If this season turns out to be a flash in the pan then his value will go down the drain.

Only question re Heaton is his shoulder. No-one on this board knows but SD and his team will have a pretty good idea

Buffon dislocated a shoulder 13 years ago. He's only just retired.

Devils_Advocate wrote:Get rid for that price. Good keeper but more scared of crosses than a Christian at Easter. Pope is the one we want to keep for as long as we can

I think you're confusing Christians with vampires.

Vampires don't do Easter.

The chocolate eggs rot their fangs.

I think we've got to keep Pope between the two of them. Younger, worth more, has more years left in him and we could still sell in X seasons for a huge price.

I can't believe some people here saying (more or less) "sell at that price". £10 million - really?
Pickford went to Everton for £20m+ with substantial add-ons. Prices haven't been falling since then.
Stoke are telling people that Butland won't be going anywhere for as little as £35m

We should try & keep both our top keepers but if that becomes impossible, let's get market value for the quality they each have.

Two points on this really.

Why do we continually get into a frenzy on here about media talk? Our players are 'linked with' other clubs all the time and most of the time it comes to nothing at all. Besides which 10m (at todays stupid prices) is peanuts for a keeper like Heaton, he's a current England international for goodness sake. It's just the same every time a manager gets sacked, Dyche is gonna be poached and it'll be all over and the dream is gone. Just how low do some fans rate our club? Besides as I've said before West Ham are a nothing club.

Secondly did no-one read what Dyche said the other day about the state of our finances and outgoing players? He has basically said no-one is going anywhere unless someone comes in with a ridiculous offer for a player - 10m for an England keeper who is rated one of the best in the PL is NOT a ridiculous offer and if true would probably be laughed at by the board.

Whatever happens I sincerely believe that come the start of next season we will have a stronger squad than last season and we didn't do too shabbily then did we? I do believe that it's about time some of our fans lost the 'little old Burnley, we are not worthy' attitude. We are an old and respected club with a history to be proud of and we deserve to be where we are. Just laugh at the media reports and then if the worst happens let Dyche deal with it in the way he always does. The board and him haven't done too much wrong in the last 5/6 years, it WILL continue for the foreseeable.

Keep Pope for me (if I had to choose). Get another youngster in using part of the money from the sale of Heaton, then when Pope has another cracking season next year sell him on for £40m / £50m and promote the one we buy this year and get a further youngster in (rinse and repeat).

Easy this football management lark

Heaton's value is likely to stay the same or decline where as Pope's should continue to rise (if he remains consistent or improves) so if we can recruit correctly or bring through one of our youngsters we should be able to make a lot of profit from the both of them if we play it right, which is vitally important for a club our size if we are going to stay where we are or improve (ie cups and survival as can't see us breaking the top 6).

Could see both attracting great interest this summer. Will we manage to keep hold of either for much longer?

It's unfair on two brilliant players to expect one to keep a bench warm all season. If we qualify for the Europa League maybe it becomes more feasible to rotate. But maybe we just sell whichever of them gets the biggest bid before the window shuts and keep the other?

Goobs wrote:You'd sell Heaton for £1m when it is being reported West Ham are set to offer £10m? Seems an odd sort of transfer policy to adopt in my opinion.

Fair point Goobs- I boobed; I meant eight figures!

I stand by my point though; a £10 million fee for Heaton a player who may not be the same as he was before his injury and who has been overtaken by his understudy for both club and country should not be ignored.

The only proviso is that we only accept such an offer IF Heaton wants to leave in search of first team football. Otherwise I’m more than happy to keep him.

BurnleyPaul wrote:Fair point Goobs- I boobed; I meant eight figures!

I stand by my point though; a £10 million fee for Heaton a player who may not be the same as he was before his injury and who has been overtaken by his understudy for both club and country should not be ignored.

The only proviso is that we only accept such an offer IF Heaton wants to leave in search of first team football. Otherwise I’m more than happy to keep him.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with that although I'd like to think we can get £15m+ for him IF we sell.

Lets not forget that its the Burnley way of playing and our defensive shape that makes our defenders and keepers look good. We can see with Keane that it's hard work playing in another system

If one was to leave, why not let it be on loan to another high level club with a hefty loan fee?
As with Joe Hart at city, teams would be willing to have one of our keepers for a season and pay a good price to do so.
That way we could assess Heatons recovery from injury, and whether Popes a one season wonder or not.

Ideally I'd like to keep both here and neither leave, which I'm sure SD would too, but surely a season loan would be better than selling?

I'd be surprised if West Ham don't got for Fabianski at Swansea to be honest. He's an excellent goalkeeper who seems to improve each year. They would have been dead and buried a couple of months ago if he'd not made the number of saves he did this season!

Plenty of opportunities for both to play a big part next season and we need both. Had we not had both this season things could have turned out very differently for us. Both of them have accumulated the necessary experience to be effective in our framework, to the extent that we can happily swap them in or out to give them game time without compromising the team. Unless one of them expects to play every game at the expense of the other then I can't see a problem keeping both of them happy with playing opportunities.

10m for a player with Heatons ability and character is insulting in todays market and adding another 10m to our coffers would confer little advantage. We really don't need the money. In terms of his playing ability and value to the club he is worth far more. 20-30m would be a more realistic figure.

Taking everything else out of the equation a move to West Ham would be poor fate for any player. In the case of our own players it would be a case of swapping happy land for the pit of despair. Their current performance issues are a result of top down mismanagement, incompetence and financial self interest which is a disservice to their loyal fanbase. If they had suffered relegation this season it might have shocked them to their senses and served as a catalyst for greater long term success.

I think timing issues are going to play a significant part in the next transfer window and they are going to catch a few of the clubs off guard, especially if they don't have all of their 'ducks in a row' at outset. Being without a manager for the start of the next transfer window is an excellent beginning for West Hams chances next season.

I would be happy to see West Ham entertain their delusions of being the next big 6 club, continuing their transfer policy of courting unrealistic targets, and paying over the odds to bring in unsuitable signings as the clock ticks down - because they underestimated the impact of the new changes to the window and presence of the World Cup within it.

Denying our competitors the opportunity to strengthen is just as important as strenthening our own team.