Savage: Neymar isn’t worth more than Trevor Francis

Daniel Storey

Robbie Savage has started the season strongly, claiming that Neymar is not worth more than Trevor Francis.

In his Daily Mirror column, Savage – who transferred from Blackburn to Derby for £2m at the age of 34 – bemoaned average players moving for large sums of money.

The examples Savage used were Neymar, Kyle Walker and Andre Gray.

On Neymar:

‘Neymar , £198 million? He may not even have been in the top three players at Barcelona , if Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez or Andres Iniesta floats your boat more.

‘I can just about remember Trevor Francis becoming the first £1m footballer in Britain in 1979. Even allowing for inflation over the last 38 years, Neymar is not worth 198 Trevor Francises, nor 100, nor a dozen. I’m not even sure he’s a better player, full stop.’

On Walker:

‘Kyle Walker, £50 million? He has often been one of England’s best players in recent internationals, but for that money you would expect the best defender in the world – and he’s not.’

On Gray:

‘Andre Gray, £18 million ? Good luck to him at Watford, but that’s a lot of money for a guy who has only scored nine Premier League goals in his career to date.’

‘I have always been an advocate of market forces and players being paid whatever clubs are prepared to pay them,’ Savage concludes. He has certainly done his best to hide that opinion.