James Trafford at 23, the reverse skidoo
A record fee for a 23-year-old to play in goal is a flip of history at Elland Road. Why is James Trafford not Allan Clarke? Is it because Harry Gray, we hope?
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I try not to let transfer speculation get to me, but I felt a twinge the other week when someone came up with the bright idea, well, Brighton idea, of Dominic Calvert-Lewin to Brighton. Right on? Sod off!
I didn't like it because Calvert-Lewin hadn't made an appearance on the USA tour at that point, and because my main argument with it was that it made too much sense. Some pie-in-the-sky rumours can be easily dismissed, like Leeds going for Tomas Brolin in the 1990s, or some other World Cup star. They're so far-fetched. But a low-or-no-fee move for an experienced centre-forward from one mid-table club (us, and alright, lower mid-table) to another (still refuse to believe they're in Europe) had the dull ring of plausibility.
And it had logic, a seldom tasted ingredient of transfer speculation. Brighton have allowed Danny Welbeck to go to Chelsea, although another way of looking at that is, Brighton have allowed Chelsea to give them a reported £5m for a 35-year-old striker who has only hit double figures twice. Either way, Brighton have a vacancy for a slightly less elderly centre-forward who can be a good influence on their gaggles of data-farmed kids. And Pascal Struijk.
Brighton have this vacancy for the same reason they always have a vacancy: Chelsea are copying their homework. Over the past few years Chelsea have taken manager Graham Potter and his backroom staff, a head of recruitment, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Robert Sanchez, Joao Pedro and half-a-year of Facundo Buonanotte, a total of twenty (by some counts) players and staff, lured away from the land of gulls and Nick Cave to the cave of Ken Bates and Dennis Wise.
More importantly they've tried to copy the buy-young sell-later model that has worked so well at Albion, and ended up with the crowd of spoiled uglies who made our FA Cup semi-final such dim viewing last season and got Liam Rosenior sacked because they didn't like how nice he was to them. Hence not just Welbeck coming in but Jordan Henderson (aged 36, from Brentford, who somehow didn't extract a fee from a club that will pay anything for anything), to try bringing some order to the childish chaos. Because that — Adam Lallana, James Milner, Welbeck — is what worked at Brighton.
But not Dominic Calvert-Lewin, because he works for Leeds, and works pretty much the same way. If Chelsea hadn't forgotten that clubs also exist north of Brighton we could say they were copying Leeds, and we could be accepting whatever outrageous bids they might make if we dress Joffy Gelhardt up as a wise old pensioner. We had Karl Darlow until he turned heel (we thought we knew him!), Sam Byram (who might still be around somewhere?), Calvert-Lewin, James Justin and Sean Longstaff as verifiable experience in the squad, and Joe Rodon surprising everyone by almost being 29. Harry Wilson, also surprisingly, already is, and Elland Road is no place for spring chickens these days. Leeds won't be letting Calvert-Lewin go to the coast, because we wised up to Brighton's thinking some time ago and want his experience here.
The point of all my Calvert-Lewin fussing is actually about James Trafford, our brand new greatest goalkeeper of the modern era, who is only 23. Remember when the Under-21s were the Under-23s? Yes, and a 99 flake cost 99p. Trafford doesn't remember that because he's a literal baby born in October 2002 a few weeks after Paul Robinson let in four at Elland Road to Arsenal. Nigel Martyn was on the bench. Little did little James know he'd be coming to Beeston, nearly 24 brief years later, to put that wrong right.
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