Etienne Camara’s departure from Huddersfield Town has now been officially confirmed by Town, four days after Udinese tweeted out pictures of the player signing for them. Seemingly there was a delay with the paperwork and the Italian club jumped the gun.
Regardless, the French Under 20 international has left West Yorkshire for Italy for an undisclosed fee which is rumoured to be between £1.5m and £2.2m which will most likely also include a clause that will secure Town a percentage of any future transfer fee if he is sold for a profit.
While the terms being suggested don’t seem ridiculous for a player that hasn’t played a great deal and that was entering into the final year of his contract with no intention of renewing, I still feel like this deal doesn’t represent great value for Huddersfield Town and I’ll go into it in a bit more detail in this article.
Ettienne Camara should have stayed at Huddersfield Town for longer
He’s still very young but on the limited evidence I’ve seen, I think Camara is probably one of the most naturally talented central midfielders we’ve brought through the club since Philip Billing. There are obviously huge areas of his game that he needs to improve, but his ability to pick out and execute a pass is superb and with good coaching and a bit of time he could have made a great deal of progress.
My feeling is that he’s had a little taste of first team football at Huddersfield Town and has too quickly decided that he wants to move to a higher level before he’s earned that kind of move. He has currently not established himself as a regular in a bottom-end Championship team, so it’s hard to imagine he’ll be able to walk into a Serie A midfield. So he’s most likely condemned himself to reserve team football in Italy unless he hits the ground running out there.
This move is too much too soon and I think he could have given himself a better chance of playing at the highest level of football by having more time in Huddersfield and building his game in a more supportive environment. He’s not given himself the best chance of succeeding and may look back on this decision with regret. Whether it’s an agent telling him he’s too good for this level to earn himself some commission or youthful ambition getting the better of him, I don’t know, but I worry that Camara’s reluctance to hang around in Huddersfield may be a mistake.
He hasn’t repaid the faith the club had in him
In the above section I focussed on how Camara’s decision to refuse a contract and engineer a move away from Town will impact his career but many readers will have most likely picked up the smell of sour grapes from these words. It’s true, I’m aggrieved that a talented player has chosen to leave the club having made just 24 first team appearances.
I think it’s inevitable that we will be a club that has to sell our best youth players until we become an established Premier League club. Even then, we couldn’t expect to keep hold of a player if they were good enough to tempt one of the big boys to come knocking at our door. However, we should be able to keep hold of our young talents long enough for them to establish themselves in the game and to make a name for themselves. So this transfer for Camara, while it seemingly involves a decent sized transfer fee, doesn’t feel like a good deal for Town.
I feel like the expectation we have for our best youngsters is that we are happy to allow them to use us as a stepping stone to move on to bigger clubs but the exchange is that they give us a few seasons of good football while we help them to develop and learn their craft. We could have done this for Camara and in a couple of years he could have been a £10m plus player. Nothing is certain in football, but he certainly has the potential to be another Philip Billing with the right coaching.
What went wrong for Camara at Huddersfield Town?
I’m not really sure what was going on off the pitch with Camara but I would guess that his agent might have been up to some monkey business. As there were some stories in the press linking him with away from Town around last Christmas which stank of “agent talk”, where the player’s agent slips the story to a friendly journalist in the hopes of stirring up some interest in his player.
Those stories seemed to coincide with Camara’s involvement in the first team drying up. This could have been a complete coincidence or it may have been a factor. Given Mark Fotheringham had a tendency to fall out with players for very little pretext, it’s probably not worth dwelling on too much on why Camara was frozen out without much explanation to fans. It might have been the youngster got too big for his boots after being linked to bigger clubs in the press but that seems unlikely as he came across as a very humble and shy young man whenever he was interviewed. Whatever the reason, it was a bit odd that Camara lost his spot in the team in favour of a far more limited, if more enthusiastic, alternative option in Scott High.
Under Neil Warnock, Camera made his only start against Burnley but failed to impress in that 4-0 drubbing and following that game only played a further 10 minutes off the bench against Coventry, which was another 4-0 defeat. Camara’s laid back style in possession is the complete opposite of how Warnock wanted Town to play and as we almost completely bypassed midfield with our style of play, there wasn’t much need for a player like him in that set up.
Camara shows that the current B Team model works… sort of
We picked Camara up from Angers SCO as a seventeen year old, after scouting him years before and monitoring his progress in France for a while. So you could argue he’s the first proper success story of the new-look B Team model that the club changed to when they scrapped all the younger age groups in the academy and downgraded to a lesser setup. There’s not space to go into the politics of that decision here, but this is the first significant fee we’ve received for a player that joined the academy after that decision was made.
Lewis O’Brien played his way through all the younger age groups before breaking into the first team and while Philip Billing was also signed from another team’s academy when relatively old, we did all that before the academy downgrade, so he was like the prototype before we made the switch.
So I suppose, in a way, snapping up Camara for little or no money, having him for a few years and then selling him for more than a million pounds represents fairly good business. It’s just not quite as good as I think it should have been. For the academy to be a success, we need players to come through who either play for the first team for a number of years or are so good that they command huge fees that can sustain the costs of running the academy for many years to come. Camara’s haste to leave meant neither of these things happened.
I wish Etienne Camara all the best for the future
After writing all this, I realise it probably comes off as a bit bitter but I should finish by wishing Camara all the best for the future. While I wish he hadn’t made the decision he made to leave so early in his Town career, I can understand why he was tempted to make a move to a higher level and test himself in a new club. If he proves me wrong and makes an immediate impact in Serie A, then I’ll be delighted for him, for him as a player but also because of the increased prospects of Town receiving a big sell-on fee down the line too.
Brahima Diarra could be the next player to leave too soon
The problem that Etienne Camara’s transfer to Udinese highlights is how we can only make the most of our academy system if our best players coming through are willing to commit to long-term contracts when we see they are capable to playing at a decent level. Brahima Diarra is now entering the final year of his contract and after playing plenty of first team games last season, I think the club should making tying him down to a long-term deal a priority.
Diarra is a different kind of player to Camara but he has bags of talent and, if he ever stops trying to dribble past every opposition player on the pitch, could become incredibly dangerous for Town. Given that Duane Holmes was allowed to leave and Neil Warnock gave Diarra plenty of minutes last season, I feel quite hopeful that something can be done with Diarra’s contract but as he’s another hot prospect from our academy, it seems sensible to reward him for his breakthrough season last campaign with a new contract that reflects the fact he’s now a regular starter in the Championship.
TS I agree with everything you say, he’s a sad loss
The comparison with Billings is apt; Warnock for whatever reason ignored Camara. I would love to know why as he seemingly didn’t help the club by doing this.
Similarly Billing became persona non grata after a lazy performance away at WHU when we were 3-1 up and lost 4-3, then the fans turned against him if I remember correctly; Siewert in charge.
Although we didn’t lose money on him in this case. I loved watching him, still do, and will never forget his performance at home v Man City in the cup he was the best player on the pitch – both sides!
TS I agree with everything you say, he’s a sad loss
The comparison with Billings is apt; Warnock for whatever reason ignored Camara. I would love to know why as he seemingly didn’t help the club by doing this.
Similarly Billing became persona non grata after a lazy performance away at WHU when we were 3-1 up and lost 4-3, then the fans turned against him if I remember correctly; Siewert in charge.
Although we didn’t lose money on him in this case. I loved watching him, still do, and will never forget his performance at home v Man City in the cup he was the best player on the pitch – both sides!
Thanks Beck. I can’t remember where I heard it, I think it might have been The Examiner podcast but apparently Camara’s running stats in the Burnley game were pretty shocking and that, added to his all round poor performance was probably all Warnock needed to decide to go another way. I think Warnock likes a small group of players he feels like he can trust. It’s great for those in that group but you’re out of luck if he doesn’t fancy you.
I’m surprised you feel that Camara is worthy of being the sole topic of a pre-season article. He only played a handful of first team matches and I can’t think of one where he was the standout player. More importantly, he’s gone! He’s history. He might turn out to be ‘the one who got away’ but we won’t know that for a few years yet.
Introducing Diarra into the discussion does spice things up. Assuming he’s staying for the time being at least, this could be a big season for him. He has that rare talent of being able to run at defenders and leave them on the floor. I agree that his general passing and awareness of teammates in better positions could and should improve. He’s now a bit more than a fledgling and he’s had more first team experience; if he and Warnock click, then watch this space.
Once the Ashes are won or lost, then Town will be fully back on my radar.
I must admit that the Ashes have provided a welcome distraction during the postseason and have led to a drop in productivity on the blog! I thought Camara might end up being Hogg’a long-term successor but now it’s either Kasumu or back to the drawing board.
Diarra is an exciting prospect but I’m glad he’s got Warnock to guide him as he’s one that could go either way. If he can harness his obvious talent and use it effectively then he could be a seriously good player. If he chooses to focus more on doing tricks for their own sake and doesn’t think about the team enough he could become a showpony kind of player that’s nice to watch but doesn’t actually influence games. I think Warnock is just the right manager to get the best out of him.
TS
I think you are living in a parallel universe with your observations on EC’s move
It’s quite simple in reality. Players and clubs have mutually binding contracts. If a Club don’t want a contracted player then they tell him he’s not playing. He can see out his contract if that suits him.
If a contracted player wants to leave he can see out his contact. Naturally, if that player is in his last contracted year and tells the club he is not renewing then the club has to move quickly to get the best sale price they can.
It is a balancing act. I dare say the club could have signed him up for longer prior to his decision to leave, but not without risk of course.
This is football TS, not worth crying over spilt milk.
I don’t think the club have done anything wrong, they had little choice. The point I was making in the article was that Camara would have most likely been making a better decision for his career and for the club that gave him his first chance in professional football if he stayed with us a bit longer. Once he decided he wanted to leave he had the club over a barrel, so they had no choice but to sell.
Imho. It is solely down to Town not having the confidence in Camara excelling at Town a d becominb6a genuine prize asset but i believe that comes down to the club not having the belief in themselves to bring to fruition his undoubtable ability.
If you as a club think you have a gem on your hands that needs good coaching and managing to bring that about then back yourself. He should of been offered a 3 or 4 year contract last season on a wage at his age be wouldn’t refuse and that would of given us protection.
Again.. The fact it didn’t happen is because of a lack of self belief inside the club.
What do you think?
I think we tried and he wouldn’t sign. Possibly because his agent knew he could get a big fat payday by moving him on somewhere else. Clubs have very little power in that scenario.
Given Udinese have the same owners as Watford, and there have been frequent loans between the 2 clubs in recent seasons, I would not be surprised if we see Camara in the Championship this coming season, rather than Serie A.
You could be right. I was tempted to put something similar in my article but I’m not sure he’s good enough to get into Watford’s midfield yet. Time will tell.
Warnock has favourites. Players who don’t fit in with what he considers his way of playing are pushed out. Rhodes being the prime example. Did the players who have been let go fall into the same category? Holmes, Camara and Boyle would have continued to be assets to the club. Other players like Ward, who is way past his best, can do no wrong. Though we can discount him as he’ll probably be out injured most of the season. It won’t be so bad if the money received is invested in new quality players (not hasbeens like Hoilett!) but I’m afraid it’ll just go towards paying off the bank and running expenses. It’s still early in Nagles rule but up to now I’m less than impressed. A lot of PR woffle but no action .
You’re right about Warnock picking favourites. There’s a story about how he’s been known to clip the toenails of his chosen players (he used to be a podiatrist I believe). With Wardy, he’s been the favourite of a few other managers/head coaches too so he obviously offers something beyond goals. Hopefully we’ll get another striker this summer that goes straight into the starting eleven and Ward will become a good option on the bench rather than the first choice. As for Nagle, I’ve been very impressed so far. There won’t be loads of money spent because of some issue around the spending plans for this season being submitted to the league by rhebold regime before the takeover completed. So it’ll be around a year before we see any major investment, if at all. But I’m happy with a slow and steady start anyway. Throwing money at the club early on doesn’t always work with new owners. A lot of Hoyle’s early moves didn’t pan out (Stan Ternant being one of them if my memory is right).
Spot on! Clearly not a Warnock player. Absolutely no incentive for either him or Diarra to spend a season kicking their heels while the ball flies over the top of our midfield and they watch from the sidelines (not the bench). Players like Billing, Bacuna and Sorba get no patience from many Town supporters as they find their feet in the first team and try to provide something different to the muscular leaping about we all love so much.
We were once able to bring in young, promising, sought after professionals, get decent seasons out of them, develop them and sell them on for profit. Think young Rhodes, Peltier, Coady, Pilkington, Nahki.
More recently we’ve decided we can no longer compete for such players, nor do we look after potential class when we surprisingly unearth it. Our signings have rarely promised ‘sell-on value’.
Warnock offers us the most likely chance of survival in the new owner’s (whoever that might be) first season – but our chances of making decent signings is hampered by the knowledge he won’t be here for the majority of any decent new signing’s contract.
So we hope for the best. And (for me anyway) fear the worst.
I’m perplexed. Do you know something about our new owner that nobody else knows?
Didn’t we have a multi-million pound sale on O’Brien only a year ago and he was nurtured from comparative youth? It’s not going to happen every year.
Not forgetting that Camara hasn’t gone on a free. £2 million isn’t to be sniffed at.
Camara was not in Warnock’s plans and he wanted to leave. Sadly there was absolutely no point in him staying.
I agree with everything you’ve written.
Gutted that the lad’s agent treated the club that took a chance on him with such contempt.
Nervous that Diarra might have the same kind of agent with the same plan.
Let’s see what the season brings…
My understanding was that Warnock didn’t like Camara’s attitude, saying his problem was ‘between his ears’. Praised him for his ability but questioned his determination to apply himself (at Town). If you have a players with that problem, they can become toxic to others. You are best rid of them. I suspect the jury is still out on Sorba Thomas. His histrionics and antics will either have to be completely calmed down and eliminated or I suspect he will also be moved on. There are times in key matches when those issues cost you points and Warnock will be acutely aware of this. He likes certain types of players and Prima Donnas are not amongst them.