“Not convinced that we would re-invest” – Huddersfield Town fan pundit issues transfer verdict as Leicester, Nottingham Forest and Brighton circle around player | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Huddersfield Town youngster Etienne Camara is being tracked by a host of Premier League clubs ahead of the January transfer window following his emergence into the Terriers first-team fold.

As reported by Alan Nixon on Patreon, it is Leicester City that are leading the chase for the Frenchman, with Nottingham Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion also in the mix for the teenager.

Camara arrived at Huddersfield in 2020, a couple of years after the club scouted him playing inner-city football in Paris – that time he joined Angers in the top flight of French football before the Yorkshire outfit finally got their man two years later.

He made an appearance in the FA Cup in January 2021, but 19-year-old Camara had to wait until August of this year for his league debut against Stoke City, and so far in the Championship this season he has played 13 times in the engine room.

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It has been reported that Huddersfield will not let Camara – whose contract has just been extended an extra year until 2024 – go on the cheap as they want a deal in excess of £10 million for the powerful midfielder.

FLW’s Huddersfield fan pundit Graeme Rayner believes though that the hierarchy at the John Smith’s Stadium should hang onto Camara at all costs – mainly because the money will not get re-invested into the squad.

“He’s got bags of ability and has been one of our better players this season, which for someone so young with so little experience is great,” Graeme said of the French maestro.

“Would I want to see us sell him for £10 million? No, because I think he is valuable to the club, but also I’m not convinced that we would re-invest that money on the pitch anyway.

“Is he worth it? If I was looking to buy a player for £10 million – he’s only played low double figures of games in his entire career at first-team level, so what you’re buying is potential and he has that in abundance, but we know that young players or players coming through can have a period in a side and play really well and then disappear from the reckoning.

“Two seasons ago Josh Koroma was being touted as a very saleable asset and now he’s nowhere to be seen and we’ve loaned him out – similarly last season Scott High played a lot of first-team football and was tipped for greatness, broke into the Scotland under-21’s team and now is out on loan for much-needed first-team experience.

“So I don’t know, if I was a buying club I might think that’s a risk – if I was a selling club and I was the manager I would only want to sell him if I knew I was getting all £10 million to re-invest on the pitch, but actually what I’d really like to do is to say ‘let’s keep hold of him and see where he is in three or four years time’, because him, Brahima Diarra, Ben Jackson, these players could really cement places in our team for years to come and be something to build the team around.

“So, I would much rather keep him than sell him.”

The Verdict

Camara is a player that is very raw but he has all the tangible attributes to be a success at the top level.

He is a tall player who is athletic and can pick a pass, and those kind of talents come at a real price.

It’s no surprise to see Premier League clubs scouting him despite his inexperience – now it’s a case of whether Huddersfield can actually keep hold of him.

They took the decision to extend his contract by a year to protect his value and they must be expecting offers to come in in January – it will say a lot about them when it comes to deciding what to do with those bids.