Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Warburton has slapped a £25m price tag on attacking midfielder Ilias Chair after seeing the Moroccan score the winner against Blackburn Rovers last night, speaking to West London Sport.
The 23-year-old initially struggled to find his feet at the start of the 2021/22 campaign, scoring one and recording just one assist in his opening eight league games despite his side's bright start.
However, he has been back in good form in the last few weeks, scoring a brace at the end of September against Birmingham City in a 2-0 win, grabbing the winner in a 3-2 victory against Preston North End at the beginning of this month and getting on the scoresheet again yesterday evening.
With this, he has effectively won the west London side eight extra points in the last four games, helping to drag the R's back into the play-off zone.
Without those extra points on the board, Warburton's men would currently be sitting in 17th place, so that just shows how much of an asset the 23-year-old has been this term, also recording a respectable 12 goal contributions in the league last season.
He secured his long-term future at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium back in January, signing a four-and-a-half year deal to extend his stay until 2025 and allowing Rangers to hold out for a sizeable eight-figure fee.
This is perhaps why Warburton is so relaxed about QPR's position if offers come in for Chair during the winter window, saying last night: "Not at all (worried about Chair attracting bids in January), because if Ilias goes to another club it will be for QPR’s value.
"If some club wants to come and pay £25m for him then great.
"If you’re going to sell in January it’s to a (Premier League) team that’s struggling and will spend to stay up or a team that’s pushing for promotion and they’ll spend to try and push on. So you only lose a player in January on your terms.
"We don’t want to lose any players. But if they do go then they go at our price.
"Every player has a value. If your house is worth £500,000 and I say ‘Here’s £2m’ then you’re going to sell to me 99 times out of a hundred.
"So if his value is X and someone will pay X plus Y, then all the very best. I don’t want Ilias to go anywhere. But if someone leaves it’ll be on our terms."
The Verdict:
The last section of Warburton's quotes are interesting, because he hasn't ruled out selling the 23-year-old in January if the second-tier side's valuation is met.
Whether £25m is the club's official valuation of the player remains to be seen, but no club is likely to come in with an offer of that magnitude due to Covid-19's effect on finances, especially from a Championship club.
Second-tier clubs would need to be very wary of the EFL's profit and sustainability rules if they wanted to invest in Chair, but would a move away really be beneficial for him at this point?
After last night's victory against Tony Mowbray's men, QPR have a good chance to solidify their place in the top six and it could suit the attacking midfielder to remain in the English capital for now to see if he can win promotion with his current side.
And if he moves up to the Premier League, it remains to be seen whether he would get regular game time. Consistency is probably the only barrier to him making the step up right now, so a continuation of his development under Warburton would probably serve him well.