Stephen Crainey had admitted his delight at seeing James Hill earn a move to Bournemouth this January.

The 19-year old agreed on a move that made him Fleetwood Town’s most successful player sale in the club’s history at £1.6 million

“We are all absolutely delighted for James and really proud of the progress he’s made at the club," said Crainey, via the club’s website.

“He’s a young player I’ve been lucky to work with for a number of years now with the under-23s and more recently the first team and he’s someone who really deserves the opportunity.

“As a club we pride ourselves on developing young players, getting them into the first team and then selling them to the Championship and the Premier League, and this is another example of us doing so.

“The deal is a record transfer fee for Fleetwood Town, so it’s one which suits both parties and we are delighted to wish him well at Bournemouth and hopefully watch James develop into a Premier League player in the future.”

 

 

Hill has featured for the England U20s side, debuting in a 6-1 thrashing of Romania’s U20 side. Bournemouth beat out the likes of Barcelona, Tottenham and Leeds United for the signature of the defender. 

Fleetwood Town are currently 20th in the League One table, level on points with 21st place side Lincoln City. Their most recent game was a 3-0 loss to Shrewsbury.

Fleetwood next face Doncaster Rovers away from home on January 8. 

The Verdict

The previous record sale of the club was held by Jamie Vardy, who famously left the club when it was a non-league team. Those are pretty big boots to fill for Hill if he wants to follow in Vardy’s footsteps.

The club made the most of that Vardy money and have established themselves in League One now.

If the club can again make good use of their newly received funds then there is great potential there because this is quite a lot of money for a club the size of Fleetwood Town.