The moral dilemma.

One of my strikers, the Ecuadorian Nestor Jacome, has, at the moment, scored 109 goals for my club Rochdale. In RL the Dales all time record scorer is Reg Jenkins with 119.

Now not many people outside of Rochdale will ever have heard of "Big Reg" but round these parts the man is a complete legend. Men aged 50 and over sit in pubs and go all misty eyed whenever his name is whispered, their only response being "Aye! Big Reg. Now there WAS a player" as they shake their heads and gaze fondly into the distance. I have to admit i am one of those men.

Now this upstart Nestor has come over from Ecuador and looks like he is going to smash "our Reggies" record. The t**t.

As he gets closer to 119 the more i am starting to resent him.

My dilemma is is that Nestor is now 32 but he is still banging them away and looks like he will for at least the rest of this season and probably next season as well but i could probably still get a few quid for him and the record of Big Reg would not beaten.

If i let him beat the record i am sure it will leave me feeling cheap and nasty.

Do i stick (keep) or twist (sell).

Keep him buid your own legacy there, records are made to be broken

It really depends...

if this record is such a big deal for a fan, even for those who weren't even born when the record was established, I can see the moral dilemma even if it's "only a game"...

Still, I would question the fact you've put yourself in such a position If the guy is 32 and "almost" there, you could have just sold him when he was 29 probably at the peak of his career and at the highest of his value curve... Good business, good planning and no remorse...

But now it'll just reek of "sorry I can't have you break the record... thank you for all the memories and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out"

If I were you, I'd just keep playing him as long as he's good enough, and que ser sera.

Sell him. If it were a home-grown kid who was at the club for 15 years that was close to breaking the record I would say let him do it. But I wouldn't let some random Ecuadorian break the record of Big Reg from Rochdale

If he has been there for that long, he would be a legend anyway, Im an Arsenal fan and when Henry broke Wights record, he was at the club for years and became a fan favorite so everyone wanted it and he became a new hero.

I think your new Rochdale fans need a new hero not a 50 year old player that old blokes in pubs go on about, let the new fans say Nestor, now there was a player, for the next 50 years

If he moans or storms out of the private chat room, then get rid of him. Apart from that, he doesn't seem to have done anything wrong, in that case why would you resent him? If he does wrong don't let him break the record, if not then he deserves it.

Keep him buid your own legacy there, records are made to be broken

Exactly this.

If he gets to the record he deserves it, right?

Also, this:

I think your new Rochdale fans need a new hero not a 50 year old player that old blokes in pubs go on about, let the new fans say Nestor, now there was a player, for the next 50 years

I love breaking club records. I took great happiness from, as Liverpool, being more successfull than Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish put together. I took great pleasure in having my superstart legend of a striker smash the goalscoring records(over 600 in all appearances for me.)

Records are there to be smashed.

To be honest, I don't think it matters. Sir Bobby Charlton is always a legend although soon-to-be-Sir Ryan Giggs surpassed him in league appearances. Giggs could surpass Mark Hughes in terms of overall goals soon but Hughes will never be lesser-remembered than he is today.

And remember that nobody today can really rank today's greats and say, "This is definitely the way to rank them." Users on Internet forums will continue to rant on whether Jacome was better than Jenkins, whether Jacome was better because he had better players around him, or because Jenkins was a more complete player, or simply because Jenkins was pre-World War II and we all know football began in 1993.

So I would say, "break the record", and endorse this idea I had a while back for lists of statistics, not just the "best-of-the-best" (especially since one statistic is never the true story!).

Just let him have the new record! It would be a proud new era for the club.

Are you really going to reach the Premier Division and Champions League without having your striker score more than 119 goals? I don't see it happening.

To be honest, I don't think it matters. Sir Bobby Charlton is always a legend although soon-to-be-Sir Ryan Giggs surpassed him in league appearances. Giggs could surpass Mark Hughes in terms of overall goals soon but Hughes will never be lesser-remembered than he is today.

Exactly - the point of a club legend is that they're immortalised - remembered and honoured for many decades beyond their retirement. Records are just numbers, the memory of a great player is never diminished if a record is overtaken.

What you should do is arrange a future transfer, then put him on as hard physical training as you can and then just play him no matter how tired he is until he is either seriously injured, or leaves... Then you'll get your money, the record shouldn't be broken and you get to know that this striker won't have a chance to be any good for anyone else either...

...I mean...