According to the Cambridge
News website in January 2002, Cambridge City's 16 year old
Robbie Simpson was signed from Norwich City's youth setup and
made his full debut for Cambridge City in Jan 2002 aged 16.. Originally
a midfielder, Robbie has been converted into a centre forward.
On 2nd June 2006, Robbie moved across the city of Cambridge to
join Rob Newman's Cambridge United.
In April 2007, speculation suggested that Norwich are one of
three Championship clubs running the rule over Cambridge United
striker Robbie Simpson who has hit 13 goals in his last 14 matches
for the Nationwide Conference outfit alerting the likes of Ipswich
Town and Leicester City along with Canaries manager Peter Grant.
Robbie is due to sign for Coventyr on 1st July 2007 with the fee
to be decided by tribunal as Cambridge boss Jimmy Quinn claims
the two clubs are "a million miles apart" in their valuation
of the player. On 9th July, the FA set compensation for the move.
Coventry will pay £40,000 initially, with an overall fee
of £130,000 possible dependent on appearances and a 5 percent
sell-on clause agreed for the 22-year-old striker. This was blasted
by Cambridge chairman Lee Power "But the biggest kick
in the teeth is the sell-on of just 5%. I've never known such
a low sell-on in my life; they're normally much higher - 15% or
20%. They know the lifeblood of any smaller football club is the
sell-on in a case like this, and they've given the player away
on our behalf for £40,000 and then given us nothing to look
forward to in the future with the sell-on. It's an absolute disgrace
and I'm livid. I don't know yet if there is an appeal process
but we'll find out,"