Not heard about that sponsorship, be good if true though. I know Toby wanted out but I do wonder if this deal happening so quickly is also down to a potential new CB joining soon. Toby is still better than Dier and Sanchez despite all three not being good enough anymore, so to sell “the best” of them does make me think the club is confident of something happening.
Yup, and I’m all for it. Change has been needed for a while. Feels like Don Fabio sees it from the fan’s perspective, just hope his signings hit the ground running.
Can't believe we got to shift his huge wages off the books and got a fee for him. Was brilliant at one point and always put a shift in so wish him well
I think this is everything to do with Toby wanting out tbh. Can’t see him being sold before the other two otherwise, though obviously you can only sell if you can find a buyer and I think we’re probably struggling with Dier there. I imagine Toby will be in Qatar soaking up the sun for a year or two then head back home.
Absolute class act, one of the best! To have him and Verts at their peak was fundamental to our rise between 2015-2019. Wish him all the best!
Toby & Lamela going is needed and good but I’m really hoping Sissoko, Aurier, Dier and Sanchez all follow them out the door in the next couple of weeks.
I'd throw Dele in there too. Did nothing to improve when Jose called him lazy and beyond the first weeks of Nuno reign, I don't expect any change this time round either.
Yeah I think Toby's gone before the others because we got an offer that was easily acceptable. Getting about £13m for a 32 year old who'd been in decline for a solid 18-24 months is a great deal for the club, more so as he was one of our bigger earners. The wage budget is probably looking very healthy at the moment too which puts us in a good position to be able to offer a decent wage to one or two potential new signings. I think we've reduced around £350k from the sales/ releases of Toby, Lamela, Foyth, Gazzaniga and Rose. Gil and Gollini aren't on huge wages whilst Son's had an increase of about £70k I think so all in all there's probably around £200k+ sitting there to go towards players like Romero and co and we've still hopefully got more to boot like CCV, Dier, Sanchez, Winks, Sissoko and Aurier etc. It is just convincing these players to indeed do one though. I think too many have gotten far too comfortable and it's made it problematic getting them off the books. It was already reported that Lamela needed a lot of convincing to leave and there's already rumours that Winks wants to stay despite being told he's not wanted and won't play much. Don Fabio's got a job on his hands that's for sure, I'm pretty confident in him though to do what needs to be done.
Plus Bale was on huge money wasn’t he so the club must be paying a lot less in wages right now than last season.
Probably on this one...but, from what's been reported, at least Paratici has been pursuing other options at the same time. This should be one of the BIG differences between having Levy significantly involved in transfers and having a full-time specialist leading the process. We're unlikely to be back to stage 1 and can concentrate on other options that have been developed at the same time.
I would expect Alisdair Gold to be aware of that if it had happened. They just make this stuff up to fill their columns.