Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

And now...CONTEXT

Back in the summer, Fernandes didn't have an €85m release clause, that was only in play in the contract he signed in September after he didn't move in the summer, so there was no reason for us to offer that amount when even Sporting weren't asking for it

Fast forward to January, and Man Utd paid €55m with add-ons, meaning their offer was...£7m more than we offered up front in the summer, even though at that time Sporting were asking far less, plus add-ons which still don't reach the €85m Sporting were asking for as per the release clause in Fernandes contract, plus a conditional £23m...and you're still arguing the toss on this, and it's tiresome considering I already punted this crap into touch a week or two ago the last time you were harping on about it

It's abundantly clear that Sporting's position was the exact same one that Marseilles took with Batshuayi a few years ago, listening to our offer but stalling in the hope that somebody offered more at the last minute - but while a late offer from Chelsea paid off for Marseilles, there was no later offer for Fernandes and so they had him sign a contract with a bumper release clause...before selling him for considerably less than that release clause, but apparently we're cheap and Man Utd aren't

The fact that Sporting clearly state that we bid is the moment you need to change the record, not play it again with the volume turned up

 

That says that Sporting accepted the same amount that we offered them, but with a worse payment schedule.
Their position changed. Utd's offer was less attractive than ours.

 

Re the Grealish deal I am in full agreement. I was fuming at how badly we botched that. £30m would've comfortably done it, wouldn't have broken the bank, and he is now worth at least £35-40m even if they do go down.

But the summer and Bruno situation I see as a whole different ball game. Here's the thing: we didn't penny pinch when it came to Tanguy. The Lyon president dug his heels in and we raised our bid through add-ons. The irony of course is that so far we've paid around £55,000 for every minute of football he's played.

And if anything, we paid over the odds for Sessegnon. £30m plus Onomah was a ridiculous fee for a player with limited PL experience. Fulham must have pinched themselves on their way to the bank after the way we fleeced them for Dempsey and Dembele. So in light of that it becomes difficult to argue that penny pinching cost us Bruno.

I think the confusion at the end of the summer was part down to pursuing too many leads at once (as I've pointed out elsewhere: it's nuts to think that with 3 days left we were on the phone to Lo Celso, Bruno, Coutinho and Dybala all at once), part down to not moving outgoing players on quickly enough. The latter point hurt us more as it directly impacted how much money we could sanction in the other direction. Notice for example how our opening bid of £53m for Lo Celso suddenly became a staggered loan with lots of caveats to get out of the PSG sell-on clause, after it became apparent that Toby and Eriksen might not move.

Both of these problems could have been alleviated significantly with a dedicated DOF focusing all of their time and energies on them. It would also have helped had we not left ourselves with 18 months' worth of backlog work to deal with in the space of 1 window.

 

Something other than second hand quotes from people with an axe to grind.

In the real world we have to 'penny pinch'. If we had paid 5m over the odds for each of our other signings we couldn't have afforded Bruno at all.
Any sane chairman of any organisation sets an affordable budget and works within it.

The evidence of the success of Levy's strategy is the totality of our transfer business and the improvement in our on field performance over many years.

 

The only point in selling Toby and Eriksen last summer was to raise funds for transfers in. If we couldn't get the value we needed there was literally no point in moving them on quickly.
I have always said we needed a DoF but it won't lead to massively different results.
Everyone can point to possible errors.....but on Grealish and Bruno literally no-one else was interested enough to beat our bid.

 

probably because united are paying on appearances and achievable targets compared to levys offer of extras after you win the CL and PL

 

So his former employees are second hand sources?

Ndombele’s former teammates and coaches are second hand sources?

Where do you get your sources from?

We had to penny pinch before the stadium went up...maybe youve forgotten what stage we are at but I havent

time for ENIC to deliver the next stage of the masterplan

 

United add ons may not come to 30 million like ours would have...they offered 25...so yes it’s a worse deal In numbers but would you accept a proposal that suggests you get more money for winning things the buying team has never won before? Levy may aswell have offered a 100 mill in add ons it doesn’t mean it’s a better deal because it’s totally unrealistic as things stand.

it’s like a game which Levy is quite **** at but everyone keeps on telling him he’s very good at it.

 

Polish Striker Watch
CalcioNapoli24 are linking us with Napoli striker (Ctrl + C) Arkadiusz Milik, who is reportedly being squeezed out of the club so they can afford the bumper contract they're drawing up to keep Dries Mertens at the club - and the fact he's entered the final 18 months of his contract means that, if they want to cash in they need to do so quickly

While he's not as dynamic as Piatek, he does have a couple of things that work in his favour: he's a very consistent goalscorer, scoring 36 goals in 83 league games since moving to Napoli in 2016 and, before that, 32 in 52 games at Ajax in the two seasons he spent there, and if we're looking for a physically strong CF who is good in the air he ticks both of those boxes

Los Ladrones Link That Will Go Nowhere Watch: 2020 Edition
El Desmarque have linked us with FC Franco centre back Eder Militao, who has found his playing time limited this season as the club have adopted the mindset that, if they're going to win anything this season, they should stick with what they know and have the Ramos/Varane pairing play as many games as physically possible and rotate in Militao for games against the complete dross

The fact he's contracted until 2025 is reason enough to believe this is a non-starter, and even if it was going to go anywhere it would be one of those one-sided deals so beloved by Barca and Los Ladrones where, if he proves to be a success, they'll just activate the clause in the deal to spirit him away so they can continue their habit of hoarding players but never bothering to use them

 

I don't listen to sources I look at the results on the field.
Indeed we can spend more than before but our revenue is still only joint fourth best in England.
I trust ENIC to deliver.

 

Appearances and achievable targers won't earn Spurs or United any extra money. United can afford to splurge 30m if things go wrong and we can't yet.

 

Appearances and believable targets were add-ons in the deal we agreed for Soldado

Valencia never received a penny...

 

And that is why united got their man and you didnt and potentially why they will get 4th and you wont. That's 50m blown just like that.

Correct. But it's a no brainer which one is more likely to payout to sporting in the future and it isnt levys shananigans.

 

It's worth pointing out that there were a couple of add-ons regarding international appearances in the deal that took Michael Carrick to man Utd that we never saw a penny of, and they were worth something like £2.5m combined

So that's another reason to be PO'd with England playing the Gerrard/Lampard pivot in the belief that, as it worked playing FIFA, that means it worked in real life...

 

A big summer is required from our property developer chairman. We need upgrades or replacements at RB, LB, LCB, CDM and possibly GK, as well as another striker and AM to share the workload with Kane and Gio.

 

Not possibly mate, definitely.

I tried overlooking it as the defensive issues are shocking but he’s just as bad. Calamity after calamity with an occasional penalty save in between. **** leader/ captain too and he still can’t kick a ball properly either.

 

I agree, Lloris is done. Sell while he’s still got some stock. We need a 1st choice (my faith in Gazza was mislaid though I think he’s fine as a backup) and once Vorm goes we need to promote one of our approximately two thousand youth keepers or sign a vet to be third choice.

 

Yeah fought Gazza’s corner a lot last season as he had some outstanding performances but he hasn’t replicated that form this time around and he’s had a good run in the team too. Hugo’s still producing numerous brainfarts and it’s just too costly to persist with. I honestly wouldn’t be against selling both. Gazza’s stock won’t get higher whilst Lloris’ is at a level just enough to probably fetch us a semi-decent amount.

Go for Strakosha and then someone who’ll keep him on his toes.

I want a whole rebuild of the defence this summer, build from the back and then assess elsewhere in January.

We need our very own Alisson and Van Dijk.

 

Agreed on your last point.

Who’s Strakosha? Sounds like some sort of Eastern European culinary delicacy

 

Lazio’s number one, plays for Albania internationally.

Great shot stopper, although he is a bit like an early Lloris where Hugo preferred punching over catching but that can be coached. Probably the best/ one of the best keepers outside of those already at the elite I’d say.