Interesting Rafa mentioned agents costs today. I remember there was a stat a bit back that we pay one of the higher levels of agents fees in the PL. I wonder if the issue is actually a stubborn Ashley saying 'we're no longer getting mugged off by these twats'? Clubs like Arsenal are wuiting reasonable transfer fees so my theory is that it breaks down on the agents side of things. If this is the case we mat be playing brinkmanship which may mean some deadline day cave ins (in our favour).
I believe agents should take their fees from their player or was that should be shot as it is them who are hiking up the fees remember that agents fees don't filter back into football most of these guys have no interest in football
Think we got mugged off more to compensate for the cheap transfers. If I was an agent of a **** French player I would have rung Carr and said I'll sort you out for X amount, knowing he'll say yes before finishing the sentence. Other agent these days probably know of these fees and will be saying "if you paid that agent X amount for Riviere, you can pay me more"
Arsene, for all the arrogance and Gooner-hate he gets, knows what he's doing for the most part. Sead Kolasinac is a steal by all accounts and £46m for Lacazette this Summer is relatively speaking about 20p last year. Get the feeling Rafa wanted every player signed by June and holds Charnley responsible. Under the Eye of Mordor (Justin Barnes), Charnley had to go back to market-stall haggler, which is the common opinion as to why Lejeune took 6 weeks to sort out and why Abraham went to Swansea. I might be wrong, but it feels to me like we provisionally agree a fee, THEN start to throw objections to get money off, rather than just agreeing and getting on with it. Feels like we're being tight over pennies which mean nothing. What would another £500k off Lejeune achieve? Probably a result like Semedo.