Defoe - £0 Leicester Kone - £16m - Palace Pickford - £20m - Liverpool Borini - No takers Lens - £13m - China Khazri - £4m - Al Ain N'Dong - Stay put.
Wijnaldum and Sissoko - Dutch and French internationals respectively vs. Borini/Khazri - you're even further off than I thought.
Wijnaldum is a tidy player, imo, head and shoulders above the other three. Sissoko is poor, that £30m was based on his performance in Euro 2016 I reckon, nothing more. Borini and Khazri are nowhere near Wijnaldum, but easily as good as Sissoko imo.
McCormack is a good player at that level though and has impressed over the last couple of years, Borini and Khazri have done very little since they were signed to show we'd get any money back. If we're looking at money I'll go for: Defoe - Spurs (free) Kone - Everton (£10m) Pickford - Man City (I personally would tell anyone to get stuffed until they offered minimum of £30m) Borini - Italy (£4m) Catts - Burnley (£1m) Larsson - Sweden (free) Khazri - France (£5m) Lens - Fenerbache (£6m) N'Dongle - Swansea (£6m) Bodge job - Hopefully not Sunderland! (Couldn't give him away for me he's shocking) Mannone - Italy (£2m)
Oh, I do think we'll offload Donald Love to Barcelona for a world record fee but I don't think it's fair to put him alongside the above lists.
Wijnaldum is a one in 3 player though that's what I based my opinion on - has the ability to be very good but seems to lack the application - even the mags couldn't believe they got £30m for him! Sissokho - regardless of international pedigree - is awful - I personally wouldn't want him here in place of either Khazri or Borini. Thing is Adz - do you not think Borini would be as good/better if played at that level? I certainly do (better than Rhodes and McCormack) - as would Khazri which is why I can't work out why people only say £5m for Borini - there is money in the game and the new guy seems to be pushing for it (if papers are to be believed he won't take less than £13m for Lens which tells me we';re not going to be pushed around) We turned down £18m for Kone and he's no worse a player than he was - he then signed a new contract and I believe his release clause was somewhere near £20m. I'm basing my valuations on the current market - not on what we've all expected to get in the past
I'd take a 1 in 3 player like Wijnaldum all day over a 1 in 38 like Borini, they're world's apart, even though they're different positions. A current dipper and an ex dipper, easy for me to stay objective here.
Goalscorers go for more money and from evidence of the last few years Borini only finishes penalties. Kone was very much in demand last summer following an excellent 4-5 months towards the end of the season, this season he has went under the radar as his performances haven't been to as high a standard (although he's done pretty well for me since October time) I'd be shocked if he went for the £18m anymore. Current reputations (no matter where they come from, especially in Sissoko's case) go's a long way to how much someone will pay for a player.
I think you'll still get £15m+ for Kone, under the right coach he could be a beast, and £15m is not a lot in today's market. Depends if he's got a relegation clause in his papers though.
Borini isn;t a one in 38 though - he's having a poor time of it at the moment due to confidence but I've watched him play significant parts for us in recent seasons. Wijnaldum is probably a poor choice from me (although he's not a £30m player) but Sissokho is pure garbage and I wouldn't swap him for Borini. Makes a change someone having Levy's pants down Borini will never be a top player - but, when on form, I reckon he's a mid table premier league player and they are a comfortable £10m in today's market
