You mean they just played along to get the deal they wanted with no intention of keeping him? Well, I never...
It feels like we get played in the transfer windows far more often than we do the playing. Not that I profess to know anything about what goes on behind the scenes, but from the outside it certainly looks that way.
I’m sure it was said on here from Di Mazio that Inter paid a 500k loan fee and are covering all his wages. We’ll definitely sell him in the summer
In the summer he will only have a year left on his deal so his value will be somewhat diminished. Still if we weren't really going to use him and there were no permenant takers in Jan then at least we saved on his wages and got £500k, there is also the chance that he plays really well at Inter and they change their mind about signing him.
His wages and his loan fee don't really amount to a whole hell of a lot, though. Maybe £1.4m if his wages are on the high side. Given that he was playing prior to departing, I'm dubious that it made either financial or competitive sense.
You can't make profits on every player....it's a gamble every time you buy one. You buy a player to use him...which is why accountants write their value off each year...we pay 15 mill for a player on a 5 year contract = 3 million a year, so after 3 years using him has cost 9 million, therefore residue value is 6 million (roughly, not claiming to be an accountant). You don't buy a car and expect to get the same money years later...unless you have bought a classic and done it up (which is what we hope to do with some players). If we don't want Cedric then any reasonable price (plus the savings on wages etc) will be fine.
P.s. Cedric may not have suited Ralph, but he would have been used...suggests that the player wanted to leave and this was a factor. Not that Cedric looked disruptive, but, if he wasn't buying in, this may have been considered a decent option in the short term. And Inter Milan suggesting that they might sign him permanently was a player incentive.
This is basically how i took it. Ralph doesn't want players who don't 100% buy in and wants a smaller squad so he can concentrate his time on the players that do. I guess this is a case of a bad deal being better than no deal.
Trouble is, we may as well have sold him for £5m even, because by valuing his loan fee at ~£500k per 6 months, what offers are we getting in the summer when he has 12 months left and it's clear we don't want him? There's also the issue of some players with 12 months left wanting to sit it out rather than move so that they can maximise their signing on fee.
Can't see Cedric doing that...though he will want a move that suits him. Obviously may prefer to sit it out if the only offers are unacceptable to him, but he has given us no reason to think he is a difficult person.
Premiership Manager of the month: Ralph came joint second. Koeman won it 3 times and Poch won it once. Before that Harry Redknapp won it in March 2005 despite Saints only playing 2 games in March and losing to Man Utd 4-0 in the FA Cup and obviously we ended bottom of the table come May. (Peter Crouch was top scorer that year)
Billy Sharp has scored 21 goals this season and 87 in total for Sheff Utd over the last 3 and a half seasons. I hope they give him more than 3 games in the Premiership.
Sheffield United going top of the Champ with three goals at Villa Park. All scored by Billy Sharp. Really loved having that guy at Saints. 22 goals for the season now and it’s only February 8. 101 goals for his boyhood club. Great career.
Up the Villa. Really dislike Sheffield United as much as I like Billy, plus I wanna go to Villa Park.
