Saint Victor!

Neil Lennon:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-boss-neil-lennon-victor-2001858

“It is a bit of a stand-off at the minute and you hope it can be resolved in the next week or so.

“If the deal doesn’t go through, if it collapses or no other offers come in, we will welcome Victor back with open arms. There has not been one day when he has said he is unhappy here. He is actually very happy here.

“My own gut feeling is a deal will get done. But I’d like to emphasise the relationship between me and the player has never changed and the relationship between the club and the player hasn’t changed.

“It’s been a bit petty and unnecessary these last couple of days.”

 

I ****ing knew that agent was lying when he said nothing had happened for weeks. I expect everyone to pay attention to me from now on.

 

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Good poin, RK. So concise.

 

Well done on knowing not to trust someone who has a financial stake in lying. Any other life lessons for us?

 

I still can't see the point of saying that if it isn't true.

Oh well.

 

It encourages bids from other teams if they think the deal with us has collapsed, and implying recent negotiations aren't noteworthy puts pressure on us to make a better offer.

 

Take tabloid stories with a pinch of salt. You heard it here first.

 

Not to mention that there's been a lot of media speculation about the agent's unreasonableness, and he'd quite like to sweep that under the rug.

 

Not sure if it's been mentioned already but his agent is not Rob 'I want' Moore as was first believed but in fact his fellow ExtraTime employee, Ivan Modia.

http://www.extratime.es/team/imodia.html

 

It seems like he's got some sort of arrangement involving both of them. Wanyama is listed as one of Moore's clients: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Moore_(entrepreneur)#Clients

This adds credence to the speculation that there are two agents who each want £600k.

 

I don't think it does though. If I'm, say, the Cardiff chairman and I think talks have broken down between Wanyama and Southampton then I would be more likely to think "Okay, he's not going to Southampton but he still wants to leave. I'll sit tight and eventually Celtic will have to accept my lower bid." than "Oh no! I better increase my bid before I miss out."

Similarly, if I'm Cortese and I know negotiations are still happening then I would just ignore that statement.

For me it would make far more sense for the agent to say something like "We're still talking but there's a big difference between what Victor wants and what they're offering. I don't know if we can agree anything. Perhaps we'd have more luck with another club."

 

Yeah, I think that's the game being played. Cardiff are teaming up so to speak with the agent as they are willing to meet their demands. This then puts pressure on Celtic to sell to Cardiff as otherwise Wanyama might leave for much less next year. Saints are teaming up with Celtic and hoping that between the two of them they can force Wanyama into move otherwise he might be stuck at Celtic for one or two more years.

I do think the agent is being a bit of an idiot here. He's gambling that someone will match Saints bid. But even then, the big clubs might not pay the agent what he needs. Even if they can easily afford it, it still sets a bad precedent. If they have to pay a 1 million pound fee for a 12 million pound player, what's going to happen next time they sign a 24 million pound player? The only way it makes sense is if it really isn't about the money and if Arsenal came in he would waive his fee demands. In other words, the agent might be taking the fall for the player but making himself look greedy instead of the player refusing to play. But I lean more towards the "agent is an idiot" theory.

 

Except Celtic aren't going to accept lower offers. Lennon has said that. He's looking for a club that is willing to match Southampton's transfer offer, and beat their contract offer.

Besides, he doesn't want Celtic to accept a lower offer because the agent fee is typically a certain proportion of the transfer fee.

 

Well Lennon has said that but he may be lying himself or Celtic may change their mind closer to deadline day.

Even if that's true the 2 weeks thing still makes no sense. Cardiff are the only other club who have made a bid while a club like Arsenal know that if they want to they can come in and steal the player at pretty much any time before the deal is signed. If they think the Southampton deal is dead there's no need for them to move quickly.

Basically if another club thinks negotiations are happening but not finalised they're more likely to move fast than if they think there are no negotiations happening at all.

 

I don't think the agents care if Cardiff meet Celtic's valuation, in fact if Celtic think the Southampton deal isn't going to happen, they might be willing to accept a lower offer, which would give the agents more leverage regarding their fee demands. It's in their interest for Celtic to accept as many offers as possible.

 

On the other hand, the agents may feel like it's in their best interests to keep Wanyama at Celtic because he'll be playing Champions League football, or they'll only be happy to move him on to another CL team like Inter, who have been rumoured to be interested. They may consider CL football to be of a far greater benefit to his value in the future, earning him more bonuses and attracting the biggest clubs if he can keep playing the way he has been. They might not want him to go to Saints or Cardiff.

 

There's more money in the premier league than in the group stages of the champions league, and Celtic are unlikely to go further than that. As well as an agents' fee when he moves they'll get more out of his much improved salary afterwards, I think it benefits them more to move him on than keep him at Celtic. You might well have a point about enhancing his reputation by playing in the champions league, but I don't get the impression they're up for playing the long game (indeed it probably makes more sense from a financial point of view to take a certain amount now rather than an uncertain one later).

 

Is this real? My first reaction was that he was just even more dear than Rob "I want" Moore.

 

Agreed here. I mean Celtic made the last 16 last year so you can't rule out the idea that they want the added European exposure but Celtic aren't even guaranteed to make the group stages of the Champions League this year, never mind go further, so that would be a big gamble. If he had one year left on his contract the idea might make more sense but it's two and they've already talked about the million quid of lost income from not going to QPR last year.