Why is it relevant? Demba Ba was moving from one PL club to another. Sagbo is moving from a bottom of the table French L1 team to a club with similar aspirations of surviving in the PL. How many players did Swansea sell for £Millions prior to the PL? Not many, now thanks to successful campaigns they've moved on a few, how sensible would they be to have a £5m release clause on Michu or Williams? The club are selling themselves short if he does go onto greatness. It's a missed profit opportunity by having a 'release clause'.
Everyone is debating this release clause in his contract. One question, who has seen his contract? Certainly none of the fans have seen the details, that's between player and Club. It's the job of the Manager and the negotiators at the Club to bring in the players that they think will do a job for us and it's our job as fans to get behind that and shout the team on each week. There's quite a few players that are unproven in the Prem League, no-one knows how they'll do until the season starts for real, that's football. Bruce has done us well so far, he's got a decent record in the Prem, so let's get behind the team, come what may and see how it goes.
Newcastle were able to sign Demba Ba on the cheap, because he had a relegation release clause in his contract at West Ham(which was insisted upon when they signed him from Hoffenheim, who were in 2 Bundesliga when he joined them) and he only signed for Newcastle after they also agreed a release clause. It's entirely relevant, it's exactly the same circumstances, both West Ham and Newcastle got good value out of Ba, I hope we do the same and I'm glad we didn't bin a deal on a player we wanted, just because we might be forced to sell him for two or three times what he cost us(as we'll only do so if he's been really successful).
Sorry glp but you're not being a realist. This bloke is 25 and he will want an extended run in the EPL, not just one season and then a career in the Championship. He knows there's been other interest and if the deal was wrong for him he could afford to wait and see whether others would bid. However that's not the main point. The most important thing is Bruce needs a squad of decent players and he can't afford to spend the whole window bartering with one or two agents. This deal is a minimal risk to City because the fee is so small and his wages should be reasonable. So we have a player who could help keep us up and if he leaves we should at least get our money back. Keep your eyes on the prize. It's about Hull City staying up. It's not about turning down good players because their terms mean we won't make a huge future profit.
Of course I'm a realist. Who else had bids on the table for him?.......no one. The other interested parties were precisely that - rumoured. As for a good player, I don't doubt that he is. If he has a great season in the PL, we get relegated, I have no qualms with selling him. But it should be on our terms, not his. We're giving him the opportunity to showcase his skills to all in the PL, we're taking the risk on him, he'll be well recompensed for having to play for us for a season, no doubt.
I think a release clause is a bit catch-22 in this instance. I agree if the player insisted he wouldn't sign if such a clause wasn't put into his contract that we should have taken the route we have and given him it. But we should (and I hope we have) have negotiated a clause that states something like the £5m clause only applies to teams in a top 10 position in the league, or something to that extent. Only reason I say that is because imagine if come January it looks like we're going to be in a relegation scrap, Sagbo is our top scorer and Sunderland are in a relegation scrap with us too. They might just use their wads of cash to buy our top scorer to upset our survival chances against them. Maybe even a scenario where he's doing really well, we're comfortably mid-table come January and then someone with more money in the relegation zone triggers his release clause.
The clause doesn't mean he has to leave. No team is in a relegation fight in January, there's still 5 months left to play.
I understand everything just fine thanks. He isn't really taking a risk is he? He is getting the chance that he has craved by getting the chance to play in the premier league, he had no other PL suitors. He has swapped a potential battle against relegation in the French L1 vs a potential battle against relegation in the PL, which is televised all over the world. He will undoubtedly have a better salary, signing on fee, other potential club perks too. With all the clauses, it seems like he has won hands down in his contract terms negotiations.
Technically everyone is in a relegation fight in January. So does that mean the first game of the season is a relegation decider? Get a grip.
With that logic we should be able to get any player whose wages and personal terms we can improve, but it doesn't always work that way does it?
I say again, who has seen his contract stating that there's a release clause of any amount? Who has heard anyone of authority from Hull City AFC say there is any type of release clause? All this debate is immaterial because outside the interested parties, no-one knows
To be fair Newcastle signed him for nothing, as his release clause at West Ham (they paid nothing either) was release with no fee following relegation, plus WH only paid him on a pay as you play deal, due to a suspect knee. I don't see this as the best example you could have used, Newcastle got great service out of a player that cost nothing, they then sold him for just over £7m.
You think that's frustrating - someone making stuff up about a guys release clause. Try being a spurs fan and listening to the Bale / Madrid stuff when Bale has ONLY said he will be staying at Spurs and so has the club.
It is part of what you said, but isn't this quite simple when you think of what both parties have come away with?: Sagbo will be playing in the EPL. His wages will improve and he'll probably get a few more perks. His contract is only 2 years so if things don't work out he can move on. The release clause means he's guaranteed to be within budget for an established EPL club. And for City: We get a striker that SB rates highly, who could play a big part in our survival. We have probably paid a very modest fee. We will probably be paying acceptable wages. We don't have to sell him for less than £5million (over 300% profit) We will have a good chance of extending his contract if we stay up and if we go down we would probably lose him anyway. Seems like a reasonable deal to me.
Those that are annoyed at the release clause don't seem to realise that £5m is a lot of money to receive for a player. If it gets accepted, then we've made a massive profit. We can use that money to buy an even better striker.
You're hilarious. Every one of your posts is written in an uppity, condescending tone, yet you're as dense as Tickler. It shouldn't be that hard to grasp what I'm saying, but let me try and break it down for you: 1. By Premier League standards we have a seriously poor squad. We lack pace, goals and a central midfield; 2. Every time I point this out to the overexcited children who think Danny Graham is going to fire us into the top-half, the response is always along the lines of, "well this squad got us promoted so it can't be that bad"; 3. To this I say that where you finish in the second tier (1st-6th) one year gives absolutely ****-all indication as to how you'll do in the Premier League the next. Playing styles, formations, individuals, new signings and the manager's preferred players all need to be accounted for when you evaluate things. Likewise, when you compare us to sides who have finished second in the past few years (such as Southampton and Norwich), we aren't half as good. Instead of saying, "well Stephen Quinn played really well against Bolton at home" and whatnot, you should stand back, take off the rose-tinted spectacles and compare our shoddy bunch of plodders to those at the Premier League sides we'll be facing in 2013/2014. I apologise for not giving a **** about seeing Van Persie and Jose Mourinho at the KC next season, and for being bothered more about my own side and where we'll finish. I'm not going to excuse finishing bottom just because I got to see some decent individuals playing for our opponents.
