Toby signs for Spurs - official.

Jesus Christ this is pathetic from AM. They've behaved like a bunch of twats and as a result Saints and Spurs have been left in limbo wondering what the **** is going on. I hope they lose all their best players to Real Madrid.

 

Turan has gone so that's one.

 

Well, they ought to now, because that's a pretty realistic possibility. AM will probably argue that some element of it is ambiguous, and will sell him in the interim. It'll go to arbitration, and we'll get a decent wedge, AM will walk away with more money than if they gave in, Spurs will walk away with the player, and we'll have enough extra cash to buy a middling backup.

 

If we knew Atletico didn't want to sell at £6.8m and kept quiet because we thought they'd screw themselves over on a technicality then, for me, we tried to be too clever and may end up losing out on a player because of it. It may not be illegal but it's sharp practice and we're hardly entitled to claim the high ground.

 

Um well we are as we haven't broken a agreement.

 

No but if it was clear Atletico wanted to break the payment clause and we sat back and took advantage of their oversight in not paying the fee on time then that's hardly ethical behaviour.

 

And we'd then be well within our rights to feel aggrieved when someone else has a top-notch player who actually wanted to sign here. I'd rather have the player and not the sense of righteous indignation, given the choice.

 

Not our fault they ****ed up it's theirs.

 

My mind is swinging like a ****ing pendulum at the moment. One moment I think he'll sign for us, the next I'm convinced he's going to sign for Spurs.

 

We don't know what is going on do we? That's just wait and see what happens. At this moment in time the only club people should be annoyed at is AM.

 

And who's to say we won't get Toby? We would match Spurs offer easily, but why do we need to pay more than we need to? We haven't messed up, Atletico have.

 

I'm not annoyed at anyone yet. I'm just saying that the path of least resistance here is for us to offer more than the original price if that's what is necessary to make the transfer happen. If we instead choose to impotently repeat "but but but we had a deal!" while Spurs gets Toby, then no matter what moral high ground we have, we will have ****ed up.

 

No, but trying to take advantage of another party's clear oversight would be pretty shady behaviour and doesn't fit with the comments on here about Southampton acting ethically or in a morally correct way. Seems to me we tried to play Atletico and as a result may have got played ourselves.

Of course, if we sign Alderweireld none of this will matter.

 

Because he's a really goddamned good player, and I would rather much like to get him. Playing a game of chicken over a contract clause does not appeal to me.

 

Business is always shady or grey as they like to call it.

 

We have no idea what has gone on...we may very well have been negotiating, but we now have an extra weapon. I doubt we've just been sitting there and hoping that they would be daft enough to miss a date.

 

Just watched the homeless people on ch5,turned the telly off,came back on here and blow me down if some of the same arguments the seemingly less intelligent types on there used are being posted on here.