Kostas Mitroglou seems to have this merry band of Agents around him again. please log in to view this image After hearing about a hoard of clubs being keen on him - only yesterday, Italian side Saasuolo were the latest - the Turkish press now say a deal with Besiktas is all but done. Unfortunately, in my view anyway, it’s said to be a season long loan with a purchase option at the end of that. Guessing his wages to be around the £40k per week mark, hopefully they are picking up the whole tab and paying a fee for the priviledge.
If only LVC was English! You could add an extra £10m onto his price then. £8m quoted for Roberts, a literal non starter last season, and £2.5m for LVC... come again ...?
Ruiz has officially gone to Sporting Lisbon as expected, fee has not been confirmed but most reports seem to suggest in the £2 million region. I'm guessing that the wages saved from Ruiz and Rodellaga maybe Hoogland covers the wages of our five new signings which if the case means we we haven't increased the wage bill ( prob reduced it slightly) and have only spent £2 million net. With Roberts seemingly not prepared to sign a new contract I'm starting to lean towards taking the £8 million from City and using it to sign Dunk, Tarkowski and Macdonald, all of a sudden we have pretty much revamped our whole team hardly spending any cash!
I'm sad to see Ruiz go (not as sad as my youngest was this morning when I told him - as I've said before, Bryan is his favourite player), but I think it was inevitable. I don't think we ever got the best out of him on a consistent basis, but I'll remember him fondly, for his superb chipped goal against Everton if nothing else. I just looked for it on YouTube to post a link, but I can't find it anymore. Somehow that sums up Bryan's time with us.
Sad to see him go too but as you say Captain, it was inevitable. That goal against Everton will be most people's lasting memory of Bryan. Another one that stands out is his chip against Bolton, so elegant. Videos:
Short and succinct farewell from the Club: "Fulham Football Club can confirm Bryan Ruiz has joined Sporting Clube de Portugal for an undisclosed fee." I'm kind of sad as well, in that as others say, we've never seen the best of Bryan on a consistent basis. Whether that was because the Premiership/Championship style of play didn't suit him or because none of our managers knew what his best position was, I guess is conjecture.
When Bryan first came he wasn't physically up for the Premier, got knocked off the ball too easily, but you could see he was a skilful player, he didn't have the immediate effect everyone wanted and some fans turned against him very quickly. I liked Ruiz, he had good % accurate passing and good deadball skills, mostly good first touch of the ball, he scored a few good goals and did the unexpected, he had a good assists record, but his biggest problem was he was only had a left foot, his right foot was for standing on, meaning he was restricted in the tackling department and I think he could be isolated if played out wide on the wing. I didn't think managers made the most out of him, and he was always being ignored by the likes of Berbatov and don't think he got a good partnership going with anyone except maybe Rodallega.
I was delighted when we snatched him away from Newcastle, seemed like a great buy at the time. I'm sure he'll go on to do well at his new club where the pace of play will suit him. I rate him as a player but clearly coming to us was a terrible move for his career and development and I'm glad for the club and him that he's gone. I'll remember him as much for the glorious chip (which I was perfectly positioned for, the highlights don't seem to show how well he disguised it) as his laughable attempts to tackle (or rather his attempt to look like he was trying to make a tackle or win a header when really he had no intention of getting his shirt dirty). Good luck to him, at some point in the future I reckon fate will bring him back as an opponent and he will tear us apart.
Loved those descriptions silky: sums up our Bryan perfectly. Mind you, my son and I are still arguing over whether he really meant that chip or whether it was a fluke! please log in to view this image So, he's got a new 3 year contract and thanks to the Club being astute (hard nosed?) enough to impose that extension we got, I believe, £1.2m . However it's been reported that Sporting have slapped a £43m buyout clause into their contract. I know it's common practice in Portugal to inflate the value but that's a whacking hyke.
Putting in silly buy out clauses is the way to go. It's sort of a win win scenario. You don't want to sell the player but if you have to then you get an astronomical fee. When we sold Dembele to Spurs we had to accept it because the invoked his clause of £15 million. We made good profit but I can't help think if we might have got more had his buy out clause been higher.
I think it would be good to put a buy out clause on players. One way to do it for youngsters who you think you need to keep is give them a long contract on better than average wages and then calculated how much you will pay them over that period add that total to the transfer fee of say £15-20m and there you get a bonus of in effect having not paid them to play for you. Obviously the downside if they are a flop you've over paid them and they won't sell.
Will Kostas be joining Bryan? According to a report in the Portuguese paper A Bola, Sporting Lisbon are looking at tying up a deal for Kostas Mitroglou by Monday after missing out on Norwich City’s Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Could this be the good news of a cash sale rather than a loan?
Looks like he’s gone to Sporting ... On Loan! And we get a £750k fee plus saving in wages (£28k per week?), or at least most of them. Source: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fulham-bag-million-euros-loaning-9643354
According to The Times Genoa have approached us about signing Tiago ‘Bad Boy’ Casasola please log in to view this image
According to The Sun Liverpool are back in the running for Pat Roberts. please log in to view this image They are said to have made a bid of £5m, matching Man City ... we want twice that much, the report says.
According to The Sun, Premier League new boys Bournemouth are keen on a deal for high-earning Scott Parker; the paper claiming the Cherries want to ‘keep it in the family’ with Parker being Harry Arter’s half-brother. please log in to view this image Can't say I'd be overly disappointed if this happens and the £3m or so saved wages could be nicely re-invested.
According the local paper Kit has said that Pat Roberts has refused to sign a new contract and indeed handed in a transfer request. Numerous other reports (The Telegraph probably being the most credible) say he's off to Man City after all, for a reputed £40k per week. The deal alegedly is that we'll get £5.3m up front rising to around £11m dependent on ... ?? Edit: Subsequently Kit is quoted on the Official Site saying, “It’s a shame to lose one of our bright young talents but I need to have people that are committed and want to play for the football club. I sat down with Pat and his parents and told them how much we value him and want him at the Club. But they’d made their minds up and it then becomes quite difficult. We did all we could to keep him but good luck to him if this is what’s going to happen. We’ll move on, this is a big Club with a lot of good players here.”
He's Arter's brother-in-law, not half-brother. I agree though, this could be a decent deal for all concerned, particularly with the arrival of Cairney, O'Hara and Pringle already this summer.
I hope we stick to our guns with the fee we want for Roberts. I can see what's going to happen . He'll play reserve team football or loaned out for 5 years. He won't get in to the first team of the club he joins and then sign for QPR at the age of 23 and then 4 other clubs who can pay a prodigy £75k a week. Kits right in only wanting players who want to be at the club. Taxi for Roberts and best of luck.
