I think we were all thinking that Mane would be off this Summer. If someone comes in and does offer £40 million, and Mane wants to go then it may be better to take the money and reinvest it. If Mane is more then happy to stay another season I will be delighted.
Yeah I get the argument, if we sell now we make more money, but surely, we need to show other clubs, you can't keep shopping at Saints FC, everytime we have a successful season!
McNulty has posted on BBC that we're holding out for 40m but he's basically off
I agree that that is the ideal. And with the likes of Virgil, tied down to contracts of three years or more, it is absolutely a possibility.
But once a player gets down to their final 18 - 24 months, suddenly they take all the power. Although far from ideal, I would rather the club sold a player for top money, than made some sort of statement to other clubs only to sell that same player 6 or 12 months later (probably to that same club) for a lesser fee. It's the lesser of two evils.
What did we show Spurs by not selling Wanyama to them last summer? That if you comeback 12 months later, you can get him for £5m - £10m cheaper. There is a huge difference between agreeing to sell someone with many years left on their contract, and someone without. I don't think the club can do too much in relation to the latter, which is why getting Virgil, Forster etc signed up to long term contracts was so important.
I agree, the balancing act for players with >24 months on contract is the payoff between selling for 5-10m more the season before, or keep him, have him play for us - (finished 6th so into EL Group stage, excellent season) and sell for 5-10m less than we could have got. Was Tottenham's bid c.£12m last season? Or did they actually offer 5-10m more? If I am remembering correctly it was a derisory bid. Unless that was their bid for Schneiderlin. Which was also derisory I think. Bloody Spurs.
I suspect I might be in a group of one here, but if Liverpool were offer £25m + Benteke, then I would accept that.
I suspect I might be in a group of one here, but if Liverpool were offer £25m + Benteke, then I would accept that.
That would be Lovely Business. Turn Benteke back into the £35 million striker and resale to Liverpool.
Is that an actual rumour or just out of your head? It is interesting.
The latter. If BBC are correct that Liverpool are are sitting at £30m whereas we're sitting at £40m, it could be an alternative compromise. Ignoring the guys returning from loan, he's the only attacking player of theirs who I think they'd be willing to offload this summer.
Saints need to take a simple approach here: 40mill or **** off Liverpool.