Jose has helped us up from L1 to 6th in the Prem. It's sad that the last of the class of L1 might be off, but I won't begrudge him a move to the big time provided that we are amply compensated. Best of luck to him.
Thing is, due to his age we would most likely get £8-12m. From our point of view there is no way it is a good deal. Cons: Very hard to get an experienced proven CB. Very hard to replace your captain. Not much time to source a replacement. Demoralising for the squad. Wouldn't be financially beneficial. Pro's: ...
Fonte has made comments in previous transfer windows showing frustration at stars being sold. He would has also followed these up regarding trusting the club etc etc. Maybe this window is the straw that broke the camels back?? Couple that with the fact he has some decent offers to mull over, i wouldn't blame him one jot if he left. FWIW, i think he will stay, If not we will sign a suitable replacement. The way we've been doing business suggests we must already be lining up his future replacement anyway, we just might need them a bit sooner thats all.
Timing...agree ish ( it is the summer transfer window) Demoralising to squad ...agree However, if we get 8-10 mil for him and source a replacment without "a super agent" then it will be another bit of great work. On the captaincy, the way our team has been assembled, i think their are 4 or 5 players that could easily captain our side and do a bloody good job too.
I have been told that Mourihno definitely wants him, that we have valued him at 10mil, and that Fonte wants to move to a bigger club. I personally think he will go.
In fairness I your point about captaincy is valid. There are a few players who could take that role on very well. As for a replacement, it is so hard to get a player as experienced and reliable as Fonte. Even Van Dijk, who is arguably a better player, wasn't as consistent af Fonte last season. Praying we keep hold of him.
Fair enough. Wasn't much it in but I thought Fonte had the edge in terms of being better at actually defending. VVD excels in other areas but needs time to be the complete defender imo
The problem is that unless Fonte really wants to play here, almost all of the "cons" exist whether he gets a transfer or not. We thought that Fonte was like, this guy. And if he isn't that guy anymore, then he shouldn't be captain, it's probably already demoralizing for the squad, etc. Take away all that special stuff, and all you have is "it's tough to replace an experienced CB." Which I agree with, but the fact is that Fonte would need replacing very soon anyway. It would have been nice for us to get one more year in, and then hopefully someone from the academy would be ready. But OTOH, with 10-12m, we could bring in a good young CB. VVD was 13m. Again, this is if any of that stuff is true. It seems likely to me that Fonte simply needs a bit of a break as he's played a lot of football the last year or so. If we were playing football manager his "jadedness" rating would probably be like 99999.
Whilst I agree that when a player is distracted by their future they aren't the same player and it can create an uncertain dressing room, after the window closes he will soon crack on with his football. Just like Schneiderlin and Wanyama did during their last seasons, even though they knew they would leave at the end. Fonte would soon realise his best option was to accept the situation and focus on saints again
I've been told some unsubstantiated **** by people who know nothing at all about the whole business with fonte too...I won't put money on him going based on what I've heard so far, and I tend to take most things from the majority of 'ITKs' with a pretty heavy pinch of salt until I see it from a proper validated source, not just what a random someone told someone else
Schneiderlin wasn't team captain. I think Fonte needs a bit more than just to agree to play for Saints for one more year to get back that special status. But I agree with you in the main. If Fonte is just momentarily out-of-sorts and will come around, then of course we ought to keep him.
