And if you look at the news it was all about the other teams interest No mention of us at all That’s the way to do it
Nice to see that going about things the right way appears to pay off sometimes! Albeit you would think that if Newcastle actually wanted him they would have just bid for him. Sounds like he was probably a back up option for them.
This is also a good sign that, as well as Saints not being arseholes, the player and his team are decent people too. They could have easily been mercenaries and let Bordeaux suffer and then go to to highest bidder as a free transfer. Instead they prioritise the club benefiting from the agreement.
His stat profile last year is pretty impressive given his age: https://understat.com/player/8970 Like Adam Armstrong, he works an awful lot of shots per minute. Unlike Adam Armstrong, many of those shots come from the places where you might realistically score goals. His xG/90 (0.50) wasn't far off that of Ekitike (0.58), and Ekitike was a year older and went for three times the price to PSG.
You'd think that but look at us and Alderweireld. We 100% wanted him but tried to be cheeky and use a technicality to get him on the cheap, which ultimately cost us and let Spurs swoop in.
This guy has a whiff of Sadio Mane (when we signed him) about him. I think Mane was a bit older (22 or so I think?) when we signed him but they have similar characteristics - pace to burn, skillful, good finisher. I'm not expecting Mara to reach Mane (Saints not Liverpool version) levels for a good 2 seasons at least or even at all. I mean, Mane was some signing for us but I get the feeling Mara could produce to a similar level to Mane if he fulfils his potential.
What technicality was this? I thought it was an option to buy that he rejected when spurs where coming in with more money - likely in fee, signing on and wages
Intrigued and excited. And very pleased we've got to the front of the queue by not being dicks about it (and that that fact has been respected by the player and his representatives).
But the fact that the club is Newcastle with basically unlimited money it makes no sense for them to try and get him for cheaper or free, especially when there are other clubs interested too. $15m is nothing to them really so if they actually wanted him you'd think they'd just put an offer in. Theres no way of knowing for sure which way round it is. If Newcastle actually wanted him but didn't put in an offer for the reason outlined then they are really stupid as well as being very scummy.
And that we are in a situation where we aren’t in the penny pinching queue. Instead just paid up to ten times what we could have
There was a clause in his loan that allowed Atletico to pull out of the option by paying us a fee (which IIRC was equal to the loan fee we had paid). We dithered for one reason or another, Atletico exercised the clause, and then sold him for more money. We then threatened some sort of action (rather than negotiating at a higher price), which never took place because by all accounts Atletico had the right to do what they did, but we thought we had leverage for...reasons.
They may well now want him but it sounds like Mara and his team would now tell them to **** off for trying to screw over Bordeaux.
Let’s go with your first statement I think they thought he wouldn’t be able to resist their advances and couldn’t resist trying to get him on the cheap
