Revealed: How much would Spurs make from sale of star QPR loanee? Ian Capasso Profile Pic written by Ian Capasso Tottenham's allowance from Adel Taarabtâs sale to AC Milan would be a small one, but a figure nonetheless. Once hailed as the second coming of Zinedine Zidane, things didnât quite turn out the way anybody wouldâve hoped for Adel Taarabt at Spurs. That is, except Arsenal fans, who certainly had a laugh at their rivalsâ expense hearing Taarabt say he wished heâd signed with the Gunners instead in retrospect. At any rate, Tottenhamâs books were finally rid of the renowned troublemaker in August 2010 after multiple loan spells at QPR and plenty of damning press. For their trouble, Spurs reportedly received just £1m for the talented, yet wayward, youngster - losing upwards of £3m on their initial investment. But, the club hierarchy at White Hart Lane were able to insert a 40% sell-on clause into the deal. And as Taarabt is now flourishing on loan with AC Milan four years later, it looks certain the Rossoneri will take up their option to buy from QPR at the end of the season - funneling funds into Spursâ coffers. Unfortunately for Tottenham, however, it doesnât seem the clubâs bank balance will receive that much of a boost. Agent Vincenzo Morabito said to fantagazzetta.com: âMilan will take up their option and there is already a deal between the two clubs to sign him at the end of the season for a reasonable, symbolic price. âIt wonât be any more than â¬3m or â¬4m. It would mean something extraordinary if that didnât happen.â A few quick calculations later, we find that Spurs are looking at receiving £1.3m maximum for Taarabt to stay at San Siro permanently. Perhaps they were hoping for a bit more down the line at a hefty 40%. Yet at this point, getting anything at all from the sale of a player long gone should be welcome. And Spurs arenât exactly in desperate need of a massive cash injection after flogging off Gareth Bale for £85m last summer. Taarabt never panned out quite like Bale did - but Spurs will be happy enough to let the Welshmanâs record fee cover the difference for his former team-mate.
Milan start the bargaining process. Cue people on here demanding £15m for 'our' asset. Milan won't pay that, they haven't got that kind of money any more. I'd love us to keep Adel, but time to close this chapter and move on. We only paid £1m for him, anything we get back over that is fine by me.
Ditto, all too often we seem totally had over in the transfer market, whether it's buying or selling!
I've always thought that the best way to handle this would be to negotiate a player exchange with the buying club. I'm assuming Milan must have a few half decent players on their books they could send our way and then there would be no cash for Spurs to get the greasy paws on. Interesting to see how that would pan out in law...