for context, Bellingham went to Dortmund for £25 plus £10m of adding (and a sell on clause I think). He was 17. Lavia is 2 years older, played PL football and the market for midfielders is inflated because Rice is the benchmark. I guess at some point, we have to sh*t or get off the pan. £35m with £15m of easily achievable add ons for appearances and CL qualification. Then move onto the next signing….
i just find the fees these days difficult to take in. Would say Bellingham looked pretty much a cert to carry on improving as the progression from 15 to 17 at Brum was clear to see
city’s cut will be on the profit, not the entire fee. So if the difference is £10m and they have a 30% sell on clause,, their ‘cut’ would be £3m.
OK,I think Soton payed £19m for Lavia......the sell on clause will still inflate what Soton demand though will it?
Potentially, yes, but not by 30% of the total fee. It’s a big difference and I have no idea how that works with things like add ons tbh. Nevertheless, the profit for Southampton will be significant at anything over £35m.
If City don’t want him back at £40m, he’s not worth £40m - we are at a massive disadvantage because we are desperate - saints need to sell but there’s a long time to go in the window. Get the player on board and hope he’s got his heart set on a move to Anfield - can’t really buy another midfielder because Lavia will see his chances of playing reduce - catch 22
Thats like two weeks after the season starts,I thought there was talk of closing the window before the season starts iirc.
That list makes feel worse rather than better. The second 11 is made up of kids and crocks, apart from the forwards. Defensive cover is horrendous. Midfield cover is slightly better than horrendous. It would take a couple of injuries and we would be in serious ****e. Paper thin
I cant remember the last time we had an injury crisis. Oh sorry, no, I cant remember a time when we didn't have an injury crisis, that's right.
The team is where it is at because we have 50mil a season to spend and focused on forwards. I personally think we are far too loyal to squad players but equally what can we say when they deliver a near quad as their last hurrah. Matip is 2 years too long now. Ox should have been gone 2 seasons ago any fee would do Keita was difficult due to wage, should have cut and run after 2 seasons imo. Gomez would be gone at just about any other big club with his form but his injury was major. The reality is we are looking at an u21 defence and midfield rather than 2 for every spot but we only have 50mil a season until fsg are paid back every penny for the stands. Add 10mil revenue from new anfield but it all goes to repayments. There's 4 more years of 13mil payments to fsg for main stand (2016 to 2020 then they didn't demand payment over covid) When others can magic money up and small clubs can seemingly demand any number based on what the magic money says it does look like we need to cut our cloth to measure. Forget the cups. It's all about 4th and Europe. My cup team is basically baby reds. Kelleher Bradley koumetio quansah chambers Elliott Morton clark Doak gordon frauendorf Yes there's a few senior squaddies who will take over but a few of the above are going to be relied on imo
If this is the case, then we must gamble more on signings. It's all very well wanting to get the right lad in, but when you do he's now surrounded by kids or injuries waiting to happen. From an excellent transfer strategy to a debacle in a few short years. We've been by far to loyal, by far to lapsidasical in our transfers. We either gamble, divy up the cash or suffer what I can only see as a very hard season coming up.
Do the same for any side bar city though. united moubt / mctom fernandes / Eriksen Casemiro / fred rashford / garnachi martial / ?? Anthony / sancho arsenal havertz / jorginho rice / partay odegard /smith-rowe saka / ?? jesus / nketiah Martinelli / trossard not like they have incredible 2nd 11s.
