Really hope we hold out for a great fee on Bernardo. Let buyers know they cannot mug us off. stop with the "being nice to accomodate leaving players"...
If we would be after Bernardo lets say as he would like a change of scenery at Atletico after similar seasons he had with us, do you think 40m offer would not be laughed off from us.
would hope 60-70m, not 30/40...
or at least closer to 60 than 50m.
The reason that we sell established players for less that we ‘think’ they’re worth is because a players cost is both fee and the substantial salary for the contracts duration.
When we buy an up and coming player they’re generally on a lower salary than we would pay (we pay well and that’s one reason why players want to play for us).
Then, when we go to sell a player, to a club with a lower salary budget, they need to account for the big salary our player will demand on top of the purchase fee, by negotiating a fee low enough to account for the salary.
But that’s not generally a problem as we can sell a player for less than the original purchase price but still make a handsome profit.
This is because the fee’s amortised over the length of the contract so that a player purchased at say £60M on a 5 year deal has a value to the club of £24M after 3 years (£12M write off per annum over the period).
It’s also daft to keep a player that doesn't want to be with you because the negativity poisons the dressing room and you have to keep paying the wages for the pleasure of having a Jonah onboard.
What’s Bernardo’s salary - Say £140k a week or thereabouts?
If so then keep him for one more year and it costs us £7,280,000 in wages - and his value falls much more than that as it plummets by the the annual amortised amount.
IMO it’s always best to move out dissatisfied players quickly. It maintains moral and saves many £millions in salary.
If the best fee you can get exceeds the book value then it’s a profit and much better than hanging on to a player, suffering the depreciation and paying the salary.
And you’ve got to sell at some point, you can’t hold onto a player indefinitely.
If you keep a player too long then he’ll run out of contract and you’ll end up having paid all his wages while he walks away whistling on a free.