But again, if you look at Txiki's record of offloading players and getting fees then I'd say he has done an admirable job. Those Dzeko/Jovetic loan deals guarantee us a fee at the end just like the Negredo deal did. It's good business and it's not like we're the only club who the Italians try and fuck with. I was listening to a podcast recently where a journo from the Times was saying he had spoken to German, French, and Dutch clubs recently who all said that they preferred to sell players into England because Italian and Spanish clubs just weren't prepared to pay the money required or structure the fees an acceptable way.
We forget that the rest of Europe looks at our TV deal and then decides on valuations based on that both for players they sell and players they buy.