If there is no communication between a team wanting to sign a player and that players agent then how the feck do you think transfers operate then? Telepathy!!!!Because calling agent and saying - can you make your client come to us please, we'll pay him 200k per week is surely tapping up, it's not just when you sit with him in Bradford. He is player under contract with Monaco/any other club and speaking with his agent about the client is same as speaking with player.
But everybody surely does that as there is f'all chance to prove it.
There is no way that we would pay a world record fee for a player and let him stay at his current club for a year.
Is it plausible that we would sell Sergio to Madrid for a little less, if they stepped out the way of our pursuit of Mbappe?
So we have told an agent we would pay what they want. Big deal. The fact that we would match virtually any clubs wages for the top players should be and is a given considering where we are now as a club.
Getting a transfer over the line and paying the huge transfer fees involved is a different matter.
If you think convincing Mbappé to come here, and agreeing on personal terms isn't a big deal then you might as well not come on the transfer forum, just check the OS once a day or something. IIRC Sam Lee claimed that City believe it's 80% of the transfer.
In a transfer where the player is being chased by 2 clubs, and one of those clubs is Madrid, getting him to agree to come here is a big deal.