John Stones

[Neville Kneville]

We did.

If you remember we made a 'take it or leave it' offer of £40m +£4m add ons IIRC, the dippers briefed the press on every bid and rejected that 'take it or leave it' offer outright. And reiterated the £50m fee.

Then we came back a couple of weeks later with the final bid of £44m + £5m in add ons. Our bluff was called and the dippers more or less got their asking price.

No they didn't. They got a lower price with potential add ons, which many of us have been saying is the likely outcome here & has been with Sane.

 

[Metalartin]

It would be pretty funny if we walk away get a good price on Bonucci and Stones comes either next year cheaper and more experienced or the year after on a free transfer. I don't see why some of us are so desperate to get him, we don't need to be desperate we should be patient and measured in the transfer market from now on.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Agree with the rest of the post but that is the exact thing I would be blaming the manager for. We had the same back 4 as the previous season and added Otamendi to the mix as well. No way should it have been breaking the goals for most goals conceded.

And yet we had more clean sheets (16) than any other team last season. Conceded 41 but too often more than 2 in a game. Compared with when we last won the title, we conceded 3 more in 15/16 but scored 31 less. I think that should point out where we dropped off but many people won't accept that. Under MP (and hopefully under Pep) we would never be a team that won the title conceding 24 and scoring 62.

 

[Machiavelli]

Good. Sooner we did.

Who would you try to sign instead? Or would you be happy ok with what we've got?

 

[bluegirl74]

I'm genuinely ambivalent about this one.

 

[Neville Kneville]

We went to £49m of a £50m asking price then having offered £40m previously, I'm sure Everton feel we would raise our £40m offer with fair logic.

But we haven't paid 49 mil for Sterling.

I imagine we will be happy enough to get 5 mil or so in add ons as part of the Stones deal.

 

[Kompany is King]

I think Pep will ensure Stones signs for City

 

[Metalartin]

The thing with the Sterling deal is if we do end up paying the extra £5m we'll be happy to do that because we'll have won the Premier League and Champions League with him, those are the terms of the bonus. :)

 

[pudge]

But we haven't paid 49 mil for Sterling.

I imagine we will be happy enough to get 5 mil or so in add ons as part of the Stones deal.

I didn't say we have paid £49m for Sterling but that's the agreed upon deal.

If we offered £44m they wouldn't have accepted it, so the possible £5m in addons was pivotal; some of which I imagine we have paid after last season.

So if Everton feel they can squeeze more money out of us given those previous examples then they have fair reason to; be it outlandish objectives he has to achieve or merely appearance based etc.

I'm sure Txiki thought he got one over on Liverpool when they agreed to a deal £1m less than what they asked for and I'm sure Liverpool were glad to let him think that.

 

[RichardDunneOwnGoal]

No they didn't. They got a lower price with potential add ons, which many of us have been saying is the likely outcome here & has been with Sane.

Right, they didn't get their absurd asking price straight up front, and they were never going to, from anyone.

But we were the only club at the table at the money involved and Sterling only had eyes for us, and the dippers made us look like mugs after feigning a final bid, and coming crawling back a couple of weeks later with a 'really really' final bid.

They got their little victory in the press, and we thought we hadn't lost much face because technically we didn't fully meet their asking price.

But truth be told we showed ourselves to be weak negotiators and publicly had our bluff called.

Other clubs have taken notice of this, and now we're going through exactly the same thing with Stones.

Rather predictable.