bluesyob said:
yes but they seem to think they have us over a barrel regarding his transfer i mean why would city hand everton a contract giving them all the power over one of our players transfer it does not make sense and would not happen.
EFC fan again - I'm trying to stay out of these arguments due the bile flying around, but in the hope of defusing at least one: according to reports, Everton do indeed have the right to exercise an option on Jo, IF the player agrees. If Jo wants to stay at City there's nothing Everton can do about it.
Everton have done a bunch of these deals. Yobo, Arteta and Pienaar were all signed on this type of loan, where Everton had the right to sign the player if they desired. (In fact in Arteta's case, Everton DIDN'T exercise the option, but instead renegotiated a lower price, which scared the hell out of everyone for a few weeks). There's been a load of players we didn't sign permanently after these loans (Castillo last season for example).
Why would a club like City sign away this right? Quite simply, we pay for it. For example, we paid £1m for Pienaar's loan, with a £2.5m agreed fee. If we didn't sign him, Dortmund would have got the £1m fee, saved on his wages, AND got the player back. If, like Pienaar did, he has a great season, obviously it looks like great business. If not...well, do you remember Rodrigo? No? Exactly. That cost us £1m too.
The mentions of contract law are a bit bizarre, since these things happen all the time in the real world. Think buy options on borrowed shares, or a lease of land with an option to buy. There's no reason at all you can't set a price for an asset in advance.