I think Brighton would accept £50m if it came to it
Why do you think that? Not an aggressive question. Just curious what your reasoning is.
Based on what the market is; based on what sort of transfers have been going down this summer; based on what we
have paid for defenders in the recent past; based on what they know we
can pay: – I'd table £50 million if I were Txixi and Pep. Maybe a bit more, even. But do I think that Bloom and Potter will take it? Frankly, I don't have the faintest idea. They don't particularly want to sell, they're not in any particular financial trouble, they've got a player who's done a year of his contract with a
lot more to go. Worst that can happen is that they'll have an unhappy player for a while. But he'll probably knuckle down to it. As Kane did. The difference there is that I think Levy faffed around with us for the whole summer. He basically had no intention of selling at all. Also, Kane is a local boy who maybe had misgivings about breaking with the Tottenham fanbase over it. Cucurella does not have that kind of link with the club, although he's fairly happy there, apparently. He and his agent
may push harder. That's about all I'm relying on.
I sort of suspect that this may not go through. If it doesn't, I'll be disappointed. But what people seem to be discounting is the possibility that we will live with it, and go back for him next year. Sure, it's not ideal, but we just proved that we could play without a striker for the best part of three years. Who would have thought that? We didn't want to go in for just anyone. Pep wanted Kane — who was probably never truly available, at least not in his chairman's mind. We waited for the best young attacker on the planet (Mbappe as a rival? Mmmm… maybe). We got him.
Let's get the
right players, and be patient if they're not immediately available.