Calv_from_the_frog
Well-Known Member
Just on your last line, I can honestly say that - if we did bid 30m (which neither you nor we know) - it will have been solely down to the 'City tax' that English clubs in particular put on their players when we come calling (as someone stated yesterday, if we would have bid 45m immediately, you would probably be taking that as a sign that we would pay about 10m more).
We know that, in an ideal world you don't want to let him go, and that's normal, but football is what it is with the bigger fish snapping up the smaller ones (as happened to us when Everton came for Paul Power, when Liverpool came for Paul Lake which would have happened if not for his knee injury, when Chelsea came calling for SWP, when Bayern came calling for Leroy Sané, when Juve came for Carlos Tevez, when Barça came for Eric Garcia, when Real came for Brahim Diaz etc. etc.)
My feeling is, like it or not (and I didn't like any of the above deals), he'll end up coming this summer for a fee not too far away from what we actually believe is true value to be, which I suspect is around the 45m mark (although, as I say, I have absolutely zero clue numbers-wise what our value of his worth is).
(also, final thing, any comparison to the Ben White transfer is completely inapplicable as - probably as a result of reduced financial power linked to the COVID pandemic - football clubs around the world have been doing transfer deals this summer for considerably less than might have been expected in previous transfer windows).
Ultimately, its nowt personal between ourselves and yourselves as the majority of right thinking people on here were around before the money and can identify perfectly well with your point of view.