Well the joke was mocking Jorg wasn’t it, not praising him.
But yes I believe we’d made our interest in AliMac known well before Jorg was appointed…maybe he was already given a few names of players we were looking at tying up and was asked to try concluding the player.
Usually there’s a £30m premium on a World Cup winner/star. To get an established PL player who is a got fit, and also played a key role in WC, is an incredible deal!
It does send the message out that we won’t be taken to the cleaners. In fact that, combined with pulling out from any Bellingham deal emphasises that point.
There was the famous Heinze case where Fergie successfully argued that the clause was invalid for us because we found out about the details of it through inappropriate means
I dont know that it’s a message that is intended to be sent as such, but there is certainly a lessons that should be taken by the fans that there is always value to be found in the market if you’re smart enough to know where to look. It is relevant then that I’m pretty sure both Kone and Thuram are entering their final year and so are unlikely to generate a fee much bigger than this one.
Good news for a smashing player at a great price. He does lots of things well and knits things together and will give us calm in our possession game, as well as good passing and a goal threat. And for £35M is brilliant business.
Now for Kone, one of Thuram/Szoboszlai/Veiga, and Mickey Van de Ven.