I know what you are saying and I disagree. Robbo is a much better player than Kostas, even in his twilight.
There is nothing much wrong with Kostas. He is a basic, functional left back. But he isn’t Robbo. He doesn’t have his speed, his ability or his intelligence.
I think that is generally just part of the club being dead sound.
Not just this, but something I’ve noticed since Edwards and co starting managing our transfer business, is that it’s always felt important to the club brass that we establish and maintain good relations with as many clubs as possible. That can mean ensuring we don’t fuck around with long sagas over transfer fees, and it can also mean greasing the skids sometimes by letting some of our lads go in what seem like cut-price deals. I think these kinds of dealings are what have allowed us to nab players like Jota/Gakpo/Grav/Mac Allister at what seem like incredibly favorable deals to us, because we have either already treated the selling clubs well, or we’ve assured them smooth business dealings in the future.
It’s my view that we are generally seen as a club that treats others with respect and doesn’t fanny about in the media like united/Barca/Real/Bayern etc. do.
To be very fair here - City seem like that as well. They don’t generally have protracted sagas that play out in the media, they go about their business and club who do business with them seem generally satisfied. The cunts.
The brown envelopes packed full of cash no doubt help smooth things over between clubs and parties involved in a Man City deal.
One of the best quotes of an opposing manager praising a player ever.
To be fair, Mourinho was mostly saying those things to wind up the club brass for not buying the players he wanted that summer.
Have fun marking Yamal.
An experienced player like Robbo is still able to put him in his pocket on 6 days out of 10.
I think there’s none of that in terms of fees.
And some of those deals were simply activated clauses. Some of which had dates, like Mac’s. It allowed us to get a quality player in early and also Brighton to know what they have to do in the window. Huijsen to Real was a similar deal and we apparently tried that one.
I believe we try to buy the best we can for the least amount and try to sell when we decide to for the highest amount (of course the players have a say).
Now, there are of course other aspects in which we can be at least professional and show a bit of class. And a large portion of that isn’t visible to us fans on the outside. But yeah from what we know, I think we’re one of the best operators in football in this era.
As for the speed of things, it depends, many variables decide that. Every transfer can be different. What we can do is have order, be well organized and enter transfer windows with the best possible preparation.
If we sell Robbo for what might be viewed among most fans as a “small” fee, I don’t think it will be because we’re making a club legend a favour.
“Interesting concept! Why have we never thought to do that?” - Man Utd
“Prepare a director of football contract for Zoran”.
"Get Sir Jim a login for this TAN - @PeachesEnRegalia sounds incognito "
(Same source)
True - but Robbie was something else back then. Able to sprint up and down the pitch without rest an entire game… game after game.
Age has already taken a lot of that. Clearly as people have said one of Robbo and Tsimi will leave. Either is really a quality backup option and I think there will a clearly room for debate which is the better player today.
It’s almost like they put the story and expected Liverpool to offer him up for free only to find out it’s probably about 30m
I wonder if Digne was always the target given Villa’s reported financial pressure. Talk of signing Andy might prompt Villa to cut their asking price?
Of course, it could always be vice versa!
