It’s not even a quarter of that. It’s 24m. Add a signing on bonus of 6m and they’ve spent 30m. And if he leaves and they get a transfer fee for him that even just breaks even with their outlay up to that point, they’ve essentially gotten him for free in it’s entirety. If he generates more then happy days and if he plays out his contract, that 30m is peanuts in the realm of transfer fees and wages.
Hate them or not but can’t argue their smarts (and tapping up ability).
Oh, definitely. Between him and Trent, Valverde and Tchouameni will have a lot of covering to do there. That said, I wonder if Mourinho opts for what has served Real Madrid the best in recent years under Ancelotti - playing counter-attacking football, leading to their back line being exposed less and letting Trent have more chances of launching counter-attacks with his passes.
Ibou has developed a tendency to just inexplicably miss the ball. There is no coaching set up that can account for the bizarre shit he did on that Ivorian equalizer, something we saw him do at least two other times for us last season.