It was an issue with proportion of revenue spent on wages I believe. Messi and Greiezman going helped free up a ton along with the squad players they shifted on. Players like Pique, Busquets and Alba agreed to reduce their wages too.
With Dembele out of contract in the summer and maybe Coutinho off the books they should be in a much better place in terms of the issues they had last summer. Sounds like Aguero could also be done. They’ll still be massively in debt but that always seems to be the case and has never stopped them or Real Madrid buying players before.
But if they’re only willing to offer 9m then they can do one.
Yeah, I am boring myself with how often I say it but Chukwuemeka is the best young midfielder in the country. If he’s available it’s frankly negligent not to pull out all the stocks to get him. I think it helps also that we can demonstrate a clear need in midfield and point at recent minutes for Morton as an example of youngsters getting chances there.
Chukwuemeka is more forward thinking, powerful midfielder. Although it never works out this way you could imagine a trio of 23/24 year olds in Chukwuemeka-Morton-Elliott working quite nicely.
I’ve seen him in FA Youth Cup - small sample but he was the best player on the pitch. I was convinced that he would be in Aston Villa’s first team in no time, especially with the injuries they’ve been facing this season. Perhaps convincing him to stay and giving him and one or two other prospects will be one of the first things Stevie will do there.
