To be fair, there are around ten long years of cheating and distorting the player transfer market between then and now. Mané and Salah would cost us at least £100m today in order to get them. Firmino, coming from a smaller club in Germany, around € 80m maybe.
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No more wing backs please!
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Yup look at what Bournemouth are quoting on Scott and Mane is far more developed when he came.
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Now, Scott is young, English, Premier League proven, so 100m is not unwarranted in current market. On top of that, he understands Iraola’s game very well, having played under him for 2 seasons.
He can end up like our 100+m trio, but he can also end up becoming another Declan Rice/Elliott Anderson. By summer 2027 he will be no less developed than Anderson at summer 2026.
It is obvious that his price tag is like Gordon: 80m + English tax.
Ask yourself: how much would 2011 Henderson have costed these days? Note that Scott is currently more developed than 2011 Henderson.
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All pre- Neymar!
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That’s why I keep saying that PSG should be the first club to be stripped off all its titles and their owners sent back to the desert. They are the first culprits who distorted everything in football (as if it wasn’t already bad enough then), and looking at how easy and effective it was for the Qataris, the Abu Dhabi cunts followed suit when they bought Man City.
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The Complete World Record Transfer Progression
| Year | Player | From | To | Confirmed Record Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1893 | Willie Groves | West Bromwich Albion | Aston Villa | £100 (First 3-figure fee) |
| 1905 | Alf Common | Sunderland | Middlesbrough | £1,000 (First 4-figure fee) |
| 1928 | David Jack | Bolton Wanderers | Arsenal | £10,890 (First 5-figure fee) |
| 1961 | Luis Suárez | Barcelona | Inter Milan | £152,000 |
| 1975 | Giuseppe Savoldi | Bologna | Napoli | £1.2 Million (First million-pound fee) |
Blame hte Italians? 
The table might be wrong me thinks.
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Three clear differences.
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Market inflation. Today’s Mane equivalent would be someone like Semenyo or Rayan. Semenyo was £65m because of a release clause. Rayan was being quoted at £100m plus in the summer. Kvaratskhelia leaving Napoli is like Salah and that was £70m 18 months ago to a club few could compete with for his signature.
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Others have caught up on the data front and so we don’t have the advantage of being smarter than the rest of the market. Firmino wouldn’t still be at Hoffenheim at 23 in the current market. He’d be playing for Brentford or Brighton having moved sooner and we’d be looking at a £100m fee for him.
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Those lads were the top end fees we could afford in those days without a huge sale like Coutinho to give us money to reinvest. People forget the risk they were when we signed them. Salah had already struggled in the PL, Firmino struggled to justify the fee initially. Now we can shop higher up the food chain. Barcola has shown he can do it in the CL whereas we we’re hoping Salah and Mane could step up to that level.
People keep pointing out the mixed success of the most expensive transfers but transfers at any price have about a 50% success rate if you’re lucky. The three you’ve picked out shouldn’t be judged against the success of probably the best from three the league has ever seen. And nor should their prices be compared either. A decade is a long time in football.
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Damn, it’s incredible he’s still playing, really. And that he was in his 50s when he was playing for us!
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mate.. i got tears of joy reading your post.
I once did a football quiz, using the AI and asked a friend the questions, we were both very very dubious of the information… especially when it set a question about mohammed salah being egypts oldest goalscorer at the 1990 world cup
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I thought Francis was the first £1M player when he joined Forrest?
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British Footballs 1st. IIRC.
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Luis certainly aged well!
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Him being an ageless vampire might actually explain some things.
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I dont believe FSG is going to sanction any January deals.
I have little faith in any incomings. Not until the summer.
Part of the reason is fsg want to see what Iraola will do over a full season with the players we have.
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You are probably right, but just half wondering if they might think a player or two could help us go that much further in the CL, and/or solidify our chances of qualifying again for next season?
Scott and Minteh perhaps.
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With so much change already, I think one or two good players could make a big difference.
A very good midfielder and a full back or even right winger.
For the right maybe Anis Haji Moussa at Feyenoord though I am not sure he is quite quick enough and we do have 4 wide players.
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7 new players or we are getting relegated isn’t that the standard response 
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If you include players for the bench it’s at least 12! 
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We definitely want Scott and minteh… they would cost £150m combined… and i have the feeling that will be funded by sale of Gakpo and Macca unfortunately.
Minteh and Scott come with lower wages and age.
Thats why there is no new contract for Macca. And Maybe Gakpo is still looking to move on. Or we still want to get rid of him.
Minteh provides a natural RW.
Also i think its possible we are using Camara as leverage to get a lower price on Scott as he is who Iraola prefers.
I know its all speculation. But some of it makes sense.
I just think we want to sell to buy. Which means it will be in the summer. Alex Scott being the only potential January signing.
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