Allan Saint-Maximin (now playing for Al-Ahli)

[Nobody]

14 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

We're allegedly selling him to improve our FFP capacity. Barnes always looked like a pre-emptive replacement.

But if the reported €25m fee for ASM is true, abig chunk of that will go to fund Barnes at £35m+. We would have about ~£10m worth of book value left after signing Barnes, but probably less than that after factoring in wages for Barnes and the new player.

It might allow us to sign other players for £40-50m at best, I don't think that's anywhere near enough for selling what has been one of our best players since he came here. Especially not when selling in this market, where players have gone for absolutely insane money to Saudi.

[joeyt]

5 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

His popularity... directly from two current players.

And the "difficult to manage" stuff has been well documented throughout his entire time here (and before). He's regularly late for training etc etc.
 

 

Which two players don't like him? He always seems pretty popular to me

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Unbelievable said:

Why would that make it difficult to sell to another club for a higher fee? Is there any precedent for a league not allowing an outgoing transfer because the fee was higher than someone else’s lowball offer? I think people are confusing the fair market value rules for commercial deals with transfer revenue where there are no such rules.

 

We’d better get >50m

 

I'm just throwing out reasons why £25m is even being mentioned as a fee. That's the sort of figure I would expect from a normal club outside of the Saudi Pro League. Then factor in we would expect to be under far more scrutiny than Liverpool or Chelsea on such deals because of who our owners are.

[Eveready]

1 minute ago, joeyt said:

 

Which two players don't like him? He always seems pretty popular to me

Bruno's definitely mentioned he was a good friend at the club.  Pretty sure he said he invited him to his wedding too.

[morpeth mag]

It will suit everyone to have a reasonable purchase fee and some easily obtainable add on fees like those for Chris Wood. I suggest an additional £5m every time the Saudi club finish top four.

 

[Shadow Puppets]

Just now, joeyt said:

 

Which two players don't like him? He always seems pretty popular to me

I'm obviously not going to tell you that, but all I will say is I've been lucky enough to be around some of the players a lot over the last couple of years. The ones I speak to are all generally lovely, the camaraderie is great. I'm not saying that they "don't like him" necessarily... it's that he is known to be quite rude to people, especially "less important" staff.

[TheBrownBottle]

5 minutes ago, Nobody said:

But if the reported €25m fee for ASM is true, abig chunk of that will go to fund Barnes at £35m+. We would have about ~£10m worth of book value left after signing Barnes, but probably less than that after factoring in wages for Barnes and the new player.

It might allow us to sign other players for £40-50m at best, I don't think that's anywhere near enough for selling what has been one of our best players since he came here. Especially not when selling in this market, where players have gone for absolutely insane money to Saudi.

FFP doesn’t work like that.  ASM wouldn’t be funding Barnes. 

[Unbelievable]

4 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I'm just throwing out reasons why £25m is even being mentioned as a fee. That's the sort of figure I would expect from a normal club outside of the Saudi Pro League. Then factor in we would expect to be under far more scrutiny than Liverpool or Chelsea on such deals because of who our owners are.

Why should we sell ourselves short to prevent scrutiny?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

4 minutes ago, TRon said:

I'm just throwing out reasons why £25m is even being mentioned as a fee. That's the sort of figure I would expect from a normal club outside of the Saudi Pro League. Then factor in we would expect to be under far more scrutiny than Liverpool or Chelsea on such deals because of who our owners are.

 

Is there any mechanism to scrutinise transfer fees for players you sell? Or you just mean for PR reasons?

[TheBrownBottle]

8 minutes ago, Unbelievable said:

Why would that make it difficult to sell to another club for a higher fee? Is there any precedent for a league not allowing an outgoing transfer because the fee was higher than someone else’s lowball offer? I think people are confusing the fair market value rules for commercial deals with transfer revenue where there are no such rules.

 

We’d better get >50m

We’ll get £50m+ for players worth £50m+
 

ASM is clearly available.  So we can look forward to all that bidding for the lad. 
 

And if there isn’t a bidding war, then there’s your actual value. 

[TRon]

Just now, Unbelievable said:

Why should we sell ourselves short to prevent scrutiny?

 

Well I'd prefer not to, personally I hope we get £70m. I'm just speculating why such a low figure has even been mentioned.

[r0cafella]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Is there any mechanism to scrutinise transfer fees for players you sell? Or you just mean for PR reasons?

No mechanism as of now but given the history of our takeover you can bet your bottom dollar the league would be having another emergency meeting to make new rules to stop us. 

[TRon]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Is there any mechanism to scrutinise transfer fees for players you sell? Or you just mean for PR reasons?

 

See my above post. I have no idea if this figure of £25m is even true, I'm just trying to figure out why we would accept it assuming it is.

[black_n_white]

Not fussed, I trust the club know what they are doing 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, r0cafella said:

No mechanism as of now but given the history of our takeover you can bet your bottom dollar the league would be having another emergency meeting to make new rules to stop us. 

 

I mean, I understand the point but they definitely couldn't. Not unless we sold him for something silly like £150m. Every club is selling dead wood to the Saudis. 

[kocunar]

I know people will call this panicky, but hear me out. It does sound worrying if they are trying to lowball us.

 

Now of course, it could all be just media nonsense and the fee could have been already agreed and this is all for show.

 

But if we really do end up selling him for something like £25m, it means we could be more in danger of Saudis than anyone.  First of all, you will say that they are just doing what any club should do in trying to get as low a price possible. But we are both owned by PIF so they don't lose any money transfering from one of their property to another, no matter the transfer fee. Their goal should be, and there is no logical reason for any other, to get us as big of a transfer fee without it being suspicious. Because their clubs aren't restricted by FFP and we are.

Again, this could all be media nonsense and they are doing exactly that. But if it ends up being a really low fee, it could mean that all their priority is getting as many players possible to the Saudi League and any other goal is miniscule by comparison. What is to stop them from offering Bruno G. £50m a season to come to Saudi Arabia and us selling him for £50m? He would probably say no, but we are the only club in the world where it is only player's wishes, we have no power to say no as a club.

Just to make it clear, I don't think this is true, because it wouldn't make sense to lower the value of your property (us as a club), but a really low fee for ASM could be a very bad sign.

[r0cafella]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

I mean, I understand the point but they definitely couldn't. Not unless we sold him for something silly like £150m. Every club is selling dead wood to the Saudis. 

They can do whatever they please, look how they blocked our takeover with no regard, or how suddenly sponsorship rules were created. 
 

Unless challenged legally they can do as they please. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

I mean, I understand the point but they definitely couldn't. Not unless we sold him for something silly like £150m. Every club is selling dead wood to the Saudis. 

Neves and Diaby aren’t deadwood tbf

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I think that's generally a worry no matter what the ASM fee is. If KSA decide to really go for it they could have the richest league in the world in a few years. Which will obviously lead to lots of PL players going there. 

 

Not that it necessarily matters since we can just bring in replacements from Europe, but the PL could end up second. 

[TRon]

Just now, r0cafella said:

They can do whatever they please, look how they blocked our takeover with no regard, or how suddenly sponsorship rules were created. 
 

Unless challenged legally they can do as they please. 

 

Yep, their rules are fixed in such a way they have right to put whatever interpretation of them they like. Only the threat of legal action wrt fair trade and such makes them back off ultimately.

[Unbelievable]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

We’ll get £50m+ for players worth £50m+
 

ASM is clearly available.  So we can look forward to all that bidding for the lad. 
 

And if there isn’t a bidding war, then there’s your actual value. 

He’s worth more to us than 25m, so if that’s what we would get I simply wouldn’t sell. We have SA clubs bidding though, owned by the same owners as ours, so the fee could be anything that works out best for PIF. If that is below what I consider ASM’s value to NUFC it would raise a massive red flag about our project and its role in the greater scheme of things for PIF/SA.

[kocunar]

Just now, Unbelievable said:

He’s worth more to us than 25m, so if that’s what we would get I simply wouldn’t sell. We have SA clubs bidding though, owned by the same owners as ours, so the fee could be anything that works out best for PIF. If that is below what I consider ASM’s value to NUFC it would raise a massive red flag about our project and its role in the greater scheme of things for PIF/SA.

Yep, there is a big difference between being the Saudi Man City, and being Saudi RB Salzburg to their Saudi Pro League RB Leipzig.

[GeordieDazzler]

The PL won’t end up second man, people aren’t getting up at 3am to watch Al Hilal take on Atletico Jeddah. It’s a bloated vanity project and no amount of signings are going to change that. 

 

[Kid Icarus]

6 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

We’ll get £50m+ for players worth £50m+
 

ASM is clearly available.  So we can look forward to all that bidding for the lad. 
 

And if there isn’t a bidding war, then there’s your actual value. 

Bidding wars don't dictate value like, the asking price of the selling club and the price clubs are willing to pay dictate it more often than not.

[ponsaelius]

I love Maxi, he's been a fantastic player to watch for us IMO over the last few years, and I'm honestly gutted he won't get to play CL football for us.

 

All that being said I do think there is a clear logic to selling him right now. Playing style is an imperfect fit, there are definitely injury/fitness issues and this is probably the best time to get a good fee for him.

 

There's an argument that we're losing a player who offers something different/a wildcard, and replacing him with a player who is another system player, and that's a loss to the squad. Equally though I've always found Maxi to be a poor impact sub and somebody who needs to start games to be effective - which I think lessens that argument.