Allan Saint-Maximin (now playing for Fenerbahce, on loan from Al-Ahli)

[Rich]

Don't usually get wrapped up in fees because what the fuck do I know, but I thought we'd get at least £40M for him and people would find it hard to argue after the Neves move.

 

He's apparently gone for less than Jota from Celtic did.

 

But maybe PIF and the rest are comfortable that they'll be able to get sufficient funding into the club regardless of the fee here.

 

[Scotty66]

That's a shocking fee with everything considered. Today's market is absolutely mental and we've sold him to a league that are willing to pay one person 1 billion for a year. 

 

Same owners or not, you have to get at least £30m.

[Dokko]

Can't even sell our good players properly. 

[Ikon]

I’m ok with this depending on what we do from now and before the window closes. 

[The Prophet]

1 minute ago, duo said:

Maybe but at that price?

 

It depends on the motivation for selling him.

 

I like to think he'd fetch at least £30 million, but he's an injury prone winger with average numbers, no international caps, no exposure to European football and they faced very little competition for his signature. 

 

He's been a great servant and I wish him all the best, but he was never going to fetch £40 million.

[bobbydazzla]

4 minutes ago, Scotty66 said:

That's a shocking fee with everything considered. Today's market is absolutely mental and we've sold him to a league that are willing to pay one person 1 billion for a year. 

 

Same owners or not, you have to get at least £30m.

Sack the transfer team.

 

They’re clearly shit at their jobs.

 

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by bobbydazzla

[The College Dropout]

Low price to avoid scrutiny. But enough for us to do the business we think we need this summer.  

[Kid Icarus]

Just now, bobbydazzla said:

 

Do you think there were other clubs willing to pay more ?

 

Or we should have kept him as an unwanted squad player ?

 

I might think my house is worth £25 million but if no-one is willing to pay it then it isn’t.

 

Thats how market value works. 

 

We're owned by the people paying for a start. Other clubs wanting him is irrelevant really, there are countless examples of players being sold and the fee being based on what the seller and buyer are willing to sell/buy for, without any other club being in the picture. 

 

It's not unreasonable to say that the fee is a joke comparatively.

 

My gut feeling is that we're deliberately undervaluing as part of showing how squeaky clean we're being with FFP, for whatever reason. 

 

[andycap]

Crazy cheap that like thought we'd flogged Murphy for a second. 

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Sad day. But a necessary day. 

[bobbydazzla]

5 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

We're owned by the people paying for a start. Other clubs wanting him is irrelevant really, there are countless examples of players being sold and the fee being based on what the seller and buyer are willing to sell/buy for, without any other club being in the picture. 

 

It's not unreasonable to say that the fee is a joke comparatively.

 

My gut feeling is that we're deliberately undervaluing as part of showing how squeaky clean we're being with FFP, for whatever reason. 

 

So then it doesn’t matter what we got for him cos our financial resources are so deep it’s largely irrelevant other than for FPP purposes 

 

Lot of people in here still worried about using discount vouchers in Aldi when we’re wealthy enough just get the butler to do our shopping for us in Harrods 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by bobbydazzla

[Disco]

Sad to see him go.

[The College Dropout]

8 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

We're owned by the people paying for a start. Other clubs wanting him is irrelevant really, there are countless examples of players being sold and the fee being based on what the seller and buyer are willing to sell/buy for, without any other club being in the picture. 

 

It's not unreasonable to say that the fee is a joke comparatively.

 

My gut feeling is that we're deliberately undervaluing as part of showing how squeaky clean we're being with FFP, for whatever reason. 

 

Aye. It’s pretty much we paid for him right ?

 

€40mwould invite a fair amount of scrutiny but could be justified. But we would need to expand the effort to justify it. 

€35m is similar but much easier to justify. 
 

€30m doesn’t really need any justification. 
 

One thing it shows is that we want to be seen to be playing by the rules.  And don’t want to go to court like City are willing to do. 
 

Big picture - PIF won’t use NUFC to try and defeat PL or UEFA. We’ll play by all the rules as best we can get away with without massive issues. Any pressure to change rules will come from KSA league and a threat of other non uefa or pl competitions.  

 

[LionOfGosforth]

Interesting that it wasn't announced as undisclosed. I don't know what the rules are around announcing exact fees or not announcing them but it almost looks like we've made a conscious effort to show were not benefitting from anything underhand or over market value. 23m stinks man but hopefully we'll get some important deals done now.

[Kid Icarus]

4 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

So then it doesn’t matter what we got for him cos our financial resources are so deep it’s largely irrelevant other than for FPP purposes 

 

Lot of people in here still worried about using discount vouchers in Aldi when we’re wealthy enough just get the butler to do our shopping for us in Harrods 

It matters if my gut feeling is wrong and the fee does little to shift the FFP needle in our favour 

[bobbydazzla]

I strongly suspect £25m was the fee that Liverpool were happy to approve 

[The Prophet]

If you want to feel better about it, it's £38 million for ASM and Wood.

[bobbydazzla]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

It matters if my gut feeling is wrong and the fee does little to shift the FFP needle in our favour 

I’m sure the transfer team will have factored in the various FFP scenarios when negotiating the deal 

[Big River]

maybe the Saudis only bought us to pilfer our best players at below market rate?

[bobbydazzla]

Just now, Big River said:

maybe the Saudis only bought us to pilfer our best players at below market rate?

Worrying 

[Disco]

It’ll be near 100% profit on the old FFP books won’t it?

 

That probably played a a part and as you’re robbing Mohammed to pay a second Mohammed it’s all a sham anyway. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter.

[McCormick]

A few seem to think other PIF clubs are willing to give us superstars they’ve just bought for free, so no surprise if it goes both ways  

[Ikon]

7 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

If you want to feel better about it, it's £38 million for ASM and Wood.

I see it as 38m for ASM.

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Unbelievable said:

It points to out owners wanting to play by the rules imposed by the league on behalf of the traditional “big six” a bit too much imo. Similarly I expected a few more commercial deals, even below the 1m threshold, to come through this summer, and perhaps a legal challenge or two to crack the “fairness” of the FFP rules. If we succeed it would ultimately feel a much bigger accomplishment and we are well on course to do so, but boy are we making things a bit complicated for ourselves by not leaning on the financial might of our owners the way the likes of PSG and Man City have done to get to where they are now.

 

It does make me wonder sometimes if PIF really do just see us as an investment on which we expect to see returns, and our view of success is more long term once we've got the money side sorted out.

 

I don't doubt Saudi ambition, they aren't the type to accept not competing for titles, but maybe they do expect us to earn it the hard way.

[Guest]

around £23m, give or take £20m