Sissoko represented a massive departure from our (Levy's) business model, paying a then record (or second highest) fee in our history for a 27yo with a 90k 5 year deal, was committing potentially 55k to a player who would be 32 by the end of that deal and poor inherent value retention - that was by far the biggest potential cost of any transfer we'd ever done - based on the fact that other large deals were all for players much, much younger with much greater chance for retention or enhancement of value. Llorente was a deal that was just pure "now" write off, 15m plus a year's wages (so around 18-20m?) for one year, very un Levy.
As I said, it wasn't just about "age" purely, and age isn't the only gauge of where a player's at with their career development. Moura aged 25 had over 250 senior games on his clock, KWP will have about 60 if he plays most this season and most of next. Aurier likewise.
This summer felt much more like the Walker, Rose, Dier, Eriksen, Modric, Alli, Lamela, type business we did pre Poch.
