I do hear what you’re saying. It’s just the thought of seeing Toby and Walker buddying up together in City shirts would be fucking horrible. Would just get easier for them to try to tempt other players of ours away.
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At some point the penny will drop. It's about the player and their agents, they are either willing to negotiate or have accepted offers from elsewhere. Kyle Walker, a senior player, in the middle of a competitive season walked in to his manager's office and told him, he's going.
Only an absolute fuckwit, or internet troll will pretend this is Levy's or Pochettino's fault. So Kyle gets a huge pay rise and EPL medal but wonders in quiet moments why it feels slightly empty.
If TA walked in and said I want to go to Man City, Poch would tell him to bu**er off.We did it once, I cannot see us doing it again.
The issue comes down to squad building. Today it is very much arguable whether we are better with Toby or Sanchez, given that without Toby we’re on a PL era best run for what constitutes half a season.
However, add 2 more years to Toby’s age and injury history, as well as Sanchez’s development and acclimation to the PL and it’s most likely that Sanchez is the superior player. Do you want to be paying £150-180k pw to a second choice RCB? No, and the club won’t either.
Toby should have signed his contract last year. Now he’s in a situation where the club hedged their bets, smartly, and Sanchez has come on stronger and faster than I’m sure anyone else expected. Toby’s value is greater now to the club than it will be in 2 years with the added sunken cost of his giant wage demands. The only logical outcome is that he leaves this summer - it’s what a smartly run club would do. And that’s what we are.
Funny part is, by popular reporting about new salary guidelines over at City, he probably would find that he wouldn't be making substantially more there prior to performance add-ons and bonuses.
That would be funny especially if he spends a lot of time on the bench as I think he would do
Sanchez will really benefit from a pre season with Poch as will Foyth
As he may never fully recover from his latest injury I think we should sell
Probably/hopefully tips the scales towards selling him to PSG which is the best outcome.
As a further aside, I’ve never really understood why more athletics contracts aren’t heavily tipped towards performance bonuses. Outside of Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar/Beckham/Zlatan/etc. whose marking value makes them a major asset outside of performance and who could instigate a major bidding war when they’re the few players of their talents, why wouldn’t you pay your players based on what they actually provide you with? Perform great and you’ll be one of the richest in the game, perform shit and sell your Lamborghini.
I get it in the NFL where contracts aren’t guaranteed and most players can be sacked on any given day with no severance, and basketball in which a single player has such outsized impact and therefore all the bargaining power.
But in most sports (football, baseball, etc.) the vast majority of players are replaceable and contracts are guaranteed. Why wouldn’t you pay players mostly for how they perform for you today rather than how they performed for someone else 3 seasons ago?
Why will it feel empty for him ? He gave us everything over many years. Through the ridiculous sacking and appointments from baldy. He went as he felt as far as he could with us. He wanted the going rate wages wise for a top 4 right back, we wouldn’t do that, so he left. It won’t feel empty for him whatsoever. Exactly the same when Toby and Rose go in the summer.
We are on a nice journey at the moment, punching above our weight, but this journey will end up at cross road at some point soon.
I hope he signs an extension, but if not he's got to be worth a fortune in the current market, wouldn't want to see him in this country for another club as he's too good (when fit), PSG if he's after money, or offer him to his old rivals Real Madrid, the 'special' relationship wankers, straight swap for Bale, plus they pay Bales wages over the £100k cap!
I tend to agree - he gave us pretty good service whilst he as here. The other thing to remember is that Kyle is a northern lad, who never really enjoyed London. I expect him and his missus are actually much happier back up there.
Just watched the Barcelona highlights.
Dzeko ripped them a new ass, even beating Pique for pace. Homestly it was shambolic on the part of Barcelona.
Sell the contract rebel to them. They sure need him although I think his hamstrings are fcuked.
Get him sold before the World Cup starts.
Dzeko ripped them a new ass, even beating Pique for pace. Homestly it was shambolic on the part of Barcelona.
Sell the contract rebel to them. They sure need him although I think his hamstrings are fcuked.
Get him sold before the World Cup starts.
That’s what annoys me - Levy has built this empire, but is also going to burn it down with his moronic stance on wages.
He’s reaping the benefits of the Premier League tv and Champions League money without investing it into the players who generate it - this labelling anybody who won’t blindly commit to the ‘project’ for a relative pittance as a mercenary is cringeworthy.
Alderweireld has been grossly underpaid for the past 3 years here, and is entitled to insist on being compensated for that in his next (and final) big contract; world class players should earn world class money.
The work that’s been done up to this point is beautiful and romantic, but needs a dose of reality if it is to be sustained - the majority of Pochettino’s first 11 would walk into every other team in the league and most in Europe too, and be paid 3 times as much as they are now; Eriksen, Alli and Kane won’t neutralise their true earning/silverware potential for a place on the alter of moral superiority.
Roma are a fine example of how to run a club - they rewarded/compensated Totti and De Rossi for their loyalty with elite salaries, and Levy should do the same with the fellas who’re making this dream a reality.
Moronic stance? You do see that big stadium that’s being built and training ground already built - they are linked to why our transfer spend and wages are limited. The money is being reinvested in the club in ways beyond funding agents fees and inflated player wages.
And Toby joined us on those terms and has since refused to sign a new contract while others have done so thus increasing their earning potential, so saying he is grossly underpaid is rubbish, they were the wages he and his agent agreed on.
The fact he may leave to get a bigger payday at another club has always been on the cards.
Plus he signed as a player in his mid twenties not his teens or early twenties so loyalty to our club is not something he can be accused of.
Others you mention will probably be in line to earn more as I expect we will start to pay more as our earning potential increases as a club.
But we won’t be doing city, United and PSG salary figures as we just aren’t at that level.
The term “grossly underpaid” is fucking insulting. He’s not saving lives.
Also anyone acting all outraged about our players being so “unfairly” paid need to remember that they all signed contracts agreeing to those wages. They didn’t have to.
Why on earth did they come here and sign those pathetic contracts then? Alderwierled was out on loan from AM, where he couldn't get any minutes, there were only two clubs in for him, us and Southampton, he fucked Southampton off the moment we knocked on his door. Was anyone saying he was world class before he signed for us, was there even anyone saying we should sign a CB when we signed him? The answer to both those questions is no. He's signed one contract with us, in that time (2.5yrs) he's played ONE season and been out injured for most of this and a lot of last year, completing only 40 games over the past two years. There is your dose of reality.
No other club took the risk on Dele apart from us, another dose of reality for you.
We have a higher wage bill than Roma, who pay the 18th highest wages in Europe, were are currently 12th on that list (because we are/were the 12th richest club in Europe, with new financials just released showing us as now 10th and that we increased our wage bill by some 20% then that would also reflect us paying even more than Roma). At least try and get your facts straight.
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