The Estate Agent calls. That huge house, the great, sturdy, solid mansion that you have coveted ever since you had to leave it because of a job move, is possibly for sale. You’d always promised yourself that ‘one day’ you’d buy it again. Much admired, dependable, not too old, British- built and perfect for your needs just now. You’d heard that someone else tried to buy your perfect house – let’s call it ‘Kilman Towers’ – last year for £30 million, but the sellers wouldn’t budge on the price as they had a big mortgage of £7 million to pay off and frankly didn’t fancy selling their own favourite home at any price.
So, a year on from someone else’s £30 million offer, what do you do, if you are serious about owning Kilman Towers? You have two choices: Either make a respectful offer starting at the kind of money which the sellers rejected last year and negotiate a ‘win-win’ from there at a reasonable price, probably a bit higher but after all, you want this house for years to come: Or, you can disguise your dreams of owning this house and try an opportunistic low offer of less than last years rejected figure. Secretly you are hoping they might have to sell it, even though you’re pretty certain this offer will be immediately turned down.
What’s more, you’ll risk seriously upsetting the seller who might then vow ‘not an any price’ will you own their prized mansion. After all, they didn’t show any inclination of accepting a price of £30 million last year – so the response to £25 million a year later seems predictable.
It depends how serious you are in your desire to own the house, balanced against the risk of trying to acquire it cheaply.
So it is with West Ham’s apparent offer to Wolves for Max Kilman. When it was confirmed yesterday that there was a formal approach for the 27 year-old, homegrown Wolves captain, it signalled a delve into the archives to check on that price: Indeed, David Ornstein reported back in July 2023 that Wolves had turned down Napoli’s offer of 35 million euros- about £30 million. So, it begs the question – a year later, what is the likelihood of securing the same player for less, especially with him having signed a new five-year contract last summer?
More so with the ‘mortgage’ that needs to be redeemed- the sell-on clause in the deal with Maidenhead United from 2018 which could mean Wolves having to pay out as much as £7 million from any future deal with West Ham or any other buyer.
Could it be the now familiar ‘lowball ‘offer, just to test the water and see if any (well-hidden) need to sell lurks beneath the surface, or is it the start of serious tough talking with the ultimate aim of securing a deal?
Starting at £5 million less than last years’ failed bid means nobody is really expecting the seller to leap in and accept any time soon and it seems inevitable that more cash needs to be tabled. If a second offer is forthcoming as some sources are claiming this morning, it will signal serious intent and at that stage we might just start getting excited.
I am a Wolves fan and think this makes West Ham look like idiots. Just because Lopetegui was probably lied to about Wolves’ financial position, Gary O’Neil was almost certainly told the truth as there was no reason to do otherwise. So best believe him when he says Wolves don’t have to sell any player. This offer embarasses your club and if another club comes in with a sensible offer then Wolves will do business with them even if you match the fee. Have some respect and remember you are not a big club.
Sullivan and part time useless Brady out
We don’t need money for ffp. We have just signed 3 players for nearly 25m without selling anyone.
Don’t take things for face value. The £25m offer may be cash up-front (as Wolves are in need of Money to comply with FFP). it may be a low ball offer but the incentive may actually be bigger than taking a larger fee spread out over 5 years…
just a thought.
Wolves season ticket holder for 45 years here. I think we can all agree £25m is a micky take.
I like kilman, he wins most of his headed juels, he is 6’4″ and can bring the ball out well at times, and he is leftsided. He is a good solid premier league player. Although he is captain and well respected he is not much of an organiser or very vocal. He is ten times the player when Dawson players along side of him to organise him and the defence.
If course we are going to ask for big bucks, but personally I would not pay over £40m for Max, a fair price is probably £35m with add ons. As I understand it we limited the sell on clause with Maidenhead, so most of the fee will be pure profit, great for FFP. But don’t fall for any rubbish that Wolves must sell because of FFP. We have sold more than enough to cover FFP, and we will be moving on Podence, Guedes, and Fabio Silva which should bring in £20/£30m. Then everyone knows Netto if off for £50m plus. So even than I don’t think kilman is fast enough or a good enough organiser to be worth over £40m I do think financially we can keep telling them to sod off until there valuation is meet. We might not need to sell, but they do need cash for reinvestment. Good luck for the season, always had a lot of time for the Hammers – proper club.
As usual, we make a fool of ourselves! Making daft low bids, I could just vision our owner’s face, if clubs did this to us, it would not be a nice sight to see! Just make a sensible bid! rather than playing school boy games.
zzzzzz
I would love a 30 million house. I wonder if they would accept an offer of £4.50 and half a bag of werthers originals. I’d like Kilman too but in this situation you might hazard a guess that Looetegui has had words with his former player and that Kilman is up for the Move. A motivated seller because of financial FairPlay. And the the tenant of the house Kilman wants out. A perfect storm so try a lowball offer why not.
He’s not up for a move.
Why do we do this EVERY f#cking year!! Just buy the player for a respectable fee asap and get him into pre season training. Sullivan is a clown and I have to say I’m not overly impressed with Steidman yet. COYI