Having seen the prices being reported as required for Jesse Lingard and Adam Armstrong selling clubs suffer a reality check this summer.
What they want and what they get are entirely different things with the Financial Times reporting we are in the middle of the worst recession in 300 years.
West Ham’s experience with Seb Haller is one example; a player who arrived for €45 million was eventually sold for £20 million in the covid market.
More significantly perhaps is that the 19 Premier League clubs spent a total of £70 million in January – £5 million less than Liverpool spent in buying Virgil van Dijk a couple of years or so back.
Manchester United may well be hoping for £20 million-plus for Lingard and he may be worth it but there was no other interest than ours in January and a few decent games are unlikely to see clubs rushing to pay anything up to the £30 million the Red Devils may believe they will get via an auction!
We are talking about a guy who has just one year left on his contract – thus the price is unrealistically high as a result of those various factors.
And Blackburn’s apparent hopes that £25 million is on the cards for Armstrong brings back memories of Burnley’s dreams for James Tarkowski who was nowhere near worth the reported £50 million they were after – and that was in a non-covid market.
That Rovers boss Tony Mowbray is already making it clear they will let him go suggests certain financial desperation at Ewood Park!
Whether fans want to believe or not that covid won’t have any effect or not is one thing – the reality was seen in January with that humble £70 million being spent across all clubs.
Nothing much will have changed come summer other than the minds of club bosses when the offers come in from clubs who – like all other business – have suffered very badly indeed over the last year.
Reality check time will soon be at hand!
Hopefully Lingard will have a good enjoyable end of season with us. A reasonable fee is one thing, but Man U wanting an auction starting at 20m should not be for us. He has a years contract left – surely a conversation piece with us? A signing on fee? At his career stage we can fulfill him if he wants it.
Lingard is an established Premier League player and an international player with a number of caps so £20 million could conceivably be a realistic asking price. Armstrong on the other hand has never scored a goal in the Premier League and , apart from a few games for Newcastle at the start of his career, has hardly played in it and so must be regarded as a gamble. If Blackburn are seriously expecting £25 million someone needs to take a quick reality check.
Wasn’t established last season at OT – ignored
I think whoever buys Jesse Lingard will pay around £25 million after agents fees and add on are taken into account. And lets remember that usually, but I accept not always, transfer fees are spread over the term of the contract or thereabouts.
If that turns out to be the case then one could argue 4 years (3 year contract plus 1 year option) of Jesse Lingard at £6.25m a season is pretty decent value.
plus wages
I don’t see Armstrong being any more expensive than OllieWatkins or Benrhama.Why would He be ?
”James Tarkowski who was nowhere near worth the reported £50 million they were after – and that was in a non-covid market.”
How was that a non-covid market?
There was a lot of noise (this site included) that we are in a depression, theres no money .that WAS a ‘covid market’
apologies my mistake