Trafford - finally why

[Jammy89]

So, looks like we might finally be seeing why the Trafford saga has dragged on.

City are now apperently potentially interested as Ederson may be on the way - lots of maybes.

It turns out that City have a buy back clause in the sale to Burnley.

They also have that 20% sell on fee, which is why Burnley are holding for this apperant ?40 million.

I suspect that our bid has now been accepted but due to this buy-back clause Burnley have to let City know so they can purchase him for the agreed amount if they wish - again I would guess ?40 million.

I think this will be resolved one way or another within a week now, he'll either be here or at City again.

[smorgan86]

You'd think there would be a time limit on them matching our offer. We were led to believe this deal has been done for 2 years and it was just a matter of hitting July 1st. Very strange.

[Jammy89]

I think that was more us reading what we wanted.

I suspect the personal terms deal is done and has been for 2 years but the club-to-club deal, clearly hasn't

[Zippity]

We're not covering oureelves in glory here, are we (in terms of our transfer strategy so far).

[Jammy89]

No but equally.

We can't move on Trafford with City's final say so due to this buy-back-clause.

Etikite was willing to come but Frankfurt weren't willing to meet us at price and we walked away - better to show we'll do that tbh.

Pedro - we'd already pissed off before when we walked away to sign Isak so can't blame him for the Chelski thing (plus the massive wages).

So, in my opinion, whilst it doesn't look great, there are reasonable reasons why each has ****ed up or not gone way we wanted.

[Zippity]

No, I agree, Jammy.

My problem is that Eddie wanted players in quickly and that hasn't happened. If we are, indeed, going to be a bit different tactically up front, not having players in during pre-season is going to negatively impact that so going for players who, it would seem, were never going to come or who there were going to be issues with in getting the deal done, seems to....well, seems not to have helped.

Sorry if that sentence is clunky...up at ten to five for a drive to Glasgow. Speaking of which...*checks time...oops...

[Nufcian]

I agree with Zip.

We have not struggled due to the policy, in terms of selecting players, but have struggled due to the way we have approached deals and how quickly we have operated in terms of knowing how much we want to spend on players.

Maybe it is just we can’t go immediately back with an increased offer or we would be seen as desperate for them and clubs would try and rinse us, but we should be approaching them with a max amount we value them at, arrange intensive sessions with clubs to thrash it out in one go, and if the club won’t sell even when we reach what we believe the max a player is worth we walk away for good.

That would send the message that we have our limits, and WILL walk if they are reached and not accepted.

The whole Guehi Saga last summer was a farce, if I had any criticism I would say the club failed to learn from that… the Trafford back and forth had been going on for weeks now, and given Man City have a buy back clause apparently then we are not going to be bringing him in unless City walk away… and given it looks like Ederson is off I cannot see that happening.

Hopefully we can learn from the experience, finally, and try to wrap up any approaches quicker going forward.

I agree we needed players in ASAP, given Eddie had a history of wanting a long period of time to bed players in / work on their fitness to the level he demands, I think we will see any more players coming from this point not starting against Villa…if we do bring in another keeper that might be the exception.

Hard to know what has really happened mind, so all just speculation about how we have approached clubs, but we know Guehi dragged on and we know Trafford has dragged on, so do not feel it’s unfair to point that out.

[Sclox]

....hopefully we move quickly on a CB. I think we need a win on the next one.

[5under1and]

It’s a complete shambles we are again made to look like a joke and all this about getting players in early and having agreed contracts with players what a lode of crap

[Sclox]

40 is fair enough IMO having reflected on a young, English and proven PL talent.

We should push City for a decision quickly then do it or move on.

I don't think its a joke but just difficukt and slow. They are wanting to get it right. I get it, but we need to move.

[Sclox]

...still ice cool at this stage. They got this, haven't signed a dud yet and its a learning curve for a new team.

[Sclox]

...well relatively new. Think Andy Howe is newish?

[Guybrush]

...still ice cool at this stage. They got this, haven't signed a dud yet and its a learning curve for a new team.

Our issue is that we don?t have the income of the likes of the Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Chelsea.

We cannot afford a ?60/70m flop like those guys can.

We absolutely have to get it bang on or the whole project grinds to a halt as we then cannot spend on the real deal to replace the mistake.

Ekitike for 70m might mean we can get our hands on a quality CB too. At 80m, does that stop us doing so until next Summer?

We don?t have 40/50m players who aren?t I. The squad to move on allowing us to change the make up of our squad. our 40/50m players are the first names on the team sheet!

So, basically we cannot just match these other teams valuations and outbid others to get our man.

We need to just keep pretending we?re interested to keep the price up and quietly work away on another deal.

For Trafford? I genuinely think we can leave that department for another season anyway? spend the money elsewhere (unless we have it anyways)

[Sclox]

Aye, I get the constraints but HE is the real deal, he is Isak when we signed him. As sure a thing as you can get and nothing is certain. Its high stakes gambling.

I'd rather 70 on this guy than 2x40 players because its now about quality - we are in that bracket now and this is what quality costs.

I also think 40 isnt unreasonable for Trafford and we should push City for an answer them move on if we don't get one.

[Ragatino]

Aye, I get the constraints but HE is the real deal, he is Isak when we signed him. As sure a thing as you can get and nothing is certain. Its high stakes gambling.

I'd rather 70 on this guy than 2x40 players because its now about quality - we are in that bracket now and this is what quality costs.

I also think 40 isnt unreasonable for Trafford and we should push City for an answer them move on if we don't get one.

PSR is doing it's job. Villa have followed Chelsea in using the women's team to wipe out restrictive financial issues.
The Cartel are protected by the rules. We're stuck in a position where we need to sign the top tier players.
The issue isn't the transfer fee, it's the salary on top of the transfer fee.
We've all played Football Manager.
The slider between transfer budget and wage bill is a great representation of where we are.
The total budget just doesn't stretch to cover the salaries that the Cartel clubs pay.

Delap a kid with 1 reasonable season is now getting paid 200k a week. Everyone one of our other targets, are all getting paid more. Bummo - 250k a week at the filth. He was never gonna consider Newcastle United when we were offering 120k a week. That's half the income.

PSR working perfectly to protect the cartel and ensure that any challenger clubs have to work extra hard to challenge consistently. This is the point, it's about attrition. The bigger clubs can eat the losses of dud signings, as someone above has stated, the rest of us can not, at this stage.

On the Trafford situation. The Buy back has been well known. Last season, Man City had no interest in a keeper. We couldn't spend due to PSR.

It's all about timing. Tonali, Bruno, Botman, Isak, timing was on our side.

This summer, due to our rise to prominence, the cup win and the 2nd appearance in the UCL in 3 seasons plus cartel clubs needed to refresh we've had a situation where every target has had options.

The only way Trafford comes to Newcastle United now is if he rejects Man City's offer. However, if he's gonna be the first choice striker for Pep at City. That's not an offer you turn down after coming through their academy.

So it'll all depend on Ederson. If he stays at City there is hope, if he goes, then it's highly probable that Trafford replaces him. City have an interest in Diogo Costa however, if they do that deal instead of Trafford remains to be seen.