Trafford - finally why

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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...

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.

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

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

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.