Good point. I worked with expatriation consultant once and he told me that more than third of all overseas transfers that his client companies had, didn't work within a year due to family issues. The employee might be doing well but the spouse at home has to deal with the local culture in a completely different way.
That said, with the salaries these guys have, this shouldn't be much of a problem
I just think the "17m owed" conversation needs to stop. It makes zero sense for that to be the hold up. I honestly don't know why it is still being brought up by the journalists in the media. If it really was the only hold up, then this deal would be done by now because you can only have 2 possible scenarios IF that was the hold up:
- Barca owe him 17m. Barca get an £80m fee for FDJ and pay him 17m out of that transfer fee. Simple. It makes zero sense for Barca to refuse to pay the 17m because IF that is the hold up, then they are getting absolutely no transfer fee for him and are going to be paying him nearly £2m a month in wages. They are not that stupid they are going to miss out on 80m to save 17m.
- Lets say we believe Barca are refusing to pay him what hes owed (which doesnt make sense anyway as I mentioned above). Then Utd would more than happily pay the 17m considering we are willing to waste milions on silly signings as a panic solution.
So the 17m is absolutely not the sticking point here either by Barca or Utd. Barca would probably even pay him more than 17m if they knew it would get him out of the club and off the wages. If he stays another season, they are going to pay him well over 17m anyway.
The only viable and reasonable explanation as to why this move hasn't happened is FDJ does not want to leave despite the fact he may not be a regular. Other factors than football are clearly important to him. If I was in his situation, I would certainly take into consideration my family's interests and views as well regardless of my football career. I'm pretty certain his partner is absolutely against swapping Barca for Manchester (despite the lush houses in Cheshire!). I just think FDJ feels he's happy with being a bit part player for another season at least while continuing with the life him and his wife have in Spain. He's getting paid a shed load of money to enjoy his life in their ideal location.
Footballers aren't as "determined" and success driven as you'd imagine. Getting paid loads of money and having a good lifestyle is more important to a lot of footballers nowadays than footballing success. Just look at the likes of Oscar, Ramires and Hulk pretty much ending their careers at an early age for the exchange of money and the ability to live a good life.