@Johan07 I see absolutely no reason why Toby should demand a stupidly high sign-on fee, as 25 mill pounds for a 30 year old CB is a reasonable price. He is currently on 80k per week at Tottenham, and the rumors say that he wants 180k to renew, while Tottenham only want to offer him 130 k. Throw in 200k and a 5 mill sign-on fee, and we will get him for a total of 30 mill and the same salary as Lukaku. This is far from the 100 mill that is the reported price for players like Koulibaly.
Maybe. Thats still 30m in transfer fee + sign on that we would have to write off over the time of his contract because of his age.
Its actually more expensive than investing 100m in a De Ligt or Skriniar, whose value will not decrease in the same way. If at all. Look at Pogba who is worth more now then when we bought him.
Its way to simplistic to compare players of different ages just according to their transfer fees.
In many cases an investment in a young talented player might even turn out a profit.
Koulibaly is overpriced at 100m IMO because of his age, even if he is two years younger than Toby and probably still will have value come the latter years of his contract. I personally still would like him at the club more than anyone else except maybe De Ligt. I still think 100m is a stretch from Napolis perspective and might be more of a boasting attitude that they dont need to sell.
Most clubs, United included, will have advanced algorithms in place when calculating the total cost of a transfer. Transfer fee, agent fees, age, time of contract, prospected development, etc.
Its also quite ridiculous reading about these transfer kittys that is supposed to be in place for every summer. No one except PSG when they bought Neymar pays a transfer fee up front, its done over a couple of years and its more accurate to describe this as a trade balance where the club will have incoming and outgoing transfer fees every year. Which may be a problem for clubs with bad cash-flow and/or capital. Its not a problem for United though. What is the problem right now for United is that we have racked up the PL´s largest wagebill as well as losing money on players like Sanchez and Matic in pure asset value depreciation.
I really dont want us to buy Toby or players of a similar age because of this. It will hurt us in the long run even more.