I was also thinking about the "If Fabio goes it will be harder to hold on to Rafael" argument this morning, and decided it's largely bollocks.
If Fabio goes, it's because he's not been judged good enough, which means the only place he'll be going to is to a demonstrably lower level club. Meanwhile Rafael, presuming he keeps up the good work, will be playing every week for Man Utd. He's hardly going to move to, say, West Brom just to be with his bro, is he?
Similarly, if Madrid come calling for Rafael, I can't see him deciding whether he stays or not based on whether his brother is still playing for our reserve team. If he wants to go there, he goes.
The only scenario in whihc it's an issue is if Fabio proves us wrong, shows himself to be brilliant, and gets another move to a top club, who then also decide to go in for Rafael. But this doesn't seem likely, and if it is the case then we've dropped a bollock anyway by letting Fabio go, regardless of what Rafael does.
If Fabio goes, it's because he's not been judged good enough, which means the only place he'll be going to is to a demonstrably lower level club. Meanwhile Rafael, presuming he keeps up the good work, will be playing every week for Man Utd. He's hardly going to move to, say, West Brom just to be with his bro, is he?
Similarly, if Madrid come calling for Rafael, I can't see him deciding whether he stays or not based on whether his brother is still playing for our reserve team. If he wants to go there, he goes.
The only scenario in whihc it's an issue is if Fabio proves us wrong, shows himself to be brilliant, and gets another move to a top club, who then also decide to go in for Rafael. But this doesn't seem likely, and if it is the case then we've dropped a bollock anyway by letting Fabio go, regardless of what Rafael does.