Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
You said it isn't easy to sell players on high wages...I underlined three cases where Brands couldn't shift out permanently players on less than high wags. THAT'S what it had to do with it.
Ignoring your 40k Williams wages, there was a deal agreed for Besic but it fell through, cos guess what, he didnt wanna give up his "less than high wages".
Two players sold - one for a knock down price. 17 loaned out, depreciating in value.
It isn't good, please dont pretend it is.
Why would you sell players when you can loan them out and their value increases? Was loaning out Vlasic a bad idea? Onyenkuru? Dowell? Holgate? Heck, no.
For others, we weren't getting a fee. Williams, Martina, Mirallas, etc.
Incidentally, from a FFP standpoint, a loan deal is smart even for those with minimal value. One more year to amortize the transfer fee.
I'm a bit confused here @davek as the 3 players you mentioned:
Besic: Offer of £6mil which fell through due to his wage demands + agent fee request. The only way I imagine the deal would have gone through would have been to partially continue to cover his wages + give the agent a sweetener. Perhaps we would have made £2mil on the deal, instead we loaned him for a season (at no cost) and I'd say he would be worth more than £2mil for a team now -- wouldnt you?
Vlasic: We were offered €9mil from CSKA and we knocked it back but allowed him to go there on loan. He's now top of the performance charts and leads the motm awards and player of the month awards in that league. In comparison Golovin went to Monaco from CSKA last season for €30mil and was playing at a lower performance level....this is clearly a very positive loan move.
Williams: Was not on £40k a week, double that. His wages have been covered by his loan which equates to over £3mil saved on the balance sheet and his contract is up at the end of the season.
3 VERY positive loans.
I'd also add in Bolasie £80k+ wages being taken off the books for a season being a good move. No club would be eager to pay those wages + a transfer fee for his constant useless negative performances.
I think you're failing to remember the key component of a deal which is "It is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay you".
The one piece of good news for us is that:
Zouma
Jagielka
Browning
Baines
Gomes
Will all be off the wage bill at the end of the season and we can then re-invest.