Fabian Delph - Signed for Manchester City

[PaulWinch again]

He'd have Downing level of weasel status if he left now after his "I'm Villa me, this is my club *wink*" speech.

Yes it would be pretty poor and an utter disaster for us.

[PaulWinch again]

Jesus Christ

Delph leaving for that sum after all that "my club" bullshit a few months ago would be worse than Downing in my book

I hope it doesn't happen.

Yep. It's all very well people saying he could have left for nothing if he wanted, but all that stuff about 'my club' and then inserting an £8 million clause given the going rate for footballers these days is pretty shocking. That's if it's true of course.

[Matt Collins]

Aargh!! Some crazy logic continues . .

The only complicated issue here is whether the clause exists, and the nature of it

- if it's a proper release clause for £8m nobody is going to offer more. If it exists, that seems to be the case
- if it's a Suarez style "allows the player to speak to a club" it's almost worthless. I'd be stunned if any agents were accepting this kind of clause now
- it might be a relegation clause but it hasn't been reported as such
- if the clause does exist, it can only be  precisely because he wants to be allowed the chance to speak to a man city or similar
- given we only just did the deal, what leverage do people think we've gained in the last few months to do a better deal? He didn't agree to the clause by accident!
- the only short term game changer in that respect is presumably if we get new owners and start splashing the cash, but presumably he'd still wait to see how we go before reconsidering

[claret and blue blood]

We really need the takeover sorted asap,how nice would it be to have owners with the financial muscle and the halls to tell the likes of Liverpool and Man City to go fuck themselves.

[Leicester_Villian]

Lets remember if Delph had not signed a new contract he would be leaving for free ..........
I guess the clause was inserted to ensure Villa did get a fee when he leaves
I don't believe this is anything like Downing
Delph is now an established England international and who could blame him if he joined Man City
We would all move to a bigger company in our jobs and we all have a contract
Having said all the above it would be sad to see him leave but we all know where in the table we will be !

[silhillvilla]

If it happens , it's a big Downing moment following that video he put out.

[PaulWinch again]

Lets remember if Delph had not signed a new contract he would be leaving for free ..........
I guess the clause was inserted to ensure Villa did get a fee when he leaves
I don't believe this is anything like Downing
Delph is now an established England international and who could blame him if he joined Man City
We would all move to a bigger company in our jobs and we all have a contract
Having said all the above it would be sad to see him leave but we all know where in the table we will be !

I fail to see the distinction with Downing though. Yes Delph didn't have to sign a new deal, but ultimately he would be doing exactly the same as Downing only for a lower fee and after coming out and proclaiming his undying love for the club.

[Dave]

- if it's a Suarez style "allows the player to speak to a club" it's almost worthless. I'd be stunned if any agents were accepting this kind of clause now

That was never a thing.

Suarez's was just the same as any other release clause, Liverpool just chose to ignore it and Arsenal/Suarez's people chose not to fight it for whatever reason.

[LTA]

Still not a peep from the club over 24 hours after the story broke.  Obviously the attitude is "let's ignore it and hopefully the furore will go away".  Mushroom management again.

[Dave]

Still not a peep from the club over 24 hours after the story broke.  Obviously the attitude is "let's ignore it and hopefully the furore will go away".  Mushroom management again.

What are you expecting them to do?

[silhillvilla]

The saving grace here is Delph needs to play week in week out. He won't get that at Ci£y.
Aren't they about to sign Pogba for £80m anyway ??

[Clark W Griswold]

Apparently he felt that he owed Lerner something after being stood by through many injuries, so set it up so that at least we would get some sort of fee for him. So whilst a bit smoke and mirrors ish with the Villa is my club statement, it's nowhere near Downing levels of wankerness, surely the biggest wanker of the last decade or more.

I'm kind of hoping Delph did it with one eye on new owners being rich as well, and this may still keep him here.

[olaftab]

Still not a peep from the club over 24 hours after the story broke.  Obviously the attitude is "let's ignore it and hopefully the furore will go away".  Mushroom management again.

What are you expecting them to do?

Surely the club should set up it's own radio station to counter transfer speculation rumours and appoint someone like Tony Butler to give it dramatics gravitas whilst in between denial broadcasts the station should play patriotic Club songs to keep out spirits up?

[Clampy]

Still not a peep from the club over 24 hours after the story broke.  Obviously the attitude is "let's ignore it and hopefully the furore will go away".  Mushroom management again.

You can't expect the club to comment on every story that comes out. Besides, you're already convinced that he's on his way to Man City.

[robbo1874]

Hmm. John Percy does have more credibility than nursey. £8m clearly a lot better than zilch but it is a shockingly low fee. Quite an unusual situation - can't think of a similar instance elsewhere

Don't blame villa for agreeeing to such a clause during this season's negotiation. The mistake was letting it get to six months from the end of his contract in the first place!

Hopefully delph's mindset is to see how we do next year before making a decision.

its not the fee though, just the value of the release clause (if it's true), ie a minimum. Look at it like a reserve price in an auction. You'd expect a few clubs to be fighting for him, so the eventual transfer fee would hopefully be significantly higher than 8m.

No, we have to accept an £8m bid, therefore only an idiot would offer more. That's the point of a release clause.

lee & Duncan - I think you're both wrong on this, though happy to be corrected if I am wrong. We don't have to accept a bid for him from any club unless he wants to go there. For example Stoke or Southampton might offer 8m for him, but if he doesn't want to go to either of those clubs we don't have to accept the bids or sell him. I accept the point that the figure is disappointingly low if true, but in reality you would expect that a Stoke or a Southampton might put that kind of bid in, but then say Liverpool or city or whoever would say: we'll bid 12m for him. At the end of the day, it's up to the player to decide if he wants to leave and which club he goes to. I could see it working the other way and a 'big' club like city for example offering 8m for him and offering him say 200k a week for him to sign, so the money goes largely to the player. But the fact remains we don't have to accept a bid if he doesn't like that club.