Fabian Delph - Signed for Manchester City

[villan from luton]

The best and most heart-warming thing he said when he signed his new contract for us was him saying to his missus 'You realise this means our baby will be a Brummie' and saying he was pleased about that.

I will be a bit sad if it transpires that it was bullshit PR bollocks.

Fair comment Percy, I am waiting for Fabian himself to say what he wants. He will be nearer home with lots more money, on the negative side his feelings for Villa possibly weren't as he mentioned.

[Trinitymiddle]

Fuck football is shit these days when a club can be raped  of their players just so another club can fill it's own grown quota. Another well intended idea that is shafting all but the richest clubs up the.....

It sucks, if city are going to try and sign Sterling for £50m who are they selling to meet ffp quota?

FFP is dead in the water now.

[passitsideways]

The odd thing is, out of Villa, ManCity and Liverpool, Villa came closest to winning a trophy last season.

If Delph goes to ManCity he is 90% certain to be going there to retire from regular football in return for a larger sum of money. He isn't going to displace their regular central midfielders and even allowing for a player's innate self confidence he will know that.

Would he though? I know they're being linked to Pogba, but Fernandinho and Fernando aren't exactly extremely daunting opposition. In fact, whenever I've seen the latter play, I'm reminded rather strongly of our own Carlos. Plus, you know Yaya will sit out games every now and then because he can't be bothered.

Delph isn't good enough to be a key player for a title-contending team with CL ambitions, but as of this moment I think he'd definitely be a squaddie there, which has a degree of attraction when big money is involved (plus the homegrown thing as a factor.)

[Matt Collins]

I think delph gets in their team at the moment. But I think they'll buy a bigger name in that position too

[PeterWithe]

Daily Mail are running with another Delph to Man City for £8m story this morning.

[old man villa fan]

I think delph gets in their team at the moment. But I think they'll buy a bigger name in that position too

Exactly that.  The reason why they didn't do anything last season was because of their midfield.  Their owners want to be challenging in the later stages of the CL and this will require far better midfield players than they currently have.  Some may think that Delph is as good or better than Fernandinho and Fernando but Man City need upgrades on these two, not somebody that is, at best, equal to.

[Phil from the upper holte]

So I assume ffp is relaxed for everyone? Seems messed up how Pogba is deemed not good enough, gets released then is now worth £71m? Yet Delph is only worth £8m

[dekko]

Daily Mail are running with another Delph to Man City for £8m story this morning.

Same one as yesterday isn't it?

[Percy McCarthy]

Daily Mail are running with another Delph to Man City for £8m story this morning.

They're just trying to make us forget their 'Marvin to Southampton' story from yesterday.

[old man villa fan]

I've read a few people saying delph should look at Sinclair and rodwell.

He should look at Barry and Milner. Both England central midfielders. I docubt either regretted leaving. I think delph could genuinely be as good as Barry. Not Milner though.

Agree with this.  Ive no problem with Delph leaving for a better club who are better placed to win things.  He has to do whats right for himself.

I am sorry but I am still a believer in a player honouring his contract unless the club does not perform as expected from the time of signing the contract.  At which time (say 2 years into a 4 year contract), you request a transfer and the club gets the market value for the player.

Obviously it does not happen like this but it does not stop me thinking less of a player if he holds the club to ransom and the club gets less than they should in a transfer.  I hate Bosman for setting in motion what football has become today.

Fine, so if Delph sees out the contract that he was on, didn't sign a new one in January and left on a free transfer this summer then you could surely have no complaints?

He has stuck to the exact terms of his contract, and we can have no complaints about his conduct.

The Bosman ruling isn't perfect, but it's hundreds of times better than what preceded it.

No, I would not be happy and it all revolves around Bosman.  Before this case, how many players allowed their contracts to run down.  The ruling for some players at the lower end being held when their contract expires until someone buys them has had a massive game changing effect at the top end.

Contrary to it's original purpose, it has lead to the top clubs moving away from the rest, almost as much as the CL.

[Dave]

No, I would not be happy and it all revolves around Bosman.  Before this case, how many players allowed their contracts to run down.  The ruling for some players at the lower end being held when their contract expires until someone buys them has had a massive game changing effect at the top end.

Contrary to it's original purpose, it has lead to the top clubs moving away from the rest, almost as much as the CL.

And until it was brought in, players had no control over their own careers and their own futures.

A player who was out of contract and wasn't being given a new one wasn't able to play for any other club until a transfer fee had been agreed. If a club was feeling particularly spiteful they could just leave a player uncontracted, underpaid and sitting in their reserves indefinitely with nothing that the player could do about it.

It's such a ridiculous scenario that it's amazing that it took until 1995 to change it.

If Delph does leave this summer because of an artificially low release clause, it's not the fault of the Bosman rule - it's the fault of the club for not sorting his contract out sooner.

[exigo]

I'm pretty sure he signed that deal so we'd get something for him. I'm also petty sure he'll leave, it's sad but inevitable

If that were the case it's a shame they didn't raise the price a bit particularly knowing the new TV millions was kicking in. £8m quite frankly is a paltry amount.

It is £8m more than feck all though

True. But why not stick £15m in ?

Because £8M was what Delph / agent were prepared to let be written into the contract?

The conversation would have been along the lines of

Fox: Well put a £15M release clause in so that there's an easy exit if someone like Man City show an interest.

Agent: Make it £8M or my boy walks for nothing at the end of the season.

I just don't buy this argument. Because then it must have continued something like this:

Villa: alright then, but we want to record Fabian's message to the fans.

Agent: Erm, okay then.

Villa: And he must say how loyal he is, how much he loves it here and how he wants to stick with us as we build a better future.

Agent: Okay, can't see any issue with that. Sign here Fab.

[Dave]

I'm pretty sure he signed that deal so we'd get something for him. I'm also petty sure he'll leave, it's sad but inevitable

If that were the case it's a shame they didn't raise the price a bit particularly knowing the new TV millions was kicking in. £8m quite frankly is a paltry amount.

It is £8m more than feck all though

True. But why not stick £15m in ?

Because £8M was what Delph / agent were prepared to let be written into the contract?

The conversation would have been along the lines of

Fox: Well put a £15M release clause in so that there's an easy exit if someone like Man City show an interest.

Agent: Make it £8M or my boy walks for nothing at the end of the season.

I just don't buy this argument. Because then it must have continued something like this:

Villa: alright then, but we want to record Fabian's message to the fans.

Agent: Erm, okay then.

Villa: And he must say how loyal he is, how much he loves it here and how he wants to stick with us as we build a better future.

Agent: Okay, can't see any issue with that. Sign here Fab.

Yup, it might well have continued like that.

If you don't buy the argument above, what is your alternative suggestion for why a release clause might be set below his market value?*

*assuming that it's there of course

[exigo]

If there's any release clause at all, I would expect it to be '£8 million if Villa are relegated' seeing as how we were hurtling towards the bottom three at the time of him signing. Journalist gets hold of that figure, twists it into a story to fill column inches, sees it get picked up by every other media outlet, moves onto the next 800 words of bollocks.

[LeeB]

I reckon you're closest to the truth.