I agree with Chicago, who are you going to bring in better than Albrighton basically on a free who would be better value
That's not the whole story though, is it?
It's not just "who can we get who is better on a free", that sounds like the only influencing factor is the transfer fee. it isn't. We'd have had to make Albrighton a commitment to pay him whatever he earns - and by the sounds of it, it is quite a lot - for three or four years.
I appreciate we don't know precisely what he earns but you can not just ignore the wages aspect of it all. It is far from just a "keep him or let him go" decision, it's a multi year commitment to a player.
It would still cost the same to buy a comparable player on lower wages. Which is why Leicester have stumped up the reported 35K a week. Same as paying him £25K with a £2-3m transfer fee.
Well, I get your point, but it's not necessarily the case strictly speaking, it depends who we're replacing him with and how the figures stack up.
I liked Albrighton. I thought he did well at the end of last season, but 35k a week, crikey, that's way over the top.
Even if it made sense on the "no transfer fee" basis for us to keep him on, had we paid him that extra amount, it'd be contributing to the wages culture at the club - the "my agent says Albrighton is on that much, so I want that much too" thing.