Youri Tielemans

[rob_bridge]

Big blow for us but unlike when Delph or Barry or Milner left we have people in charge who know how to construct and execute a succession plan.

He looks like a Carrick type of player to me - in fact he is very similar to Carrick as a player.  ManU back in ECL and looking vaguely functional on the pitch for first time in goodness knows how long is always a harder challenge for others than any other club. Like it or not they are still biggest draw in England and probably only 2 Spanish are bigger.

If it means we keep Rogers then I can live with it

He has been a massive part of our ongoing improvement but maybe, only maybe. it is the right time to cash in the chips.

[Villan For Life]

I didn’t expect this news when I woke up this morning.

[john2710]

If the figure was £70m, I could live with it.

[chrisw1]

He's played 60 thousand minutes of club football - started at Anderlecht at 15, and has played more football at 29 than Paul Scholes had played when he retired at 38.

We've got 3 fantastic seasons out of his prime, but with 2 years on his deal now is the time to sell, as painful as it will be to see him go.

Leaves a club legend and that volley will stay with me forever.

Not at £35m it's not.

[Monty]

£35m release clause is fucking criminal. Criminal.

He was signed on a free, though, and he would have had other options on the table at the time. All the power was on his side.

Why is the power always on the other side in every transfer we every do bar Rogers, then? Where was all that power in the Guessand deal?

I think we just have to accept that, for all the things we do well, we fucking suck at transfers.

The power in the Guessand deal was us using our clout to persuade a sought-after player to join us.

Good deal, wasn't it? Worked out beautifully. A stunning success.

Pardon?

My overall point is that our record at transfers is bad. Our clout in the Guessand case didn't save us from spending about as much on him as we're losing Tielemans for - it was a bad deal, a bad decision.

[Dave]

He's played 60 thousand minutes of club football - started at Anderlecht at 15, and has played more football at 29 than Paul Scholes had played when he retired at 38.

We've got 3 fantastic seasons out of his prime, but with 2 years on his deal now is the time to sell, as painful as it will be to see him go.

Leaves a club legend and that volley will stay with me forever.

Not at £35m it's not.

But if the £35m clause was the requirement to persuade him to sign for us on a free transfer, then it's better than not having signed him at all.

To be honest, assuming it's been there all along I'm a bit surprised that nobody jumped on it last summer.

[PeterWithesShin]

It's 35m profit. Not bad for a 29 year old that I reckon will decline sharply in the next 2 years.

[chrisw1]

It's 35m profit. Not bad for a 29 year old that I reckon will decline sharply in the next 2 years.

He hardly relies on pace.  No reason whatsoever to expect him to decline in the next 2 years.

[dave.woodhall]

If he wants to go to them he can fuck off sharpish.

[PeterWithesShin]

It's 35m profit. Not bad for a 29 year old that I reckon will decline sharply in the next 2 years.

He hardly relies on pace.  No reason whatsoever to expect him to decline in the next 2 years.

And yet I do expect him to.

[Chris Stares]

If he wants to go to them he can fuck off sharpish.

This

[Percy McCarthy]

I find it pretty staggering that no one has attempted to trigger such a ludicrously low asking price for Tielemans in the last 3 years.

No way that release clause has been kept a secret from big clubs

Wash yer mouth out with soap.  There isn't a bigger club than the one that created the football league, has the most beautiful name, the most beautiful stadium, and the most attractive players in the whole of world football.

Amen.

[Dave]

£35m release clause is fucking criminal. Criminal.

He was signed on a free, though, and he would have had other options on the table at the time. All the power was on his side.

Why is the power always on the other side in every transfer we every do bar Rogers, then? Where was all that power in the Guessand deal?

I think we just have to accept that, for all the things we do well, we fucking suck at transfers.

The power in the Guessand deal was us using our clout to persuade a sought-after player to join us.

Good deal, wasn't it? Worked out beautifully. A stunning success.

Pardon?

My overall point is that our record at transfers is bad. Our clout in the Guessand case didn't save us from spending about as much on him as we're losing Tielemans for - it was a bad deal, a bad decision.

Your initial complaint in our interaction was about who holds the power in player recruitment.

We can be the stronger party and make poor choices (Guessand), we can be the stronger party and make good choices (Rogers).

We can be the weaker party and make good choices (Kamara) we can be the weaker party and make poor choices (Elliott).

In the case of Tielemans, we were the weaker party and broadly made good choices, if the alternative was not signing him in the first place.

[Brend'Watkins]

He’s injured isn’t he?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Let's face it, Youri didn't want to sign an extension to his contract, it's been sitting on the table for months and we get played. He did the same at Leicester which is why we managed to get him to begin with. As sickening as it is, especially with those plastic twats, it really shouldn't come as a big surprise.

What is a surprise is having a ridiculously low value clause in his contract. That's something the club have known about since we signed him and have had plenty of time to address the issue.