2024 January transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[danno]

Ah the Douglas Luiz Arsenal link (again!) was it football insider or teamtalk today?

[eamonn]

release fee clauses sometimes "feel" like they shouldn't be given, but it's just the latest evolution of the shift in power towards the players and away from the club.  Some of them are a bit stupid (Ansu Fati, currently on loan at Brighton, has a £1billion release clause).  But they are, unfortunately, part and parcel of the game these days.  As others have said, even Haaland has one.  If you have a top player, and you're trying to secure them to a long-term contract, I can't imagine there are too many new contracts for the top 10% of players that don't have them these days.

There will come a point where we will exploit one, and we'll be absolutely delighted about its existence.

I don't have a problem with Dougie having one in his next contract. I'd prefer he didn't have one at all, but if it's going in there, just make sure it's at a value that makes him unattractive to most clubs, and if activated makes us a LOT of money. Certainly more than Grealish.

Agree with most of that but it's fanciful to expect any new deal to have a transfer clause of more than £100m even if it's an area of the field that clubs are now spending that sort of money on (Chelsea with Fernández and Caicedo, Arsenal with Rice). I just don't see Luiz agreeing on that, it effectively prices him out of a move and makes the clause worthless to him.

[Brazilian Villain]

Ah the Douglas Luiz Arsenal link (again!) was it football insider or teamtalk today?

Fabrizio Romano.

[danno]

Ah the Douglas Luiz Arsenal link (again!) was it football insider or teamtalk today?

Fabrizio Romano.

alright everyone... PANIC !

[Smithy]

release fee clauses sometimes "feel" like they shouldn't be given, but it's just the latest evolution of the shift in power towards the players and away from the club.  Some of them are a bit stupid (Ansu Fati, currently on loan at Brighton, has a £1billion release clause).  But they are, unfortunately, part and parcel of the game these days.  As others have said, even Haaland has one.  If you have a top player, and you're trying to secure them to a long-term contract, I can't imagine there are too many new contracts for the top 10% of players that don't have them these days.

There will come a point where we will exploit one, and we'll be absolutely delighted about its existence.

I don't have a problem with Dougie having one in his next contract. I'd prefer he didn't have one at all, but if it's going in there, just make sure it's at a value that makes him unattractive to most clubs, and if activated makes us a LOT of money. Certainly more than Grealish.

Agree with most of that but it's fanciful to expect any new deal to have a transfer clause of more than £100m even if it's an area of the field that clubs are now spending that sort of money on (Chelsea with Fernández and Caicedo, Arsenal with Rice). I just don't see Luiz agreeing on that, it effectively prices him out of a move and makes the clause worthless to him.

Release clauses are always higher than the current value - otherwise what's the point in having a contract if someone can come along today and offer nothing more than fair market value and take your player from you.  I don't think it would be unreasonable to point to Fernandez or Rice and say "Do you think those players are significantly better than you? Because they cost £100m and we think you're better than both of them". 

For the record, I don't want a release clause for any of our players, but given Dougie's premier league form in the last 18 months, and his age, I don't see how a release clause would be entertained for less than £100m.  Unless it comes down based on things like not qualifying for Europe or something.

I hope the club aren't agreeing to them, and have found a way to keep players happy without them.

[Risso]

The only way I see luiz going is by f there is a release clause that arsenal can afford. 

Which is possible.  But we’ll see

If we haven't learned from the Grealish situation then we deserve to lose him.

What lesson did we need to learn from the Grealish situation?

Don’t waste the money you get in.

[Toronto Villa]

Buendia under Emery wasn’t wasted money. We got most of the Ings money back. Bailey in today’s market is what we paid for him and has done well overall under Emery. So wasted under Smith and Gerrard. Not as much under Emery.

[Dante Lavelli]

They’re fair points Toronto.  Bailey has improved and Buendia often looks a £40m player (not sure what we actually paid). 

It did feel a bit of a scatter gun approach whereas now you’d hope any ‘low’ clauses can be mitigated by having replacements scouted and lined up.

[paul_e]

They’re fair points Toronto.  Bailey has improved and Buendia often looks a £40m player (not sure what we actually paid). 

It did feel a bit of a scatter gun approach whereas now you’d hope any ‘low’ clauses can be mitigated by having replacements scouted and lined up.

The problem was more about how the whole summer felt like it was us waiting to see what would happen with Grealish and we started the season looking like we'd not bothered with a pre-season.

[Toronto Villa]

The Jack money was wasted in terms of the opportunity it presented. But Jack leaving came as much more of a surprise to us vs say how West Ham rebuilt after they sold Rice. It felt the collection of players we brought in were a little more opportunistic than completely thought through. Buendia given his reputation I felt was a solid enough purchase. Bailey had a good background from Germany but we’ve seen many Bundesliga players struggle. And Ings was mostly well received but did we need his type of player? Anyway, water under the bridge now but I don’t think it was a complete waste.

[pablo_picasso]

Tbh, even if we did waste the Grealish money or not, him not being the in the squad & being the sole focus for our creativity, & with us having instructions for all players in a system that nearly all players are used to, has made us all the stronger as a team...

So there is definitely life after departed players.

No matter how important they seem at the time...

[jwarry]

Tbh, even if we did waste the Grealish money or not, him not being the in the squad & being the sole focus for our creativity, & with us having instructions for all players in a system that nearly all players are used to, has made us all the stronger as a team...

So there is definitely life after departed players.

No matter how important they seem at the time...

This.  Oh and the said person may end up getting his medals striped if the FA show some balls!

[Dave]

Tbh, even if we did waste the Grealish money or not, him not being the in the squad & being the sole focus for our creativity, & with us having instructions for all players in a system that nearly all players are used to, has made us all the stronger as a team...

So there is definitely life after departed players.

No matter how important they seem at the time...

This.  Oh and the said person may end up getting his medals striped if the FA show some balls!

Although it then does mean he captained Villa to League Cup glory in 2020.

[paul_e]

Tbh, even if we did waste the Grealish money or not, him not being the in the squad & being the sole focus for our creativity, & with us having instructions for all players in a system that nearly all players are used to, has made us all the stronger as a team...

So there is definitely life after departed players.

No matter how important they seem at the time...

This.  Oh and the said person may end up getting his medals striped if the FA show some balls!

Although it then does mean he captained Villa to League Cup glory in 2020.

Nope, the investigation is currently only up until 2018. The trophies since are clearly questionable because they're a direct consequence of earlier cheating but I doubt they could be stripped of anything from the last 5 years.

[Dave]

Thanks, Samatta's crying now.