Devils advocate but if we were to sell him after the World Cup would his stock ever be any higher?
Maybe, I don't think anyone can give a remotely accurate answer to that because he might come back after starring for England and use that confidence to take another step up or he might find a summer without a break too much and struggle for form and/or fitness for 12 months.
I don't think it's the right question though. The question for me is are we likely to be able get enough to spend what we get for him on a single player that brings as much as he does and make enough profit for it to make a difference on our other business? If the answer is yes then maybe it's worth considering but if it's uncertain or no then selling would be a stupid idea given he's contracted until 2031.
Fee, if it were to happen is key. £110m upwards, I think, gives us leeway to get a near as good as you could replacement plus some extra to put towards further recruitment along with other monies. Whether we’d be willing to pay £65m plus for an oven ready replacement such as Gibbs White is another matter. TBH he’s the only one I’d realistically want as I think he’d hit the ground running and produce similar numbers, if we could get Cherki he’d be another!
Let’s just keep Morgan.
Yep, that's about where I am with it but I just don't see us getting that much because I don't think anyone with that much money to spare would need him. You can already see by the stories in the press that the figure outside the club is a lot lower, with £80m appearing far too often. With that once you paid the fee, agents fees, etc for someone like MGW there's fuck all left so the whole thing was just a waste of time and means getting him used to us and potentially needing a bit of time to find his place. That only becomes more of a problem the later in the window things happen so after the world cup as you asked is about the worst thing we could do, it'd have more than a hint of Grealish about it and would be just as harmful in my opinion.
It would also further reinforce the idea that whenever we look like having someone who can break us into the next tier we'll roll over and sell them and know our place. If he makes a massive fuss or someone offers a ridiculous fee then it changes things but I don't think either is going to happen.
