Next year Leicester are going to the Champions League and he is their prized asset so expect them to demand upwards of what we paid for Maguire. Is Maddison really worth £120m or £70m more than Fernandes? Is he as sure a thing as Sancho? I think both players have question marks over their words wrt to value for money.
Fernandes can provide things that we need right now and we aren't paying an outrageous amount for him. Waiting for Maddison till the summer has no guarantees because he could reject us because of CL football whilst Fernandes could help us attain that. I think we are placing far too much weight and hope on Maddison which could leave us empty handed.
You make a decent argument, and you might well be spot on.
I think anytime you are paying north of £50m for a player it opens up potentially enormous complications for any club. We are talking 10% of the annual revenue generated by a
monster of a football club in United. Not profit - revenue. For one players transfer fee. Double it with the salary and other associated costs over the course of the contract. Its mind-boggling really - such a gamble to take. We are seeing right now at United what can happen when you make more wrong decisions than right ones. It will set a club back years.
We all have our opinions on players, but its nothing compared to the due diligence work that clubs are doing. I have my doubts about Maddison and there is no way anyone pays that much for him, but what do I know? What do any of us know? Nothing really.
Transfers like Dan James represent very little risk. It doesn't work, and he is still a young player that has United on his CV and so we should be getting most of our money back. As it is he has been a moderate success and his worth has increased. There is a potential big value player in there if he fulfils his potential. Big upside, very little downside, but of course we can't do all of our business at that price point. We have to take some risks sometimes. If Fernandes comes here for £50m+ and flops, what do we do with him? If he is better than a flop but not outstanding, then we might keep him but we still need to spend again in that position.
We are 3 for 3 under Ole's tenure so far, and the wage bill is being reduced to a more reasonable level. He (with Woodward) has done a better job in the last 12 months than most people give him credit for. Results are inconsistent but he has done some excellent work with the squad. I believe he knows exactly what type of players we need, and exactly what type of characters the club is lacking, and I am way more confident giving him money to spend than I was with any of our previous 3. If Fernandes is on the shortlist and for a price that we can be comfortable with then I have no doubts that they will sign him. However, if the view is that Sancho or Maddison or whoever else they view as a more certain success WILL come here in the summer then its better that we wait.
Time will tell