sullydnl
Ross Kemp's caf ID
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2012
- Messages
- 34,385
There's a weird tendency on the Caf to believe that any transfer that costs less than 20m is a risk-free, no-regrets move, as if it would have zero impact on our budget and squad capacity.
Kinda goes along with this weird idea that any player who's cheap enough is a "solid squad option", regardless of actual underlying footballing quality.
The point isn't that signing Mazraoui is low risk because of a low fee, though risk and outlay are obviously directly connected.
The point is that the decision to sell AWB and replace him with anyone this summer comes with reduced financial risk, because we already know he will leave for free next summer. By making the decision to replace him now rather than in 12 months you gain a transfer fee to offset the outlay on a replacement.
And in Mazraoui's case the fact that he would cost roughly the same amount means there is less opportunity cost this summer. As opposed to signing a 40m replacement say, where you still get the financial benefit of selling AWB but you also have to commit greater resources beyond that which might have better used on other positions.