Thiago Alcantara | Signed for Bayern Munich

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jojojo said:
People talk as if Barcelona gave him a low release clause for fun, they'll have given it to him as part of a negotiation designed to hang onto a top prospect.


Even at 20 he was well known to the scouts, and he's by all accounts intelligent enough to look at Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Macherano, Fabregas and even players like Sanchez and know that however the formation was arranged he was going to be a long way down the pecking order. I would guess the only way he was signing a contract was if he knew that he had a reasonable escape route.

Guardiola may have offered him a lot of reassurance, but we all know verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they aren't written on. So he (and his agents) did the practical thing.

A year later and nothing had changed except they threw Song into the rotation.

Patience is great but he's not a kid, he's been capped for Spain, he's played over 100 games for Barca. The surprise isn't that he's willing to use the clause, it's that he seemingly hesitated about doing it. Nothing stupid about Barcelona agreeing a contract clause to keep a player who might have left two years ago if they hadn't.
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You make far too much sense for this thread.
 
I think I read somewhere that when Spanish clubs agree to a release clause in a players contract, it is almost always a clause that can only be triggered by another Spanish team, and does not apply for bids from clubs outside of Spain. Seems like a weird thing for me, but someone (forgot who) claiming to have knowledge of Spanish football mentioned this somewhere (forgot where).
 
Drainy said:
It was pretty obvious after 2004, when Ronaldo displaced Figo in the Portugal side that he'd be special.
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Err, what? Figo was still captain and first choice winger in 2006. Also, it was pretty obvious Ronaldo was a special talent before Euro 2004.
 
jojojo should be promoted.
 
Eirik Raude said:
I think I read somewhere that when Spanish clubs agree to a release clause in a players contract, it is almost always a clause that can only be triggered by another Spanish team, and does not apply for bids from clubs outside of Spain. Seems like a weird thing for me, but someone (forgot who) claiming to have knowledge of Spanish football mentioned this somewhere (forgot where).
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But isn't it the case that every player in Spain has a release clause, most of which are over-inflated, as a matter of course? This clause seems to be fairly unique so I'd suspect wouldn't restrict him to Spain.
 
acrebo said:
But isn't it the case that every player in Spain has a release clause, most of which are over-inflated, as a matter of course? This clause seems to be fairly unique so I'd suspect wouldn't restrict him to Spain.
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Might be, I don't really know how these things work in Spain. Just read somewhere, and thought maybe somebody on here could give me a little insight.
 
Eirik Raude said:
I think I read somewhere that when Spanish clubs agree to a release clause in a players contract, it is almost always a clause that can only be triggered by another Spanish team, and does not apply for bids from clubs outside of Spain. Seems like a weird thing for me, but someone (forgot who) claiming to have knowledge of Spanish football mentioned this somewhere (forgot where).
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The "does not apply" thing is a footballing urban myth. It is more difficult for a foreign club. A Spanish club basically writes a cheque and demands the club signs the release forms. It's a straightforward contractual obligation under Spanish law.

When a non-Spanish club get involved the Spanish FA act as intermediaries. In theory buying the release papers from the selling club using money provided by the player. Every time an actual deal like this comes up, and they are rare, the definition of "provided by" gets challenged. Is it a bank draft from the buying club made payable to the FA? Is it a parcel of gold bars handed to the player as he walks into FA HQ?

Whatever it is, no one handles it so badly that they or the player paid tax on the transaction. Though they probably have a really annoying week with the tax offices and the tax lawyers beforehand.
 
:devil:

Just a word to my fans...

You should have seen me in action in the summer of 2008 and the mighty Ronaldo non-transfer thread. It improved my Spanish dramatically, which was how I got involved initially - sadly it left me addicted to Spanish football gossip shows :rolleyes:

So, nothing to applaud here.
 
jojojo said:
The "does not apply" thing is a footballing urban myth. It is more difficult for a foreign club. A Spanish club basically writes a cheque and demands the club signs the release forms. It's a straightforward contractual obligation under Spanish law.

When a non-Spanish club get involved the Spanish FA act as intermediaries. In theory buying the release papers from the selling club using money provided by the player. Every time an actual deal like this comes up, and they are rare, the definition of "provided by" gets challenged. Is it a bank draft from the buying club made payable to the FA? Is it a parcel of gold bars handed to the player as he walks into FA HQ?

Whatever it is, no one has ever handled it so badly that they or the player paid tax on the transaction. Though they probably have a really annoying week with the tax offices and the tax lawyers beforehand.
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This post is amazing. So if Thiago wants to join, he's basically ours for the amount quoted on his release clause, right?
 
On the subject of Spanish media, how reliable are they - in general? Any particular journo who is worth mentioning?
 
jojojo said:
The "does not apply" thing is a footballing urban myth. It is more difficult for a foreign club. A Spanish club basically writes a cheque and demands the club signs the release forms. It's a straightforward contractual obligation under Spanish law.

When a non-Spanish club get involved the Spanish FA act as intermediaries. In theory buying the release papers from the selling club using money provided by the player. Every time an actual deal like this comes up, and they are rare, the definition of "provided by" gets challenged. Is it a bank draft from the buying club made payable to the FA? Is it a parcel of gold bars handed to the player as he walks into FA HQ?

Whatever it is, no one has ever handled it so badly that they or the player paid tax on the transaction. Though they probably have a really annoying week with the tax offices and the tax lawyers beforehand.
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I remember Sid Lowe saying on the Guardian podcast that Spanish release clauses are pretty much pointless for a foreign club. They really are in place to protect one Spanish club from another. Both of you seem knowledgeable on the Spanish game so not sure who to believe.

Ofcourse, a lot depends on what is actually in Thiago's contract. Perhaps he has a clause that frees him up for any club.
 
Ole's_toe_poke said:
I remember Sid Lowe saying on the Guardian podcast that Spanish release clauses are pretty much pointless for a foreign club. They really are in place to protect one Spanish club from another. Both of you seem knowledgeable on the Spanish game so not sure who to believe.

Ofcourse, a lot depends on what is actually in Thiago's contract. Perhaps he has a clause that frees him up for any club.
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Bayern triggered Javi Martinez's, didn't they? I realise it wasn't straightforward, but still.
 
I guess the big factor is how they're planning to line up. Are they gonna use Pedro/Sanchez up top with Messi and Neymar or are gonna have iniesta/fabregas in the wide attacking spot with the other playing just behind messi. If so then it's highly likely that Thiago this season and certainly next season would get increasing game time in Xavi's role. If they are planning on using pedro/sanchez as big members of the squad then Thiago has an issue as that's a lot of players for only a few variable spots in the team.

If they did convince him that he would get more time I guess this season if he really wants to go to the world cup he'd have to go on loan somewhere. The problem is that his choices would be limited. He'd need regular football at a top level club with CL football but the problem is the biggest clubs surely wouldn't want to loan a player like that but would want to instead develop their own player/integrate a new player.

So short term he's got an issue, long term though, even starting from the 14/15 season you'd think his chances of getting in the Spanish team would be better regularly playing for the top spanish team with busquets, iniesta, fabregas if that is really a big reason in why he's thinking of leaving.

It's sad but I think considering that its only really one season before he should be able to become a regular in the team that, that has to play a part in his thinking. If he leaves there's still no guarantee he'll make the world cup squad, if he stays though than sooner rather than later he will come in for xavi, playing for the number 1 team in his home country, unless they have another player in mind in which case you'd think they wouldn't be so fussed about loosing him aside from the potential loss in transfer fee.

I hope he comes but at the same time you can see that there's a lot to be said that a little patience and he could be part of their first 11 by the end of the season, but then you look at Martinez and if he did leave for us he could be a key member of an equally big club straight away. There's a lot to think about, guess we can only hope. Who know's may be the door might open for fabregas who might turn out to be the one that they just can't fit in.
 
Cina said:
FAKE?
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Cina said:
Dammit Steve, this is worse than that time you told me Santa wasn't real...
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​
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Sorry, mate, I was distracted - me n' Mrs Steve have been cleaning out the attic; filthy dirty, covered in cobwebs...but she's good with the kids.​

Copyright Tommy Cooper, 1976
 
Can the twitter experts confirm if this is reliable?

UK_TransferNews @UK_TransferNews
#MUFC have had an £18m bid accepted for Thiago Alcantara. The Spaniard will sign a 4 year deal earning £112k a week. Announcement this week.
 
Platato said:
Can the twitter experts confirm if this is reliable?

UK_TransferNews @UK_TransferNews
#MUFC have had an £18m bid accepted for Thiago Alcantara. The Spaniard will sign a 4 year deal earning £112k a week. Announcement this week.
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Some of their tweets seem pretty accurate, it's not tweeting any old transfer rubbish.
 
Platato said:
Can the twitter experts confirm if this is reliable?

UK_TransferNews @UK_TransferNews
#MUFC have had an £18m bid accepted for Thiago Alcantara. The Spaniard will sign a 4 year deal earning £112k a week. Announcement this week.
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Ask yourself: Will they break news before the Spanish outlets, or anyone else for that matter? Most likely not.
 
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