£20m + a potential £5m more in bonuses is a good deal. It was reported Celtic were adamant they wanted £25m guaranteed and some reports suggested they wanted add-ons on top of that too.

GooneriC wrote:

You're not making any sense.

Help me out here, which bit don't you understand?

The concept of not whinging I’m guessing.

We're probably trying to amortise this across several years, with a bigger chunk dropping next season to balance this year's books. That's what I would have done with no Champions League income.

I can understand why Celtic are apprehensive when there are clubs out there with the financial muscle to just drop the cash on them straight away. Luckily for us that's not Napoli though, and they seem to be the only other club taking a serious interest in him.

Klaus wrote:

We're probably trying to amortise this across several years, with a bigger chunk dropping next season to balance this year's books. That's what I would have done with no Champions League income.

Our installment plan would have no impact from an amortisation perspective as the contract intangible will amortise evenly across the length of the contract he signs regardless of how we structure payments. It would only impact cash flow. 

We're just being cheap. 

So if the club try to structure this summer's transfers with as little as possible being paid this summer, they're being cheap? How else are they supposed to buy the at minimum 4 starting players that most would agree we need?

Tambourine Man wrote:
Klaus wrote:

We're probably trying to amortise this across several years, with a bigger chunk dropping next season to balance this year's books. That's what I would have done with no Champions League income.

Our installment plan would have no impact from an amortisation perspective as the contract intangible will amortise evenly across the length of the contract he signs regardless of how we structure payments. It would only impact cash flow. 

We're just being cheap. 

This is what I don’t quite understand. As far as profit/loss and FFP goes when we actually pay them makes no difference. If you want to avoid that aspect then you need to come up with a scheme similar to PSG and Mbappe, a loan with a conditional purchase clause.

I’m guessing perhaps the “instalments” themselves are conditional, or in other words are dressed up as add ons. That would explain why clubs are being a little more hesitant. It being purely a cash flow issue doesn’t compute.

You know what Klaus meant, if he's said structure instead of amortise there wouldn't have been an issue. I don't think it's being cheap trying to negotiate a good deal in our position. It's also maybe being missed that we could know Celtic and Tierney's intentions, and as long as all three parties are comfortable a deal will happen when it happens. Ideally it would be sooner rather than later but Tierney is not fit yet so in a practical sense it makes no difference in whether he is doing rehab with Celtic's physios or ours.

awooga83 wrote:

Is the 25m amount not what Celtic did would be required right at the start. So we've negotiated hard to get the same price but with the risk is the transfer falling through if it goes like this.

I'm sure we were always just about there with the overall price, the problem has been how it is structured and the initial payment. 

Arsenal's offer for Tierney falls short. Celtic are unwilling to accept staggered payments without an original offer matching the player's valuation. [Herald Scotland]

Better luck next time.

It's really kinda embarrassing how broke we are as a supposedly top club. Can't seal a deal with a SPL side, a ligue 1 midtable side and PL midtable side

Clrnc wrote:

It's really kinda embarrassing how broke we are as a supposedly top club. Can't seal a deal with a SPL side, a ligue 1 midtable side and PL midtable side

I really don't get this. We're in our third season of Europa League with players on CL wages and Celtic are trying to make us pay £25m (over half our reported budget) for a defender that has only ever played in the Scottish league. On what planet would we not haggle over money?

Only in football would you be criticised for trying to run your club in a financially responsible way...

Don Pacifico wrote:
Clrnc wrote:

It's really kinda embarrassing how broke we are as a supposedly top club. Can't seal a deal with a SPL side, a ligue 1 midtable side and PL midtable side

I really don't get this. We're in our third season of Europa League with players on CL wages and Celtic are trying to make us pay £25m (over half our reported budget) for a defender that has only ever played in the Scottish league. On what planet would we not haggle over money?

Only in football would you be criticised for trying to run your club in a financially responsible way...

the issue is that i think a lot of fans expect these moves to fall apart at the end because we'll try to haggle for a few million pounds and then someone else will come in. then we'll have not only lost the player, but we'll have wasted considerable time and wont make the requisite signings we need to make.

You might be right and I understand the fear. But Dick Law is gone, we've got a new team behind the scenes and I'm prepared to give them time to prove themselves.

Fingers crossed.

Don Pacifico wrote:

You might be right and I understand the fear. But Dick Law is gone, we've got a new team behind the scenes and I'm prepared to give them time to prove themselves.

Fingers crossed.

Something like this

Think you guys are misunderstanding Clrnc point. Think he's expressing general frustration at how we're supposed to be a big club, have been underachieving, could be in the market for multiple positions, and are still unable to seal a left back from a Scottish club this late in the window.
That is what it looks like and it goes to support my theory which predicates on us not being or aspiring to be a top tier club or at least the people that run it having no such ambitions.

arsedoc md wrote:

Think you guys are misunderstanding Clrnc point. Think he's expressing general frustration at how we're supposed to be a big club, have been underachieving, could be in the market for multiple positions, and are still unable to seal a left back from a Scottish club this late in the window.
That is what it looks like and it goes to support my theory which predicates on us not being or aspiring to be a top tier club or at least the people that run it having no such ambitions.

There is the basic reality that we are carrying premium players on a Costco budget. So we have a few problems where

  • we have all these badly scouted players who we overpaid on the assumption that we would continue to be a Champions League club with money raining in every season. Nobody wants to take them off our hands
  • and now we need to go into the market and improve the squad but keep costs as low as possible while we are a Europa club

So I’m not surprised that we are coming up with complex, delayed payment structures for all our deals re Tierney, Saliba, Zaha. We are in a shit financial position and will be so next year as well if Emery doesn’t turn water into wine and get us back into Champions League this season