Gunner89 wrote:
Claudius wrote:
So you name 4 of 9 most expensive defenders in all of football history and a likely one, and that’s evidence of what this guy will go for? I think amongst the 100 most expensive transfers in history, defenders appear ₁₂ times far less than their typical 40% representation in startling lineups.

We and Liverpool are the only teams really sniffing. There isn’t a hot market and hype around this guy. How much do you really think he would go for?

There's a reason that these are all in the last 1-2 years.

Even the cost of defenders is rising.

Soyuncu remember him? He went for 20m from a small club with hardly any money.

Konate won't go less than 45m IMO.

A final note on a helpful proxy for pricing. Kicker does a semi-annual review of the best players in each position. It’s quite credible. They rank the best players in each position in 4 classes: world, international, wider circle, field of vision. They ranked no Bundesliga defenders in January 2019 as world class, and put Ginter/Hasebe as international. 6 players like Akanji were wider circle. They put Konate with a group of about 8 others in the last group. This group included Diallo who was transferred for about 22m pounds last summer to Dortmund at the age of 22, and Sule who Bayern signed for around 15m pounds at a similar age.

I am inclined to believe that Konate is more likely to be priced in line with the players that he is graded amongst than the top 5 or 6 transfer fees of all time for defenders.