I hate when people say that. You have to take into consideration that he played for us for a year. Ever heard of depreciation of assets? He signed a 5 year contract if I remember correctly. 24.5/5=Roughly 5 million a year. So his services were valued at around 5 million per year. So the value of his contract at the end of the campaign was 19.5 million (4 years left). Loss of around 4-5 million, not 9.
Also you need to take into consideration his performances for Wolfsburg. Didn't Marotta do the right thing selling him for 15.5 million now knowing how he did in Germany? I think so.
Amortization is a concept used for accounting purposes. Just because it's used to balance books, doesn't mean it's justifiable to continually buy players and then sell them a year or two later for a heavy loss. Especially when the players are some of our better performers. You have to take into account all the factors of the transaction.
Also, in regards to Diego at Wolfsburg... don't you think think that you should consider the fact that he was playing for his 3rd team in three years?
Think about how dysfunctional the last two teams the guy has played for have been - management, right down to the trainers. Wolfsburg got rid of a couple of their very best players, hired an absolutely mediocre coach - who was rightly dismissed mid-season - and only avoided relegation on the last day of the season.
You understand Wolfsburg won the Bundesliga in 2008/09, right? All of a sudden the team is completely in shambles... don't you think that there are a lot of variables in this equation that you're not considering? Obviously, there are massive internal issues at that club.
The player has lost his confidence, and needs a stable environment more than anything else - clearly his discipline issues are a result of frustration from his performances, which is largely due to so much instability at the clubs; he wasn't having discipline issues at Juve; he was working his butt off, and playing in whatever position he was asked to play in.
Anyway, sorry for the Diego rant, I know everyone is tired of hearing it.
Unfortunately, I'm tired of seeing us sell some of our best performers at a considerable loss. This pattern is infuriating for me.
I'll definitely miss Melo.