I stand by what I said. He doesn't need to come out and say "players can leave if they want to" in every other press conference. It's tedious. We should sell players if there's no way of reaching a compromise, but I feel we don't try hard enough to hold onto them; herein lies the crux of the problem.
Tedious is reading the reactions to what he says each time he says it. Like it makes any difference if he comes out and says "Player is not leaving under any circumstances". It's bs, I know it's bs, and even worse is that you know it's bs, yet here we are.
- We're a great club
- We're a very strong team
- There are at least two and maybe as many as four or five clubs who any given player would find more attractive
- We have the 9th highest turnover of European clubs, well off the leaders
- Our league is very slowly improving but it is a distant third away from Spain and England in prestige and money
- If hispanic players get a serious offer from Real Madrid or Barcelona they are invariably going to be at least very interested
- PSG and City oil money
These reasons are why saying anything other than the obvious is bs. I'm not having a go at you or anyone else who wants to see the club more "ambitious" on the market because we all want that. I can think of several perfect players for us but truth is that even when Juve was a top 3 financial team we didn't break the bank for players when you look at the balance sheet. Now we simply cannot buy the leading players on the market, and yes, it's a struggle to retain especially foreign players who are sought after by other teams.
If we are talking about sheer negotiating position then I think it's more than a little naive to think this is arranged by media soundbites. What we sell players for in the higher category will be determined by which clubs actually want a player and what they have to pay for them. Work goes on behind the scenes by players, unscrupulous agents who are only after the headlines and cuts, other players are lobbying, friends, family. The game has moved away from players being at a club for a number of years. If PSG can just go and take Neymar from Barcelona and then Mbappe on a loan-to-buy from Monaco, two superstar/future superstar players then it's easy to see where the game has headed.
If you look at Real Madrid, even for all their money and attraction if they are to pay over €100m for a player this summer then they'll sell either Benzema, Bale or Isco. If it wasn't for FFP then we'd probably be even further behind now, but clubs are still find ways around the rules.
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, and Agnelli having lunch together...
