St Chalet

I deal a lot with commercial contracts and to a point you are right. They will be looking for every little excuse to wriggle out of their obligation, but as long as we have not committed a material breach they will have to oblige. The fact they may be as obstructive as possible about this may mean that we do a deal.

The most likely outcome. Someone at AM has ****ed up and they will want to 'Exit with Honour' to quote Nixon.

I suspect you are not a Commercial Director with an atittude like this. If the onus was on another party to do the deal at an agreed amount unless they enact a clause (eg paying us) then we are entitled to him at the agreed price. Why give away millions we dont have to?

It is a legally binding contract, we can enforce it.

They will have to buy him off us then

I'd be surprised if we don't value him at £11.5m plus we still have £1.5m bargaining chip.

Athletico would me mad to accept Spurs bid until we have played our hand.

I remember the meltdown when Les didn't bring home Rojo from his visit to Portugal, that turned out ok in the end.

Probably enough threads on all the current transfers for now

Our poster Ulrich Van Gobbell is the best ITK on flights IIRC.

Cheese on Toast, a blast from the past Tokes.

Football clubs don't give a stuff who they sell to, it is all about the £ and €

#WeBedWetOn

The mob have spoken.

Still, it's not like we haven't beaten Spurs when all looked lost before.... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?51639-Sadio-Mane-Signs-4-Year-Deal-Official&p=2042436#post2042436

I don't doubt your integrity Tony. I am curious that you appear more ITK about Spurs than everyone on the Spurs forum. In essence, how good is your source?

I trust the club to get a deal done at the right price. They won't be mugged into paying over the odds and if Spurs want to then so be it, the black box will have other targets that represent better value. The club, under our new regime haven't been adverse to paying £10-12m for players that suit us (Tadic, Long and Mane) and Toby clearly falls into this bracket of performance. So as long as Levy doesn't turn it into a Dutch Auction I think he'll come to us.

So Spurs pay £11m to Athletico then in reality they are only receiving £9.5m because we have had our money back. If we bid £9.5m + repay the £1.5m that I would suggest this puts us in a much better position and as such I am a lot more confident. Athletico effectively have a £1.5m incentive to sell to us, look at it that way, But I am not surprised they are playing hardball as they know we want the player. Based on the above and if the player is neutral - WE ARE IN THE BOX SEATS. In my role we get a fair few commercial issues where both sides are not prepared to budge on principle, but after a while the commercial reality of needing to get a deal done bites and both sides will give ground. If I was mediating this as a dispute I'd propose meeting in the middle. Saints pay £750k over the Spurs bid (leaving them £750k up), that way AM save face and retain more cash (£750k) than the Spurs deal. PS if Sir Les is reading this and goes with my solution I expect a signed TA shirt.

Pap approached me about being a Moderator but Steve refused to sell me. 5 amazing years ruined in one private message

+1. My enduring memory was the ref handing his shirt back like it was a bag of dog crap before brandishing the obligatory yellow card.

You assume footballers pay tax as an employee would.

From the brief ITK snippets I get from people associated with the club: Toby wants to join us, we want him, it depends on the price. Given that RK said this as well it gives me hope.

If you discount Lallana failing a medical there after his first strop. (Wonder if the TheVMan will deny that)

No infractions if it is about the whispy bearded turncoat.

There must have been an advantage to us paying up / writing off his contract. I suspect a write off of wages is treated as an exceptional item and thus won't be an operating cost on our wages line.