How do you recognise a mercenary before you sign him?

This topic contains 74 replies, has 22 voices, and was last updated by killyboye killyboye 6 years, 2 months ago.

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  • #1584342

    Big K
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    I make no secret of the fact that without the inbred love of Manchester United, the current trends in football would be persuading me to abandon football as my favourite sport.
    I hate transfer fees and wages which are totally unrepresentative of the talent and performance of the player.
    I hate agents, without whom the Club and Player could develop a better relationship.
    I hate players who sign and then fail to play in the long term interests of the team.

    How do you recognise a mercenary before you sign him? I don’t know the answer.
    Three players who in the past years have infuriated me, Depay, Van Persie and Mikitaryan, each flattered to deceive and ultimately became millstones.
    Rooney reached a stage before the end of the SAF era when his performances no way justified the enormous salary negotiated by his agent.

    The big danger of having superstars is that their presence can ultimately destroy the team spirit particularly when they don’t perform. Stories coming out of Europe describe top players dictating who and who not should be signed. CR7 has been one of those implicated and he apparently wants to come home.

    #1584343
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
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    To answer your question, offer him £300k a week.
    However, in the case of Sanchez, he has shown at every club he’s been at that he is committed to the cause. He plays to win, not to earn massive money. He sees the wages as a bonus, winning is the goal. In this sense he reminds me of former Utd players like Keane and co. Players for whom winning was everything and when other players on the squad don’t have a similar mindset he’s not happy and shows it.

    #1584347
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Participant
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    Throw him in the ship canal and see if he floats.

    #1584351

    Manthistle
    Participant
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    How do you recognise a mercenary before you sign him?

    Answer: Have a look at the players’ agent. Raiola is the Mercenary King. He’s claiming Sanchez is part of Mkhitaryan’s (his client) deal to Arsenal and not the other way around. Claims he brokered the deal weeks ago. Say’s Arsenal need to invest in younger players even though Mkhitaryan is only a month younger than Sanchez. He is a cancer in football. No wonder Fergie refused to deal with him.

    #1584394
    redblood
    redblood
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    They are all mercenaries-ask them to play for free,for love of the club and fans.

    #1584398

    happyhurling
    Participant
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    A rule which always served me well in finding this answer was asking the following question – does the player have an interest in playing for City? If the answer is yes then he’s a mercenary. It’s always worked in the past, think Nasri, Adebayor, Glichy etc. The other classic that made me laugh is when said player talks about how they’ve dreamt of playing for City since they were a kid – when City were in Div 3!

    #1584511
    MacGuffin
    MacGuffin
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    1. Let’s bear in mind, a players wage is NOT just for his value on the football pitch, it includes his “royalty” from the commercial revenue the clubs earns from marketing the team.

    2. Its relatively easy to spot a mercenary, they ALL are in some form. I’d bet that even a local lad whose come through youth could be lured away for money.

    The problem is not young players. The club has time to make them fans and instill love and loyalty. And if they don’t perform and behave we can move them on relatively easily. The problem is the “last big payday” players. If they don’t deliver we can’t even give them away, we have to pay to clubs to take them.

    3. Strange, in the good old days the manager would meet and talk with targets, basically interviewing them. Today, the club doesn’t talk to the player until he joins. You’d think given the fee and cost of failure, clubs would conduct intensive character assessments like any big company employing a senior executive.

    4. Football transfers are still a form of slavery. Clubs decide the fee and who to sell to. IF football is a business, employment should be like in a business. Its fair that the club should be compensated for breech of contract (ie leaving before end of contract) but not to make profits on sales. Buyout clauses should not be higher than the fee paid plus cost of training (if any). Clubs should be barred from quoting different fees to different clubs. The buyout fee should be specified in the contract.

    5. If we take the fee out of the equation, footballers should be free to move based on the same decisions any other employee does, be it money, honours, career development, the role or location or love.

    The club then makes hiring decisions the same as a company. Do you hire the highly skilled mercenary or the lesser skilled man who has the character to succeed?

    Before United used to focus on signing young players (under 25) with potential and making them stars. Today it seems we are focused on older proven players and the question is not .. will they become stars .. it’s …. will they settle and how long will they stay at the top?

    I’d like us to return to the old days, going for young players then making them stars AND fans. The same goes for managers !

    #1584523
    steveosnakeeye
    steveosnakeeye
    Participant
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    Dont think Van Persie was mercenary, he played well for us in a team that never delivered due to our manager and watched us strengthen rivals, he a few good years left him in and went to your mob and pretty much won you the league that year, just that one year was worth the buy and then you moved him on pretty sharp, ok not one for the future but it got you a PL trophy

    #1584554

    yorkshireman200
    Participant
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    Reading some of the numbers involved with Sanchez is truly disgusting. 35M fee, 20m signing on fee, 15m agent fee plus 350k week salary for a 29 year old. City did the right thing imo and walked away. There is nothing to be proud of in this deal. What a shocking state football is in and in particular my club who I’ve loved and supported all my life. On top of this that sleazebag agent who made 40m out of the Pogba deal is threatening to scupper the deal unless he and his player, Miki get the right deal from Arsenic. You just couldn’t make it up.

    #1584572
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
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    @yorkshireman – I don’t think Miki really wants to go to Arsenal, he’d rather go back to Dortmund if pushed so why should he just give in and leave, even if he’s not overly wanted at Utd. We would have been perfectly happy to keep him, at least until the summer, if this Sanchez deal hadn’t come up as well which should also be taken into account.
    Given these factors why shouldn’t he ask Arsenal for massive wages? He’s being asked to join a club who aren’t in the CL, who won’t be in it next season unless they win the EL so how will his career advance from here? The only advantage to joining Arsenal from his point of view is more game time, no chance of medals or trophies at this point in time so why should he go if he doesn’t really want to? The only thing would be good wages.
    From Arsenal’s point of view, they can get money plus a new player in exchange for a player they’re going to lose in the summer for nothing so why shouldn’t they stump up?

    #1584590

    yorkshireman200
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    killyboye, I think you’re slightly missing the point!

    #1584607
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
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    I don’t think I am, Raiola is saying the Sanchez deal won’t go ahead unless Miki agrees to join the Gooners, but United have said that they’re willing to do a cash only deal if Miki doesn’t move. The other option for Raiola then is to pawn him back to Dortmund who can’t pay him even close to the fees that Arsenal would, so I don’t see why he would want to scupper the deal?
    I agree that Raiola is a scumbag, his sort need to be ejected from the game, or at the very least FIFA need to cap the fees paid to agents as a percentage of the transfer fee, 5% or something so that men like Raiola will go elsewhere.
    From Raiola’s point of view, his job is to make sure that his client is happy, doing what he wants to do and getting paid the maximum that Raiola can negotiate for him. You can’t blame him for that, it’s the agents fees that are exorbitant and are ripping clubs off. How can you ask for £40m just for negotiating a contract? That’s the crux of the issue for most people. What do the agents actually do that justifies the sickening amounts of money that they get from each transfer?

    #1584608
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Participant
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    I take the general point yorkshireman but I reckon alot of the figures being quoted by the press are either wildly exaggerated or completely made up. Many many parties with a keen interest in this transfer are briefing away like billy-oh behind the scenes.

    I still have a feeling he’ll be off to City for free in the summer.

    #1584635
    hatters
    hatters
    Participant
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    @yorkshireman. Depending on which silly papers you prefer there are big agent and sign on fees involved along with a hefty wage and transfer fee while other outlets are reporting a straight swap for Mkhitaryan and no agent fees. End of the day I would reserve judgement until it’s all done and dusted. Usually we only find out the true cost of a transfer and the wages involved a few months after it’s done.

    @steveosnakeeye. I agree with you on van Persie. He came to Manchester United to win the title after years of frustration at Arsenal and he did just that.

    To me, a mercenary is a player who looks solely at money when making decisions and only players like Hulk and Oscar can be called that – moving to the Chinese league in your peak makes it obvious enough.

    #1584647
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Participant
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    Like Tevez hatters. Old kettle neck probably the biggest mercenary of the lot.

    #1584657
    killyboye
    killyboye
    Participant
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    Not quite true for Tevez to be fair, the only place he hasn’t performed was China, everywhere else he’s gone he has played well, scored goals and made a difference for his team. Yes, he’s always been on huge wages but he’s also played his heart out and he’s not exactly in his prime anymore either.
    Also, the reason he left Utd was for game time, he wasn’t getting his game behind Ronaldo and Rooney and wanted to play. It was just a kick in the stones that he chose to go to City, I think he did that on purpose as a big Fuck You to SAF

    #1584668
    hatters
    hatters
    Participant
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    @wonderfuel gas. Agreed mate. Tevez’s transfer to China is worst of the lot. He was paid 600K a week and was overweight to the point of not being able to train. Then after getting his move to Boca Juniors he had the audacity to call his time in China “a holiday”.

    He also went to City directly from United for more money. He was a fantastic player but no-one will ever remember him as a club legend even though he has played for so many great teams.

    #1584671
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Participant
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    He signed for West Ham for the pure joy of the game too…plus he liked cockles, whelks and jellied eels. Granted he has performed everywhere he has been and given his clubs everything, but that doesn’t exclude him from mercenary status. He’s also engineered a move from every club he has been to and always for a massive wage hike. Getting £650k a week in China then laughing you’ve been on a six month holiday marks him down as the ultimate mercenary in my book but fair play to him.

    #1584676

    yorkshireman200
    Participant
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    Guys, I don’t think even City walked away without reason. They may well have thought they were being “played” by Sanchez and his agent but some of these numbers are being widely reported and not just by the gutter press.

    #1584685
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Wonderfuel Gas
    Participant
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    But the numbers veer massively from one publication or source to the next mate….some papers have us with our trousers round our ankles, others have it as United getting one over Arsenal while City are being portrayed by some outlets as the paragons of saintly virture. Which to me says there’s a whole load of scheming Iago’s in the background battling to tell their tale loudest. Briefing briefing briefing.

    Trying to cut through it all, I’d say the player wants to join City (Pep) and that with the title all but wrapped up….the blue dicks are going to wait until summer and try and get him on a “free”. However…Arsenal will be desparate to get something for him in this window….which is where we come in.

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