Still can’t quite get my head around the Alderweireld situation. Had that £25m release clause. Add a hefty signing on fee for him to compensate what he’d miss out on next summer, give him huge wages, and it still would have come in at way less than Maguire.
Presumably, they tried and he couldn’t be convinced to join, but I find it difficult to believe that a competent board couldn’t have put together a package to tempt him, had they made him their man last summer and chased him all year.
Instead Maguire – who was always going to be ridiculously expensive to get, as a British player from a rival (haha) team with lots of resources and no need to sell – was chosen as their primary (only?) target. They deserve to pay through the nose.
