Barcelona sign this very promising regen I had been looking at but was unsure about. Fast forward a year and a half and the promising regen is now the second best player at the club, after you-know-who. But he is still being paid only 12k a week (I really have no idea how he signed for that wage given Barcelona paid 10m+ for him when he was 17). More importantly, he has a buyout clause at 48.5m, which is triggered when both AC Milan and I bid for him.
During contract negotiations, he starts off wanting 240k per week. Quite the jump from 12k!! I get him down to 160k per week with lots of add-ons, making him the second-best player at the club behind Cavani. The agent goes away happy and a few days later I get an email saying that the player in question has re-signed with Barcelona. Ok, not the first, or last time I will lose a player to Barca, but lets see how much they paid him to re-sign....
Answer : 33k per week with the bare minimum of add-ons. And his buyout is now 72m.
Now rather than throw my toys out (which I did for about 5mins), I started to think how this is possible.
Theory 1 : The game cheats. Lets back to this.
Theory 2 : The game offers massive one off payments either through loyalties, or sign-on fees to keep the wages down. I really dont know how to check for this.
Theory 3 : Players are massively in love with their teams / coaches etc. This fellow had been there only 1.5yrs. He's Argentinian, so clearly playing with Messi is a big draw. But 100k a week big? Also Arsenal (Me) has about the same rep as Barca, with a lot more success in recent times than Barca.
Right now I cant say I particularly believe in theory 2. Even with massive payoffs, its not realistic for players to sign those sorts of contracts, and its not realistic for clubs to offers those sorts of contracts. Theory 3 makes no sense to me in this case. If it was say... a Barca lifer who wasnt that high profile then maybe he takes a hit to stay at his boyhood club. But in this case? Nah.
So unfortunately that leaves theory 1. A friend of mine suggested leaving all contract negotiations to the assistant manager in order to level the playing field. Really? I really enjoy negotiating!!
P.S Same thing happened with an out of contract Xabi Alonso who wanted 250k a week to sign. He eventually signed for someone else for 100k a week. But I didnt care enough at the time to complain.
Someone tell me there is something I havent considered, or a way round it.
During contract negotiations, he starts off wanting 240k per week. Quite the jump from 12k!! I get him down to 160k per week with lots of add-ons, making him the second-best player at the club behind Cavani. The agent goes away happy and a few days later I get an email saying that the player in question has re-signed with Barcelona. Ok, not the first, or last time I will lose a player to Barca, but lets see how much they paid him to re-sign....
Answer : 33k per week with the bare minimum of add-ons. And his buyout is now 72m.
Now rather than throw my toys out (which I did for about 5mins), I started to think how this is possible.
Theory 1 : The game cheats. Lets back to this.
Theory 2 : The game offers massive one off payments either through loyalties, or sign-on fees to keep the wages down. I really dont know how to check for this.
Theory 3 : Players are massively in love with their teams / coaches etc. This fellow had been there only 1.5yrs. He's Argentinian, so clearly playing with Messi is a big draw. But 100k a week big? Also Arsenal (Me) has about the same rep as Barca, with a lot more success in recent times than Barca.
Right now I cant say I particularly believe in theory 2. Even with massive payoffs, its not realistic for players to sign those sorts of contracts, and its not realistic for clubs to offers those sorts of contracts. Theory 3 makes no sense to me in this case. If it was say... a Barca lifer who wasnt that high profile then maybe he takes a hit to stay at his boyhood club. But in this case? Nah.
So unfortunately that leaves theory 1. A friend of mine suggested leaving all contract negotiations to the assistant manager in order to level the playing field. Really? I really enjoy negotiating!!
P.S Same thing happened with an out of contract Xabi Alonso who wanted 250k a week to sign. He eventually signed for someone else for 100k a week. But I didnt care enough at the time to complain.
Someone tell me there is something I havent considered, or a way round it.