Manchester United are now odds-on (4/7) to sign Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid.
Looking through various media sources this morning, these odds stood out. We have had story after story this summer about United signing this player and that player (you know who we are talking about!) and invariably, apart from Guillermo Someone-or-other, United have come up short.
This is because they are not offering realistic money for the calibre of target they are after.
£25M opening bid for Cesc Fabregas??
C’mon, Everton were looking for £23.5M for Fellaini.
Spurs paid £25M for Paulinho.
Chelsea are reportedly paying somewhere between £25M to £32M for Willian.
Barcelona are considering paying £40M for David Luiz.
With those figures in mind, Fabregas is easily worth a £40M opening bid. Barca would also have less thinking to do about accepting the offer.
Then, there was the whole debacle with Everton over Baines and Fellaini.
Ask the bloke on the street what would he consider a “stingy” bid for these two? He’d say £32M - £33M is a stingy bid!
United go and offer £28M! Sounds to me like they just don’t want these players and are undertaking a PR exercise to say (for the fans) “Look, we’ve bid for these players, and they’ve been refused. What more can we do?”
Well, offer a realistic market value for ‘these players’ for a start! Seeing as you have so much money and let everyone know about it!
Remember, this against a background of Ed Woodwards famous bullish words at the beginning of the transfer window ‘There is no budget!’
So Real Madrid are looking for a reputed £38M for Ozil. Sounds about right. Remember that Ozil, for both Real Madrid and Germany, has made more assists than anyone else over the past couple of years. He is prolifically creative. He is the ‘Master of Assists’ in Europe. SKY BET are more confident of this happening than United fans.
So again, £38M sounds about right. Cue United and the bungling Woodward to offer £25M - £28M and make it public, and then go and sign another ‘commercial partner’ like a bloody tyre company!
Sooner, rather than later, with this approach, United will ‘run-out-of-road’ on the field despite being ‘well-heeled’!