According to Romano this isn't done yet. Might be a fourth bud after more negotiations.

Just now, Frankie8Lampard said:

According to Romano this isn't done yet. Might be a fourth bud after more negotiations.

Because in a ideal world none of the 3 parties wants it to be over.

Am sure @foxedup would agree BR coming out and publicly admitting Fofana wants the move, giving it his blessing basically by saying is up to the club's to agree a fee, has made Fofana staying more problematic, especially after he revealed him skipping training.

Leicester want us to meet their asking price and now they will sell, am sure of that. A bid of 86mill straight cash and we get as quick a yes as the previous bids got no.

We want Fofana in the budget we set for him and that budget is 15mill lower than Leicesters price. There in is the problem, and I don't see either side blinking.

I agree with the questions on 70 vs 80M; splitting hairs if that is your target.  I'd also rather spend 80M on Fofana than 60M on Gordon (not that both can't happen).

But some fair points made above - we've made a great offer, and if we need to move on, so be it. 

Feels like if we go back with the same £70m bid but with more acceptable add on terms it would be accepted.

6 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

Feels like if we go back with the same £70m bid but with more acceptable add on terms it would be accepted.

I have my doubts on that. Leicester seem to be set on holding out for a record fee. 

Well one week to find out. Always thought no deal would be done for the weekend and Fofana would not play for either team.

17 hours ago, foxedup said:

If Kante was so good, when did he end up at Leicester. You being the only one making a bid, doesn’t mean others don’t recognise his talent. 

Did you actually bother to watch him for us? We finished 5th, with a makeshift back line because of injuries and Fofana came straight in and from game 1 held the defense together singlehanded.

He came back from injury last season and started doing the same, despite being out for so long. This isn’t some lad who hasn’t played.

 

 

Correct. I believe he is a superstar in the making. The only question in my mind was the injury and he has already put that one to bed.

it's really insane to refuse to pay an extra 5,6,7 8 or 10 million pounds while he is our #1 target 

what difference does it make? if he plays well in the World Cup his value would go up. He could win the World Cup. 80 million doesn't seem so farfetched at that point

 

38 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

it's really insane to refuse to pay an extra 5,6,7 8 or 10 million pounds while he is our #1 target 

what difference does it make? if he plays well in the World Cup his value would go up. He could win the World Cup. 80 million doesn't seem so farfetched at that point

 

After Cucurella they are likely concerned that, if they cave, very few clubs will be willing to drop their prices for us.

38 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

it's really insane to refuse to pay an extra 5,6,7 8 or 10 million pounds while he is our #1 target 

what difference does it make? if he plays well in the World Cup his value would go up. He could win the World Cup. 80 million doesn't seem so farfetched at that point

 

At some point though surely there is a maximum price that a club would be willing to spend on any player. If we walk away now over 10m, we may regret it if his price doubles in a year. Equally we may be relieved if he suffers a loss of form, or doesn't fulfil his potential.

55 minutes ago, forbzy said:

At some point though surely there is a maximum price that a club would be willing to spend on any player. If we walk away now over 10m, we may regret it if his price doubles in a year. Equally we may be relieved if he suffers a loss of form, or doesn't fulfil his potential.

Aye a real double edged sword. 

On the one hand we don't want to become easy marks that every club selling to us goes price x and not a penny less, and know we will cave cause we have done so on Cucurella, Lukaku, Fofana, Gordon etc.

On the other if we truly believe Fofana will be like Kante and become truly elite, the best around in his position, it would be silly to walk away when the market is already seeing Nunez go for 85mill, Martinez 58mill, Antony 85mill, Casemiro 70mill, Cucurella 62mill etc etc.

22 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Aye a real double edged sword. 

On the one hand we don't want to become easy marks that every club selling to us goes price x and not a penny less, and know we will cave cause we have done so on Cucurella, Lukaku, Fofana, Gordon etc.

On the other if we truly believe Fofana will be like Kante and become truly elite, the best around in his position, it would be silly to walk away when the market is already seeing Nunez go for 85mill, Martinez 58mill, Antony 85mill, Casemiro 70mill, Cucurella 62mill etc etc.

I guess a good example would be Kounde, who we allegedly could have signed for a lower price last summer.

If the price is deemed too high and crossed the line, happy for us to stop pursuing. The issue is I don't think we have a good  backup option lined up, so we start from scratch and the potential sellers will demand far more than the market worth, and we either pay over the odds anyway or ended up with a nobody or stop gap on deadline line.

22 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I guess a good example would be Kounde, who we allegedly could have signed for a lower price last summer.

Aye. Again goes back to how we view fofana imo.

If he is just a player that impressed us and we think might be a very good player then walk away.

If we feel he will be an elite player for the next decade, our new Ricky, then pay up and get him. No one questions the 75mill for VVD. Quality is worthwhile.

Personally I'd say we pay the money. The fee isn't as outrageous as many are making it out to be compared to other transfers from this summer and last summer. It's time we get with the times. Penny pinching doesn't get you talent.

6 hours ago, azpi28 said:

it's really insane to refuse to pay an extra 5,6,7 8 or 10 million pounds while he is our #1 target 

what difference does it make? if he plays well in the World Cup his value would go up. He could win the World Cup. 80 million doesn't seem so farfetched at that point

 

Our problem is if we continue to on the path of lowballing bids only to yet again pay the asking price weeks later,it sets a pattern for every future deal. There has to be an upper limit in what we value the player.

I think that we would have signed him already if we knew what we were doing. Some article talks about how Chalobah could go on loan and that our alternative is some 23 year old defender from Bayer Levekusen called Tapsoba. Fofana will most likely end up in Man City later on.

Season	Injury	from	until	Days	Games missed
21/22	Fibula Fracture	Aug 4, 2021	Mar 15, 2022	223 days	41
20/21	Thigh Muscle Strain	Feb 3, 2021	Mar 1, 2021	26 days	8
20/21	Knee Injury	Dec 27, 2020	Jan 2, 2021	6 days	1
20/21	Knee Injury	Nov 9, 2020	Nov 21, 2020	12 days	-
19/20	Knee Injury	Nov 8, 2019	Nov 27, 2019	19 days	2
19/20	Knee Injury	Aug 10, 2019	Oct 5, 2019	56 days	10

 

This is his injury record , just saying ...80m ?

33 minutes ago, hawkster said:

Season	Injury	from	until	Days	Games missed
21/22	Fibula Fracture	Aug 4, 2021	Mar 15, 2022	223 days	41
20/21	Thigh Muscle Strain	Feb 3, 2021	Mar 1, 2021	26 days	8
20/21	Knee Injury	Dec 27, 2020	Jan 2, 2021	6 days	1
20/21	Knee Injury	Nov 9, 2020	Nov 21, 2020	12 days	-
19/20	Knee Injury	Nov 8, 2019	Nov 27, 2019	19 days	2
19/20	Knee Injury	Aug 10, 2019	Oct 5, 2019	56 days	10

 

This is his injury record , just saying ...80m ?

Looks like he has/had a persistent knee injury. I agree though, £80m for a player who's just recovered from the leg break is a bit risky on it's own.

3 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Personally I'd say we pay the money. The fee isn't as outrageous as many are making it out to be compared to other transfers from this summer and last summer. It's time we get with the times. Penny pinching doesn't get you talent.

Problem is compared to your City, Newcastle, City & even Liverpool who have paid big fees this summer we are poor. 

2 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Problem is compared to your City, Newcastle, City & even Liverpool who have paid big fees this summer we are poor. 

Liverpool ? The side 2 points behind us in the PL ? 🙂 

Leicester must reduce wages-to-turnover ratio to ensure FFP compliance. They need to sell before they can buy but asking prices are deemed too high. Wesley Fofana continues to train with the U23s.

- @RobTannerLCFC
 

Im guessing this why we haven’t got him so far.  A mix of FFP and asking prices. 

Along with financial difficulties Leicester need to ensure players like Fofana don't leave to ensure their stay in the Prem. Leicester is a team that easily could go down if the quality in their side disappears. They were 4 points off relegation very deep into the spring last season. If they keep losing talent they need some luck to stay up. Schmeichel leaving has to be some sort of disaster.

Just read an article on The Athletic that highlighted Leicesters issues quite well. Basically said they are reliant on big player sales to help their own transfer strategy - but if Fofana doesn't end up leaving this will be their second year in a row they've not sold someone for a 'big' fee.

Also says that Rodgers was expecting Tielemans and Soyuncu to be sold as they are both in the last years of their contract and showed no interest in renewing. They probably could have got £50-£60m for those two combined if they sold them this window. Tielemans leaving on a free will be something of a disaster as they was always banking on turning a profit on him.

They didn't want Schmeichel to leave but Nice were offering more than Leicester were willing to so didn't stand in his way. They've also had players they have tried to offload but players have refused the moves at the last minute - Soumare and Vestergaard were 2 that were named here.

RE Fofana: It almost feels like Leicester now want to sell him but only if we cough up the money, but seems we are reluctant to go over £80m as an outright fee. I would imagine something like £75m up front and favourable addons will get it done. I know it's not my money, but I would pay what it takes. He has shown quality everytime I have seen him, and I think he has the potential to be a top 5 centre back in the world. If we can get him and get 5-8 Years out of him then nobody will care about the £80/£85m it took to buy him!

It seems to me, as a financial expert, that we start our negotiations too high.

First bid for Fofana 60m, so they're obviously going to want at least 80m. If we'd started at 40m, maybe they would have said we want 60m. Same with Cucarella. Went in way too high, so when they asked for even more, we had to go crazy.

3 minutes ago, Zeta said:

It seems to me, as a financial expert, that we start our negotiations too high.

First bid for Fofana 60m, so they're obviously going to want at least 80m. If we'd started at 40m, maybe they would have said we want 60m. Same with Cucarella. Went in way too high, so when they asked for even more, we had to go crazy.

That may be the case but the ball has always been in Leicester's court really. New contract signed in March until 2027, no pressure to sell 'low' (Crazy to think that £50m is low these days). 

I think if we had gone in low we'd have got dismissed. Even before we made any concrete bids all the talk was that Leicester wanted at least £80m for him.